When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. ~H.G. Wells

It's a bit off topic for us here on the CELT Learning Technologies blog, but we've all been taking part in a challenge with a technology of the non-networked kind... you know, that two wheeled thing stuck in the back of your shed at home? Yes, the bike- that (t)rusty steed. Thanks to Sinead Higgins, the environmental officer at NUI Galway, we've gotten involved with the 10 minute cycle challenge and have been peddling to work, come rain, hail or shine for the past two weeks. Why? Well, because it's huge fun, and just to see whether we could all do it.

I'll admit, with the bad weather this week and the low traffic volumes on the roads with the schools on holidays, it's been very tempting to sit into the car and use my right foot to propel me in my metal tin container into work. But, it's too much to give up the happy feeling of whistling down the road with the wind at my ears, feeling that relaxed sense of calm of being on my bike.

I can't describe the sensation as well as Diane Ackerman who writes, "This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart."

So if you see us pass on our bikes, be sure to give us a wave hello! Especially if you are passing by on yours!

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing...

I was lucky enough to attend the launch of the wiki Das Auslandsjahr in Deutschland yesterday evening, on a dark, cold March evening at NUI Galway. Despite the bleak weather beating against the windows, inside the classroom of AM205 a heart warming tale unfolded of collaboration and triumph for an engaged class of third level students. The evening was initiated by Doris Devilly, a lecturer in the German Department at NUI Galway, and her students in the B.Comm with German programme who showcased their own hard work on an carefully crafted wiki resource, packed with useful information to pass along to next year's students.

It was a really fascinating to hear the stories behind their Erasmus experience. Each member of the class stood up in turn, to confidently speak about their overseas adventures, and show us their contributions to the wiki detailing their progress (and occasional misadventures) in a new land.

Doris - all I can say is congratulations on a truly inspirational evening! Thanks for the invitation for us to come along and experience the infectious enthusiasm for ourselves.

BComm German Wiki Launch

Doris Devilly, a lecturer in the German Department at NUI Galway, and her students in the B.Comm with German programme, are launching a wiki aimed at second year students of German in preparing them for their year abroad.

Doris says:

As part of their final year project in "Creativity and New Technologies" BComm (Int.) with German students have set up, designed and created a wiki for second year German students Das Auslandsjahr in Deutschland (The Year Abroad in Germany). This wiki is entirely written in German and the rationale behind it was to assist second year students of German (from all faculties) to prepare for their year abroad and to familiarise themselves with German culture, academia and society. It also encouraged my students to work collaboratively on a class project and to publish their effort on the internet.

As the final year students had only 10 class hours in the multimedia lab available, most of them worked from home or in the computer suites - all of them meeting virtually with me in the social network "Ning".

The wiki Das Auslandsjahr in Deutschland will be launched at a small reception tomorrow evening.

Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide

What happens when data goes open. Tim Berners-Lee gave this short talk at Ted University in February.

International Conference on Engaging Pegagogies - Call for papers

The International Conference on Engaging Pedagogies (ICEP 2010) will take place on 2nd September in NUI Maynooth. The theme of this year’s conference is Engaging pedagogy: research and practices for a new decade

Topics for the conference include:
* Novel teaching methods
* Educational technology as a means of engaging students
* Cultural diversity in the classroom
* Module and curriculum design for a new decade
* Assessment techniques
* Promoting student interest and participation
* Case studies

Abstracts (200 words) are now being accepted by email to info@icep.ie.

Update from the Conference Organisers: After significant feedback from potential authors and committee members, we have moved the conference date to December 3rd 2010 (still at NUI Maynooth).

Make the future

A video looking at ideas drawn from research commissioned under the Beyond Current Horizons programme, which considers the future of education in the light of social and technological change.

www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk
www.visionmapper.org.uk

EdTech 2010 - deadline for abstracts approaches

The 10th Annual Irish Learning Technology Association Conference EdTech 2010 will be held in Athlone Institute of Technology on May 20th - May 21st 2010.

Keynote speakers include Elliot Masie, Jane Hart and James Clay.

ILTA invites papers from researchers and practitioners on a range of conference themes:

• Learning Technologies for Challenging Times
• Informing Policy and Strategy
• Industry/Work Based Learning
• Sustainable Models of Innovation
• Technology-Enhanced Learning and Society

Abstracts should be submitted online by the deadline of 22nd February, 2010.

What's the Buzz?

It seems that gmail has gone social.



Google has announced Google Buzz, a new feature in gmail allowing you to share your experiences with your friends in real time. Mashable has written a blog post describing the new functionality.

Gmail users in the US are already seeing Buzz appear in their accounts, but Google promises to roll it out to all users very soon.

Update: Buzz has now appeared in my gmail. If you don't see it, try logging out and then back in again.

Echo 360 Community Conference Europe 2010

On 5th February 2010, I attended the Echo 360 Community Conference in the University of Birmingham. I also presented a poster, with preliminary results from a survey of over 100 students (mostly in the School of Medicine) on their use of recorded lectures over a one year period.

Echo360 is growing by about 100 new customers in Higher Education every year since 2005, and has customers in 24 countries. Their commitment to the UK and Ireland was very much in evidence at the event, with strong representation by senior technical staff. Mark Jones, president of Echo 360, gave an initial presentation, introducing the members of his team and highlighting lessons learned during 2009.

During the day we found out about the latest release and plans for future releases. Version 2.5 (update 2) was released recently (though NUI Galway hasn't had a chance to upgrade yet) and promises a stabilised environment with improved reliability.Version 2.6 is scheduled to be released in July, with version 2.7 to follow in December 2010. Future features that are of particular interest to us include: a defined scheduler role and external LDAP authentication (2.6); devolved administration, improved user interface, calendar based scheduling and more (2.7).

Also of interest to us are two new products from Echo360. Both of these seem quite promising for our situation.

Podium Capture is software that sits on the fixed pc in a venue allowing visuals and audio to be captured, but no video, and processed as Echoes. The content is sent to the Echo360 server by ftp and recordings can be scheduled. This can be bought as a site licence and does not require purchase of an appliance.

Personal Capture can sit on a laptop or pc, allowing Echoes (with video from a webcam) to be recorded and processed (locally or on the server). It is being sold in bundles of 5 licences and each licence is associated with a person (rather than a venue).

Mark Jones also highlighted the new community portal, lecturecapture.com and announced the next round of the grants programme. The call will go out on 5th March, with a closing date of 2nd July. There will be 4 grants available, each worth $10,000. More information is at www.echo360.com/grantsprogram.

iPad overview

The iPad - watch more funny videos

We think

Steve Wheeler's Web 2.0 Wonderland

Any Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass fans out there (and I'll admit that I'm one), you definitely will enjoy this take on Jabberwocky by Steve Wheeler on his blog, Learning with 'e's.