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.

The Social Networking Phenomenon

Although I have registered with a few social networking sites, really I guess to get my head around the concepts of the many new and varied Web based applications, I'm not an active participant or indeed much of a convert certainly for my own personal use.

There's plenty to choose from FaceBook, Bebo, Ning, MySpace, Linkedin to name just a few but I do struggle to see how to exploit this to add value to learning & teaching when there is such a range and the choice of which one to use is a personal one. My own feeling is that mustering up your reflective capacity is hard enough do once a week and if you had a number of platforms to feed - well ......

There are however a number of specialist social networking sites emerging that offer some potential I think.

www.geni.com is a social networking tool in which you can build up your family tree and invite members of your family to contribute detail, upload photos and add more family members. Great for collaboration, History, Social Science, Anthropology ......

www.shelfari.com is a social networking tool which is based around reading books. You can create your own book shelf, rate books you've read, provide summaries and discuss literature with others. Useful for English, Communications, Working with others, Creative Writing .....

I've come across Hairdressing, Art, and drama too.

P.S. You might want to check out LearningTown and, in particular, "The Scottish Connection" if you involved in post 16 education in Scotland.

The World of Widgets

I’ve been revising and reviewing our Web2.0 workshop in preparation for a few sessions I’m to deliver over the next couple of weeks and in particular how to embed elements that are generated by a range software tools and hosted elsewhere. (I thought about a blond virtual me but it’s really brunettes that have more fun!). Move your mouse around the head and face - spooky. It’s a really fascinating concept and there are some extraordinary tools available to liven up web pages that don’t require any knowledge - except how to cut and paste a little code which is supplied. You’ll hear them called widgets, flakes, snippets and gadgets.

I’ve added a number of widgets to the Blog for this week – scroll down the page a bit and you’ll see a load of links to useful websites in a “tag cloud”. The tag cloud is generated using a website called del.icio.us – this is a social bookmarking site that I use to save good websites I find. It lives online and can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet so when I’m at home, out and about or even in the middle of a workshop I can find resources easily. Each time I save a site, the tag cloud here will be updated instantly and I can embed this same collection anywhere – in fact it’s on the pages for teaching staff on our website too. This enables sharing and encourages networking which is one of the common characteristics of Web2.0 technologies – see social bookmarking in plain English from commoncraft.

You’ll also find a selection of books that I recommend for staff development displayed on a bookshelf. This widget comes from Shelfari and as well as creating a widget that you can embed as I’ve done here, the site provides opportunities to network with others and discuss what you’re reading – if you want. While no doubt a bit fanciful, I can see learners responding to a reading list displayed like this more appealing.

Here’s a widget I created using "polldaddy" that allows you set up an instant poll or survey that can be embedded into your website or blog.

You can also embed your own, or slide shows created and shared by other people, into pages. Here’s one about widgets from slideshare.com.

View Upload your own

Widgets like these allow you to use materials that people are prepared to share and perhaps goes someway to avoiding the dreaded “C” word (copyright!).

Widgets are managed remotely and involve no extra work to ensure that the information is current and as up to date as possible which has to be a good thing. They provide dynamic content and can introduce an element of fun for the learner - and what’s wrong with that?



What are Widgets - youtube video explanation
Web 2.0 and Social Software : An Introduction
Understanding the issues and benefits of social software