JISC Report on learner voice at South Essex College
With a sense of pride, I recently read through JISC’s case study on the learner voice as South Essex College (http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=sec), it focuses on the use of Innovative technologies to engage the learner voice and their viewpoint of the section that I personally developed, C_Live:
“One of the key new sections of C_Space is C_Live, which has been designed specifically with the students’ social experience in mind. Within the contemporary design of the page, which was actually designed by a games development student, there is a personal blog, a Seek feed, a notes editor, and a library for hyperlinks. With the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, Student Council members have started to publish content onto this new site.”
The article goes on to state: “Students have benefited greatly from this engagement, as through polls, forums, surveys, blogs and Twitter-type tools their voice is being heard by other students, staff and senior management.”
Although I’ve moved on to pastures new, my development C_Live is one of the highlights of my e-learning career.
OnLive
I used to play PC games but soon got tired of the yearly upgrade game and having to drop £300 on a new graphics card for the latest release. Which is why I’m primarily a console gamer, its quick easy and far more comfortable. My friend still plays PC games and is about to drop another £700 on a new system to play COD: Black Ops, now I am tempted by it (the graphics look insane) but I’ve got a Mac so its pretty much a non starter.
But there’s a solution to my problems, OnLive.
On what?
OnLive is online digital games distribution service.
But it’s impossible to simply dismiss it as just another games distribution service because OnLive is a pretty insane idea, that harks back to the halcyon days of mainframe and VDU’s. That’s because you don’t download the games and play them locally on your computer, what you actually do is control a video stream.
Eh?
The OnLive client connects to a huge datafarm that contains ultra high spec machines that actually play the game, all that is sent to you is a video stream. But its not a video, as you have just as much control over the game as if you were playing it at home. It’s utterly mental, but its the future of gaming, no longer are we tied to the hardware specification of our local machine.
It’s cloud computing for the entertainment sector and I love it.
Granted it’s not perfect as there is some degree of lag and video artifacts but its a first step its very very convincing.
So what next?
You may, or may not have noticed the release of Microsofts Kinect last week but if you did miss it, I think you should take a look at these videos:
Granted its early days but if this is what can happen from a week of hacking, just imagine what could be possible later on down the line.
Someone should hire this guy asap.
So what does this have to do with e-learning? Everything.
By removing the controller we can engage a whole scope of learners, be young or old and I think it has significance to those learners with a learning or physical disability. You don’t need to be dexterous or capable of pressing small buttons, Kinect makes you the controller.
This is the first console based augmented reality device that actually has a chance of succeeding, granted the initial launch line up isn’t chock full of AAA games but, Dance Central, Kinect Sports & Kinectimals do a pretty decent job.
I hope that an E-Learning games company does launch software on Kinect, I think it has far more potential for learning that the already impressive Wii.
Epic debate (or lack of)
Due to work, I was sitting in a lay by on the motorway furiously collating usage stats for our 12 UniServity sites over a dodgy 3g connection instead of attending Epics elearning debate.
Now I did manage to get to the venue an hour later than planned, which meant I missed the majority of the debate, arriving to hear the last question from the audience and the final summaries from the speakers.
And to be honest, it was same old same old, the people for the motion that informal learning were about the bottom line, those against were not able to provide much if any real evidence, preferring the anecdotal and prosaic.
I’m actually glad I missed most of the debate, as i’m sure it would have just annoyed me more than anything else (and judging by some of the tweets about it, i’m not alone in that thought).
The problem is that, academics have very little evidence to prove their case because the technology is so new (workable mobile browsers have only been around for 4 years) and until they have measurable evidence they will always fail to convince the bottom liners.
I fear that we are entering the second decade of this millennium floating on the same rhetoric that has damaged elearning so much already.
I fear that without evidence, without proof that what we say is actually true, in this era of austerity we will not be able to find funding for more e-learning projects.
I fear for the future.
iPad
So, in the space of 6 months I’ve fully converted to a Mac based existence.
When my four year old pc started to die on me, we replaced it with a bargain priced 20 inch iMac (£500), i soon upgraded to an iPhone 4, it just left my net book as the sole bastion of Microsoft.
I’ve posted before how a hard drive failure caused me to try out creating a , so technically it counts as a Mac. But it was always a hack job and by it’s very nature a bit well, quirky….
Combine this with the amount of time I’m spending away from home and I came to the point where I didn’t want to lug around two laptops anymore.
So I’ve stumped up £618 for an 3G 32gb iPad.
Yes, it’s stupidly priced
Yes, I can’t type on it
Yes, love it
Why? Read the countless thousand reviews, but for me it gives me something to work on, play, and read.
All the while weighing next to nothing and having a battery that lasts.
It’s a deeply flawed device, deeply, but satisfies my current requirements.
Oh and it’s the first piece of tech that someone has ever paid me a complement about….
where’d that month go?
Seriously, where has August gone? I’ve been up and down to Blackburn and Belfast more than I thought possible but I’m finally provisioning the last two schools today \o/
happy days.
so a couple of months later
So where have I been?
BUSY, its been a fairly mental couple of months, obviously the big education news is that Education Secretary Michael Gove decided to axe the BSF program.
Which I happen to work in, still its not the end of the world as Northgate have a couple of contracts signed so they will avoid the axe so to speak. That’s not to say I’m not concerned at the news but we’ve still got 20 ish schools in Blackburn going live in September, which is keeping me occupied for a little longer.
To give you an example of my activities of late out of the last 3 weeks, I’ve spent a total of four days at home, the rest I’ve been 263 miles away in Blackburn clocking up 1204 business miles. To top it off I’m heading to Belfast for three days this week to update various people on progress etc.
Busy doesn’t come close.
Still better busy than bored.
First base
This post is a day late, mostly as I was nursing quite a large hangover which meant the creative juices weren’t exactly flowing.
So how has it gone?
So far so good, I managed to get the phone set up play with the gesture tutorial and then I started with Synergy. Big mistake on my part as I had forgotten to sync my contacts to my sim card prior to resetting my iPhone which meant that the ones the Pre now had were at least a year out of date.
Joy.
For those unfamilar with ‘Synergy’ its Palm ethos that you should be able to sync all of your contacts from a range of different sources(Facebook, Gmail, Sim card etc) which is great in theroy but can lead to frustrations. Namely the fact I have ALL of my Facebook friends on my contacts list, which is fine for me as I’m a big proponent of ‘Friend Culls’ meaning that most of my friends in Facebook are actually people I physically know. The big drawback is that once you’ve added your facebook contacts, you can’t delete them from your contact list without deleting them from facebook first. This is further compounded by the fact that not everyone has their mobile numbers in Facebook (I certainly don’t) which creates a fair number of useless entries that just seek to take up space in your phonebook and you can’r remove.
So the first half hour of the my life with the Pre was spent sorting out the large mess of contacts into one list (lots of clicking, copying pasting and deleting), not the best way to be introduced to the phone.
Annoying.
Afterwards I setup my App Catalog account and put a card onto it, which almost didn’t work because the App Catalog only appears to accept Visa and Mastercard, luckily it seem to accept my Visa Debit card and all was well, I’m getting a feeling that this lack of clarity on certain sections is going to be an every present theme during my time with the Pre. So now I was all set up and good to go, it was time to get some Apps, now I know the App Catalog is threadbare in comparison to the iPhone and I had indentified that I only really use three core apps (Facebook, Twitter and Web browsing), all of which are easily available via the Pre (I’ve selected Bad Kitty as my twitter client of choice). I haven’t really spent much time looking at other apps although I may later on today.
I should take a minute to talk about the keyboard, its not great but I’m certainly getting used to it although I’m not nearly as fast as with an iPhone and the lack of autocorrect is a major oversight by Palm. On a side note its a lot harder to type on when you’re in bed as the slider makes the phone top heavy leading to potential a TKO as you inevitably drop the phone on your forehead.
But this all sounds a bit negative right? There are many things that I love about this phone. I love the feel of the phone in my hand, many reviews have made mention of the polished stone feel of the Pre and I heartily agree, its very satisfying to hold. Another is its beautiful approach to multitasking and the coup de grace, its notification system. Now I can understand if you don’t quite have a passion for smart notifications that I do, but that’s because you may not have been an iPhone user. Let me explain, Palm and Apple have two distinctly different approaches to how they think you should be informed of something happening on your phone. Palm method can be equated to being gently tapped on the shoulder and discretely informed that you have a new text message by popping up a small notification at the bottom of the phone. Apple prefer to use a modal pop up that is akin to being grabbed by the shoulders and told HEY YOU HAVE A MESSAGE, READ THE MESSAGE, COME ON READ IT NOW!!!!!!! It will also not release control of the screen until you’ve either read it (closing your existing app and opening the message one) or dismissing it and returning to whatever it was that you were doing. Nothing makes me angrier than crashing during a race just because someone text me and that’s the reason I switched from the iPhone.
So at the end of the first day I’m up and running but apart from the notifications system, I’m not bowled over but that’s not to say I don’t like the phone, far from it. It currently satisfies most of my smartphone requirements, the question is can I find something to keep me here as the iPhone 4 is looming large in my mind.
That’s the mission kids, we’re about a week and a bit away from the iPhone launch and I’m still tempted but I think I will give the Pre a month to prove itself.
After all the iPhone will always be there.
Action stations
Finally got back from Belfast at 11pm, I treated myself to 2 double cheese burgers, small fries and a small coke at the airport (about a million calories, but I’m going running tonight so it should balance out), 19 hour days on 2 hours sleep are awesome!
Anyhow, moving on.
With yesterdays post about app stores being the ties that bind us to a particular platform I decided to put my money where my mouth is.
As you may know I sold my iPhone 3G a couple of days ago and am now phoneless (save for a work blackberry), my plan was to get this:
With stunning features such as a screen and keypad
As it would do for now and the plan was going really well until I got the o2 shop and they said they wouldn’t sell it without £10 credit, which means the phone becomes £20 and much less tempting. I then played with a couple of phones, including the new Pre Plus and left the store, resolute in my new plan, to not have a phone.
But during yesterdays trip to belfast, it would have been nice not to have to bring out my laptop just to check my email (I know a stunning observation) and a BlackBerry Curve isn’t the greatest phone to use. So I then thought of a third plan: I could get a new smartphone on contract, use it for two weeks and then return it during the cooling off period and get an iPhone, genius eh? Except that the week of the iPhone launch I’m in Blackburn doing training meaning I wouldn’t be able to send the phone back.
Plan four!
I’d just got into bed last night and was at that point where I was so tired that I couldn’t sleep, so out came the hackintosh for some idle surfing.
And lo I surfed high and low, forums, blogs, wiki’s and then inevitably to eBay. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Pre of late, no phone has really captured my ADD attention like it, but they are all too expensive £160-170 (far too much to play around with) and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sell it on for the same price. So I do what anyone would do, I started messaging people on ebay asking them for BIN or if they would reduce their asking price.
I wasn’t expecting any takers at my offer of £120 + pnp but you gotta chance your luck sometimes.
And then, something unexpected happened, I got a bite. I knew it was worth a shot being that the Pre is deffinatly a phone unloved by the masses (but with a solid if tiny hardcore developer community) and with the new iPhone coming people are probably looking to shift handsets quickly but still.
So I’ve got a 2 month old Pre £120, its coming tomorrow and no doubt you think I’m crazy but lets look at the TCO:
LG dumbphone £20 (£10 phone with £10 useless credit as I’m on contract)
Palm Pre £120
Now, on looking at it the Pre is far more expensive but I did get it cheap and I know I can sell it for at least £100 in three weeks time. Making the total cost of ownership (less shipping and app purchases), £20.
And I don’t know about you but I think that’s pretty decent price to pay.
What does the 0 stand for
Christ its early, its 7am and I’ve been up for three hours.
That’s not right, that’s not human.
Why am I up so early, because I’m flying over to Belfast for the day to chat about the next stage of the project. I’m very tired, I nearly always sleep like shit when I have to do long distance travel, I think I finally crashed out at 1am last night.
Which is why I’m feeling so stupendously awseome right now. Moving on from my amazing ability to sleepwalk through the airport, I had a chance to play with an iPad.
It’s a lovely bit of kit, as fast as they say it is, not as cheap at the airport as I was hoping though (I expected it to be vat free but it comes out at £416 and I’m far too tired to work out the maths of that). I have no reason yet to get one, but if I spend significant time away from home during the go live in sept I won’t hesitate to buy one.
Well maybe, I need to figure out which is heavy, my hackintosh or an iPad, I think the iPad may just have it beat.
ION this is day one of not having a personal phone, in a fit of desperation I bidded on a Palm Pre last night (unboxed, untested and with no cables), I’d set my max at £80 and I think it went for £95 which is more than I’d want to pay for a potentially bricked device. I’ve got a big soft spot for the pre, I like the ethos behind the operating system and I’ve always liked Palm. I do want to own a Pre at some point (especially now that you can overclock the phone to 800mhz) but I’ve always held off pulling the trigger. There are two reasons for my reluctance: I don’t want to enter into a 18 month contract on any phone unless its the best of the best (Palm Pre Plus costs a similar amount over 18 months as the iPhone) and two I feel like a prisoner.
Why? Because I’m trapped by the apps that I’ve bought on my 3G, I can get similar apps for 90% of the ones I use (not a big gamer) but there are two in particular that keep me trapped to the iPhone. Chess with Friends and Run Keeper (Run keeper free is available on Android but doesn’t offer the same functionality as the Pro version on the iPhone). Apart from Twitter, Facebook and Safari those are my default apps.
And sadly the Pre doesn’t offer them, I don’t see that changing anytime soon (even though porting a iPhone app to the Pre is pretty simple apparently.)
Which is why the Pre would only last so long before I would return to Apple.
And that’s a shame, I don’t want to be trapped onto one brand of phone, which is why I think that there should be one app store for mobile devices.
HA HA HA, fat fucking chance of that happening, but one can dream of a phone middleware platform that can run on multuple devices.
Oh wait it exists already, it’s called Java, but it will be a cold day in hell when we’ll see phone makers come together on one App platform.
Shit there calling my flight, gotta go kids
If not now, then when? 