All posts by James Clay

flickr, jisc

Photo Sharing Guide

Leave a comment

If you have read this blog before you will have noticed that I have embedded my Flickr photostream into the blog (look further down the page). You may have even visited my Flickr account and looked at my photographs.

Flickr

However not everyone knows what an online photo sharing service is and therefore visiting Flickr for the first time may appear daunting.

TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) who are funded by the JISC have posted a guide which highlights the advantages and potential issues that using these sites have for educational institutions.

Photo sharing has become increasingly popular in recent years as a means for individuals to publish or distribute their digital images online. As a result, some of the photo sharing sites that host these images have become useful sources of free or low-cost images. Many of these sites also include enough features to be seen as practical tools for managing and organising your own collection of images. This paper looks at the most common features offered by a number of photo sharing sites, highlights the pros and cons of using such sites, and offers some practical tips for both finding images and organising your own images.

Thanks to eNews from the JISC Regional Support Centres in Scotland for the link.

ipod touch, learning technologies

iPod touch, me touch, me like

1 Comment

Today I was lucky to try out the iPod touch, and yes I was impressed.

I had quite high expectations for the touch interface, and to be honest it met (and surpassed) those expectations.

Browsing was certainly easy as was navigation.

Alas the device I was using had minimal content on, but it was still possible to try out many of the features. Though it was really the touch interface I really wanted to try.

conference, m-learning, mobile

MoLeNET Launch Conference

2 Comments

Today I was at the MoLeNET launch conference at the Oval in London.

I did Shozu a few photographs to Flickr and the blog, but unfortunately connectivity was poor and time was limited for writing blog entries.

My workshops went well, though it was a struggle to cover what I wanted to cover in only fifteen minutes, I would liked to have had more time to allow more discussion, in a similar way to the way I ran my mobile learning workshop at ALT-C.

Quite a few people came up to me to ask about various things I showed we are either doing at Gloucestershire College (the college formerly known as Gloscat) or in the process of planning how we can implement them.

I enjoyed Mick Mullane’s presentation about podcasting and texting (sms), which was illuminating.

Other parts of the conference were interesting and informative

I was disappointed with the connectivity, but it is a lesson for all of us, the wireless network failed to cope with the sheer number of wireless clients in attendance. Not only did we get a large number of mobile and e-learning enthusiasts together (most with laptops) we also had exhibitors with their wealth of wireless devices. My 3G connection was less useful for basically the same reasons, lots of people with mobile devices.

It was certainly worth going to, lots of useful networking, and nice to see a lot of colleges looking at mobile learning.

video

Showing Digital Video Recordings

Leave a comment

Here in the UK in order to show television recordings to your students you may need a licence, this is run by the Educational Recording Agency (ERA).

One thing I have found that a lot of people don’t realise is that the ERA licence only covers specific broadcasts from the following broadcasters.

BBC television and radio
ITV Network services (including ITV2 and ITV3)
Channel Four and E4
Five television
S4C

It does not include for example films or adverts or commercial radio.

However this is not an issue (except for labelling purposes) to quote the ERA:

However, if you record these broadcasts for non-commercial educational purposes your recordings will not infringe copyright, unless a certified Section 35 licence applies. This is because Section 35 (1) states that where works are not covered by a certified scheme, then educational establishments may reproduce and communicate them electronically on-site without infringing copyright. You will need to adequately acknowledge, i.e. label, any broadcast recordings you make under Section 35 (1).

So you can record adverts for showing for instructional purposes, or as one college I am aware of recorded The Terminator for a media lesson, without needing a licence.

Note to those who wish to hold digital recordings of tv shows, the ERA licence for ERA licenced recordings only covers the on-site computers and therefore you can not stream to students at home for example.

Digital recordings stored on-site, e.g. on an establishment’s central server, may only be accessed from on-site terminals. A suitable security or password protection system needs to be in place to ensure recorded material is not accessed by students at home or anywhere off-site, as this is not permitted under the ERA Scheme or any part of Section 35.

Usual disclaimer applies, all material in this posting is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. In all copyright matters, consult a legal expert or lawyer.