Student presentations using video

Originally posted on: Student presentations using video:



Karl Flowers, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Creative Leather
Technology assesses his students through presentations and has often
found that it is difficult to schedule face-to-face time slots where all
the required parties can make it. Allowing his students to
independently record their presentations and submit them through NILE’s
video streaming tool, Kaltura, overcomes scheduling issues, enables more
use of technology for the students and enables sharing good practice
between year groups.



View the full case study here (PDF, 419KB)



'via Blog this'

All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

Learntech and iNorthampton app

Two blog entries concerning the Learning Technology Team and the iNorthampton app taken from: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/

The Learntech team 2013 – January update

by ROB HOWE on JANUARY 8, 2013 

Julie Usher left the team at the end of June 2012 and Adel Gordon subsequently moved into the role of supporting Science and Technology. Rob Farmer moved into the role of supporting Arts.

Belinda Green joined the team on 17th September as dedicated Learning Technologist for The School of Education (funded by the School). This is similar to Andy Stenhouse who is funded by The School of Health and is their dedicated Learning Technologist. Al Holloway maintains a central position with a supporting role for Education and Health – working with Belinda and Andy.

Rachel Maxwell joined the team on a part time (0.8) post on the 5th November and is picking up support for NBS from Adel Gordon.

We currently have a vacancy for Rob Davis’ post as he left on the 21st December. The interviews for this post will be held on 8th February and the successful person will pick up support for Social Sciences. This work is currently being distributed between current central team members.

From left to right (Rob Howe, Belinda Green, Rachel Maxwell, Andy Stenhouse, Rob Farmer, Adel Gordon)
Al Holloway was not available for the photo.

If staff wish to contact the Learning Technology Team please use ext 2696 or via email atLTSupport@northampton.ac.uk.

 

iNorthampton – January 2013 updates

by ROB HOWE on JANUARY 8, 2013 · LEAVE A COMMENT · in FEED BACK: YOU SAID, WE DID...,LEARNTECH NEWS

This blog posting has relevance for all iNorthampton users (Apple, Android and Blackberry)

iNorthampton has been updated on Apple devices to ensure that it is compatible with the iPhone 5 and IOS 6. This update has made a fundamental change to the way in which NILE is accessed through the app.

Following the update, when you click onto the springboard link for Bb NILE you will be directed to a second app calledBlackboard Mobile Learn (if you do not already have this app then you will be prompted to download it). This is an updated version of the tool which was previously embedded in iNorthampton.

The benefits of using Blackboard Mobile Learn means that:

• NILE will format correctly on iPads
• There is an enhanced link to notifications and announcements on your device
• Ability for mobile formatted tests where appropriate

This change (in linking to Bb Mobile Learn) will be subsequently rolled out to Android users later in the year.

Changes to the way in which Blackberry users are supported

From April 30th, 2013 iNorthampton will cease to be supported as a Blackberry application. For more details on the reason for this – please see the Mobile Central Update. The advice for Blackberry users is to add a shortcut to iNorthampton from the home screen of your BlackBerry (add shortcut to home screen feature for Blackberry OS 6+). This will allow you to access Maps, Courses, News, Events, Library, Directory, Timetables and Get Help. In order to access NILE you should download Blackboard Mobile Learn for Blackberry

How do I add a shortcut to iNorthampton on BlackBerry?

1. Visit  m.northampton.ac.uk in your BlackBerry’s browser.
2. From the BlackBerry Menu, select “Add to Homescreen”.

Tagged with: 

update: Learning across contexts – mobile for fieldwork

An update of the use of the mobile technologies for field work is available at http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/files/2012/09/Npton-Case-Study-EnvSci-Julie-Usher-and-Janet-Jackson-2011-2012.pdf


Intended outcomes

 To enable students to quickly and easily document 
findings and ideas in the field 
 To enable the student to access resources electronically
and re-use data in other learning contexts



Process

Trial use of mobile technology on two field trips, to Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve in December 2011 and to Stonehenge in February 2012. For both trips, the tutor set up a group blog in NILE, and asked the students to record their findings on site using mobile devices, and post them to the blog for 
discussion.

The Wicken Fen field trip formed part of a second year module on Habitat Ecology and Management. Students were asked to observe and record details of the wetland habitat and share their observations with the group. They also planned to use GPS to tag the exact locations of their images and notes, to share with the wider community via Flickr, an image sharing site.



Benefits and Challenges

A feedback survey revealed that students enjoyed using the devices, particularly for photography and video, which 
helped them to record a lot of data very easily. 80% of the students said that the app was ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to use. 

Connectivity was a real challenge, particularly for the Wicken Fen trip where there was very little mobile signal. This was challenging  partly because of student expectations – when handed an internet enabled device, they expected to be able to connect and start accessing information. The purpose of the trip though was for them to record their own data, and be creators rather than consumers, so expectations needed to be clearly set!

Connectivity was also an issue for the GPS tagging of resources, and for some apps, like Dragon Dictation, which relied on data connection or stored information in the cloud. The weather on the Wicken Fen trip was also a challenge, particularly for those using touch screen devices!


Key points

 Framing the device is crucial – explain why you want students 
to use it and what value it can add for their learning.
 Allow students to experiment – some even recorded their 
stakeholder roleplays on site!
 Inclusion is important. Make sure you have loan devices for 
those that don’t have their own.

mobile for fieldwork

Taken from  http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2012/09/07/learning-across-contexts-mobile-for-fieldwork/  by Adel Gordon

This case study talks about a pilot run by Janet Jackson and her students in Environmental Sciences from the School of Science & Technology, whilst on two field trips to Wicken Fen and Stonehenge.

The main aims of this pilot were to allow the students to document and reflect on their findings whilst in the context (in this case the field trips), and then to access and re-use that information outside of the context.

Students enjoyed using the devices, particularly for photography and video, which helped them to record a lot of data very easily. 80% of the students said that the app was ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to use.

More details can be found at Leaning across contexts – mobile for fieldwork (case study, PDF 581KB)

 

Apps – annotating PDF

Re-posted from: Apps for Teaching and Learning – annotating PDF files by Julie Usher "With thanks to Dr. James Xue, Lecturer in Computing, for the iAnnotate recommendation." 

Being able to add your own notes to PDF files can be really useful, whether they are lecture notes you want to add your own thoughts to, documents or journal articles you have downloaded for your own research,  or student or collaborative papers that you need to feed back on. There are many different options available for this. Here are a few we found.

iOS (Apple) apps

neu.Annotate is a free app that will allow you to open a PDF file (e.g. from email, the web or a cloud storage service like Dropbox), and annotate it using typed text or freehand annotation in a range of colours, as well as adding shapes, stamps and images. You can even add whole new pages, and annotate those too. The annotations are saved as part of the PDF, which can then be sent out by email or saved back to Dropbox.

iAnnotate PDF is an advanced tool with lots of options, including the usual highlighting and annotation. It can be set up to sync with Dropbox, but also has it’s own sync tool, called Aji PDF service, that allows you to set up a live link to a folder directly on your PC or Mac. This allows you to batch download original files, and then batch upload your annotated versions.

There is also an iAnnotate Lite version of this app for Android.

GoodReader is an app that can handle many different types of files. It’s really a file management tool, that allows you to access PDFs, Office and iWork files, images, video and even archived web pages on your iOS device. It can collect together files from a range of sources, including Google docs, Dropbox and iCloud, and let you read, organise, annotate (PDF and txt only) and re-upload them. It’s pretty complicated, as apps go, but if your files are a bit all over the place, this might be a good one for you. The PDF annotation  here is kind of a bonus.

Android apps

Again, there are a number of options available. Features vary, but all of the following will allow you to mark up, type on and highlight PDFs, as well as fill in PDF forms. In order of price at time of writing:

• ezPDF Reader includes text-to-speech and the ability to view audio and video files if they are embedded in the PDF. It also has a plugin to integrate with Google docs.
• Repligo Reader allows you to annotate and send PDF files via email, Bluetooth, Dropbox and Evernote.
• qPDF also allows you to send files via Bluetooth and sync files in Dropbox.

A note on workflows

If you’re planning to annotate a number of files, it’s worth thinking through how you will transfer these to and from the device. Many of the apps listed above will allow you to download files from (and sometimes upload or sync them to) cloud storage services, like Dropbox or Google docs. This saves having to attach individual files to email, but these services also have their own limitations.

We recommend, particularly when working with documents relating to student assessment, that you transfer the files directly between your device and a University computer wherever possible, rather than using a third party cloud storage solution. You may be able to do this wirelessly, using WebDAV or FTP, otherwise you may need to connect your device to the computer. With an iOS device, you can transfer annotated files via the iTunes software for all of the apps mentioned above. If you have an Android device, you may be able to connect it via USB as you would a memory stick, and batch transfer your files.

With thanks to Dr. James Xue, Lecturer in Computing, for the iAnnotate recommendation.