JISC Digital Media: Making better videos: Planning Your Video Production

Planning Your Video Production - Location planning from JISC Digital Media on Vimeo.

I attended a short but informative session today hosted by JISC Digital Media. It was all about making better videos. I make videos myself and advise academic staff on how best to create their own 'vodcasts'. However, its one of those areas that everyone needs to keep up to date, with its changing trends and approaches to what constitutes good practice. Granted the main principles stay the same...

I was pleased to see a very structured framework from preparing scripts (storyboards) right through to hiring extra crew. I've yet to do the hiring in extra crew bit, but that certainly is something to consider for bigger productions. We are fortunate here at Plymouth University to have our own media services and some willing fellow Learning Technologists thrown in... However, I would recommend attending a few of these sessions just to get into the mindset of producing films. The above video gives some handy insights and tips, its worth a look!

The highlight was listening to Steve Bowles from Eye Witness Productions. Steve has a fair amount of television productions so his angle on the production process was invaluable. I have to add a comment that was made during the question time, something that I often advocate, to quote Steve Bowles: 'a video should be as short as it can be - test on people you know before the main audience'

Thank you to Zak Mensah and others at JISC Digital Media for putting this together, I will look forward to similar productions!

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 (Slide 5 'In the Beginning'), 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 good. Amusingly 'a manual' is mentioned in this video (English subtitles provided):

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.

Further details on Lawrie's presentation are available on Plymouth University's Technology Enhanced Learning website.

Download Lawrie's Video by Dave Hurrell (University of Plymouth TV and Broadcasting Services)
~29mins - Lawrie talks covers timeline slide Post 92 to Post Digital
~33mins - Give students admin rights?

EduApps (AccessApps) carry all your software on a USB

Its been out for a while now, but I can't help but think being able to carry around a complete set of software (open source / freeware) on a 2 Gb USB stick is an excellent addition to any student or academics learning and teaching arsenal.

What is it? As explained on the AccessApps site:

'AccessApps is an initiative supported by the JISC Regional Support Centres (RSC) and JISC TechDis. It consists of over 60 open source and freeware Windows applications, running from a USB stick...[which] provides a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties.'

All such initiatives are based around the concept of 'accessibility', which is essentially all about making products, services or devices available and usable to as many people as possible. If its useful to you, then why not use it. Probably one of the trickiest things for most academics to balance is ensuring that students have the required software and files are transferable! The majority of universities provide the necessary software on campus, but what about working on your own laptop or from home? This is where I think AccessApps comes in handy.

So what software does it have? A detailed guide is provided, however I think describing 60 apps is beyond the scope of this blog, so I'll limit this to a few. Firsty and notably OpenOffice features in the software list, and yes as the name suggest its free and also compatible with Microsoft Office files.

OpenOffice has come along leaps and bounds in its many years of development, so don't think that because its free its not going to work. What about a mind mapping software? Well also contained in AccessApps is Freemind again a rather good piece of software to get your students brainstorimg, keeping track of projects or essay writing to name a few. Or maybe they need to split up their podcasts or audiobooks into manageable chunks, Audiobook Cutter maybe just the answer. Perhaps you need to create your own web pages, but dont have the time to learn all the HTML? Then KompoZer is also available.

Where do I get the software?
It does mention the word 'registration', but this is simply an email address, nothing more and you can then happily download the full suite for free.

Are Learning Technologists also project managers?

I attended a really quite excellent project management workshop today on the Plymouth campus courtesy of JISC RSC South West. Hosted by John Burke (JISC InfoNET Senior Adviser) and Clive Alderson (Management Consultant for JISC InfoNET). For those that are interested, further details of the InfoKits that JISC provide are available here, the website lists all the core elements of project management, and includes some handy software - free to download.

As many learning technologists will agree, a great deal of our time is taken up in managing multiple projects, sometimes across different faculties, schools and many clients (internal and external), so I was eager to glean any hints and tips to refine this process. This was just a one day workshop, however it did take us through Risk Management, Change Management and Time Management to some degree, with all the pitfall that come with those.
I also found the presenters very willing to share their own experiences of project management, making if far easier for us to relate to our own. As the day progressed, it was particularly encouraging to see just how important project management skills are for learning technologists (LTs) and how often we utilise these skills in our day to day work, probably without realising it! "Ah yes! I know what you mean" popped into my head on many an occasion plus the odd "I think Ill use that method from now on...".

What stood out for me the most was that a good project manager needs to be flexible/adaptable in both communication style and dealing with people. In fact, it was suggested that a person starting the project needed to take on a more dynamic role in the planning, managing and controlling stage as these stages need a different approach - keep the momentum going, so to speak. I think something that most LTs need to achieve on a day to day basis. Poor communication with all parties and not dealing with the potential 'Saboteurs' the chances are the project will fail... ...try to keep as many people informed and on board as possible an you may find the ride less choppy.

Are British universities loosing the edge on technology enhanced learning?

An important document was published by JISC today...we should indeed be focusing more on new technologies...

The JISC Press Release summarised this document quite alarmingly:

"British universities will lose their leading international standing unless they become much more radical in their use of new technology, a JISC commissioned report says today."

The full 81 page report is available to download here: The Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology.

JISC RSC South West Summer Conference 2009

Another excellent conference from JISC RSC South West. The conference was held at Rookery Manor, near Weston-Super-Mare.


As always I was happy to be one of a number from Plymouth University, which certainly emphasises out commitment to technology enhanced learning.


Regionally speaking, it's always rewarding to see just how good we are getting in this part of the UK. I was pleased to see some very enthusiastic people working on improving their teaching and learning experiences by experimenting with open source software.

Full details and powerpoint for all the presentations are avaialble on the JISC RSC South West website

Thank you again JISC RSC!