Category Archives: stuff

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Becta Technology Exemplar Network Mini-Network Event

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Today is our Becta Technology Exemplar Network Mini-Network Event (that’s a bit of a mouthful).

So what does that mean in English?

Well…

Gloucestershire College is one of sixteen education and skills providers from across England to have been granted Technology Exemplar Network status

The Technology Exemplar Network is designed to help colleges and other learning providers use technology more effectively.

The Technology Exemplar Network was launched in 2008 with ten members and is jointly led by government technology agency Becta and the Learning and Skills Council. It works to share best practice for using technology between different learning providers across the country.

Gloucestershire College was chosen because of our work in mobile learning (the MoLeNET projects for example) and Stars and Stripes, a record system we use with our learners to improve retention and achievement.

There are nine other FE Colleges in our mini-network who are termed participating providers.

The concept of the network is to cascading that experience and expertise to their colleagues in the network.

During this event the Exemplar should ensure that mini-network members discuss their requirements for participation. This will enable the Exemplar to develop a suitable programme of network engagement activities going forwards.  These may include on-line collaboration opportunities, on-line conferences/events, provider site visits and further face to face meetings and events. This programme of activity will take place from January 2010 to July 2010.

I personally think it is a little more than just Gloucestershire College saying “this is how good we are and this is how it’s done”. For me the mini-network is an opportunity for FE providers to work together to share and collaborate to ensure that they use technology more effectively.

We will be using an unconference open format for the event, this is to maximise discussion and networking and minimise didactic transmission of information.

Should be interesting.

Twitter tag is #bectaten

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Start off using interactive whiteboards

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An Interactive Whiteboard used at even a simple level can mean that you can both save time and enhance learning for learners.

Using the Interactive Whiteboard as you would a normal whiteboard, but adding pages rather than wiping them, and then saving the Interactive Whiteboard session (known as a flipchart for those that use Activboards) before exporting as a PDF and uploading to the VLE, will save time and make it easier for learners.

Learners who wish to go over the lesson again, can very easily comparing what was on the whiteboard with what was on their notes, likewise if they missed a lesson the saved flipchart gives them a good starting point, so if they do come and see you, you don’t need to spend long amounts of time repeating the lesson. From a planning perspective, if the whiteboard session is printed off and placed in the course file then next year it will aid the lesson planning process.

Obviously there is more to Interactive Whiteboards than just this, but this is a useful starting point. Interactive Whiteboards can enable active learning, give more engagement with learners and make for a better session. Try one out soon.

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Clipart, bin it, you know it makes sense

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Clipart is often used to allegedly “enhance” learning resources and presentations. You’ve all seen it used somewhere. Clipart is often downloaded from the web or used via Microsoft Office.

I would describe clipart as cliched, stereotypical, ghastly, offensive and just plain bad…. and that’s been nice about it!

So should you be using clipart? Personally speaking and in my opinion, I say no!

I have a preference for photographs and photographic images. I would use a digital camera and take some photographs rather than use some awful clipart. I would prefer to use a photographic image from an image collection rather than use some jokey style clipart.

You can see I don’t really like clipart!

Check the last magazine you purchased, how many articles or adverts used photographs and how many used clipart?

Clipart, bin it, you know it makes sense.

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Dell Mini 5

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Engagdet has an interesting article on their first impressions of the Dell Mini 5 prototype.

Dell’s puzzled the world for quite some time with its outlandish Mini 5 — at first glance it’s just another Android-based MID, but a quick fiddle with it reveals the full-fledged 3G phone inside.

The MID (Mobile Internet Device) is a form factor that has been tried before, but the MID as a modern concept was announced by Intel in 2007. They are mid way between a smartphone and a fully functional laptop or Tablet PC.

They are designed to provide entertainment, information, location based services, communication and sharing. In this day of social networking, twitter, facebook; they are aimed at individual for personal use rather than corporate use.

This of course doesn’t stop learners using them for learning.

So what of the Dell Mini 5? According to Engadget, the Andorid powered device will include:

…a five-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, Snapdragon QSD8250 chipset (with CPU clocked at 1GHz), Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and WCDMA radio.

WCDMA means that it can use internet on the move (read 3G). At this time, no idea if the Dell Mini 5 will have phone capabilities. Update: As noted in the comments, “Actually, we did report that the Mini 5 does make phone calls, and that the call quality is satisfactory on both ends.”

It also comes with a camera:

The main camera offers five-megapixel pictures of reasonable quality, along with decent 640 x 480 video capture but with slight rolling shutter effect (aka “jelly motion”). The accompanying camera app has a wealth of settings for both modes: scene, white balance, brightness, contrast, and resolution. Extra settings for photo mode include flash, self-timer, multi-shot, shutter sound, GPS location and flicker adjustment, whereas video mode has options for video format (MPEG-4 and H.263).

The device has a on screen keyboard for text entry, though as it has Bluetooth, you probably can use a Bluetooth keyboard for dedicated text entry (as you can do with a Nokia N95).

This device allows for both content consumption and content creation. Two key features of any device that learners use for learning. With WiFi and 3G this means that the learner will have the connectivity to access learning resources on the move or in college (if you have a student wireless network). It will also allow for real-time communication via the VLE or a social networking service of some kind, eg Ning or Twitter.

So will learners actually buy a device like this?

Hmmm, well you can ask the same question of Apple’s iPad that has a lot less capability.

Learners (especially in FE Colleges) have not really bought into devices such as the iPhone; though I am surprised by how many have the N95 and N86. They prefer full size laptops over micro-laptops. Having shown and tried devices such as the Nokia N810 with learners, they thought it was “okay” but preferred other mobile devices and “proper” laptops for serious text entry.

The Dell Mini 5 sounds like an exciting innovative device, however I am not sure if these MID devices will be taken up and used by learners in large numbers.

Would you buy the Dell Mini 5?

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USB Microscope

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There are many different types of cameras on the market, and a fair few USB cameras out there.

At Gloucestershire College we have just invested in some new USB cameras, however these are not standard USB cameras, these are USB Microscope cameras.

Install the software, connect the USB microscope and then place whatever you need under it. Once in focus and or zoomed in you can then take an image or capture a video.

You also have the possibility of a live preview, therefore showing what is happening live under the microscope through a data projector, even to an interactive whiteboard.

This is an eyebrow.

There are many uses for this in various curriculum areas.

The obvious choice is Biology to look at biological specimens under the microscope.

Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy have many uses for looking at hair and skin in much more detail.

Computing can stick the microscope into a PC or over a circuit board to see it in more detail.

Engineering can use it to look at issues with components or engine parts.

There are a wealth of uses, what would you use it for?

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To block or not to block

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Very often in education it is decided that the best way to “protect” learners is to block as much of the internet as possible. This is more often than not the policy in schools, nearly just as much in Further Education, and even in Universities.

I have for many years that technological solutions such as blocking are a blinkered approach to e-safety and that educating and training learners in how to use the internet safely and to be aware of the issues relating to digital identify was a much better and superior answer. If you block and lock down the internet, it can result in a false sense of security, this could result in learners not been fully protected.

It would appear that this viewpoint has been echoed in a recent Ofsted report on e-safety.

There was this interesting article from BBC News on this report:

Pupils given a greater degree of freedom to surf the internet at school are less vulnerable to online dangers in the long-term, inspectors say.

“Managed” online systems were more successful than “locked” ones at safeguarding pupils’ safety, they said.

The article continues…

The five schools judged outstanding for online safety all used managed systems to help pupils become responsible users of technology.

So what was the difference?

…while the 13 schools using locked down systems kept pupils safe while in school, these systems were less effective in helping them learn how to use technology safely.

Now this is interesting. You decide that the best way to protect learners is to lock down your system, the end result is that they are less protected.

One of the key reasons that this happens is that as the teachers and management perceive that the network is locked down and thus safe, they don’t need to worry about informing the learners about e-safety and digital identity. Of course once that learner goes home to their unlocked home internet, their smartphone, their 3G dongle, a friend’s computer… they have no concept of how to act responsibly and safely online and as a result put themselves at risk.

I would suspect that those schools that lock down their systems, have no real idea themselves about the issues and potential dangers of the internet for their learners; and feel that their responsibility only lies with their own computers… let the children fend for themselves outside school….

Whereas those schools which manage their systems, allow learners greater freedoms, have a much better awareness of e-safety and have ensured that it is part of the curriculum or tutorial programme.

If your institution is serious about e-safety and safeguarding, it will know that technological solutions are in fact not solutions at all, merely simple aids in supporting a coherent, robust practical strategy and policy based on education and training.

So what type of institution is yours?

Who helps your learners “become responsible users of technology”?

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Screenr

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I’ve realised that I have not mentioned Screenr before except as one of my top ten web tools that didn’t quite make the top ten!

So what is Screenr?

It’s a web service that allows you to make screencasts quickly and easily, then have them posted to the web.

Once on the web, you can either share the URL, put it in an e-mail for example, or on Twitter.

You can embed the video into a webpage on a website or on a VLE. This is in the Flash format. What about if you have a smartphone or an iPhone, well Screenr ensures that the video is available in an MP4 format which will play on the iPhone, other smartphones and internet capable video devices.

Screenr also allows you to share your video on YouTube.

Finally one useful aspect is that you can download the video as an MP4 file. This can then be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. You can also import this video file into iMovie and edit it, add titles, other video, to create a new video. If you have the appropriate MP4 codec on your Windows PC you can import it into Windows Movie Maker and do something similar.

What I like about Screenr over other similar tools (like Jing) is that it doesn’t require you to download an application or install anything. Go to the website, click create screencast and then everything is simple after that.

For example this video on the new Mac eBook Reader software was created using Screenr.

One note though is that the service works basically with a Twitter account. You don’t need to use the Twitter account, but just thought I would point it out.

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NVIDIA Tablet Chipset

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NVIDIA made a major announcement on Thursday introducing their latest Tegra 2 mobile chipset.

The Tegra 2 chipset incorporates 8 independent processors to handle web browsing, HD video encoding/decoding as well as mobile gaming. It also accomplishes all this with a very low power consumption. In part, this is accomplished by the use of the ARM Cortex A9 dual core processor. The ARM Cortex A9 is the same processor that has been rumored to be utilized in Apple’s future tablet.

NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 powered Tablets boasts the following features:

– Over 16 hours of HD video or 140 hours of music on a single charge
– Adobe Flash Player 10.1
– 10x faster than processors used in smartphones today
– Playback 1080p video