The conference was split into four sections, each on a theme. The first session involved discussions on strategies and the student voice and benefited enormously from the presence of a confident and erudite panel of students who talked about their expectations and experiences of university life at Cardiff. A lengthy discussion on feedback was particularly interesting for me, especially the discussion on a greater need for a more effective and consistent level of feedback, as this joins smoothly with some of the questions we have been asking in the electronic marking pilot project currently running at the university (and which I co-ordinate).

If there was one suggestion for future conferences it would be to have a student panel attending the whole conference, instead of just one session, as their experiences are so critical to the discussions at hand; that is, of course, assuming they would be willing to hang out all day with the OAPs (*conference in-joke*). I spotted several people in the Twitter back channel mentioning the desire for more student input e.g. @SarahNicholas, @LucyLibrarian, @drkellypage

The main focus of the second session was on group projects and collaboration, with examples from two different arenas. It was interesting that journalism students were not interested in using wikis, but most were happy to participate in Facebook groups. I understand a lot of this was about convenience, students would prefer not to have yet another place to check, and there has to be something there to draw them. For the journalism students checking student email and logging in to the VLE for the wiki did not work well. They preferred a different method for their group working, in this case, a place many of them already check regularly. For business students, they came to the wiki because they knew that was where they would be able to communicate with the teacher and with their fellow learners.

What this said to me was – you don’t necessarily have to go to where students already are, but if you don’t, you do have to draw them to where you are. Give them a reason to be there (if that’s where the learning is at, make sure they know it).

The third session was a debate on open vs walled gardens in education. There was much discussion (and disagreement) on this with the key points for me being – a walled garden allows student to make mistakes in a safe space, an open environment allows students to easily connect with an external (professional) community. Perhaps, then, it’s really about what is the chief need for the specific subject, or topic, or group of students?

One other point in this debate, what is/should be the role universities play in student’s understanding of their social presence online? My own opinion is that, if we already teach them about professionalism (and it’s clear this doesn’t stop at the end of the working day, but continues into their social life), then I think we need to be helping students understand that this professionalism is important in both their offline and online social presences. Unfortunately, I had to leave before this session ended to set up for a demo, but I do wish I could have stayed to hear the whole discussion!

The final session focussed on whether the traditional lecture provides the best learning experience for students, and the facilitators of the session provided a different method of delivery to help us explore this idea. It was called a ‘fishbowl’. A panel of people (these could be ‘experts’) gather at the front to begin discussing a topic, the rest of the audience listens in to the discussion – a little like a fly on the wall. At any point, a member of the audience can tap a panel member on the shoulder and take their place, if they wish to be part of the discussion. A suggested framework for this method might be – students are provided with readings or a presentation online with they watch before attending the ‘teaching’ session. In the ‘teaching’ session a ‘fishbowl’ then takes place to allow students to discuss the concepts introduced to them in their pre-session readings/presentation.

During the session, I felt this was an effective method of learning. I was entertained and stimulated by the conversation, though I don’t know how much of this was the novelty of the method. I do have reservations about whether students would feel confident enough to tap a shoulder and become part of the discussion. Perhaps the method could be adapted somewhat, e.g. the presence of a facilitator outside the main group to suggest to the panel that they discuss points that come in via a back channel, which begins to include those students who would rather not become a part of the ‘main’ group. I don’t think I’m yet convinced what could work, but would love to see some evidence of the fishbowl method being used in education and what kind of feedback students give on it.

To wrap up my post I just wanted to make one final comment. I was impressed by the gamble taken by colleagues Simon Wood and Joe Nicholls to make the conference largely discussion-based, rather than presentation-lecture based. It really paid off. I felt I could choose to be part of the conversation if I wished. Less passive and more interactive, this worked well for my cognitive processes. I assimiliated more and remembered more.

Step 1

Start by converting the DVD .vob files to Flash* – this might require you to to split the DVD video up first, but I was lucky as my DVD was already in ‘chapters’.

I used the following settings as I wanted good quality (and each video was quite short):
Video codec – FLV
Video size – 640 x 480
Video bitrate – 1000
Video framerate – 25
Audio codec – mp3
Audio bitrate – 128
Sample rate – 44100

* There are a number of software programs you can use to do this, e.g. Any Video Converter which you can get from here
http://www.any-video-converter.com/download-freeware/

Step 2

Download JW mediaplayer from Longtail:
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/

Upload the ‘player.swf’ file to your module’s content collection area and also upload all the FLV videos which you created in step 1 above.  Set the correct permissions to the videos and swf file to allow all users in the module ‘read’ access (I put all my files in a folder and then just set permissions on the folder)

Step 3

In the content collection, make a note of the WEB FOLDER URL of each of the videos (see my example URLs below) and also of the single ‘player.swf’ file. You can find the URLs in the content collection, by clicking the drop-down arrows next to the item and choosing ‘360 view’.

Video 1 – VTS_01_1 is ‘https://learningcentral.cf.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Demonstration-Module/Training-DVD/Videos/VTS_01_1.flv’

player.swf is ‘https://learningcentral.cf.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Demonstration-Module/Training-DVD/player.swf’

Step 4

For Video 1, make an ‘Item’ within the content area of a module – give it the title ‘Introduction to DVD’ (or anything you want) and switch to HTML (<>) in the wysiwyg textbox.

Paste the following code in*, and then paste over the existing two https://….. in this code with the full URLs for your own ‘player.swf’ and your Video 1 flv video itself – you’ll be pasting in whatever you’ve noted down as the WEB FOLDER URL above.

<div class=”previewDiv” height=”512” width=”640”><embed height=”512” width=”640” flashvars=”file=https://…..VTS_01_1.flv&autostart=false” src=”https://….player.swf” /> </div>

* Remember to paste this code into Notepad first, to get rid of any formatting, otherwise it will mess up when you try to paste into the HTML area from your wysiwyg editor.

Click ‘Submit’ and you’ll see the video embedded within your Blackboard content area.  Now repeat step 4 for all the other videos you’ve converted from your DVD.

Final Note: if you want your video to be smaller or larger when you see it on the screen, change the two instances of height and width above.

I like this idea – no, I like this a lot – and I’m looking forward to talking to people.  I’m also hoping to do something myself on the benefits and challenges of using GradeMark (Turnitin) for summative assessment, so I will be at the conference to demo this myself.

I was excited… for about half a day.  Then, I tried to pull up a couple of YouTube videos and some programmes on 4od (which has an excellent back catalogue of shows, btw) and…. nothing, nada, zilch.  None of the stuff I wanted to see was available as non-Flash video.  Imagine – all this really good stuff on YouTube, 4od, and many other websites and I can’t see it.  Frustrating.  I love my iPhone and it doesn’t bother me not having Flash because I don’t tend to use that for video – I like it for quick on-the-go tasks; reading emails, pulling up Google Maps to find a building, quick scanning my RSS feeds, listening to music, phoning people.  It wouldn’t matter if the iPad excelled at these things, too – my iPhone is easier and lighter to handle, so I’ll always be using it for those things.

I know all about Apple’s arguments about Flash – it’s not as secure, it’s terrible for battery life etc, – I’m sure they are all reasonably sound arguments, even though other Smartphone manufacturers are allowing it.  But, when it comes down to using the device, all these reasonable arguments don’t matter a jot to me.  Without Flash, the iPad is throttled.  Apple can wax all day long about HTML5, but it’s going to be some time before websites switch over, and that’s too long to be without the ability to watch all that streaming video.  It’s incredibly arrogant of Apple to expect websites to switch to HTML5 right now just because they think they’re right.

So here’s my message to Apple – you don’t have to endorse Flash, but you should be giving your customers the choice.  If we want to have Flash, we should be able to, without having to jailbreak our devices (and without invalidating our warranties). End of.

Last year was a very difficult year for me because I started a new job. It’s never easy going into a new environment and getting to know a new job, leaving behind good friends. It didn’t help that, at the beginning, I felt somewhat directionless.  Then I got to know my mentor, and that’s who this post is about – Dr Sarah Williamson, elearning champion at Cardiff University.

When I say mentor, I don’t mean just in the sense we often use in workplaces today (an experienced colleague, serving as advisor to new staff) because she has been so much more than that.  Sarah does give me excellent advice, but she has also supported me through difficult circumstances, encouraged me when I was anxious and counselled me when I was worried.  She is a friend, someone I trust, the person I have reached out to when faced with challenges in my work.

Sarah is, in my opinion, one of the unsung heroes.  She is friendly, approachable and hard-working; of all of my colleagues, she’s the one most likely to go above and beyond the call of duty.  In everything she undertakes, she does the best job she can, and she inspires that in others, encouraging honesty and integrity along the way.  She has offered me many valuable insights, including probably the biggest and best lesson I could be given as a learning technologist: to never underestimate the importance of putting pedagogy before technology.

This is a good opportunity to say thank you to Sarah, for everything she has done to support me, and for being there when I needed help the most.

A. Create a new calendar in Google

1. In the left-hand menu of Google Calendar, go to the ‘My calendars’ panel, and click the Create link at the bottom.
2. Enter a Calendar Name and click Create Calendar.

B. Create all the appropriate events for the course in the new calendar.

C. Export as iCal (.ics) file

1. In the left-hand menu of Google Calendar, go to the ‘My calendars’ panel, and click the Settings link at the bottom.
2. Click the Export calendars link
3. Gives an Open/Save window – choose save (to save it to computer)
4. A zip file is created on local computer with an .ics file for each of the different Google calendars you have.  Unzip it and delete all the other .ics files (obvious by the name which to keep), so you’re left with one .ics
5. Optional – change the name of the .ics file, as it has a very long filename. 

D. Upload the .ics somewhere your students can get it
(you could upload to your VLE/LMS in the same way you would upload any file)

Note: Exporting as iCal (.ics) meant it can be imported into many popular calendar programs, such as Outlook, Windows Live (hotmail) Calendar, Google calendar, Lotus Notes and iCal.

We’re only in the introductory week so far, so our activities have been based on getting to know the tools within the VLE that’s used to deliver the course.  We’ve sent emails, posted an ‘about me’ item on discussion lists, and started a blog.  This is a useful exercise, and helps us find out what sort of things we can do with the tools available.  So, I guess that’s my positive thing for this week.

Now, for the negative – well, my initial feeling is one of strong disconnect.  I don’t feel it will be very easy to get to ‘know’ any of my fellow students (or, indeed, my tutor); there’s not too much you can glean from each person’s own introduction since, at this stage at least, their responses seem rather formal.  Whereas in person you can infer some things based on a person’s manner of speaking, and body language, you can’t do that online.  I’ll be interested to see if we ‘loosen up’ a bit as we start to work together more as a group.

As a result of this, about three weeks ago, we put a call for proposals out to ask people involved in CPD to submit project proposals they would like to have technical support for.   Since then, I’ve been talking to and meeting people across the university, finding out about their ideas and urging them to submit a proposal.

Today is Decision Day.  The proposals have been submitted and we need to make decisions on which ones can be done, based on various criteria laid down.  I’m very encouraged by the proposals; the amount of interest, the variety of projects, and the enthusiasm people have shown for it.  That’s important for me; I think it’s suggestive that this model of support for e-learning could be very effective.  I hope that turns out to be true once the projects are underway; good results can only help increase our CPD profile here at Cardiff.

I’ve got everything crossed

I have recently been involved in developing learning materials for a course on learning and teaching skills for health professionals.  One of the key themes running through the whole course is critical analysis and reflection.  Learners are constantly being asked, whilst they’re in the flow of the learning material, to record their thoughts and reflections.  The only way to allow students to enter this sort of information in my institutional VLE is to use the blog or discussion tool, which means linking to another part of the VLE.  With the tools we have, it is simply not possible to embed these blogs or threads of discussions inside a package of learning material.  This is not an immersive experience for the learner.  Our blog and discussion tools are also not intuitive to use which means, at least the first time or two they use it, learners must be sent off to look at a help guide; distracting them from the real task at hand.  When we are learning, the points where learning meet technology should be seamless; but they are not.

Very little of what I’ve heard from other institutions prompts me to believe that there are particularly any better systems out there.  The VLE seems to hinder innovative teaching, rather than help it, because you spend all your time thinking, not about what the learning activity requires, but how to creatively twist the VLE to somehow fit how you really want to design learning activities.  So, my point.  Why don’t we (properly) critically analyse what our VLE does for our teachers (and students) now, and what they really want them to do, and maybe then we can build it better.  Instead of saying, “if we build it, they will come”, say ” if we let them come, they will build it”.

I’m a big advocate of the freedom to choose, to find the right tool for the job, but they had a very valid point.  Too much choice can be overwhelming.  I was reminded of a shopping trip I took the other day with my husband.  He wanted some new jeans, so I took him to a Levi shop that’s not too far from us.  When we got there, I asked him – do you want boot leg or straight leg, loose fit or standard, button or zip fly, distressed look or not?  He looked at me blankly and said, “I just want a pair of jeans”.  He’s never been that good and choosing his own clothes and this was too much choice for him, and utterly bewildering.

So, whilst it is important to choose the right tool, I do think it is unfair to ask educators to spend time getting their heads round different bits of technology so they can work out the best tool, when they have so many other things to work on.  I’ve met numerous academics who have very strong technical skills and that’s terrific because they’re confident they can just take their ideas and run with them.  But, equally, I’ve met teachers who have good ideas about how they could put learning online, but are simply confused about where to start.  If we expect teachers to use technology to enhance learning, I think we need to extend helping hands to those teachers when they need it.

I’ve had some conversations with educators on this issue recently and I have my own opinion on it. Put simply, we need to create every opportunity we can to allow educators and technologists to work together.  In fact, I’ve said this sort of thing publicly before. Technologists need to be prepared to talk to those teachers who want help on an individual level, to discuss the specific activities they want to achieve, to make every effort to wrap our heads around their pedagogical needs and give personal assistance on the best tools available to achieve a specific activity.

We see evidence all the time that collaboration works; let’s use it.