On-Demand Learning: Podcasting in an Introduction to Information Systems Course

We live in an on-demand world where digital content can be consumed when and where we want. In this paper, we report on a project that used on-demand content consumption (i.e., podcasts) as supplemental material for higher education students. Each 5-10-minute podcast provides an overview of the assigned chapter readings. Our work makes several contributions. First, we discuss some implications of the current on-demand society on higher education. Second, we provide information regarding podcasting as a method for aligning learning with students’ desires for on-demand media consumption. As part of this discussion, we demonstrate through a survey and download statistics how our low-cost initiative yielded sufficiently positive results to merit continuation. Finally, we detail the process of creating podcasts for our readers to replicate and adapt our initiative, including providing tips and discussing ways to adapt our process to other higher education courses

Convergence calls: multimedia storytelling at British news websites

This article uses qualitative interviews with senior editors and managers from a selection of the UK's national online news providers to describe and analyse their current experimentation with multimedia and video storytelling. The results show that, in a period of declining newspaper readership and TV news viewing, editors are keen to embrace new technologies, which are seen as being part of the future of news. At the same time, text is still reported to be the cornerstone for news websites, leading to changes in the grammar and function of news video when used online. The economic rationale for convergence is examined and the article investigates the partnerships sites have entered into in order to be able to serve their audience with video content. In-house video is complementing syndicated content, and the authors examine the resulting developments in newsroom training and recruitment practices. The article provides journalism and interactive media scholars with case studies on the changes taking place in newsrooms as a result of the shift towards multimedia, multiplatform news consumption

Library Instruction on the Go: Podcasting at the Kresge Library

Business school students today want to plug in, download and go. That’s where podcasting comes in as a non-traditional medium/delivery to enhance student learning. The University of Michigan Kresge Dash Podcast Series developed by Digital Services Librarian Jennifer Zimmer and the Kresge Librarians delivers a substantial sound & visual “bite” of information: see http://www.bus.umich.edu/KresgeLibrary/help/podcast.htm The scripts are edited to follow the Kresge Dash Podcast format (introduction, overview, content, recap, and conclusion.) The voice track is recorded, then screen shots and other images are added at appropriate chapter marks. Music and the logo for the series are added at the beginning and end of each Podcast to provide uniformity and branding. An Apple MacBook Pro and Plantronics headphone/microphone set are used to record the Podcasts. We have just edited our first video podcast as of this writing. More are in the works in time for the Conference.The episodes are “enhanced” podcasts, i.e., combining voice, images, video and links to websites, which can be played on an Ipod, or by using iTunes and QuickTime on the student’s computer. In this Breakout Session, Jennifer will discuss how she created the podcasts—including what equipment she used, alternative equipment possibilities for other libraries, real world feasibility and costs, scriptwriting, video, mp3 players, problems and solutions, and future projects. Kresge Librarian Sally Ziph (fellow scriptwriter and Instruction Librarian videotaped for the podcasts) will discuss the results of student surveys of the podcast and Dash Series as tool(s) for learning about business resources at Kresge Library

Spartan Daily February 4, 2010

Volume 134, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1221/thumbnail.jp

School use of learning platforms and associated technologies - case study: primary school 1

Study of benefits and effective use of learning platforms in schools based on 12 case studie

eCPD Programme - Enhanced Learning.

This collection of papers (edited by Kevin Donovan) has been produced by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) for LSIS. They are based on the summaries used by presenters during workshops at the 2009 launch of the eCPD Programme

FOTE 2008 Conference Report

A report prepared by JA.Net and ULCC about the Future of Technology in Education (FOTE 2008) conference, Imperial College, 3rd October 2008. It covers the main speakers, themes and presentations: Cloud Computing, Second Life, Portability, Personalisation, Shared Services, Campus of the Future, Mobile Technology, Creativity and Media Production, Social Collaboration Tools for Staff and Students

Machinima interventions: innovative approaches to immersive virtual world curriculum integration

The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing that digital media works best when simply developed for deployment within a blended curriculum to inform learning activity, and where the media are specifically designed to set challenges, seed ideas, or illustrate problems. Machinima, digital films created in IVWs, or digital games offer a rich mechanism for delivering such interventions. Scenes are storyboarded, constructed, shot and edited using techniques similar to professional film production, drawing upon a cast of virtual world avatars controlled through a human–computer interface, rather than showing real‐life actors. The approach enables academics or students to make films using screen capture software and desktop editing tools. In student‐generated production models the learning value may be found in the production process itself. This paper discusses six case studies and several themes from research on ideas for educational machinima including: access to production; creativity in teaching and learning; media intervention methodology; production models; reusability; visualisation and simulation

Networks, Hierarchies, and Markets: Aggregating Collective Problem Solving in Social Systems

How do decentralized systems collectively solve problems? Here we explore the interplay among three canonical forms of collective organization--markets, networks, and hierarchies--in aggregating decentralized problem solving. We examine these constructs in the context of how the offices of members of Congress individually and collectively wrestle with the Internet, and, in particular, their use of official websites. Each office is simultaneously making decisions about how to utilize their website. These decisions are only partially independent, where offices are looking at each other for lessons, following the same directives from above about what to do with the websites, and confront the same array of potential vendors to produce their website. Here we present the initial results from interviews with 99 Congressional offices and related survey of 100 offices about their decisions regarding how to use official Member websites. Strikingly, we find that there are relatively few efforts by offices to evaluate what constituents want or like on their websites. Further, we find that diffusion occurs at the "tip of the iceberg": offices often look at each others' websites (which are publicly visible), but rarely talk to each other about their experiences or how they manage what is on their websites (which are not publicly visible). We also find that there are important market drivers of what is on websites, with the emergence of a small industry of companies seeking to serve the 440 Members. Hierarchical influences--through the House and through the party conferences--also constrain and subsidize certain practices.