Contact us

Jeff Lebow - While working as an English teacher in Korea, Jeff began building Worldbridges, his grad school vision of creating a global network of homegrown webcasting. He currently lives in Bow, NH, USA and serves as general manager and chief plumber of the Worldbridges network. He also co-hosts a number of shows including EdTechTalk, EdTechWeekly, Webcast Acadmy Meetings, and Virtualbridges.
Vance Stevens - Vance Stevens is a Computing Lecturer at Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. In 20 years as ESL teacher and CALL coordinator, he implemented many CALL facilities, conducted research, and produced numerous publications and CALL software. He moonlights as Ed Tech consultant, online facilitator and coach, and founder and moderator of the Webheads community of practice.
Graham Stanley - ICT co-ordinator and EFL Teacher at the British Council in Barcelona, and teacher of 'English for Tourism' at the University of Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain. Graham is a graduate of the Webcast Academy (http://www.webcastacademy.net) and manager of the EFL Bridges webcasting site http://www.eflbridges.net , where he also hosts the weekly 'World Conversation Club' for English language learners and teachers.

add skype detials, etc?

Target Audience

The Webcast Academy EVO session is of interest to those educators interested in producing live, interactive webcasts.
Minimum computer requirements:

• A PC with at least a Pentium4 and 512MB of RAM (or Mac equivalent)
  
• A broadband connection with at least 500kbps download and 100kbps upload speed (test your bandwidth speed here)
  
• A working soundcard and a USB desktop mic or certain USB headsets.
  
• Ability to use Skype or another major telephony program like Gizmo or YM voice
  

Skills required:
Participants should be comfortable with, and have a degree of experience using the Internet, especially interactive sites and Web 2.0 tools. You should already have some experience with Skype and/or using other telephony or voice tools over the Internet, and some familiarity with content management systems (would be helpful).
Please note, this kind of webcasting is still an imperfect art, so the most important prerequisite is a willingness to learn by trial and error and spend at least 3~5 hours a week working on developing the necessary skills, collabaratively working with members of the EVO session and previous classes at The Webcast Academy.
Graduation: Those who are able to successfully complete the first portion of the session and publish 3 recordings of streamed telephony conversations will receive a 'Webcasting Proficiency Certificate' and become eligle to apply for a 'Worldbridges Webcasting License'.  However, if you have less time available but feel that you would still like to participate, by helping the others, posting in the discussion forums, commenting on posts, contributing to the Book of Webcasting, and learning some elements of webcasting along with the apprentices, then you are also welcome to join us.

Tools we Will be Using

Drupal sites

• http://webheadsinaction.org/ & http://webcastacademy.net/ 
  

Telephony Software

• Skype  http://www.skype.com
  

Audio Recording & Editing

• Audacity audio editing software (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

Streaming Software

• Simplecast
  
• SamBroadcaster
• Oddcast
• Winamp
  

Magic Ingredients

• Virtual Audio Cables (Windows)
• Audio Hijack (Mac)
  

 

Weekly Outline

Week One: A week of introductions and familiarisation with basic tools. Participants will join our Drupal site, Webheads in Action, download Skype and some of the other tools used for webcasting (see detailed outline for week one), and participate in one of our introductory webcasts to introduce themselves and meet the other interns.
Week Two: This week, we will be examining the recording of telephony calls using Skype and will be looking at basic audio editing using Audacity. You will be encouraged to organise meetings with other interns, to record the conversations and to experiment with editing the audio.
Week Three: The Webcast Academy continues with examining good practice of hosting a webcast and practising interviewing & show management skills. Interns will be encouraged to practice by choosing a format for their show and then setting up a public Skypecasts. You will also be expected to participate in some of the Skypecasts held by other interns.
Week Four: In week four, post-production and advanced audio editing will be examined. Interns who are ready to do so will also be involved in basic streaming (i.e. beginning live webcasting) with Nicecast for the Apple Mac or Simplecast for the PC, and will record, edit and start to upload edited extracts of their webcasts to the Drupal site.
Week Five: Basic streaming practice will continue for all interns. In addition, different webcast environments (i.e. Second Life ) and other telephony programs (Paltalk, Gizmo) will be looked at.
Week Six: This week is a time for catching up and reflecting on what has been learned. Upon successful completion of their 3 interncasts and a 'commencement webcast', interns will receive a Worldbridges Webcaster Proficiency Certificate and have a Worldbridges Webcasting License. Those who have successfully completed the Webcast Academy will be invited to develop a show (perhaps at EFL Bridges or at one of the other World Bridges sites).
Those who still want to continue their training will be encouraged to do so at The Webcast Academy ), and everyone is invited to help us develop the session into a comprehensive and useful resource, and to keep in touch with your virtual colleagues for as long as you like.