Category Archives: youtube

Hood 2.0: it’s a Web 2.0 world out there

I am running two workshops at ALT-C 2008 next week, one on mobile learning and the other on Web 2.0.

Hood 2.0: it’s a Web 2.0 world out there

This workshop will explore how using Web 2.0 can rethink the digital divide.

Gloucestershire College has been using Web 2.0 to enhance and enrich the learning process for a wide variety of learners across the breadth and depth of the curriculum. They have developed a range of learning scenarios and activities that are integrated into the learning process and support a diverse range of learners.

This workshop will demonstrate how Web 2.0 can be used to solve some of the issues facing diverse learners in this era of Facebook. YouTube, Twitter and then some…

The concept of Web 2.0 services in addressing the tensions between formal and informal learning, and empowering learners to take responsibility for their own learning will be examined. Then, how we need to address the pedagogical needs to drive the use of Web 2.0 services and not be blinded or awed by the technology of Web 2.0, will be explored.

During the workshop participants will be able to discuss and debate different learning scenarios and activities which utilise Web 2.0 services. Web 2.0 services will be used to demonstrate these scenarios.

Participants will discuss and debate these scenarios in small groups, covering how they could be utilised within their own institutions, examining the potential conflict between formal learning scenarios and the informal learning scenarios that Web 2.0 offers.

The groups will also discuss how the pedagogy needs to drive the scenarios and not the technology and address how Web 2.0 can empower learners to take responsibility for their own learning. Each group will provide feedback through either a blog entry, an audio podcast or a video presentation. These will then be made available online to allow participants to comment and continue the discussion beyond the workshop, and also allow other conference delegates to participate in the discussion.

After the workshop, the participants will have a greater understanding of the role of Web 2.0 in addressing the digital divide.

They will have considered how Web 2.0 can help resolve the tensions between formal and informal learning; discussed how Web 2.0 technologies in themselves mustn’t drive the learning, but support the pedagogy; and debated how Web 2.0 can empower learners to take responsibility for their learning.

The participants will have presented the results of their discussion and debate, through the use of a variety of learning technologies, to other participants and to other conference delegates.

it’s a Web 2.0 world out there

Monitoring mobile content

Bill Thompson has written an excellent column on the BBC news website.

Suggestions that content-hosting sites like YouTube and Flickr should review material before they were posted were especially ridiculed. Observer columnist John Naughton pointed out that at Flickr, “uploads have been between 1,400 and 4,500 images a minute”, making the task somewhat less manageable than the committee seemed to realise.

But a couple of weeks later telecoms regulator Ofcom has agreed that content delivered to mobile phones should continue to be restricted. It suggested that although the current self-regulatory scheme managed by the Independent Mobile Classification Body is working it could be made a bit stronger in some ways.

Monitoring mobile content

Filtering just does not work, as Bill says

web filtering does not work. The filters either let through material that we would like blocked or, far more often, block material that is perfectly acceptable

It annoys me for example that Vodafone Content Control blocks Flickr, but does not block YouTube! One day I must get those blocks removed.

From an FE perspective, filtering though blocks a lot of undesirable content, is more often used to block social networking sites, or video and image sites such as Flickr and YouTube.

I would never say that these sites are free of undesirable content, but wholesale blocking often can remove many potential assets and resources which can be used for learning.

An astute institution will realise that filtering content is only one thing that needs to be done and that educating students on using the web safely is equally if not more important than jsut relying on technological blocks.

Sharing my presentation

Today I have been at a JISC workshop on repurposing resources at which I gave a ten minute presentation on the institutional perspective on repurposing resources.Sharing my presentation

This gave me an opportunity to share my presentation with others.

Now I know I could just upload my PowerPoint presentation, but that means people need to download and open it. Problems arise as I used Apple’s Keynote presentation software and not everyone has that. Yes I can export to PowerPoint, but that is not always perfect, more so if you use some of the more advanced features of Keynote.

So I decided to use a feature of Keynote which is to send to Youtube.

This works quite well, though some institutions ban YouTube so less useful there then.

I also used Slideshare and uploaded my presentation there as well, though I had to export as PowerPoint first.

On both presentations there is (virtually) no audio, which to be honest the presentation does need. I think I prefer the YouTube version as it captures the transitions from Keynote which Slideshare doesn’t.

Another option would be to use Google’s Presentation.

YouTube tackles bullying online

BBC reports how YouTube is trying to stop online or cyber bullying.

The first online anti-bullying channel has been launched to encourage young people to denounce the intimidation.

YouTube has set up a site where youngsters can post their own videos and messages.

It follows growing concern about the increase in persecution by e-mail, mobile phone and on social networking sites, known as cyberbullying.

Digital Video Tools

At a recent HE Academy event I presented at I offered to provide a series of links relating to digital video and podcasting. Here are the digital video tools.

Windows Movie Maker

This is part of Windows XP (and Windows Vista) which allows simple video editing.

With Windows Movie Maker, you can use your computer to create and edit home movies with a few simple drag-and-drop moves. Then you can share your movies through the web, e-mail, your computer, or CD.

iMovie

Part of the iLife suite which comes pre-installed on every Mac. It is a quick and easy video editing application.

I have not used the latest version (part of iLife ’08) however it should be noted that this new version has a very different workflow compared to previous versions.

iMovie ’08 makes viewing and working with video as intuitive as enjoying your photos. A built-in library automatically organises your video, so all the clips you’ve captured and movies you’ve created are just a click away. With its revolutionary interface, iMovie makes it quick and easy to browse your library and create new movies. And iMovie is built for sharing. In just a few steps, you can add movies to your website, publish them on YouTube, and create versions for iPod and Apple TV.

I also mentioned Keynote which is the Mac presentation software, presentations can be saved as movies or can even be sent direct to YouTube.

VisualHub

An excellent tool for converting video into various different formats, very useful if converting video for mobile devices and Windows PCs, note this is Mac software.

VisualHub bridges the gap between numerous complicated video formatting standards, and people that just want to get the job done.

Roxio Toast

Primarily a DVD burning application, it also have video conversion functionality.

Media-convert

Online video conversion tool that doesn’t require you to install anything. I have also been recommended zamzar.com, however due to the plethora of pop-ups and the fact you have to give an e-mail address means that I for one would not use it.

YouTube

The infamous video website that allows users to upload and share their video.

TeacherTube

Like YouTube but for teachers.

Helpdesk

I suspect most people have seen this amusing video about an early helpdesk call.

Of course if YouTube is blocked in your institution you may have a little trouble.

What most people don’t realise is that when this Norwegian comedy skit (not Dutch as was written in the Guardian today) was first uploaded, it was obviously in breach of copyright. The owners, NRK, had not given permission for the clip to be uploaded to YouTube and a take down order was requested.

However how come you can see the clip above, most people who know me will know that I do know a fair bit about copyright.

Well this is the official NRK version, who have their own channel now on YouTube, so NRK uploaded the video and legally I can embed it into my blog above.

Excellent.

NRK are not the only broadcaster who have their own YouTube channel, so do the BBC.  YouTube is becoming more and more useful and less and less problematic as it use to be.

YouTube or not YouTube, that is the question…

Here’s a question…

If a student is spending all day watching YouTube videos on a college machine.

If you block YouTube across your whole college network does this mean:

a) that the student now spends all day studying hard and learning.

b) that the student spends all day trying to find a working proxy server that would then allow him to watch the 30 second video, a proxy server which could incorporate trojans or other internet nasties…

c) that the student spends all day searching other web 2.0 video sites (such as blip.tv, metacafe, revver etc… trying to find that elusive video.

d) the student spends all day doing something else equally fruitless, like playing online solitaire, etc…

At the end of the day it might be better to spend some time looking at the reasons why that learner is not motivated about their learning and why they are doing something else.

What are they stuck on? Do they understand where they need to go next? Are they on the right course?

At my college we lifted the global block on YouTube last December, so nearly a year has passed and what is the result?

Well what we have found is that every learner and every member of staff now spend all day watching YouTube videos!

Well no, that is not what is happening, the reality is that YouTube is like any other site on the internet, it is sometimes used for learning and sometimes it is used for fun or for information. In many ways it is used like the BBC website. Some of our learners are creating and uploading videos.

As for undesirable content, well what our staff can do is control the internet at a classroom level, so if you have a class of fourteen year olds you can block access to all of the internet, or allow access to certain sites or domains, or even just specific pages.

Remember that even news sites like the BBC can have undesirable content on them.

So do we have any global blocks? Yes we don’t have a totally open system, there are a lot of sites on our blacklist, but we do have procedures in place that if a site is blocked (or even a request to block a site) then the decision to unblock the site or block a site is made by a member of the senior management team after discussion if required.

YouTube or not YouTube, that is the question. From our experience, unblocking YouTube has not been as problematic as you might think it would be. We certainly have not had bandwidth issues that are sometimes feared. We have the odd individual here and there, but then if we block YouTube they will only go to a different site instead (you can say the same for social networking sites) and we try and identify and support these students.

I’ll leave you with a way in which YouTube is working really well for us.

Firstly students are watching clips from musical theatre in the dance studio that are on YouTube.

Secondly music technology students are recording themselves and then uploading these recordings to YouTube which can then be embedded into other websites such as MySpace, as can be seen in the following clip.

By the way I apologise if you are viewing this from inside an institution which blocks YouTube.