Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 31

Image from LollyKnit, under a
CC BY-NC 2.0 license

This time next week we'll be into November - that really is a scary thought!  Just shows how quickly the time is ticking by and yes, bucket-loads of learning technology-related bits and bobs in just this past week.

As ever, I'll try to summarise some of the things that caught my eye and which I think you might be interested in.  So, grab a cuppa and a biccie and let's start on this week's round-up!

• Have you heard of the Knowledge Graph in Google Search?  Well, Google Knowledge Graph Gets Explanations As Google Adds Value to Search was a short article which I spotted and I think it's an example of the little things that can make a real difference. Take a look!
• Rather than bore you with tech updates, The Guardian has rounded them up Boot up: Surface reviews redux, Wikipedia complete?, Apple's music move and more  so that's your place to go for a slice of geekery!
• And in another Guardian article they've got a nice article on Open Access: Credit where credit is due and if you've heard about the open access journal which accepted an auto-generated nonsense article, then this and other things are discussed here!
• Since we're now wandering about in openness world, did you hear about the fact that Minnesota Gives Coursera the Boot, Citing a Decades-Old Law?  Which, considering the open nature of Coursera courses and the fact that the law is basically unenforceable was a particularly odd one to come across...
• ... but then... the law was rescinded and all went back to normal!  This is a particularly pertinent quote in the follow-up article: "The Minnesota state law that sparked the controversy clearly did not anticipate a world where students in the state could have access to full courses for free on the Internet, and perhaps many states will be struggling—like Minnesota—to re-evaluate and assess their laws surrounding the distribution and licensing of post-secondary courses for their students" - did the paradigm just shift for you too?
• Another innovation I've just read about came from the Open University who have launced iBooks textbooks for the iPad and for a pretty reasonable looking cost, these are resources which will really complement their iTunesU offering.
• Heard about 'gamification of the classroom'? If you haven't then have a look at ClassBadges is a free way to gamify your classroom which could be a nice way to dip your toe into the waters of games and badges.  If you have a go, drop off a comment and let me know what you made of it!
• The final technology has been around a while but Donald Clark has written Blogs: vastly underused teaching and learning tool and I think he's right.  People dismiss blogs as 'online diaries and why would I want to share my diary with the world', but they're much mistaken about what's possible.  Nice article which goes through some of the clear pedagogic benefits of blogs.
• And for the weekly bit of inspiration, a TED talk from Clay Shirky on How the Internet will (one day) transform government which will get you thinking about our digital citizen students!
  
  
  
  

And that - albeit a tad late - is the weekly digest!  I'll see you on Friday for another dose of learning technology goodness and hope you have a good week in between times!

Sarah

Adobe CS6 Production Premium for Mac

Recently we installed Adobe CS6 Production Premium on all of our mac computers in the creative media rooms. This was in response to feedback from previous users who preferred to use Adobe over Final Cut. We did want to install the latest Final Cut pro x but it does not work over a network, which means it's a no go for us (our creative media Mac set up redirects users accounts to work directly over the network). We also have Adobe installed on all managed desktops and so we felt users were more familiar using it then Final Cut.

We have however experienced some technical issues with it.

1. If you do not open all the apps under root (computer administrator) account, some applications do not function properly for all other users.  This was especially apparent when using Premiere Pro for example. The affect of not opening the application first under root account was that users could not playback the timeline of their project properly. When playing back the edit media on the timeline it would play for approx. 2 seconds and stop.  It seems that until you have opened all applications under root account, there are necessary files and templates missing which causes these strange ongoings.


2. Photoshop does not work over a network.  This is a particular problem for our creative media set up, as all users files are re-directed to work over a network on log on. We have done a lot of research and even tried ticking it to think it is working locally using log on scripts. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck and it seems we have to wait for Adobe and Apple to sort themselves out and produce a fix.  This issue is specific to CS6 only.  The result of this issue means that when using Photoshop it gives you the impression you can save normally, however if you look at the location you saved it, it is not there. It instead places it in a user/cache/temporary items folder. If you do not log off you can open up your file via 'open recent...' via Photoshop.  However, once logged off all files stored in the temporary items folder are deleted. To avoid this we have advised students to save their Photoshop work to an external flash drive. We have also created a log off script to copy the contents of the temporary items folder at log off (before they are deleted) to the users' library folder. This is not ideal, but unfortunately we can now only wait for a fix to be released by Adobe.


3. When exporting media it seems to take a lot longer then you would expect.  This particularly occurs when choosing the generic codecs we are used to using. What we have done since discovering this is to find a compression in which it doesn't take five times the duration of the project, but instead max twice the duration.  At present it seems that if you select to export with Apple TV compression it provides the fastest export time, in 720p, at a very reasonable MB's per minute ratio (meaning export files are nice a small).

On reflection it would have been best to go for Adobe CS5.5 to avoid a lot of the issues we have (in particular with Photoshop). 

Installing CS6 has proved that it's not always best to go for the latest technology.

Chris

Top tips when using MOLE

Did you know that there are a few handy features in MOLE which will save you time when developing your module and help engage your students with the course? I have listed 5 tips below which users may find helpful.

1. Student View
If you want to get a very quick student view of your module then you can do this with one click. Simply hover your mouse over to the top right hand side of the module page and click on the Edit Mode is button, is should set it to OFF. To go back into tutor view click it again to set it to ON


Handy Tip: The ‘OFF’ mode only gives you an 85% representation of what the actual student might see. To get a full view of what students will see, from the left hand menu go to Course Tools >> Student View

2. Hide option
You can create a menu item and hide it from students, for example if you wanted a staff only area then you could create a menu item and hide it from students.

To do this, once the menu item has been created simply hover your mouse over the option and click on the action link  and then select Hide Item from the list of options.


Handy Tip: You can also hide individual items or folders, simply click on the Actionlink >> Edit >> set the Permit Users to View this Content option to No.


3. Colour theme quick change
You can change the colour theme of your module very quickly too. Simply hover your mouse over to the top right hand side of the module page and click on the Colour Pallet which is located next to the Edit Mode option. You will then be presented with a list of themes, simply select one to see what it looks like on your module.



Handy Tip: You can customise your module even more by going to Customisation >> Style >>...then go through the options that are presented to you, make sure you click on the Submit button to make your changes.

4. Entry Page
You can set the module to open any option of the left hand menu every time users went into it, for example if you had week one, week two and so on in your menu then you could change the entry point of the module every week to the set week that the student would be in. This would mean that every time users accessed your module they would get taken straight into the relevant week area.

To change the entry point of your module go to Customisation >> Style >>.....you can then select the entry point from the drop down menu at the top of the page. Make sure you click on the Submit button to confirm your change.


Handy Tip: If you have a menu item that is hidden then you won't be able to set it as the entry point.

5. Early Warning System
The Early Warning System is a rule-driven communication tool that Instructors use to send email notification messages to Students. Rules are created by Instructors and can be based on a test score, calculated column, due date or module access. For example you could set a rule to show you a list of users who have not accessed your module for the last 5 days and then send an email to them.

To do this select Evaluation >> Early Warning System >> Create Rule >> select the type of rule you want to create and go through the options on the screen.


Handy Tip: Once the rule has been created you should click on the ‘Refresh’ option before you use it as it will then give you the most upto date information. 

Zaf

Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 30

Image from D. Sharon Pruitt, under a
CC BY 2.0 license

Can you believe we're over halfway through October already?!  Me neither!  Halloween and Bonfire Night are only a hop and a skip away, the new academic year isn't quite so 'new' and is more 'business as usual'... and yet, in the world of learning technology there is more interesting and thought-provoking stuff kicking around.  And in between leaf-shuffling and dodging the dreadful weather, I've gathered together some of the articles which caught my eye during the last week!

So... let's kick off with...

• 40 Quick Ways to Use Mobile Phones in Classrooms from Edudemic.  If you're interested in getting your students to do more than just check Facebook in the classroom, then delve into these ideas.  From educational apps to shooting video, scavenger hunts, note-taking, accessibility, podcasting and beyond.  They're a rich resource at your fingertips!
• ... and to complement that last link, Top 25 Mobile Apps in Academia compiled by Online Universities.  Some you'll definitely have heard of, some you most likely won't - but there's a good range from free to paid-for here and if you're just starting out using a smartphone for learning purposes, this is a good place to begin.
• Oh, and if you're not sure whether using one at all is a sensible thing to do, then Mashable reported that Low income students' test scores leap 30% with smartphone use and while the research was done by a communications group the point about the ubiquity of devices and the increase of access to the internet it provides is an interesting platform from which to widen participation...
• I feel a theme is emerging... how about a nice infographic which shares 10 Surprising Facts About Mobile Usage around the world?  As with all infographics, for the real info follow up on the sources at the end of the visualisation - but there are some eyebrow-raising numbers tucked away in this one!
• If you're interested in other ways to expand the walls of your classroom, have you thought about using a Google+ Hangout or getting your students to use them? Not sure where to start? 32 Tips for Hosting a Successful Hangout with your Students is great and a real confidence booster as you have a go.
• Talking of extending the classroom, MOOCs have been in the news a lot lately but there was a counter-view to their benefit expressed in Nice Publicity, Shame about the Pedagogy which turned up in the Times Higher.  What do you think, are they spreading 'lousy pedagogy'? I've tried a few and got benefit from at least one but not the same quality of learning experience I received from other online courses.  But we aren't comparing like with like, are we?  Interesting debate.
• The Guardian also reported that Sixth-formers pay up to £350 to cheat university admissions system - while I don't imagine for a second that this is especially new thing (getting someone else to put together your statement), it is another example of 'cheating in the system' which breeds a culture which jeopardises academic practice.  
• I normally like to sprinkle in some technie bits, so Now you can search from your email, docs & spreadsheets right from the main Google box is one which, for your personal Google account (not for Google Apps accounts yet), you might like to look into as it's currently in field trial.
• And if you really want to get down with the nuts and bolts of it all Who controls the internet? is a meaty look at the future of internet communications and a fascinating battle between the giants such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco and the International Telecommunication Union.
• Finally, Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong and a walk through the invisibility of so much social traffic.  Social isn't just social media... people have been behaving socially on the net for a long time before it turned 2.0.  Bit of a thought-provoking one here!

I have a video for you this week (I always like to find something interesting!), this week's one is a fabulous RSA Animate of Dan Ariely's talk about Dishonesty - which links nicely to the article about cheating student admission statements above...  enjoy!

Hope you found something to get you thinking in the links above... and I hope you have a great weekend and, as ever, if you find something that I missed... drop me off a comment below!

Until next Friday...

Sarah

Did you know... how to get the most out of embedded YouTube clips

Did you know... that you can customise the embed code that YouTube provides to get more out of it? We use YouTube videos a lot in ScHARR so I thought I'd share the code we go for when embedding YouTube videos in MOLE... 

<iframe id="ytplayer" type="text/html" width="640" height="360"src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ paste the id of your video (11 nonsense characters at the end of the video link) here, with no spaces between the ...embed/ and ?modest... ?modestbranding=1&rel=0&autohide=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>&nbsp;</iframe>

It's a perfect width in MOLE 2 for people with small monitors, the buttons for turning it to hi-def and fullscreen are there, the YouTube branding is reduced to a little logo, they aren't shown links to random videos once this ends and the controls hide themselves when the viewer isn't moving the mouse. The &nbsp; is just there to stop the editor in MOLE 2 doing odd things. The result looks like this:

If you ever find you're having trouble embedding online media content in MOLE the <iframe> tag is worth a shot. For instance, the embed code Prezi currently provides doesn't work in MOLE... it uses tags that the editor strips out. But this will work*:

<p>By Claire Beecroft</p><iframe id="prezi" type="text/html" width="550" height="400" src="http://prezi.com/hmrjmq_nxuiz/view/" frameborder="0">&nbsp;</iframe> 

*you don't have to namedrop Claire Beecroft, but you do need something, anything else in the item apart from the iframe, otherwise the MOLE editor will reject it.

Dan

Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 29

Image by Michael Chen, under a
CC BY NC-ND 2.0 license

Well, well... would you look at that?  Friday appears to have snuck up on me!

It has been a jam-packed week and I'm absolutely positive that there must be a lot of stuff that's passed me by - so apologies if I've missed something obvious but as ever, please drop off a comment to share any resources / links that you know about!

Okay, here we go...

• From the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning site comes YouTube's 4 Official Channels for Educators which if you didn't know are the main Educational one, there's one for Schools, one for Teachers and one for Curriculum.  They're all linked to from that one site.  Useful!
• I also thought you might find the Live-tweeting at academic conferences: 10 rules of thumb which I spotted in The Guardian's Higher Education Network.  Lots of excellent tips there, and it reminds me that I should probably get around to writing up my list of tweeting tips some time!
• Related to tweeting is another article from The Guardian, Facebook and Twitter could be asked to increase moderation of networks - and although this is about the criminal end of the spectrum of use, if you're after a case study to get your students thinking about the impact of not considering their digital footprint, then this is a handy one.
• Since we're now on the 'dark side' of stuff, how about The dark side of the online struggle against plagiarism which appeared in ReadWriteWeb? From consideration of ethics to the use of technology, this is a thought-provoking article.
• More about plagiarism? Is that a 'yes' I can hear?  Rightie ho... Higher Education plc: cheating in the marketplace of ideas is the one for you.  It asks about the moral issues surrounding plagiarism - if you can buy an education, is it okay for you to buy an essay? The comments are excellent too.
• Y'know, I'm obviously under a cloud today because here's another 'oo-er, look at the consequences of that' article which came in the form of When Social Media Gets Ugly – The 20 Biggest Brand Disasters - now, these aren't specifically about education, but they are things to consider when using social media in learning and teaching.
• Okay, something more positive - Educause put together a good set of resources about MOOCs (massive open online courses) and together they form a nice primer on the subject from discussion of the pedagogy to examining the issues.  Very handy.
• And if you'd like to stay safer online, JISC put out a podcast on e-safety for online learning and it talks about work done by TechDis supporting online safety for learning disabled adults which if you have 6 minutes is worth a listen.
• Finally, Radical rethink: how to design university courses in the online age appeared in an Australian publication as part of a series they've been writing on the future of Higher Education.  The dynamic model they present is an interesting one and again, if you fancy a cuppa and to read something that might just spark a bit of reflection on your own approach to curriculum design (and who doesn't, right?!), then this is a goodie!

Oh, and I have a video for you today - it's not an educational one but it is an example of what you can do if you give students access to the kit and support and give them a learning experience which inspires creativity.  It's from one of our students who used our creative media facilities and is a little bit of inspiration for a Friday!

Aren't our students excellent?  And what an interesting approach too!

So, that's me done for another week.  Have a great weekend!

Sarah

Learn Something New in 20 Minutes - ScHARR Bite Size

Image © http://caption.it/

Andy Tattersall

Claire Beecroft

Jenny Freeman

Time is a valuable resource, whether it be in work or personal life, and we are all very busy people. So, finding a new resource, a new way to work or just a new idea can often sit on the back burner whilst the daily workload is dealt with. This is very odd considering we work in an innovative, creative and fast-paced environment. Our remit is to research, educate, help shape minds and ideas and help drive the whole system forward in a way that fits with modern times. Yet we all have our day-to-day jobs to deal with and while we do that we rarely get the chance to find a new way to work, or discover a new resource as time is a valuable resource.

At the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) we had been very aware of this problem and wanted to do something about. We were aware of the growing problem of staff not having the time to learn about existing and new services, technologies and ways of working. They were also aware that some of the established methods of staff development were not working, as people could either not spare half a day for training, or that when they did they got very little from it. So in 2010 Andy began developing 20-minute sessions introducing new technologies to support and enhance teaching and research. He saw a need for professional development, delivered in a format compatible with heavy workloads and busy schedules. After consulting Claire Beecroft, a ScHARR-based university teacher, the first two sessions were run. Simultaneously, Dr. Jenny Freeman was developing sessions on learning technologies for teaching. After running the first successful session on the social reference management tool Mendeley, Jenny contacted Andy about fusing together these two and Bite Size was born. 

The original inspiration for Bite Size came from Andy’s passion for cricket and the development of Twenty20. This new format of the game came as a reaction to falling numbers attending games as people struggled to commit a full day to following the game and getting new devotees had become increasingly hard. This was a common problem when trying to get staff to attend development sessions- they just did not have the time. Also, how could they be guaranteed they would get something from a session?

Twenty20 Cricket

Image used under a Creative Commons By Attribution Licence ©  by vijay_chennupati

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vijay_chennupati/6801272039/sizes/z/in/set-72157629128619237/

This is where ScHARR Bite size stepped in and represents the very best in collaborative effort designed to benefit all, with clear, demonstrable improvements in learning and knowledge of both staff and students. To achieve this whilst taking into consideration the aforementioned problems it became apparent that Bite Size would focus on planting seeds and making connections. After running a few sessions it soon became apparent that are no shortage of new ideas, technologies and resources across the campus that can be turned into a lively 20 minute session.  

Bite Size are short development sessions where staff and students (and indeed anyone in the University) bring a hot drink and we supply cake! They include a 20-minute presentation using technologies such as Prezi, videos and interactive demonstrations, with time for discussion. Sessions so far have covered topics on teaching and research practice, emphasising emerging technologies, resources and innovations in teaching and learning pedagogy and practice. They directly link the technologies and innovations to learning and teaching activities: according to Graham McElearney, since his Bite Size session ScHARR has become the biggest departmental user of MyEcho in the University.

The  team use their expertise in marketing, promoting BiteSize within ScHARR and the wider university, using blogging, Google Sites (https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/bite-size/) and uSpace. They developed screencasts and podcasts of sessions enabling staff to watch/listen later:  http://youtu.be/-QO6PNqRJwA

Attendance is regularly over 20. Of 54 people who participated in a recent evaluation: 87% felt Bite Size helped them work better; 100% felt Bite Size was an effective way of learning new ways of working:

“I always learn something ...it gives me an insight into lots of aspects of work that people are doing”

“Quick, informative, straight to the point. You learn about things you weren't aware of”

Most importantly, staff on the new distance-learning MSc International Health Technology Assessment found BiteSize vital in enabling them to choose which technologies to use and gained inspiration in how to use them.

The team have spread the word about Bite Size via conference presentations (2), posters (3), a workshop and journal article and have even had enquiries from Australia about copying the idea!

The Bite Size team is a unique combination of experience, talent and enthusiasm enabling Bite Size to be what it is: Andy’s technology focus, Claire’s enthusiasm for new ways of teaching, Jenny’s wealth of teaching experience and links to pedagogical experts and specialists in the wider learning community. Jenny also secured financial support at Faculty level and sourced excellent administrative support from Uzzie Laubscher, without whom Bite Size would be poster-less, room-less, computer-less, and cake-less! We have learned the value of collaborative working: by leveraging diverse skill sets, a great idea has become a successful reality. This collaboration has created something greater than the sum of its parts: Bite Size shows what happens when staff whose paths would not normally cross are brought together by a shared passion for learning.

More recently Bite Size has expanded into the Medical Faculty and launched a separate series of sessions that re-runs some of the best ScHARR sessions such as Voiceworks, Google Apps and How NOT to Display Data. There are also plans afoot to start up other Bite Size sessions across the campus, whilst other institutions including the University of Leeds are looking to start their own 20 minute sessions.

When Bite Size started in 2010 there was one simple problem- how to create a programme that that stays fresh and relevant. It soon became apparent that this was irrelevant as the 50+ sessions have proved there is no limit to what you can cover in 20 minutes. Think about any time you have attended a lecture, workshop or seminar and thought: “ Did this really need to be an hour long?” With Bite Size,  at best you have been introduced to a new resource or a smarter way of working, at worst you have lost a mere 20 to 30 minutes of your working day. Also you had a cake, saw colleagues you rarely cross paths with and at least tried something new by attending. What’s not to like?

To stay abreast of ScHARR and Faculty Bite Size@

Add the calendar to your own - scharrbitesize@gmail.com

http://scharrlibrary.blogspot.co.uk/

https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/bite-size/

Twitter:

andy_tattersall

beakybeecroft

Did you know... about subscribing to discussion boards in MOLE

Did you know... that it's possible to 'subscribe' to discussion boards in MOLE 2, which emails you any posts that are made, makes replying easier and saves you the hassle of checking the boards for activity. To do this

1. go to the discussion board forum you want to keep track of
2. click the subscribe button
3. Await email updates

If you can't see the button in the discussion board forum it hasn't been turned on. It's easy to do so, just 

1. go to course tools > discussion boards
2. find the discussion board forum you want to keep track of
3. click the options button the the right of the forum title and click edit from the menu
4. in section 3, in the subscribe subsection, choose 'Allow members to subscribe to forum' and 'Include body of post in the email' 
5. click submit and try subscribing again

Finally, if you turn this on and get buried by posts it's easy to filter them. The emails will all have the following in the title "[the name of the module]: New Post". So in gMail

1. open one of the emails and copy that identifying part of the title, as highlighted above
2. click on the more button above the message and choose 'filter messages like these'
3. in the subject filed enter "[the name of the module]: New Post" (minus the quotation marks and square brackets, but with the name of your module of course)
4. In the following screen you can choose what to do with them - you might want to apply a label and skip the inbox, but if you do please still remember to check them periodically
5. Also check the box to apply this filter to all of the messages it found.

Dan

Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 28

Image from Reuben Chase, under a
CC BY SA 2.0 license

Oh dear - I've managed to miss another weekly learning technology digest.  Freshers' Flu got me!  Ah well, all better now, so let's see what interesting stuff has happened out there this week.

• One of the first things I spotted was a new report out from Educause: ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2012 and if you can make time to read it, it's a very useful perspective on students' relationship with technology and this isn't just based in US-institutions, there is global representation which makes this one to bookmark.
• Towards the end of last week Google announced More spring cleaning and this is essentially where they let users know what's disappearing!  One of the most significant changes is the removal of Gadgets from Spreadsheets - if you know what those are, then you'll know why this is something you need to be aware of!
• Not sure when this one came out but I did notice it during the last week - Teaching skills from the academic jobs site jobs.ac.uk and I thought that it might be a useful primer for anyone new to teaching / with a role which impacts on learning and teaching.
• Now for a few facts and stats... Move Over Twitter: Instagram Now Boasts More Active Mobile Users - this is an interesting one - 7.3 million active users per day on Instagram vs. 6.9 million per day for Twitter during August.  That's a real shift and if you haven't got Instagram on your radar as a potential learning technology... then it's worth a peek - think photo sharing, think hashtags, think location mapping, digital storytelling... then... go play!
• Other numbers - Google Says Apps For Education Now Has More Than 20 Million Users - so reports TechCrunch.  That's a lot of educational usage of Google going on.  We're developing support / policies for Google Apps in learning and teaching here at the university, so with a growing body of users out there, it would be great to know if anyone's heard of someone doing something great for us to learn from - whatever the source!
• Meanwhile, Facebook hits 1 billion users a month.  One.  Billion.  Let's write that out... 1,000,000,000.  Wowsers.  And if you think that's a lot, there have been 1.13 trillion likes.  Yes - trillion.  Mind bending stuff!
• If you're looking for other places to find new toys... I mean... technology to have a look at and to hear the latest in what's being developed in the wider world, then MakeUsOf provided a really good list of 10 Technology YouTube Channels You Can't Miss which while having a US-slant, are generally worth subscribing to.
• I also found that this article on Video: Our Most Misunderstood Teaching Asset was a thought-provoking one.  We've got some great support available if you're interested in using video from our Teaching Technology Team plus the facilities in the Creative Media Suite over in the Information Commons are available 24/7 - what's stopping you?
• For some new teaching ideas you might like 5 Tech-Friendly Lessons to Encourage Higher-Order Thinking - from podcasts to infographic construction, there are lots of ways to get your students' creative juices flowing!
• A copyright update from YouTube that's useful to be aware of appeared in Wired - apparently they're updating the algorithms to reduce invalid copyright claims - which will be good news for some as the automatic suspension has been a real problem (as we've blogged about before)
• Oh yes, and Future Undergraduates: Colleges are Cyber-stalking you and there's nothing you can do about it.  Don't you just love it when I end on a cheery note?  I guess this is just a further nudge that awareness of your own digital footprint is now an important social, educational and employability skill.

It was also National Poetry Day on October 4th... so... this week's video is a little poem for educators...

Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week for another run-down of learning technology loveliness!

Sarah

Event Report: Mendeley Advisors Appreciation Day

 Posted by Andy

Photos used under a Creative Commons By Attribution Licence - © Mendeley.com

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited down to Mendeley Towers based in the Big Smoke to take place in their first ever UK Mendeley Advisors Appreciation Day. The day was not only an opportunity for Mendeley to showcase their brilliant social reference management software, but an informal platform to explain some of the new innovations they had in the pipeline. In addition it was an opportunity for them to say thanks to the network of UK advisors who have been working in outreach programmes to promote the software.

The day was hosted in the very cool Mendeley offices, think Google on a much smaller scale – an open-plan with bikes, foosball table and lots of free food and drinks, breakout areas with comfy sofas. The morning began with a keynote from the three Mendeley co-founders in which they explained the origins of the software and how they got funding and settled on the name Mendeley. If you want to know more about the name Mendeley read this blog post written by co-founder Victor Henning.

The 50 or so lucky delegates were then thrown head first into a team pub quiz which covered all things Mendeley, including some interesting trivia, such as Mendeley once sharing the same office building as Michael Palin, although most of the American and European Mendeley staff didn’t know who he is. Luckily they had heard of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I was expecting the delegates to be made up of a mixture of teachers, information professionals and librarians - how wrong I was. I only came across four people with library and information backgrounds, with the majority of delegates being PhD students and researchers, with a lot of biochemists! One thing everyone did have in common was a passion for Mendeley and for some a growing interest in all things Altmetrics. It was a very proactive crowd, and predominantly male. The day was interspersed with ‘lightning talks’ from various Mendeley Advisors. It was nice to see Dr. Philip Fowler from the University of Oxford who like us at ScHARR had been successful in moving his students onto the Mendeley platform.

There was no shortage of sessions and presentations by key Mendeley staff on everything from visualisation of data to the new suggest papers function. Whilst desktop, Web and API designers threw their ideas and designs out to small focus groups who in turn were able to make suggestions for what they want adding to the software. This is the way Mendeley works, that it listens to its community and that has helped drive the software’s evolution. I was even able to air my long standing request for a ‘log out’ function on the desktop version to the man who can make it happen Steve Dennis. This is on the cards apparently, so people using Mendeley on public access machines will have peace of mind when turning the application off. Whilst there was an excellent working lunch session by Kris Jack on Mendeley’s new ‘suggest’ function that picks out papers you might like based on previously saved references in your Mendelely database. I suggested the option of being able to suggest papers to people you are connected to, which Kris really seemed to like. As for lunch, very much the gauge of how good an event has been , it was fair to say the food reflected the day - with loads of fresh salads and sandwiches from Pret A Manger and Innocent Smoothies to wash it all down.

Being in Mendeley’s headquarters felt like an academic version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in that we were shown some of the cool stuff Mendeley were working on. We had full access to the co-founders who were very keen to hear our feedback and ideas. One session I was ushered to along with other University representatives lead by Mendeley Co-Founder and President Jan Reichelt who wanted to hear our thoughts on pricing and the politics of bringing this new software into wider academic circles. Along with other advisors the discussion revolved around getting the software into institutions via SWETS and the wider issue of copyright. Mendeley not only facilitates the sharing of references, but the actual PDFs, something most institutional librarians and journal publishers would be uneasy about due to copyright implications. My thoughts are the same as Jan’s in that publishers and libraries will need to reassess what rights they give to researchers and students. With cloud storage, researchers and teachers working on the go with tablets and smartphones, cross-institution collaboration and academic developments in Altmetrics and Open Access the shift in how we work in academia is beginning to happen.

Small group discussions continued outside on the rooftop garden with the topic of copyright legislation and Mendeley still in full flow. Mendeley may on the surface seem no different from the likes of Napster in that it facilitates the breaking of licences and copyright, but the reality is that it reflects what most academics want - flexibility. The software has not come by chance either in that the growing interest and momentum for Open Access and Altmetrics is all part of one larger picture. Whether Mendeley can move established packages such as Endnote and Refworks from their reference management thrones is hard to tell. If anything they have picked up the baton from the likes of CiteUlike and Zotero and caused the established packages to seriously rethink what they do. For too long the likes of Endnote have stayed with simple applications that haven’t really evolved with the times. You only have to look at how Microsoft let their guard down allowing Google and Apple to step in any potential gaps in the market. The Mendeley model is still fresh and is not afraid to think outside of the box despite limited resources, whether another package appears and steals their thunder only time will tell.

 

The day was finished at what Mendeley called Beer O’Clock as dozens of massive rectangular pizzas were delivered to their headquarters with many delegates staying behind well beyond 6pm to chat more about research and Mendeley of course. As I strode back to the train station under rainy skies I felt quite invigorated to push Mendeley further as I can see from what is going on in the background that this software will become increasingly important to the academic community. It cares about how we work, of course it’s a business and needs to turn a profit, but being run by academics and creative minds will put Mendeley in a strong position once the Altmetric and Open Access floodgates finally crack open, and I want to be there to ride that wave.

More Photos from the day can be accessed here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendeley/sets/72157631610622640/with/8019100296/

Andy