The wonder of BOB

I had a demo of the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) this week in one of our supported institutions - one of the first in the UK to subscribe to the service. BoB (developed by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), Cambridge Imaging Systems and Bournmouth University) - provides staff and students with online  access to television and radio programmes from the previous seven days, as well as allowing staff and students to book recordings for broadcasts seven days in advance. Currently free view channels and radio are available. Library staff at Glasgow Met have implemented BoB and I was totally blown away by it.

The best feature in my view is the simple way you can create relevant snippets to use in class or provide for students through learning platforms or other web technologies that they use. This eliminates the need to watch a whole chunk of a programme when only a small relevant clip is really what's wanted. These can be tagged for other BoB users to find and it has the potential to become a huge source of contemporary, highly relevant and engaging video material.

Although it may be considered quite expensive to set up depending on licences that are currently in place, the librarians at Glasgow Met feel that it has had some unforeseen impact by providing a gateway into other library services and digital resources previously under utilised.

You can listen to the RSC's latest podcast about BoB here. For more information go to http://www.boxofbroadcasts.com/

What's your preference - Pull or Push ?

This week we published our first podcast. It's the first of a series of short podcasts (and in the longer term - vodcasts) that we are planning this session.

The essential difference between a podcast and an audio file is that a podcast is syndicated. This means that, if you subscribe to it, the podcast is automatically supplied to you when it is published - you don't have to go and "find" the information. You'll have seen the orange feed icon I'm sure. You see it on browser menu bars, on websites and in email clients. It's the new way to manage information. It's now often referred to as "pull technology", where the request for information originates from the client, with the reverse known as "push technology" where servers push data to the client.

Feeds can also be embedded into websites using feed widgets. Therefore it's perfectly feasible to provide dynamic content to course websites using this method. e.g. a feed with local exhibitions for art students, a current affairs feed for journalism & politics or late travel deals for tourism students.

We had a great deal of discussion in the team about the best way to provide access to our new podcast service. Mark would use iTunes, Celeste uses Google reader and I prefer the RSS reader integrated into MS Outlook. So because of the range of alternatives that people use now we've provided a few options.

If you use iTunes simply click on the link; If you use an RSS reader copy and paste the code provided; the final alternative is to open the link and save as a favourite feed (an option in IE7) or a live bookmark (FireFox).

Check out our very first podcast here

The ever reliable Lee and Sachi LeFever from Common Craft have a great short video that describes RSS really well, although as I've already mentioned the reader software they talk of is not the only option now.

Me and my iPod

Last year, unable to persuade the Boss that I needed an iPod for research purposes, I was seduced by the loveliness of Apple designs and bought a “classic video” myself. Of course I now have music on the go, have little docks around the house, use it when walking the dog, have used it on the ski slopes and bought a gadget so that I can listen to my favourites through my car stereo. Maybe the Boss had a point !

While researching mobile learning this week though, I decided to look a bit more closely at how iPods can be used in education and came across some useful and interesting examples. Podcasting is the most obvious use for accessing multimedia resources although the term is not exclusively related to the iPod. It makes use of the RSS (really simple syndication) standard and instead of going to the web to listen to audio or video, the content you subscribe to is automatically downloaded to your iPod when it’s connected to your PC for listening to at your own convenience. Yes, I do now listen to snippets from women’s hour from time to time – when I’m doing the housework of course. JISC now has over 40 podcasts available and you can subscribe via a feed to receive the latest podcast when it’s published or if you’ve holidays abroad planned why not subscribe to one of the many modern language courses that are available free from iTunes.

If you’ve a few minutes, the 2 short videos I’ve embedded are well worth watching and give a great, succinct and jargon free explanation of how iPods can be used in an educational context. Jonathan Nalder shows you how to download audio books, games, create quizzes & revision flash cards, transfer video and use some other features of iPods. Armed with this information I might have been able to plead my case better.





Interestingly too this week I was reading the 2008 Horizon report which each year identifies emerging technologies that are likely to impact on learning and teaching. It suggests that Grass Roots Video – and specifically the ease with which video can be played, captured,(often on mobile devices), edited and hosted online – will be considered in the mainstream for learning and teaching within the next year. In addition the report predicts that because of the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices (according to the BECTA ICT survey published this week , 39% of learners in colleges own a laptop or PDA), mobile broadband will be common place in two to three years. More food for thought.

Links:
http://www.mlearnxyz.net/
http://www.ilounge.com/
http://www.learninginhand.com/ipod/index.html
iPod in education - part 1
iPod in education - part 2