TECH2002 Lecture Week 11

This lecture finishes a series of three lectures on new media values and experiences by looking at some of the latest research on 'digital youth'.

TECH2002 Lecture Week 10

Slideshare Slidecast Lectures Weeks 6-8

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These are the recorded lectures that I have made as Slideshare slidecasts. I have found this way of making online lectures more satisfying than using Articulate (see my earlier blog post here). I used an Edirol R-09 audio recorder like a dictation machine without a microphone. It felt much more natural than recording the voiceover for one slide at a time. I recorded the lecture where I could in one go, did a bit of editing in Audition and then uploaded the audio to the Internet Archive and the PowerPoint slides to Slideshare in the normal way. You then have to synchronize the audio to each slide which is very easy to do. This create's a number of formats - you have the audio as a podcast, the slides as a slidecast and the slides available to download. The Slideshare service works very well.

Which format do you prefer - Articulate or Slideshare sharecast?

What I haven't addressed is whether or not this is the best way of transferring knowledge - to simply make a recorded lecture. What I think I might have to do is re-think how to communicate the lecture content that best makes use of online communication media and the way that students would like to engage with this content - what do you think?

TECH2002 Lecture Week 9

TECH2002 Lab Week 9: Social Networks

What is the purpose of a social network?

What kind of experience is created by being socially networked through Web 2.0?

You could investigate what social networks are by joining them or creating your own.

You can use social networks as part of your participation project to connect to others and share experiences and find out about other people who might share the same interests as yourself.

You are probably a member of a social network such as Facebook, MySpace or Bebo because they are among the most widely used Web 2.0 sites as part of social media. However, if there is a shared personal interest there is a possibility that that there will be a dedicated social network for it, and if there is no existing social network that satisfies, then there are services that allow you to create your own social network.

Examples of special interest websites

Music

Last.fm ‘The Social Music Revolution'

Blip.fm ‘Create your own music station’

MOG.com ‘WHERE BAD MUSIC COMES TO DIE’

TheSixtyOne.com ‘ a community for people who love new music’

Football

Footbo.com ‘a social network for football lovers worldwide’

Media

Imeem.com ‘a social network that enables users to discover, interact and express themselves with media’

Gaming

Come2Play.com ‘social gaming networks’

Food

Foodari.com ‘recipe search, share and store’

Reading

LibraryThing.com

Shelfari.com ‘social network for people who love books’

Web services that allow you to create your own social network

Ning.com ‘create your own social network for anything’

SocialGo.com ‘social network maker’

WackWall.com ‘how many clicks does it take to build a cool social network?’

Further research links

http://c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/Tools/social.html
http://www.go2web20.net/Gotoweb20 tag search: ‘social’ or ‘network’

Cover It Live Experiment 3

Another go at using the live blogging tool Cover It Live this time with the Friday 3-4 group - it's the end of the week folks.

Using Cover It Live Experiment 2

A second go at using Cover It Live for live blogging, this time with the Tuesday 4-5 group.

Using Scrapblog

Scrapblog is a multimedia scrapbook tool that through any easy to use interface allows you to create pages of text, images, videos and graphics and so on as a slideshow with music. The scrapblogs can then be shared via the website. I used the technology to hold the information for the lab in week 8. I think it has some teething problems and it seems to being used as multimedia family photo albums to be shared online. It is a good example of the DIY media of Web 2.0 where people make their own content and share it with others - but who on earth is going to do this regularly and for what purpose. You might find it useful for recording or reflecting on your participation projects.

Using Cover It Live Experiment 1

If you click on the 'Click Here' link below it will take you to a live blog recording made in the 9-10 Tuesday lab during week 8. This was done using a site called Cover It Live. My first impression is that this technology looks promising. It can be used as a group tool to turn instant messaging into a recorded blog with a lot of hypermedia linking and interactive stuff such as polls. If you are working in a group you could use it to produce a group blog or to record events that are unfolding at the same time as you blog them.

Click Here

TECH2002 Lab Week 7: Web 2.0 Project: setting up and getting on with things

‘Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises’

(Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler)

In this lab there is nothing new to do – no new tasks to complete. Just use the time to try and get completely up-to-date and moving forward on the tasks that have already been set.

The aim of the lab is to put in place or consolidate all the foundations that have been established on the module and to start taking an active part in the module learning community by running your project and communicating it to others.



Set Up Tasks

1. Web 2.0 tools or services should be set up to document, review and plan the participation part of your project. These tools should link from your Wernicke Wiki avatar page. They are your online communication media tools that link out from the Blackboard wiki.

2. Your participation tools should have been selected and established or at least be in the process of being finalized.

3. Your use of social media for participation should link from a Web 2.0 project homepage in the Wernicke Wiki and there should be a link from the avatar page to the Web 2.0 project page.

4. There should be an entry in the Broca Blog that describes your project idea.

5. You need to complete a project proposal form and give it to Andrew (there is a blank form on the project section of the Wernicke Wiki if you need one).

6. You need to complete a project brief form and upload it to your Web 2.0 project homepage in the Wernicke Wiki (there is a blank form on the project section of the Wernicke Wiki if you need one).

Weekly Tasks

1. Complete your regular planned activities on a daily or weekly basis as appropriate as part of your participation in the social media of Web 2.0. These might include things that you are doing yourself and the observation or investigation of others doing similar activities.

2. Make a step-by-step record of what happened each week of the project using any social media tools that you think are appropriate.

3. Try to reflect on what you are doing on a regular basis and again use appropriate online tools to do this. As you review the situation, make plans about what you might do next and record them.

4. Do some background reading and research to help you understand and think about what you are doing. Use the module’s ‘social media classroom’ (Blackboard and online communication media’) to show what reading and research you have been doing.

5. Put your plans into action and continue your participation in a purposeful way.

6. Gradually build up the content of the Web 2.0 project homepage in the Wernicke Wiki so that it becomes a substantial microsite within the wiki and a portal to the online communication and participation media that you are using elsewhere on the web.

7. Track the progress of other people on the module by looking at their project microsite in the Wernicke Wiki and by following the links to see what they doing.

Making Recorded Lectures

One of the reasons for not having any 'live lectures' for a few weeks on TECH2002 was to allow me to experiment with some methods of providing recorded lectures that could be used by the students on demand and at personal convenience. We live in a Sky + environment in a few ways. Imagine if you could pause live lectures - well now you can, kinda. And replay or play out of linear order. You can skip - is that a good thing? You can probably think of lots of times when you've wanted to do that in live lectures.

The first three lectures that I have recorded narration for the PowerPoint slides were made using Articulate which is a plug-in for PowerPoint. The software allows you to add other features before converting everything to Flash for presentation such as other multimedia elements, customizable templates, quizzes and learning games. Learning games? Life is a game, isn't that enough?

A live lecture has to start and finish at a particular time, it is timetabled. We have to be there to experience it, in a room at a particular time. But with an online lecture you could be anywhere at anytime. My experience is that quite a few students struggle to be in place on time - and of course to be there at all. Similarly, I think that not all my students will listen to the recorded lecture or maybe not all way through.

If the audience can be flexible, so can I. I suppose the lecture should be online and available at the timetabled day and hour - if I play the game properly, yes, but I have taken advantage of this slippery deadline that is not normally available to me - normally I have to be ready at the appointed time, but I guessed that people would not be logging in at the timetabled hour to view the lecture (is that right?). I don't think this was a deliberate strategy. I found that it took some time to add narration and when I looked at the slides I had to think whether or not they would work in this way, and in week 4 I just felt like I had to do a major re-write to reflect what we were doing - and so the upload became irregular and unpredictable, and that is a downside, since it doesn't replace the lecture at a strictly appointed time and it puts unfair onus on the students to catch up because of my tardiness.

Recorded lectures could be used to supplement live lectures as 'bonus features'. They can become short podcasts that are not 'instead of' lectures but provide summaries about the main points without all the fat and the padding - get down to the nitty gritty. And perhaps I will explore that another time.

My approach to recording the narration for the lecture presentation was to talk to the slides in a similar way that I would have done in the lecture room, but it is a very different experience. In the lecture room I am likely to improvise a bit and try and make a connection with the people in the room. When you record the narration, you focus on the slide and try to make it more understandable. The focus is all on the slide and you notice how sometimes the slide can't work in the same way that it would in the live lecture - such as showing a video or something. The slides were prepared for a live lecture, and not for recorded narration. I have never done this before, and I would like to spend some time reflecting on the possibility of developing more specific ways of using the visual slide and the audio so that it can become a more individual or effective way of communicating. The interactivity of a live and a recorded lecture is different.

At first the recording of the lecture felt very limiting. I decided to take the easiest approach and used a microphone plugged straight into my laptop and recorded one slide at a time. I found the results very stilted. I found myself talking unnaturally slowly and trying not to make slips. I ended up doing quite a few retakes because it didn't seem perfect and sometimes the speech would just dry up and I would have to start again - which doesn't usually ahppen when you are not recording it. By the third attempt I was less bothered about slips and 'ers' and 'ums' - I felt like it was beginning to be more like it would have been in the classroom lecture. The idea of perfection became less important to me - but it still takes longer to record than doing it live.

Is it worth it? I would like to know your views so leave me a comment.

I think it's time to experiment a bit further with a new approach - maybe doing a separate audio podcast and slideshow and then putting them together on Slideshare.

TECH2002 Lab Week 6: Sharing Ideas and Collaborating in the Module Learning Community

‘Ideas take life when they are shared. That is why the web is such a potent platform for creativity and innovation’

(Charles Leadbeater, http://www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx).

In this lab there are two tasks to complete that are about using the module blog and wiki to share ideas and information and open up the possibility of collaborating or acting collectively as you work on the Web 2.0 projects individually or in small groups.

The aim of the lab is to communicate your initial ideas about what your project will be about and to set up a space where your project can be self-organized and monitored by others.

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TASK 1

Create a new entry in the Broca Blog on the module website on Blackboard. This entry can be written individually or as a single joint entry if working in a group.

The entry should be about communicating to the rest of the module learning community what your initial ideas are for your Web 2.0 project – the participation parts and the communication parts, and how they will relate to each other.

Blog your project proposal using the hypermedia and hypertext affordances of blogging technology such as links or embedded media. Make your writing enjoyable to read and encourage comment and feedback from others.

Write about what you will be doing, experiencing, observing, what and how you will be recording or documenting the project and what you intend to reflect upon. What is it that you want to find out or investigate about the way that social media gets brought into everyday life?

Later, as a second stage, when there are several entries that have been written, try to read a few and leave a comment. Blogs need readers as well as writers to be effective communication.

TASK 2

In the Wernicke Wiki on the module website in Blackboard create a new page that will become the homepage for your Web 2.0 project within the wiki. Link to this project homepage from your ‘playing card’ avatar page. If you are working in a group for the project you only need to create one homepage for the whole group (if you like you could have your own personal area linking from the homepage as well). Group members can then link from their individual avatar pages to their group project homepage.

What should this homepage be used for?

The Web 2.0 project homepage can be used to start constructing a mini-site within the wiki where people can find out about your project through the information and links that you put there.

This mini-site within the wiki can be used as part of your project coursework communication portfolio about the participation project. You can use it to co-ordinate your various activities and link outwards to the online communication media that you are using. Importantly, it will be possible for everyone on the module to track the progress of everyone else by sharing this information and allowing the possibility of collaborating across different projects if they have overlapping concerns and interests.

TECH2002 Lab Week 4: TECH2002 - A Learning Community?

…important questions arise about the effects of using digital media—questions about identity, relationships, community, collective action, public sphere, social capital. Ordinarily, the way to study these questions would be through a combination of written texts, lectures, essays, and tests. However, social media are not only the subject of study through texts and lectures, which can be evaluated through essays and tests—social media can be used to communicate, investigate, and explore the issues. (http://socialmediaclassroom.com/index.php/using-social-media).

This lab consists of FOUR TASKS (see below).

At this stage of the module I want you to:

Review by considering ‘Where are we?’

Plan for the future by thinking about ‘Where and how are we going forward?’

Digital media give us the opportunity to investigate media culture with the insight of theory, but with access to media as a form of participatory experience. The opportunity is to ‘learn by doing’ with hands-on online communication media.
Is it possible to augment the traditional module learning strategy where the tutor is in control and disseminates knowledge, to create a learning community using social media?

Can all the students on a module contribute to critical collaborative enquiry and build knowledge together?

Are you media literate enough to be able to choose the right tools or services to do this?

1. What is the module’s object of study?

The first part of the module focuses on the study of digital media as new media, and particularly Web 2.0 and social media.

What can we learn about the differences between traditional media and the social media of online communication and Web 2.0?

TASK 1
Review the lectures, labs, tutorials, and module handbook to remind you about the questions, concepts or ideas that I have put forward for you to think about so far. This can be done by looking at ‘The Story of the Module’ page in the Wernicke Wiki on Blackboard.

Make a note of these things and record them using any means you think are appropriate for you and/or to share with others.

TASK 2
Now think about what you would like to find out or investigate about digital, social and new media and Web 2.0.

What questions are you interested in?

What do you want to learn or discover?

What do you think is interesting about the module’s object of study?

Make a note of the answers to these questions and record them using any means you think are appropriate for you and/or to share with others.

2. What is the module’s method of study?
The module has traditional forms of teacher-led reading, lectures, classroom discussion and lab tasks. However, these are enhanced with online communication tools in Blackboard and free-to-use online communication media.

The module asks you to participate in online communication media and use online communication media to provide evidence of learning and achievement.

TASK 3
Think about the knowledge that you need to gain to learn about the things that you are interested in.

How will you obtain that knowledge and understanding?

What information do you need?

What are the most appropriate online communication media that you should use to demonstrate your learning?

Make a note of the answers to these questions and record them using any means you think are appropriate for you and/or to share with others.

TASK 4
The participatory teaching strategy of the module encourages the use of the combination of Blackboard tools and free-to-use online communication media.

a) Consider how to use the Blackboard tools so that you place yourself at the centre of the module learning community and how it might be possible to foster critical collaborative enquiry and build knowledge together.

The Blackboard tools are:
blog
wiki
forums (discussion board)
email
chat

For instance, how can we use the wiki to build knowledge and work together?

Try to put these considerations into action by working together.

b) Decide which online communication media you will use on an individual basis or in collaboration or sharing with others as part of the communication of your learning during the Web 2.0 project assignment.

Start using these media as soon a you can to build up your coursework portfolio of engagement and support your ‘learning by doing’.

I have found the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies website useful for finding out about and choosing appropriate online communication tools such as for publishing my lectures.

Use the site to help you decide which tools or websites to use separately and in combination with each other as part of a social media or Web 2.0 package of learning capabilities. Examples would include blogs, wikis, social networks, social bookmarking, podcasts, RSS, micro-blogging, and media sharing such as photographs, slideshows and videos.

TECH2002 Lab Week One: Learning Programme 1

We will be using two online tools for reading and writing on the module website on Blackboard – a module blog and wiki. Everyone on the module will have access to these resources.

You may want to use similar tools of your own for the coursework assignments. There are many such resources available as externally hosted services (such as this one). If you are going to run your own external blog, which external service should you use?

This week’s computer lab focuses on blogs and blogging.

1. What is a blog?

Watch the Common Craft video on blogs.


Read pages 16-18 of Mayfield’s e-book ‘What is social media?’ (2008) and follow the hypertext links to examples as you go through the pages.

2. Module blog task
You can write entries or comment on entries by other members of the module at any time. If you have something interesting and relevant to say about digital technology, then blog about it in the module blog. Write your mind!

However, this week I am setting a specific task to get you started. This task should be completed before next week’s computer lab.

Write an entry about the websites that you use on a regular basis. How do you use them? Why do you use them?

The reason for doing this is that it is a good place to start thinking about digital technology and online media. You know something about your own experience, so your task is to record that factual information, and to try to explain and organize that information into something which is interesting to read.

Remember that blogs are usually written informally in a ‘personal’ and ‘conversational’ style. Also try to use the power of blogging such as embedded media such as images and video, and hypertext links.

3. Other media alternatives to blogs
What are the alternatives to blogs that are based mainly around written entries?

Micro-blogging
According to Mayfield (2008) micro-blogging refers to the combination of blogging with Instant messaging and social network tools (see page 30). The most well known example is Twitter (see Mayfield p.27).

Vlogging

Moblogging

What about audio blogs? There is podcasting, and MP3 blogs, but what about blogging based around audio files?


Bibliography
Mayfield, A. (2008) What is social media? [WWW] Available at
http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf (Accessed 24 September 2008).