It must be possible and would be incredibly useful if Skype automatically indicated when someone was already in a Skype conversation. This would save a lot of time refusing invites or toggling between conversations making apologies and explaining that you are already in a call.
It would also be nice if individuals could be added one-by-one into conferences that are already underway rather than having to start again. iChat can manage that!
Myself and many of my colleagues use an application called SubEthaEdit (a Mac application although there may be a PC equivalent) to author documents collaboratively in real time when working in different parts of the country – we are a remote team. Essentially, we can work on the same document in real time through the SubEthaEdit application with a simple exchange of IP addresses.
Coupled with the use of Skype (headset required with microphone for best results) we can work together authoring and editing documents.
Many of you may work as I do, but a problem has been to find a cross platform equivalent so we can work with colleagues who use other platforms. Peter Twining of the Open University pointed me at jotlive.com that is a web based solution that has a fair stab at achieving the same as SubEthaEdit. It is not as slick as it is browser based, but a big advantage is that it doesn’t matter what platform you use. Worth a look if you want to explore this kind of working.
These powerful collaborative working tools are free or relatively cheap. So why not have a go with your colleagues and spare the planet a journey or two to work? Not that I have any scope for being ‘holier-than-thou’ about my carbon footprint!
A nice little web service brought to us from the Frappr team called slide.com This online album tool enables easy upload (irritatingly only one at a time), drag and drop re-ordering, a choice of transitions to create a web slide show like the one below. Viewers get to chose the speed and there is also a downloadable application to make the creation of slide shows quicker.
Lots of educational possibilities with this one…..
My particular choice of slides is from a post conference outing in September 2004, to see the Hector’s Dolphins in Akaroa Harbour near Christchurch NZ.
Reading a Demos pamphlet ‘Wide Open – Open source methods and their future potential’ set me thinking how we could utilise the ideas behind open source to develop a better learning experience for undergraduate students.
In September 2006, the Ultraversity project will have to re-author the entire set of modules on its Ba (Hons), Learning, Technology and Research pathway (BALTR) as Anglia Ruskin University moves to a 15/30 credit rating for all modules. Why not take this opportunity to embrace aspects of open source methodology in an attempt to address the ongoing and difficult challenge we face of authoring module instructions that:
- have learning activities relevant to the students needs and circumstances
- are clear and unambiguous in their meaning
- provide a clear framework for the assessment products required
- combine to provide for a ‘delightful’ learning experience
To do this we will put together an ‘Aunt Sally’ of a module including instructions, resources and assessment products on a wiki. We will then invite our current students to make sense of it – that is edit the content and collaborate on the interpretation of the module definition form – step 2 in the diagram above.
Hopefully this will reduce the dissonance between steps 2-5 by engaging students in the process at the earliest stage possible, that is prior to the negotiation of their own individual learning plan and contract.
Before the start date of the module we will ‘freeze’ the wiki so that everyone is working on a level playing field. Clearly, as we are responsible for the quality assurance of the degree pathway we will maintain a leadership role and ensure that the resources and instructions will enable students to achieve the desired outcomes. In talking this approach we will, as far as possible, adhere to at least some of the characteristics identified by DEMOS as OSM – these are outlined below.
Background
The BALTR degree it is a tricky pathway to deliver for several reasons. Our modules are very generic in nature in that they have no discipline content (that is no subject benchmark statements to determine the content) and are all about workbased learning, are delivered wholly online through online learning communities with a social constructivist learning philosophy – a messy but powerful cocktail mix for HE learning that focuses on the ‘knowing why and how to’ within a discipline negotiated and identified at the individual level.
The degree is undertaken by people from a wide range of backgrounds including education, the health service, office administrators and more which means that the module definition forms have no subject content such as prescribed by benchmark statements
Open Source Methodology
The key principles that underpin OSM are collaborative working and openness (transparency) about the management and decision making process. The DEMOS booklet poses the question could these principles be utlised across a wide range of disciplines to enhance teams that produce knowledge, goods or services.
The booklet identifies ten characteristics of open source projects which are listed below, but more significantly identifies ‘children’ of OSM that display applications of some of the same ideas of OSM. These are divided into three categories:
- open knowledge
- open team working
- open conversations
A selection of 12 examples are then identified as prompts for thought and experimentation about where aspects OSM could be applied under 8 headings; media, public sector, law, academia, arts, health, finance and social innovation.
A stark omission for me was that of education. What better domain to apply the basic principles of OSM? So in the spirit of the publication, I thought how could we in the Ultraversity project explore this approach?
Negotiation and personalisation is at the heart of the learning experience we offer in the Ultraversity project.
DEMOS identified characteristics of OSM:
- Transparency
- Vetting of participants only after they get involved
- Low cost and ease of engagement
- A legal structure and enforcement mechanism
- Leadership
- Common standards
- Peer review and feedback loops
- A shared conception of goals
- Incrementalist – small players can still make useful contributions
- Powerful non-monetary incentives
When I am listening to music on iTunes through my head set and I call someone using , iTunes pauses the track immediately. But this is the cool bit, when I hang up the audio gently fades back in, that is no sudden ‘thump’ of sound. Attention to detail at Skype mission HQ Рwell done!
For anyone who doesn’t know, Skype is a technology that enables conversations over the Internet. This means that between computers, apart from your Internet service providers charges, it is free to talk to anyone anywhere in the world with the free Skype application installed and an Internet connection.
Anyone interested in a ‘State of the Nation’ report on media literacy amongst children in the UK should take a look at this detailed audit brought to us by Ofcom. Apparently, they are the body responsible for the promotion of media literacy in the UK and the definition of which, according to Ofcom, is ‘the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts’.
Reading through the data, I was surprised by the 35% of 12-15 year group who don’t use the Internet at home, the same number who don’t own mobile phones, although not necessarily the same individuals. One interpretation could be that we are indeed becoming a nation of ‘digital natives’ but at the same time we also have a significant and worrying ‘digital divide’.
Some facts that struck me
Internet Use:
48% 8-11 year olds use the Internet use at home (boys 54% – girls 42%) for a self reported average of 4.4 hours a week
65% 12-15 year olds use the Internet at home (no gender bias) for a self-reported 6.2 hrs
Phone Use:
65% of 12-15 year olds own a mobile phone
49% of 8-11 year olds own a mobile phone with a sharp increase at 10 years of age
Top 2 reasons for having a phone were given as to talk to friends for girls and to keep in touch with family for boys. Most popular use for phones was first texting, then making phone calls, and third playing games.
