Archive | March, 2009

Is YouTube educational? Yes

27 Mar

YouTube have launched a new portal called YouTube EDU that rounds up educational content from Universities and other educational organisations.

The rapid pace of change in the online world was brought home to me the other day, after I had presented on the topic of Social Media for Education and said that educational content on YouTube was hard to find – by the time I got home, YouTube EDU had appeared – but does it render my doubts about findability on YouTube obsolete?

I think not, as YouTube EDU has been put together by a volunteer group of employees, as the standard YouTube Education category suffers from the same problems of any system where users assign their own keywords – spammers, marketeers and others just fill it up with items that aren’t educational, just to be seen – so these videos had to be rounded up by hand.

As for the content – the directory indicates that the vast majority is from US based Universities – and my initial hopes for Top Secret content were dashed when I noticed that the CIA Network referred to the Culinary Institute of America rather than the Central Intelligence Agency – although they can offer cocktail advice that the other CIA cannot!

The most viewed videos pages seems to indicate that while there may be full length lecture videos from over 200 courses, the shorter form videos appear to be more YouTube friendly – the TL:DR problem finding a new expression in video form.

Subject access will still be reliant on tags on individual videos – so while a search for Economics will yield hundreds of results, you’ll still miss out on videos that have not been correctly tagged and other educational material from organisations that aren’t in the YouTube EDU directory at the moment – for example the World Bank.

While YouTube EDU is a big step in the right direction, it’s not the whole story – you may find that  Academic Earth has some better features and fewer distractions – even if YouTube EDU is going to get more media coverage.

Between YouTube EDU and iTunesU (now integrated within iTunes) online audio and video can now be mobilised in standard places where mainstream users are most likely to find them, making multimedia educational resources easier to find and use than ever before.

However, what effect if any will YouTube EDU have on Universities?

  • Does this render the need for formal University approved and curated repositories obsolete?
  • Will lecturers feel more pressure to perform or entertain if they can be seen by anyone around the world?
  • How will prospective students react to seeing the University teaching process laid bare? Will it inspire them or turn them off?

Intute: Social Sciences features more educational YouTube channels.

The Intute Twitter 500

24 Mar

The Intute Economics Twitter channel recently acquired it’s 500th follower – this seems like a good opportunity to reflect on this Twitter experiment.

The world seems all a-quiver about Twitter at the moment – whether it is Twitter-bashing viral animations, implications that it could be more important than UK Newspaper websites or acting as an intriguing communication channel for events such as the JISC Conference.

After using Twitter in a personal capacity for a while, I set up the Intute Economics channel back in November and in the new year we launched a few more channels including the Intute Psychology channel.

So how have we been using Twitter? How could you be using Twitter? What are the keys to the success of Twitter? I was recently asked to pull together a few thoughts on this for a meeting at the ILRT – and the slides are available online and below:

Twitter and Intute

View more presentations from cfbloke.

Some top Twitter tips that have struck me …

Learn from the crowd

I used Twitter to help me crowdsource my presentation, ask for feedback and to get virtual questions that I answered during the presentation. Although there are problems with Twitter Search it does enable you to filter your results to those Tweets containing links – a real-time search engine.

It’s not another Facebook

You do not have to recreate your existing social networks on Twitter – if you are not getting quality information via Twitter then change the people you are following – the opt-in model of friends / followers means you control the dataset – try Mr. Tweet for automatic suggestions.

Choose your Twittering personality

Active Twittering – or having a real person update and respond to tweets is the best approach, but Passive Twittering or sending your existing content to Twitter – via a service like Twitterfeed can work too and may work for some organisations.

Keep track of your followers

Twitter Analyzer enables you to take a closer look at your followers – ours describe themselves as students, economists, editors, entrepreneurs – clearly the sort of people Intute is aimed at, Twitter is being used by normal people and not just the IT crowd.

How followers of @intuteeconomics describe themselves:

intuteeconomicsfollowers

Monitor what’s being said about you … and respond

Twitter Search offers an easy way to keep track of what people are saying about you or your service – although you may wish go for a tool that searches several sites such as Social Mention or Icerocket – keep track of what is being said about you and respond.

In conclusion …

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how work relevant a simple tool like Twitter can be – I was very sceptical at first – it is still very much a Marmite app – you’ll love it or you’ll hate it – but weren’t we saying that about blogs or even the Internet a few years ago?

Intute features a number of experimental Twitter channels:

… and finally

Who was that 500th follower – none other than Brian Kelly of UK Web Focus fame!

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The Intute Twitter 500

24 Mar

The Intute Economics Twitter channel recently acquired it’s 500th follower – this seems like a good opportunity to reflect on this Twitter experiment.

The world seems all a-quiver about Twitter at the moment – whether it is Twitter-bashing viral animations, implications that it could be more important than UK Newspaper websites or acting as an intriguing communication channel for events such as the JISC Conference.

After using Twitter in a personal capacity for a while, I set up the Intute Economics channel back in November and in the new year we launched a few more channels including the Intute Psychology channel.

So how have we been using Twitter? How could you be using Twitter? What are the keys to the success of  Twitter? I was recently asked to pull together a few thoughts on this for a meeting at the ILRT – and the slides are available online and below:

Twitter and Intute

View more presentations from cfbloke.

Some top Twitter tips that have struck me …

Learn from the  crowd

I used Twitter to help me crowdsource my presentation, ask for feedback and to get virtual questions that I answered during the presentation. Although there are problems with Twitter Search it does enable you to filter your results to those Tweets containing links – a real-time search engine.

It’s not another Facebook

You do not have to recreate your existing social networks on Twitter – if you are not getting quality information via Twitter then change the people you are following – the opt-in model of friends / followers means you control the dataset – try Mr. Tweet for automatic suggestions.

Choose your Twittering  personality

Active Twittering – or having a real person update and respond to tweets is the best approach, but Passive Twittering or sending your existing content to Twitter – via a service like Twitterfeed can work too and may work for some organisations.

Keep track of your followers

Twitter Analyzer enables you to take a closer look at your followers – ours describe themselves as students, economists, editors, entrepreneurs – clearly the sort of people Intute is aimed at, Twitter is being used by normal people and not just the IT crowd.

How followers of @intuteeconomics describe themselves:

intuteeconomicsfollowers

Monitor what’s being said about you … and respond

Twitter Search offers an easy way to keep track of what people are saying about you or your service – although you may wish go for a tool that searches several sites such as Social Mention or Icerocket – keep track of what is being said about you and respond.

In conclusion …

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how work relevant a simple tool like Twitter can be – I was very sceptical at first – it is still very much a Marmite app – you’ll love it or you’ll hate it – but weren’t we saying that about blogs or even the Internet a few years ago?

Intute features a number of experimental Twitter channels:

… and finally

Who was that 500th follower – none other than Brian Kelly of UK Web Focus fame!

Tags:

A Bakers Dozen of Practical Podcasting Tips

20 Mar

Audio podcasting may seem to have taken a bit of a back seat in comparison to video based resources recently, but there are still plenty of people interested in the possibilities of sound based resources.

I was recently asked to pull together my Top Ten Tips for producing an audio podcast – alas 10 soon became 12 and then I added one for luck … but they are presented below:

Beware the audio phile – audio recording can get very involved – feedback from those who spend weeks mastering a track may not be relevant – ask yourself is this good enough for someone listening on an iPod or at their PC?

Beware the audio file – investigate the quality settings on your chosen recording / editing software – in general record in as a high a quality as possible, mix it down so that final file sizes are about 1MB per minute for the audio.

One voice or two – listening to a monologue can be monotonous over an extended period of time. It is much easier on the ear to listen to a conversation, preferably with a male and female voice.

Be natural – use your normal voice while recording, as any affectation will be picked up by the sound recording and will be difficult for you to maintain over time, so get used to the sound of your recorded voice. Pause, don’t ummm.

Prepare for your podcast – either script every word or have a detailed running order for your recording and notes of what you want to say, as this enables you to concentrate on your delivery.

Read it out loud – words that make sense on a page, may not do so when read out loud. Keep sentences short. Allow for breathing. Similar sounds seem silly in the same space. Check it by reading it out loud yourself.

Sound quality – record the best quality sound you can, use a pop filter if you are recording at a desk, be careful where you place the microphone and avoid setting your recording level too high as the sound will clip or distort.

Music – fade in/outs, stingers between segments and a theme tune can make your podcast sound more professional, but will add to the editing time. Resist the temptation to use a track from your favourite album, as you don’t own the copyright.

Be aware of your environment – a high ceiling in a large open room will create an echo, similarly a small bathroom will produce sound reflections, so scout your potential locations in advance and take a test recording.

Noise is everywhere – there is a lot of ambient noise in the world around us that we get used to – computers whirring away, traffic going past etc. – this may be useful colour in some podcasts e.g. a sound-seeing tour, but not for others.

Practice with your equipment – don’t waste your own time by not knowing how to work your recorder, or by setting the level on your microphone is too high, know how your kit works.

Take two – try to get more than one take of a recording, as this gives you more choices while editing. Re-recording later will be very tricky, as you won’t match the sound levels exactly.

Test your results – the sound levels on your PC or recording kit are not the same as those elsewhere – once you have a finished a recording, listen to it on another PC or an mp3 player to see if it sounds OK.

Further Reading

Secrets of Podcasting / Bart G. Farkas ISBN: 0321369297
Podcasting Hacks / Jack D. Herrington ISBN 0596100663
Podcasting for Learning in Universities / Gilly Salmon ISBN 0335234291

Online resources

The Science of Listener Attention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWdIRgPXsg#t=6m06s

My Podcasting life … or the reverse Obama effect

http://www.slideshare.net/cfbloke/podcast-presentation-775791

Intute: Social Sciences podcast archive

http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/podcast/

Delicious links on podcasting

http://delicious.com/cfbloke/podcasts

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DEE 2009: Call for papers

13 Mar

The Developments in Economics Education (DEE) Conference has issued a final call for papers with a deadline of the 30th of March 2009.

Fifth International Conference on Developments in Economics Education (DEE)
9-10 September 2009
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, UK

The fifth international Developments in Economics Education Conference will present the latest developments in economics higher education. It will showcase activities and resources, present latest research as well as provide practical advice. The conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in teaching economics at HE level.

Keynote speakers are:

The conference will be held at the award-winning Wales Millennium Centre, 20 minutes walk from the centre of Cardiff. The conference dinner will be held at the historic and elegant National Museum Wales in the heart of Cardiff and famous for housing one of the finest art collections in Europe.

Session proposals should include a session outline and be no longer than 250 words. The deadline for proposals is Monday 30th March 2009.

For those who would like to know more about the DEE Conference, try these blog posts from the last DEE Conference that was held in Cambridge.

Intute: Social Sciences features more Internet resources on Economics.

Explaining the credit crisis

6 Mar

The financial crisis seems to have a bizarre language all of its own.

Terms such as credit default swaps, sub-prime mortgages or collatoralized debt obligations can be baffling – luckily The Crisis of Credit visualized is an 11 minute video that tries to explain some of these terms and why they have become quite so important

One term that isn’t covered in that video is quantitative easing – the latest move from the Bank of England to try and get the economy moving again – Faisal Islam of Channel4 News explains in this clip.

What will this mean for the economy?

It’s difficult to be sure in this highly volatile economic climate – some further reading on the issue is below:

Try EconPapers for more research on quantitative easing from academics.

Intute: Economics features more Internet resources or try the Intute: Economics Twitter feed.

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009

6 Mar

The ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009 runs from March 6th to March 15th.

The Festival provides an insight into some of the country’s leading social science research and how it influences the social, economic and political life of the country – both now and in the future.

The full programme of events includes over 90 events in cities and towns from Aberdeen to Hove and Cardiff to Belfast – so there may well be something happening near you.

There’s also a range of virtual events including:

Intute: Social Sciences are not running an event for the Festival this year, but you might like to revisit some of our previous contributions.

Intute: Social Sciences features more Internet resources from or funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009

6 Mar

The ESRC Festival of Social Science 2009 runs from March 6th to March 15th.

The Festival provides an insight into some of the country’s leading social science research and how it influences the social, economic and political life of the country – both now and in the future.

The full programme of events includes over 90 events in cities and towns from Aberdeen to Hove and Cardiff to Belfast – so there may well be something happening near you.

There’s also a range of virtual events including:

Intute: Social Sciences are not running an event for the Festival this year, but you might like to revisit some of our previous contributions.

Intute: Social Sciences features more Internet resources from or funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

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