CC Image - Karen Cropper - Attribution

Martin Weller’s blog, The Ed Techie, was the first technology blog that I followed and he’s a constant stream of intrestingness. His latest post is really valuable for anyone interested in ed-tech generally, but also open educational models specifically. He has done interviews with a number of OU luminaries (Martin Bean, Grainne Conole, Andrew Law and Simon Buckinham-Shum) and basically asked them 4 questions:

• What are the benefits of technology for learning?
• What are the interesting areas around openness at the moment?
• Are there any interesting trends we should watch over the next few years?
• What do you think about the open, online approach of the conference?

The interviews are between 8 and 15 minutes long each.

I was particularly interested in Grainne Conole’s point about moving towards more open models of research and blogging ideas in progress to get the communities input rather than waiting to publish them in closed  journals.

The conference is running next week on the 22nd and 23rd June and he’s posted the agenda here. Follow Martin’s blog and his Tweets for more info.

PS: Trying to embed this playlist was an unexpected hassle. Ended up having to go into the source code of Martin’s blog and copying the embed code from there. Thanks to Steve for his help. Do you know an easier way?

I thought it needed sharing. Please have a look and let Catherine know what you think.

Now, go and look at the Sheffield South CLC blog for more ideas and a showcase of the work they’re doing.

And we beheld it and lo, it did exactly what it was supposed to in a drag and drop-type way.

I really wanted to take it forward and provide a nice easy way for the students to give comments and rate the videos but that would have taken up hours of developer time. 

Now, along comes Fliggo! Yay!

In short, Fliggo allows you to set up your own video sharing site for free. You can then control who has access, who can upload and comment etc.

I’ve had a go so I can formally announce the arrival of “CHALK TUBE” our very own TV channel! Mostly as an experiment to test the software but if any of my faithful readership (both of you) want to post any videos to do with teaching using digital video please feel free – it’s moderated, mind so no filth!

It took about 5 minutes to set up and I’ve just uploaded videos I have elsewhere on YouTube. The picture quality is not great but will do for now. Nice and easy for us sub-genuis techies.

It would be a great free resource in schools and reasonably secure. Great for primaries who have been working on video or animation projects, excellent for media teachers who want to encourage their students to experiment and collaborate.

It’s free for the basic account but you can pay $15 a month for higher video quality, the ability to host on your won domain etc.

Into the Electric Chalk Resource page it goes…

Another one for the resource directory…

Are you keen to get away from endless PowerPoints and uninspiring slideshows?

Animoto has been making waves for some time now. This is a great tool for taking a selection of still images and turning them into a professional-looking multi-media slideshow. Once you have an account it’s fairly straightforward to upload your gifs or jpegs, add text and then pick music (either your own or from their library)

Animoto then stitches them together with cool animations and you can embed, email or download as an mp4. For a fee you can get the results at DVD quality.

Here’s an example I put together. The pictures in themselves are pretty dull, they’re from a project we did on the anti-social behaviour and the built environment, but it gives you idea what can be done. It tok me about 10 minutes to make.

They have got a dedicated mini-site for education users which gives free access to just about everything for a limited period (6 months I think) so a class can access it. Check out the Learn More link for further details.

Great for creating visual interest getters, discussion starters for teachers. For students, a great way of presenting work in subjects right across the curriculum.

Loads of potential!

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m actually working when I come across things like this! Once again thanks to The Ed Techie for drawing it to our attention.

Basically, it’s a 3d animation tool for dummies. You type in your script select character costumes, pick camera angles, sounds, music etc.

The results can be crude but have a certain charm to them. Here are a few examples…

Introduction to a teaching topic on digital media

 

Something more fun…
 

Excellent tool for teaching about storyboarding and pre-production or maybe just general cross-curricular idea presentation.

Word of warning, it’s at beta stage at the mo so using it as a class activity may not be reliable. Also, when it comes out of beta testing you may find that you have to pay to put stuff up on it.

One of our first posts was about a short animation we produced at Sheffield East CLC to explain Learning Platforms to non-IT people.

We’ve had loads of interest in it most significantly from BECTA, the government body responsible for IT in schools, who are now using it as part of their training for parents and non-school people. Oxfordshire LEA are also using it and we’ve had over 1000 views on Youtube now.

Yay!

Teachers

image: http://flickr.com/photos/ush/528223663/

We love free stuff at Electric Chalk so Teachers’ TV occupies a wee niche in our hearts. For those of you in not in the UK or who haven’t come across it, Teachers’ TV is a digital channel aimed at spacemen…sorry, teachers. There are tonnes of programmes about hot topics in UK education as well as practical hints and tips for teaching and non-teaching staff.

The programmes are broadcast on TV but also streamed on the Teachers TV website and made available to download under the Creative Archive License agreement (sign-up required, UK only).

I’ve just been watching the latest instalment in the “From Good to Outstanding” series about developing teachers’ skills to OFSTED’s “outstanding” criteria and it contains plenty of good exemplar stuff on pedagogy and classroom management.

If you’re school has a learning platform I’d strongly recommend putting up a link on your staff area and highlighting programmes with a particular link to issues in your school.