At the RSC Eastern Mobile Learning Event, James Clay considers the future of learning…
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Shownotes
Presentation
At Gloucestershire College we as part of a Leadership and Management programme a small group of managers have been undertaking research into the workspaces used by staff and learners; to ascertain if there were ways in which we could use the space smarter and more productively.
As part of this research James Clay, the ILT & Learning Resources Manager put together a small presentation on learning and office spaces from across the UK. Within this presentation he used a range of images from the JISC Infonet Flickr photostream.
This presentation was placed on the college VLE so that other managers could access the work of the research group.
The Director of Estates in discussion with another director showed the presentation and one image caught her attention.
It was of pods used by Durham University, the image was one of a series placed on Flickr by JISC Infonet.
Coincidentally the Director of Estates’ daughter is at Durham and a quick phone call later and he had confirmation of how they were used and how they enhanced learning.
As a result a capital bid has gone to the college SMT to build some pods in the college. This would not have happened without access to the JISC Infonet photographs in Flickr.
BBC Click asks the question are e-books the new newspapers?
Electronic book readers are still a minority pursuit for book lovers, but the devices have the potential to become the norm one day.
With newspapers in crisis, there are now suggestions that e-books might offer journalism a new portable platform and subscription model.
Read more.
Last week I blogged about Audioboo a recording website.
Well it’s a service I first saw demonstrated at the All Together Now event at Channel 4. To put it simply it is an App (iTunes Store Link) on your iPhone that allows you to record an audio recording, add your location, a picture and upload the lot to a website.
I did mention in that post that there was a beta service which you could phone into using any phone (so you wouldn’t need an iPhone)
Well the Audioboo people are also looking at how they can make the service device agnostic and they have a prototype phone service now in beta. You can phone in your Audioboos via 0203 393 6430.
I did comment that
Now at this point in time you can not collate these phoned in recordings (as you can with Gabcast) but I am sure at some point that this will be possible…
Well less than a week later Audioboo have mentioned on Twitter
You can now link to your audioboo account from any phone. More detail tomorrow but the API seems to work.
Well tomorrow we will see how this enhancement will work.
This means that you will be able to phone into Audioboo and it will record you and convert it into an audio file with RSS.
A really good Gabcast replacement if you ask me. The fact that there is an iPhone app which allows you to add pictures and geo-data is just a bonus.
I forgot to mention that in my last blog post on Audioboo, is that with the iPhone App you can add a picture and geo-data to your audio recording which allows you to add not just a visual reference but the location data as well. This has some real potential for learning activities.
Overall Audioboo is getting better and better, why not try it yourself.
The Tate galleries have made hundreds of video and audio downloads available for free on iTunes.
More than 400 files are now on iTunes U – a section of the online store which features educational content.
From BBC News
This is a vision of FE in 2020.
Stuart Edards of DIUS has said
Sion Simon, Minister for FE, has stated his ambition to see further education recognised nationally and internationally for its commitment to technology. We have now put together some simple statements on where things could be heading towards 2020 and how that compares with evidence of where the sector is overall at the moment. These build on discussions that we and our partners have had with experts within and outside the sector, with employers and with learners. They cover five main areas:
So what is your vision for FE in 2020?
On this blog before I have mentioned the audio creation tool Gabcast before, however since they started to charge for their service, I know that a lot of people have been trying to find a free alternative. Now generally I don’t have a problem paying for software or services if they get the job done or make my life easier.
I have gone Pro with my Flickr account so that I can upload lots of photographs and not be limited to the 200 images of the free account. I have upgraded my Remember the Milk account so I can use it on my iPod touch (and now on my new iPhone). I have paid for the extra storage on this WordPress Blog so I can upload video and audio (which is well worth the $20 per year it costs). Though like others I like free software, when I need something for a particular job I don’t mind paying for good software. VisualHub made video conversion easier (now reborn as it happens as the free Video Monkey). When I needed good audio tools, I went with Wire Tap Anywhere and Wire Tap Studio which met my podcasting needs on the Mac. So I actually had no qualms about paying $10 for 100 minutes on Gabcast.
However I can’t expect everyone to do that, especially practitioners and teachers who may not want to spend lots of dollars money on minutes for Gabcast. It’s one thing for me to spend $10 for events and workshops, but if I used Gabcast for my weekly podcast I would be spending about $40 per month!
So what is this Audioboo.fm that is the title of this blog post then?
Well it’s a service I first saw demonstrated at the All Together Now event at Channel 4. To put it simply it is an App (iTunes Store Link) on your iPhone that allows you to record an audio recording, add your location, a picture and upload the lot to a website.
As well as viewing the “boos” on the website they are also accessible via the Audioboo App.
As you have an account on the website (not essential but recommended) your recordings are kept together and also have an RSS feed as well.
This is the test recording I made using the App on the iPhone.
Yes I can hear you saying that this is no Gabcast replacement, firstly you need an iPhone and most people won’t have one of those.
Well the Audioboo people are also looking at how they can make the service device agnostic and they have a prototype phone service now in beta. You can phone in your Audioboos via 0203 393 6430. This is a recording that I made using this number on my Nokia N73 (though of course you can use a BT line if you so wish).
Now at this point in time you can not collate these phoned in recordings (as you can with Gabcast) but I am sure at some point that this will be possible (either via your phone number or channel numbers and passwords). I suspect there may also be a web client as well which could be useful too.
So it is early days, but I think Audioboo has a lot of potential.
A short explanation from the brilliant people at Commoncraft on what makes the World Wide Web work: browsers, packets, servers addresses and links.
I enjoyed reading Frances Bell’s recent blog post on how people use Twitter.
She discusses the community of Twitter and the reasons why she follows certain people.
…follow if interesting friend already known to me else read the profile, follow personal link, read the last few tweets, follow if interesting!
Made me think about why I follow people, so I decided to reflect on the last ten people I followed and tried to remember the reasons why I followed them.
Helen Beetham – I have known Helen for many years through the work she has done for the JISC, and we even presented an online session together at the JISC Online Conference in 2007. I recently found (through someone else I follow) that she was on Twitter and decided to follow her.
Duncan Greenhill – was the 500th person to follow me, so I followed him back. I don’t automatically follow everyone who follows me, but will look at what they tweet before clicking the follow button. More recently I have been more reserved in following people who follow me, as I follow quite a few people now, 234 at the time of writing and like to be in control of my Twitter stream. The number of people is irrelevant it’s much more about how often they tweet that impacts on my Twitter stream.
Doug Belshaw – I found his tweets interesting, and “discovered” him via Josie Fraser in this tweet. In his stream he mentioned the Macheist deal which I had just purchased so I decided to reply and follow.
David Kernohan – is a JISC programme manager and was interested in what he had to say and was doing.
Neil Williams – was found via Steph Gray in this tweet. Neil was asking the following question:
What web 2.0 apps have you paid for and why? I’m writing a short blog post about it, and will blog the results.
I replied as follows:
Paid for Flickr, RTM (for iPhone), WordPress (for video), Gabcast.
Neil later blogged about paying for Web 2.0 apps. This follow demonstrates how what people do outside Twitter is important to my decision if I follow or not follow them.
Danny Nicholson – I followed as he replied direct to one of my Twitpics. I believe he was already following me, but as he had started a conversation, I decided to follow him. This is quite a key decision for me if I am to follow someone, do they want to talk and discuss.
John Cook – is someone I have worked with in the past and enjoy talking to at conferences about e-learning and stuff. When I found out he was on Twitter and following me, I chose to follow him back.
Chuggington – Chuggington is a children’s TV series about trains, I mentioned it in a tweet, as a result Chuggington started to follow me. I followed them back as they are tweeting news about the programme and I know my son would be interested in what’s new.
John Kirriemuir – Shri Footring amongst others were often in conversation with John so he got followed just because of their recommendation.
Ron Mitchell – I usually micro-blog with Ron on Jaiku, but with the ongoing issues on there, as soon as I noticed that he was following me on Twitter I followed him back.
There are many reasons that I follow people on Twitter, why do you follow people on Twitter?
Apologies, for a variety of reasons I have been unable to record a podcast this week, so no new e-Learning Stuff Podcast this week. There may not be one next week (as it is Easter).
I am always looking for contributors to the podcast.
I usually use Skype, but can now take contributions by (normal) phone, so you don’t need Skype and I can call you on your phone.
Leave a message for me in the comments, contact me on Twitter or e-mail me.