Virtual History, Roma & Firenze – iPad Apps of the Week
This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.
Firenze – Virtual History, a three-dimensional journey using your iPad through the city that invented the Renaissance. Enter this epicenter of art, invention and history and even explore in detail masterpieces like those of Dante, Leonardo and Michelangelo.
Mondadori presents a fantastic voyage to Ancient Rome, the capital of the largest empire in the ancient world, which has been reconstructed in virtual form and which you can explore in a “full-immersion” panoramic experience.
£6.99 each
I was discussing with my team the other day on whether we should be placing iPads into the libraries at the college to provide additional resources and content for learners. There have been quite a few projects and trials that have shown the value of library users having access to the iPad for research and reading. The iPads would not replace existing paper resources or online content, but would supplement and enhance. I hope to expand on these ideas in a later blog post.
As a result I have started to look at the type of content we could put on the iPad, the DK Human Body (that I covered in a previous post in this series) was an obvious one for biology or anatomy.
For arts, history and travel & tourism I found these two apps (from the same publisher) that I feel would be useful for learners on those courses. Both the apps have an “immersive” experience that allows the users to explore both these famous cities using the touch interface of the iPad.
These apps would introduce the learner to these great cities and would be a starting point before moving onto for example for travel & tourism students we might also have on the iPad, the Rough Guide to Rome. We would also place e-books onto the iPads for additional detailed and indepth content, as well as content and links from practitioners.
Going around the Twitter a week or so back was a video from TEDx London from Goldie about despite dropping out of the school system he has made a success of his life. Given the choice again, he would drop out of school again!
It reminds me of some (most) of the presentations from Handheld Learning 2009 in which Malcolm McLaren, Zenna Atkins and Yvonne Roberts.
…next was Zenna Atkins… She felt she had been failed by the formal education system and despite this had a made a success of her life. She recounted tales about her children and their experiences in the education system. I am sure she knows more about the UK education system then someone like me, but you have to ask this question, if the education system is so wrong in the UK, despite the best efforts of organisations like Ofsted which are there to check the quality of the education system, then maybe we need to rethink the whole education system and the quality checking that takes place. I did feel that alienating your audience who are generally all from the formal education system and indicating that they are the problem was an interesting way to present the issues.
With Malcolm McLaren up next… He was also failed by the formal education system but found success, notice a pattern here?
Yvonne Roberts was the third keynote and having alienated the audience with a throwaway remark about dyslexia once more recounted how the formal education system had failed her and here she was speaking as a keynote presenter.
All of these speakers talked about how the formal education system was rubbish and needed a revolution. The pattern behind all their talks was that the school system had failed them and despite that they had made a success of their lives.
What annoys me about giving these people a platform is that it sends completely the wrong message to young people.
“Drop out of school and you will be successful!”
We never hear from those thousands of people who dropped out and didn’t have success in the same way they did. Those thousands who for whom school failed them and they feel they have failed.
Let’s remember that there are many more people that didn’t drop out of school and have led happy successful lives.
I think a key question is how do we define success?
Do we measure success by how many column inches you have in the Daily Mail?
Is success measured by economic success, how much money we have earned? Wealth?
Is success measured by popularity? By the number of Twitter followers you have? How much you are liked on Facebook? How many hit singles you’ve had?
Is success measured by how high you get in an organisation? Are you a Chief Executive? Are you a senior manager?
Is success measured by some weird happiness index that takes into account multiple factors? Do you need to be successful to be happy?
There are issues and problems with the formal education system, however those issues are institutional, cultural, societal and governmental. Changes need to be made at all levels, in government, in government departments, officiating quangos such as Ofsted, examining boards, local authorities, funding bodies as well as schools and colleges.
When an individual is successful despite failing at school, in some ways yes we should celebrate this, but we must also question why they failed within the formal system. Likewise we mustn’t forget those for whom not only did the school system fail, but have not had happy successful lives.
However we mustn’t forget those for whom the school system did work and who have also led successful lives. Let’s also celebrate when it works, but not be complacent when it doesn’t.
I really enjoyed this talk by Jimmy Wales at LWF11.
Jimmy Wales is the US Internet entrepreneur and wiki pioneer best known as the founder of Wikipedia. “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge” Jimmy asks us in this talk and discusses how Wikipedia has grown, the impact it has made and the people who contribute to its creation. Jimmy discusses future directions and plans for Wikipedia and Wikia, Inc. Presented January 11th 2011.
I mentioned this recently in the final ALT-C Keynote.
This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.
A ground-breaking look into the human body that offers highly accurate, visual and accessible information. The wonders of human anatomy are explored and explained in a way that offers hours of learning, fun and entertainment.
Designed for everyone with an interest in the subject, the Human Body app is a must-have reference. With enough detail to satisfy the demanding student, the app also offers rich illustrations and features for the casual browser. This is the perfect gift for yourself or someone who loves to learn.
£9.99
I was recently asked on Twitter how the iPad could be used for science. As well as obvious ideas about using it for data collection and web access, one idea I put forward was about using the many science based apps that are now available.
Eureka is an iPad magazine on the science of sport and has a really interesting and interactive interface for accessing different aspects of sports science complete with images, video and audio.
Merck PSE covers the perodic table, though if you want an even better experience check out Elements.
Pocket Heart is a really nice app that looks at the anatomy of the heart which has won respect from many science teachers and medical practitioners.
What DK The Human Body does is cover (as you can guess from the name) the whole human body.
According to many medical practitioners and science teachers I have spoken to, this is a excellent app for any learner studying human anatomy.
As well as been an engaging interactive app, it also has the necessary detail required by relevant courses, even for medical students according to one review!
So if you are studying (or teaching) human anatomy, take a look at this app.
Blogs about ALT-C, a feed of blogs about ALT-C, this will expand as more people reflect on the conference.
I enjoyed ALT-C again this year. As well as going to keynotes and sessions I also spent a bit of time streaming live video with my experiment ALT Live Beta and here are some thoughts from Steve Wheeler.
Met a fair few people from FE, congrats to Claire Donlan from Middlesborough College who is now vice-chair of ALT.
Well done to Ellen Lessner who blogged about the event on behalf of LSIS TEN.
Was nice to meet Kieran from Sheffield College, Jo from Blackpool & Flyde College and Mel from Milton Keynes College. Good to see many old friends too, like Phil from Aberdeen College. Also met loads of people from HE, local and far away, good to meet Thom Cochrane from Auckland who I have known for many years, who incidentally won the best proceedings paper award.
ALT-C has so much to offer the FE sector.
Now I know (as you do, as do the others from FE who attended) that the first week in September can be busy for FE.
What I would like you to do, is look back over the week and ask yourself, how busy were you doing ILT stuff, and how much stuff were you doing that could have been done by others?
Could you have been not in college for one day perhaps?
Now is the time to decide if you can get out of college next year for ALT-C 2012. Talk to your manager now about what you actually did and how you wouldn’t really be missed if you attended probably the only and best learning technology conference currently happening.
I know how challenging it can be to get out of college for the four days of ALT-C, I know because I do it. Luckily I have a great team behind me. I did check my e-mail when I was away and to be honest there wasn’t much there as people were busy back at the college!.
If your place gets manic and people get all panicky, I would ask why are we always surprised by the fact that students arrive in September and as a result things get busy.
It’s not as though it happens every year is it…. oh!
How do you use Moodle? Document management and broadcast-oriented communication tools . . .comprise 95% of all [LMS] user actions.
Charles Severance and Stephanie D.
I am sure in many educational institutions that most people using the VLE probably only use it in the main as a file repository and occasionally use it to “broadcast” stuff.
Tools such as Moodle have a range of functions that I know many of our staff are using, but of course not everyone knows everything. I like this presentation from the Columbian MoodleMoot 2011 by Michelle Moore, in which she explains some of the other functions of Moodle that can be used to enhance and enrich course delivery.
This has been an experiment I have been thinking about doing for a while now, and I emphasise this is an experiment, hence the beta moniker. I have no idea if this will work as planned or is something that people will engage with.
Amplification of conferences is something that has been happening for a while and I have discussed at length in a previous blog post.
In that post I talked about my social media experience of the ALT Conferences I had attended since 2003. I said that ALT-C 2007 was a bit of a sea change and the first of the ALT Conferences that social media really started to amplify the conference beyond the walls of the physical conference. Amplification can take many forms and Brian’s post about providing an Amplified Event Service is well worth reading.
There are many people who can not make ALT-C for a variety of reasons, sometimes no funding is available, many people interested in the conference don’t live in the UK so making it more difficult to get funding and from my own sector, the first week in September for FE Colleges is the busiest one of the year, so very few FE people can attend the conference in person. For these people amplification of a conference can allow them to “attend” and engage. For some the end result will be that they enjoy the experience and attend the conference the following year.
In the past at ALT-C, though we have had the live streams of the keynotes and invited speakers, most amplification has been textual through Twitter and blogs. A few people used Flickr to share photographs and back in 2009 we did live stream “The VLE is Dead” to a remote audience, however using wireless and no remote microphone meant that the final half of the session, the discussion was either difficult to hear and at one point the stream failed!
However it did make me think about doing something more at ALT-C than twittering and writing blog posts. The inspiration was the experiments on live streaming I had done via my mobile phone at the JISC Conference and a MoLeNET Conference and also the live presentations I had done as part of the MoLeNET programme. Experiences of the JISC Online Conferences had also demonstrated the value of video and audio for amplification in addition to textual stuff.
One of the things though I find with existing ideas on amplification is that they focus on the core content of the conference and miss all the stuff that happens outside the sessions. The chat and discussions people have over coffee. I have been at events that have had a fantastic Twitter stream that gets suddenly cut off as everyone has coffee or lunch. The delegates at the event are continuing to discuss and converse, however it all goes silent for the remote audience!
So at ALT-C 2011 I am trying a new idea in order to capture, create and engage in that “silent” online time. Probably the best way to describe what ALT Live Beta is, is if you have ever watched Glastonbury or T4 on the Beach on the television, as well as the “front stage” stuff, they also have a room back stage where they chat, discuss and interview the people who have just been on stage. ALT Live Beta is a live internet video stream of the “back stage” of ALT-C 2011.
Me and Darren Moon (from LSE) will be hosting, broadcasting and doing all the technical stuff. We will be based in the exhibition area at the conference, we have a little booth to act as a studio. We will be streaming live from 8:30 – 6:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday and 8:30 to 1:00 on Thursday. Though you might want to tune in on Monday afternoon as we set up the equipment and do some final testing.
If you have an Android phone then there is a Justin.TV and one for iPad and iPhone. You may need to search for “jamesclay” or go to www.justin.tv/jamesclay/ to watch the stream on your mobile device.
With interviews, chat, commentary, guests, discussion and more, ALT Live Beta will be bringing you the best of ALT-C 2011 and lots of back stage conversations live over the internet.
Now we also want to bring in remote participants and I will be using Skype to do this, so if you are interested in participating remotely please e-mail me with your Skype name. You will need to sign a release form which I will send to you.
If you are attending the conference we do need delegates to come and be part of the broadcast. We want to give you an opportunity to talk about what you are getting from the conference, your views on the keynotes, the invited speakers, the papers, the workshops and all the other sessions. Come and discuss your session with remote participants or continue the discussion that didn’t happen because you ran out of time. Without the contributions from delegates, presenters and speakers this may not work as we want it to.
Recorded highlights from ALT Live Beta will be made available later on the ALT YouTube Channel.
