for the love of pod

Driving home from the wild West Midlands after an abject 1-1 draw I stumbled across 5Live's podcast special "for the love of pod". What a bonus that was, as the programme demonstrated some of the thinking around audio in the 21st century that is driving traditional media outlets, like the Guardian and the BBC, comedians like Mitch Benn and Ricky Gervais, and small businesses like Wiggly Wigglers, towards podcasting.

In particular I was taken by:

• Mitch Benn's use of podcasts to release "extra" material to his fans, that wasn't used on the BBC's Now Show. [They only used 2 of the 3 songs he wrote each week, so why not release the B-side?] It strikes me that academics could do the same with extra bits of information/comment - some students might listen some might not, in the same way that I might listen to Mitch Benn's extras whilst 'er indoors just listens to The Now Show. We're both still fans...
• The use of podcasts to refresh a relationship with an existing audience, or to extend a personal relationship to a new following. In this, the role of "value added" content is critical - it made me realise the importance of the material that we have to say to our listeners/students.
  
• The personal, unscripted, one-to-one relationship that a podcast can portray to listeners is often very powerful.
  

Pathfinder podcasting special interest group: what did I learn?

A few lessons learned from the HEA podcasting special interest group [ Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes], held in Chester, on February 28.

1. Two interesting questions were raised, which need to be disseminated to academics thinking of podcasting: why is audio valuable? Why does audio work?
2. How do we move our use of podcasting forward beyond the end of our Pathfinder project? I am wondering whether we can get some of our leaders (Deans, Directors etc.) to cast some pods, about particular institutional or operational issues. Malcolm, our podfather, is leading a DMU podcasting interest group [PIG] in a discussion about institutional use on April 9.
3. I am wondering whether we can use podcasting to refresh our staff development approaches, in particular by linking them to pre-work or the outcomes of face-to-face sessions. Steve Mackenzie has been doing some refreshing using synchronous classrooms, and I think we have some professional development opportunities here too.
4. We need to get some digital voice recorders for continuation beyond the end of the project.
5. We will produce Pathfinder briefing papers for each WP and for overarching project themes as podcasts.
6. I wonder whether we can incorporate the metaphor of playlists, with ratings, tags and comments into pedagogic practice. Other possible pedagogic uses included the delivery of better feedback, which could be either personalised or generic. It was felt that students responded well to the tone and sensitivity of an audio file, in particular where a few simple messages were relayed. Students also valued a conversational tone, with clear chapter points around which they could make notes. The argument here was the students moved beyond shallow learning, especially where other tools like blogs or Skype are used for added impact through follow-on activities. In some disciplines, students created podcasts for peer assessment or reports on fieldwork. It was also felt that the time taken to produce simple audio files was less than in the production of text-based feedback.
7. The impact of podcasting on feedback and assessment depends upon the timing of the audio file release (it links to the student's cycle of engagement with their learning task).
   
8. There were some interesting points made about how long you store MP3 files, and institutional policies for these cultural artefacts.
9. On technologies, some staff indicated that they used iTalk + iPod to create simple MP3 or MP4 files that could then be uploaded onto a blog or wiki. Other staff used a Mac + iPod with mic, and produced the final file using GarageBand and cast it using iTunes.
10. The Berkeley Opencast project was cited as good practice.
    

Update on Work Package 2

Update on Work Package 2

Last week, our team met at the Learning Technologies Conference 2008 in London, making use of one of the breaks from a hectic schedule to catch-up on what we’ve done so far and how we envisaged the project to pan out in the future.

The aim of our work package to recap is:

To implement professional development strategies for staff in Human Resources, Information Systems and Services (ISAS), and Library Services, for the integration of institutional and non-institutional virtual spaces.

There were various scenarios in which we could have addresses the aim however we thought that we’d tackle something that was a common problem that would involve all our departments. Therefore we settled upon the task of digitising and repurposing of multimedia training/learning materials whose content was still valid but medium had somehow become, or was becoming obsolete. After digitisation, the multimedia would be converted to various formats that are common presently, but also perhaps valid for any future devices. We all agreed that the technology industry was headed towards mobile devices as being one of the primary way of delivering content to.

So far we have investigated:

• The types of mediums used for training/learning materials in our support departments:
o VHS
o CD-Rom (Flash, Shockwave etc)
o DVD
o Digital Video (mp4 , mov, wmv etc)

• We identified DVD (video/ROM) and CD-ROM share similar characteristics; and VHS and Digital Video share similar characteristics and so the process of conversion of Digital Video and VHS should follow a similar route and be prepared and uploaded on a streaming server. Where as a DVD (video/ROM) and CD-ROM should be uploaded to an ‘application networking’ server such as IRIS.

• For trial purposes a VHS training material was digitised and uploaded to the streaming server, and a CD-ROM on the Library’s Citrix server.

• Digital video was optimised to stream rather than downloaded to the device, as ISAS had seen a substantial growth with streaming video rather then downloaded to a device.

Some of the outputs that we have produced:
• “How-to” manual for staff to convert their old multimedia titles to newer mediums.
• A report in exploring the limitations of copyright policies for converting training/learning multimedia.

Future Work planned:

• Test converted multimedia on a range of devices
• Update “How-to” manual with recommendations for optimal devices
• Write to creators and vendors to negotiate for relaxing of some copyright policies by introducing a new pricing model (Pay per view) for older titles.
• Presentation of “How-to” manual at e-learning symposium

WP3: Podcasting - Progress Report January 2008

All 9 podcasts in Pharmaceutical Microbiology have now been published for use by 2nd Year MPharm and the accompanying lecture course has finished. Despite predictions, attendance at the live lectures did not suffer as a result of the existence of the podcasts; indeed it was better than in the previous academic year.
A final online, anonymous student feedback questionnaire has been completed by 107/111 students in the cohort who have given their evaluation of the podcasts and the ways in which they have watched them. In addition, a second focus group meeting of 9 student volunteers has been held to elicit more feedback.
Only one of the 107 respondents claimed not to have watched any podcasts and all the feedback from the remaining 106 respondents has been very positive. Most students watched the podcasts or PCs/laptops directly within Blackboard, rather than subscribing or using a mobile device.
The findings of this project are being disseminated through a series of DMU workshops and international conference presentations.

Why is Google showing us the way forward in digitisation?

Podcast: Why is Google showing us the way forward in digitisation? asks senior UK librarian : JISC

Podcast: Why is Google showing us the way forward in digitisation? asks senior UK librarian

Publication Date: 13 December 2007

A recent European digitisation conference explored some important challenges facing national and university libraries across the continent as they attempt to join together to deliver a 'European Digital Library'. In this podcast interview Paul Ayris, librarian at University College London and a senior figure in these European developments, asks a number of challenging questions of the library community.

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JISC podcasts

I decided to try to catch up with some of the JISC podcasts on new technologies,during a "quiet" moment. The Web2.0-related podcasts and their key points include:

#6 - Techwatch and Web2.0: the Techwatch Web2.0 report is a must read. This podcast is not really a must listen unless you are interested in how Techwatch works. The podcast covers the report's identification of the difference betwen first and second-generation social software, issues around standards and the web as platform, and the 6 big ideas (user-generated content, network effects, data on an epic scale, the wisdom of crowds, open standards and participation). It talks about the lack of data on student expectations for the assumptions around Web2.0.

#7 - Web2.0 and education: this podcast covers the implications of new applications for education. Lawie Phipps highlights the characteristics of the read-write web for interaction and participation. Community is flagged by in terms of bookmarking, sharing and networking by David White. In education the impact of self-selecting, tribal social networking spaces with a shared immediacy is noted. Interestingly Lawrie figures that it is the impact of the technologies on the social, emotive side of life that engages us. The key question is do students feel that education is invading a distinctly non-academic, social space? Can teaching be interwoven in to these spaces? Do we harness Facebook or build our own? Or both?

#14 - IPR and Web2.0: the impact of repurposing original material; rights in collaborative working; how to share someone else's digital material; the impact of the open culture of Web2.0 on IPR, and the blur between the personal and the corporate; "ticketing" material for re-use; risk assessment for HEIs and staff; publishing to Web2.0 is publishing - do you have the rights to do so; think through the question "if I were the owner of this material how would I feel about its publication?"; if you create a identity on Web2.0 who owns or controls that identity? Can Facebook tailor advertising to your interests? Do you mind?

Student podcast experience

I have just released an anonymous online questionnaire on podcasting for my Yr 2 Pharmacy students (re: WP4) - prior to using podcasts in my lectures - and am surprised to learn from the 37 replies I have had to date, that 73% of them have never watched/listened to a podcast.