Wunderlist is a free task manager or “to-do” list application.  Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it is quite well structured allowing you to order tasks in groups with different headings.  The application also incorporates smart list that will collate all the tasks that are due for “today’ and “week”.  As with typical task applications due date can be set and notes can be added.  However, unlike others you are able to add up to 25 subtasks to each task, and regular tasks can be set to repeat.

The reason I am blogging about to-do app is twofold:  the first reason is Wunderlist is multiplatform, and by that I mean iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. Much in the same way that Dropbox and Evernote works; changes will automatically update all other devices on the same account.  This is great for efficiency and productivity as task can be added on the go/in meetings and these will be available from the desktop when you get back.

Wunderlist screenshot

The second reason, which is somewhat the trump card for and application of this type, is the social element.  Task lists can be shared with other user of Wunderlist, and since it is free and cross platform that means pretty much anyone.  These shared lists benefit from all of Wunderlist features, such as when I add a new task to a project I am working on all the people I am sharing it with will also get this update.

At the time of writing I have been trialling the software for about a week now and what I felt help me integrate such an app into my day-to-day life was the fact that I could use it for both work and personal related tasks.

The paid service: as I have mentioned this app is free to download and use.  There is also a subscription service that gives more functionality, primarily infinite sub task creation and the ability to assign tasks to colleagues.  As an individual I think the price for the subscription is a bit steep with the free version providing most of what I need.

When discussing the use of this app with colleagues of mine they also suggested a number of other similar applications,  these are:

Remember the milk, this service offers integration with Outlook, Gmail, twitter, and Evernote. Free service.

Trello: a web based social network project management/ idea gathering tool that has colour coding, members attachments. Free Service.

So what about data stored within the EU?  If you were instead where to use the services of Google UK or Mircorsoft UK this would mean that data would be stored within the EU.  To deal with data privacy issues the  EU and US have come to an agreement when data needs to be sent back to the main office (in the US), it is protected to the EU minimum standard (Safe Harbo(u)r).  Unfortunately once the data enters the US it is still subject to the USA PATRIOT Act.

It is my opinion that these risks are almost unavoidable when using cloud solutions, and for me the benefits outweigh the risks. My personal advice is to ensure that you do not breach any of the EU’s data privacy legislation is to not store any personal information of others on any cloud service.

Further Reading:

Safe Harbor: Why EU data needs ‘protecting’ from US law

Patriot Act can “obtain” data in Europe, researchers say

Footnote

* I bet they had a team work for months trying to get the letters of USA PATRIOT** in a usable acronym (politicians love their spin)

** funny enough USA stands for Uniting and Strengthening America, rather than the assumed United States of America.

Are tablets just shiny toys or can they be used in a professional work environment? Google Drive, a free cross platform mobile and desktop application, provides way for people to take work with them without the hassle of emailing copies. This software also boasts a synchronous collaborative work environment.  Above all tablets should provide functionally and convenience whilst on the go, but does Google Drive provide what you need? Try Google Drive for yourself and search “Google Drive” in the iOS and Android stores.

There has been much debate about the functionality of a tablet and if it is appropriate for work life. The main issue with tablet devices is being able to access and edit documents particularly when later accessing the same document on your desktop. This is important when a user is away from their desktop, typically at a meeting or traveling. A way of getting around this was to email the documents to yourself, edit it on the tablet and email the edited version back. This usually results in time wasted managing versions and clearing one’s inbox. Utilsation of cloud services would provide users’ access to their documents regardless of their location and device.  There is still a lot of development regarding connecting these cloud services with mobile editing applications.

Dropbox appeared to provide part of the solution by keeping a copy of the most up to date version of a document on all devices, but due to licensing there is no ability to edit the document, only to view it.  Editing would require that the document be opened in another application, invariably creating more duplicates of the same document.

Google Drive appears to be a step closer to integrating documents, the cloud and mobile devices. With the Google Drive app, available on both iOS and Android, users can edit documents on the go knowing that they always have the most up to date version.

What are the benefits?

• Live online collaboration: Documents can be shared with others thereby allowing multiple editors to shape a document providing an effective means of collaboration. This video demonstrates a time-lapse example of live collaboration. Not only is there live collaboration but this works cross platform; users can be editing simultaneously from their iPads, smart phones, android devices and desktop computers, all being able to edit and see the edits of others in real time.

• Stores version history enabling documents to be reverted if accidental deletes are made.

• Ease of sharing:  Google drive is designed to add collaborators, anyone with a Google account can be added. View only links can be sent out or it can be made public on the web.

• No matter who is editing and where it is being edited from there is only ever one copy of the document. (Copies can be made and a version history is kept.)

• Collaborative discussion amongst editors, across platforms.

What are the constraints?

• This software does require a constant Internet connection to edit files, not necessarily a problem in a meeting but potential problems can occur when traveling on a train where mobile Internet comes and goes. Having tested this personally it does not require much of a connection to work. Google Drive employs live saving so if the Internet connection does go down then you know that the document is safe.

• Limited editor in the mobile version; the text editor is simplified in comparison to Microsoft Word, so don’t expect to create wizzy graphics, but for most simple documents it has good functionality (these include; fonts, bold, italic, underline, alignment, bullet points and indentation). The web based interface does have significantly enhanced functionality.

• Mobile versions only allows the creation of text documents and spreadsheets (presentations can be played).

Other points

• Google use their own file format, when downloading the file users will be given the options to convert it into PDF, Microsoft Office or Openoffice documents.

Google Drive in Higher Education

Having discussed this technology with the academic community, there are a number of ways they are using it. Supporting meeting documentation. For all those who do not have a tablet device and still rely on paper in meetings/lectures/seminars, a good way of giving access to Google Drive documents is to put a “bit.ly” (shortened web link) at the top of the printed off document.  This will then provide a student or staff member the ability to access the document and see any updates that have subsequently been made as a result of the meeting/lecture/seminar.

Promoting continual engagement among students, especially useful for continuing a seminar. For example giving students access to a document that they can contribute to collaboratively in the seminar as part of completing a task (assuming each student has access to the internet). Each student then has access to that document after the seminar has finished and may continue to collaborate and update it.

As part of this project creating e-learning materials I had the opportunity to develop my own skills in the Adobe creative suite.  This involved brushing up and developing my Photoshop skills and learning Illustrator from scratch.  being quite a visually orientated person I really wanted to create some stunning images that learners would find interesting.  Here are some examples of these below.

In most cases I was given an image or text by the academic and told “make this look pretty”.  as well as the creating the images, as the e-learning advisor, I had to recommend the type of interactivity around which the image would be based. This is not shown as part of the image gallery as the production of the interactivity was completed by the external company.   To give overview, the type of interactivity included diagram labelling and image hotspot revealing more information around the area that had been clicked on.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to develop my skills in these areas and hop that I have more projects like this to do so further.

A wordle created from the Wikipedia entry for MOOCs

Abstract

Massively Open Online Courses, or MOOCs as they are better known as, are becoming ever more popular.  Academic institutions offer course materials at no cost to the students over the Internet.  This has lowered the threshold for attendance, bringing education to the masses resulting in tens of thousands of students registering and attending these online courses.

Will this be the future of education for the masses or it is just a means for which institutions can provide tasters for potential paying students?

The Concept

• Massively: To give an understanding of how massive these courses are, one course can have 40,000+ students worldwide; this is more than every student on every course that Plymouth University currently offers.  Due to the vast number of students that sign up for these courses a number of institutions have opted to host their materials via a dedicated MOOC provider to minimise the impact on their university’s infrastructure. The 3 main providers are Cousera, Udacity and EdX.
• Open: it is free for the participants to take the course and the work created by the students is shared.  Some institutions will, however, charge for any accreditation associated with the course.
• Online: Internet connection is vital, as the entire course exists online, there is no physical space that the students are expected to attend. All of the content has to be pre-prepared, including help guides and explicit learning outcomes, as to minimise student support needs. Thorough planning is essential.
• Course: MOOCs are short, typically around 6 weeks duration. Rather than simply accessing content on the web, the content is divided up into weekly tasks. This guides the students as to what they will be expected to cover/produce as part of attending.  Apart from having set weeks the students are not expected to engage with the content at specific times.  Students are required to submit for the final assignment.  One means of dealing with a large number of assignments is to use peer review.

This is by no means a new concept, the term was coined in 2008 and many universities already offer a range of these open courses most notably Stanford University and MIT.

Videos

What is a MOOC?  by Dave Cormier (YouTube)

Success in a MOOC by Dave Cormier (YouTube)

Daphne Koller: What we’re learning from online education  (TED.com)

Websites

Me and my MOOC (the one that failed) By Flea Palmer (Blog)

What is a MOOC? JISC (webinar)

My experience as an end user

I found the MOOC a most invaluable experience. The topic was “E-Learning and Digital Culture” and being an e-learning professional I though that this would be a good place to start my first MOOC as I thought that the content would be familiar to me and I could find out how these MOOC things work.  The content was nothing what I expected and opened my eyes to a vast range of different sources and perspectives that I had not previously considered.

This is one I found particularly interesting:

Johnston, R (2009) Salvation or destruction: metaphors of the internet.

Even though I knew about MOOCs the actual experience was a lot different to what I was expecting.  I though it would be more directed with pre-recorded lectures and tasks for each week (although some MOOCs do work like this) the course I attended consisted of collaged videos and reading materials with suggested activities.  Students were prompted to contribute by Twitter, blogging and discussion forum.  These activities were not compulsory gave the students opportunity in which to reflect, collaborate and discuss in a medium that best suited them.

I found this YouTube video (Amy Woodgate) describing what it felt like to be part of a MOOC.  I have taken two quotes from this video that resonated with me of my experience of the MOOC:

“Like shouting out in a crowded railway station trying to make myself heard over 40,00 others.” Celia Popovic

“This course feels like an ocean so I’m making myself post this comment as a way of dipping one toe in the water.” Ellie Kennedy

One thing that the course should have facilitated or at least suggested that students should do; is to put themselves into groups. Something I have learned in hindsight in creating this blog.  The reason being was that all of the discussion forums had pages and pages of entries with only the first few being responded to.  As a result if you weren’t the first to contribute to a certain discussion you did not feel that you could be par of the conversation as your post was sent off into the ether never to be seen again (even by you!).

As a result I found that I was engaging with the material but I saw little or no point contributing to the site, which has probably had an effect on my learning experience.   This does not however mean that I will never engage in a MOOC again, it just means that I now know how to act when I next attend one.

This is a follow up blog post on lecture capture but this one integrated the capture of Smart Board interactions. With this device the presenter can write or draw on the projected image of a presentation and the smart board will digitise these inputs and place them on the presentation. (This could be a PowerPoint but Smart also have their own notebook software)

Due to the interactive nature of the whiteboard there are some new thing to consider when preforming lecture capture of this kind.  The first is the presenters themselves, as there is a interactive whiteboard involved they will be spending less time in direct communication with the audience and more focused on the board to which they are contributing content to.

This leads to the problem of if you were to capture physical presence then a ‘talking head’ is no longer appropriate as it will be continually moving out of shot to interact with the white board.  The alternative is to capture the talking head at a later date, remove video or take a wide shot angle of the whole room. This is a tricky decision as they all have their pros and cons. Additional capture is time consuming for the presenter and editor, No video you will loose the human presence and the wide angle shot means you are effectively have two videos of the same thing on with the presenter blocking the board in one and no human presence in the other.

Other point to consider when capturing this ‘live’ is the position of the microphone as the presenter will be moving around a lot they may not be talking in the direction of the microphone.  Even though it is not good practice to talk the white board whilst presenting it may still happen.  (SENDA compliance pg 44)

The benefit of using such a method, with smart board lectures is able to capture working and developments, which make the presentation much more engaging (therefore human presence might not be needed?)

If there is time available it might be better the lecturer to capture the smart board capture at a separate date form the lecture.

Technical aspects to capture:

As the lectern machines do not have lecture capture software on them you will probably be bring your own device to capture the lecture.  This means you will have to connect the smart board to your device. You will have to contact Tech Services to assist with this as the wiring is locked away.

The device you will be capturing from does require smart board software installed (or any interactive whiteboard software) Smart and Promethean are the two main manufacturers of White boards.  Smart Software does require that you provide a serial number of the smart board to install the software whereas Promethean just requires that you provide an email address. (Plymouth University is currently looking into site licences for this)  One cautionary note, Smart software can only be used on a smart branded interactive device otherwise you are breaching copyright.  Promethean can be used on any interactive device from any company.

In my previous blog post I advocated the use of Camtasia as the means of capturing the lecture and from my perspective it has functioned really well.  when i did some testing with whiteboards and lecture capture I was introduced to Microsoft Expression Studio (authough I have not been able to test it fully it looked good and is available for free to PU staff: follow this guide)

This is not the first time that I have looked at Camtasia I have done a considerable amount of work with the software testing its capability in producing quality presentations.  In this case however was the first time that I have gone out and captured a full teaching session using Camtasia with a live audience with all of the equipment that I wanted.  My initial testing of the software was an imperative learning process that has lead me to the decision that I have made on what equipment that I have used to create the final product.  And I will start by looking at these.

In essence Camtasia captures three elements simultaneously, one video feed one audio feed and everything that is happing on the desktop of the computer. The first time I recorded a lecture (in my blog on final cut pro) where I recorded a lecture via digital camera and recorded sided using Cam Studio. As described in the post it required a lot of video editing to create the final product.  With Camtasia this is not the case because on piece of software is recording all of the elements of the presentation there is no need to synchronise the video to the slides.  From what I had learned from my previous presentations I went with a pretty similar setup (shown below)

This is the way the equipment was arrange for the presentation

Equipment:

Laptop with Camtasia:  At the moment Camtasia is only available as individual purchases rather than a site licence.

DV Camcorder: I wanted to have a video of the presenter to accompany the slides that they were presenting.  Even thought most laptops have built in web cams in the top of the screen they do not provide the best viewing angle or very good quality.  I decided to get a digital Video (DV) camcorder so that I get the best angle of the presenter. The DV camera also has a video out connection that allows the video feed to be streamed directly to a computer via a firewire cable.

5m Firewire cable:  I bought this length of cable to give me the ability to place the DV camcorder freely; also the 10m cable was 4 times the price.

The Setup

As this was being recorded in font of a live audience the technology setup needed to not interfere with the students in the classroom but be good enough for the audience viewing at home.  I set up the laptop and connected to the projector and mirrored the displays (both laptop and projector showing the same desktop).  I then setup the camera on a tripod in the audience, opened the display and turned it round so that it faced the presenter.  I did this so the present could see if they were going to walk out of shot, I though it would look more professional if the camcorder wasn’t continuously moving side to side.

I then opened Camtasia selected the Camcorder as the video input (by default it always selects the webcam if there is one) the built in microphone (I was using a Mac an their built in microphones tend to be very good quality. If I were using any other brand of computer I would have connected a Logitech USB microphone). By default Camtasia selects the primary display to capture in this case this was fine, as I had mirrored displays.

The setup was quick and all I had to do then was click the big red record button.  As this was the fist time I recorded a live session I remained in the room to deal with any technical problems that may occur but eventually I want this to be easy enough that I could loan out the equipment so that the whole session could be managed by the presenter themselves.

The presentation began smoothly with minimal differences to a normal presentation (Macs have a slightly different way of displaying presentation than Windows machines) the unforeseen problems occurred once the presenter finished with the presentation and wanted to demonstrate some elements of the presentation on the Web.  As the presenter was not accustomed with OSX she did have some difficulty navigating the system.  I originally thought that the presenter was only going to use PowerPoint and was not expecting this. I have used this Operating system for some time now and I forget how alien it can be to people especially non-technical people.

When it came the recording had some minor glitches, it appeared that the software hadn’t recorded the slides correctly as they were displayed on the projector.  I had never experienced this issue before but I think it was something to do the integration with the PowerPoint as this did not occur once the presenter started to use the web.  Generally I was happy with the video and sound quality, the room was not designed specifically for recording and there appeared to be relatively little background noise in the final recording.

Screen shot of final edited video