jiscel10

Reducing the impact

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So how big is your carbon footprint?

Last December I flew out to New Zealand to deliver the final keynote at ASCILITE 2009.

Though entirely possible to have delivered the keynote remotely, part of the reason for going was to attend the conference itself. I wanted to see and hear what was happening in that part of the world in the area of e-learning. I did consider the environmental impact of my journey as I am sure anyone who flies long haul for these kinds of events.

Any conference is going to have an impact on the environment. With hundreds of people travelling hundreds (if not thousands) of miles this will contribute to the carbon footprint of the event. Likewise once at the event there are all the “extra” bits of paper, bags and paraphernalia that you receive at a conference. Paper from the organisers, exhibitors and session presenters. Don’t get me wrong, some of this will be really useful, but a fair amount will end up (hopefully) in the recycling bin and some in landfill.

Yes I know I can hear you saying but I like reading from paper. That’s true, but it doesn’t have to be a one or the other scenario. You can print some of the papers, but not all of them. You can print the stuff you want to read “on paper” and leave the other stuff on the screen. Print what you need, rather than let others print everything! At this point I should say that many physical conferences are moving over to electronic materials, though there is still a fair bit of paraphernalia about at the conference I recently attended.

Now it has to be said that an online conference can help reduce the environmental impact of an event. If you are like me you probably have a laptop with you at a conference, so if you are staying at home or in the office and using the laptop at the online conference this will have a negligible impact on the carbon footprint as you would be using the laptop at both kinds of events.

We should though consider the impact of staying at home and attending the conference, you will be using lighting, heating (it will be November) and making coffee. If you are at a physical conference this energy wouldn’t be used. You might want to consider going into the office to access the conference (travel impact again, cycle to work perhaps) to lessen your personal contribution to the carbon footprint. If like me though there are already people at home, attending from home may be a better option. Also has the advantage you are less likely to be disturbed.

An online conference is not going to have a zero carbon footprint, but I would argue that the footprint will be a lot smaller than a traditional physical conference.

Now it’s not to say every conference should be online, there is something about the social and networking aspects of a physical event, but attending an online conference can not only be a stimulating and interesting experience, it can also have less impact on the environment. You will still be able to network and the social side of the online conference though not the same as a physical conference, it is there and is just different. It is still possible to make new contacts at an online conference, I know, because I have.

See the savings both in cost and in carbon footprint by having an online conference rather than a physical conference in this report by the Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University: Online professional development conferences: An effective, economical and eco-friendly option.

So if it is proving difficult to justify all the conferences you want to attend from an environmental standpoint, one you shouldn’t miss is the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference.

stuff

e-Learning Tech Stuff #005 – Screenr

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This week’s e-Learning Tech Stuff is a guide to using Screenr.

Screenr – Instant screencasts for Twitter. Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you’ll have your ready-to-tweet screencast in seconds.

I really like the simplicity of Screenr.

Dave Foord has used it to create some excellent guides.

Download the iPhone version in M4V format.

Subscribe to e-Learning Tech Stuff on iTunes

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #16 Student college handbook

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One of the things that Ofsted often look for when inspecting a college is a handbook for learners.

The idea behind the handbook is to provide students with all the information they are going to need for college and to provide help and guidance while at college.

In the past this may have (and may still well be) a physical handbook. Today much more likely to be an electronic Word document that may well be uploaded to the VLE. This will probably be referenced once by the learners and possibly ignored for the rest of their time in college, which is a pity.

By using something like the Book module on Moodle, it would be possible for the student to have much more accessible college handbook, one that has live links and could also use audio and video to enhance and enrich the information. Why have a written overview of the college, why not create an audio recording? Instead of pen pictures of where students go after college, why not video recordings of past students? Ensure all relevant staff have a video of who they are and what they do. Make it “live” with the use of RSS to embed news, podcasts and information. A live handbook that changes over the year.

Making it real and more relevant to the learners.

Handbooks often are “ignored” by learners, by making reference to the online version on the VLE, a college can ensure that the help and advice is referred to on a more regular basis. Using logs will ensure that more detailed analysis of use is possible. Also by placing additional content and information on the VLE it may result in an increase in the use of the VLE by learners for learning if they are using it to access information.

stuff

£249 Android Tablet

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Next week, Dixons Currys will start selling a £249 Android Tablet, the Advent Vega, according to Engadget.

The 10″ screen has a 1024 x 600 resolution which is very similar to the iPad’s 9.7″ 1024 x 768 screen. However unlike the iPad, the Vega comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and a microSD slot. It also has 802.11g wifi, a 3G SIM card slot and 512MB RAM and ROM.

This is an unsubsidised price, so you might even be able to get it free in the future with a 3G contract.

It looks interesting.

However…

Let’s just hope that it performs better than the Next tablet.

conference, jiscel10

Social awkwardness

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I am sure if you ask a lot of people why they attend conferences, in addition to the keynotes and sessions, one aspect that will come out is the networking and social aspects of the conference. Those moments over coffee where you discuss the omissions and errors in the previous presentation; or the conference dinner where you reminisce over past conferences and nostalgically reminding the person sitting opposite that they aren’t like they use to be; pr at the reception where you think there’s going to be something to eat only to find a few nibbles and a cheap white wine, resulting in a desperate attempt to find someone who didn’t eat before they came to the reception so you have a companion for dinner; or at the organised social event, where you turn up to find everyone else has gone off to FAULTY or something like that and there’s just you and that guy who has an ego the size of the Blackpool Tower who you have been avoiding all conference, and now he has you cornered….

Conferences are more than the sum of the presentations, the networking and social side can turn a conference from an interesting experience to an event to remember.

This November, JISC will be running another of their excellent conferences (and yes once more I am the conference blogger) and unlike other conferences this one is online.

So isn’t all this social and networking all lost with an online conference, I hear you cry!

Well in a way, yes! And in a way, no!

As you might expect the social side of an online conference is different from a face to face conference. But it is still there, and it is still possible to socialise and network. At previous JISC Online Conferences we have had a virtual conference dinner in Second Life, there have been lots of discussions over coffee in the social cafe area of the conference and the instant messaging component ensures that networking not only can happen, but does happen.

Just because a conference is online doesn’t automatically mean that it will be an individual isolationary affair. On the contrary it can as a social experience as you want it to be.

If you are a researcher, institutional manager or practitioner involved in technology-enhanced learning and teaching, Innovating e-Learning 2010 will be of interest to you. Delegates from further and higher education and from overseas are welcome. Proceedings take place in an asynchronous virtual environment which can be accessed wherever and whenever is convenient to you.

Find out more about the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference.

app of the week, ipad

Slide by Slide – iPad App of the Week (not really)

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Slide by Slide – iPad App of the Week (not really)


Slide By Slide powered by the SlideShare API allows the user to:

1. Conveniently search for presentations from http://www.slideshare.net
2. Enjoy the presentation ad-free and distraction-free while in landscape mode
3. Also see the description along with the presentation when in portrait mode
4. Keep a history of slideshows visited
5. Easily share presentations using facebook, twitter, or email
6. Change background color while going through a presentation in landscape mode for viewing pleasure

This week’s App is Slide by Slide.

Okay this is not so much an iPad App of the week, more why does this App actually exist?

Slideshare is a web service that allows you to upload and share a presentation.

I don’t use it that much as my presentations without the actual “presentation” don’t make much sense as the speaking gives the slides (mainly pictures and the odd word) the context.

Slideshare use Flash as the technology behind their service which means it is easy to embed into blogs like this one, or a VLE.

Of course the downside of Flash is that it doesn’t work on the iPad (or is that the downside of the iPad is that Flash doesn’t work on it).

However Slideshare have enabled their technology now to work on the iPad and have released an API to allow others to create Apps to make use of this.

Slide to Slide is one of those Apps. You can search Slideshare and it allows you to then view the presentation.

Advancing slide by slide.

In portrait mode it also shows the notes.

It also stores a history of what presentations you have viewed.

So…

Well most of that is also available from the Slideshare site direct, with the advantage that you can click URLs you have been sent in an e-mail or on Twitter. The interface is virtually the same you wouldn’t at a quick glance realise that you were on the web and not in an App.

This is the Slide by Slide interface.

This is the web interface.

Can you tell the difference?

I actually can’t see the benefit of the App, yes it has your history and notes, but you can’t log in and see your favourites, you can’t follow people and the adverts seem more intrusive than those on the iPad web interface.

For me, an App has to make it easier to view web content, make it easier to engage with and share web content, make it easier to use web content. Apps such as Osfoora HD do this for services like Twitter in that they add functionality and are better than interacting with the web.

Slide to Slide doesn’t.

It’s free so you aren’t wasting money, maybe version 2 will be better, let’s hope so.

mobile, news

Windows Phone 7 Launch

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Today saw Microsoft launch a new attack on the mobile market with Windows Phone 7.

In a market that was at one time dominated by Nokia and RIM, Microsoft are now entering a more crowded market with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android both having a hefty marketshare.

It’s not that Microsoft haven’t been here before, Windows Mobile devices have been available for years. However where Microsoft failed on these devices (same reason they failed on the tablet) was trying to recreate the desktop experience on the mobile device. They thought consumers would prefer an environment they were comfortable with, certainly that on the surface makes sense, so devices had a Start button and looked and felt like Windows XP. However the reality was that the touch interface, the stylus interface did not integrate well with a desktop like experience and as a result you got frustrated and annoyed.

Windows Phone 7 is different and has a touch interface that looks nothing like a Windows desktop.

So what did Rory Cellan-Jones ask Microsoft about the new Windows Phone 7 and what is it capable of?

Note from the video that Windows Phone 7 doesn’t do Flash.

There is also no copy and paste.

Now both of those sound familiar….

One thing that I do agree with Rory about in his blog article is

The other reason this is so important is that Microsoft has realised that all the action, all the innovation, in the world of communications technology has now moved to the mobile. It’s where the next billion consumers are most likely to get their first taste of the internet; it’s where new ideas like app stores or location-based services or augmented reality are being tried out.

I’ve said before that mobile is now and mobile is here now. It’s not that the next big thing is going to be mobile, it already is. Innovation now is in the mobile sector of the market, these are the devices that our learners are buying and using. The age of mobile is now.

It amuses me to see people still saying that mobile is going to be the next big thing in education. Our learners are already mobile and already using mobile devices, we’re playing catch up now, not setting the agenda.

So am I going to buy a Windows Phone 7 device?

Possibly.

e-book, fote10

The future of the e-book

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This is a nice video that echoes much of what I said in my FOTE10 talk.

The Future of the Book from IDEO

The book will evolve in the same way that audio and video have evolved. Not always for the better, but sometimes it will work. Remember that the e-book does not replace or duplicate the physical book, it is a different reading experience.

fote10

So that’s my presentation….

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The other day I did mention my presentation at FOTE10 and said

I still yet to upload my presentation from FOTE10 to the web.

Why?

Well at 250Mb it’s a tiny bit large for the average user.

It’s also in Keynote format, so not very accessible for anyone other than a Mac user.

Well not to disappoint, here is the presentation using Slideshare, thanks to ULCC in uploading it.  It was removed, so I uploaded it to my Slideshare account.

I can imagine that this in isolation is not really going to explain why I think the iPad is the future of reading. Also none of the videos work from Slideshare…

The video of my presentation is now online on the main FOTE10 website. This is probably a nice way to see and hear what I said.

Update here is the video from Youtube.

I have also recorded my presentation using an mp3 recorder and that means you can listen to it here if you want to listen to it on an iPod (click the link) or from your computer.

So there is now a few ways to see and hear what I said.

news and views on e-learning, TEL and learning stuff in general…