Creating your own Google My Maps

See my LT Blog for details on how to create My Maps!

Google Sketchup

Something to consider for the iLearn group project. Google Sketchup allows users to create 3D object that can be directly applied to the surface of the Earth in their Google Earth application, the Sketchup community also provides a range of free object created by others in their 3D warehouse. Alowing users to create very realistic models in a very short time.

Whether we/I actually use this application, we will have to see, but it at least provides an excellent resource of 3D items. It is also possible to import these objects into application such as Blender, not limiting the final 3D environment of choice.

Mediated Communication

Today were are:

Covering mediated communication
making a video / communication analysis
Video production (Adobe Premiere)

Consider synchronous communication
Media spaces - Social computing

Wellness window (paper)

This is the video that Steve and I created using Adobe Premiere CS3 - The scenario took 7-8mins to complete, the final edit is just over 4mins...

The scenario... Two people on Skype (Steve and I), based in two different rooms. Each with a box of Lego. One person (Me) instructs the other to create the same object via simple video and audio feed.




The camera on me was not the one that Steve could see, so what I was building can not always be seen from this camera angle (sorry...). The finished product was suppose to be a rocket... (you can see the top of it near the end of the video...) What the video does demonstrate is the different elements of communication required to complete a task.

Notes:

• 40seconds in - Steve:"...they will have to be multi-coloured..." Im unable to see what he has in his pot!
• 2mins into the video - note a second person on Steve's side is helping him (this was not planned!) hence causing a disruption in the flow. A pitfall if you consider I could not see her on the actual webcam!
  

However, the process was not too bad if you factor in we are using a 2 dimensional video interface (that does not always show the object well), and sound that is occasionally weak or not clear. How should you really explain the construction of such an object via this media? This little experiment has shown how much longer it 'could' take than showing them in person. Ultimately it's all about understanding user interaction, and the ability to use the media the best way you can.

Bar Code Creator

Handy bar code creator on TEC-IT website. Allows users to create specific barcodes with any alpha numerical text! Its free for non-commercial use... hence the logos ;)


Barcode Software

BeeTagg for PDAs seems to work very well and using NeoTags creator its possible to make appropriate shot codes. Just type words or number - it even works if it's not a link.









Yes this one also says 'Hello World!'.

Could be handy for my group project :)

Bing ...Augmented reality maps

Interesting....'Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft.'

Task 2 - Design MEIT501

Design, prototype and evaluate...

Key considerations:
Design task

• User centric design
• Conceptual development
• Interface and interaction features

Meta considerations.

• Social change (demand / aesthetic / culture).
• Technological determined.
• Production process.

Shape of things.

• Affordance (JJ Gibson) - see them how you act apon them (not how they look)
• Evolution - things change - how things are used.
• Legacy - "we are committed to it, even though it was designed to satisfy constraints that no longer apply" (Donald Norman, Design of Everyday things, 1990).
• Expectations / perceived affordances - standardisation of design.
• Use in context - everyday constraints - (Physical constraints limit alternative places, semantic, cultural, logical).

Mindful of:

• Lacking logic - do you need a manual? Is there any logic?
• Irrational use - e.g. people pulling burnt toast out of the toaster with a fork (it's still live!)
• Introduce difficulty - e.g. purposefully make windows difficult to open .

Human-computer interaction

Matching system to user's capabilities & constraints

• Cognitive / physical overload
• Cognitive / physical mismatch
• User's experience and knowledge
• Assumes users are goal directed

Interdisciplinary

• Psychology

Common approaches to interface design

• Design patters - shopping baskets, crumbs etc
• Recall vs. recognition - Metaphorical /representative
• Progressive disclose - highlight or grey out items to force navigation
• Trades off (i.e. ease)

New paradigms for design

• Ubiquitous computing - Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown, Calm Technology. Calm technology creating an ambient awareness of your environment.
• Context aware - rapport with building and machine.
• Social element - World of Warcraft - chatroulette.com (randomly turns on webcams) - skype -
• Gesture (gestural things like the wii remote) -

From Post 92 to Post Digital

I and a mix of other staff and students attended Lawrie Phipps' (from JISC) excellent seminar today, here at the University of Plymouth.

To quote Lawrie's abstract:

'...explore the journey that universities have made from the early days of technology in learning, through to what appear to be ubiquitous VLEs and on to post digital universities, where technology is both invisible and essential... [to]...argue that, as part of this journey, institutions must re-evaluate the meanings of knowing and understanding and adapt their work to accommodate the new demands placed on individuals and organisations by the digital era.'

Included in the presentation was the following video, which rather humorously depicts a sort of medieval approach to modern day tech support for 'a book'. The parallels of this to new and emerging technologies make this video rather poignant and Lawrie's reasons were to emphasise that technology should be intuitive. If you need a manual the technology is not really that that good. Amusingly 'a manual' is mentioned in this video:



Lawrie also asked the attendees to role play in groups of 6 (Vice Chancellor, Head/Dean of School, 2 x Academics, a Learning Technologist and a student). Each group was given a scenario, ours was related to improving academic support for students, and to report back to the Senior Management Team (SMT). Although we were suppose to pretend to be someone else, I still ended up as a Learning Technologist (LT)...

If you're reading this Lawrie, sorry, I know you wanted roles changed... However, from my own perspective it was very interesting to see 'how' pivotal the LT is when it comes to linking in the needs of the user with the technology. I will add that some expectations were even above and beyond job role! We did however come to some sort of solution (we only had ~15mins) and that was to use web cams (video meetings etc), perhaps a forum (for questions and answers) for students not having access to this technology. Students could also be placed in charge of monitoring the forum content to ensure smooth running. This would further reduce the amount of support required of academics, hopefully improve support, but equally enrich the student experience. The main outcome from all the groups was that of empowering the students or the over riding student voice, at the end of the day, this is what it is all about.

EduApps

Thought I would mention that I also keep another blog for my Learning Technologist job. One of the things I have be revisiting recently is the EduApps (AssessApps as it is more readily known as). Its basically a 60 open source and freeware software suite all accessible from a 2 Gb USB stick, just carry it around and run the software on whatever PC you have available. I think these sort of initiatives are a rather cool way of making software available to all. Equally, as its free it may appeal to a range of audiences.

MScape map development

I thought Mscape would be worth a mention, as I'm using this at the moment to do a campus map at the university. It's part of a Learning Technologist/ EL CETL thing so we can demo the GPS on the PDAs we have in LabPlus. The PDAs all have windows mobile 6.1 and fairly stable, so does not need too many reboots...

I intend to only put a few events onto the map, as tall buildings tightly packed don't lend themselves well to GPS accuracy. It works, but sometimes you have to make event zones a little wider to allow for this.

A little bit of a shock, but sadly it looks like further development of the MScape software is coming to an end, as it has been announced that Hewlett Packard Development will be closing down the site on the 31st March 2010. Fortunately the existing software is sufficiently robust to still be useful, but we will have to see what they do with the final source code. It is claimed that downloads of the software will continue to be available from the www.hpl.hp.com/downloads (HP Labs) for a short while after this date.

Tidy up the blog

Had a play with the blog code (removed the top search bar) and rearranged some of the widgets today, will have another look later.

Good to see a few of the others on the course already up and running :)

iLearn day one

'Hello world'

First evening class for the iLearn [MEIT502] . Yes it is just after 6pm :)

Consider 'Mixed Reality':

Real - augmented reality - augmented virtuality - virtual environments

Check out the useful links on Katina's Joomla site. Alot of the information discussed in this session is given here, such as School Forge, Scratch, Source Force, etc Papers, such as Prensky, Marc, (2001) 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants'