Download Interacting With Users, Remote In Time And Space: A Presentation

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/solstice-2006/
Interacting With Users, Remote
In Time And Space:
A Presentation From UKOLN
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
UK
Email
[email protected]
About The Speaker
Brian Kelly:
• Funded by JISC and MLA to
advise HE/FE & cultural heritage
sectors on Web technologies,
standards & best practices
• Based at UKOLN, University of
Bath
UKOLN is supported by:
A centre of expertise in digital information management
This work is licensed under a AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 licence
(but note caveat) www.ukoln.ac.uk
Collaborative Web 2.0 Technologies
Examples of Web 2.0 collaborative technologies:
• Blogs – user-focussed Web content creation
(usually with calendar metaphor)
• Wikis – collaborative Web-based authoring
• Instant messaging – e.g. MSN Messenger, Jabber,
IRC, …
• VoIP (Voice over IP) – e.g. Skype
• Podcasts
Example of the Web 2.0 culture:
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• The network as the platform
• A willingness to experiment
• A culture of openness (e.g. Creative Commons
A centre of
expertise in digital
information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
licences,
open
source
software, …)
Using Such Technologies
We can use the technologies to support learning:
• Blogs: so students to reflect on their (and their
peers) learning
• Wikis: so students can work collaboratively, whilst
avoiding difficult-to-use tools
• IM, VoIP: so students can easily communicate with
each other, with support staff, etc.
• Podcasts: so students can create reports, etc. using
new medium
Lecturers can be using the technologies in similar ways:
• Delivering learning content
• Engaging with students
• Exploring benefits and limitations of the
technologies
3
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Barriers To Their Use
There are various barriers to use of the
technologies:
• IT Services barrier (not addressed here)
• Inertia
• Fears
• Lack of training, understanding, …
• Concerns over funding and resourcing
• …
4
Google for "IT Services help or hindrance" to find
talkinat
UCISA
conference
Arelevant
centre of expertise
digital
information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Addressing The Barriers
5
This presentation is intended as an example of how
such barriers can be addressed:
• Use of Skype is planned: to demonstrate an
example of distance collaboration; possible
accessibility benefits; …
• A recording of the talk is available as an MP3 file
and a Podcast: to demonstrate ease of creating
such resources
• A live instant messaging channel is planned: to
demonstrate benefits of real-time chat for local
and participants
• Use of PowerPoint to provide an annotated set of
links, to allow for interactive use
• A fall-back position, in case of problems (a prerecorded talk and SMIL presentation) www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
Conclusions
To conclude:
• Web 2.0 collaborative technologies are available
for use in teaching & learning
• They can provide a variety of benefits ….
• … but will also have limitations
• We'll need to gain experiences in their use
• Conferences such as SOLSTICE 2006 provide a
valuable opportunity for gaining experiences
Note that resources mentioned in this talk are tagged in
del.icio.us with solstice-2006-05 tag
6
Also note that many of these issues will be addressed at
the 10th Institutional Web Management Workshop, at
Bath
University on 14-16 June (Google for IWMW
2006)
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk