Ustream

With a webcam, you can broadcast anything you want, live to the Internet. Powerful stuff.

My tech II class today discussed practical business or educational uses of Ustream (as opposed to streaming World of Warcraft raids) We came up with these:
- Announcing a new product for a company
- Promoting your small business services (imagine a poor but talented graphic designer offering a screencast for a few scheduled hours every week to allow people to see how well they work from scratch) Or even a professional photography session for "Focus on You" photography... ;)

My tech class could teach a lesson in Photoshop, or how to present a PowerPoint, or act out a skit. We could even be answering questions that come up in the simultaneous chat that appears beside the video.

Limitless possibilities.

About Me

I am happily married with a beagle and cockerspaniel at home. My house is an old farm house and we have a 1/3 acre pond to swim in. I love computers and sports. I am what you might call a "nerd", but not the "loves to write programming code" type of nerd. I did football, basketball, and track in high school, and ran track at college (high jump). My wife and I love to travel through other states and countries. Our most recent trips include Boston (pictured here) and Europe (France/Germany/Italy).

Professionally, I am a computer technology teacher in a rural school in Ohio. I used to work for a newspaper with 100k Sunday readers doing Internet advertising, but I got bored with it and enjoyed teaching my coworkers about technology than I did selling and building Internet ads. That's when I became a teacher, and have enjoyed the last 4 years immensely.

One of my long-term professional goals is to be a part of a team that helps steer how professional educators teach. One of the methods I prefer is using real-world scenarios. These encourage students to think creatively about how to solve problems, but also to not be afraid to sweat (usually figuratively) a little through hard work.