Tuesday 28 April 2015

Assessed Activity 7.1 by Philipp

The week before the term break we had no regular DLT session but a special campus walkabout. We visited Tom who is a music lecturer at EIT. He showed us the music facilities and digital technologies he uses in this environment. For example he can access every student's computer an project the screen on the wall for everyone to see. According to him, everyone benefits from it as problems can be solved quickly and easily without walking through the room all the time.

Tom (obscured) tells us about his job outside of the lecture room


Inside there are lots of Macs with actual keyboards (the instruments!) attached

This screening software has various strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:
-Easy and quick remote problem solving by the teacher
-No need to run around class all the time
-Share the issues with other students who might have the same problem
-Everyone can participate in the problem-solving process
-Teacher is able to monitor student's activites and assess them individually


Weaknesses:
-Expensive
-Limited storage


Opportunities:
-Enhances remote learning and teaching
-Can simplify teaching and learning if used appropriately


Threats:
-Privacy issues might occur
-Teacher may have too much power of the students
-Access by unauthorized persons


When designing learning for remote participation there are many opportunities but one has to be aware of the threats and weaknesses, too.
Most modern learning technologies can enhance the learning and teaching experience, but only if used correctly. Adobe Connect for example is used regularly in the DLT class and works fairly well however it always takes some time so set everything up and if you do not have the appropriate hardware, the software's potential can not be fully used.
In the DLT class the sound quality is rather bad, a better microphone or headset could easily help but is not always available. The more complex and more useful technologies go often hand in hand with higher requirements in terms of hardware and technical understanding.

PS
I am Philipp, Google name is not correct!

Saturday 25 April 2015

Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015) by Kieran

YouTube for Instructional Videos

For writing and producing music, I utilise YouTube for instructional videos to figure out how to do things things like how to tune an instrument or how does a guitarist get a certain tone from an amplifier. The main part of music production which I use YouTube for is instructional videos on how to complete tasks and what techniques to use to produce music using FL Studio, a music production suite. YouTube has a wealth of instructional videos for FL Studio from professional and amateur users. Every task and technique needed to successfully complete a musical project using FL Studio is covered by multiple YouTube videos. But it does have its drawbacks… 

Strengths:
  1. The answer to a question is available immediately.
  2. The visual medium is easy to absorb.
  3. The visual medium means people can use screen capture technology and show you how to execute a technique.
  4. If there are multiple ways of doing something and a certain video doesn’t cover a technique, you can simply find another video.
  5. Image-Line, the company that produced FL studio, have their own channel, with professional techniques and answers to many common questions.
  6. There are lots of professionals and quality amateur videos with clear instruction
Weaknesses:
  1. Some videos use obscure techniques and you have to research which technique to use.
  2. Some videos are of such poor quality, they are unwatchable.
  3. Common mistakes made are: Poor audio, poor lighting and low resolution (which is especially bad when using screen captured videos)
  4. Low resolution 
  5. There are so many videos to pick from and it can take some time to find a good quality one with the easiest technique

Opportunities:
  1. Image-Line could make their own playlists with quality videos only.
  2. A full FL studio visual manual (this would be quite an ambitious project but it could greatly increase FL Studios audience).
Threats:
  1. YouTube may start requiring payment to have an account.
  2. Users being put off by poor quality, unhelpful videos.
  3. Users not using it because they aren't sure how to find the video they're after.
  4. Users seeking alternative video streaming sites.

Finding the correct video with the easiest solution can be difficult. A user needs to consider the fact that anyone can upload an instructional video and there are some really poor videos on YouTube. Some handy tips for getting the best out of YouTube for instructional videos is to subscribe to official or professional YouTube channels as they are very reliable with their content. Another tip is to find blogs which discuss issues and techniques for FL Studio and they will often link you to a YouTube clip solving the problem. 

Assessed Activity 7.1 Reflection, Learning Technologies (Campus walk about)

Our Digital Learning Technologies class met the music class tutor in the music lab. The class was filled with digital technologies, it had Mac computers along with music keyboards not the usual computer qwerty keyboard. The class also has a projector where Tom the music lecturer has on where he can show the students screens in front of the class. I have learn't a lot from this and how they share and collaborate, form a band and mix some music. The tutor can easily look at a students work and look at what the student is doing. 

Below is a couple of photos I have taken in the music lab.

 This photo shows the front of the room with the projector.

Here is a photo of the Mac computer with the keyboard.

Strengths:
  • Share students work to the class
  • Easy teaching
  • Monitor students progress
  • Can take control of students consoles
  • Block contents
  • Can share interesting things with students
  • Simple to learn to use

Weaknesses:
  • Privacy of a student
  • Amount of storage is limited
  • The is a yearly subscription fee
  • The internet is needed
  • Tutor can interrupt students anytime while they are working


Opportunities:
  • Having access to multiple consoles
  • Can easily share with the class
  • Teaching is much more simpler


Threats:
  • The amount of students can be large to handle
  • The control over students
  • Can see what students are doing (eg Facebook "Oh that student has a nice gf")

Considerations when designing learning for remote participation are:

Not all students are in class or by a computer outside of class so recording a session will be a good option. This way a student can go and watch what they missed in class or go over it again if they have memory problems.

A good connection with internet is handy. If you have a slow bad internet nothing can be done at a feasible level. So a good connection is a wise choice for teaching in a digital environment.

Sometimes audio/video can be a problem at either end. It is important to let each other know how to solve the issue. Again recording the session can solve the issue for the student to view again to catch what was missed. Students can reply in the chat if the issue is fixed.


Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015)

Hi Michael,


I added my email address as the assessment item some time ago but I'm not a contributer to your blog, http://virtualmvblogger.blogspot.co.nz/. To complete Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015), I will post to http://virtualmvblogger.blogspot.co.nz/ using Richard Ho's account.

Thanks

Kieran Taylor

Friday 24 April 2015

Assessed Activity 7.1 (Reflection, Learning Technologies @ EIT)

It was a great experience, we went to Music Studio with Full class of DLT. It was our "campus walkabout" tour. During the tour Tom who is the teacher of the idealschool, share with us their teaching technique. They are using “Insight” software by Faronics. It is a classroom management software. For more details about Insight please check this video.


 



Strengths:
  • Easy to teach. (Remote access)
  • Monitor the students learning activities
  • Block websites and contents
  • Support multimedia

Weaknesses:
  • Privacy issues
  • Yearly subscription fees
  • Storage limitation

Opportunities:
  • Sharing system
  • Access the previous lesson from backup storage

Threats:
  • Student limited access
  • Computer knowledge



When we are prepare a learning method with remote participation that time we have to focus some important issues:
  • Internet connection (If the remote access over the internet that time we need good internet connection for all user)
  • Security
  • Multimedia devices (Visual and audio supported device)
  • File sharing
  • Privacy
  • Easy to access

Reference:

Faronics. (2012, Jube 21). Faronics Insight [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiG-l4avK9E


Thursday 23 April 2015

DLT Class Uses Mobile Digital Technology to Go Musical

On Thursday 2nd April the DLT class began with a presentation by Charlene, an intern from the Educational Development Centre (EDC) at EIT, who covered the wide range of subject areas worked on at the EDC - e.g. Applied Science, Nursing and Teaching and the importance of knowing HTML for managing learning resources.
With Michael and Steph managing the technology to stream the experience to distributed students using Adobe Connect, the class went nomadic to visit the music studio at the ideaschool at EIT used by students doing the Certificate of Contemporary Music Performance.

Students, teachers and technology transitioning into the music studio


The ideaschool teacher, Tom, had a few students working on their consoles in class and generously hosted the DLT class in the studio to demonstrate the learning technology and the environment.  The studio is equipped with the Faronics Insight learning management system with an instructors console, large digital display screen and student workstations with electronic keyboards and Mac desktops.

Faronics Insight supplies a digital collaborative learning option with electronic communication between teachers and students in addition to face-to-face communication in the studio. Teachers can instruct, help, oversee and communicate with connected students, individually or as a group, from the teacher's computer.  Faronics Insight controls access to the web by students, reducing online distractions from messages, web-surfing or games.


Meta Learning - Music studio and DLT in action.. Music student (foreground) on musical composition; Teacher (background) at the main Faronics Insight console with class display screen behind.  BYOD invasion!
The studio is set out with workstations and with separate work tables for group collaboration for composing and playing instruments. 

Faronics Insight
Strengths: manages electronic communication; send and collect files, chat with users, broadcast messages, host classroom votes, student testing, reduce online distractions
Weaknesses: costs, setup and ongoing; space requirement; possibly perceived as overly controlling and restrictive; suited to distance learning?
Opportunities: develop for distance learning?
Threats: security - unauthorised access and disruption.

Some considerations when designing learning for remote participation
When designing learning for remote participation, the technologies, usually multiple/layers of technology (power sources, software, computers, cameras, microphones), have to be available and operational.  The technologies have to work effectively for both the teacher and learner i.e. good audio and visual quality and high speed of transfer of quality information so as not to detract from the learning experience.  Optional, secondary resources need to be prepared to backup and cover in the event of failure in any part of the technology chain.
As well as designing course material and assessments appropriate for both face-to-face and distributed learners, the learning design and preparation needs to cover the increased demands of teaching across two channels at the same time.  Preparation is required for two audiences, presented in one integrated session, with video recording for later viewing available.  The time demands, workload and variables are significantly increased over a standard face to face delivery to a class, which is taxing on the teacher.  The teacher must be skilled (and preferably at expert level) across all domains: pedagogy, instructional design, the subject material to be presented, the technology used for delivery and managing two audiences before, during and after delivery.  Solutions to manage the workload include teaching assistance with the audience(s), technical assistance to set-up and troubleshoot the technology; administration assistance (or automation) to complete class attendance records and assistance with instructional design and implementation. 






Wednesday 22 April 2015




Week 7: Instructional Design Model

Reflection, Learning Technologies @ EIT


Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015)

During the campus walkout we visited the musical class in EIT. Their Michel introduced Tom who is tutor in EIT music department. The tom introduced some of the tools and software used by musical department and he explained the working of tools and software. The musical department is using software called insight for teaching purpose also they are using apple desktops. Every musical instrument is connected to the desktops and and these desktops are networked together. This insight software is product of “faronics”. And this is an awesome experience to become a part of campus walk out.
Strengths

  •  Tutor can monitor every one activity.
  •  Can able to give individual activity.
  • Activity done by students can able to store in insight directory.
  • Tutor can assess the students very easily.
  • This Software (Insight) promotes interactive learning with sharing features.

Weakness
  •  Students don’t have any privacy.
  • EIT have to Pay money for renewing the licence for this learning Software.
  • Traditional way of learning music expense is low when compared to this digitalised way because of too much IT infrastructure and software involved.

OPPORTUNITIES
  • This software promotes a better participation of student in class room.
  •  Everyone can access their own activity by recording the music.


Treats
  •  An updated version of this software with new functionality will force the Organization to buy it. Because the students and tutors are more familiar with this product.
  • Changing this familiar software will put the department in difficulty.
  •  Any weakness in this software design will cause more trouble to the users.
Any way this software is good product for learning the music.
Remote participation is good option for those who are not able to attend the class. In case if a student is hospitalized or taking rest in home due to illness they can attend the class through online. It is better to record the section those who failed to attend the by accident. The adobe connect is a better software for recording the teaching section. Use good hardware for better resolution and good sound for example webcam integrated with mic (microphone). Those who have poor internet connection can download the section and can watch it later.

Campus Walkout




Sunday 19 April 2015

Activity 7.1 Reflection, Learning Technologies @ EIT

It  was disappointing that I couldn't attend the campus walkabout to learn more about the digital technologies being used by the music department @ EIT.  I missed out, having to attend another class.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to the blog and sharing your experiences so I could learn more about all the fun & interesting things you's did.

As I was absent, I will be sharing about a digital learning technology I am familiar with.  As part of the DLT progressive assignment we were given the opportunity to explore a Cloud tool so I have become familiar with Microsoft's tool OneNote. SWOT analysis applied to OneNote has revealed the following points:

SWOT Analysis on OneNote

Strengths
  • Remote access
  • Group collaboration tool
  • Can create notebooks for different purposes
  • Notebooks can be divided into different sections
  • Add pages to sections
  • Color coordination or color coded
  • Add passwords to sections
  • Sync to other devices
  • Compatibility - can use on different platforms such as Apple & Android
  • Free version available online
  • Just like a notepad you are not limited to a specific area - you can write or draw anywhere.
Weaknesses
  • Cannot add passwords to notebooks
  • Can only add passwords to sections
  • No option to filter tags so as it grows then harder to find content
  • Need Internet to sync to other devices
  • Need a Microsoft account
  • No confirmation of save                                                                                                               
Opportunities
  • Integrates well with other MS Office applications
  • Access across different platforms
  • Can use like a pin-board
Threats
  • Need to have charged mobile devices
  • Cloud Security
Considerations
I have liked using OneNote.  I have only been familiar with the group collaboration tools in Google drive so I was interested in trying something new.

I like that OneNote allows for the integration of different media within a notebook such as adding a word or excel document.  This is quite handy as everything can be found in one place within a notebook.

The tags just add a bit of flavor to make things a little more interesting but are not a necessity.  Tags feature is not offered in Google docs.

Foreseen problems and solutions maybe but are not limited to:

Problem: Currently there is no save confirmation.
Solution: This is quite common with Cloud services however this would be a nice feature to implement.

Problem:  You cannot just password protect a notebook.  This is inconvenient as you may not wish to even share a notebook at all.  
Solution: They could possibly improve this by allowing this feature.

Problem: You cannot filter by tags.  This is a disadvantage because applying tags to notes is a convenient feature that allows you to group/remember specific notes.  As your notebook grows, it may become harder to find notes.  
Solution:  Add filter to tags in OneNote.  This will help find notes more effectively and efficiently.

Assessed Activity 7.1

In the campus walkabout, we went and visited the music school and got shown a system called insight. Insight is a program that allows a series of computers in a network to be monitored/ controlled by one. This is a great tool for teaching, tutoring and collaboration.

I attended the class through adobe connect. The video playback was less then optimal, 
pixelated and hard to hear people speaking at times. I asked a question about the efficiency of the file uploading functionality, Michael V asked my question and got an answer fairly promptly. I was happy with how the class was streamed.

Strengths
  • Collaboration capabilities, sharing work in one easy to manage place
  • Simultaneous teaching, share lecturers screen to everybody
  • Everyone can see whats happening easily
  • Restricted access to websites, keep students focused  on their task
  • Individual tutoring, if one person has a problem the tutor can help them individually without effecting others
Weaknesses
  • Possible plagiarism issues
  • Security of the network and students/ lecturers work
  • Less physical or face-to-face interaction with students/ lecturer
Opportunities
  • Publicly available content could make people interested in studying at EIT
  • Off-site access to content encourages ubiquitous learning 
Threats
  • Network security, viruses/ unauthorized access to accounts/ work
  • Abuse of power
  • Plagiarism between students
In conclusion, I think that the insight management system is a hugely powerful tool that helps tremendously with the way that students learn and how content is taught. The functionality of the program provides students and teachers with an enhanced learning environment, which not only makes learning more fun and interesting, but increases the efficiency of content delivery.

Considerations when designing learning for remote participation

Internet connectivity is something that is paramount when streaming and viewing a stream. The streamer must have sufficient upload speed to push the content out. In comparison the viewer must have sufficient download speed to get the content. The streamer has To be careful not to push content out too fast, so that the viewer cannot receive the content fast enough. The streamer should change the upload bit-rate to a smaller size if problems are occurring (constant buffering).

7.1 Reflection, Learning Technologies @ EIT


In our campus walkabout we discovered the music school and checked how they deal with a software called insight.


Everyone is making a little SWOT-analysis



Strengths:

- Good overview
- Control of students
- Easy to use
- Nice Graphical User Interface

Weaknesses:

- Not for free (have to pay yearly fees for license)
- Could interrupt students in a creative moment
- Kind of control over their computers

Opportunities:

- Have better audience
- No changing of seats anymore
- No distraction while the lecturer is talking

Threats:

- Total control of students
- Loss of privacy
- More controlling than teaching
- Security issues if someone hack the administrator (access to all accounts)



Some considerations for the designing of learning for remote participation, problems and solutions:

- Internet connection break up --> Record session

- Did not understand what the lecturer means --> Ask him/her with the chat function

- Lecturer do not notice that i want to say something --> Little pop-up window could be helpful

- Problems with any technical stuff --> Provide a meeting number like in companies to dial in if every other thing is broken, in this case you just can hear the audio, but it is better than nothing

Saturday 18 April 2015

Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015)

In a departure from the usual class format of Digital Learning Technologies we attended a class demonstration of the learning technologies used in the Music Department. While the tutor Tom gave a demonstration of the classroom computer suite management software Insight by Faronics,



During the class Michael streamed the demonstration via Adobe Connect and answered and asked questions for student who attended the stream.



The Computer suite used by the music department was a setup of Apple Mac's with students having access to keyboards and headphones for the creating of music, with the network/internet access being controlled by the tutor and having control of each machine in unison and individually for effective communication within the classroom.

SWOT Analysis of the Educational Technologies

Strengths

  • Allows tutor to remote monitor and provide support for students.
  • Allows remote one to one, one too many and advanced remote teaching to students.
  • Allows control of computers to force and lockout distracting media which student commonly use e.g. Facebook, Reddit and YouTube
  • More effectively allows first hand demonstrations
  • Allows collaborations to take place with ease.
Weaknesses

  • Privacy issues (students may feel violated)
  • inconvenient for students in the middle of work to be interrupted 
  • Data stored for only Six Months
  • Use of Apple Mac's
Opportunities
  • Improved management of classrooms around EIT
  • Allows a better remote environment for tutoring of classes
  • A integrated for group messenger service within the software or an attached forum would enable better class collaboration.
Threats

  • ·         Privacy breach
  • ·         Lack of operating systems knowledge students may create or experience issues as they may not be familiar with the Operating System.
  • ·         Intellectual theft (Students who have their screens shared may be open to theft of their work)

Privacy breach is the main concern as students may be accessing information that is personal to them, only to have their screens shared and being watched by a tutor. There needs to be blocks on pages e.g. Facebook, email and banking. As well as a consent form disclosing the methods used within the class. To enforce an understanding for what takes place and what is appropriate and safe behaviour for students.

Thursday 16 April 2015

7.1 Instructional Design Model



Reflection, Learning Technologies @ EIT

This weeks activity is slightly different. First of all we had a 'walk about' on campus and paid a visit to the music department where we met Tom, the tutor. Whilst he spoke to (and showed) us his software (Insight by Faronica) Michael fielded questions from students and Steffanie streamed the lesson (Adobe Connect) to those students who could not attend class but were able to participate from home - great collaboration which worked really well. I will download and include some photographs and a short video of this experience shortly.

The music lab is set up using Apple Mac's, students have headphones and small keyboards at their 'work stations'. Additional seating area with tables is available for when students ware not working at their stations. The software Tom was using allows for greater interaction between tutor and students, it also offers the facility of full class participation. 

However, like with most software, it has it's strengths and weaknesses. These are some that I think apply.

Strengths
  • allows tutor to monitor students work without being beside them
  • allows the tutor to show the class/individual on large screen
  • easier than using 'PowerPoint' slides
  • access to video
  • assists in monitoring student progression
  • allows tutor to 'help'
Weaknesses
  • Limited access to some sites (blocked by tutor)
  • Privacy issues (students might not like it)
  • Overuse of 'monitoring' facility
  • Authenticity of students work
  • 'Mute' Students would find this annoying if in the middle of something - could also be a positive to assist students
  • Material only stored for six months
Opportunities
  • sharing facility between fellow students
  • used in other areas of EIT
Threats
  • Hacking
  • Over writing of material
Overall I found this software to be an asset in the music lab. With some considerations it could become a good collaborative piece of software which could work well across the broad range of courses at EIT. When designing learning for remote participation there are so many different pieces of software which you have to have. When you have decided what you are going to do and what you are going to use you must make sure that they are all compatible. Internet access is getting less and less of an issue now and as time progresses and we all have fast reliable coverage remote teaching will become more acceptable than traditionally going into a classroom.

Saying that not so far back some 'remote' students participated within the classroom by using radio transmission - things haven't changed that much after all.....

Just some photographs from the day for you to see.














GJ