100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #22 e-Library

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So what do I mean by an e-Library?

Well maybe by starting off describing what it isn’t might give you a better idea.

Some people’s idea of an e-library is a website (or a section on the VLE) with information about the library, the services it offers with links to online resources. Some people take this a little further and have a link to enable users to search the online catalogue.

For me though an e-library should be an online environment that learners go and visit for the same reasons that they visit a physical library. I don’t think I have ever had a visitors to our libraries from any learners to find out what services we offer and how much the photocopying costs. Okay we might have had one person coming in to find out vacation opening times…

Most of the learners who come into the physical library are going there as they need some support, help to support their learning to achieve their qualificational goal. This support at a basic level might be a quiet environment or access to a computer. However a library is much more than just a place to study, there are resources: books, journals and online resources. There is access to collections and catalogues. Also a key part of the library are the library staff, the information professionals who are there to support and help the learners.

An e-Library should have those within it and should be seen as a support tool that is used by learners to support them on their learning journey.

The VLE is a an ideal location for such an e-Library.

Of course all that information on photocopying costs and opening times can be placed there and as the VLE can be searched (usually) then this allows learners to find that information if they need to.

Another obvious thing is to put in a link or search box to allow learners to search the library catalogue. Key question once the learner has searched and found a book, can they reserve it? Can they access their record on the library system and renew stuff?
So as well as the things that are obvious what about other stuff for an e-library?

Well the VLE can act as a portal to any e-books the library holds. With the addition of guides on how to use the e-book platform, this will enable learners to access e-books through the VLE. You can do something similar with e-journals.

The VLE is also the obvious portal to signpost ay digital and online collections that the library subscribes to. As well as providing the link, it could include additional information and details about any of the collections.

Tools within the VLE also allow for discussions and FAQs, using the forum functionality, learners would be able to post questions and importantly get answers about learning resources needs. You do need to manage expectations, so learners posting at two in the morning realise they may not actually get an answer from the library until it opens at 8.30am! You may want to post any questions you get from learners on a regular basis actually in the library to the FAQ (with the answers) so that learners can find it themselves, or useful for signposting when answering e-mail queries.

You may want to use forums (or other tools) as a method of eliciting feedback from learners. Listening to the learner voice and getting feedback is an important part of our self-assessment and review of how we work.

Immediate support on a learning resources issue is generally quite easy within the physical confines of a library, on an e-library, might be more challenging. You could for example use the live online chat facility to enable learners immediate access to an information professional who could provide support and help as well as links and advice, just as they do in the physical library.

One thing I expect my team to do, is to support learners through a reader development programme. A series of events and offers of training that helps learners build up their study skills. The VLE in conjunction with a virtual delivery system (such as Elluminate or Adobe Connect) would allow for both the delivery of live and recorded study skill sessions. This would help learners improve and enhance their information skills.

An e-library should be a place that supports and develops learners in their learning journey in the same way that the physical library does. The VLE is an ideal location for an e-library as it sits alongside the virtual courses they are already using. A familiar environment that they already know how to use.

web 2.0

Web 2.0 Tools

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One of the many presentations I enjoyed at the RSC SW Turbo TEL event was from Bex from Cornwall College.

A showcase of some of the web 2.0 tools she uses in FE and HE Teacher Education. Click on the orange information squares on each page to visit each tool’s website.

You can also watch her in action delivering the presentation in just six minutes.

Oh yes that is me in the background…. 🙂


app of the week

Pages – iPhone App of the Week

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Pages – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Pages.

Exclusively designed for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Pages lets you create, edit and view documents wherever you are. Every page looks stunning and clear on iPad — and also on iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch, thanks to the high-resolution Retina display. Pages uses Smart Zoom to automatically zoom in on text while you type, and zooms back out when you’ve finished, so it’s easy to write and edit on iPhone and iPod touch.

£5.99

I have reviewed Apple’s Pages before when it was only available for the iPad.

Since then Apple have made it an universal App and so it now works on the iPhone and the iPod touch. One of the reasons they have done this is that the new iCloud will allow you to work on the same document using Pages on the Mac, the iPad and the iPhone without needing to sync through iTunes or copy off through e-mail, iDisk or a WebDAV drive. With iCloud it will be possible to start a document off on your iPhone, work on it on your iPad before finishing it off on your Mac. Changes would be made automatically via the forthcoming iCloud service.

So can you use Pages on the iPhone as a word processor?

Well most of this article was written in Pages on my iPhone.

Virtually all the functionality in the iPad version can be found in the iPhone version. You can embed photographs, tables, charts and shapes.

As before where I think Pages falls down is on document management, specifically getting documents on and off the iPhone. For example in getting documents off the Iphone you have three quite limited options:

  • Send via Mail
  • Share via iWork.com
  • Export

You also need to remember to Export your document if you want to remove it via the file management part of iTunes! Sending via e-mail is often the easiest option, whilst iWork.com is really in my opinion still in beta. However as mentioned previously the new iCloud service should make it easier to edit documents between your iPhone and your Mac.

There are three Export options, Pages, PDF and Word, so if you have a Windows PC that you use with your iPhone then even though you use Pages on the iPhone, you will be able to import and edit your documents using Word on the Windows PC.

Once you have exported you can share that exported file via one of the file sharing Apps such as AirSharing. Alas one of the things I would love to see is Dropbox support, but there isn’t any. The new version does have better document management and rather than have all your files in one place, you can now organise them into folders.

Getting files into Pages is not that simple. Even if you copy files over through iTunes, you then still need to import them again into the Pages App, an extra process that in my opinion isn’t really needed and should be done automatically.

Disappointingly you can’t use Pages on the iPhone in landscape mode, so as a result you do need pretty good eyesight to edit the document or have the text shift from side to side as you write.

There are flaws in my opinion with Pages, but having said that, it is still an excellent word processor for the iPhone and as you would expect very stable on the iOS platform and I am pleased with my results the times I have used it.

From a learning perspective, learners would be able to use Pages to make notes, start writing their assignment, edit essays on the move and so on.

Get Pages for the iPhone in the iTunes Store.

stuff

Life after Death by Powerpoint

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Don McMillan has released an updated version of his Life after Death by Powerpoint sketch which was originally an internet hit back a few years back.

If you haven’t seen it before, he does make some useful observations on how people use Powerpoint for presentations, oh and it’s quite funny too.


100 ways, audio, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #75 Streaming live audio

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In the past if you wanted to “broadcast” live audio to learners you basically had to be the BBC or use a CB radio. The challenge was that the learner who was listening needed a receiver at their end.

The internet now makes it much easier to broadcast live audio using tools such as Nicecast.

Nicecast is the easiest way to broadcast music from your Mac. Broadcast to listeners around the world.

The thing about Nicecast is that the stream is a simple URL. For learners this is not always that simple, for example they may lose, delete or be unable to find the e-mail that contains the URL. If printed on a handout may contain an error, or the learner may type it into their browser wrong.

Putting the URL, or even better embedding the live audio feed into the VLE will ensure that learners can not only find the feed, but also listen to it whenever the practitioner broadcasts. To be honest you probably want to e-mail the URL anyhow and any other communication channels that the learners use, Twitter for example.

The VLE is only really one medium and reliance on any one medium is not good practice. However though if the VLE is used regularly for posting these kinds of feeds and links, then the learners will become familiar with going to the VLE to access them.

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Artify – iPad App of the Week

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Artify – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Artify.

Inspired by the great Impressionist painters Monet, Renoir, and Degas, Artify instantly transforms your favorite photos into masterpieces. Create gorgeous impressionistic interpretations of photos of friends, family, landscapes, or anything at all. Reveal and highlight any detail you want with just the touch of a finger.

Simple, elegant and instant:

• Take or import photos and transform them with a single touch of the “Artify!” button into impressionistic artwork
• Choose from three different styles to “Artify” with – each creates a unique look
• Reveal faces or other detail with a stroke of your finger, for a gorgeous mix of soft and sharp that will delight your friends and family
• Zoom in, Pan, Undo and Redo to get the exact effects you want, with fine detail control
• Customize and create your own unique version of a favorite pic by turning your fingertip into a small, medium or large brush
• Hit “Clear” to start again from a clean copy of the original photo
• Nothing to “learn” – Artify is instant and intuitive. One touch and your favorite photo is a masterpiece
• Share your artified pics in email, or post to Facebook or Twitter right from the app
• New photos and artified works are autosaved to camera roll for you to keep
• Create unlimited Artified versions of your pics. Each time you “Artify!” you create a unique interpretation of the image
• Artify now supports extra-large resolution images!

£1.19

Okay I like apps like this, I liked ToonPAINT for example that turns images into comics. This app turns photographs into artworks…

Well not quite…

It does certainly apply a filter to images on your iPad (or your iPhone) and make them look different.

Does it turn it into artwork?

I think not.

However the effect is quite pleasing and it’s something that might work as a presentation background.

You can partially remove the “effect” to emphasise a key part of the photo if you want to.

The real advantage of this app is that it is simple, and the one thing it does, it does quickly and easily.

Get Artify in the iTunes App Store.

ipad

iPad Apps – RSC SW Turbo TEL

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Last week I attended the JISC RSC SW Turbo TEL event in Bristol. In a change to previous conferences that I have attended and delivered at, this one comprised short six minute presentations and an opportunity for delegates to talk about things they wanted to.

I did a few presentations, one was on using the VLE better, based on my series here on the blog of 100 ways to use a VLE and another on iPad apps.

I did prepare a presentation, but in the end I showed the apps live through the iPad. The presentation shows most of the apps I did demo.

You can read reviews of most of them through my app of the week feature.

Update

Here is a list of the Apps I covered in the session with links to the iOS App Store.

AudioNote – Notepad and Voice Recorder – Luminant Software, Inc

Snapseed for iPad – Nik Software, Inc.

Comic Life – plasq LLC

Dragon Dictation – Nuance Communications

Eureka Sports Science – Times Newspapers Limited

Flipboard – Flipboard Inc.

GarageBand – Apple®

Keynote – Apple®

iThoughtsHD (mindmapping) – CMS

Pocket Heart by Pocket Anatomy™ : The Interactive Human Body. – Pocket Anatomy

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