All posts by James Clay

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Using social media

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Today I posted a couple of videos to the blog to demonstrate how quick and easy it is to use social media tools to create content and how RSS can be used to push that content to other sites, devices and even the VLE.

People have often said to me that they don’t have the time to engage with social media. Personally I think we are at the stage where you can’t afford not to. At the conference I was at today once more people were saying where do you find the time?

As I have said many times on this blog one of the core reasons I engage with social media is that it saves me time.

A recent example was when I was tasked with finding a particular e-safety video. A quick Google search did not turn anything up, so I posted to Twitter and was well pleased with the number and variety of responses I got.

Other examples include, posting photographs to Flickr, this means when someone asks to see photographs of the college or a particular piece of tech, then a quick e-mail and link will often suffice. More importantly as people know about my Flickr account they will go and look there without me even needing to worry about being involved.

The same goes for this blog, a place for me to set out my opinions, views and news. People can see what I am thinking and my recommendations, again without me needing to do too much once I have written the blog entry. Likewise if someone asks me for information, if I already have it on my blog, this can save time. Just a quick note about writing, one of the challenges that many people find is, finding the time to write or what to write about. I have found that it is easier to write lots than it is to write a little. This very blog entry has probably taken about twenty minutes, five minutes on the Tube on my iPhone and another fifteen minutes on the train on my laptop (used Evernote to transfer the text).

Another service I use is Delicious, a service that allows me to bookmark websites, a great way of organising my favourite websites. So if you want to know which websites I am looking at, Delicious allows you to do that.

Social media has the potential to make life easier and better, and like any tool, device or service, excessive use is not what it is about, it is about using the service to make life easier and better.

app of the week, iphone

National Rail Enquiries – iPhone App of the Week

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Update: Since this blog post was written, this app has been renamed UK Train Times and another app by a different company has been released which is called National Rail Enquiries. To add to the confusion the UK Train Times icon has changed, whereas the National Rail Enquiries app has a very similar (well identical) icon to the old icon of UK Train Times. Though National Rail Enquiries is free, having tried both, I do think UK Train Times is a much better app and you don’t get the ads you get on the free app.

National Rail Enquiries – iPhone App of the Week


This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone 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 also work on the iPod touch.

This week’s App is National Rail Enquiries.

National Rail Enquiries provides complete journey planning for journeys across the UK National Rail network and live departure information for all National Rail stations in the UK. This is an official application from National Rail Enquiries, with fully-licensed and accurate real-time information.

£4.99

For many users a 99p App is too expensive, this is a five pound App, so is it worth it? If you travel by train then in my opinion it is.

A simple example, I know that this App helped my college secure £40,000 of funding, so well worth the £4.99 I paid for it.

Really?

Well, let’s just say it certainly helped.

What’s the story?

I was on my way to London to be interviewed for a funding proposal we had put in.

The interview was at 11.00 and I had my train ticket and was intending to catch a train from my local station and arrive at 9.45 giving me just over an hour to get to the venue for the interview.

So there I was waiting…. waiting…. waiting…

I got out the iPhone and checked National Rail Enquiries.

It said that the train was running very late and would not be going to London! Confused I was to begin with. A few minutes later the “train” arrived. It wasn’t the big High Speed Train I was expecting, but a smaller local train. As it arrived the driver lent out the window and shouted that this was the next train to Bristol. What had happened was that the original London train had broken down and they were using this as a replacement. Arriving in Bristol later than expected and on checking the departures form Bristol on the iPhone via National Rail Enquiries, I knew that if I caught the Manchester train I could change at Bristol Parkway and catch a London train from there. This I managed to do with literally seconds to spare after running across the station; and eventually I was in London by 10.00! Only 15 minutes later than originally planned.

If I had relied on finding out trains from departure boards or information kiosks I would have been much later into London and would have been late for the interview.

Would it have made a difference? Don’t know for sure, but I am glad I was there in plenty of time.

So what about the App itself?

Simply it is a portable station display board. It tells you the departures and arrivals from any station on the national rail network. It can also tell you the whereabouts of your train, if it is running late or worse cancelled.

It can also be used for journey planning, though there are other websites that do that for free. For the immediacy of catching trains now, it works really well.

If you travel anywhere by train, then this is one useful app. True you can find the information online for free, but the user interface of this app beats most websites interfaces, which have been designed more often then not for use on a computer and not on an iPhone sized screen.

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Libraries of the future

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Imagine a new Library of Alexandria. Imagine an archive that contains all the natural and social sciences of the West—our source-critical, referenced, peer-reviewed data—as well as the cultural and literary heritage of the world’s civilizations, and many of the world’s most significant archives and specialist collections. Imagine that this library is electronic and in the public domain: sustainable, stable, linked, and searchable through universal semantic catalogue standards.

Thanks to @ostephens on Twitter who pointed out this thoughtful article from Lisbet Rausing on imagining the future of libraries.

It’s an interesting observation when in the article it says

the question for scholars and gatekeepers is not whether change is coming. It is whether they will be among the change-makers. And if not them, then who?

We know change is coming, we can pretend that we can fight it, but the reality is that we need to be making that change.

iphone, ipod touch, podcast

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #038: iPodding and iPhoning

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Do you iPod? Do you iPhone? The e-Learning Stuff Panel discuss the use of iPhones and iPods in colleges.

With James Clay, Ron Mitchell, Lilian Soon and Lisa Valentine.

This is the thirty eighth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, iPodding and iPhoning

Download the podcast in mp3 format: iPodding and iPhoning

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Photo source.

ipad, keynote

You can do what with the iPad?

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Many people see the iPad as a BIG iPod touch, something that is used to view content on. Though it does have a microphone, unlike the iPhone is does not have a camera.

There is though one aspect of the iPad that Apple have announced that I think some people have missed and that will be the availability of iPad versions of the iWork applications. Apple will at the same time as they release the iPad, release iPad versions of their presentation software, Keynote, wordprocessing software, Pages and spreadsheet software, Numbers.

There are also rumours that Microsoft may be working on a version of Office for the iPad.

So what does this all mean?

Well is turns the iPad from a mainly content consumption device to a device that can allow the user to both consume and create content.

So what you may say, I have a laptop that does just that!

Well it’s pretty certain that the iPad is no laptop, even Steve Jobs in his iPad announcement says that the iPad sits between the iPhone and a laptop.

However I don’t see the iPad replacing my laptop all the time, but in some circumstances I can see it replacing it some of the time.

For example in meetings, the iPad is going to be more useful than a laptop for checking information, using Pages to make notes, etc…

Likewise in conferences (where there are in some sessions no tables), the iPad (with the long battery life) will make it easier to engage in the back channel, makes notes, check URLs, share thoughts and impressions, and all the other conference stuff that at the moment most people do with a notepad and a pencil.

For learners an iPad may be a better device to bring to lessons, with easy access to e-books (and these may be getting more engaging and interactive), internet access, web tools; the ability to also create notes using Pages, or enter notes using tools like Evernote more easily than on an iPod touch or iPhone, I can certainly see many learners preferring the lightweight feel of the iPad, over a heavier laptop. Then again they might want to buy a netbook!

I don’t use spreadsheets much so I don’t see much of a use for Numbers. However I do give a lot of presentations and having Keynote on the iPad makes a lot of sense to me.

I’ve always thought that Apple should have made a Keynote Presentation App for the iPhone; you would create your presentation on the Mac, sync to the iPhone and then on the iPhone would be a little App that allowed you to both view the App on the iPhone screen, or using the AV cable you can get, show the presentation through a projector or TV. One of the issues though with that is Apps can’t use the AV cable! I guess an Apple App could, but maybe not.

If Keynote on the iPad can use the AV Cable and hopefully then other applications will also be able to use the AV out.

Of course the Keynote App for the iPad allows you to create presentations, and I really do like using Keynote as my primary presentation tool.

Overall I think Keynote and Pages for the iPad, have turned the iPad into for me from a “maybe” purchase to a “more than likely” purchase.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #23 Rewarding Learners

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Too often in education we focus on the poor behaviour of learners and absence. Forgetting sometimes to reward those students who do attend every session and do follow the rules.

We probably do similar things with the VLE, admonishing learners who haven’t done online activities or joined in discussions.

By rewarding those learners who do make use of the VLE, for using the VLE to support their learning, etc… then you are sending a message to the group; that learners who work hard, obey the rules will be rewarded.

So how can you reward learners?

  • Sometimes it can be randomly from all those learners who filled in the feedback survey.
  • Sometimes it can be fun, see how many times a student has accessed content on the VLE over a week – there will always be one who spends all week clicking links…
  • Hide and seek, see who can find a particular link or reference in all the resources on the VLE.
  • Most useful learner in a discussion.

So what should be the rewards?

Well, it would be nice if it was an iPod touch! Of course we don’t all have the money or budget to do that. However what about the following:

Assignment extension voucher – one extra week for submitting an assignment.

  • Coffee voucher for college cafe
  • Lunch voucher for college dining room
  • Chocolate bar
  • Fruit (if you have a healthy eating strategy)
  • Vouchers for local stores (see if they will donate them)
  • Certificates

Of course rewards for learners needn’t be exclusively for those that use the VLE, they could be any learning activity.

Case study from the Excellence Gateway that inspired this post.