Instructional videos

Yesterday I made my first instructional video.

 

The topic was how students submit a task in Moodle. This is part of the FAQ blog page I made about Moodle. Some time ago I created a PowerPoint-presentation about the topic and hopefully to make a video with sound is a further improvement of the presentation. To make the video I used Camtasia Relay a program for screen capturing. The staff at Nesna University College use the same program so I found it useful for practise. These are the features of the program.

The program is easy to use, you just start the Power Point-presentation, agree to start recording and then you are on.

Well, is it that easy? There are a few pitfalls...

 1) Check the sound, especially your microphone. You can adjust the microphone both in the program and on your computer. Open the control panel and choose Sound (lyd). If you adjust the bullet amplifier (mikrofonforsterkning) on your computer the recording gets louder.

2) I also had problems with the computer "hanging" and when I restarted the computer I had to answer update questions from the computer and start recording all over again.
3) You should plan, more or less, carefully what to say so the audience don't have to listen to ehh's and long pauses when you don't say a thing.
4) Don't make the presentation to long unless you have a remarkable interesting subject.
5) When you are finished recording you can submit it to the server and get a video/Flash and the possibility to download to iphone/ipod or mp3. To give access to my video in this format I had to download the Ipod/iphone version, I could not use Flash.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

I think many teachers are little aware of copyright in school. Did you know that you can't put on a play to parents or have a concert for them without permission? But you can use a play or a concert for educational purpose in the classroom without permission (Erdis & Bjerke, 2009). I have heard teachers say they make their own teaching material because they are not satisfied with the textbook. Where do they collect the material from? Their own head? I think they copy from other textbooks and not thinking about the restrictions given in Copyright act. The Norwegian educational system have an agreement with Kopinor including payment to the originator. And don't forget about Internet! Did you know copying from Internet is protected by the same laws as textbooks?

What kind of information can you share if you are a teacher? The legal system regarding copyright in Norway is "Åndsverksloven" (Copyright act). There are different kinds of Internet resource databases regarding copyright in Norway: 1) DelRett which have guidelines for sharing text, pictures, sound and film and 2) Clara. DelRett give an overview of digital resources you have free access to. Many of these resources are regulated by Creative Commons licences. By using this kind of licence you allow others to use your work as long as they give you credit for it, but you can restrict to what extent they can modify it.

Today I thought it would be a good idea to use the Moodle logo in the Moodlehjelp-blog so I sent Moodle.org this e-mail: "I'm a librarian at Nesna University college. I help students and staff using Moodle every day. I'm planning to make a blog in Norwegian telling students and staff at Nesna University college how to use Moodle; a kind of Frequently asked questions blog. It would be great if I could use your logo in this blog - http://moodlehjelphine.blogspot.com/." Hopefully I get a positive answer.

I did get a positive answer: "Trude, Thanks for getting in contact. No problem using the moodle name and/or logo for the purpose you describe. Good luck with your project!"

Reference list
 
Erdis, M. & A-K. Bjerke (2009). Juss for pedagoger. Bergen : Fagbokforlaget.

Information Privacy and cookies

What is Information Privacy? This is a definition I found on the Internet by Alan Westin: "the right of individuals, groups and institutions to determine for themselves, when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others." When we go online we leave an electronic record of our movements and we can provide personal information to people and organizations that track such data. Electronic tracking devices such as cookies, Web bugs and "spyware" are common means of tracking our online behaviour. These devices collect information such as ISP addresses, Web sites visited, purchases made, and emails sent (Media Awareness Network, 2010).

A cookie is an electronic text file that a Web site parks on a visitor's browser. It can either be a session cookie, which expires when the visitor leaves a Web site; or a persistent cookie, which serves as a record of a user's trip to a particular Web site and allows for easier recognition on subsequent visits. When a visitor returns to a Web site that has previously given the computer a cookie, special text in the cookie program communicates with the Web site in order to present the visitor with customized information (ibid.).

A shorter definition is given by Microsoft: "A very small text file placed on your hard drive by a Web Page server. It is essentially your identification card, and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. It is uniquely yours and can only be read by the server that gave it to you." The information cookie tells when and how often the user accessed the website and which pages she clicked. By collecting information from hundreds of users the web site get information on which pages are popular and when. This can be used in targeted advertising for people in search of special kind of information. For example people searching for music on amazon.com can get music as personal recommendations rather than book recommendations (Cox, 2002). I think this is worrying because you loose privacy. On the other hand: Is this something we have to accept when using Internet? Amazon's (and other advertisers) goal is to earn more money and of course we buy more when we see something we (probably) like. Microsoft puts it this way:

Next time you return, we know to show you the information you requested. Or, when you register for another product or service, all you need to do is type in your e-mail address and a password. We then fill in any questions you've already answered. Of course, if you never register or leave personal information with Microsoft, then the server only knows that someone with your cookie has returned to the Web site. You are in charge of deciding whether we know anything about you. But the more you tell us about yourself, the more we can help you find information or products you want.

But, of course, they are also advertising so they want you to leave as much information as possible. BBC has written an article about new net rules and how to restrict the use of cookies. A new European e-Privacy directive which came into force in May 2011 demands that users be fully informed about the information being stored in cookies and told why they see particular adverts. "The IAB - an industry body that represents web ad firms - created a site that explains how behavioural advertising works and lets people opt out of it (BBC News, 8 March 2011)."

You can turn off/disable cookies in your browser by adjusting the settings in the toolbar. Explania.com has a video showing what would happen if you don't accept cookies at all.


How can cookies make your surfing experience convenient? - Explania

Both Mozilla and Google Chrome has made it possible to choose "do not track" when you're on Internet (BBC News, 25 January 2011). If you want to control which cookies you accept choose Tools (Verktøy), then Internet Options (Innstillinger). Then click Security tab (Personvern). In Mozilla you get the following image (Norwegian version). Here you can remove recent history or you can remove certain cookies.

If you want to read more about cookies Wikipedia has written an article with many references about the topic.


Reference list
BBC News (2011, 25 January). Browser firms plan 'do not track' systems, collected May 27th 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12275750. 
BBC News (2011, 8 March). New net rules set to make cookies crumble, collected May 27th 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12668552.
Cox, H. (2002). PC-sikkerhet og mysteriet med de forsvunne filer. Trondheim : Tapir akademisk forl.
Media Awareness Network (2010). How Information Privacy is compromised, collected May 5th 2012 from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/privacy/compromised_privacy.cfm

Blogging as a tool

Is blogging a good tool for guiding teachers and students in how to use Moodle? Or are wikis more recommendable? In my job I help teachers and students using Moodle every day. They often ask the same questions. It would be helpful for me, and them, to have a pool of answers, easily accesible on the web. This is called an edublog.

But why use edublogs? Davies and Merchant (2009) claims there a several reasons for using blogging in education. Most blogging software is quick and easy to use and is one of the most well-established and well-known Web 2.0 applications. You can also use the term social software on these applications. they are suitable to support cooperation and communication on the Internet (Bjarnø, Giæver, Johannesen & Øgrim, 2009). They also give you the possibility to post comments to the subject matter or you can cooperate with fellow students and teacher to produce text (ibid.). You have the possibility to label posts so that readers can explore themes and topics (Davies and Merchant, 2009).

Edublogs.org list some of the different features of edublogs:

• Safe and Reliable – Blogs can be completely private or open to the public. Since we only host education related content, Edublogs are allowed by most school filters where other blogging platforms are not.
• Student Friendly – It is as simple to add to and update a blog as it is to send an email. Teachers can easily create and manage as many student blogs as needed.
• Rich With Features – A few of the most popular features include discussion tools, video embedding, Facebook and Twitter integration, and calendars.
• Customizable – With over 100 different themes which allow for control of colors, images, and layout.
• Research-Based – Engage students in their learning and enhance instruction through collaboration, student portfolios, and endless classroom uses (Edublogs.org, 2012).

For further reading about the features of edublogs they list 10 ways to use your edublog.



A further look at edublogs web pages led me to some interesting edublogs. A nice way to sum up learning or tags is the use of word clouds (above picture). Huzzah! shows an excellent example on how you can learn from other blogs and share links in the art project Eye candy. Here's another blog - Mr Borges and the Blog Squad. He's a teacher at an elementary school in Toronto and the Blog Squad is his students. He's made an interesting choice when it comes to layout. The pages in his blog are in the middle and not at the top as I expected it to be, because mots web pages are organised in that way. The different topics in the blog are placed vertical. As long as the topic headline is easy to understand I think this makes the blog distinct from other web pages. In Norwegian I like Lektor Michelsens (skole)blogg. He has linked to delogbruk.no, where teachers can "share, increase and use their digital skills"(delogbruk.no, collected 1 June 2012). Monivae College has developed different kind of science blogs I at the first glance found interesting: Sensational Science is easy to read and have a good layout. The blog also have links to other edublogs with the same topic. I'm a bit concerned about the religious angle, though. They are linked from edublogs.org.

Reference list
Bjarnø, V., Giæver, T.H.,Johannesen, M., & Øgrim, L. (2009). Didiktikk : digital kompetanse i praktisk undervisning. (2nd ed.). Bergen : Fagbokforl.
Davies, J. and Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for Schools : Learning and Social Participation. New York : Peter Lang.
Delogbruk.no. (2012) delogbruk.no. Samarbeid - Utdanning - fremtid, collected June 1st 2012 from http://delogbruk.no.
Edublog.com (2012). A quick overview of Edublogs, collected May 31th 2012 from http://edublogs.org/why-edublogs/#overview