Dinner and an Opera

One of Tracy's former students (named Joe) suggested that we head to Victor's Cafe on 1303 Dickinson St. in Philly. This cafe is staffed by young opera singers, who will break into an aria every 20 minutes. Our waiter T.J. was terrific. (Yes, I secured his permission to videotape his performance.)

Every time one the wait staff starts singing, Tracy braces herself. The tough political scientist is a music soft touch.

Doug proclaimed to our taxi driver that we all had given the restaurant 4 stars for a total of 16 stars!

AAC&U-Educators Talk High-Impact Practices

To demonstrate the relative ease of posting videos online, I snagged a few of the conference attendees and asked them two questions. (The 8 a.m. (!!!) presentation is titled Igniting Selflessness: Fostering Community in the Classroom and Beyond. My fellow panelists Susan Nuernberg, Doug Heil and Tracy Slagter thought I was joking when I wanted to title the panel discussion Igniting Students.)

1. Since this is the Association of American Colleges and Universities conference on Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices, I wanted to know what high-impact practices they are practicing.
2. Which teacher has had the greatest impact in their lives.

Tim McGee, Associate Director for Faculty Development, Rider University, Lawrenceville, N.J.


Alma R.Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal and Director of CAN- AAC&U



Fred Schweitzer, Assistant Provost, Dean of Faculty Development, University of Hartford



Sylvia Hurtado, Professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change and Director, Higher Education Research Institute, University of California-Los Angeles



Jeffrey Milem, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Education, University of Arizona

Fun with the TSA Guys

For the first time in a long time, I didn't trigger some alarm at the airport. But my orange duffel bag did get scanned several times by several people, who spent an inordinate amount of time discussing the X-rayed contents of my orange duffel bag. For the record, it is full of my electronic gear for the conference. For some reason, my yelling, "It's a mic!! It's a mic!!" wasn't helping the cause.

Grace in the City of Brotherly Love

Therefore it makes perfect sense that she stands in front of a torpedo, which is in front of a submarine, which is in front of a really big boat. Yes, she is fully aware how impressive she sounds using such technical terms.

People Power (A Baptism by Fire segment)

wwBaptism by Fire] Three things about Shawn McAfee and Brian Ledwell of UW Oshkosh's Media Services: 1. They look nothing like this photo. 2. They are magicians, just like Penn and Teller, if Penn and Teller were a graphic artist and a multimedia developer. 3. They make everything visual more beautiful. Hence, the pretty photo of themselves.

I'll be referring to Brian and Shawn a lot so you might as well get to know them. If you look at their University bios, you'll find this:

Brian Ledwell Multi Media Developer
Brian graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Idaho.

Shawn McAfee
Coordinator of the Instructional Resources Center
Shawn graduated with a Masters Degree in Graphic Design from UW Milwaukee.

Compare their bios to my heavily edited one. So what gives? The simple answer: They don't like to toot their own horns. These folks and the others in the University Media Services do amazing work because, frankly, that's what they do. And they do it with little fanfare.
Brian designed the COLS Special Reports Web site and the pretty title cards that come with each highlight. I've watched him do "paint" a picture on a computer. Stunning handiwork. He is also solely responsible for my faculty Web site. I asked for something that embodies the peace and harmony that I exude so subtly.

Shawn, who is also an adjunct instructor in the art department, was my art director for the War: Through Their Eyes project. It's too soon to talk about what we went through on that project. Just know by the end of the project I gained 14 pounds, relentlessly e-mailed students at 3 a.m. with a cheery "See you in 7 hours!" and lost the ability to speak intelligibly. Shawn often had to call upon the Grace Under Pressure Translator.

Now I've dragged her into the latest Super-Secret all-consuming multimedia faculty-student collaboration. Great, another 14 pounds...

The Process, the Pain (A Baptism by Fire segment)

[Baptism by Fire] The scars from the War: Through Their Eyes project have yet to fade when I decided to drag Shawn McAfee into another Super-Secret, all-consuming multimedia faculty-student collaboration.  (In this photo, she's showing me the mock-ups to the Super-Secret project.)

Shawn's usual reaction to my sudden and often incredulous proclamations? "Here we go again..."

What's in Grace's Bag? (A Baptism by Fire segment)

Going Mobile

Pedco UltraPod II Lightweight Camera Tripod

While Trent and Mark got the cool MUST-PROTECT-THE-EQUIPMENT gear from the University's radio-TV-film department, I'm pretty happy with my ridiculously low-end kit. (Well, my digital audio recorder - the Zoom H4n $299 recorder is actually pretty spiffy. Don't really know how to use it yet because it has more than two buttons, and the manual is more than two pages. I'm waiting for someone to come up with 7-minute how-to. I realize I may be waiting a long time.)

The photos from Where in the World is Mark? and An Icy Reception was taken with my $88 discontinued Kodak M420. The weird looking contraption with the big black thing sticking out is my camcorder rig. I love my Kodak Zi8 ($179), which shoots HD on a SD card. Can't zoom much, but it does a good job. The What in the World is Trent Doing? is shot with this tiny camcorder. Also check out this piece What's in a Name?  on Dr. Thomas Lammers, a cool botanist at the University. Shot his video using the Kodak Zi8.

The Rode VideoMic Directional Video Condenser Microphone ($149) is almost as expensive as the camcorder, but it's worth it. People who know video preach that you can get away with substandard video, but you can't with substandard sound.

The Adorama Heavy Duty L-bracket with 2 Standard Flash Shoe Mounts ($10.95) holds my camcorder and mic together.

And the Pedco UltraPod II Lightweight Camera Tripod ($14.95) is great for strapping the camera or camcorder to a tree or pole. I'll leave the why-would-Grace-need-to-do-such-a-thing question to your twisted imagination.

There you go. For under $800, you too can be a mobile journalist. Actually, if you take the Zoom audio recorder out of the equation, you can do it for for about  $500.
 
Disclaimer: This kit is really only good for on-the-spot type of video and audio for the Web. It doesn't not compete with the magic that Trent and Mark will produce with their fancy-schmancy, high-end equipment in the post-production studio. What they can produce is good enough for the big screen.

An Icy Reception (A Baptism By Fire segment)

My intrepid crew Mark Mazur (left) and Trent Hilborn (far right) and the Lee brothers (Colin and Perry) on Lake Poygan. Apparently I was the only sane one. I stayed on the boat. 

What in the World is Trent Doing? (A Baptism by Fire segment)

Trent throws caution to the wind as he vies for the best footage possible. I know he knows Grace's Rule No. 1 - Get the story. I only hope that he remembers Rule No. 2 - Protect the equipment.

Where in the World is Mark? (A Baptism by Fire segment)

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Grace Teaches While Shawn Evades (A Baptism by Fire segment)

In this video, I've known Trent Hilborn and Mark Mazur for all of 20 minutes. I felt they were ready for Grace's Rules of Good Journalism. While I used my time in the car in a productive way, Shawn McAfee, who was in the car ahead of us, decided to channel her inner Bond. She tried to lose me in the untamed West (of Oshkosh). She did this knowing that I didn't have any food in the car. Could have been ugly.