My first ever webinar seemed like it was taking forever to arrive and then when it did come it was over in a flash. During my preparation I found myself revisiting a lot of material I had looked at in previous BOE modules as well as discovering lots of new information too. Now that the dust has settled it is time to reflect on the experience and what I have learnt from it.
At 7pm UK time on Tuesday the 20th of March I presented my webinar "Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice" via Napier's Elluminate web-conference platform. For anyone who missed the webinar it is possible to see the recording here. In order to make sure my memory isn't playing tricks on me and, more importantly, to experience the webinar as the students did, I have also played it back again to analyse it myself.
Firstly there were some interesting technical issues. I found talking to a group of students you cannot see and not being able to hear yourself either a very strange, eerie experience. I was also concerned by a constant background noise in my headset which was also present in the recording. This may be caused by the fan in my PC or perhaps another technical fault. If I was to be presenting webinars more often this is something I would definitely want to address.
Elluminate proved to be very straightforward to use and the eight students present were a mangeable amount. As I didn't know all of the students present I decided to begin with a short round of introductions to break the ice. This also revealed the first problem that not everyone present had a headset so some of the introductions took place purely as chat. And after the first person introduced themself via chat all the remaining participants did too, even the ones who seemed to have a headset. This is something that could be controlled a bit better next time.
Through my previous brief experience with Elluminate I learnt that it does not support the transitions that I typically use in my Powerpoint presentations. This time I was prepared for this and put additional information on separate slides to achieve the same effect. It was actually only in preparing for the webinar in a short session with Keith that I realised that Elluminate simply converts each Powerpoint slide into a graphics file which it then displays in the chosen order. This knowledge means that a different approach to presentation design has to be taken for webinars in comparison with traditional presentations.
During my webinar I also used Elluminate's question feature to get some input from the participants and encourage discussion. This feature was easy to use and I was able to switch between yes or no answers and multiple-choice (A, B or C) options. Unfortunately after one such question I was unable to remove the results box from the screen and was only able to do so by switching to the next slide. There is hopefully a proper way to hide the results which I can learn for use in the future.
At the end of the webinar I had left time for questions and a discussion but there was very little response from the audience. I hope this was due to them being satisfied rather than bored by the content. In my next post I will look at the results of the participants questionnaire which I asked everyone to complete. This will hopefully reveal how they really felt.
Neil
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Mittwoch, 4. April 2012
Montag, 19. März 2012
DIY mobile learning
Mobile learning has been on the "next big thing" lists of websites and journal articles for several years but for many people it still seems to be a complicated and expensive tool to implement. The American Society for Training and Development published an article by Naomi Norman in the December 2011 edition of T + D magazine with the promising title "Mobile learning made easy", read the article here.
The article reports on the results of research into mobile learning conducted for the NHS, an organization which has a huge need for flexible training due to the enormous amount of staff it has, many of whom work offsite or unsocial shifts. Amongst the key benefits of mobile learning identified are:
convenience
relevance
enhanced content retention
empowered learners
encouraged reflection
The study also notes that not everyone will want to use mobile learning so all courses prepared for Epic for the NHS are also available as e-learning. The physical limitations of mobile learning are also addressed in the report. For example, due to a very small or complete lack of physical keyboard writing long texts is not advisable and as learners will not sit using a mobile device for as long as they would sit at e-learning it is necessary to break the learning down into smaller chunks which can be completed more quickly.
The problem of compatibility is also addressed. Luckily the NHS, like many organizations, provides many staff with mobile devices so a certain amount of consistency is guaranteed. However, many people will prefer to use their own devices which may not be compatible with the official m-learning solution.
Exactly this problem and an answer to it are beautifully demonstrated by Dr Alisa Cooper in one of my favourite youtube videos on mobile learning (watch here). Alisa created an online class using a combination of a mobile-enabled Wordpress blog, embedded google docs, classmarker quizzes and youtube videos. This clearly demonstrates that with a little thought mobile learning doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to implement. I will certainly be looking at some of these ideas in designing my next mobile learning elements and I hope they will inspire some of you as well.
Neil
Sources
Mobile learning made easy, http://www.epic.co.uk/assets/files/ASTD_Mobile_Learning_Made_Easy.pdf [accessed 19.3.2012]
Mobile learning course overview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yasp9W70vw [accessed 19.3.29012]
The article reports on the results of research into mobile learning conducted for the NHS, an organization which has a huge need for flexible training due to the enormous amount of staff it has, many of whom work offsite or unsocial shifts. Amongst the key benefits of mobile learning identified are:
convenience
relevance
enhanced content retention
empowered learners
encouraged reflection
The study also notes that not everyone will want to use mobile learning so all courses prepared for Epic for the NHS are also available as e-learning. The physical limitations of mobile learning are also addressed in the report. For example, due to a very small or complete lack of physical keyboard writing long texts is not advisable and as learners will not sit using a mobile device for as long as they would sit at e-learning it is necessary to break the learning down into smaller chunks which can be completed more quickly.
The problem of compatibility is also addressed. Luckily the NHS, like many organizations, provides many staff with mobile devices so a certain amount of consistency is guaranteed. However, many people will prefer to use their own devices which may not be compatible with the official m-learning solution.
Exactly this problem and an answer to it are beautifully demonstrated by Dr Alisa Cooper in one of my favourite youtube videos on mobile learning (watch here). Alisa created an online class using a combination of a mobile-enabled Wordpress blog, embedded google docs, classmarker quizzes and youtube videos. This clearly demonstrates that with a little thought mobile learning doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to implement. I will certainly be looking at some of these ideas in designing my next mobile learning elements and I hope they will inspire some of you as well.
Neil
Sources
Mobile learning made easy, http://www.epic.co.uk/assets/files/ASTD_Mobile_Learning_Made_Easy.pdf [accessed 19.3.2012]
Mobile learning course overview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yasp9W70vw [accessed 19.3.29012]
Sonntag, 26. Februar 2012
Hosting the Perfect Webinar (Part 1: Technology)
As part of the Applied Practice in Blended and Online Education module I will be presenting an expert session on mobile learning. This will be hosting within Napier's Blackboard Collaborate environment which I have used in the past as a student but never as the host of an event. Unfortunately my own university does not have any kind of webinar platform at the moment so I decided I better take a look at the available options if I am to host further webinars in my own teaching.
We have a very small budget for this kind of thing so I decided to begin by experimenting with free services. As part of my mentoring with fellow geekucator Nicky I decided to give google + hangouts a try. google + hangouts is a free platform for hosting online meetings with up to 10 participants. Unfortunately for whatever reason I could only see a white screen beside the chat window and Nicky could not hear or see me. We therefore had to check out some of the alternatives.
A search for free webinar services brings back a huge amount of results. Some services are financed by advertising, others offer limited free services with additional features available at a price (freemium), and others have very tight restrictions on the number of participants - in one case it was a site offering the chance to host a webinar with only one participant!
After technical problems with another couple of sites we finally had success with liveminutes which offers free webinars for up to 20 participants. I had to create an account on the site which took about a minute and then we were up a running. The site produces a link which you can send to participants or you can email invitations directly. The tool seems to include all the standard webinar features such as a whiteboard, audio and video chat, and uploading of files. What didn't immediately seem to be obvious were interactive features likes polls or questions. I will have to investigate the site a bit further to find out if these features are available. This is something I definitely want to use in my expert session because without any audience participation I think a 60 minute webinar could feel very long indeed - for both the participants AND the presenter. The techniques and content I decide to use will be the subject of my next blog.
I do want to mention a couple of features of liveminutes that I did especially like - as I have little experience of webinar software I don't know if other programmes offer these too. I received an automatic email message from liveminutes reminding me to close my meeting because I hadn't done it properly. On closing the meeting there was also an option to have all of the notes produced during the meeting saved automatically into a pdf file. This is an excellent (and low effort) way to make sure everyone has all of the details from a meeting and doesn't have to take notes themselves. It is perhaps not quite the full recording facility that I know some webinar platforms offer but at this price ($0) I can live with that.
Finally, I should mention an excellent website that I visited again whilst trying to find free webinar tools. Richard Byrne's award winning blog, freetech4teachers.com, has links to a lot of free software as well as articles and reviews. It should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in this area.
Now I am going to get busy deciding how to avoid "death by Powerpoint" - the answers will (hopefully) be revealed in my next post.
Neil
We have a very small budget for this kind of thing so I decided to begin by experimenting with free services. As part of my mentoring with fellow geekucator Nicky I decided to give google + hangouts a try. google + hangouts is a free platform for hosting online meetings with up to 10 participants. Unfortunately for whatever reason I could only see a white screen beside the chat window and Nicky could not hear or see me. We therefore had to check out some of the alternatives.
A search for free webinar services brings back a huge amount of results. Some services are financed by advertising, others offer limited free services with additional features available at a price (freemium), and others have very tight restrictions on the number of participants - in one case it was a site offering the chance to host a webinar with only one participant!
After technical problems with another couple of sites we finally had success with liveminutes which offers free webinars for up to 20 participants. I had to create an account on the site which took about a minute and then we were up a running. The site produces a link which you can send to participants or you can email invitations directly. The tool seems to include all the standard webinar features such as a whiteboard, audio and video chat, and uploading of files. What didn't immediately seem to be obvious were interactive features likes polls or questions. I will have to investigate the site a bit further to find out if these features are available. This is something I definitely want to use in my expert session because without any audience participation I think a 60 minute webinar could feel very long indeed - for both the participants AND the presenter. The techniques and content I decide to use will be the subject of my next blog.
I do want to mention a couple of features of liveminutes that I did especially like - as I have little experience of webinar software I don't know if other programmes offer these too. I received an automatic email message from liveminutes reminding me to close my meeting because I hadn't done it properly. On closing the meeting there was also an option to have all of the notes produced during the meeting saved automatically into a pdf file. This is an excellent (and low effort) way to make sure everyone has all of the details from a meeting and doesn't have to take notes themselves. It is perhaps not quite the full recording facility that I know some webinar platforms offer but at this price ($0) I can live with that.
Finally, I should mention an excellent website that I visited again whilst trying to find free webinar tools. Richard Byrne's award winning blog, freetech4teachers.com, has links to a lot of free software as well as articles and reviews. It should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in this area.
Now I am going to get busy deciding how to avoid "death by Powerpoint" - the answers will (hopefully) be revealed in my next post.
Neil
Sonntag, 5. Februar 2012
The tablet has landed!
Finally, almost three months after starting to blog about Tablet Teaching, I have now invested in my own tablet computer. I did actually have a tablet once before, an Archos 7 Home Tablet, but it didn't impress so I returned it to Amazon after about a week. Now I am the proud owner of an HTC Flyer which so far is making an excellent impression. The HTC Flyer doesn't seem to be the best known tablet but for me there were several reasons for making this choice. Firstly, an iPad is too expensive and for my taste a little bit too big as well. The HTC has a 7" screen which I find a nice size and it also has a stylus which you can use for all kinds of programs. If everything works out well I will also use my Flyer to replace my Kindle and thanks to the HDMI ouput will also be exploring using the tablet to give presentations. As I try out more and more m-learning software and discover new ways to use this tablet in class I will keep you all posted.
The second big news today is that I will now be using this blog as my virtual diary for the module "Applied Practice in Blended and Online Education" - part of my MSc course in Blended and Online Education which I am taking at Edinburgh Napier University. Each week I will post an official APBOT entry which will ultimately go towards making a patchwork text at the end of the trimester. As far as possible I will of course also post less serious entries as time allows.
That's all for now!
Neil
The second big news today is that I will now be using this blog as my virtual diary for the module "Applied Practice in Blended and Online Education" - part of my MSc course in Blended and Online Education which I am taking at Edinburgh Napier University. Each week I will post an official APBOT entry which will ultimately go towards making a patchwork text at the end of the trimester. As far as possible I will of course also post less serious entries as time allows.
That's all for now!
Neil
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