May 2006 - Posts
This follows on from the previous post, where I created a podcast. I'm now going to subscribe to it.
To do this I go to my blog, click the podcast category, and then next to the word Podcast in the title I'll see a little RSS link. This is the feed for my podcast. If I then go to Juice, it's just a cast of clicking the 'add new feed button'.
Juice will now check my podcast feed regularly, and when I add a new podcast it will download it automatically for me.
Here's a quick demo how to Podcast with myCommunity.
Podcasting is a method of making MP3 files available so that they can be picked up by a Podcast reader (eg Juice or iTunes). The Podcast reader automatically checks to see if new Podcasts are available, and downloads them for you. This wiki article explains more if you are interested.
You can Podcast direct from your blog with community server.
The first thing I've done is create a catergory called 'Podcasts'.
For this demo I've borrowed an MP3 file from Mike Simmons (hope you don't mind!) and attached it to this post. I've added the post to the Podcasts category (under the options tabs). I'll carry on the explaination in the next posting.
We are lucky enough to be in an area with a high resolution satellite picture on Google maps. This link takes you to a picture of the University:
I know this is hardly a new observation, but Google Maps is absolutely brilliant! I find it absolutely fascinating to be able to do things like trace the river usk from Caerleon (where I live) to its source.
I guess when the picture refresh rate is a lot quicker there will be some difficult human rights/big brother type issues to deal with, particularly if the information is to be public, but at the moment this isn't an issue - the picture of Caerleon is at least two years old, as I can see a tree that I chopped down a couple of years ago. (I did plant two more to take it's place!)
It also shows how critical postcodes are. The University uses a PO Box system, which means our postcode doesn't relate to our physical location. If you need to know the University's physical postcode it is: NP18 3NT
Nintendo have just announced that the DS Lite will be release on June 23rd. The DS Lite is a redesigned version of the DS portable games console (like a gameboy but with two screens if you aren't into such things), slightly smaller, better looking, and with a brighter screen. Great news!
Still no release date for the Opera browser though.
I'm trying to put together the powerpoint presentation for a talk I'm giving about Web 2.0 at this year's
Institutional Web Management Conference. Only problem is that it the student's May ball this evening, and my office is about 5 metres from the tent where the bands are playing, and its sound check time! It would be an understatement to say that it's pretty loud..! It's the Bluetones - I had no idea that they still existed (sorry!) - but I used to quite like them, so that is OK. Next we'll have British Sea Power, who I really like, so I'll keep working for a while...
This morning we had a presentation of a voting system (or 'audience response system'). The one we were shown was by TurningPoint, and had some great features. It integrated directly into Powerpoint, so looked really easy to use, and used radio rather then infrared, so should be reliable.
I can see how the system could be great from an educational point of view - a great tool to help increase the interactivity in a teaching session, inparticular to allow everyone to get involved, regardless of group size.
My main concern is how we'd manage the voting keypads. They are small devices with a keypad, much smaller than most TV remote controls, and cost around £40 each.
It would be really easy for a student to accidentally walk off with it. Solutions suggested included selling them to the students, or loaning with a deposit, but I can't see that being popular with students. Need some more thought on that one!
We've been evaluating blog software for the last few months, with the aim to offering blogs to all staff and students. Our main requirements are:
- Good multiuser functionality
- Easy to use
- Support for multi-media
- Good RSS support
- Easy to customise
It looks like we are settling on this - Community Server. We've had a good look at it's predecesor - dotText, WordPress, B2Evolution, DasBlog, plus considered a host of others.
The version that we'll use will probably be the commercial version, but the cost isn't excessive. For that we thing we get everything we need from a blogging application, plus we also get RSS enabled forums, which has also emerged as a student request, as well as active directory authentication and photo and file sharing.
One things that I'll be looking at with interest is the anti-spam measures. I really want to enable anonymous postings, but my dotText blog is not attracting about 10 spam postings a day. With Community Server we can set anon postings not to appear until there are moderated, and it also has an anti-spam module.