Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 22:43 @gpirie knock 'em dead! #
- 10:12 Five ways to welcome your community members or new students tinyurl.com/4k59pq #
- 10:52 Grrr Thunderbird not downloading or sending email. It updated itself recently - could this be the problem but- how to solve it? #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
New government watchdog to keep kids safe on the net
Following the Byron report, the Government has founded The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), an internet watchdog that aims to help protect children from "harmful" web content, such as cyber-bullying and violent video games. There seem to be a lot of big organisations involved, but I hope they have a few independent individuals who actually know what they are talking about.
After ten years running a website full of user-generated by children I am well aware of the dangers and go to great lengths to ensure that children are safe on my site and on any others that they might go to. All content on Kids on the Net is pre-moderated and stripped of anything that could uniquely identify a child.
If the new organisation aims to teach children about web dangers, target harmful net content and establish a code of conduct for sites featuring material uploaded by users, I hope they incorporate some of the excellent materials and websites already out there and that the code of practice is sensible and practical.
Children's web watchdog launched from the BBC.
Labels: child safety online, childrenssafety, Kids on the Net, kidsonthenet.com, online identity, privacy, UKCCIS, watchdog
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:16 AM
Monday, 29 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 18:04 @francesbell good job with the story! Defo would intrigue me! #
- 18:32 Welcome to new followers. I am honoured that you think my tweets worth something :) I will endeavour to tweet usefully! #
- 09:39 Final preparations for training this afternoon - technical & moderation aspects of running a community #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:12 AM
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 10:44 Wondering how helpful one's tweets need to be before making it onto Jane Hart's list... #
- 10:45 Setting up some inspiring activities for Season Of Inspiration creative writing course. Still space for writers to join us... #
- 10:46 Can you write a whole story in the length of a tweet? Include love, religion and mystery... eg "God, I'm pregnant. I wonder who it was?" #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Saturday, 27 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 14:58 One community moderator manual finished :) #
- 10:25 A little bird sang prettily daily from the top of a very tall tree outside my window. This morning they chopped the tree down. #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:10 AM
Friday, 26 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 09:16 Drupal tweaking today. Taxonomies and access... #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 08:20 Vint Cerf on breakfast TV ... a great man but interviewers called him a genius as though he wasn't understandable or clear - and he was #
- 08:22 @alexlockwood why not develop a style of writing about the same thing eg tech from different angles. And include a lot of link posts! #
- 09:57 Get your kids to submit their monsters and spells for the Halloween season www.kidsonthenet.com/ #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Twitter tweets from Helen (helenrf)
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- 11:22 Installed another blog! I am a blog addict. #
- 18:05 I've written two community engagement plans today. Good jobs done I trust! #
- 08:49 @nrparmar hope the moodling goes well! #
- 08:52 What are your favourite gadgets? tinyurl.com/3tg9d3 #
- 11:04 Trying out a possible way to post tweets to my blog (not as a separate widget) www.loudtwitter.com #
Labels: academic blogs, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
My favourite gadgets
Chris Brogan asked on Twitter "Have you got too many gadgets?" and pointed to a video by Paolo Tosolini about gadgets.
My business partner has just acquired a mini-netbook with built in broadband. I've seen a lot of these handy gadgets at conferences, and when I'm clattering away on my noisy keyboard and lugging a heavy large laptop around, I do hanker after a mini. But at times like today when the laptop is my desktop workhorse, I prefer its large size and screen.
My favourite gadget though for portability and everything else is my HTC TyTN II. I've had it just under a year and I love it. It does so much! It's a phone, it has two cameras, a sound recorder (basic but adequate for my purposes), a touch screen, a slide-out tilting keyboard and Windows mobile. I can take notes, take and store photos and videos, record audio, draw rough sketches, keep my calendar, wake up in the morning with one of three alarms, and so much more - I keep finding new applications.... I haven't even activated the satnav yet... The only thing I've found it can't do is connect to a projector directly from Powerpoint mobile - but it can do so via a laptop.
Unfortunately I may have used it too much - one or two of the keys on the dinky keyboard are sticking a bit. Should I send it back while it's still in warranty? But I can't bear to be without it now!
What are your favourite gadgets?Labels: gadgets, HTC TyTN II, HTCTyTN, PDA, smartphone
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:31 AM
Friday, 19 September 2008
Season of Inspiration online creative writing course
Just putting final touches to our Season of Inspiration online writing course that starts October 6th. I love teaching these courses as online spaces are really brilliant for writing workshops and students respond well to one another. We use Moodle of course. And we have another set of brilliant exciting materials - well they encourage me to write anyway. This time both Sharon and I are well and raring to go!
A few places still left for anyone who'd like to join us :)Season of Inspiration is back again with our trademark supportive, friendly, online writing community and all-new inspiration!
Yet again we will be dipping into a variety of sources of inspiration, from nature to music to landscape. From mesostic poems to mystery stories, there’ll be formats and genres to experiment with. We aim to provide inspiration for writing that’ll see you through the rest of 2008. We offer support, exercises and creative bolstering.
Come whether you’re bursting with ideas to try out or whether you want to rediscover your creativity. Designed so that you can work at your own level (whether you’re starting out as a writer or seeking inspiration for your next publication) with the support and encouragement of a writing community and two tutors. This is the online equivalent of a writers’ workshop, not a lonely self-study course. Students are welcome from anywhere in the world (the course is run in English).
http://reachfurther.com/index.php/courses/soi/Labels: creative writing, online writing courses, online writing school
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:51 AM
Friday, 12 September 2008
ALT-C report: Audio feedback & podcasting
This is the first of a series of posts reporting on papers and happenings at the ALT-C conference held this week in Leeds.
Bob Rotheram (Leeds Met) reported on the Sounds Good pilot about giving audio feedback to students, both formative and summative feedback on coursework.The technology involved direct-to-mp3 recorders (with direct USB connectors), free Audacity audio editing software and WIMBA voice-tools. The resulting files could be delivered via email, through the VLE or via mobile devices.
Very practical tips for technical setup & for advice on how to structure audio feedback, plus other useful information is available at the Sounds Good website
The headline is -students like audio feedback!
It can save staff time but only if:
Staff type slowly but speak quickly
Staff are comfortable with the technology
Staff give lots of feedback - it's not worth it for just a few words or marks.
The Closer! educational podcasting pilot and continuing research was reported by Andrew of Sheffield Hallam. The technology involved adding the the Podcast LX module to Blackboard VLE.
Headline news:
- Students prefer to access podcasts thru VLE (rather than mobile devices)
- Staff want variety in the VLE
There was no real enthusiasm around RSS podcasts in this context, which seems to be typical of educational podcasting within institutions. Where students have access to a VLE they aren't really interested in subscription ability.
I feel this means that what is being produced aren't really podcasts but digital audio files. However, many of the same issues apply to podcasts as to this type of educational audio.
Digital audio is seen as an everywhere technology: acessible, reliable, flexible, easy to use, appropriate, an 'everywhere' technology.
Advantages of digital audio include:
- voice and presence (eg empathy, significance, emphasis)
- timeliness, currency, immediacy, authenticity
- constructionism (student design and generation)
- formative intervention
- media seeding further learning activity – ie challenging, provoking, motivating, and orientating
- variety & teaching “punctuation”
New and emerging technologies provide innovative opportunities for new and emerging pedagogies.
Some of the possible uses of digital audio include:
- Audio Glossary
- Professional Briefings
- Newscasting
- Field assignments
- clinical skills vodcasts
- learning stories
- audio announcements
- found audio
- peer assessed AF
- Conversatonal AF
- Broadcast AF
- Audio Scaffolding
- Tutor centred PC AF
- Audo Conversations
- Audio Summaries
- Vox pops
- Audio features
- Audio FAQs
- Global Experts Voices
- Audio Introductions.
Labels: ALTC2008, elearning, learning technologies
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:47 AM
Sunday, 7 September 2008
ALT-C conference Edubloggers meet-up
I really should be blogging about the ALT-C conference...
I'll be attending the fourth (but my first) ALT-C Edublogger meetup next week, taking place at Leeds Student Union Mine Bar, Tuesday 9th September, 19.30 onwards.
Apparently: " We may be moving on somewhere else but we'll stay at the Mine Bar until at least 20.30. We've been lucky enough to have had some great special guests at previous meetups - including James Farmer, Stephen Downes, Barbara Dieu, Christopher D. Sessums and Barbara Ganley. This year's meeting promises to be as jam packed with world-class edubloggers as ever, including Scott Wilson and Graham Attwell. George Siemens will also be in town - he's speaking at ALT-C early Wednesday - and I'm looking forward to meeting up with him for the first time in 3D. As every - this is an informal, fun get together. You don't have to dress up and you don't have to be an old school edublogger to come along. Everyone who has an interest in edublogging is welcome. To co-inside with F-ALT, the first ever grass roots fringe event at ALT, which will be tackling a range of cutting edge topics in a fast, dynamic debate framework, we'll be holding the microblogging session on the night. Su White will be facilitating speakers Helen Whitehead, James Clay, Jay Cousins, Andy Powell & maybe Josie Fraser in a kung-fu style roundtable. Good quality heckling and any imaginative audience participation will be entirely welcome."
I have no idea what a kung-fu style round table is. But I'll find out on Tuesday!Labels: ALTC2008, blogging, conference, edubloggers
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:12 PM
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
The devil is in the detail!
Think small - while great things are happening in the world at the moment, it seems that several of the bloggers I read have turned their thoughts to the micro scale.
From the importance of finding a creative space of your own, however tiny, from blogger Quinncreative, through the microbloggers on Twitter whom I follow every day, to the uses of microsites from the perspective of technology stewardship and community, around now small is beautiful!
I have always believed that it is worth paying attention to the small details in any project.
One example - from education, designing courses using technology - is to use a 'reality checker' to go through the e-tivity instructions in an online course to check that it will be as clear to participants what they must do and why as it is to the tutor/learning designer.
Another example is to pay attention to the detail of how users will navigate your website or community - will a logical menu structure for the newcomer still work for the community member who returns often and just wants to get straight to the new discussions?
Attention to detail at the micro level is often the difference between success and failure - a course which participants finish and feel they got value from - or a community the members of which are lively and engaged.Labels: attention to detail, microblogging, micrsites
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:34 AM
