Bored of politics? Read this instead.

Adding audio to a Slideshare presentation

Last year, I uploaded a few presentations that I’d made on to Slideshare.  Although I’d been happy with the actual presentation, the slides don’t really stand-alone without the audio.  I only really gathered that once I’d uploaded them.  In fact – they’re pretty useless without vocal explanation.

To be honest, I’d forgotten all about them until earlier on this evening when I uploaded a Pecha Kucha that I’m going to do at this years JISC RSC NW Annual Event, in June.  Pecha Kuchas are supposed to be done live, on-the-fly, so it doesn’t really have any audio at the moment – I’ve got to make it up on the day   I do have a pre-recorded Pecha Kucha on my Slideshare from last years RSC NW conference – that has audio (though I sound like I’m submerged at one point!)

Anyway – I thought I ought to try to add some audio to one of my slideshares… The technique is called a ’slide-cast’ on Slideshare.

What did I do?

I recorded the audio on my iPhone using iPadio – straight forward just uploaded it to iPadio as usual. Then in Slideshare I edited the existing presentation and chose to create a slide-cast. At this point you can either upload or link to and existing mp3 file. Once the audio has been imported, you can drag out the markers on the audio timeline underneath the slides – just match it up as you want, then preview & save it.

I’m rather pleased with this first effort. A lot easier to follow, rather than just looking at a load of slides without really understanding what is going on. Really good presentation slides shouldn’t have too much information on them and are only there to enhance the presenters chat – so having them online without audio is not so good.

reasons to be cheerful, part III

This is a follow-on from my post about the BECTA ‘Time to Innovate’ Conference 2010.

Reasons to be cheerful, part I

OK, I’ve slept on it – perhaps I came to the conference full of optimism due to the success and scale of the 2009 BECTA conference?  Perhaps I was interpreting ‘time to innovate’ as a call to arms – “be innovative with learning technology”!  Perhaps I was feeling good because we’ve been part of BECTA TEN Phase 1 & 2 and we have a MoLeNET Phase 3 project, and also had good case studies written about our effective practice with technology.

Reason to be cheerful? I know that we’re on the right tracks and are committed to utilizing learning technologies for all the right reasons.  I’m lucky that I’m allowed space, time & funding to be innovative in my job role.

Reasons to be cheerful, part II

It was interesting that James Clay posed a question to the conference Q&A panel, on the lines of – ‘How can we innovate, learn and progress, if funding streams, statistics and OFSTED, etc. penalize innovation?’ correct me, if I totally misrepresented that, James There were also some good Tweets within the conference stream which were still questioning and challenging, rather than just (virtually) nodding along with what the speakers had to say.

Reason to be cheerful? People are still prepared to be innovative and challenge the conventional.  I’ve always worked to a personal maxim: “If I don’t innovate, I stagnate”.

Reasons to be cheerful, part III

I’m back at my desk, facing some new challenges… the coming financial year will be tight (we all know that), changes at the LSC mean we go back under Local Authority control from April 1st -  I’m not yet sure what that will mean for us.

Reason to be cheerful? I have a great job, have wonderful staff, am involved in some amazing projects  – and possibly most importantly… I am part of a fantastic extended community of practice stretching around the globe – fellow practitioners and educators who are prepared to be innovative, share what they are doing and encourage others to do the same.

If you’re happy and you know it – clap your hands

Shibboleth Implementation at BSFC

BECTA TEN Profile

MoLeNET thin.clusion

Feedback from Textwall at #JISCRSCNW09

At the recent JISC RSC NW event #jiscrscnw09, we (BSFC) ran a textwall at our exhibition stand, to try and gain feedback from colleagues and hopefully generate some interesting exchanges of dialog.

Here’s a mash-up of a few of the responses:

1. Barriers – funding & time? NO. Barriers- culture change and perception of tech use
2. Students are ‘up for’ new learning styles & tech: are our staff?
3. Barriers? Barriers only exist if you allow them to! Take control
4. Enable and empower students – they’ll teach us how to use tech

As you might gather – the theme of the day, was ‘Barriers to Learning’

Anyone care to challenge, expand, or concur with the above?

Please post replies at the botom of this blog entry.

Tech banter #1

There are so many portable, personal devices being used. Just take a look at people in their everyday lives – there is the evidence, right in front of you. Now we can argue about the content and purposeful nature of what is being communicated – but we can’t deny that mobile communication and participation is happening now on a lager scale.

My ‘tech’ point is this: will institutional systems and networks shrink physically at the user-end and grow at the core? I think we will inevitably end up supporting a virtual system which houses data and provides enhanced WiFi systems & features.

At this point we (the institution) will not control the use of hardware or software – it is coming in already with cheap/free web & mail on decent smartphones. I’m sitting on the bus on my way to work – but I could well be a student doing an assignment?

So, I’m done – just got to Save and this is published on the web direct from the No. 38 bus, as we drive through Birkenhead North. I didn’t need to use my institution’s network.

OK – I’m sitting at my iMac now, in my office and I can pick up the blog entry sent from my iPhone on the bus.  I know this (WordPress) is not an ‘official’ college application – but I could have used one – and does it matter anyway?

Tech point: Our technology is changing rapidly; less focus on the physical user-machine, more emphasis on the infrastructure to transport data in a flexible manner (WiFi) and certainly, a boom in virtualization of services at the core server end.

Are we (technical services staff) ready for this – I think our college is up there, but inevitably there are the ‘late majority’ and the ‘laggards’.  I was speaking with an ex-colleague last week at JISCRSCNW09 conference, and she is rather infuriated that her technical services are not pro-active and forward thinking – the knock-on effect is that they are becoming part of the ‘barriers to learning’.

#JISCRSCNW09

This year, the Annual Conference was billed as the Annual Event and included a pre-event dinner and JISC Services ‘speed-dating’ activity.

I have been to many RSCNW events and conferences but this year we negotiated an exhibition stand for the college, to showcase the work our eLearning Champions have been undertaking in conjunction with the college ENGAGE project.  ENGAGE is a college-wide initiative to introduce and embed Learner Owned Devices into everyday teaching and Learning.  One day, I hope we will not be referring to eLearning or mLearning, but simply have it embedded as learning.

ENGAGE came about as a response to our unsuccessful MoLeNET (2) bid.  We (College) were already working as part of  the BECTA Technology Exemplar Network and I had been on the pilot LSIS Collaborative Leadership Skills and Technology programme. We knew we had experience, skills, enthusiasm and pedagogical cases for looking to actively promote mLearning – ENGAGE was an opportunity borne out of a lack of funding.  Our students have mobile devices, they are often more advanced than our own – college cannot fund equipment on that scale and certainly could not maintain or sustain it.  Students also know how to use their own devices and are comfortable with them – they carry them everywhere.  I’ve blogged about this a week or so ago…

Back to #JISCRSCNW09 – I found it to be both an interesting and successful format.  The RSC had taken the brave decision to break away from the usual conference format of Keynote1, Keynote2, Seminar1… etc. and created a flowing event, which included Pecha Kucha presentations, open-house seminars (what! no need to pre-book?!!!) plus plenty of event stands comprising most of JISC/JANET services along with service providers and universities & colleges.

We had many visitors to our stand and felt we had a very successful day, both through making new contacts and also establishing some new funding opportunities and collaboration possibilities.  I would like to think we also got a few people thinking about the work we have been carrying out and hope to have shown that you should not give up on an idea if you’re not successful gaining the funding.

Thanks to all at the JISC RSC NW Office for a really worthwhile and successful event.

Key points from the day: Pecha Kucha – Kevin Hickey and David Sugden.

Also a mention for:

Beaumont College stand – always inspiring, Jane

LSIS – helpful and informative as always

BECTA – likewise, friendly and informative