All posts by James Clay

mobile

Libretto is back!

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I recently talked about how the age of mobile is now. In that post I talked about how I once had a Toshiba Libretto (long since sold on eBay).

Netbook News have posted that Toshiba have announced the release date of a new Libretto.

Toshiba have finally given a solid release date for the Toshiba Libretto W100 dual screen notebook “thing” over in Japan. Last we heard it would be arriving late August but the official word now is that the W100 will go on sale and ship on August 11 next week, so it’s certainly ahead of schedule

So currently Japan only, and no news if it will ever get to Europe. Lots of nice Sony devices have never arrived despite sucess in Japan, so I am holding out no hopes for the Libretto. The price is quite expensive too, about $1100.

What’s interesting about this device is that it has dual screens. One main screen like any other laptop and a touch screen that is used instead of a keyboard. Not sure how that would work in practice though.

I quite like the look of this, don’t think I will get one even so.

news

Bill Gates on education

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Bill Gates said at the recent Techonomy conference:

Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world

His view is that young people will no longer go to university, but will get their “education” from the web.

He also blames BIG text books for many of the failings in the current US college system.

Read more on TechCrunch.

The problem with any kind of system that requires students to find the relevant content on the web is that it makes certain assumptions about learners and institutions:

  1. They are self-motivated individuals who know what is best for them.
  2. They have the necessary information literacy skills to understand not only the information they find on the web, but also to make the judgement calls about the validity of such information.
  3. That institutions will be willing to place their best content for free on the web.
  4. That employers will not be concerned about how and where students have got their qualifications.

I do like the concepts behind open education, free learning, openware, open educational resources, and all that is currently vogue in education and learning. However the real key is much more not about whether educational institutions are ready for these kinds of initiatives, but whether learners are ready, willing and able to take advantage of the opportunities on offer.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #77 Learner Voice

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One of the things that the VLE can be used for is to capture the learner voice.

During inspection, Ofsted will look for evidence that providers have a learner involvement strategy and can show how learners are influencing the improvement of provision.

Source

It provides an ideal location for learners to involve themselves in providing feedback and commentary on the provision in the college.

There are various tools that can be used for this, there could be an open discussion forum that allows learners to discuss the college and the provision. Though care must be taken in order for this open forum not to be abused and if moderation does take place that it is open and fair.

A closed discussion forum can also be useful in allowing evidence of discussion and feedback in one place. Within this kind of forum the only people who can see the discussion would be the learner and the college.

A further method of using the VLE would be to use something like the Feedback block on Moodle that allows users of the VLE to provide either a poll of some kind or more detailed feedback on the provision in the college.

The VLE will never be the only way in which colleges can capture the learner voice, however as one mechanism among many it can be useful tool.

app of the week

You Gotta See This! – iPhone 4 App of the Week

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You Gotta See This! – iPhone 4 App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad 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. Though called iPhone App of the Week, most of these apps will work on the iPod touch or the iPad, some will be iPad only apps.

This week’s App is You Gotta See This!

Ever been at a concert and wished your friends could experience the atmosphere with you? Ever been on a mountain top and wished your family could experience the same view? Ever thought “they’ve got to see this!” but simply taking a picture was not enough? Share your experiences with unique images taken in a unique way with your iPhone 4 (required) and “You Gotta See This!” Read on to learn how it works…

Simply start the recording in “You Gotta See This!”, swipe the scene up, down, left and right with the camera and share the image created by one of the five amazing themes on Twitter, Facebook or by email. Or simply save it to your camera roll for later presentation. (See a short tutorial video at our website.)

The app creates collages of images that you take by slowly moving the camera around in 3D space. The resulting images are somewhat similar to what is called “panography” or “Hockneyesque” (after the artist David Hockney).

“You Gotta See This!” uses the iPhone 4 gyroscope to determine the camera orientation while you record and positions the images it takes accordingly on a flat surface to create the spacial collages.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You Gotta See This! requires an iPhone 4. It will not run on iPhone 3GS, 3G and earlier models.

£1.19

I do seem to buy a lot of photo Apps, some I use quite regularly others I just use once or twice and others I kind of forget I bought!

So what of You Gotta See This!

This iPhone 4 App makes use of the camera and built in gyroscope to capture multiple images that are then placed in a collage. You can choose how the images are spread and then save the result to the iPhone or share via various social networking sites.

It’s a simple yet clever App that quickly creates an image that can be used to show off a place or an event.

It must be remembered that this is not a Panorama App.

Stitched panoramas are not seamless. This is by design. ‘You Gotta See This!’ is not a panorama app. The purpose of the app is to create what is called panorama collages or panography.

It creates collages rather than panoramas. There are quite a few Panorama Apps in the iTunes store.

I do quite like this App, it is easy to use and creates a fun effect and the results can be used on websites, the VLE, presentations, student work, etc…

ipad

School of Medicine at Stanford University adopts iPad

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School of Medicine at Stanford University has adopted Apple’s iPad so reports Appleinsider.

The School of Medicine at Stanford University has adopted Apple’s iPad, providing the device to all incoming first year medical students and Master of Medicine students.

The school cited four reasons behind the new program, including student readiness, noting that iPad “creates opportunities for efficient, mobile, and innovative learning.”

Stanford also noted “the flexibility of iPad technology,” noting that “iPad allows students to view and annotate course content electronically, facilitating advance preparation as well as in-class note-taking in a highly portable, sharable and searchable format.”

Access to information and “information literacy” was also a consideration, with the school pointing out that “students will be able to easily access high-quality information at any place, at any time (for example, images from textbooks on digital course reserve, image databases, journal articles, Lane Library’s various search tools, etc.)”

A fourth rationale was Stanford’s intent to go green, “replacing printed syllabi with PDFs is in line with the Sustainable Stanford initiative, which aims to build sustainable practices into every aspect of campus life.”

It is interesting to see the four reasons behind adopting the iPad. All of these reasons can be applied to laptops and netbooks. However where the iPad wins out will be efficient mobile learning with the instant on, excellent battery life and portability. The iPad is also quite innovative and they have achieved quite a bit of positive press as a result of this move.

Standford has always had good relations with Apple and are quite close to each other geographically.

podcast

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #056: QR Codes in the Library

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We’ve put QR Codes in the Library to enable learners quick and easy access to electronic resources.

With James Clay.

This is the fifty sixth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, QR Codes in the Library.

Download the podcast in mp3 format: QR Codes in the Library

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Shownotes

100 ways, video, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #72 Streaming live video

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It is getting easier and easier these days to stream live video over the web.

Using services such as Qik, Ustream and other free services (and paid services) you can capture an event live and stream it over the internet.

These services allow you to stream video to lots of people even if all you have is a simple internet connection, 3G, wifi or similar. The way they work is, you stream your video to their server, and then they serve the video to the multiple clients who want to watch.

So where does the VLE come into this?

Well, you can provide the URL of the page that has the streaming video on, but that does rely on learners either remembering the URL or having access to it or having written it down. The problem with live streaming is that it is very time sensitive and really don’t want learners struggling to find the URL and then find the live event is over.

A lot of these streaming services do allow you to embed the stream output into a webpage and so you could embed the coding into the VLE.

Most of the free services are supported by advertising, you can use other services such as Bitgravity that offer a paid for streaming service.

You can also obviously embed the video stream from any institutional streaming servers.

You can then use the scheduling or calendaring functions of the VLE to let the learners know when the live video event is happening.

Photo source.

ipad

It had all gone horribly wrong…

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Sometimes you make a wise decision and sometimes you make a mistake.

When I ordered my iPad back on the 10th May when it was announced that it would be delivered on the 28th May I made the decision NOT to order the iPad Camera Connection Kit. My reasoning would be (based on previous experience) was that if there were problems with the delivery of the iPad Camera Connection Kit then my iPad would be delayed and I didn’t want that to happen. I also thought I wouldn’t have a problem getting one in my local Apple Store…

So how wrong was I?

Way wrong!

Both the local Bristol stores had sold out pretty quickly, basically within a day of the release of the iPad.

The online Apple Store suddenly went to a 4-6 weeks delivery time.

It had all gone horribly wrong…

I did consider ordering one from the online store, I could wait… but they wanted to charge me £5 for delivery that I wasn’t willing to pay.

I thought, I’ll wait four weeks and get one from the Apple stores in Bristol.

I waited…

I waited…

I checked with the Apple stores a month later and still no luck and no joy.

I checked the online Store and, still 4-6 weeks delivery and still going to charge me £5.

I waited…

So in the end I thought I really do want this connection kit for ALT-C, that’s at the beginning of September and that’s just under 4-6 weeks away.

On the 20th July I placed my order for the iPad Camera Connection Kit. By my reckoning it should arrive just in time for ALT-C.

First surprise was that I wasn’t charged for delivery, free delivery for the kit. That was nice.

Then in the e-mail confirming my order it said:

We estimate your order to be shipped by 5 – 7 business days.
I thought that’s not 4-6 weeks! Quick check of the website saw the 4-6 weeks had been reduced to 2-3 weeks.

Well that’s nice.

Then on the 24th July I got an e-mail stating my order had been shipped. It arrived on the 28th July.

Of course I needed to test it, so out with the DSLR and a quick picture later I connected the camera via the USB.

It worked a treat imported the image, I could then upload it using Osfoora HD to TwitPic via Twitter.

Well pleased and impressed.

Pity it took so long!