Digital Citizenship

Which bits to pick from this immense topic for a three hour post-grad class? Planning as far out as August seems almost premature. Will stats published in July be old by October? In this expanding online world they probably will. But I guess that makes a point!

Watch the Social Media Revolution on Youtube.

PS many thanks to Kate for pointing me to the site that exposes the stats in this video as mostly hype (not the exact term used). If the plan is to sell books it probably works. If it is to be honest about presenting current trends then it seems to be a failure. Who to believe these days?

Screencasting, screen capture and lecture recording tools

A variety of easy to use tools are available to capture lectures and screen content before or during a teaching session. Post-production facilities allow editing prior to distribution. For anyone wondering about the strengths, purposes and points of difference with these software programs, the April 2009 edition of the ALT Newsletter has some useful reviews.

Simon Davis, Learning Technologist, Staff and Departmental Development Unit, University of Leeds, used Camtasia software for real-time lecture capture including audio, video of the lecturer, presentation slides and dynamic content created on a tablet PC during classes. Simon reckons that a real time “screen capture” video is like someone looking over your shoulder while you talk them through something on your computer. His review looks at various ways this can be used to support teaching and learning. His conclusion – ‘a powerful and surprisingly flexible tool for creating rich multimedia learning objects.’ Read more.

Graham McElearney, a Learning Technologist from The University of Sheffield’s Learning and Teaching Services looks at two popular types of screen capture software for audio enhanced presentations and software demonstrations prepared ahead of time. He concludes that both programs offer the ability to rapidly create e-learning resources without having to invest large amounts of time learning new software. Read more.

Kris Roger and Chris Fryer from the London School of Economics review an integrated hardware and server system to automatically capture and process live lecture recordings for web-based delivery. Audio, PC and document camera output, as well as video of lecturers can be output as podcasts, vodcasts or web pages with flash video. Technical descriptions offer rather more than conceptual understanding of the system. Probably more than the average academic needs to know, these will be useful to system administrators and interested others. The verdict on benefits to learning and teaching is positive however, with students believing they might not have passed courses without the recordings, and lecturers even watching their own to try and improve their teaching. Read more.

All these forms of output can be presented or linked through an institutional learning management system. The biggest sticking point seems to be getting lecturers to the point of confidence where they agree to being recorded or to recording and distributing their resources. Experience shows this to be a minor challenge that disappears in time. This all bodes well for the UoA lecture recording pilot that is currently in progress.

Thanks to the UK Association of Learning Technology (ALT) and authors for these timely and useful reviews.