All the tech I want for Christmas....

Just a quick post before Santa comes rolling down our chimneys with his bag packed with goodies (hopefully!), I asked some of the technologists at the university what kind of tech-related stuff they would like to get for Christmas.....

James Little (Learning Technologist / School of Nursing & Midwifery)

iPad Mini - to enable content consumption on the go and ability to take notes via Google Docs.

MIDI Interface - In order to get back to being creative and composing music (last MIDI interface I have is circa 1996)

Claire Beecroft (University Teacher/ Information Specialist)

An iPad mini. I've always felt that a 7(ish!) inch tablet is the ideal for staff to carry around- its so much lighter and a real help for mobile working. I'll be installing the blackboard apps and learnist, hipstaMatic for taking my own pictures for use on Prezis, the Prezi app and Audioboo to records podcasts for distance learners.

I'd also like a copy of Camtasia for my home laptop, an Egeel iPhone mini projector so I can be a truly mobile teacher. I'll be buying an Xmini speaker for friends- its come to my rescue so many times when the audio in teaching spaces has let me down!

Paul Jinks (Learning Technologist University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry)

Getting: apple TV, looper pedal for guitar.

Would like: ipad mini, raspberry pi

Would like to have access to for testing and out of curiosity: ipad, nexus 7, nexus 10, nexus 4, Chromebook

Ian Loasby (Learning Technologist, School of Law)

My head says I should get hold of the one of new cheapest model Samsung Chromebooks and see just how useful it could be in the University of Sheffield learning environment now they've ironed out a few of the quirks.

My heart says I could easily blow several £1,000s setting up equipment for doing some digital astrophotography , that might even include a new DSLR as well.

You listening Santa ?

Graham McElearney (Senior learning Technologist/CiCS)

One copy of Omnisphere 1.5 soft synth, look at the demo video for it.

One Salvi Aurora 47 string concert grand pedal harp

Distinctly non-e-learning related, and more significantly, sadly I'm not expecting to receive either :(

I have actually now got hold of Metaio Object Creator which has just been released for the Mac - so hopefully will get a chace to start looking at some Augmented Reality applications in archaeology I've been wanting to try since my PhD.

David Read (Learning Technologist, English Language Teaching Centre) 

As I recently got both a Galaxy Note phone and tablet, I would really like the Samsung Allshare Cast Dongle to allow me to wirelessly beam content directly from my phone or tablet to a tv or projector. This could be useful both at home and at work for showing videos recorded on the devices. 

I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with stereo bluetooth headphones - not, I hasten to add, the ones that businessmen, van and taxi drivers use, I mean the ones used for listening to music -  and already have five different ones in my possession. I'm always on the hunt for the perfect bluetooth headphones and really like the look of the Jaybird Bluebuds X. However, they are ridiculously expensive, so I don't think I'll be getting them anytime soon.

On being a learning technologist... and farewell!

This is what I look like when I'm blogging... honest
(c) Sarah Horrigan, 2012

Today is my last day in the office at the University of Sheffield as I'm moving to the University of Derby in January, so I thought to round things off, I'd post a few reflections on what it means to me to be a learning technologist.

So, what does it mean to me? Well, I'm lucky enough to work both in technology enhanced learning as well as being involved in the professional development of learning technologists. Over the years I've worked with plenty of them who've zinged with knowledge, enthusiasm and understanding. What makes the difference? What makes a learning technologist stand out as being a really 'good' learning technologist?

Some of it is wrapped up in how you define the role of a learning technologist at all. Just because someone has the job title of 'Learning Technologist' doesn't mean they are one, just as someone who is a Librarian or a Lecturer isn't automatically *not* a learning technologist because they lack that place holder on their CV. If you think that a learning technologist is someone who can bridge the gap between learning and technology, can translate between the two fields, can spot opportunities and help make change happen within teaching practices and importantly, understands the context of learning in which they're placed... well... there are some key attributes that people who excel in this area seem to possess.

Image by Raymond Larose under a
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license

First of all they're...

Curious
One of the biggest and best tricks a learning technologist pulls off is to go around with an open mindset. And one that actively *wants* to find out new things and to learn to do new stuff. That spirit of curiosity permeates their working life. They need to find answers. They want to see how things work. They ask questions when things don't go as expected. A good learning technologist always comes with a good dollop of curiosity. They're also...

Playful
Great learning technologists tend to be playful people. I don't mean this is the sense of a session down the local activity centre or adventure playground. But, they know that you don't just learn things first off. It takes a bit of play (and failure and a fair few mistakes) to explore and find out what something and someone can do. The very best learning technologists I know don't restrict their work to the working arena. Their 'play' leaks into everything they do. If they find something interesting to do with learning or technology out of hours, they'll play. They can't stop themselves. They just don't clock off because why would you clock off completely from something which was inherently fun? And that leads into the next attribute because you'll also find that they're...

Connected
If you're a learning technologist and you know how to make connections between ideas, people, things and beyond - I'm betting you're good at your job. Ideas aren't picked up in isolation, instead, connections are made and boundaries become elastic and movable. An ability to look inwards and outwards, to shape your perspective by bouncing ideas off others, to be open to finding out what else is going on through the myriad of connections you've made. Working openly and collaboratively is the norm. The people I know in this field who stand out - well, this is a common trait for them - as is the fact that they're...

Proactive
Here's something. I bet if you care about what you do in your work it isn't enough to be passive. Sometimes you have to create opportunities, talk to people you haven't talked to before, listen and understand - and keep on keeping on even when the initial answer is 'no'. If something sounds interesting, then great learning technologists will find a way to make time to look into it. Excuses aren't good enough because trying to make learning brilliant is too important for that. This means that they're spotting trends and perservering with a new technology or approach rather than dismissing things because they're 'just not that kind of person' or they're 'too busy'. Their proactivity makes a huge difference as does the fact that they're...

Passionate
The best moments I've ever had in education have been when I've been talking to someone for whom passion is like electricity flowing through their body and sparking out in conversation or presentation. Passionate people create enthusiasm. They care. They inspire. They're not ashamed to tell you they love doing something. Or that something is fantastic. The best learning technologists I know make me want to explore and do more than I'm already doing. And this passion for their field means that they're also...

Learners
This is the really big biggie of them all. If you're bridging the gap between learning and technology, academia and the technical... you have to be able to talk the language of your context. And it never stops needing to be learned and refined. Let's face it, you can't *not* do your research when you're working with people who are professional researchers. You can't do things in a sloppy fashion when you're working with those who have a keen eye for detail. You need to build evidence and underpin what you're saying with solid foundations. You need to share ideas. You need to understand. You need to analyse. And you need to know there is no end point. To be a brilliant learning technologist you are forever a learner. And you accept it.

It's funny. The best learning technologists aren't all about the technology. They're not all about the pedagogy either. They walk the line between the two and care about what they do and what they *could* do as well. And if you come across a really good learning technologist - talk to them. They'll fire you up so that you'll believe you could do anything with your teaching!

Thank you for supporting the blog!

A final thought
I'd just like to say thank you to all the readers of this blog since I put online that first blog post at the start of this year. It's been a pleasure to have your comments... been a pleasure to have other people writing for the blog... been a pleasure to see an audience build and a presence develop as well as watch the spread of ideas. As ever with leaving a job, it's people I'll miss most. There are some brilliant minds at the University of Sheffield and I look forward to stepping back and following the blog to see what they're all up to in the future!

Carry on having fun and enjoying watching where technology can take us with developing our students' learning!

Sarah

10 ideas for Google Sites in Education

Working together is dead easy with a Google Site

I was just creating a few bits and bobs for a workshop on Google Sites for collaboration and thought that it might be handy to share my '10 ideas for using Google Sites in Education'.  They're dead easy to use... no, they're not the most advanced, slick thing out there... but for sheer ease of creation and collaboration, they're a brilliant little educational tool!

Student-created discipline specific sites (what a mouthful!)
One of the best ways of knowing if you know something is trying to explain it to others, so why not use a Google Site to get your students doing that? For example, AllAboutLinguistics.com - brilliant site which shows the power of student collaboration and along the way improves students’ digital literacy as well as providing a great resource for prospective students

Team wiki
Create a Google Site to act as a team wiki with page templates to structure the content people put in and get them collaborating! You’ll have a living breathing dynamic wiki started in no time.

Club or society site
Belong to a club or society and want to promote it to others? Why not try a Google Site? You can embed a Google Calendar to share important dates of events as well as share files / photos / reports from the club too.

An example Google Sites ePortfolio, this one's for
Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology

ePortfolio
Get students to create themselves an ePortfolio using Google Sites where they can use pages to structure the items they want to share and can embed media-rich examples such as video, audio, presentations etc, to demonstrate competence across a range of areas.

Research presentation
Have your students research a particular subject and get them to present their findings using a Google Site. They can include docs they’ve created, videos they’ve found as well as use pages to put their findings into their own words

Open online classroom
What about creating an online learning environment using a Google Site? If you want to collaborate between the university and the wider community, giving access to all parties can be problematic with standard virtual learning environments... but using a Google Site to share lessons / content / tutorials could be a great way to open up your classroom.

Departmental website
If you’ve got documents you’d like to share with a large group of colleagues, then sorting out sharing for all of them and making sure that they don’t disappear if someone leaves can be a problem. A Google Site, complete with page permissions to give authorship to the right individuals, is an excellent way of giving people a central place they can find out what’s what.

Help and support resources
Tired of answering the same question over and over from your students? Maybe a Google Site where they can easily find answers... and contribute their own as the course goes along... could be a great way of making life simpler for everyone. It doesn’t just have to be text, it’s easy to insert videos into your pages too.

Cross-departmental working
Students on French courses sharing work with Engineers? Chemists and Musicians? A Google Site could be a great way to get students from different departments sharing and for you to share content with them.

Online staff development
Finding time to attend a staff development event can be a complete pain in a busy schedule. A Google Site with resources which people can work through at their own pace is a golden opportunity for you to support others while demonstrating how useful online learning can be! What do you know about that others might want to know about? Could you get a group of people together to create a Google Site sharing their expert knowledge for others to work through? That could be the starting point for something excellent!

There ya go... 10 ideas for using Google Sites in Education!

Sarah

I was working late in the Labs one night..... or how to tune up your Gmail experience

For many years I had been a die-hard mail client user. For me, web based mailers were an impoverished relative with reduced functionality, and a very distinct lack of aesthetic appeal. But a few months ago, as part of my involvement with promoting the use of Google Apps at the University, I decided to take the plunge and and give Gmail  go from within my browser.

There's a host of good reasons for doing this, as Sarah pointed out in a previous posting.  But it’s also fair to say that using the out-of-the-box version can be a bit of a raw experience - so here’s a few things I’ve found to make it a bit more like your favourite client....


1 - Get yourself a shiny new browser.... 
Ok so not strictly a Gmail-specific recommendation per se but worth a try. Google do suggest slightly mysteriously that “not all features” of their Apps will work on other browsers, but they don’t say which ones. However, given that pretty much all the other suggestions I have from now on are from what Google call their not fully supported Labs features, it might be a good place to start...... *

2 - The Preview Pane.
One of the first things I disliked most about Gmail’s default appearance was the featureless list of messages. The Preview Pane allows you to combine viewing a list of messages, and reading individual ones too, without having to double click on messages to view them. It makes it much easier for quickly switching between related but separate messages. You can choose between having a horizontal or vertical split of your mail window, and swap between them whenever you wish.

3 - Right-Side Chat. 
This enables you to move the chat “tool” to the right hand side of your Gmail window, leaving space for a few more goodies which I’ll mention below. I’d personally like them to add a “get rid of the chat tool altogether” feature as I detest it intensely - so if there’s one out there somewhere that I’m missing do please let me know.

4 - Canned response.  
Google’s description of this as “email for the truly lazy” is arguably a bit harsh. These are email templates by any other name, and are invaluable if you find yourself repeatedly having to send  the  formulaic “Dear Dr xxx, as previously noted, you really will have to turn the podium mic on in order to convert the pressure waves that come out of your mouth into the kind of electrical waves that the lecture capture system uses to record your lecture” type  responses to routine enquiries. Pretty basic functionality really and kind of makes you wonder why Google didn’t include it by default.

My customised Gmail view, with Google Docs and Calendar preview on. 

5 - Google Calendar and Google Docs Gadgets. 
These are both separate features but do pretty much the same thing - they show a miniature version of your Calendar and Docs list in the left hand side of your mail window. Yes that’s right - in the space you recovered by moving the crappy intrusive time-bandit chat window to the right-hand side as suggested in (3) above.

6 - Google Docs preview in mail. 
This one’s pretty handy for getting to see a Google Doc inline with an email message, and includes Spreadsheets and Presentations as well as standard text Docs. It also includes a link so you can open the Doc in a new window.


7 - Create a Document. 
This one is actually one of my favourites, and is really useful when you’ve received a chain of correspondence relating to a particular project you’re working on. This one provides a another small arrow on the top of the message window that slightly confusingly looks exactly the same as the arrow that opens the message in a new window, so  maybe a small amount of interface development for you folks over there at Google?


8 - Undo Send. 
Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation whereby you accidentally send a frank and forthright appraisal of a certain “leading provider” of learning technology products to a national list of professional colleagues with over 1,000 subscribers by mistake, and rather wish you hadn’t. Get the picture?  You’ve got 10 seconds..... 9....8....7.....

9 - Send and Archive. 
This is one that I think has graduated into the core product, as I know I installed it as a Lab feature but isn’t listed as such anymore. If you’re ever in that situation when  someone sends you a message that isn’t quite irrelevant enough to ignore and delete, yet imponderably seems to defy being sufficiently important to warrant filing away, then this one’s good. Politely reply and then it’s gone.

10 - Being able to click and drag a group of selected messages onto an appropriate label on the left hand side. 
This clearly isn’t the name of the feature and I think like 9 above it’s not in the Labs list anymore. I doubt you need me to explain what it does now, but it’s worthy of note because (a) you might not know it’s there and (b) drag and drop functionality is something often missing from browser-based mail interfaces.

* Labs features can be accessed by going to your settings, and choosing Labs from the horizontal menu. They have many useful features, and quite a few totally naff ones, some of them graduate into fully-fledged default Gmail features, and some are so obvious they should have been there from the start  They are unsupported, and can “change,break or disappear at any time” according to Google. But then again, so can many other things in the computing industry......

Graham

So, what can you actually do with a Chromebook?

At the English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC) we recently bought 16 Chromebooks to allow teachers and students a bit more flexibility with computers. We do have three computer labs at our centre, but the fixed layout of those rooms means that it does discourage collaboration and teachers feel obliged to use the PCs the whole time they are in there. With the Chromebooks, they can be taken into class, used when needed, but then set aside when the teacher wants to focus on other things. 

Our Chromebooks quietly charging

And why Chromebooks rather than netbooks or tablets? Several reasons, price was a consideration, though the ones we got were probably dearer than some netbooks and not that much cheaper than an ipad (Samsung have recently released even cheaper ones though).

Speed was a factor: because Chromebooks don’t run a full operating system, they start up very quickly, ready to use within ten seconds. Netbooks - on the other hand - with their slow processors and limited ram can take a long time to boot up into Windows and that can lead to a lot of dead time in the classroom.

It also helps that we use Google Apps at our university as well. From within the Chrome OS, it's very simple to sign in and out with your Google account and have access to email, docs and calendar. This would be a particular issue with ipads, I'm really not sure how multiple users could securely sign in and out of them.

But what can you do with the Chromebooks once you've got them in the hands of the students? Here are some suggestions based on my limited use with them over the last few months:

Collaborative document creation and editing

Through Google Documents, it’s very easy to create a shared document for the class and then get different sections of the class to work on different parts of it. As an example, a few days ago I wanted to get my students to brainstorm the kinds of questions they might be asked by interviewers in an exam. I created a Google Document and then brainstormed various topic areas (food, transport, studies etc) and added them as header titles on the document. Students were then assigned one of those topics in their small groups and used the Chromebooks to add questions to each one.

I had the whole document up on the projector screen and it was fascinating to watch the document being created in real time as students added their ideas to it. It also meant that it was then easy to look at it together and discuss the appropriacy and accuracy of the questions they created. 

Students working together using Chromebooks

Backchannelling and polling

There are lots of ways to get ongoing feedback and reactions from students during your lesson. One way is to set up a back channel where students can add comments or questions and which the tutor can refer to later. Today's Meet is an excellent example, simple to set up and doesn't require any registration, just a weblink. Alternatively you could periodically check students understanding using a polling or quiz tool such as Poll Everywhere, Strawpoll or Socrative. 

Posterboards for brainstorming

A great way to brainstorm ideas is to use a posterboard site like Wallwisher or Linoit. Multiple students can edit the same board at the the same time and they can add video, pictures, text or documents. At the end they have often produced something that is both informative and visually attractive. I’ve used it to brainstorm arguments for essays or for students to create informal presentations on subjects. Of the two Wallwisher is the easiest to set up but Linoit is the most reliable. And rather like using Google Docs collaboratively, you can see the the page being created in front of everybody on the class projector. 

Brainstorming from students in Linoit

Webquests

A webquest is a series of tasks that students have to complete collaboratively using the internet.
For our students at the ELTC, having tasks that encourage real world skills while learning English at the same time can be very useful and webquests are perfect for that. I’ve done various quests with our students: one of them involved them discussing the features needed in shared student accommodation and then going to the Right Move website to find a suitable house they could live in. Another one got them to plan a trip together for the weekend in a small group with a limited budget. They had to use hotel, transport and tourist sites to plan the weekend and then write up a short description on a Google Doc for others to read and comment on.

These webquests are specific to our learners at the ELTC, but these could obviously be adapted to whatever subject you are teaching.

Could all of these tasks have been done as easily on a netbook or a tablet? On a netbook probably yes, but using a device with Windows would have meant slower boot up times and shorter battery life. And on an administrative level, the amount of maintenance needed for a Windows device (installing programmes, anti-virus etc) is far greater than a Chromebook, so life is much easier on the technicians. As for a tablet, probably not, Google Docs is still awkward on both ios and Android and I’m not sure how well a tablet could handle the kind of task-switching needed for some of these activities.

As a teacher and technology coordinator, I’m very happy with the Chromebooks, minimal training and upkeep, excellent battery life and portability and most of all they allow students and teachers to engage both with each other and with the technology at the same time.