Digital Lives, Media Musings

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Digital Literacy case studies
Links to various UK Further & Higher Ed studies into ways to prepare and engage students with digital learning.

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Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Elearning instructional design ideas - Making Change blog

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“Online Learning” is Not “Learning Online” | Powerful Learning Practice

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JISC Digital Media - Using digital media for your e-Portfolio

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Breaking The Design Cycle: Get Creative To Be Creative | Webdesigner Depot

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Technology Integration Matrix
COmes with useful videos. A good resource for showing the different levels of engagement needed to make tech enhanced learning meaningful for secondary school students.

I've moved over to Wordpress!

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Hello everybody,

After two years of happily using Blogger I have moved over to a hosted version of Wordpress.

You can find me now at: www.svanstraten.com

I've moved for a number of reasons:

I wanted to have more control over the look and feel of my web space
I wanted to bring all of my web activities under one roof - blog, photos on Flickr, Twitter feeds, and so on
I wanted to link everything under my own name

So, although I'll still be logging in regularly so that I can see what my A Level Media Studies students are up to, from now on all my blog postings will be on the address above.

Do drop by my new home on the web and let me know what you think. I've imported all of the blog postings from here, and, with the categories option available on Wordpress, I hope you'll find it easier to locate material that's of interest. It also means I can showcase other areas in which I work and create, such as photography and poetry.

There are still refinements to make but I'm happy with where the new website has reached and am keen to share it with those of you who have been kind enough to read and comment on my writing since 2008.

With best wishes to you all,

Sacha

A tragic loss, a terrible warning

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:49:00 +0000

image courtesy of the BBC

My heart sank as I heard the story on the radio about the murder of teenager Ashleigh Hall by the convicted rapist Peter Chapman.

He had posed as a teenage boy, using a false identity, on Facebook, and lured the unsuspecting 17 year old into his web of lies.

When they met eventually he claimed to be the father of the boy she had been talking to online.

An innocent girl paid for her life because she was trusting.

You can read the full story on the BBC here.

It's terrifying that young people continue to treat their digital footprints and social networks like idle playgrounds, in which nothing bad can happen and no wrong can be done.

A year ago I did a series of school assemblies. With permission from the senior management I took mobile numbers of sixth formers for one assembly, and then presented them as an animation when they entered the auditorium. As students realised what they were looking at one could see the indignation spread. And yet these numbers had been posted freely on Facebook.

With the senior school boys I created a fake character, Sandra, and added a suitably glamorous photo I found online. It was shocking how quickly these lads would hand over details like their full names, and place of birth, at the drop of a hat. Needless to say, there were red faces and shuffling of feet as I revealed Sandra's true identity.

It's a year old now, so some of the privacy details about Facebook have changed (and not necessarily, in my opinion, for the better. When Jerry Zuckerberg claims there's no such thing as privacy any more, we should all be scared), and the usage numbers will have changed, but I think it's worth re-publishing here. If you want to download a copy then you can do so here.

At some point the voices of the adults warning the young and encouraging them to act responsibly will have to be heard. Let's hope it's not too late. One death is one too many.

Digital Childhood and the lessons of history

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:12:00 +0000

There's been significant coverage in the last week or so concerning young people, their exposure to inappropriate imagery in the media, their treatment by the media, and the recording of them covertly by a school authority.

It struck me, as often it does, that there are patterns of behaviour which taken together might point towards shifts in the relationship between audience and institution, between the producer/user and the content aggregator and distributor. The traditional lines of production and reception are blurring and evolving - maybe that's why we're seeing a prevalence of stories expressing concern, confusion and outrage.

Let's begin with the study. A Home Office report, led by Dr Linda Papadopoulos, claimed this week that children were being mentally affected by viewing an excess of sexually explicit material in the media. Amongst other recommendation the report suggests having parental blocks switched on as the default on mobile phones, computers and games consoles. It also suggests putting an age limit for so called Lads' mags.

The report claims there's a clear link between youngster viewing sexually explicit material and the rise of violence towards females. There's a host of other recommendations and it'll be interesting to see if an incoming Conservative government, or re-elected Labour administration, is bold enough to tackle head-on the challenge of web data access, in order to protect the young.

Of course, claiming that the young of today are worse behaved than previous generations is nothing new. Take this quotation for example:

'The Children now love luxury; they have bad manner, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food at the table, cross their legs, and terrorize their teachers.'

That was Socrates, two thousand years ago, and so it's possible to see how critics on both sides of the argument might claim either that the Greeks' theory of moral decline is merely accelerating, thanks to the Web et al; or conversely, that since each generation thinks subsequent ones are worse behaved than it was, there's little to worry about.

However, other developments in the last seven days point to something more pernicious creeping into the zeitgeist. Three Google executives received six-month suspended sentences in Italy, following the uploading in that country to YouTube of footage showing an autistic boy being bullied. This raises fundamental questions about whether the Web is a free domain for content exchange, or a place that should be monitored and filtered at source. Trying to 'police' and censor content is likely to prove an impossible task, given the sheer scales of economy the Web creates. But the Italian case does raise questions about responsibility and accountability. We might be living in an age of unfettered access to content of every hue, but can legislation restore a sense of morality and balance into the lives of the young? This is where parents and teachers face the mounting challenge of modelling good online behaviour, and using dialogue with common sense to help young people make the right decisions for themselves.

Equally terrifying and so wrong on every level, was news that an American school had deployed laptops to students, then used the integrated webcams to spy on students. This included allegedly watching them undress and other private activities. Although the education authority is claiming the activation was used only to locate lost laptops, the fact this remote access wasn't detailed in the contracts signed by parents shows a disregard for ways in which technology can be abused; or at least, seen to be abused. Currently there is one lawsuit pending, in which a male student was allegedly seen acting 'improperly' at home - the evidence was a screen grab from his school laptop's webcam. In this case, the breach of trust between educational institution and student points to a wider issue about digital identity, safety and representation. Although this may seem an extreme case, nonetheless it highlights the dangers in using technology to enhance the learning experience positively.

And so, to end with something uplifting. I found this fantastic video of American childrens' TV host, Mister Rogers. I came across the following blog post by Karl Staib, in which he talks about the importance of trust in business relationships. His role model of the caring interlocutor is Mister Rogers, who in 1969 managed to persuade a Congressional hearing, looking to cut public spending on educational TV programming, to have a change of heart. Listening to Mister Rogers' submission is a reminder of the need for passion, honesty and clearly communicated core values; if the lives of children are to be enriched, happy, creative and fruitful.

The vide clip lasts just under seven minutes.

Do make time to watch it.

Visual Language and its power to communicate

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:25:00 +0000

Bronwyn van der Merwe has written an amazing blog post at the BBC, detailing the corporation's detailed plans for re-designing the visual language it uses across all areas of its online presence.

It provides a first rate insight into the importance of design in communication, and the need for media institutions to build consistency and ease of use into the core of their practice. It's an essential undertaking if audiences are to recognise and engage effectively with media companies and their content. It's a long post indeed, but very well worth the effort of reading and looking at in detail.

Pollock, Fractals, and how Maths can make Ed Tech Research Better

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:01:00 +0000

As time progresses the way I'm using my blog is evolving.

Last year and the year before, when I started to blog in earnest, I found that I was often making shorter blog posts, as I discovered interesting ideas or technology that I thought might be useful.

Then I discovered Twitter and most of those timely posts have moved there, where I can share and discover the findings of others.

So, where does that leave my blog? For now, it's become the place where I like to write and think synoptically - pulling together patterns that appear before me as I work and research in the e-learning sphere.

This was brought home to me over the last week, as I started my next module for my MA in Online and Distance Education at the Open University. My new course, H809, is called Practice-based Research in Educational Technology. The first reading, dating back into the dark ages of 1989, is all about statistics and the reliability of hypotheses and data.

In brief, the article looks at the early developments in e-learning (or Computer Mediated Communication) and the degree to which asynchronous online communication made learning better or worse for students.

The problem the researchers had was that they developed over 50 hypotheses and the sample groups they used weren't large enough, or clearly defined enough, to make the resulting data produce results that were meaningful. Consequently, the language in the report hedges its bets with 'ifs', 'on the one hand', and other similar expressions, to gloss over the fact that the numbers game just didn't produce clear and consistent outcomes. Of course, in education that's often the case, and basing policy on numerical data alone probably isn't wise. That's why we need experts to make value judgements that combine data with a broader perspective.

While I was musing on this, two other articles dropped into my digital lap. The first was all about the rumpus the government in the UK has caused by its proposed deep cuts to university funding. My alma mater, King's London, is set to lose a vast number of academics, including one of the few Chairs of Paleontology in the world. Being a Classicist by academic training, this struck me as a terrible blow to the future of Humanities teaching. If everything is reduced to economic output potential, which seems to be where we're heading with higher education in the UK, then the future looks grim; if we're to maintain a balanced civilization, that combines Arts and Sciences in equal measure.

Jonathan Jarrett's blog post about the cuts at King's covers the main issues in great detail and I recommend spending 5 minutes reading through it. It's a good example of when relying on numbers alone doesn't make learning better.

On the other hand there's no doubt that gathering and exploring data is a vital part of educational research. Personally, I think the ethnographic/qualitative approach suits me better than quantitative mining for truths, hidden within the stats; but that's just my preference. One aim of the course, according to my tutor, Prof Vic Lally, is to enable me to look at published research and form my own opinions about whether or not the data supplied is reliable and meaningful. I won't be a statistical expert by the end of the course, but I should be able to make more sense of it than I can at present. Indeed, when I told the Prof that I'm no expert in stats, he did point out that I'm very happy talking about Web Metrics and the demographics of my school's YouTube channel audience, so perhaps I'm more stat savvy than I thought?

The second article is all about how a Physicist, Richard Taylor, while in the UK studying for an MA in Art History during a sabbatical, became fascinated with Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. He became intrigued with the thought that Pollock might have been using deliberate fractal shapes in order to create what appeared at first glance to be meaningless dribbles on the canvas.

Using some clever mathematics and technology he was able not only to show the degree to which Pollock was indeed creating graduated fractal shapes of differing dimensions, but also to date when within his creative cycle paintings were produced. And that means he can now help to authenticate other works for buyers.

Even more fascinating was Taylor's subsequent work with perceptual psychologists, in which it was discovered that humans have a numerically determined range within which they find geometric fractals appealing. The thinking is that this dates back to our pre-historic time on the Savannah, when an ability to distinguish between wind rippling the grass, and a lion lurking in the shadows, was an essential skill.

And all of that goes to show how the numbers game can add up and produce meaningful statistics that help us understand our world more clearly.

When Disraeli claimed that there were three types of lies, 'Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics' he was expressing a fear that many of us hold, about the complexity of numbers and how to interpret them. The truth is that data helps us make informed choices, and informed choices should make what we do better.

SeeSaw Saw You Wanting TV

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:40:00 +0000

News comes in that yet another online TV aggregator has launched.

SeeSaw aims to provide a vast array of TV back catalogues to British viewers, thus filling gaps that the big players like YouTube and Hulu either don't fill, or in the case of the latter, don't yet provide, as Hulu has still not launched in the UK.

The service is free for now, but intends to make some charge, probably for American imports, later in the year, according to a report in the Guardian. By focusing in its PR on shows like Skins, it's doubtless hoping to suck in a younger demographic. Admittedly, YouTube has started to offer full length shows too, so it will be interesting to see how the minnow fares with the shark.

The service is coming out of Beta in the week that YouTube celebrates its fifth birthday.

I was lucky enough to be working in Web TV back in 2000. Looking back, maybe I should have hung around and made my first million, instead of turning my back on it all and becoming a school teacher? On second thought, hell no, I love what I do. But it's certainly true that back in the day we had to encode video into a variety of formats (Quicktime, Windows Media Player, Real Player) at multiple bit rates, manually, for every video. Tedious as a definition couldn't even begin to describe how dull and time consuming that process was!

YouTube's trick was to jump on the Adobe Flash bandwagon, right at the time when Flash become capable of embedding video into its framework, making it a lot easier to embed video across the Web.

It's interesting also to notice the spat that's emerged this week surrounding Adobe's alleged attempts to block the development of HTML5, the new web browser standard which, inter alia, will allow video streaming and 2D graphics within the frame itself. For Adobe, purveyors of Flash, this is a potential disaster; not least because it means all those iPhone users around the world will no longer be barred from watching funky animations as part of their web experience.

What does this mean in the bigger picture? Basically, the delivery mechanisms are moving towards becoming truly platform agnostic, and this might force us back to the concept that content is indeed King, and it will be those who can create narratives for interactive platforms who will succeed.

To see evidence that this where we're heading take a look at the American Beta Google have been running with Living Stories, in which its partnered with The New York Times and Washington Post. Longer running stories are contextualized and re-presented for readers. From Google's viewpoint this enhancement of the user experience might provide more revenue opportunities, in terms of users staying on pages longer (good for advertisers) and content deals with publishers (they acquire an audience online that they're losing in print).

In other words, what we want is meaningful information, and what media institutions need are new ways to connect to us. The landscape in which the two sides meet and interact is evolving rapidly, and those who put up barriers to that process happening any place, any time, on any platform, are deluding themselves that the process can be stopped.

Why does the Hitler meme seem so popular?

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:06:00 +0000

One of the interesting web phenomena of recent years has been the rise of the Hitler meme on YouTube.

In these, a clip from the film Downfall (2004)is used repeatedly, but with a range of subtitles added.

The idea combines a mixture of humiliating the demonic figure that Hitler represents, while also displaying the prowess at comedy writing and timing of the producer, who uses a raging Hitler as the platform for social satire.

Some work better than others, and the choice of subject matter can make for uncomfortable viewing.

The Guardian newspaper has produced a good article that explores this phenomenon. It's a good reminder that in an age where we're all media producers, popular content and the means of its distribution don't necessarily reside with the ruling elites of old. What makes it fascinating for media educators and observers like myself, is the fact that the old rules don't apply, and market forces are taking on a whole new dynamic.

Teens go for micro rather than macro blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:44:00 +0000

An interesting report, quoted in the Guardian, suggesting that teens are moving rapidly away from the contemplative, longer form style of multimedia writing that embodies the production of a blog; choosing instead to write often and little on Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets.

The interesting fact about this is that the decline appears at a time when more schools are looking to use blogs as a mainstream way of encouraging literacy, independent thinking and shared collaborative reflection. Indeed, the introduction and promotion of blogging in schools might be one reason why personal blogging is losing its allure, as students come to view it as associated with 'official' academic work.

You can read the article, which analyses key elements of the Pew Research Center report, here.

How fast are those fingers on the keyboard?

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Phil Gyford has produced a fantastic blog post, in which he's experimented with data input times on a range of devices, from an iPhone, to a Mac laptop keyboard, vintage Apple Newton message pad, and two flavours of Palm - a phone and a PDA.

His results are intriguing and not at all what one would expect.

The photo above comes from his blog entry and you can read all about his findings here.

Apple's iPad and educational uses

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:17:00 +0000

Apple's iPad has been one of those technology launches that seems to divide people into those who can't see what the addition of a larger iPod Touch or iPhone can bring to the table, those who just want it, and those, like me, who fall somewhere between the previous two categories.

I can see that with a ten hour battery and a month on standby (although given that startup is less than 15 seconds it's not really that relevant), there are certain practical advantages. It's multi touch screen and small footprint make it advantageous for students and teachers alike.

For me, the fact is I have a Mac laptop that enables me to edit photos, video and audio, work on MS Office for school related documents, use Apple's Keynote for presentations, and run Windows XP for the things in school that aren't Mac compatible.

Therefore, do I really need a tablet? Having held out for the last two years before getting an iPhone, on the basis that I wasn't going to pay for a tool I could get free from another manufacturer, and indeed wait for bugs to be ironed out, I find myself in a similar position with the iPad.

There are certain obvious school advantages - having a digital jotter with me as I trot between campuses, collecting emails and making bookings on a shared calendar with staff would be great, as I move around school and often end up chatting to colleagues in non-PC connected places. The fact I can add a VGA for showing information wherever I find myself in school is cool. Incidentally, all rooms have a projector, so finding the means by which to show and tell isn't an issue.

If we can get academic publishers making digital versions of text books then there are educational and environmental benefits too. Less could indeed become more.

I was pleased to read that Apple are intending to make the iPad enterprise friendly, adding Exchange and direct printing support.

And yet, part of me wonders if this is part of a bigger trend, and whether cheaper yet practical alternatives will appear off the back of the Apple innovation train? I've been quite happy with my Samsung Omnia phone for the last 18 months, even though having an iPhone would have made it a bit easier for me to sync my digital life.

Being an Apple fan doesn't make me a blindly loyal follower. Could the iPad be the driver to persuade me that Apple products are the best for our school? Possibly, but that sort of commitment shouldn't be made in a hurry.

We're planning to deploy an Apple server, initially to help me and my technician manage the vast amount of audio/visual and photographic data we ingest each year, and to do the same with our Art department, who are the other big Mac users. At a recent discussion meeting I was shown the benefits of Snow Leopard Server, and it is a great piece of kit. Prof Steve Molyneux, with whom I was conversing, made the practical suggestion of a mixed-economy approach. Roll out some Mac laptops and let staff incrementally see for themselves the advantages that a Mac can bring. If they want it, let them have it. That seems a sensible approach to me. Forcing teachers to use technology can lead to resentment and a poor return on investment, both academically and financially.

Do I think Apple is the best way forward in education, when it comes to content production, independent learning and collaborative activities? Put it this way - it's not the only way, but it is a powerful solution.

As has happened so often during the last decade, Apple are challenging our preconceptions about how we think and communicate. The iPad deserves serious attention, if not for what it does now, then for its potential to change the means by which we learn and evolve in schools.

Touching the heart of tech-enhanced education

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:25:00 +0000

January has proved to be an interesting month for me and the whole issue of e-learning within school.

VLE's and all that

Currently, we have Moodle as our VLE. It's free to use, but of course there are internal costs in terms of deployment, management and maintaining the service. It was introduced some years ago in response to the threat from Avian flu. Consequently, there doesn't appear to have been much discussion with staff about the pedagogical implications or benefits of using technology to enhance learning; especially in terms of how a social constructivist approach can help students become better independent learners. The fact that Moodle can ingest work from students and if set up properly mark the work for you seems to have been a lost message too.

So, we have Moodle, we have Outlook for mail and calendars, although its use as a collaborative management tool isn't widespread amongst teachers, and we have deployed iSAMS, an excellent reporting and student data management tool at the start of the academic year. This is a web-based solution and allows teachers to see timetables, student information, write reports, see exam data analysis, send group emails (either to students or teachers of students), award merits, and a host of other tools. Its easy to use interface has made it an instant hit with colleagues.

Rationalising tools to improve learning

However, this legacy of adding tools to match needs as they arise has led to both confusion and inefficiency. Moreover, as we've discovered in the last few weeks, having rolled out email to our sixth form students, we have inherited a system that doesn't always want to talk to itself. We've found that user names for Moodle don't always match user names needed for iSAMS and Outlook. Consequently, we've had to start a program of digital ID harmonisation.

It's clear that over the coming years we are likely to move more towards virtualised and cloud-based systems of communication and learning. With that in mind it's vital that we can move our database of users from one place to another with ease, and put in place the wherewithal to make this happen with the minimum of fuss.

Against this rather convoluted backdrop of data clear-up, we're also looking at the school's digital strategy and how that might play out in the future.

At the recent BETT educational technology show we focused on learning platforms. We were impressed with Frog, who offer an integrated Web 2.0 solution, in a gorgeous interface, that combines learning platforms, email, parent portals, external facing websites, access to shared areas, and even remote terminal server type services, that allow users to access the software on school computers remotely. All of this sits on a custom built server, that sits alongside a school's existing provision. I was particularly impressed with the way templates are eschewed in favour of an Apple/iGoogle drag and drop widget based design system. It appeared to be easy to use and powerful. The Head of ICT from a school that has implemented it, who demonstrated Frog to us at BETT, was delighted with its take-up by technophobic staff and students at her school.

Frog isn't cheap but when considered in terms of the services it offers it does represent good value for money, especially in a large multi-campus school like Berkhamsted.

Plotting a future proof strategy

However, is this the way forward? What is it that we hope to achieve pedagogically? The deputy head who line manages me, Greg, and I have been speaking at length recently about this question. We recognise that while a whizz-bang solution like Frog will tick a lot of boxes, and staff will like it, is where education is headed? As our Principal, Mark Steed, said to me, 'Isn't it possible that the VLE is dead? Maybe they've become too static and don't represent the mobile driven world of our students.' It's a fair point. I've been keenly aware that more and more of our students are coming to school with iPhones and Blackberries. It's fascinating that a business comms tool has seeped into the teenage market so effectively. And yet, we shouldn't be surprised. To many teenagers, having access to email, Facebook and Twitter is de rigeur. And a smartphone is just the ticket to keep them in touch with their digital world.

With that in mind , Mark's point is that perhaps we should be seeing students as connected nodes in a learning network, towards which we can push relevant data. Do we need a learning platform, when what students really want is access to information, in a timely way, whenever they desire it? And if we take that view, then the parameters begin to change.

For starters, we're looking at ways of making wifi available to students, so that they can access material using whatever web-enabled device they choose. It might be a laptop or netbook, it could be an iPhone or Blackberry. Either way, we think that anywhere access to the Web, email and other services is essential, especially for older students. We do have a good provision of IT labs and PCs located in classrooms and libraries, but their number can't match the number of students for whom web access is becoming an crucial part of their learning experience. Thus, by making access available we aim to enhance learning.

And that brings me back to my earlier question: what are we hoping to achieve pedagogically?

An App for all seasons?

Last June we heard about the benefits of Google Apps for Education. It's a free to use suite of tools, that offer web-based alternatives to Word, Power Point and Excel. In addition, it combines a powerful calendar tool, plus interactive groups and Google Sites, which allows users to create websites, into which content can be embedded and or up/downloaded. Documents created in its suite can be converted and downloaded as Microsoft or PDF files. It has drag and drop functionality. More importantly, any document can be jointly edited. Google's GMail is also provided.

What it offers is a suite of collaborative tools, in which students can find space where they take control of their learning and work together. For me, this represents a powerful educational benefit.

Although it's free to set up, and Google provide the means for schools to securely add and maintain a list of users, all of whom receive a Google email account, re-branded with a school address, we wanted to see if the service would work with our students. Therefore, I set up a couple of trial groups and sites, using Greg's Politics class and a sixth form Classical Civilisation class with another colleague.

What we found was that students took to it like a duck to water, and in both cases we were surprised to see students accessing the site, asking questions of each other and making a real effort to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Even over the Christmas break the sites remained active. Other colleagues have followed suit and even a couple of technophobic teachers have had a go and managed to produce some lovely looking sites. I've added some images below.

So where do we go now?

Having been impressed with these early trials, and bolstered by the fact even the Open University, which has over 200,000 users, is switching to Google Apps, we've decided to deploy it. But that still leaves us with the question, 'what do we do about VLEs, access, and improving learning from a pedagogical perspective?'

After much discussion Greg and I think that a combination of Moodle as a static repository for schemes of work and other material, coupled with Google Apps as the place where students and teachers go to discuss, learn and share, is perhaps the best way forward for now. We'd like to see what Frog can offer for us, although at present they don't seem to offer support for data transfer with iSAMS.

It might seem counter productive to add yet another tool to the box, but we think that Google for collaborative learning, Moodle for course data, and iSAMS for reporting, represents a good mix that also remains affordable. We have a lot of material on Moodle already. The issue with it is its perceived complexity in terms of uploading and managing dynamic content. Google will get around this, due to its ease of use. iSAMS has proved to be a godsend for the back end data management and reporting that we do. Keeping that data separate from the day to day work we engage in with students is a good idea.

We're hoping that we'll have Google Apps for Education up and running in time for the second half of term. After that, we'll roll it out to staff and see if the wider learning community at Berkhamsted finds it as useful as those who have taken part in our trials.

I'll let you know.

Ed Balls - kids need more protection on TV

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:26:00 +0000

www.guardian.co.uk

As if the Government wasn't doing enough to protect kids in the UK by making it ever harder for anyone to work with them at all, today saw the Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, claim that kids appearing on TV need more protection.

I would agree that there's a need to address the recent phenomenon of broadcasters using children's emotions for ratings winners, but is new legislation the best way forward? The problem I have with increased legislation is that it tends to create even more problems than it solves.

Surely common sense and political pressure are better alternatives to a heavy handed regulatory approach?

I do think the idea of better Media literacy in schools is a good idea, and this could be incorporated into ICT schemes of work, since much of the content kids themselves access, in an unfiltered way, resides online.

I hope I'm not turning into a free market libertarian, but this administration's desire to control everything we do seems out of control.

19 million watch X Factor final. Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:11:00 +0000

www.guardian.co.uk

Why did more than 19 million people watch this weekend's X Factor final, the show's largest audience in six series?

Personally, it' rather passed me by. Call it the Big Brother Syndrome, or perhaps attribute it to the fact I've been very busy at school, but I find it puzzling.

You can read all the statistical data here.

From a Media Studies viewpoint it shows that:

Simon Cowell is great at capturing populist trends
Simon Cowell is great at monetizing the TV show as an international brand
Audiences don't always follow predictable patterns
Institutions hate to leave their comfort zone if audiences and advertisers seem happy, although experience suggests that time and repetition should dull popularity.

Thanks to the Web I can of course revisit what I missed and see the key moments, thus saving myself hours of valuable life time, focusing in purely on the best bits. Does this make me a bad media consumer, or a thoroughly postmodern media interaction specialist? I'll leave you to decide.

Using the iPhone in connected learning

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:05:00 +0000

www.wired.com

A great story from Wired about an American university piloting the use of customised iPhones for student learning and collaboration.

The rise of connected mobile technologies for learner interaction, content access, and collaboration is likely to be one of the big buzzes of the next year or so.

You probably didn't read that here first, but if you're reading it on a smartphone then you're surfing along nicely on the Zeitgeist wave.

Ushahidi - open source disaster prevention

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:56:00 +0000

www.ushahidi.com

This is a great demonstration of the power of social networking for positive good.

Ushahidi takes Google Maps and allows contributors to add real-time, geo-tagged data and postings, focused on areas of conflict or natural disasters.

It's a brilliant learning tool to show how areas of man made or natural disasters cope.

Have a look at the Afghan website, Alive in Afghanistan, which gives a very different picture to the mediated news that we see, read and hear in the mainstream Western media.

It makes for fascinating and disturbing reading, taking you into the heart of a conflict zone in a much more accessible way than normal news outlets can manage.

iPhone and the Stockholm Syndrome

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Maybe it's getting quiet in the run up to Christmas, but I was intrigued by this report, claiming to have spotted similarities between iPhone users and their dedication to the product, and the so-called Stockholm Syndrome, where captives become enamored of their captors.

My own mobile phone contract expires next May, and as Vodafone, my supplier, are due to start selling the iPhone in the New Year, I will confess to having been tempted to upgrade to one.

Many of my colleagues are surprised that I haven't gone for an iPhone before. However, although I use Macs a lot of the time, I'm not a slave to the product. For me, the iPhone has always been to expensive, especially given the fact other phones can do better in key areas. That said, the iPhone seems to have matured into a decent product and costs have fallen. Although I've been a Win Mob fan for the last two years, the time for a switch may be coming.

If it does, I just hope I don't develop any un-natural emotions as a consequence.

News International - the biggest media audience database?

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:42:00 +0000

The Guardian reports that Rupert Murdoch's News International holds information on its database about a third of the UK population.

This information has been provided willingly, when consumers sign up for Sky TV, or subscriptions to the Times, Sun, Sunday Times, and News of the World.

In a period of recession it was quite amazing to read that around 200,000 users are rated as 'high value', meaning that they were potentially worth as much as £600 a year each to News International.

When we talk in Media Studies about the relationships between institutions and audiences, it's useful to remember that often these relationships are predicated on financial transactions - the consumer pays, the institution delivers content, and increasingly, enhanced services.

However, the newspaper industry itself seems to be in terminal decline, with readership figures falling and ad revenues getting hammered by the move of advertisers to online sources. It should come as no surprise, then, that News International and the Guardian Media Group have been making noises recently about Google's dominant position. Not only does Google reap advertising revenue from visitors, but, say its detractors, it's 'stealing' revenue via its Google News aggregation service. This provides access to a range of news headlines, but also enables Google to make cash from associated on-screen advertising. This, claim NI et al, is not fair, because Google is in effect recycling someone else's news and making cash from it.

It's an interesting debate, since Google is driving more users to respective news providers, and evidence shows that online browsers are more likely to click on ads if they're using a search engine, and indeed, are more likely to make a purchase. There's a great article here that explains this in more detail.

And, as an end-note, it's worth observing that the Office of Fair Trading has ruled recently that it won't be referring Google to the Monopolies Commission, as it is a major driver for innovation, change and consumer satisfaction.

For the newspapers, they're going to need new business models. For those of us passionate about the media and the future of newspapers, it's going to be fascinating to see if the news print industry can respond to changing market dynamics faster and more effectively than the music industry managed, when faced with threats from online, MP3, and Apple.

Educational Values in a Digital Age

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:24:00 +0000

I came across this fascinating blog post from e-learning specialist Steve Wheeler, who works at the University of Plymouth.

His presentation to a group of final year trainee teachers makes for timely reflection. What are we teaching our students? How can they be prepared for a future dominated by digital technology and knowledge economies?

I've embedded Steve's presentation below, but it needs to be read in conjunction with his blog post, in order to make the fullest sense. You can find it here.

As an adjunct to Steve's observations my colleague Britta Bohlinger has written a timely post, looking at the ways in which employers might glean more meaningful data about prospective employees, using the Web as a research tool. You can find her blog here.

Educational values in a digital age

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Jane Hart, an e-learning specialist, who runs the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has produced a fantastic list of e-learning tools that have come to the fore in 2009. Many of them I know, but there are some undiscovered treasures.

What's interesting is the number of tools that are web based. It's a trend that seems set to continue. For schools, this means that high-speed, high capacity broadband connections will become increasingly important.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

The mobile web is ruling us!

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:41:00 +0000

Trendy mobile phone company HTC have released some fantastic TV commercials in the States.

They've hit upon the fact that most of us live with our mobile phones no more than an arm's length away from us a great deal of the time.

Apart from the slick messages being delivered (and thinking about it from the perspective of theorist Stuart Hall, it might be reasonable to assume audiences will read the media text using its Dominant, or Preferred meaning) there's some interesting truths under-pinning the ads.

Increasingly, we're moving to using smartphones, capable of web browsing, image capture, and document production. Many of them link automatically to social networking services, and so indeed, the phone is becoming the accessory of choice that many of us keep nearby almost constantly.

This raises questions of identity, ownership, media consumption and interaction, and indeed poses the possibility that Western cultures, a little like New York, are becoming the ones that never sleep nor stop.

Either way, the adverts are a great example of style, narrative, audience appeal, and great music (Nina Simone's Sinner Man, remixed by Felix Da Housecat). Enjoy!

P.S. If the song seems familiar from another media source, you might be reminiscing subliminally about the Bourne Identity, which used the original Simone song.

Mind mapping for free online

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:33:00 +0000

I came across this free mind mapping, web based tool, called bubbl.us.

Mind mapping is a great way to visualize your thoughts, and work out the relationships between elements of a project or plan. This could be the delivery of a syllabus, if you're a teacher, or ideas for an essay, if you're a student.

I haven't had a chance to try it out in class yet, but I like the fact it's web based, can be embedded into blogs, and worked on collaboratively.

Bubbl.us is yet another example of how Web 2.0 technology is providing Software As A Service (or SAAS for short). I'm not sure how many of these companies will earn money, although the received wisdom currently seems to be that you offer the service for free, get in the user base, and then work out a way to charge for premium services. This model's called Freemium, but I'm not sure that we won't end up with another crash at some point.

For now, let's not worry about such matters - we're educators and students after all, and the breadth of the Web means that if one service shuts then another will doubtless spring up in its place.

Blogs as language learning tools

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:22:00 +0000

One thing in a French day

onethinginafrenchday.podbean.com

I came across this rather good blog, 'One Thing in a French Day.'

Its author, Laetitia, writes daily updates on her life is Paris. Alongside the French one can listen to a podcast of her reading out the text.

It's a great way to listen to contemporary French, while having the text in front of you.

It won't be useful if you're a beginner, as there's no translation, but I've found it a good way to keep my ear in tune for the nuances of spoken French.

I can see it being useful for advanced level students, both in class and at home.

A bientôt!

Radley Media Conference 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:48:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from Ian Yorston, the Head of Digital Strategy at Radley, to attend their annual sixth form conference, which was held today. The theme changes each year, and the 2009 topic was The Media - A force for good?

The school had assembled a stellar line-up of speakers who debated the ins and outs of the media in a changing world.

Ian added live updates to the blog he'd set up in the run-up to the event, and you can see his postings and the live comments here.

The first session focused on the theme: Opinion forming - to what extent can, or should, journalists influence opinion? Four speakers each gave their insight, followed by questions from the floor.

John Murray Brown, Ireland correspondent for the Financial Times, offered his views on changing revenue models and audience participation. His was a thoughtful, academic approach to the fundamental changes technology has brought to the newspaper industry. More importantly, he defined the function of journalists as expert witnesses, capable of analyzing complex issues and distilling them into meaningful context. John's historical journey through the maze of proprietorial ownership was a good reminder that power in the hands of the few can be detrimental to democracy. For me, it was the perfect start to the day, and the warm applause he received was a fair reflection of his considered and balanced approach to the craft of the journalist.

If Murray Brown was the thoughtful academic then the next speaker, Jim Gillespie, came straight at us with the blunt talking of someone who's spent a lifetime in the popular press. Jim's most recently been a news feature editor at the Daily Mail, and his approach was earthy, humorous, self-deprecating and full of the joyous cynicism I recognised from my own time in broadcast newsrooms. Jim reflected that research done when he worked at the Independent newspaper showed that leader columns, op eds, and the views of columnists tended to have the least effect at persuading readers. In other words, papers can have influence but the timing and extent of that influence can't be predicted. We do need someone to create and report the news, but, he seemed to be saying, a free press is essential to democracy more by the act of its existence, not necessarily for the power it believes it wields.

Having listened to two newspaper men, the next up to the podium came from broadcasting. John Ryley is Head of News at Sky, and his view was that convergence and multimedia accessibility means any of us can be citizen journalists; but it takes experience and training to do it properly. John touched upon the influence of social sites like Twitter, and deplored the fact that many local news outlets are reproducing PR stories they receive verbatim. For him, creating a strong press, capable of asking awkward questions, was essential. He used the Telegraph's breaking of the MPs' expenses scandal as an example where reporting the facts can have profound outcomes. John reminded us of Lord Northcliffe's observation that, 'News is what somebody, somewhere, wants to suppress; everything else is advertising.'

To end the first session we were treated to the thoughts of Lyse Doucet, a BBC award-winning journalist and correspondent. She reflected on her time in Afghanistan when it was the Russians taking on the locals, and the global challenges facing a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. Whether she was in Africa, Iraq or Israel, someone, somewhere, would accuse her of bias. Lyse gave us a sensitive and intellectual view of what life as a reporter for one of the world's best known news reporting brands is like. Lyse opened up a discussion on what should constitute a news agenda. Should there be good news? How far do audiences come to new agendas with their own partisan and biased views? I was reminded of the theories of Stuart Hall, although sadly there was no time to throw the notion of audience reception into the mix. Lyse finished with a warning that the need for journalists to multi-task as reporters, radio operators and photographers risked eroding their core activities of reflection and analysis; while turning them into process driven operatives.

The ensuing discussion from the floor showed that while many of the students present read more than one newspaper, a majority used online sources for news. It would have been good to find out what range of sources they do use - I suspect that if a poll had been taken, the resulting list might have been narrower than one would hope. I was reminded of the fact that an excess of information doesn't necessarily correlate with a corresponding ability to sift and analyse.

The second session of the day looked at Spinning and De-Spinning. John Momo runs a number of TV channels in Nigeria. Despite just coming off a plane, having been working at Harvard, he gave an insightful and meaningful analysis of the importance of a free press in all parts of the world. It was great to get a non-European perspective and it's vital that in a shrinking global village our students don't forget that this means we can reach out to the rest of the world. We shouldn't expect the rest of the world to come joyously skipping to our virtual front doors.

It's easy to forget that much of the world either isn't online, or blessed with a free press. John reminded us that, in the words of C.P. Snow, legendary editor of the Guardian, 'Comment is Free but Facts are Sacred.' John questioned the laziness of much of the journalism conducted today, and was a powerful advocate for strong journalistic endeavour to ensure the truth gets heard.

Jonathan Hill was a fascinating speaker. He ran John Major's election campaign in 1992, and having served in a variety of roles in Number 10 Downing Street, now advises corporate clients when their reputations are on the line. His view was a soothing one of mis-represented individuals being hounded by the press. He had helped Eton College defend its reputation when it was alleged Prince Harry had received help with Art coursework, and he had helped Oxford University when it rejected the Medicine applicant Laura Spence, who had come from a State school. Having spent my career on the other side of the fence, I was impressed with Jonathan's ease at making the unpalatable seem tasty. Then I was reminded why I decided to quit the media and become a teacher - dealing in people's fate via the strange arena of the TV circus can be injurious to one's conscience.

I needn't have worried, as the next speaker, the writer and journalist Tom Bower, soon put things to right. Tom's written unauthorised biographies of Maxwell, Murdoch and Branson, inter alia. He's also written the award winning Broken Dreams, about corruption in football. John spoke softly, but his words were barbed. He warned us against complacency and reminded us that standing up to the Establishmemt requires luck, tenacity and an iron will. His examples of how the great and good have tried to gag him and failed made for entertaining listening; but they were a timely reminder that 'truth can be manufactured' and that in a world awash with spin across numerous channels. finding the real truth can be an arduous task.

After lunch came the main keynote speech. It was an absolute privilege to listen to documentary film maker Paul Watson talk about the craft of the empathetic storyteller, who will record and assemble snapshots of reality in order to create a narrative about contemporary life. He showed us a showreel of some of his most famous work, including the Family, Sylvania Waters, and Rain in My Heart.

Paul spoke with conviction about the need for TV to produce intelligent stories, rather than inconsequential sound bites. He wasn't against shows like the X Factor per se, but argued that TV's power to hold a mirror up to society was an important role. He was delighted that he and a clutch of other traditional documentary makers have just been asked into Channel 4, to discuss some heavyweight projects. He didn't elaborate on what they were, but I'm sure the end result will make gripping content.

Paul re-iterated the notion that while anyone can be a film maker now, it takes time to reflect on the story, and practise the art of becoming invisible during filming. His clarion call was for film makers to be subversives, and not to shy away from the stories of real people. It was a timely reminder that much of what consumes the media's interest nowadays is celebrity driven. I was greatly influenced by Paul's documentaries, and in part it was his work that helped me decide that was what I wanted to do when I left university. Interestingly, when a student asked Paul who his influences had been in documentary, he replied 'No-one.' However, he had been influenced by the film makers of the French Nouvelle Vague. It was a revealing insight at the end of a fascinating talk.

Finally, a lively debate ensued, in which students had been split into different groups, where their task had been to focus on different areas of the media: fashion, gender, science, entertainment, celebrity and so on. What struck me most about this final element was firstly the ability of many students to articulate a reasonably media literate view of the world around them; and secondly, how terrifyingly willing they were to allow newspapers and TV channels to be owned by one individual or company. The most common refrain was that since 'you can read another paper, or watch another channel, it doesn't matter if Murdoch et al suck up more media outlets.' There was a strong rebuttal of these views, both from Ian Yorston, who did a splendid job chairing the debate and guiding the discussion, but also from a minority of students who could see the inherent dangers in a monopolised press. Ian's closing comments referred back to an observation from a female student, that only one of the day's speakers had been a woman. Perhaps, Ian reflected, the real challenge in the media today was gender imbalance, in terms not just of practitioners, but also the stereotypical divisions that existed in the representation and coverage of stories.

It would have been great to have more time, to speak, to discuss, and to reflect. Nonetheless, this was a wonderful example of both the influence of the media and the importance of bringing young people into contact with today's opinion formers; so that they might learn what tasks lie ahead for them in years to come.

Access for all, but at what price?

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:39:00 +0000

news.bbc.co.uk

There's no doubt that the internet has transformed the lives of millions, and changed the parameters within which media is produced and consumed, information shared and refined, and networks shaped and re-formed.

However, if you're one of the millions of people worldwide who has difficulty with text, whether that's due to poor eyesight or a learning difficulty such as dyslexia, then all may not seem so rosy.

Accessibility is one of the great challenges of the digital world, and it's one that tends to get relegated to the hinterland of public debate.

I was delighted, therefore, to see Intel announcing its commitment to produce technologies to help those with visual impairments or dyslexia access the same content as the rest of us.

Their Reader will enable users to scan pages of text, and turn them into spoken MP3 files, or larger sized text. It's a compact device and has the potential to transform the lives of millions.

So, what's the drawback? The £1000 price tag, that's what. I can understand that the development costs for such an assistive technology are huge, but surely there must be some sort of government funding, or incentive from a charitable source, to make access to this fantastic tool affordable?

At a time of economic woe the good news of the Reader's arrival is sorely tempered by the prohibitive cost of purchase. I'd like to buy one to see if it could help the dyslexic students at my school. I'm sure it would. But at that price point I'm unlikely to find out.

An Age of Personalised Content and Media Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Sacha van Straten) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:22:00 +0000

news.bbc.co.uk

The news that the outstandingly successful BBC iPlayer will be launched on Nintendo's Wii console is proof, if proof were needed, that the relationship between media institutions is changing dramatically in a web-driven world.

Fundamentally, commercial alliances and content sharing with acknowledgement are the way forward. As we move to an age where personalised information will find you, consumers are becoming less brand loyal and more content focused. Nicholas Negroponte made this observation back in 1996, but it's taken more than a decade for the mass market and appropriate technology to play catch up with the theory.

For producers of media content this means that cross-platform co-operation and content fertilization will be key drivers to economic success. The power of Twitter to enable disparate networks to rapidly share links to relevant information, is the most striking example this year of how consumers want to find what they want, and find what they didn't know they'd like.

The age of content protected walled gardens, with media institutions battling to keep audiences within their reach for as long as possible, is over. And that's why claims that Rupert Murdoch may try to limit Google searches for paid-for content coming out of his News International stable ultimately will be floored.

It's not just content that's King. It's the consumer. And the sooner media institutions embrace that idea and think about reach and spread, rather than control and restraint, the sooner they'll find new and profitable business models appearing.