Sheffield Hallam is gearing itself up to using digiatl audio. I sense that following two years of background work there are indications here that digital audio is a media that people are ready to use. There is a lot of interest in the Closer! podcasting pilot, for example. Part of the effort made by me has been in making sure that everything's in place for staff and students to use it whenever they were ready. In this episode I speak with James Dennis about what he and the AV unit have been...

Helen Rodger in Academic Innovation at Sheffield Hallam has been leading the Backpack pilot for the last 9 months. Andrew Middleton speaks to Helen to find out about Backpack, the add-on tool for the Blackboard learning environment. They discuss the pilot and some of the tentative findings that are emerging at the end of the academic year. More information about Backpack can be found on the Agilix website at: http://www.agilix.com/backpack.aspx which says, "Improving student and instructor...

The Closer! pilot is a new educational podcasting initiative being run at Sheffield Hallam. It will run in the 2007-08 academic year and will evaluate the Podcast LX Building Block in Blackboard. The pilot will be supported by Academic Innovation in the Learning and Teaching Institute and e-Learning support teams in the faculties. Podcasting, audio and video are relatively new media and Academic Innovation are particularly interested in working with people who are interested in taking the...

The Impact Mentoring Scheme run at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield matches students to professionals in the area. Run by the Careers teams at each university, it is a career focused scheme where mentors use their skills, experience and knowledge to support a student as they make decisions about their future career. Initially established as a positive action project designed to develop the competitiveness and employability of UK Black and Minority Ethnic students it...

Audio Feedback takes many forms. Several academics at Sheffield Hallam University have taken the essential concept of producing formative feedback in audio format and put their own spin on it. In this workshop from the The Assessment for Learning Initiative week Andrew Middleton co-ordinates a discussion with Anne Nortcliffe, Anthony Rosie and Heidi Probst. Participants discuss the methods they use and the benefits they have found. Apologies for the quality of the recording, which is not as...

The Assessment for Learning Initiative (TALI) at Sheffield Hallam University is running a week of activities relating to innovation in assessment next week. Andrew Middleton talks to Nina Miremadi about her role in the initiative and the sessions for next week. TALI are producing a podcast record of the week. You can access the podcast at http://tali-lti.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default and subscribe to it at http://feeds.feedburner.com/TaliPodcast Check the Show Notes at...

The web is now a creative environment where anyone with basic ICT skills and an internet connection can publish their own ideas and collaborate with others. What does this new understanding of the Web, or Web 2.0, mean to education? In a continued exploration of this question Andrew Middleton discuses how Web 2.0 and studio practice might connect to 'extend the studio.' Andrew speaks with Drew Dallen, a part-time Fine Art student at Sheffield Hallam University. The following list of...

You would have thought that thinking about your career is an important, on-going part of being a student - especially in that last undergraduate year. Many students however don't seem to engage with the university Careers team. They are preoccupied with studying for the exams. Before they know it they've graduated and not able to make the most of their qualifications. How can a Careers team make what they have to offer more accessible, more obviously relevant and more engaging to the student...

Andrew Middleton proposes that educational podcasting models can be used to stimulate social engagement in the learning community. Do you agree? What ideas do you have for social educational podcasting? The next show is for you! Use the MyChingo recorder on the Show notes site to leave a message or send Andrew an audio response via email at lta-podcast AT shu.ac.uk. Your contributions will be compiled to form the next show! Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

Andrew Middleton travels to Scotland for the second episode in a row, this time to Glasgow to the Massively Multi-leaner Conference held at the University of Paisley. He reports back on several of the sessions. A more detailed report can be found in the Creativity in Academic Innovation blog at: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/wordpress/?p=352 Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com Jeremy Kemp's SimTeach: http://www.simteach.com/ Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

In this episode Andrew Middleton proposes to attendees at Barcamp Scotland that there are much better things we can do with the medium of podcasting in higher education than record lectures. Slides for this session are available on at http://www.slideshare.net/amiddlet50/dont-record-your-lectures-educational-podcast-models Look at the BarcampScotland wiki for more information about BarcampScotland: http://barcamp.org/BarCampScotland Search the web for other networked content using the...

Andrew Middleton travels to Edinburgh on a sunny Saturday to find out about Barcamps. He attends, and takes an active part in BarcampScotland. Barcamps, aka Unconferences, are informal, spontaneous, user-created conferences. Attendees are invited by networked peers. This peer networking approach is the method that ensures the quality and the focus of the event. Once invited you sign up on a barcamp wiki to say you're going and what you're interested in and what you can present on. This...

Andrew Middleton talks with Sue Jamison-Powell, who is carrying out research on social networking, about social networking technologies. In the discussion several sites are referenced: http://www.livejournal.com/ http://www.danah.org/ http://www.facebook.com http://www.myspace.com http://www.danah.org/ http://www.nmc.org/events/2006fall_online_conf/index.shtml (New Media Consortium keynote, Oct 2006) Social networks aren't constrained to living people!...

Social Networking applications such as MySpace and Facebook are providing really interesting opportunities for education. In this episode I continue a conversation I started a couple of episodes ago with Vic Whittaker from Sheffield Hallam University. In the earlier episode we discussed Web 2.0 tools and Tada Lists. In this conversation we discuss Vic's experience of online communication and his recent use of Facebook in particular. We discuss ethical issues such as how such applications blur...

Andrew Middleton presents a short discussion on Creativity that he had with some Visualisation students. The podcast recording was set as a creativity exercise in this student workshop. It demonstrates how the constraints of time and the pressure of 'being on air' can lead to creative thinking, as much as techniques such as brainstorming or mind mapping. When the mic is open you've got to say something vaguely intelligent! He also presents a few thoughts about conditions for creativity and...

Andrew Middleton is joined by Vic Whittaker from the division of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. Vic explains why he thinks Tada has a useful place in the educator's toolkit. You can sign up for Tada at http://www.tada.com Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

Andrew Middleton is joined by academic colleagues who consider ideas for educational podcasting following an introduction to the technology. Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

Andrew Middleton attempts another podcast model. This is a short audio file model, easy to produce and suitable for many academic situations where tutors or students are needing to share on-going reflection - Thought for the day. The file was originally generated for project being run by Dan Schmid, host of Kidcast. You can find out more about Kidcast at: http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/ Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

A short report from the Educause ELI Annual Meeting 2007 conference that has taken place in Atlanta, George, USA this week. A thread common to several sessions was how can HE keep up with the Net Gen Learner. The report references, * the conference program: http://www.educause.edu/Program/10824 * Father Google and Mother IM: Confessions of a Net Gen Learner - an article in Educause Review by Carie Wyndham: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0552.pdf * Chris Dede's session 'Emerging...

Andrew Middleton considers what a Book Review would be like as a podcast. A review activity should encourage students to read and reflect upon the literature available to them and help them to develop a pool or collection of audio book reviews. In this way students are making a contribution not only to a resource used by their peers, but a resource that may be useful to those that follow in subsequent years. Here are some guiding principles for an audio book review. It should be, - short...

Andrew Middleton introduces screencasting and how this technology can be simply and creatively used to produce innovative educational materials. Several pieces of software and other informtion are referenced in this episode - here are some links: ELI 7 Things you should know about screencasting: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7012.pdf; Camtasia Studio by TechSmith: http://www.techsmith.com/; Wink: www.debugmode.com/wink/; Windows Media Encoder:...

Andrew Middleton records a commutecast on the way to work reflecting on educational podcasting, research, and plans for the new year. Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

The Creative Development Team at Sheffield Hallam University introduce and reflect upon the virtual world phenomenon known as Second Life and its potential as a learning environment. Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

Andrew Middleton presents an audio poster entitled 'Educational Podcasting - 99 ideas for a-learning'. In this 2nd audio-poster episode he speaks to several colleagues in the Learning and IT Services department at Sheffield Hallam University. He asks them what ideas spring to mind when presented with some of the titles he has given to his ideas for educational podcasting. The hope is that before the end we find idea 100! Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com

Andrew Middleton speaks to Nicky Joiner, Executive Officer for Academic Affairs at Sheffield Hallam University's Students Union. Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com