This month we revert back to our usual supplementary interview. Kevin had a chance to speak to Mr Stuart Chadwick who is a solutions architect for the award winning e-learning company Kineo.  Stuart discusses their rapid e-learning ethos and tools, plus Kineo services to customise Open Source applicatons such as Moodle. Click here for the full interview.

HE Update


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Duration: 39 minutes
Size: 27 MB

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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Martin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• RSC Google Wave Phase I: Local installation [1:16]
  • Email killer post (long video) [3:35]
  • Picture of command interface [3:50]
  • Google Wave Short Video [6:20]
  • Google Wave and the opportunities for communication, collaboration and social learning in education [6:34]
  • Comprehensive Google Wave Robots Extensions List [7:00]
  • HelpMeIgor Project site (Wave citation robot) [7:25]
  • DocumentIt (citation management tool) [8:20]
  • EndNote (citation management tool) [8:28]
  • Voicy – sound recorder [8:45]
  • What is a mashup? [9:31]
  • CommonCraft Wikis for collaboration [11:30]

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• videos for educators [12:26]
  • EduTubePlus [12:37]
  • YouTube EDU [12:43]
  • Teachers TV [12:45
  • Edina are developing a new "portal" [12:50]
  • YouTube ‘easter egg’ – replace the ‘watch’ part of a YouTube URL with ‘warp.swf’ e.g. http://www.youtube.com/warp.swf?v=Aqior5LORFw [13:15]
• access the grid [14:40]
  • JANET Video Technology Advisory Service (VTAS) [16:23]
• webinar protocols [17:54]
  • webinar protocols from Institute for Learning Enhancement [18:03]
  • synchronous webcasting tools wiki page from RSC West Midlands [18:15]
  • Use of video for educators resource page [18:35]
  • Adobe Connect Pro (webinar tool) [19:07]
  • DimDim (free webinar tool) [19:15]
  • Horizon Wimba live classroom (integrated webinar tool) [20:26]
• eportfolio evaluation survey [21:16]
  • Taskstream (eportfolio tool) [12:36]
  • Elgg (Open Source blogging platform) [12:36]
  • Mahara (Open Source e-portfolio system) [12:36]
  • WordPress [21:55]
  • PebblePad (not just another eportfolio platform) [22:28]
  • Dumfries & Galloway College’s WordPress eportfolio manager – poster from Scottish eAssessment Award [23:38]
  • Personal Learning Plan Module (plug-in for Moodle) [25:00]
  • Apture – document embedding wizard [26:15]
• knol is king [27:09]
  • Online learning book on Google knol
  • Research Information Network website [28.40]
• creative tinkering [28:55]
  • X-Box XNA developers kit
  • Dark Basic [29:50]
  • ALT free webinar: Instructional Design for Serious Games, 8th December [30.57]
  • Arduino open-source electronics [31.15]
  • Wired article lists some of the more popular free platforms [31:50]
  • instructables [32.47]
• Kineo – award winning e-learning company [33:25]
  • Drupal (Open Source content management system) [35:37]
  • SUGAR (Open Source customer relationship management system) [35:48]
• Soundcloud.com [36:00]

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup

Interview with Stuart Chadwick


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Duration: 12 minutes
Size: 11MB

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Summary

• 360-degree feedback [4:57]
• Moodle interface design [7.46]
• Kineo’s philosophy to share information (White Papers) [8.46]
• Rapid e-Learning [9:32]

Also this month instead of our usual supplementary interview we thought we would review all the interviews from the last academic year. Click here for the interview review in full.

HE Update

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Duration: 22 minutes
Size: 20 MB

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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• PLE Vs eportfolio 1:15
  • Livebinders.com 1:30
  • Evernote 1:35
  • Google docs 1:40
  • Iwebfolio – eportfolio tool 1:45
  • Pebblepad – not just an eportfolio tool 1:50
• Personal Development Planning– key drivers 2:00
  • Nottinghamshire LLN LEAP Ahead project 3:00
  • Scottish QAA Personal Development Planning toolkit 3:15
  • University of Glasgow ePDP + collaborative voting sets 3:45
• Steve Draper contingent teaching 5:00
• Eduserve HE Sharepoint report 6:00
  • Sharepoint LMS 6:45
  • Sharepoint mysite(eportfolio feature) 8:00
• PLE vs VLE video debate from ALT-C conference 8:25

Links from Martin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• Alt-C notes 9:15
• Adam Blackwood on mobile technologies 10:10
  • Android phone 11:10
  • Augmented reality (on a mobile phone) 11:15
• Audio & visual feedback on assessed work 12:00
  • Phil Ices’ work on digital feedback 12:30
• EduApps – Open Source application project 13:00
• JISC Techdis - everything accessible 16:15
• TwEVS – Twitter / Google mash up17:35
  • Yahoo Pipes 18:35
  • an example of an aggregated RSS feed
  • “TwEVS” slideshare presentation 20:15

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup

Interview Review 2008/09

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Duration: 15 minutes
Size: 11MB

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Summary

• Steve Sawbridge Interview [1:06]
  • AoC HEinFE network
• Terry Mayes Interview [3:00]
  • Enhancement Academy
  • TESEP project
• Carol Bailey Interview [4:30]
  • plagiarism.org
• Emma Purnell Interview [6:37]
  • JISC e-portfolio infoKit
• Tomaz Lasic Interview [7:30]
  • 2 minute moodles – videos
• Furture work [9:20]
  • Kineo – award winning e-Learning
  • eAssessment Scotland Conference
  • Edgeless University Report
  • Lifelong Learning Network
  • foundation degree forward

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup

This month Martin interviewed Tomaz Lasic from Belmont City College in Perth, Western Australia. Tomaz is a teacher/ICT integrator at Belmont and discusses his experiences of using Moodle into high school education. In particular Tomaz highlights the importance of involving his students in his journey to find the right blend in technology. Click here for the interview with Tomaz Lasic in full.

Hope you all have enjoyed this podcast series which will resume at the beginning of the next academic year!

HE Update

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Duration: 27 minutes
Size: 25 MB

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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Martin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• Evernote – Technologies for Teaching and Learning from Purdue University [1:30]
  • Evernote – electronic note (e-portfolio) platform
• Student Audio Feedback: What, why and how [1:38]
  • Using Google Talk for Audio Feedback [2:04]
  • Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes SIG [2:27]
  • National student survey results 2009 [3:00]
  • Sounds Good 2 – JISC funded audio feedback project [3:30]
  • BECTa Personalisation agenda [5:20]
  • Gabcast – audio recording service using your phone [6:09]
  • Vocaroo – another online audio recording service [7:16]
  • esnips – free online video hosting service [8:20]
  • Vimeo – free online video hosting service [8:20]
  • Presentation by Andrew Middleton on the pedagogy of audio feedback [9:20]
  • Audacity – audio recording software [10:34]
  • Odeo-  free online service that enables recording and sharing of audio [10:40]

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• latest eportfolio gubbins [11:10]
• DimDim – free Webinar tool [11:40]
  • E-portfolio based learning exploring and exploiting the possibilities for personalising learning- DimDim session by Julie Hughes [12:13]
  • Personalisation of learning
• Rapid e-learning tools [12:50]
  • Wimba Create- e-learning authoring tool (was called CourseGenie) [13:00]
  • Articulate – rapid e-learning object authoring tool [13:25]
  • Promethean – Electronic voting system [14:50]
  • Electronic voting resources complied by the REAP project
  • WordWall – Interactive voting interface software [16:23]
  • Steve Draper’s website on electronic voting and interactive lectures [16:35]
  • Quizdom – Electronic voting system [16:40]
• Sony PSP for learning [17:45]
  • Gaming culture and learning [18:10]
  • Why some teachers don’t love computer (games) – recording from a live presentation by Karl Royle [19:00]
  • Record of the chat transcript from the above presentation by Karl Royle. [19:00]
• Open Source is a Winner! – Annual IMS Global competition results [19:45]
  • What is the IMS e-learning standard? – notes for your perusal  [20:00]
  • RSC-Scotland N&E AccessApps tools IMS Global winners – packaged suites of Open Source applications free for all [20:15]
  • MR CUTE -  IMS global winners. Moodle plugin to create a simple object repository [21:20]
  • Scottish GLOW project- IMS global winners for their intranet project [21:30]
  • What is an object repository? – Recording from a live presentation by Mahendra Mahay [21:55]

Interview with Tomaz Lasic

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Duration: 21 minutes
Size: 19MB
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Related Links
Tomaz’s – Human blog
Belmont City College

Summary

00:15 Tomaz outlines his role at Belmont City College – teacher, moodle admin, ict mentor
01:12 Tomaz explains how he has got staff to engage with moodle – using earlier adopters
01:52 Moodle part of a grander scheme to increase use of technology within the college
03:01 Tomaz used a pilot using feedback from his students to find a grounding
03:39 To use moodle really well you only need to understand 5%
04:12 Students didn’t help with the techical side. One of the most useful pieces of feedback from the students was to use moodle appropriately finding the right blend
06:00 Can’t assume students have the digital literacy – they have the breadth of technical skills but not the depth of knowledge
06:35 It’s the job of the teacher to turn the lifeless digital information into knowledge
06:57 Moodle was the spur and is allowing Tomaz to integrate more ‘web 2.0′
08:01 Types of moodle use. 4/5 teachers are using very well. Tomaz recognises it is a gradual process. He is keen that his colleagues are the one who explain the potential benefits of using tools like moodle
10:51 Tomaz finds students are very good at exploring how to use technology but are more naive when it comes to online security, digital footprint
12:55 Integrating these issues into teaching
14:46 The issues of a very well defined curriculum and personalisation
17:21 Expectation of students in what they want to study and learn – still a tough nut to crack
19:27 We don’t know the destination of where we are going with technology but we have a direction

This month Kevin interviewed Emma Purnell, Blended Learning Advisor at the University of Wolverhampton. Emma discusses her (many years) experience in the use of eportfolios as a student, lecturer, and staff support expert. Emma also gives some very insightful and pragmatic advice for an organisational adoption of eportfolios for those who are just beginning to discover their enormous potential. Click here for the interview with Emma Purnell in full (26 minutes).

HE Update

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Duration: 44 minutes
Size: 40.2MB
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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• HEFCE launches strategy for technology-enhanced learning [1:22]
  • Handbook_of_Emerging_Technologies_for_Learning – the handbook is also available as a PDF http://umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies/cetl/HETL.pdf [5:00]
  • Connectivism (as a pedagogy) [5:35]
• Multiple Intelligences in 3D [7:55]
• http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Webquests
• Guided enquiry (based learning) [8:08]
• Multiple Intelligences [9:01]
• SecondLife
  • HE conference in partnership with the Academy: playing with learning 2 – http://info.rsc-wm.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=412 [9:52]
  • EduApps.org – Download your free usb cutout here [10:30]
  • AccessApps/EduApps explaination video
• get Teaching Inclusively [16:00]
  • HE in FE Modules
• Preparing Learning
• Delivering Learning (Lecture / Classroom)
• Delivering Learning (Online)
• Delivering Learning (Practical / Fieldwork / Placement)
• Assessing Learning
• Xerte (a learning package design tool) [17:10]
• Moodle And Xerte On a Stick prepared by Thomas Rochford at RSC Eastern [17:35]
• eXe Learning – learning package design tool (features on EduApps) [20:24]
• Aggregating pipes! [21:25]
  • Yahoo Pipes – rewire the web
  • http://bit.ly/ – a useful URL shortener
  • OUseful lots of great data manipulation techniques from Tony Hirst [23:30]

Links from Martin’s subjects:

• Evernote – a personal e-portfolio solution for students? [25:30]
  • Evernote
  • Google Notebook – Google recently announced they were stopping development of this service and are no longer accepting new users [26:27]
  • Google Sites free content management tool ( was google pages)
• JISC infoNet e-Portfolio infoKit [27:50]
• Evernote – a personalised e-portfolio solution screencast [33:27]
• Other e-portfolio solutions – PebblePad and Mahara [35:45]
• Midlands e-portfolio group – an online group to share best practice
• EverPress – WordPress plugin which links Evernote and WordPress [37:30]
• Dumfries and Galloway College’s use of WordPress is highlighted in the JISC Effective Practice with e-Portfolios [38:00]
• Some hosted blogging tools – Blogger and WordPress [39:27]
• Everything you needed to know about e-portfolios
• eportfoliomanager – allows Wordpress based student ePortfolios to be created (still in early development) [40:20]

Interview with Emma Purnell
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Duration: 26 minutes
Size: 24MB
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Related Links
JISC Effective Practice with e-Portfolios
JISC infoNet e-portfolio infoKit

Summary

01:35 Emma introduces herself
02:20 Experience of eportfolio as a student 
05:05 Emergent theme of eportfolio based learning – moving away from notion of a portfolio as only for PDP
06:00 Product versus processes – connectivism afforded by hyper linking
08:00 ePortfolio based learning and the new areas of exploration the technology is allowing
09:22 Teaching with something you are passionate about as a user
10:01 Researching student perceptions of portfolio
10:48 Currently part time PhD while working as blending learning advisor with expertise in eportfolios
12:04 Raising awareness of what is achievable using eportfolio
16:02 ePortfolio community at Wolverhampton has slowly grown over 5 years ot of the birth of PebblePad
17:49 Opportunities for using eportfolios include: getting eport pratice within policy or strategy gets a diffierent group of people who wouldn’t necessarily already consider it (need buy in from senior management);  0:20:04.3 strength in numbers, building a support community within your institution or local area
21:38 ePUG – eportfolio user group (this is a University of Wolverhampton user group)
24:02 Need more dissemination opportunities to share practice

Each month we will interview a guest speaker and also record a conversation discussing current issues contained in our blogs (see links below). This month we interviewed Ms Carol Bailey, senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton. Carol discusses her use of the text matching tool Turnitin, and how the system helps her detect and deter plagiarism and collusion. Carol also describes how her students learn about correct referencing and paraphrasing from the originality reports and the digital feedback she gives them. Click here for the interview with Ms Carol Bailey in full (19 minutes).

HE Update

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Duration: 29 minutes
Size: 25.9MB

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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• Screencasting software : http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/screencasting.html -  Post on Gabber blog [01:26]
  • Everything you wanted to know about use of video http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Streaming_video [03:38]
  • Streaming video from a mobile phone to the web Livecast and Qik
  • Tokbox – feedback digitally (See Using Tokbox for Live and Recorded Video Feedback on MASHe)
  • Viddix – allows you to synchronise video with other content
  • Screentoaster – allows you to make quick screen captures without installing any software
  • Free webcasting/conferencing with Dimdim [05:58]
• Mahoodle (moodle VLE + Mahara eportfolio) : http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/networked-hub.html -  Post on Gabber blog [06:50]
  • Moogle (linking Moodle to Google docs), plus total cost of Moodle : http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/magoogle-or-is-it-moogle.html -  Post on Gabber blog [11:11]
  • JISC CETIS – e-learning standards and interoperability
  • Everything you wanted to know about use of a VLE/Moodle: http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Moodle
  • Everything you wanted to know about use of an eportfolio: http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios
• Comment on how popular culture is making us smarter:  http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/everything-bad-is-good-for-you.html -  Post on Gabber blog
• Comment on active learning: http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/active-learning.html -  Post on Gabber blog
  • ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog
  • http://www.slideshare.net/kevinbrace/web-20-in-education-presentation-828271

Links from Martin’s subjects:

• EduApps – portable applications in your pocket http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/?p=234 [17:24]
  • EduApps site (includes the original AccessApps)
  • List of open source and free software to be made available via EduApps
  • Portableapps.com (portable open source software)
  • OSS Watch – JISC open source software advisory service  (includes a description of open source software)
  • Mowes server on a stick – Allows to try out Moodle, MediaWiki, WordPress, Drupal etc [19:20]
  • eXe tool for creating learning objects
  • Camstudio screen recording
  • Zoomit- free screen magnifier (Alternatively DesktopZoom)
  • Moodle on a stick from Kidderminster College:
  • RSC West Midlands highlight ‘Top 100 e-learning tools’ (For 2009 there is the ‘Top 100 tools for learners’ and ‘Top 100 tools for learning professionals’)
  • JISC conference 2009 – (includes video archive of sessions) [25:55]
  • The old JISCiPAS service is now http://www.plagiarismadvice.org and there is the new Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service [25:47]
  • Popular text matching tool Turnitin [26:27]
  • RSC advice on combating plagiarism & collusion : http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Plagiarism
• Third Annual European First Year Experience Conference, May 7-9, University of Wolverhampton, UK (full paper/proceedings forthcoming). Powerpoint available at http://www2.wlv.ac.uk/celt/events/Findinganewvoice.ppt

Related paper
Bailey, C. (2006) Supporting international students in UK Higher Education: key issues, and recommendations for further research. CELT-funded literature review for publication within the University. Available at http://wlv.openrepository.com/wlv/handle/2436/7590:

Interview with Carol Bailey

Duration: 19 minutes
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Summary

01:10 – Text matching tools seem to have split in the marketplace some use it as policing tool others use it as a teaching tool to educate students. How do you feel about these approaches?

Two ways of looking at. Detection is very important and indicates that institutions taking seriously. Using Turnitin as a policing tool can also be  educational. It also saves a lot of staff time which they can dedicated to supporting students.

As an educational tool (allowing students to submit essays early to get an originality report)  is resisted for a number of reasons. Some believe it  won’t help because all it will do is make students better cheats by uploading essay multiple times to remove plagiarised text (also called ‘churning’). There is no evidence of this in the research actually happening. Also there is a worry that logistical problems where class sizes are large and teaching time has been reduced means that even when they want to use Turnitin as a formative tool they worry it will take up too much time. There is also fears that it takes to long  to show students how to use Turnitin.

05:00 – Involved in research activities are you aware of any trend or recommendations to make to institutions?

My work with Turnitin is limited to a specific type of student teaching English as a foreign language. So all my students are international students. Wanted to find out if Turnitin could be a tool to cut down marking time and also be used to show students how to use sources appropriately. Between 60-80% of students on the course have never used academic referencing before, or have used referencing in a different way, or it is acceptable in their culture to copy and paste, or they have never written an essay longer than 250 words. So a very distinct cohort of students so I’m not sure how this translates to other disciplines. On 2 modules do an essay 1st draft submitted, mark it feedback given in a one-to-one tutorial befire they submit 2nd draft. Used Turninit as a visual stimulus uploading first draft into Turnitin and showing students the originality report as part of the feedback tutorial. In some cases it was fine and in others a lot of reds, greens and yellows.

The students were so impressed that they begged to be allowed to upload their 2nd draft before final submission, which after consultation was allowed. In subsequent semesters it was easier to allow students to upload their work by themselves 1st and 2nd draft.

09:00 We’ve found their was no increase in plagiarism from previous years using traditional methods, but there has been an increase in collusion which would not have been previously detectable [Turnitin keeps a database of all uploaded work making it possible to make comparisons against other students work]. Didn’t find evidence of ‘churning’, we think because they hadn’t plagiarised in the first place. The ones that upload more than once appear to insecure about their sources, hadn’t used quotation marks correctly.

90% said they would be more careful about their academic writing now that they knew their work would be checked using Turnitin. 89% said that all students should be able to access Turnitin to check their own work before submission.

It [Turnitin] is not a magic bullet, it still can’t detect all plagiarism although it is getting better. It doesn’t also teach students how to paraphrase or how to reference. You still need a writing teacher. Haven’t been able to track students as they continue their writing career at the University.

11:54 – My recommendation was that all students should be able to access Turnitin as a learning aid in at least one module early on in their programme to raise awareness of academic writing conventions.

13:40 – How has your teaching practices have evolved and benefited from the use of these tools?

One of the first effect was to save a lot of time in terms of marking. It takes twice as long to mark a plagiarised essay because the sources of plagiarism have to be identified then the sources located before then giving feedback on the essay as a whole. Using Turnitin does the detection freeing up time to give feedback on the essay. This year I’ve been experimenting with another function of Turnitin called GradeMark – the online marking feature. Students submit portfolio of assignments via Turnitin and I give feedback on it online so I don’t have to worry about downloading and uploading. A nice feature of GradeMark is there is a clipboard that you can use for frequent comments, sets of ready made QuickMarks which cover language and punctuation. I’m not using the ready made QuickMarks because the language isn’t appropriate for my students but I’ve developed some of my own with links to grammar websites and pages in textbooks. The feedback from students is encouraging because students are using the links. So with GradeMark I can give a lot more feedback. Get pleasure from students actually using the feedback. Not spending less time on feedback but using the time to give more feedback. There are also benefits in terms of administration as everything is online.