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Winchester’s Zombosium

October 30, 2011 By drbexl 2 Comments

“No one would want to be a shambling, rotting corpse,” said Marcus Leaning, senior lecturer in media studies at the University of Winchester. “Yet since the early 2000s, there has been a proliferation of zombies expanding out of traditional media. I am interested in the meaning of zombies to producers and fans.”  (Times Higher Education)

‘You should study popular culture if you want to understand society. Zombies reflect the anxieties and concerns people have. One idea is that it’s due to austerity, another that it stems from the ‘‘climate of fear’’ after al-Qaeda. No-one really believes in zombies but it’s a way of thinking about big scary things such as a terrorist attack. It’s cathartic.’  (Metro)

“We’re living through the hardest economic times in most young people’s memories,” Dr Leaning said. ”Maybe zombies speak to austerity Britain in a way other monsters don’t.” (BBC)

Much of this has worked via contacting traditional media outlets, but also caught a bit of a chat on Twitter (and it’s been fascinating knowing the people involved, and seeing how the story has spread):

Where have you seen Zombies in popular culture? I’m thinking of the Mini Cooper advert…

Filed Under Academic Research, Event Tagged With Publicity, Social Media, University of Winchester

Academics, News & Technology

October 8, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Encouraged by this story demonstrating that academics are taking hold of technology potential to influence the world’s news:

When news broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed by US special forces, who was best placed to assess the global political impact: a rushed general reporter in a short-staffed newsroom, or an academic expert on the Middle East, terrorism and international relations?

After bin Laden’s assassination, hundreds of ill-prepared reporters around the world must have hammered the phones searching for an academic expert in international relations to comment while simultaneously trying to swot up on the subject by scanning a jumble of press cuttings.

As they scrambled around, an Australia-based experiment in online journalism that had begun just months earlier came into its own.

Putting their faith in the university experts, the founders of The Conversation website created a virtual newsroom of academics and offered them the chance to communicate their research to the public without fear of misrepresentation.

When its editors heard the news about bin Laden, they contacted one of their writers, Mat Hardy, a lecturer in Middle East studies at Deakin University. Within two hours, his expert analysis of the event’s ramifications was online.

For Andrew Jaspan, editor and co-founder of the project, this is a powerful example of how the site can not only provide specialist analysis on almost any subject, but also do so within the 24/7 news cycle – and possibly even faster than traditional media.

Read full story.

Filed Under Academic Research Tagged With technology, Website

Dr Who on the Box

September 30, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Like the Tardis, the small television box is far larger on the inside; it’s our passport to a kind of tourism, our window on wonders. Our control over the time flow of TV has increased tremendously since Doctor Who‘s first broadcast in November 1963, when we were helplessly subject to the linear direction of scheduled programmes. Back then, if you missed an episode there was rarely a second chance to see it; and indeed, a whole era of Doctor Who is lost, the flimsy materials of its film and video imperfectly stored, often taped over and never intended for posterity. Now the TV set has transmuted into various forms – tablet, PC, phone – and we can pause the show as it plays live, dip into YouTube or iPlayer archives of its past, and watch previews weeks before their terrestrial transmission.

Up to a point. Because the BBC – specifically, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat – has decided to retain some of the old-fashioned suspense of Saturday night television by keeping the final instalment of this season strictly under wraps until its broadcast. Fans can revisit the most recent episodes, contextualise them through online and DVD holdings of previous series and painstakingly study the trailers, but the finale – the future of Doctor Who - still lies stubbornly ahead, retaining its enigma, and we, the viewers, can travel towards it only one day at a time.

Read the full story in the Times Higher Education.

Filed Under Academic Research, Times Higher Education Tagged With Digital Access, Dr Who, TV

Dr Bex Lewis, Blended Learning Fellow, University of Winchester

September 28, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

This is a draft for a (closed) grant application, for a combination of Digital Literacies & Organisational Development!

Dr Bex Lewis has responsibility for embedding digital literacies among academic colleagues at the University of Winchester. She has recently co-led the JISC funded BODGIT project with the ODHE which sought to explore the interface between digital literacy and organizational development. At Winchester, Bex leads the PGCLTHE module on Blended Learning, and has undertaken online skills-focused [1] and accessibility projects [2]. She is on Learning and Teaching, Learning Network (Moodle) and Distance Learning Committees.

Bex has worked as a lecturer in HE for 13 years, experimenting with digital formats, most recently for an innovative Media Studies module specifically built around Web 2.0 tools. Her diverse background as a lecturer in five linked disciplines (History, Media Studies, American Studies, Film Studies, and Design for Digital Media) has helped her to understand the range of responses to technology among colleagues, and to have credibility as an education developer in this exponentially growing field. Her training as a life coach and mentor has equipped her with a set of skills and theoretical tools about change which she brings to promoting digital literacies. Her theory of change stems from an action research model “that for change to be effective it… must be a participative and collaborative process that involves all those concerned.” [3]

In roles beyond the University, Bex is Director of Digital Fingerprint, a social media consultancy that works particularly within the HE and Christian sectors, including digital literacy workshops for the Church of England. She runs The Big Bible Project for the University of Durham, encouraging ‘bigger Bible conversations’, promoting digital literacy amongst Christians, a project extended to a second year because of the value demonstrated. She is an early adopter of social media tools, using them in everyday life since first developing a website for her PhD  [4], giving her an international profile. She has a growing profile as a speaker, including forthcoming European engagements.

Bex has developed a particularly strong Community of Practice through a combination of social media and conference attendance, with connections in both FE and HE. She was on the International Review Board for the Plymouth E-Learning Conference 2011, and presented twice at the Association of Learning Technologists Conference 2011. She is a member of the JISC Learning & Teaching Experts Committee. She has attended a number of JISC workshops, and is a regular super-delegate for its online conferences.

Bex is the Learning with Technology Specialist who will be responsible for the implementation of programme-wide technology enhancements for assessment and feedback on up to 33 programmes as part of the newly funded JISC project, FASTECH.  This will combine her skills as an education technologist with her knowledge and experience of organisational development.

References

[1] SkillsNet: On-line resources, tips and information to boost your academic performance, www.winchester.ac.uk/skillsnet

[2] Jessop, T., Edwards, S. & Lewis, B., ‘Disabled student views on web accessibility’, Capture, Vol. II, (2009) pp50-57

[3] Cheung-Judge, M. & Holbeche, L. Organization Development: A Practitioner’s Guide for OD and HR, London: KoganPage, 2011, p35

[4] ‘Keep Calm and Carry On and other Second World War Posters’, http://ww2poster.co.uk

Filed Under Academic Research, drbexl Tagged With Bex Lewis, drbexl, Funding Bid

Book Review: Networked, A contemporary history of news in transition

September 18, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Networked Book Cover

Looks like an interesting read, reviewed by Tim Luckhurst, who wrote an article in a similar vein the other week:

In the vortex of angst generated by scandal at News International and the complicity of Britain’s political class, it is cheering to read a book that makes one feel a little more optimistic about the purposes and future of journalism. Networked hits the mark.

Adrienne Russell sets out to analyse a time of transformation in the history of journalism, from the era of professional mass media to a future of horizontal collaboration between networked citizens. Her research confirms grave shortcomings in 20th-century editorial culture, but offers reasons to hope that technology and the participation it permits can illuminate a brighter future.

Russell knows her territory and she surveys it confidently. Her comparison of coverage by US news outlets of the 1991 Gulf War with their treatment of the 2003 invasion of Iraq should become compulsory reading for students of conflict reporting. It reveals precisely why George W. Bush could not repeat his father’s trick of massaging the message, 12 years after Bush senior expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

By 2003, unidirectional top-down communication by professional journalists to a rapt audience of passive patriots was not possible. At websites such as Salon.com, through video diaries and on personal blogs, Iraqis and dissenting Americans held official orthodoxy to account. Public interest watchdogs challenged unbalanced reporting of the war. Those great beasts of US “old media”, The Washington Post and The New York Times, were shamed by critical email campaigns.

Read full story and buy the book.

Filed Under Academic Research, Review, Times Higher Education Tagged With Collaboration, News, Review

Work’s Intimacy, a review in @timeshighered

September 17, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Here’s another on the wishlist!!

In a lively and compellWork's Intimacy book Covering read, Melissa Gregg examines the impact of technologies on the work and lifestyles of employees in the knowledge economy. This book covers a lot of ground in a relatively slim volume, and considers mobile working; part-time and contract working; online team interactions; the use of social networking; online branding; and the implications of work being done in the home environment.

Times Higher Education readers may see parallels with their own working lives in the examples cited, and Gregg’s observations about how we relate to work may cause readers to reflect on how information and communication technologies have impacted on their own responses to, for example, being able to work remotely and pressures to be ever connected and available.

Gregg draws on a study of 26 professionals working for large organisations in education, government, broadcasting and telecommunications who were interviewed annually over a three-year period. Their experiences of, and responses to, remote working and the use of online technologies are traced in detail throughout. Overall, a picture of expanding work boundaries is presented, but responses to this shift are mixed.

Read full story or buy the book.

Filed Under Academic Research, Digital Living, Review, Times Higher Education Tagged With Balance, Book, Review, Workload

Self-Plagiarism?

September 15, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

A worrying element to plagiarism… self-plagiarism .. are you using your intellectual copyright, or are you rehashing old material?

Professor Roig has investigated plagiarism in depth and written guidelines for the US Office of Research Integrity.

Speaking to Times Higher Education, he said: “When someone reads a work, he or she is under the assumption that it is original and new. Recycling involves an element of deception.”

Although he admits he has no firm data, he believes the problem of plagiarism in general is increasing because it is so easy to copy and paste material electronically.

“Good writing takes effort and cognitive resources. If you lack good command of the language, it’s more enticing to use existing text, especially if it is well written. But (in addition), a lot of authors don’t believe there’s a problem reusing their own work,” he noted.

One problem is the lack of guidance on the issue of self-plagiarism. “There needs to be a consensus on the inappropriateness of this practice,” Professor Roig said.

Read full story.

Filed Under Academic Research, Times Higher Education Tagged With E-Tools, Plagiarism

Check out @timbuckteeth review of ‘Now You See It’

September 11, 2011 By drbexl 1 Comment

Now You See It (Book Cover)I always love the chance to chat to Steve, and see what he’s up to on his blog. He mentioned at ALT-C that he’d reviewed this book, which I’d be interested to read:

Steve Wheeler is convinced that we need new approaches for digitally remastered learners

We are constantly reminded that we live in an age in which digital media, mobile phones and social media are profoundly influencing communication, business, entertainment and learning. Not a day goes by without some mention of Facebook, Twitter or smartphones in mainstream media. The pace of change fomented by these technologies is rapid and unrelenting, giving rise to new and emerging literacies, connections, behaviours and risks. And of course many academics wish to know how these changes will affect university life.

Clearly, technology in all its forms is playing an ever-greater role in the lives of young people. Universities therefore need to pay attention to the impact that the appropriate deployment of digital tools can have on extending, enhancing and enriching the student learning experience, both on and off campus.

Moreover, sustained exposure to such a range of digital media demands a different kind of attention than we have previously required. This is the premise of Now You See It, whose author, Cathy Davidson, may be remembered as the Duke University academic who caused a bit of a stir in 2003 when she promoted the free distribution of Apple’s brand-new iPod devices to an entire first-year population of 2,000 students. There followed an inevitable outcry from more conservative quarters of the academic community, who voiced the opinion that giving students “just another device for listening to music” was a profligate waste of money. Many argued that the iPod had no serious pedagogical application, while an editorial in TheChronicle, the Duke student newspaper, declared: “It is an unnecessarily expensive toy that does not become an academic tool simply by being thrown into a classroom.”

There were no conditions attached to the free iPods, says Davidson. Students were simply asked to think up new learning applications for the device and then to share those ideas with teaching staff. The results of this experiment suggested that Davidson was right and her detractors in the academic community were wrong, for the iPod experiment turned out to be a perfect demonstration of the power of disruptive technology. New learning applications were discovered across all disciplines, and the iPod was instrumental in “flipping” the classroom, devolving from the staff to the students power over where, when and how they could study. These findings were later exemplified in the rapid worldwide success of iTunesU.

Read the full review and purchase the book.

Filed Under Academic Research, Digital Literacy, Social Media, The Future, Times Higher Education Tagged With @timbuckteeth, Brain, Classroom, Digital Literacy, Social Media

Ebooks Impacting on Publishing

September 8, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

EReader on shelfAlong with a global recession, Ms Mudditt also cites the challenges of “a rapid move to ebooks, the demise of independent bookstores and growing power of a few chains”.

Looking ahead, she sees a more limited trade programme, which puts less emphasis on “the research and scholarly mission of the university” and gives greater attention to “its equally important education and public service missions”.

“There is a great deal of important, relevant and potentially impactful work that takes place in academia but has a hard time connecting with the right audiences.

“Concentrating on this ‘translational’ connection would seem to be a good focus for our future trade publishing,” Ms Mudditt said.

So is all this good news for the early-career academics, particularly in the humanities, who are desperate to get their first monographs into print and have been distressed to see some university presses apparently chasing the next best-seller?

Ms Mudditt, who took up her new post in January, can offer only cautious reassurance.

“Monographs remain the primary mode of discourse in certain fields and scholars need to publish them for tenure and promotion.

“At the same time, these titles are ever more expensive to publish due to a continuing decline in sales, largely driven by dwindling library budgets – a problem that has only accelerated in recent years.

Read full story.

Filed Under Academic Research, The Future, Times Higher Education Tagged With Publishing, Times Higher Education

From Challenge to Change #altc2011

September 8, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

As a final workshop session, where I wanted to engage with the JISC team (I will be a ‘superdelegate’ at the JISC online conference later this year), I went to ‘From Challenge to Change’. I’d already been to the full day workshops in the past, but it’s good to re-engage with the exercises and think how these could be effectively into use in my own institutional context(s). After 3 intense days of thinking/listening/engaging, it was also good to allow the brain to work at a different level.

Challenge Statements

An exercise to consider how far agree/disagree with teaching and learning statements related to assessment, the full kit is here.

altc2011final 018
 

Getting the Clickers Going

I have a love/hate relationship with Clickers… I love the idea of what they can do, I find it difficult to make ours work, therefore not inspiring confidence in others to use them. These were all set up, were tiny, and worked v. easily – worth a look maybe! From recollection, those institutions that have made good use of Clickers  have issued one to each student, and therefore they can be used throughout all classes.

altc2011final 019

A look at ‘Effective Assessment in a Digital Age’

A PDF of the report.

Effective assessment in a Digital Age #altc2011 (Ros) (mp3)

Discussion Results

A number of questions got the discussion going – here we see that out of the 23 people in the room, the largest number found the most difficulty in providing timely (and quality) feedback to students, although the project was demonstrating that too much emphasis had been placed on this by institutions, and that more focus needs to be on how students ENGAGE with feedback.

altc2011final 020

Case Study Discussion

We had a final chat through a case study, and focused upon audio feedback. We discussed a few potential (tech) solutions, such as Voicethread.com, and Brian Whalley suggested that they’ve been trialling audio feedback combined with vice recognition software, gives a print-out (as the students don’t appear to accept audio-only as official feedback).  Winchester has also been trialing screencasting audio feedback. In all these there’s at least a transition period in which the audio feedback takes longer than the written feedback, so long-term worthwhile-ness and speed games are up for consideration, as well as whether the students actually appreciate it.

All resources in the design studio http://bit.ly/jiscassess, and we’re encouraged to use these in staff development exercises.

Filed Under Academic Research, Event Tagged With #altc2011, Audio, Feedback
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