#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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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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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Contact: email lta-podcast "AT" shu.ac.uk

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