Who You Calling A Jesse?

Notes from iPods in Education. Other pages are:

• Presentation overview
• Georgia College and State University
• Harvard University
• Panel discussion – Carelton, UBC, UMich, Mcgraw-Hill

There were a number of schools involved in this and none of them are tied exclusively to the iPod or iTunes U. After the panel presented was question time. We left about 20 min into it but there was a couple good questions from a student from Queens. It’s at the bottom.

Carelton University

• they showed a pickle being electrocuted
• basically Carelton has a cable tv system and loads of media support, podcasting was a natural extension
• oh and the presentation is in power point form, better than notes.

UBC

http://wiki.elearning.ubc.ca/PodcastUBC

• podcast buzz: even by social software standards it’s unprecedented
• “ipod for Christmas effect”
• holding simple workshops with very enthusiastic turnout and response
• grassroots push
• extension of the DIY spirit of webblogging and social software into the realm of sound – weblogs@UBC and Wikis@UBC
• podcasting has been a way to build community
• someone (gosh not me) edited his wiki prevention with “times up” – its over.. hehe. He did ask people to do it.

School of Dentistry – University of Michigan

• “we want to video tape every dental school lecture” – really needed? Well lets to a pilot with students.
• recording some lectures, sync’d with audio, and uploaded it
• students surveyed afterwards: 20% liked video, 14% powerpoint with audio, 66% used the audio
• Success factors
  
  • Student advisory group
  • Senior associate Dean – loved it
• Audio was the way to go – but how to do it on the cheap?
• ipod > computer = questionable quality
• then microphone > AV system > eMac > custom server = $500 to set up
• keep faculty informed what is going on, passwords helped erase many of the concerns, attendance not a problem
• RSS feeds added, student run recordings
• have a automator script using students > start script, add to itunes, meta data > lecture added
• time savings in workflow huge
• class participation from 30% to now 60% students
• gathered data, research, feedback – now on to quotes from students
• now on to iTunes U: http://ugg too slow but there are 500 lectures behind UMich authetication
• 65% of students are using iTunes U, 16 courses, 305 lectures
• 62% browse, 43% download, 12% subscribe
• most popular are most information dense
• peaks in downloads have to do with test times
• next – teach visual skills – clinical skills videos into itunes U

McGraw-Hill Ryerson

• what is the role of a publisher?
• content for ipod – apple pilot
• run a confrence series to teach faculty about technology, run web sites, not just books
• involved in research on technology and students
• pilot: giving profs some ipods for research (prof from MBET at UW is involved) with 30 instructors from Canada.
• using podcasts to provide extra content to students – there is a blog (need to find it) McGraw-Hill Ryerson iPod Blog

On to question time with the Panel. The only question we caught that was really worth mentioning came from a student. The President of engineering society from Queens:

• I am a Apple fan, engineering
• this seems like a lot of “how great these products and ideas are” – well we are designing these lectures etc
• Q. Is this as something that is platform specific?
• Q. Costs – what will they be?

Answers:

• Umich: not platform specific, costs are on post production
• Carelton: using open source formats, playable by anything and everything – VLAN
  • itunes is just a great tool, vid ipod is good tool, not ever going to require it
• UBC: decision is made by people who publish – alternate web based interface.. personal point of view – considerable interest in Apple integration but needs to be open
• Georgia: return vs investment, some students don’t use ipods – $100 for a book, one course, several hundred for an ipod for entire uni career
• McGraw-hill: creating something that improves learning—hopefully cheaper