American Woodturning-Use of Technology

Re: American Woodturning-Use of Technology

John Jordan

But then Carol wouldn't feed me!

John

Re: Remote demonstrations will be a boon to turner

Lyle Jamieson

Let me take the other side of the coin for you David. Agree with your premice you "get more than you pay for". It is a huge advantage to doing the workshops in my shop.

I am living proof it takes no technical skills to put on a production. I am a techno dummy. Started from way below zero on the tech knowledge scale. If I can do it ANYBODY can do it. I do have an advantage of decades of experience doing demos and working with videos in my DVDs and YouTube clips. A new demonstrator would have to learn the ropes on where to get the best views from the cameras available to them.

The equipment needed is not expensive and can be done very simply. Minimal computer skills needed.

For a live remote demo I encourage questions. When I am at a club meeting demonstration I do not answer questions during breaks. If a question is worth asking it is worth sharing the answer with everyone. My philosophy is if you have a question I want to give the answer to the entire group not just one on the side. When I get a question like that I write it down and respond later so all the participants get the answer.

As for as hands-on classes I can see it going One-On-One very easily but multiple student hands on classes will likely stay with face to face teaching. And I think the interactive demo over the internet is ideal for club meeting formats right now. We will see how it evolves over time.

Remote teaching over Skype?

John K Jordan

>>>I titled my session and video "Rethinking Demonstrations" for a reason.

>>>If it does nothing else, it has started a conversation about the various ways

>>>we can potentially improve demonstrations and make them available to more people.

When in northern Italy this year I visited a city youth center that provided after school activities, have a recording studio, teach things like cooking, music, and have games for teens. The directors were fascinated by woodturning samples I had with me and pictures in a Facebook album of some of my turnings. None present had ever seen such things or had held woodturnings in their hands. In fact, when I gave pieces to the family hosting us their friends started dropping in to see the turnings!

The youth director was very interested in getting a "tornio" so the kids could learn woodturning but who would teach? They suggested I could teach remotely by Skype. I have never used Skype but wonder, how practical would it be to remotely teach woodturning to novices?

I can certainly see the usefulness of a remote demo, a kind of enhanced, interactive video. And I can imagine teaching or giving pointers to turners with some experience. I hesitated to encourage them to commit to investing in a lathe, tools, and sharpening system until I was sure it would work.

I suspect it would work well though not as well as being there in person. Many people learn basic and even more advanced woodturning from books (I did) and many use videos. A remote mentor could only help, right?

I thought of one thing that might work well - if I can coordinate things such that they would have a lathe in place by the time of my next visit, I could provide a few beginner's classes and teach the basics in person. Then, when I return home, continue with some regular remote sessions. I think the best approach for the long run would be to teach some of the staff at the center and they could become the instructors.

There would be the minor issue of the language barrier, but most of the kids have English classes at school and a few are quite good. The time change wouldn't be an issue unless they wanted to "meet" in the early morning before school!

Does anyone have experience with remote classes? Can anyone with experience in Skype comment on its appropriateness for this?

JKJ

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Stuart Johnson

I don't know how it works but twitch.tv is another option. One running right now (2:12 PM 12/16) put on by Carl Jacobson

https://www.twitch.tv/carljacobson

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Alan Zenreich

JKJ,

Drop me an email, and I will be happy to set up a call where we can talk about the options.

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Alan Zenreich

I tried watching Carl's broadcast just now, but had to give up... the feed kept freezing. I confirmed that it was not my connection, as other feeds (YouTube and others) were working properly. Hopefully others had a better experience.

Live streaming via Facebook, YouTube, Ustream, LiveStream, Twitch, and many other platforms is becoming more popular.

However, they are generally a one way stream... that is, the broadcaster does not interact with the audience except via a text chat. This is often ideal for broadcasting to a large number of audience sites.

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Dave Delo

I watched it for about 15 minutes. No problem with the connection speed for me, so from a video perspective it was good. Sound varied from fair to good. Pretty slick but I do see the advantage of voice interaction over text chat.

Re: Remote demonstrations will be a boon to turner

bowlman

" Finally, some of my best experiences when attending a demo were from chatting with the demonstrator during breaks. Those chances will be far fewer in the new world."

First, I agree that some of the best experiences are chatting informally. But, with this new tool (and yes, I think it is just another tool), demonstrators and audience members can still chat.

In fact, one of the pieces of software necessary for this method to work is really just a live real time audio-visual chat box.

Live remote demos will, in my humble opinion, never replace on site demos and hands on classes. Never. Well, until virtual reality is a real reality. Just my 2 cents worth.

Re: American Woodturning-Use of Technology

Robert Lalonde

I was at the California live demo for Redwood Coast Woodturners. The technology worked perfectly and Lyle did a great job.

Re: American Woodturning-Use of Technology

Robert Lalonde

I don't want to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but I liked the article about Dixie Biggs doing it the old fashion way best.

Re: American Woodturning-Use of Technology

Alan Zenreich

Dixie uses hi-tech high speed electric carving tools... far from doing it the "old way" < vbg >

Thanks for the feedback

Re: American Woodturning-Use of Technology

Robert Lalonde

Good point.

Re: Remote demonstrations will be a boon to turner

Mike Peace

"A new demonstrator would have to learn the ropes on where to get the best views from the cameras available to them."

Clearly you have this down pat, Lyle, knowing what you want the audience to see and when and have the camera setup to accomplish it. I have seen you direct the camera operator at live demos and of course was in the Georgia audience. I believe this is a much bigger learning curve then the technology for a demonstrator who has not worked with multiple cameras. Getting camera views right is critical. We all have seen poor camera work at demos, frequently by camera operators who have been doing it a while. I have been doing YouTube videos for a couple of years and still feel like my camera work can and should improve.

I think remote demos have a great future for some clubs and demonstrators.

Agree, And, Merry Christmas

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Alan Zenreich

Lauren and I did a remote demonstration yesterday to the Maui Woodturners' group. Everyone had a good time, and they asked great questions.

We will likely do a talk-back session in a month or two, after they have had a chance to try some of the tools and techniques we showed.

Our setup is sort of a worst/best case scenario. Two demonstrators, two locations.

I was in our basement shop, Lauren was in her studio on the second floor of the house. She has a computer with three cameras, I have a computer with four cameras (and used two areas of the shop).

We used Zoom meetings as the video call, with four participants. I hosted the call, Lauren joined the call from her studio, the Maui group joined the call.... and Mike Mahoney joined the call to see how we do a live remote demo.

I controlled which cameras were visible, often using picture in picture so that folks could see both what I was turning and also watch Lauren doing inkwork on a pendant. In addition to the camera feeds, I showed photos, and they asked to see a video of a couple of items being printed 3D with wood filament.

Granted, most folks won't attempt anything as technologically ambitious as this setup, but then again, some of you glue hundreds of little pieces of wood together before putting it on a lathe... so there is something to be said for managing complexity.

We had a great time demonstrating to this group, and it's a fine example of connecting with people where it's impractical to meet in person.

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

John K Jordan

>>>We used Zoom meetings as the video call, with four participants.

Is this all over the public internet?

If so, would it work internationally?

Does the Zoom expensive? (purchase? session cost?)

Does it require special hardware?

JKJ

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Brad Vietje

I teach many of my astronomy, astrophotography, and astrophysics sessions via Skype, or sometimes TeamViewer. I can sit at home, operate a remote/robotic observatory 20 miles away, and be live and fully interactive in a classroom anywhere. Students can either make requests and watch as I do it, or with some forms of screen share, I can even (judiciously, nervously) turn the observatory controls over to them.

I haven't done anything like this with wood turning because I lack a video-capable camera, plus the switch gear, but it sure can cut costs and save a lot of time for the presenter. Very glad to read about these developments.

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Alan Zenreich

JKJ,

This is all done over the Internet, so it should be global.

Zoom has several licensing variations... the most popular is free, and that's what most folk will use.

I opted to use their Professional license because I typically do multi-user calls, and the free license restricts multi-user calls to 40 minutes. The free license has no time restriction on one-to-one calls. The free license can simply start a new multi-user meeting when one times out, but I didn't want to deal with that... and the pro license (about $13 per month) has some other benefits that I use.

If you drop me an email, perhaps we can chat about the options on the phone. It would be nice to hear the voice behind the keystrokes!

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Alan Zenreich

Brad,

A computer, web cams, and optionally, an inexpensive software camera switcher are all you'd need... it's pretty straightforward.

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

John K Jordan

Thanks - I'll do that!

Re: Remote teaching over Skype?

Lyle Jamieson

I just did a very successful demo test to the Cheam Woodturning Guild in England yesterday. I am thrilled, it is so easy. I am not computer literate.