Electric Chalk

I’m shattered! 

We’re working with one of our partnerships schools on a project with some 11-year olds where they record a desert-island diary entry in Audacity and create an mp3 out of it.

We want to be able to then put the mp3 onto the VLE but have hit a real snag.

Far from making the process of saving and sharing work easier, having the learning platform involved makes it harder.

The issue is that when you log into the VLE (MS Sharepoint in our case) where there is a document folder for saved work in some applications like Open Office and MS Office you can see these folders when you click on “Save Project As…” 

The problem with Audacity is that it can’t see these web-based folders so at the moment we have to go through a lengthy process of saving the work in progress to either a document folder or the local machine and then copying and pasting into the web folder.

This is harder than it sounds when you have a reluctant, stroppy group of Y11’s and understandably the partner teachers are anxious about taking the project on themselves as it seems too complicated.

I have a dual plan of attack on this and I’ll keep you updated on the outcome.

I’m going to BETT this year so will accost the Microsoft stand for their advice but I’ve also emailed the Audacity developer team with the suggestion that they include the ability to sve to web folders in a future release.

It’ll be interesting to see how much value they developers put on finding a solution and whether a pleb like me can influence development of a piece of open-source software.

NOTE: Here’s an update… (10th Dec 2008)

Another good piece from Teachers’ TV. Part of their excellent ICT SOS series.

I’ve talked about using VLE’s to list suggested links for students rather than free-Googling. Here they suggest using MS Publisher to create an HTML page and including writing frames in the document to help them structure their responses - a great idea as just expecting the students to write what they find isn’t effective.

Check out the resources page for instructions and lists of software.

The 2nd part is about podcasting to help with revision and is also worth your time.

I’m going to have a play with the Podomatic podcasting software featured and post an evaluation for you before Christmas.

(Note: The spelling on the link in the resources document is wrong - my link should work fine)

Oxford and Cambridge universities have started posting podcasts on the iTunes U store. They join the OU and University College London in making media from UK Uni’s available through this outlet. There is a tonne of stuff from American Uni’s too.

Go to the iTunes U website to find out more.

The content is obviously higher ed but it might be useful for A’Level teaching resources and giving school students a glimpse of what learning at university might be like (I guess one of the motivations for  putting the stuff up there).

I particularly like the Naked Scientist podcasts from Cambridge uni. Really smoothly produced but also fun and entertaining. Check their website.

Also, if you are interested in embedding technology into teaching and learning then Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation has an interesting series called Technology Integration on there. Better than the Phantom Menace at any rate!

Here’s a wasted opportunity.

Amazing Grades have a series of podcasts done on a range of topics and you can preview them here.

Is it too much to expect that if you get Harry Hill to do a podcast on Galen that it might be funny? I’m not being trivial here. I was quite excited about listening to this podcast and I imagine that a lot of kids would be grabbed by the possibility, too. How many would switch off and do something else after 2 minutes of listening to Harry reading off a dry, uninspiring script?

Here’s a tip: If you’re getting into podcasting materials for your students think about the quality of the writing. Just sticking you talking onto an MP3 in the hope that it will find its way onto their iPods might be a waste of time.

Don’t be afraid to be funny, controversial even a little dramatic. A little cheese sometimes goes a long way.