podcast

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #004 – natives, immigrants, residents and visitors

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This is the fourth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, natives, immigrants, residents and visitors.

[audio:http://elearningstuff.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/elearningstuff004.mp3]

Download the podcast in mp3 format: natives, immigrants, residents and visitors

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

In this show, James is joined by Nick Jeans, Dave Foord, David Sugden and Lisa Valentine and they discuss the concept of the digital native, the digital immigrant, resident and visitor. Apologies for the poor audio quality of Nick which we’re blaming on his Skype connection.

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e-Learning Stuff Podcast #004 - natives, immigrants, residents and visitors

podcast, podcasting

Oxford lecture tops iTunes chart

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BBC reports on how Oxford University are top of the pops academic podcasts on the iTunes Store.

An Oxford University economics lecture about the credit crunch is at the top of a global iTunes chart for education.

Earlier this month Oxford and Cambridge began to distribute lectures to students and the public through the iTunes downloading service.

A talk by the Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, is the current chart topper in the “iTunes U” service for university lectures.

Listen to it now (requires iTunes).

altc2008, youtube

It’s definitely not for girls

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One of the nice things that you do with YouTube is see the statistics for your videos.

For the Digital Divide Slam at ALT-C 2008 I with Steve and Joss produced a short video entitled, “It’s not for girls” looking at the digital divide in respect to gender.

Looking at the stats for it (as it is currently my most popular video) I was amused by the gender stats, click the image for the larger version.

It's definitely not for girls

Should be taken with a pinch of salt really as the stats only cover the last few days and not the whole demongraphic of who has viewed the video.

So what about the video, well here it is again.

iphone, ipod touch, keynote, psp

Doing other things with PowerPoint

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There are some other nice things you can do with PowerPoint presentations apart from show them as just presentations, or even view them again.

PowerPoint slides can be easily saved as images as mentioned by Phil in his blog posting on this issue.

Show them on a mobile device, ie a mobile phone, a PSP, an iPod or similar. It should be noted that the iPod touch (and the iPhone) can show PowerPoint presentations natively using the media viewer. Presentations can either me sent via e-mail or moved to the iPod touch using one of the file management applications now available for it.

You could also incorporate the images of the slides into Microsoft Photostory 3 and add narration or even more images.

Phil in his blog posting talking about loading the images ontot a DVD.

I suppose you could even burn them onto a DVD and look at them on your TV via a DVD player: now that’s an exciting night in!

In terms of DVDs, one thing that I have done is to use Apple’s Keynote to import a PowerPoint presentation, and add a voice over and export as a movie. This movie as well as being exported to various mobile devices or embedded onto a webpage and I have taken this movie and burnt it to DVD.

One of the reasons for doing this is that some learners may not have a computer at home or a media capable mobile device, but probably have a (£15) DVD player from Asda or similar.

Today a lot of teaching staff are still using PowerPoint, but there is nothing to stop them or learners viewing those presentations in different ways and on different devices.

What we do is provide the hardware and software so that learners undertake the conversion process themselves. Though we are looking at tools to make the process easier and more transparent.

google, iphone, ipod touch, nokia

No Flash player on the Google G1

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After posting my video of my first experience of touching the Google G1, I went back and looked at it again.

This time I got to have a go on the keyboard and it worked quite well, a little small for me and I did hit the wrong key now and again and all I was doing was entering search terms into Google.

According to the rep I spoke to there is no Flash player on the Google G1.

This surprised me, however the problem arose due to the cost of providing a player on the phone.

I decided then to try out YouTube and see what happens, and what you get is a similar experience to the iPhone in that the phone downloads the video and plays it outside the browser in the media player. The quality was similar to the experience on the iPhone (well the iPod touch).

I also got a photo of the Google G1 next to the iPod touch.

No Flash player on the Google G1

One of the quotes that I like about the differences between the iPhone and the Nokia N95 came from quoted by Josie Fraser. EDIT: original blog post from which the quote came and Ian’s blog posting which references it.

You use the iPhone to consume content whilst you use the Nokia N95 if you want to create content.

This I agree with owning both an iPod touch and the Nokia N95.

If I want to watch video, listen to audio, see photographs or browse the web, the iPod touch wins out every time. There is no camera and no microphone so almost impossible to create original content – though the iPhone does have a (still) camera and a microphone.

Whereas on the Nokia N95, the browsing experience is painful unless you are using mobile sites. Video works as does audio, but as it doesn’t interface with iPhoto, images have to be organised manually on the phone. However in creating content, the N95 wins out, great camera for both stills and video. Third party applications allow you to get those images and films out onto the web, I use Shozu, Qik and Seesmic to do this.

So what has this got to do with the Google G1?

Well I am wondering if the Google G1 could be the first phone which is good at both creating content and consuming content.

Experiences so far show that content consumption works well on the G1, certainly viewing video and browsing the web was pretty nice and easy to do.

I did use the camera, but did not have a chance to create some content, but as the platform is relatively open I suspect we will see third party applications such as Shozu and Qik very soon.

Looking forward to getting one (if possible).

Overall I am still impressed with the phone.

google, iphone, mobile

Feeling and touching the Google G1

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I have felt, touched and used the Google G1.

Here’s the proof…

First impressions? Well I am impressed.

The web browsing experience is very nice, same kind of touch interface as the iPhone, but with the addition of a scroll wheel which means you don’t need to use your finger unless you want to.

The keyboard is quite small, but looks quite usable and certainly more usable than the numeric keypad of phones like the Nokia N95.

The camera works as would be expected from a cameraphone, I did think that the quality could have been better, but the iPhone and N95 are just as “bad” so it’s not really a disadvanatage.

It was only a quick hands on, so didn’t have a chance to try other features or applications.

It will be in the shops in the UK on the 1st November, and for new customers will be free on £40 per month contracts, on cheaper contracts you will need to pay for the phone.

For existing customers (ie me) a different story depending on your contract, where you are in that contract and how much you pay per month.

It is different to the iPhone, but I am seriously considering getting one now.

stuff

Have you got an Innovation Prevention Department?

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Here it is day three of Handheld Learning 2008.

It has been a very good conference and a good chance to see what is happening in the world of mobile and handheld learning.

Some really good stuff out there, but some sessions no more than a showcase of a product rather than how it impacts on learning.

This is not a research based conference (unlike mLearn) so there are lots of practitioners here talking about what they do, but there are also suppliers talking (or is that selling) their wares.

First presentation I have seen today was Lt Alex Smith who is using PSPs with Royal Navy personnel for learning. Quite interesting in what they are doing in what seems to be a very traditional teaching environment.

Have you got an Innovation Prevention Department?

The second session was not really my cup of tea, very much about selling a product to schools.

Third session was presented by Jon Trinder who was presenting about connecting the physical to the virtual.

Best quote of the conference so far came from Jon, “Have you got an Innovation Prevention Department?”.

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