RTI Video Capabilities

The Rural Technology Initiative (RTI) has been using video technology as an educational outreach tool since 2002. Video is widely accepted by users and is often the preferred medium when it comes to educational learning materials. It is relatively versatile with many forms of distribution: digital video file downloads, streaming video, CD-ROM, and DVD. Video can also be synchronized and combined with PowerPoint slides to reproduce a lecture or conference presentation for distribution to a greater audience.     

The Rural Technology Initiative is located within the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington. We mainly provide video services within the College, but are also able to work with outside organizations when issues are associated with forest management and the environment.

Specific video capabilities on hand at RTI include:

• Record events (conference, symposium, thesis defense, etc…)
• Synchronize video from a presentation with corresponding PowerPoint slides and publish them together for internet access via streaming video (see factsheet #39 for more info).
• Convert video files from VHS, mini DV tapes, or several digital file types
• Produce DVDs with menus for computer or home viewing
• Produce short video lead-ins for educational organizations

Topics that RTI has recorded and disseminated include:

• Climate Change
• Urban Horticulture and Ecology
• Invasive Plants in PNW Ecosystems
• Bio-fuels and Bio-energy
• Geographic Information Systems
• Remote Sensing Technologies
• Forest Fire Risk Assessment
• Forest Management Technology
• Forest Modeling
• Tribal Forestry
• Riparian Management
• Forest Road Maintenance
• Fish Passage at Road/Stream Crossings
• Forest Economics
• Wildlife Habitat

Some of the symposia, conferences, and individual presentations that have been recorded and distributed include:

• Graduate Student Symposium
  (College of Forest Resources)
• Thesis Defenses (Masters and PhDs)
  (College of Forest Resources)
• Washington Forest Practices Adaptive Management Science Conference
  (WA Department of Natural Resources)
• Forestry in a Climate of Change: Tribal Forestry
  (Society of American Foresters and the Intertribal Timber Council)
• Riparian Adaptive Management Symposium
  (Olympic Natural Resources Center)
• College of Forest Resources Research and Technology Showcase: "Biofuels and Bioenergy"
• Retaining Working Forest Land and Protecting Biodiversity
  (Northwest Environmental Forum)
• Climate Change: Implications for Olympic Peninsula Forest Ecosystems Forum
• Identifying, protecting and restoring thermal refuges for coldwater fishes
  (Western Division: American Fisheries Society)

Any parties interested in the video services located at the Rural Technology Initiative should contact:

Matt McLaughlin
UW College of Forest Resources
355 Bloedel Hall
Box 352100
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: (206) 543-7418
Email: mrm2@u.washington.edu