The LTT Blog

Just to let you know that today we updated some security certificates on duo, notably those used to sign the java applets used by the visual text editor. That should put an end to the expired certificate warnings that IE users were reporting. If you still get them, try clearing out your browser’s cache.

Google has announced that it has halted development of its innovative Google Wave tool: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Whilst it is sad that this brave attempt at collaborative communication did not take off in the way they’d hoped, by releasing parts of the code under an open source license, perhaps bits may live on in other applications…

I’m happy to say that the replacement of the disk drives for our database has gone well (thanks to the planning by colleagues in the Systems Group). We are now back up and running on the larger mirrored disks. We  will be performing further minor data reshuffles over the next few weeks to make the best of the increased space in preparation for the new academic year. Happily these procedures can be performed without the need for further downtime.

Thanks for your patience.

The department of Theology and Religion are undertaking a review of their courses to identify and disseminate good practice for duo sites. They have set up a committee which includes undergraduate and postgraduate representatives to look at all the courses and list ways in which they enhance student learning. This includes such things as course lay out, naming of left hand menu items, how clearly items are labelled so students know what they will find when they click a content item link and the use of interactive items such as wikis and blogs, etc. They have taken advice from the faculty learning technologist and prepared a list of good practices to send to all departmental staff. Near the start of the next academic year the learning technologist will be available for one to one or group sessions to support those who need help with unfamiliar functions. If you or your department are interested in doing a similar review please contact your faculty learning technologist for assistance

There’s an old adagr familiar to linux sys admins (amongst many others):
“with great power comes great responsibility”
Well I think Blackboard’s Ray Henderson exhibited a modified a modified version of this as he outlined some of Blackboard’s strategy at the opening of #bbworld yesterday:
“with great market share comes great responsibility”

As a large company with a majority share in the LMS market, you might have expected Blackboard to ignore any attempt to comply with standards such as IMS. This is not the case. We learnt from Ray and John Fontaine how Blackboard is committed to standards such as the Common Cartridge (enabling content created in one tool to be deployed in many different systems) and LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability – doing pretty much what it says on the tin).  This is not just empty rhetoric – yesterday Chuck Severance provided independent validation of this support, acknowledging how they have helped the IMS draw up a specification and contributed code to help make the plan a reality.

This work has enabled developers such as Stephen Vickers at Edinburgh University to provide a building block supporting Basic LTI, meaning that staff and students will be able to take advantage of a range of tools for collaboration and learning not previously available. Who knows, we might even end up writing some ourselves…

I think Blackboard are showing signs that they really are “growing up” as a company. One such example was when Mark O’Neill launched Blackboard’s Open Data initiative at the Blackboard Developer’s Conference #bbdc10. At long last the company are withdrawing the frankly ludicrous claim that any attempt by users to query the Blackboard database directly (that being the database we installed, running an Oracle license we bought, on our own servers, holding our own data) invalidated our license.

Better than that, Blackboard have undertaken to publish the database schema and relationship diagrams. In a speech the next day at #bbworld, Ray Henderson explained that this was part of Blackboard’s recognition that their task is to help us protect, and also learn from the data held there. Blackboard will soon allow developers to extend the schema (i.e. add new tables) using an extra XML file in the building block manifest. That is great news for developers as it gives much greater scope for creating really tailored learning tools.

I had a very interesting day yesterday at Oscelot’s Open Source Day conference #osd5.0 in Orlando.

There was a lot of discussion amongst the developers about the potential for basic #lti  to help staff and students at different institutions work together in a way that can be set up and controlled by the users, rather than requiring intervention from system administrators.  LTI offers a way to integrate third party tools with your VLE (such as Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai or Desire2Learn) e.g. use a shared wiki, alternative discussion board, mash up of google maps such as Steven Vicker’s SpACE project. Use of these tools can be confined to discrete groups – e.g. just students on a given course, or broadened to allow wider collaboration. There was also a good deal of discussion about Andrew Martin’s Web Services project, and the possibility this offers for opening up Blackboard for use with third party tools.o a wider discussion amongst the developer community. We speculated whether Blackboard, currently a suite of integrated applications, could move to becoming more of a platform – similar to Google’s android. Essentially an institution could choose to license the whole or parts of the Blackboard software stack and carry on as just now, or else choose to replace or extend the products using the building block model. Foe example UK HE Institutions might develop a common replacement gradebook that supports multiple marking, moderation and anonymous marking, which could be seamlessly slotted in to replace the existing grade center. It will be interesting to see if this view is shared when Blackboard deliver thir roadmap presentations and vision for the future at the Developers Conference #DevCon10 and Global Users Conference #bbworld10 later this week, and/or is picked up in any of the conference back channels such as facebook…

Blackboard have just announced that they have purchased (assuming the legal stuff goes through) two companies which provide communication tools widely used in education (e.g. for online seminars – ‘webinars’, or instant messenger tools like MSN)  – Wimba and Elluminate. Some of these tools are already in use at Durham, others are under consideration. Ray Henderson (President of BbLearn) provides more background into why Blackboard made this decision in his blog. To follow the discussion on Twitter search for the tag #BbCollab.

The Blackboard user lists are full of posts speculating what this will mean for clients of all three companies. Many hope that it will mean that the ageing Blackboard Virtual Classroom and Chat tools may be replaced with something better. In truth it is probably too early to tell what this will mean for staff and students, but we hope to have a clearer picture after the BbWorld conference next week. #bbworld10

Thinking about using Twitter in your classes? Then you would be well advised to look at the resources gathered here: http://edudemic.com/2010/06/the-ultimate-twitter-guidebook/

This posting is a follow-up after yesterday’s Durham University staff development workshop:

“SD160 – AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ENCOURAGE STUDENT-CENTRED LEARNING: A CASE STUDY OF A FIRST YEAR MODULE IN THE SCIENCES” [workshop details]

which was presented by Marion Birch and Niels Walet of Manchester University.

There was a real buzz in the session; the excellent presentation from Marion and Niels, the good turn-out and lively discussion were all very encouraging.

During the session I was asked to circulate some information,  so here goes.

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1) I suggested the session after reading a journal article.  If you’re interested and have the time, I certainly recommend reading it:

“An Integrated Approach to Encourage Student-Centred Learning: a First Course in Dynamics”, Marion Birch and Niels Walet, New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, Issue 4 December 2008 pp. 21-26, HEA Physical Sciences Centre, ISSN 1740-9888

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/ps/documents/new_directions/new_directions/new_directions_issue_4.pdf

(the article starts on page 26 of this PDF)

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2) I mentioned the possibility of using mobile phones as “clickers”.  The system I’ve seen demonstrated is Poll Everywhere:

http://www.polleverywhere.com/

(free for up to 30 respondents).

The Learning Technologies Team can give you more information on this system if you’re interested.

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3) I was asked to give a summary of “clicker” systems in Durham University.  As far as I know, most of us are using Keepad systems, with TurningPoint software (a few people are using TurningPoint Anywhere software with Keepad hardware).  I’m aware of a couple of other systems in use – one is an older Qwizdom system.

Turningpoint software is installed on all ITS run lecture-room lectern PCs, though I’ve sometimes seen problems so I suggest you check your lecture room before using it.

As far as I know, “clickers” are in use in

• Earth Sciences
• Economics
• Education
• Law
• Maths
• Medicine & Health
• Modern Languages
• Psychology

I think there may be one or two others out there as well – this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list.

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4) I want to flag up that Marina Sawdon in Durham’s School of Medicine & Health has done some very interesting things with “clickers”.  Her paper is available here:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03332.x

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5) There’s a nascent “Voting systems user group” in the University.  Details of its first meeting are on another posting in this Learning Technologies Team’s blog:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/lt.team/blog/?p=912

That blog posting also includes details of ESTICT – the national Engaging Students Through In-class Technology special interest group.

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6) If you want further information or discussion on any of this, please contact the Learning Technologies Team.