CLIPP Board

ALT-C 2011 musings

Miguel Brechner opened the conference by discussing his 1 laptop per child project (Plan Ceibal). This had the desired effect of inspiring us to think about the positive effect technology can have on learning, and also managed to focus our minds on “doing more with less” in this challenging climate.
Various sessions were live streamed, and delegates interviewed for sound bites during the conference . Inevitably, the twitter back channels kept those peeking in, informed of our thoughts.  Brian Kelly (UKOLN) and Martin Hawksey (MASHe)   helped to archive the tweets using Twapper Keeper. The associated Summarizr makes a neat job of aggregating and displaying those archived tweets.
As you can expect, after not attending ALT-C  for a few years, I was keen to fill up the days with interesting sessions.  My highlights were:

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Animation for all – a demonstration

I love the idea of making animations without using complex animation software and have been looking for alternatives to the PowerPoint standard animations that we’ve all seen a million times before. I’ve just discovered this very interesting short video (though it’s been around for over 3 weeks and already gathered 1.1 million views, so I’m patently not living on the technological frontiers here, people) which is part of the laudable Google Demo Slam project that is showcasing how Google apps can revolutionise our lives. It’s pretty self-explanatory (one of the many benefits of being made by nerds) but in short, 3 animators working as a team but in different locations, put together a fully animated presentation in Google Docs in only 3 days that fair blows your socks off. And the message is, if they can do this, think what you can do with such a simple and accessible outlet. “No animation software, no high-tech hardware, nothin’ but Google Docs” – couldn’t have put it better myself, ‘though I probably would have spelt it “hi-tech” but that’s just me….

Learning Technologies Weblinks

Tutorials about podcasting and Audacity audio recording software.

A presentationabout the World’s Worst PowerPoint presentations.

5 Sources of Online Stock Video

25 Little-Known Google Tools for Scholars and Academics.

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.

CLIPP Events

CLIPP will present a series of events throughout 2009 which will reflect the core themes within Learning and Teaching Research, Technologies and Curriculum and Learner Development. These will take the form of flagship presentations, monthly seminars and a series of workshops offering practical advice and illustrating best practice.

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