CLIPP Board

Google Apps Video

There has been a lot of discussion and some activity surrounding Google Apps at Aston. This has gone from informal use where individuals are signing up personal accounts that they use to share content with colleges, through to the idea of possibly adopting Google Mail for the student’s and later expanding it out to use all of the applications that Google provide.

Today a video appeared on my Google Mail login page that gives a very quick overview of how you might use the forms tools in conjunction with the spreadsheet application. After taking a look around I realised that Google have a YouTube channel with a number of videos about how you might use Google Apps and Docs at work. I think these give a very good overview of what you can do and I would suggest checking them out so that you can be better informed about the advantages of adopting such a system.

This first video I have posted here is only 2 minutes long and is a general over view.

This second video for those with more time and interest and is specifically about the benefits to Education of using Google Apps. Incidently Samantha Peter who appears in this video, presented at one of the CLIPP events during the 2008-2009 acdemic year.

New phone test

I’ve borrowed a mobile sized version  of our regular desk phone from ISA for a trial from the start of July.
It is a lot smaller and lighter than the 2 way radios we use in AV-support(Media & Learning Technologies) but still a little larger than modern mobile phone, and by no means ‘hands free’ for opening doors or carrying things. I haven’t tried it with a headset, but then I’d find that intrusive in other ways.

Apart from the convenience of having a mobile desk phone, without the cost of a mobile phone license, how useful is it in practice?

After I ‘sign in’ at my desk phone, I ‘CallForward’ my normal phone (x4228, and shared x4221) and it has most of the same facilities including Directory*, Messages & Services. The battery lasts more than a full day and slightly more than our 2 way radios. *Corporate directory requests fail at present.

The least convenient feature, so far, is that calls show MY extension number (a function of CallForward, I’m told) until you answer, only then do you see the caller’s ID, so you need to reply in a more formal manner. This may not seem like a problem, but it doesn’t give you the thinking time that you normally get to ‘compose yourself’, so I find myself  giving a rather terse ‘hello’ or similar. You don’t get much chance to see the display before it gets to ear level and assuming your correct hand is free.

The other problems are more serious. It only works on Aston ‘Private’ wireless LAN which handles the Quality of Service required for Voice on our IP network. Despite that there are occasional dropouts with no indication and poor or no cover in some areas of campus.

Poor cover:      Main reception, MB7th floor

No cover:        Conf. Aston/Lakeside, phase1 new catering area.! Guild?

So, will I continue to use it? If I had the choice, then yes, but there are the wider issues of cost, manageability and availability of the handsets. Now if I had an iPhone with a VoIP app … and Aston Call Manager is updated to support SIP protocol?

Teens don’t use Twitter; not interested in traditional media

A recent report for the European Media Analysts of US Investment back Morgan Stanley about the media habits of teenaers has caused shockwaves throughout the media world and will have an effect even further afield among anyone who makes media products for that target audience.

What gives it the most credence so far is that it was written by a 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, based on the preferences of his friends, and so it paints a very interesting picture of what media teenagers do and don’t use.

The full report can be read here.

In short, they have a Twitter account but don’t use it (it costs them money and no-one reads it) and they don’t use traditional news media (newspapers, TV or radio). They don’t pay for music and will illegally fileshare. They don’t like intrusive advertising but will support viral-type marketing. They appreciate a different approach to marketing. They significantly use Facebook and YouTube. They know that they can get information from the net so won’t use hard copy directories, e.g. for listings. They go to the cinema for the experience, as much as for the film itself. They all have high quality mobile phones but are mostly on pay-as-you-go. They use Bluetooth but not video messaging (Bluetooth is free, VM is expensive). They like the idea of new gadgets but their computers are basic (they rarely have state-of-the-art) and mostly PC, not Mac.

What does that mean for us, as media producers for a young audience?

Well, we should not presume that because we use an online or electronic service, younger people do too. We should bear in mind that while we know that students like to use their phones, they have to pay for the privilege and so they may be restricted in their use by their budget. There is plenty they can do for free; cost should not be an issue in consuming our media. They are very savvy about exchanging media files and appreciate the communal experience of consuming media together. They will appreciate a clever ‘spin’ or ‘take’ on a media presentation.

There are lots of gimmicky things we can do but we should bear in mind the tolerances and expectations of our target audience. What we shouldn’t do is make media that presumes we know best how they are going to use it, or stipulates how theyshould use it in the future. The learning experience can be enhanced by the inclusion of multimedia resources but using those resources should not force them to do things they can’t afford to do, or exceed the limitations of their  gadgets.

Mapping Mediasite Catalogs: Pro Tips for Organizing and Publishing Multimedia Presentations

This webinar is probably of more interest to admins than users. Unless of course you are a user who is really unhappy with the way your admin arranges your media site catalogues. Details below:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
1:00 – 1:45 p.m. Central

As a Mediasite user, you know part of the beauty of the platform is the automatic publishing to a Mediasite Catalog. But even with that automation, you still have a ton of options – and decisions to make – about how you configure your server folders and online Catalogs.

Sonic Foundry’s John Pollard, Mediasite Product Manager, and Shane Tracy, Director of Event Services and Training, return to the mic to help you make the most of the vast flexibility that Mediasite offers in terms of publishing. If you’ve ever wondered how other users organize their content, and why, this is a presentation you won’t want to miss.

During the session, they will discuss:

• The difference between Mediasite server folders, Mediasite Catalogs and Linked Catalogs
• Suggestions for organizing your server folders with real-life examples
• Publishing strategies using Mediasite Catalogs
• Setting up Mediasite Catalogs and linked Mediasite Catalogs, including sorting and shortcuts
• “Before you start” tips that may save you time (and potential heartache)

Register online at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/webinar/

CLIPP in Poland

Lucy Cave, Matt Daley and Anne Wheeler (CLIPP) have visited the University of Silesia in Poland. They had a series of meetings with staff and students in the Faculty of Biology and Environmentał Protection with regard topics in learning and teaching, such as student support, plagiarism and internationalisation. On Tuesday 14th July they all gave presentations, at a publicised event, to the Faculty members and on Wednesday a meeting was held with the vice-rector, Professor Barbara Kozusznik, for student affairs and international relations. The Learning Development Centre and its support of student learning at Aston has been of significant interest. A number of staff would like to visit Aston to further discuss learning and teaching developments at our University. In response Anne Wheeler held discussions with a view to setting up an Erasmus bi-lateral agreement between Aston University and the University of Silesia.

What is RSS?

See that PostIt note above? It also has 2 RSS icons on it.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss

Blogs, like podcasts, rely on RSS feeds to alert interested internet users of changes and new information without having to visit each site just in case, or filling your email inbox with extra alerts.

You can ‘subscribe’ to either or both of the 2 feeds by clicking or dragging the RSS icon to any software that acts as a feed reader. Some web browers support it natively, and Google offers a web based ‘Reader’, even Outlook 2007 supports it.

I use software on several different computers that synchronizes what I have read so I don’t have to read it again later, for example when I’m at home, work, or having a coffee somewhere else.

I see the feeds on my work PC(Windows FeedDemon), home Apple Mac and wireless Apple iPodTouch – both the later use NetNewsWire software and synced with FeedDemon via Newsgator.com.

I subscribe to hundreds of different RSS feeds related to both work and pleasure, and I can choose which ones to see and read on which computer. I categorise them in folders accordingly, for example Leisure, IT, Learning & Teaching, Software and News.

It means I can keep my email inbox to between 20 and 30 active or pending emails!

I can also use my emails, calendar and contacts on the same computers and synchronized in the the same way! That is a forthcoming post…

UPDATE 31/7/09:

Newsgator have just announced that they are moving to Google Reader as their web and management engine for individual users, and updating FeedDemon and Netnewswire to reflect the changes. I’ll post again when I’ve got all my syncs working, hopefully before the 31st August deadline.

UPDATE 25/9/09:

Well, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded, first was FeedDemon3.0 which led me through conversion to GoogleReader sync, including my folders and clippings, very painlessly. Then I updated Netnewswire3.2 on my home Mac(OSX 10.5) which ‘just worked’, and finally NetNewsWire2.0 iPhone app.

The only drawback, a small ‘Ad’ window, bottom left in the Free versions of each of the Applications. I must also say that FeedDemon is still very ‘clunky’ compared to the NetNewsWire versions.

More UPDATES in Comments…

Introducing Clippipedia

The Media & Learning Technologies team has identified that the many different things that we do for the university – the services and functions we provide – are not recorded anywhere or made explicit for anyone to read and understand what we do. There are a number of practices, procedures and policies that need to be recorded in an online, searchable, tagged database, which could be the first port of call for anyone wanting to know what we do and how we do it.

So we are starting a wiki, cleverly entitled Clippipedia. We hope that by putting all that we do down in black and white, we can audit our services and shine a little light on our methods and rationale.

If a staff member needs to know how we do our Echo 360 recording, or how the consent forms should be filled in, or who our resident expert on video encoding is, or what equipment we have for audio recording and how it should be used, then Clippipedia will answer those questions plus a thousand more.

We are now planning the architecture, usability, access and function of the wiki and will start populating it with data in the coming weeks. Once we have a working model, we will launch it with a full fanfare. Remember the name – Clippipedia – it’s the word on everyone’s lips.

New blog name and branding

Over the last week or so we have been playing around with a new name and layout for the clip blog. It will now be known as “CLIPP Board” and has a nice shiny new look to boot. We thought that really the site needed its own look and feel so that it is easier to differentiate between the main Aston web site and a micro site such as this blog. The template is based upon the Typebased theme by WooThemes. We have also added a number of new “widgets” that display things such as the “tag cloud”.

We have done our best to make sure that everything works as it should but if you do notice anything that looks “a bit wrong” then please drop an email to CLIPP@aston.ac.uk.

***Please note that if everything looks wrong then try refreshing the page. You may still have the old style sheet cached in your browser.***