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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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#24 Second Life report

The Creative Development Team at Sheffield Hallam University introduce and reflect upon the virtual world phenomenon known as Second Life and its potential as a learning environment.
Here are some useful articles on Second Life and its educational application:

• Seond Life home page
• Second Life Education Wiki
• Campus: Second Life
• Wired News: Second Life Teaches Life Lessons
• Second Life: the educational possibilities of a massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW)
• Second Life Educational Possibilities and Considerations

Here are a couple of photos showing the CDT meeting in Second Life:

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#23 Nicky Joiner, Students Union Academic Affairs

Andrew Middleton speaks to Nicky Joiner, Executive Officer for Academic Affairs at Sheffield Hallam University's Students Union. Amongst other things we discuss social networking tools such as MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/), Bebo and Facebook.

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#22 '99 ideas for educational podcasting' - an audio poster #2

Andrew Middleton presents part 2 of an audio poster entitled 'Educational Podcasting - 99 ideas for a-learning'. In this 2nd audio-poster episode he speaks to several colleagues in the Learning and IT Services department at Sheffield Hallam University. He asks them what ideas spring to mind when presented with some of the titles he has given to his ideas for educational podcasting. The hope is that before the end we find idea 100!

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