Water Resources Discipline ITAC Activities

Greetings STED members,

I wanted to pass this note from Katherine Lins along to you for your information. I'm now (as of this month) on the ITAC (Information Technology Advisory Committee) and just participated in a conference call this morning during which this subject of Breeze software came up.

I know Alan prepared a draft memo to be sent to Subject Matter Experts for the first three courses we hope to migrate to this alternative format, but I wondered if we should ask Dianne Jeffries to prepare some general memo to WRD employees about the purchase of Breeze, why it was purchased, and how we hope to use it (the memo could be drafted by the committee and sent from Bob Hirsch if that seems more appropriate. This was suggested by Katherine Lins (reference her email below) .

Just so everyone (STED and ITAC members) has the same information, what has been purchased (or is in the process of being purchased, I'm not sure where Alan is in the process), is a license for 3 concurrent authors and 30 concurrent 'learners' to use the software. Excerpted from Alan's draft memo to the Subject Matter Experts (not sent yet, still under development I believe):

"In order to receive a Breeze license, all subject matter experts are required to attend a 3.5 day course " Developing Web Based Training for USGS Subject Matter Experts " at the USGS National Training Center in Denver, Co. The course will be taught by Bill and Katherine Horton from Horton Consulting March 29-April 1, authors of a number of books on e-learning (add Horton website here). OED will cover half of the tuition for this initial course offering bringing the cost down to $450 for each participant. "

I plan to schedule a STED committee teleconference in February, and will have had a chance to attend an ITAC meeting before that teleconference, so I'll be able to bring comments and input from ITAC to the STED committee on our plans for on-line course delivery (and 'blended' learning). On another note, the planned presentation on a replacement for the Graduate School program (the proposed "Advanced Education Program") has been postponed until the next Water Senior Staff meeting (April).

I'll send a message out soon to everyone about a teleconference date/time in February.

Happy New Year!
Donna
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Donna Schiffer
Chief, Statewide Hydrologic Monitoring and Information Office
USGS
6000 J Street
Sacramento CA 95624
(916) 278-3097 FAX: (916) 278-3070
(916) 417-4791 (Cell)
schiffer@usgs.gov

----- Forwarded by Donna M Schiffer/WRD/USGS/DOI on 01/07/2005 11:37 AM -----

Looks to me that ITAC needs to make sure there is a clear information package (or fact sheet) that goes out to potential users of Cyber Seminar Technology describing where USGS/Water is going with training, what tools and formats are available and how they work together. We can discuss and take it to Scientific and Technical Employee Development Committee to Dianne Jeffries whoever is best to put out the announcement to put out the "announcement."
in addition to our summary notes.

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Katherine Lins
Chief, Office of Water Information, WRD
U.S. Geological Survey
440 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
703-648-5014

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Both Breeze and Flash are Macromedia products.

In gross summary: Breeze is a tool for setting up and conducting training, including testing, auditing and other features. It supports a variety of content delivery options.

Flash is just one of the formats supported for content delivery. See below

Therefore, using Flash for some of our training modules (such as demonstrated in Little Rock) is very compatible with Breeze. The Flash modules can be incorporated into the Breeze system if it is decided to more formalize the training.

Greg
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Breeze:

Collaborate, communicate and train online with ease.

Quickly and easily share online meetings, presentations and training courses over the Internet—using the familiar PowerPoint application and the Macromedia Flash format.

Breeze Training*
Deliver rapid and engaging online training

Build a complete online training system with PowerPoint presentations that includes surveys, tracking, analysis, course administration, and content management.

Breeze Presentation (required to operate Breeze Training)

Personalize presentations with your own narration and easily deliver them through any standard web browser.

Flash:

The following web page states that Flash is the delivery mechanism for Breeze:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/productinfo/overview/

"Publish in Macromedia Flash format–for audiences to view in all standard web browsers"

Content Support

Create richer, more effective training sessions using various forms of Breeze Live content and interactions, such as:

• Microsoft PowerPoint slides
• Video clips
• Video broadcasts
• Macromedia Flash animations
• Audio
• Screen sharing
• Interactive chat

______________________
U. S. Geological Survey
Office of Water Information
Cartography and Publishing Program
505 Science Drive
Madison, WI 53711
608 238-9333, ext. 200
608 238-9334 (fax)
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