#57 Clinical skills vodcasts

Carol Pollard and Andrew Jackson talk to Andrew Middleton about how and why they are learning to develop digital video for clinical skills development amongst nursing students.

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#56 Flickr assignments

Natalie Turner, a Graphic Designer lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, discusses how Flickr, the Web 2.0 photo sharing application, has been used to support a field trip based assignment.

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#55 Shared Futures - a Change Academy model initiative

This recording captures a preliminary event for the Sheffield Hallam Change Academy Shared Futures initiative. It is being led from the Learning and Teaching Institute by Abbi Flint of the Educational Change team. I spoke to several of the groups and individuals participating in this institutional change initiative at this event which provided many of them with their first opportunity to engage with Shared Futures and, in some cases, fellow team members.

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#54 Audio feedback in the lab

In this episode Andrew Middleton talks with Anne Nortcliffe about the use of Audio Feedback in supporting her Software Engineering students. She discusses the specific approach she has formulated in providing formative, timely and engaging feedback by recording and distributing lab conversations.
This episode also includes the voice of a student reflecting on the approach. This interview was conducted during a Skype phone conversation. The approach is discussed in the following paper:
Nortcliffe, A. and Middleton, A. (2007) Audio Feedback for the ipod Generation. Proceedings of International Conference on Engineering Education 2007, Coimbra, Portugal, ID: 489, 2007
Abstract
Audio Feedback for the iPod Generation
It is a common to see students using their iPod or phone. Podcasting is a disruptive technology: the media are recognising the need to embrace the iPod generation in delivering their content. Should ink and paper continue to be the default media for academia? What can we do with audio? Can audio feedback be used to support the learning of the iPod generation? This paper compares the summative assessment results for a cohort using recorded audio feedback in formative and summative assignments to that of a cohort who received formative and summative feedback in an aural and/or succinctly, written form. The paper presents students’ reflections on the use of audio formative and summative assessment feedback for a module and considers whether this type of feedback had a pivotal role in the assessment process and a significant impact on their academic performance. The paper proposes a strategy for the integration of digital audio into assessment feedback to promote feed-forward student learning.

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#53 Institution or student owned technology? - some conclusions on the academic adoption of Web 2.0

This is the third recording that has emanated from the ALT-C workshop that set out to evaluate the fit between Web 2.0 technologies and e-portfolios led by Susannah Diamond and Andrew Middleton from Sheffield Hallam University. Reflecting on the workshop, and the outcomes of the various user-participation activities, Andrew and Susannah realised that they were arriving at some conclusions. It came as a surprise to find that matters regarding the academic adoption of Web 2.0 were beginning to fall into place. The discussion references the wiki to which the data was posted. This is publicly available at http://portfolios-2-0.pbwiki.com/. If you would like to contribute to that wiki please email Andrew at lta-podcast@shu.ac.uk for details on accessing it.

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#52 Role play as a research method

Susannah Diamond and Andrew Middleton discuss the design and facilitation of a role play activity from a workshop they led at the ALT-C 2007 conference at Nottingham University. The role play was intended to reveal the perspectivities of various academic stakeholders with regard to the adoption og Web 2.0 technologies as e-portfolios. They discuss what worked and why and then consider whether the extensive data generated during the role play is of value in and of itself. The discussion references the wiki to which the data was posted. This is publicly available at http://portfolios-2-0.pbwiki.com/. If you would like to contribute to that wiki please email Andrew at lta-podcast@shu.ac.uk for details on accessing it.

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#51 Evaluating the fit between Web 2.0 and student portfolios

Susannah Diamond and Andrew Middleton led a workshop at the ALT-C 2007 conference at Nottingham University that set out to consider the opportunities and appropriateness of Web 2.0 applications as student portfolio applications. This podcast presents the discussion from the last part of the workshop. A wiki was set up to promote further discussion and engagement with the question beyond the workshop. This is publicly available at http://portfolios-2-0.pbwiki.com. If you would like to contribute to that wiki please email Andrew at lta-podcast@shu.ac.uk for details on accessing it.

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#50 Collaboration and technology

Andrew Middleton speaks with Matt Gough about collaboration and technology. The interview followed a performance by Matt in collaboration with three other artists who between them used dance and various new and old technologies to transfer and mediate knowledge.
It is hoped that by immediately reflecting on this successful technology mediated collaboration understanding of the dynamics and potential of collaboration and technology will be found.
The performance took place in the Real-time Collaborative Art Making workshop organised by Dr Greg Sportan of the Visualisation Research unit at the University of Central England. See http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/vru/collaborativeart/index.php for resources relating to this workshop.
Notes made during the workshop can be found at http://andrew-conf.blogspot.com/

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#49 MyChingo

This episode describes how a web-based application called MyChingo is allowing academics to invite students to leave voice notes in their Blackboard courses. We hear from Cheryl Middleton an academic in the ACES faculty, a student placement who worked with Cheryl, one of the students from her course and my colleague Helen Rodger who tested the MyChingo device for ease of use.
More information about MyChingo is available at http://www.mychingo.com/

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#48 Engaging Educational Podcasts

Participants in an educational podcasting workshop discuss the question "What makes an engaging educational podcast?"
This short episode repeats the activity carried out in episode #44, and many of the responses here echo what was suggested earlier. The podcast illustrates another aspect of educational podcasting - how the activity itself (rather than the information it carries) can be used to focus a class and provide an engaging platform to output group discussion work: the podcast as flipchart!

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#47 Immersive Virtual Environments

Rob Appleyard talks to Andrew Middleton about his research into Immersive Virtual Environments. Rob, from our Faculty of Heath and Wellbeing, describes IVEs in general and discusses his own research that relates to developing a 3D awareness of anatomy by using interactive IVEs.

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#46 SHU Edit Suites

Sheffield Hallam is gearing itself up to using digiatl audio. I sense that following two years of background work there are indications here that digital audio is a media that people are ready to use. There is a lot of interest in the Closer! podcasting pilot, for example. Part of the effort made by me has been in making sure that everything's in place for staff and students to use it whenever they were ready. In this episode I speak with James Dennis about what he and the AV unit have been doing in preparing the Edit Suites on both our City and Collegiate campuses. This recording is an extract of a longer recording I made as James and I talked through various learning scenarios and approaches to making good quality recordings. These recordings are available for staff on the Closer! pilot project website site.

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#45 Backpack pilot

Helen Rodger in Academic Innovation at Sheffield Hallam has been leading the Backpack pilot for the last 9 months. Andrew Middleton speaks to Helen to find out about Backpack, the add-on tool for the Blackboard learning environment. They discuss the pilot and some of the tentative findings that are emerging at the end of the academic year. More information about Backpack can be found on the Agilix website at: http://www.agilix.com/backpack.aspx which says, "Improving student and instructor access to Blackboard resources. Backpack provides offline access to Blackboard course documents, assignments, announcements, grades and more." Blackboard inc describes Backpack as 'Blackboard to go' in its own introduction to the tool: http://www.blackboard.com/extend/backpack.htm

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#44 Educational podcasting - launching the Closer! project

The Closer! pilot is a new educational podcasting initiative being run at Sheffield Hallam. It will run in the 2007-08 academic year and will evaluate the Podcast LX Building Block in Blackboard. The pilot will be supported by Academic Innovation in the Learning and Teaching Institute and e-Learning support teams in the faculties. Podcasting, audio and video are relatively new media and Academic Innovation are particularly interested in working with people who are interested in taking the opportunity to introduce innovation into their own practice. The pilot seeks to encourage ideas that introduce either new voices or new ways of sharing voices in the learning environment.
The pilot is called Closer! because one important area for innovation is how the learning community can be brought closer together through the use of audio.
Here are the 10 points I propose in the recording that will help podcast designers create a good educational experience with podcasting:
1. Relevance is clear to the students
2. Recording quality is adequate and represents the significance of the podcast to the course
3. Embedded amongst, and integrated with, other course material appropriately
4. It informs or leads to other learning activity
5. Engaging format appropriate to the audio medium
6. It does not create a burden on the students (time, access, technology)
7. It does not create a burden on the academic (production time, technology)
8. Academically rigorous (ethically and legally appropriate, participants consent, basis of claims to knowledge are clear)
9. It does not exclude some students
10. It connects to related information through its 'show notes' .
An introduction to the Closer! pilot can be found at: http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/podcast/pilot/intro.mp3

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#43 Mentoring

The Impact Mentoring Scheme run at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield matches students to professionals in the area. Run by the Careers teams at each university, it is a career focused scheme where mentors use their skills, experience and knowledge to support a student as they make decisions about their future career. Initially established as a positive action project designed to develop the competitiveness and employability of UK Black and Minority Ethnic students it now also benefits other students. You can find out more about Impact at http://www.graduatesyorkshire.co.uk/impact/ and contact Annette Baxter, the Impact Project Officer, by email at a.r.baxter "AT" shu.ac.uk.

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#42 Audio Feedback

Audio Feedback takes many forms. Several academics at Sheffield Hallam University have taken the essential concept of producing formative feedback in audio format and put their own spin on it. In this workshop from the The Assessment for Learning Initiative week Andrew Middleton co-ordinates a discussion with Anne Nortcliffe, Anthony Rosie and Heidi Probst. Participants discuss the methods they use and the benefits they have found. Apologies for the quality of the recording, which is not as good as usual. This recording is 43 minutes long and follows the process of planning through to evaluation of the approach.

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#41 TALI Week preview

The Assessment for Learning Initiative (TALI) at Sheffield Hallam University is running a week of activities relating to innovation in assessment next week. Andrew Middleton talks to Nina Miremadi about her role in the initiative and the sessions for next week.
TALI are producing a podcast record of the week. You can access the podcast here: http://tali-lti.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
and subscribe to it here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TaliPodcast

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#40 Extending the studio

The web is now a creative environment where anyone with basic ICT skills and an internet connection can publish their own ideas and collaborate with others. What does this new understanding of the Web, or Web 2.0, mean to education? In a continued exploration of this question Andrew Middleton discuses how Web 2.0 and studio practice might connect to 'extend the studio.' Andrew speaks with Drew Dallen, a part-time Fine Art student at Sheffield Hallam University. The following list of applications was the focus of the discussion:
Web 2.0 - Example applications
(also see http://web2.0dot.org/)
Visualisation and collaborative spaces

• ConceptShare (http://www.conceptshare.com/) - supports the creation and management of interactive workspaces to present visual designs to others to gather feedback from team members, managers and customers
• Thinkature (http://www.thinkature.com) - combines an instant messaging system with shared, visual workspace. Use it as a collaboration environment, a meeting room, a personal web-based whiteboard, or something entirely new
• Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/) - 'draw and share diagrams on the Web'
• mxgraph (http://www.mxgraph.com) - for drawing diagrams in a browser
• Yugma (https://www.yugma.com) - free web conferencing
• MyQuire (http://www.myquire.com/) - make organization, brainstorming, and task handling on the web easier
• Scrapblog (http://scrapblog.com) - build a multimedia portfolio that you can share
  

Video Sharing

• YouTube (http://www.youtube.com)
• Google Videos (http://video.google.com)
• Blup.tv (http://blip.tv)
• TeacherTube (http://teachertube.com/)
• Mojit (http://mojiti.com/) - annotation for videos
  

Storage and Filesharing

• Ifolder (http://www.ifolder.com/) - Filesharing for groups
• Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/) - online sharing of presentations
  

Images sharing and editing

• Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) - photo sharing tools and community
• Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/) - image and video sharing
• Zoomr (http://beta.zooomr.com/home)
• Pixenate (http://pixenate.com/) - Photoshop in a browser
• Picnik (http://www.picnik.com/) - Photoshop in a browser
• Fauxto (http://www.fauxto.com/) - image adjustment toolkit
  

3D Design

• Gogofrog (http://www.gogofrog.com/) - make your very own "3D space" online using a simple select, drag and drop process
• Google Sketchup (http://www.sketchup.com/) - web-based 3D design software
  

Drawing

• Imagination Cubed (http://www.imaginationcubed.com) - draw with friends

Office and organisational applications

• Google Docs and Spreadsheets (http://docs.google.com/) - word processor and spreadsheet tools that are ideal for individual or collaborative work
• Think free (http://www.thinkfree.com)
• Zoho (http://www.zoho.com/) - a suite of Office applications
• Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com/) - project management
• Tada (http://www.tada.com) - To do list (great for individuals or assigning tasks in group work)
• Delicious (http://del.icio.us) - social/sharable web bookmarks
  

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#39 Careers-casting

You would have thought that thinking about your career is an important, on-going part of being a student - especially in that last undergraduate year. Many students however don't seem to engage with the university Careers team. They are preoccupied with studying for the exams. Before they know it they've graduated and not able to make the most of their qualifications. How can a Careers team make what they have to offer more accessible, more obviously relevant and more engaging to the student who, whether they know it or not, could clearly benefit from the services on offer? Perhaps a podcast could help? Andrew Middleton and the Careers team at Sheffield Hallam start to consider whether podcasting could provide a good fit.

Social Podcast Challenge continues

Can educational podcasting models be developed to stimulate social engagement in the learning community? What ideas do you have for social educational podcasting?
Use the MyChingo recorder on this show notes site to leave a message or send Andrew an audio response via email at lta-podcast AT shu.ac.uk. Your contributions will be compiled to form the next show!

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#38 The Social Podcast Challenge

Andrew Middleton proposes that educational podcasting models can be used to stimulate social engagement in the learning community. Do you agree? What ideas do you have for social educational podcasting? The next show is for you!
Use the MyChingo recorder on this show notes site to leave a message or send Andrew an audio response via email at lta-podcast AT shu.ac.uk. Your contributions will be compiled to form the next show!

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#37 Massively Multi-learner

Andrew Middleton travels to Scotland for the second episode in a row, this time to Glasgow to the Massively Multi-leaner Conference held at the University of Paisley.
He reports back on several of the sessions. A more detailed report can be found in the Creativity in Academic Innovation blog at: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/wordpress/?p=352

• Second Life: www.secondlife.com
• Jeremy Kemp's SimTeach
  

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#36 Don't record your lectures

In this episode Andrew Middleton proposes to attendees at Barcamp Scotland that there are much better things we can do with the medium of podcasting in higher education than record lectures. Slides for this session are available on at Slideshare.
Look at the BarcampScotland wiki for more information about BarcampScotland.
Search the web for other networked content using the BarcampScotland tag.

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#35 Social networking - barcamp style

Andrew Middleton travels to Edinburgh on a sunny Saturday to find out about Barcamps. He attends, and takes an active part in BarcampScotland. Barcamps, aka Unconferences, are informal, spontaneous, user-created conferences. Attendees are invited by networked peers. This peer networking approach is the method that ensures the quality and the focus of the event. Once invited you sign up on a barcamp wiki to say you're going and what you're interested in and what you can present on. This episode attempts to capture the essence of the event itself. Later episodes may present some of the talks that went on. The sound quality was not so good on this, so apologies for that.
Look at the BarcampScotland wiki for more information: http://barcamp.org/BarCampScotland
Search the web for other networked content using the BarcampScotland tag.
Better photos are available at Flickr tagged as BarcampScotland
My impromptu presentation slides can be found at Slideshare

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#34 Social networking

Andrew Middleton talks with Sue Jamison-Powell, who is carrying out research on social networking, about social networking technologies.
In the discussion several sites are referenced:

• Livejournal.com/
• Dana Boyd
• Facebook
  
• MySpace
  

Also take a look at Dana Boyd's keynote at New Media Consortium conference, Oct 2006):

• http://www.nmc.org/events/2006fall_online_conf/index.shtml
  

Social networks aren't constrained to living people! -

• Loving memory Anna
• A memorial site for deceased myspace users

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#33 Facebook and ethics

Social Networking applications such as MySpace and Facebook are providing really interesting opportunities for education. In this episode I continue a conversation I started a couple of episodes ago with Vic Whittaker from Sheffield Hallam University. In the earlier episode we discussed Web 2.0 tools and Tada Lists. In this conversation we discuss Vic's experience of online communication and his recent use of Facebook in particular.
We discuss ethical issues such as how such applications blur the lines between private, public and professional lives.
The discussion references Facebook, MySpace and Elgg.

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#32 Creativity

Andrew Middleton presents a short discussion on Creativity that he had with some Visualisation students. The podcast recording was set as a creativity exercise in this student workshop. It demonstrates how the constraints of time and the pressure of 'being on air' can lead to creative thinking, as much as techniques such as brainstorming or mind mapping. When the mic is open you've got to say something vaguely intelligent! He also presents a few thoughts about conditions for creativity and some of the underlying principles of creativity.

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#31 Tada Lists - Web 2.0 tools for education

Andrew Middleton is joined by Vic Whittaker from the division of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Vic explains why he thinks Tada has a useful place in the educator's toolkit. You can sign up for Tada at http://www.tada.com

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#30 Educational podcasting - a discussion

Andrew Middleton is joined by academic colleagues who consider ideas for educational podcasting following an introduction to the technology.

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#29 Thought for the Day

Andrew Middleton attempts another podcast model. This is a short audio file model, easy to produce and suitable for many academic situations where tutors or students are needing to share on-going reflection - Thought for the day.
The file was originally generated for project being run by Dan Schmit, host of Kidcast. You can find out more about Kidcast at: http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/

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#27 Divide

A short report from the Educause ELI Annual Meeting 2007 conference that has taken place in Atlanta, George, USA this week. A thread common to several sessions was how can HE keep up with the Net Gen Learner. The report references,

• Conference program
• Father Google and Mother IM: Confessions of a Net Gen Learner - an article in Educause Review by Carie Wyndham
• Chris Dede's session 'Emerging Educational Technologies and Neomillennial Learning Styles'
  

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#26 Book review - a podcast model

Andrew Middleton considers what a Book Review would be like as a podcast. A review activity should encourage students to read and reflect upon the literature available to them and help them to develop a pool or collection of audio book reviews. In this way students are making a contribution not only to a resource used by their peers, but a resource that may be useful to those that follow in subsequent years.
Here are some guiding principles for an audio book review. It should be,

• short (less than 2 minutes)
• provide information about the book and its stated aims
• indicate the scope of the book
• consider why it attracted the reviewer in the first place
• provide one or two quotes
• and comment on the style of the writer

"This book review considers 'Writing for Broadcast Journalists' by Rick Thompson, published by Routledge in 2005. It is part of their Media Skills series and weighs in at 182 pages.

Writing for Broadcast Journalists sets out to guide readers through the differences between written and spoken language.
My reason for reading this was to help me consider scripting techniques for podcast production. I have attempted to script podcasts before and had become aware that creating a readable script is not as simple as I had imagined.
Rick Thompson's background is in broadcast journalism. He has held senior editorials positions in BBC News where he has worked in both television and radio.
As might be expected, I found the book very accessible. He has a fluent writing style that works well in print.
Writing for Broadcast Journalists is targeted at Media students considering a career in broadcast journalism and so parts of the book were less relevant for me. However, for those students, he covers the art of writing news scripts and how these have to fit in with the techniques and constraints of broadcasting teams. He also compares differences between television and radio scripting and presentation.
Most of the book however considers the use of language for the spoken word. This was exactly what I needed. He discusses how the rhythm of speech is different to the written word and how informal language is often better in audio texts.
Thompson advises that in broadcast journalism, "The first sentence interest, the second sentence must inform." Discussing style he says, "... remember that many people in your audience may be listening a little casually. Presenting them with one idea at a time makes it much easier to follow... Try dropping in a few full stops!"
He has all sorts of tips and many of these are supported with examples from the BBC, ITV and other media organisations.
The book concludes with a substantial appendix of 'dangerous words.' An extensive list of words, phrases and clichés that are sure to upset the pedantic listener!
I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone involved in scripting media, whether this is for broadcast journalism or not."

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#26 Creative Screencasting

Andrew Middleton introduces screencasting and how this technology can be simply and creatively used to produce innovative educational materials. Several pieces of software and other informtion are referenced in this episode - here are some links:

• ELI 7 Things you should know about screencasting: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7012.pdf;
• Camtasia Studio by TechSmith: http://www.techsmith.com/;
  
• Wink: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/;
• Windows Media Encoder: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx;
• CamStudio: http://www.camstudio.org/;
• Adobe Captivate: http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/;
• Visual learning ideas: A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html .

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#25 Commutecast on educational podcasting

Andrew Middleton records a commutecast on the way to work reflecting on educational podcasting, research, and plans for the new year.

• Link to Scott Lockman's Comprehensible Input podcast
• Educause Quarterly (Vol 29, No.3)article 'Podcasting Lectures' by Sarah Brittain, Pietrek Glowacki, Jared Van Ittersum, and Lynn Johnson

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