The podcast will be available once JISC have optimised it, but in the meantime, enjoy the Slideshare. Love to hear comments on which tools you would use. Had around 20 on the webinar, and I know several people who couldn’t make the time and are waiting for the podcast!

Dr Bex Lewis, Blended Learning Fellow and Lecturer in History and Media Studies, University of Winchester

Content

Time is short, money is short. There’s a lot of change going on in the world, methods of communication are changing… which do we invest time or money in?

• What is Twitter? How do you use it?
• What are the ‘conventions’ of Twitter?
• What are some of the Twitter tools, third party apps, and how can Twitter lists help?
• How can Twitter help with your academic profile?
• How might Twitter help in the classroom?

Speaker

Dr Bex Lewis is Blended Learning Fellow and Lecturer in History and Media Studies at the University of Winchester. Her academic specialism is Second World War propaganda posters, which she regards as the precursor of Twitter in some ways!

Date: 1 March 2010 (1:00pm)
Venue: Online

Full information: here.

“The easiest way to make sense of microblogging is give it a go! It’s not for everyone, but the majority of people who use it as part of their working practice report that they find it beneficial. Different people adopt different practices. Additionally they tend to adapt their practice at different times, locations and as their network grows.”

The above video is one a series produced  by JISC ‘Web2practice‘:

“Thinking of using web2tools for research, administration or teaching? Make a quick start with the web2practice user guides.

The web2practice guides explain how emergent web technologies like RSS, microblogging and social media can enhance your working practice.

Each guide consists of a short animated video explaining the key concepts, supported by a more in-depth printable overview of the topic, covering the  potential uses, risks and how to get started. The guides and the resources used to create them can be downloaded, modified and shared under a creative commons licence.”

Many of those at the JISC E-Learning Fair were from FE, but there was also a lean towards HE, and I (in my role as Blended Learning Fellow at the University of Winchester) picked up a lot of useful information, and got to meet others working in the local(ish) area who will be useful contacts.

Please note that I am in process of deciding best forum for such information within the University: Moodle, a Blog, but for now, here we are. (Reflecting upon blogging, etc. at events)

Stephen Sheedy, Queen Mary College, Basingstoke
Stephen set the tone for the day with an amusing but thought-provoking mix of material. He indicated that we shouldn’t be talking about major changes which are likely to affect learning and skills – as they are already happening.

Discussing the history of communication, it was demonstrated that we used to have a small circle of friends/family, and were introduced into a broader world by adults (particularly parents/teachers), but that now ‘younger people’ are entering the global world without adult guidance.

Student Expectations?

• Global (Used creating their own YouTube videos, and expecting a quick response – from anywhere in the world!)
• Responsive (Used to rapid response/feedback, 3 week guarantee “too long”)
• Flexible (Used to having more than one starting point)
• Interactive (Looking for a relationship of trust, staff/student partnership: The teacher has a role of leader, but needs ‘distributed leadership’)
• Often facile or trivial

Students need a guide to the terrain. Our job is to let them know where the paths are. We need to know what is known and the options for exploration..

What do Teachers/Lecturers need to know with Web 2.0?

• Determine the appropriate reach of a forum.
• Establish protocols for partnership.
• Security/Safeguarding
• Inclusion (not everyone can afford the technology, so minimise it’s impact)
• Identify the quality of the information.
• Insist on nobility of purpose (not a space for compliance)
• In using the space, students become better contributors to society (NOT just a box of skills), and live it better.

What’s important for institutions to know?

• Encourage staff involvement
• Invest in awareness/equipment
• Security/safeguarding
• Monitoring (not primary purpose)
• Inclusion.

The Committee of Enquiry into the Changing Learner Experience Sir David Melville, Chair of Lifelong Learning UK, spoke before lunch about the report launched in March 2009 (which he indicated was probably already out of date, because of the speed of change within digital learning).

The study was investigating the influence of Higher Education on the “Google Generation”:

• The impact on their experiences and expectations
• Their use of social networking
• Their adoption of new technologies
• Developments at schools, colleges, campuses, including institutional developments.

The most recent study started in March 2008, dealing with 15/16 year olds, we’d now find the same proportions outlined in the study applying to 12/13 year olds.

Some Findings:

• A 2007 Study and a 2008 Report found that most students had been exposed to “push” technologies (i.e. top-down), and especially valued face-to-face contact.
• Late adopters are learning first, knowing that they have to be ‘equipped for the real world’.
• There is evidence that students ARE using social networking for L&T, especially for enhancing group work. A key question is what is the nature of that space, and who controls that space.
• There was a strong feeling that Facebook was a “private space”, that these shouldn’t be used formally, that students could set up their own Facebook groups if they desired, and that staff could only be invited in by the students.
• CLEX investigated:
  • Areas of Web 2.0 usage
  • Institutional drivers
  • Issues encountered and responses
  • Perceived advantages and disadvantages
  • Prospective developments
  • European angle also considered, and the UK is far more developed than other countries because of the JANET network.
  • Discussed with: Practitioners, users of FE/HE, futurologists.
• CLEX found:
  • Use of Web 2.0 is ubiquitous from the age of 12.
  • New technology is different, but is it better?
  • There’s been a patchy take-up from staff even when there is a strong drive from management (tools can take a long time to use properly, and VLEs don’t always help)
  • Students are not yet demanding change, but note not yet.
  • Critical/evaluative skills are a deficit area and likely to get worse (e.g. “The 10 Second Researcher”: Google/Wikipedia facilitate “shallow research”. ) It’s hugely important that we find ways to impact deep research.
  • New skills that technology can foster for future workplace demands.
  • Staff time and support issues are critical.
  • It’s not just familiarity with the technology, but where they fit strategically.

The full report can be found here.

JISC: Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC were of course much in evidence at the event, offering a number of resources under their newly formed “shop window” of JISC Advance (as they look to combine best practice across the varied services):

• TechDis (Accessibility and Inclusivity)
  • Accessibility Essentials (Suggestions and downloads to make your teaching materials more accessible)
  • Teaching Inclusively using Technology (Training qualification)
    • Xerte (Accessible Learning Object Creator)
    • Staff Packs (Materials for in-house training sessions)
    • AccessApps (Free software bundles, no installations required, carry on a memory stick)
    • ITQ for Accessible IT Practice (£550 for up to 5 members for an institution to complete the course)
  • Upwardly Mobile (inclusive m-learning)
• JISC InfoNet (promoting good practice, inspiring innovation)
• JISCMail (Subject based email/forum lists for the research community)
• JISC Digital Media (copyright, podcasting lectures, image manipulation and more)
• Netskills Workshops (Training in the use of IT for effective teaching)
• JISC Legal (Specific to the use of IT/materials in FE and HE)
• Ofqual Toolkit (e-assessments and eportfolios)
• Excellence Gateway: The Learning and Skills improvement service, offering access to projects demonstrating the latest research and best practice, with those on e-learning provided by the JISC Regional Centres.

Sessions Attended:

BBC Motion Gallery
Licensed subscription service to BBC/other broadcaster moving imagery on topics such as Current Affairs, Sport, Natural History, Medicine, Geography, The Arts.

• Based upon institution size, the most expensive licence will be £1000 per annum (instead of an average £12pp/pa addition to the licence fee) for a minimum of 3 years.
• 35,000 clips available, with a further 1000 added weekly. Access is via Shibboleth or IP range. Once downloaded, images can be used in perpetuity.
• The service is described as being safer to use than YouTube, with less likelihood of sidetracking.
• Researchers have carefully constructed metadata, and each clip has been assigned a unique URL. Site can be searched by season, date, minute, etc. and played upon QuickTime or Windows Media. Clips can be re-edited offline, so that only the appropriate segment is available (rather than having to fast-forward).
• Free 30 day trials are possible.

British Universities Film & Video Council
Presenting “BoB“, a shared off-air recording and media archive (under the ERA licence).

• Everytime someone records a programme it’s available to all, and is archived.  16,000 have already been recorded. Works well even on 3G connect.
• To choose to record, there’s 7 day catchup available, on every channel on Freeview.
• Programmes are likely to be available 1-12 hours after the programme airs.  The quality is less than that of iPlayer, but suitable for lecture theatres.
• The capturing of subtitles is still in progress, largely due to IP issues. Embedding is also not entirely straightforward due to authentication issues.
• Clips can be “clipped” to use specific elements. Playlists can be created for specific courses, and linked from Moodle. Designed to be used WITHIN the VLE, not to replace it.
• Provides access to NewsFilm Online.
• Costing around £400 per annum.

Sally Betts, NIACE “Making the Most of Moodle”
Sally introduced us to a number of tools which can be integrated with Moodle, and which she has used, including:

• Xtranormal (Text to Movie software, took about 10 minutes to set up the first movie)
• Camtasia (screen recording software), like CamStudio.
• Video resources other than YouTube: VideoJug, MoleTV, TeacherTube.
• Embedding video and audio
• Cooltext, for embedding “buttons” within your VLE.

CityBit: Southampton City College Benchmarking System
In a bid to move towards e-maturity with their Moodle based VLE, Southampton City College have developed a benchmarking system, with Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, which they will shortly be making available to the Moodle community at the end of November. The badge appears on every course, but is only seen by staff, who use it as a development tool.

• Bronze is awarded when the site is used as a repository
• Silver is awarded when the site demonstrates interactivity
• Gold is awarded when there’s a clear collaborative learning experience (more Web 2.0)

Badging can be automatically applied monthly, but manual moderation of the process is also possible.

A number of other stands were also at the Fair:

• Ja.Net (UK Education and Research Network)
• KeyTools (Assitive technology and ergonomic computer equipment)
• PFGlobal (ePortfolios)
• ClickView Live (Streaming from TV, Video, DVD, etc to computer)
• Broadchart (Licensed streaming music: I should have asked the sales guy what were the benefits over Spotify)
• ERA (Educational Recording Agency)
• TxtTools (Texting Services)
• VLE Support (including eTracker for FE)
• Ergo (ICT Solutions)
• Khipu (Networks, but thanks for the water bottle)
• Streaming (School Radio Stations/Video Libraries)
• IDXtra (Swipe Card systems)

I was checking out the RSC SE site to check out some of the information from Second Life, at which I’d attended an event recently, and noted : “For those that have not attended the RSC SE’s e-Learning Fair before, this annual event has become the premier gathering for all ILT professionals involved in post-16 education in the South East region. With its combination of 12 seminars and a highly focused exhibition, the e-Learning Fair provides the ideal opportunity to learn about the latest issues and technologies as well as to network with colleagues.” I’m expecting to pick up lots of useful information, although my No. 1 panel “Making the most of Moodle” is already full!

First part of the tour, checking out the virtual building which is intended to be a repository for materials – and as it’s built in a virtual environment, it’s not restrained by the need for doors, etc. It’s not intended to replace face-to-face contact, or to be suitable for all learner groups, but to provide another layer, where experimentation and learning are possible. In some respects the environment needs to provide a familiar teaching and learning environment, or even a familiar real-world environment. For example, the arches into the sandbox (experimentation) area are based upon London docklands, and the architecture is planned to reflect the mix of styles that you would get in any UK city.

We moved on from the sandbox, to a street, with a lot of empty space… which is intended for those who desire to build/show off, for example, artwork and furniture. The row of houses alongside are designed as a space where narrative can be created, and the old school, which can be seen in the background, is based upon a 19^th Century building, when mass education was new – as Second Life is!

We moved on to The MayFlower, based upon a real pub in London, which is a gallery space where, for example, streaming video, graphics created by students, links to text/websites, etc. could be displayed. Such a space could also be used for an analysis of 17^th Century life (how the building is built, how people would have interacted with it, etc). I asked how much of a learning curve would be required for students to learn it (as I’ve already had quite a steep learning curve!). “Halo” (our tour leader), indicated that Second Life was very much an 18+ environment, and only appropriate for certain types of curricula. For each specific group we’d have to evaluate the value we were adding (good old cost-benefit analysis), and very much see Second Life as very much an ELEMENT within a course, rather than the whole course (certainly now), and we’d need to keep it simple!

We then went into the Swanky Pad, where I worked out how to sit down on an object I knew I wanted to sit on – and flicked the room around so that I could see what I looked like from the front!

The Swanky Pad is designed as a space for online meetings, with the ability to use different types of media, and reflects the place we probably all wish we have, but can’t afford in real life (so this offers real possibilities for teaching, as costs are cut, activities could be carried out in the virtual environment – taking into consideration whether the learning objectives could be met in that way).  “Halo” indicated that he believes that Second Life is but the start, and there are so many possibilities available within virtual worlds. The expectation is that within the next 5 years they’ll be over 300 virtual environments available, which offer an extension to offline practices, where sharing and collaboration can be undertaken. We then went onto a Museum, which would offer potential for the module ‘Creating and Consuming’ that I teach, where students come up with a plan for a museum, but don’t build it – here’s a chance to build it!

Towards the end of the tour we were taken into this large warehouse, which provides a large space which could host e.g. an end of year show. This show can be opened to the public (as I understand it, the public can visit it, but to take full part in the interactive experience, need to join and take up the challenge of the Second Life learning curve!). “Halo” indicated that Second Life can’t be a free for all, and spaces need organisation and management (and as DDucks said, trees!)… and that technical issues are to be expected as a part of Second Life. The final area that we were shown is Community Island, where 8 spaces will be rented (free of charge) to Universities/organisations as spaces to experiment and build… the only payment expected is that the research developed will be shared!

Having completed that very educational tour, I’d been very distracted by the fact that I still had the default shoes on (although I love the skirt provided by Sufia). Last night I tried to sign up to [Sascha’s] dress store – look how amazing some of those are – most of the things we have no excuse to wear offline! So I decided to hop back there (worked out the landmark feature, I think), and fortunately was helped my Reni, who offered me group membership and then showed me where the free dresses were – so I put this lovely turquoise number on – can’t work out how to take the jacket off right now though! Have too many clothes in my inventory! Still no shoes here though!

So I headed back to ‘Free Dove’, which Sufia had also taken me to last night, and I found a good selection of free shoes, and the chance to sit on the floor, and have a proper look at the dress!

The owner of the shoes that I plumped for was Laval, and offered a teleport to her island, so I did – sat in this lovely chair, and thought I’d leave it at that, write this report, then write my lectures on the Suffragettes (hmm, now thinking, wonder if SL would be good for re-enacting history that doesn’t make it into video/onto YouTube!)!