How Technology Has Changed The Way We Learn

Technology Within The Classroom

Instead of discussing this from a researched academic standpoint, I would like to give a personal view on the matter. Throughout the creation of this blog, as well as through a majority of my MA and BSc I rarely used and hard copies of things I had researched (There was one exception during my MA, but I later discovered an online version of the same book). The same has proven true for most of my colleagues through my under and post graduate degrees and the same still holds true for my students.

It is quite expected during my teaching that everything we cover will have an online version - whether this is linking to online videos or simply uploading documents to Moodle. The university still asks that students submit hard copies of every assignment they write, whilst also submitting digital versions, but I do not know of any lecturers within my school that actually looks at the hard copies (my department has even stopped requesting hard copies as we see it as a waste of paper).

The only non-technological approach I use within my teaching (activities aside) is a whiteboard. I actually prefer to use traditional whiteboards to electronic versions as I am yet to use an electronic-whiteboard that is responsive enough - I feel the technology has a long way to go before it can actually replace traditional whiteboards.

Throughout this blog I have covered other technologies and how they can be used in the classroom. It's pretty clear through a lot of the posts that, in my opinion at least, the technological versions provide superior learning since it engages learners (especially younger ones) to a higher degree.

Sanford-Brown states that "The delivery of education has changed massively, so if you are looking to go back to school, consider taking your studies online" (Sanford-Brown, 2014). This leads me on to my next point

Technology AS The Classroom

A recent addition to iOS updates is the addition of iTunes U, an educational tool that puts entire courses into the hands of every Apple user. A Google search for "iTunes U" bring up a few interesting looking links that indicate what you can find on iTunes U:

The App Store description of iTunes U states:

"iTunes U provides everything an instructor needs to bring their classroom together on iPad — build lessons with apps and your own materials, collect and grade assignments from students, discuss one-to-one or in groups, and annotate PDF assignments" (Apple App Store, 2015).
It also lists all of the options and functions available within the app:

"For Instructors:
• Plan lessons, grade assignments and stay connected — all from your iPad
• Add your own teaching materials — including documents, worksheets, web links, photos and videos
• Engage every learner by including apps, books, videos, podcasts and more from iTunes, the App Store and iBooks
• Add instructions or comments to PDFs with built-in annotation tools
• See when students have viewed their assignments, completed their work, or remind them when they are due
• Use the integrated grade book to enter grades as you go and track the progress of your entire class at a glance
• Use the single-student view to offer private and individual attention for quick check-ins or parent-teacher conferences
• Answer individual questions in one-to-one chats or start debates with the entire class using group discussions
• Keep students in the loop and prepared for class with notifications
• Teachers affiliated with qualified institutions can publish courses to the iTunes U catalogue to make them available to everyone for free.

For Students:
• See your assignments and instructor updates in one place, and tick off assignments as you complete them
• Submit your work from any Apple creativity app, dozens of third-party apps, or as annotated PDFs for private courses
• Ask instructors questions or have them review your work outside class time with one-to-one discussions
• Start or join in on group discussions with the whole class
• See your graded results for all past assignments" (Apple App Store, 2015)

I foresee this being a big game changer in the world of education, in the same way that iTunes changes the world of listening to music. As more and more universities get on board with iTunes U and upload videos of entire lessons it might being to negate the need for actual classrooms. That being said, it does rely heavily on student led learning and there is nothing like having a teacher on hand and in person to assist and guide students, but we, as teachers, will no longer have a monopoly over course-collated information.

References

Apple App Store, (2015). iTunes U on the App Store. [online] Available at: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/itunes-u/id490217893?mt=8 [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Sanford-Brown, (2014). How Education Has Changed With the Rise of Technology. [online] Available at: http://www.sanfordbrown.edu/student-life/blog/december-2014/how-education-has-changed-with-the-rise-of-technology [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Blog Review - Ethan Hein: Music, Technology, Evolution

After I had picked a blog to review, my next thought was: How do you actually review a blog? So after a bit of time on google i found a blog that wrote a blog on how to review a blog... This is starting to remind me of inception.

So I first found a blog post on reviewing a blog. the blog is called Adsense Tracker (an tongue-in-cheek title) which calls itself a blog about blogging. It contains, amongst many other interesting posts, a blog about how to review a blog, which gives a handy list of what you should try and cover in your review:

(AdSense, 2007)

I've decided that i'm going to use this criteria to review Ethan Hein's blog on Music, Technology and Evolution (Hein, 2015).

Purpose

This blog is geared towards music technology and their enthusiasts. A lot of it is based around the interests of the author himself who regularly posts on new technologies and theories as well as occasionally delving deeper into previously covered topics. The blog rarely leaves it's intended purpose, almost every post is about some interesting topic and seems to be constantly reviewing different related topics. It occasionally takes more of a teaching approach than a review approach, but this seems to fit with the CV of the author.

Layout / Usability

The blog layout is very clean yet also manages to contain a lot of links. It comes across more like a website with a focus on the blog. The whole blog flows very well; the posts do not necessarily link into the next post, but the topics aren't scattered enough to make a reader feel disorientated or confused as to the topic or purpose. The links around the page are well laid out - the links at the top make sense and there is just the right information on sidebar for any peruser.

Content

All of the content is quite obviously original with many links to other pieces (such as videos, documents etc). The blog is written in a very knowledgable tone and does not come across as condescending. Rather than being either formal or informal it simply comes across as factual, akin to reading a textbook that has kept some element  of the author's voice. The layout of each post is very simple with chunks of text being well broken up with images, videos etc. This is actually done extremely well as, just as you're getting disinterested with reading you are given an image or some other media to interact with. The author's spelling and grammar are quite perfect, perhaps owing to his academic background.

Activity

The author varies between posting 2-3 posts a day for 2 weeks stretches to occasionally not posting for about 3 weeks. This is presumably because the author is to busy during certain times of the year, but it doesn't give the impression that he becomes disinterested in his blog. Dues to the shoe amount of posts in this blog it is hard to judge the comment activity. Some posts have no comments, some have just one and others have entire conversations between multiple commenters. I think it's best to say that the comment activity depends greatly on the popularity of the individual post as opposed to the blog in general. I have not seen any comments that the author has responded to, but then again I have not noticed any comments where specific questions are being asked.

Believability

the blog is very believable. As noted before, the tone of the posts come across as very knowledgeable, and the other backs up a lot of his discussion with lots of links to other articles and research. As an academic I would quite happily take the authors word on most of the statements he makes as he never seems to make any comments that are challenging unless he has support for his statement.



Using this criteria actually made reviewing the blog very simple and made me look at parts of the blog I would't have actually considered. In summary, Ethan's blog is very informative and very factual. I could only aspire to achieve a level of blogging such that Ethan Hein has reached.

References

AdSense. (2007). [Blog] How To Review A Blog. Available at: http://adsensetrack.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/how-to-review-blog.html [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].


Hein, E. (2015). [Blog] Music, Technology, Evolution. Available at: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/category/technology/page/2/ [Accessed 19 Nov. 2015].

Applications Used to Support My Teaching

In the various aspects of my teaching I use a wide array of applications. Some are used during lessons whereas others are used in preparation and organisation. A list of the main applications I use is as follows:

Microsoft Word
Word has always been the staple of every academic, and I am no exception. Word gets used every lesson to create my lesson plans. I also use it to compile the majority of my handouts as well as course documents and assignment specification sheets. It is also used for most of my feedback forms (when using Moodle is not an option).

Microsoft Outlook
All of the University staff e-mails are run through Outlook. I had previously had all of my e-mails diverted to my personal Gmail account so I could receive them on my phone, but in the interest of professionalism I installed the Outlook app on my phone so I was able to reply to students' emails direct from my university account. I am not a fan of the layout of Outlook and much prefer the way Gmail works, but I am happy to concede to using Outlook to maintain that extra level of professionalism.

Microsoft Excel
This software mainly gets used to keep my registers and to compile the grades of students before sending them off to the course director. Nothing else within my teaching requires spreadsheets (except for when handing in timesheets) but if anything occurred that required it I would go straight to Excel for it.

Microsoft PowerPoint
In my previous blog post on PowerPoint Vs Prezi I covered the various differences in the two softwares. I use PowerPoint for all of my theory presentations. I make a point to work in a complete opposite method to the death-by-powerpoint approach and will usually just display an image or a diagram as a way to reference or reinforce the point I am making.

Moodle
I use Moodle to host copies of all the handouts I make and to upload copies of the PowerPoint presentations that I use during lectures. I have recently started to use the WebLink feature to provide links to interesting and useful articles on the subjects we have discussed in class. Another use for Moodle is to host the course handbook and assessment forms whilst using the Turnitin feature to have the students submit written assignments. The Turnitin feature also allows me to annotate feedback throughout the essays and return them to the students with this feedback attached.

Avid Pro-Tools
Not strictly in the same category as the rest, but I do use this software in my teaching. This is one of the main pieces of software that I teach the students to use. It's the industry standard in Digital audio Workstations and all of the studios in the University are equipped with it. In regards to teaching, aside from showing the students how to use it, I also use it to create and edit audio files for lessons as well as taking screenshots for handouts.

OSX Finder
Not just the folder exploration software that it's commonly used as, Finder can also be used as a PDF editor. I'll often use it to take a page out of a PDF and combine it with a handbook I have created, or to sometimes put a new cover onto an old PDF.

Adobe Photoshop
I'll use this software to edit images - mostly if i need to add something or highlight something within a photograph. Similar things can be done quite easily in Word (to my surprise), but since I've had a large amount of training in Photoshop I feel i know my way around the software better and am more comfortable using it to edit images.


There are many other pieces of software that I use, most of them relate to audio editing, but it would amount to an entire blog in itself to cover all the different packages I use on a regular basis. For this reason I have left it as the ones that strictly relate to my teaching process.

The Value of Mobile Technology in Teaching and Learning

Throughout this blog I have reviewed and analysed different softwares that focus around mobile technology and how they can add to the learning of students. The one question not posed is just how much do these actually add to the experience?

Firstly, I think we should look at how applicable mobile technology is. It's all well and good to discuss how we can use new technologies but is it actually feasible to use them? In order to make use of tablets and smartphones within a classroom we must first ensure that most, if not all students have a device they can use (we can assume that there will always be a few without, but supplying more than 3-4 could prove costly). In an article by the University of Manchester (Davies, 2015) the author analyses data gained from a number of different surveys on the percentage of students that own smart devices:

Comparison of device ownership 2012-14 at the University of Northampton (Davies, 2015)

The graph implies an increase in ownership of smartphones up to 90% in 2014. This can most likely be attributed to the mobile phone market and that new smartphones are becoming cheaper all of the time and, as time passes, more smartphones are available on the second-hand market. Although this implies that 90% of students would be able to use the apps previously covered in this blog, it is quite apparent that not all smartphones are created equal. A £20 unbranded Windows mobile would not be able to run the same amount of apps as the latest model iPhone, and with Windows, IOS and Android as competing platforms, many developers have not made the apps cross-platform-compatible and so we cannot guarantee that all of the smartphones in question would be capable of launching the software.

But let us assume that we can run the software on the phone or tablet of every student in the class. There are many ways in which the technology itself can be useful in a classroom environment. In relation to teaching languages, Joanna Norton notes that "The student can take a series of snapshots of moments in their day — for example, their alarm clock, a toothbrush, a cup of coffee, their walk to work, etc. — and describe the actions to the teacher. For example, ‘I take a shower and get dressed…’ This will often highlight aspects of language that require teacher input" (Norton, 2014). In my personal experience I encourage students to take multiple photographs during practical sessions as ways of referencing setups at a later date or if they have to return to a previous setup. This is also useful during the creation of blogs (something used for multiple assignments within my department) where the students would need to evidence things with photographs, videos and sound recordings. Having a device that can perform all of these tasks roves invaluable to a course designed in this way.

References

Davies, S. 2015. [M-Article Series] Mobile device adoption in UK Higher Education. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.elearning.eps.manchester.ac.uk/blog/2014/m-article-series-mobile-device-adoption-in-uk-he/. [Accessed 18 November 2015].

Norton, J. 2014. Teaching tips: how students can use mobiles to learn English | British Council. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/teaching-tips-how-students-can-use-mobiles-to-learn-english. [Accessed 18 November 2015].

Mobile Technology and Learning - In My Experience

Mobile Technology is a term that, to my honest surprise, contains more than just tablets and smartphones. I had originally presumed that all mobile technology were the kind of things that apple would make: iPads, iPhones, MacBooks etc. Upon doing some research I came across a publication from FutureLab which contained the following diagram:

Categories of Mobile Technologies (FutureLab, 2004)

With these extra categories in mind I saw the wider scope of what Mobile Technology consisted of. with that being said, I must admit that I have not used anything outside of category 1 within an educational context. I have used response systems, videoconferencing and electronic whiteboards in personal affairs as well as in art projects, but none in a teaching aspect.

I do, however, make regular use of my iPad during lectures. I prepare each lecture by having notes on hand to refer to, but having my lesson plan open and ready to switch to, by having Moodle open so I can update and reference files during the lecture, as well as occasionally sending out an e-mail to a student during class time. A key use I have for it is for fact checking; occasionally the class discussion will go off topic and the need to google-it arises. I also have an app that allows me to keep registers and contains all sorts of brilliant cross-referencing tools, but I'm afraid it's an app that I set up with all of the best intentions but have never actually used for its purpose.

I would like to conclude by saying that I intend to use more mobile technology within my teaching, but I feel that, for the moment at least, the technology I use is sufficient, at least in regards to my current modules.

References

FutureLab, (2004). Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning. [online] Birmingham, UK: University Of Birmingham. Available at: http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Mobile_Review.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Barriers To The Effective Use Of Technology In Learning

When considering content for this post my initial thought on the main barrier to the effective use of technology in learning was the struggle of getting students with learning difficulties to use the technology, but then I considered a bigger barrier that I had encountered as a student myself: Teachers.

Back in my undergraduate days I had one lecturer for a module akin to Contextual Studies that would dictate direct from his hand-written notes to a room full of students who were all forced to hand-write the notes as they were dictated. In another module I had a lecturer who was teaching us a piece of software by going through the learning this software for beginners book chapter by chapter. At times I was also taught outdated technology within an industry that is ever-evolving and to succeed you must be on the cusp of every new technological advance.

Thankfully, within that department at least (where I now work as a lecturer) things have changed to the point where the focus is entirely on new technologies: From using motion sensors that trigger sound effects in customised nano-computers; to staff and students working on integrated, cloud-based calendars that allow for constant updates to the smartphone of every department member. This all sounds quite promising, until I point out that I work in the Digital Media department. If you take a trip outside of this department you almost instantly regress back into the world of handwritten notes, paper diaries and e-mail systems that nobody ever checks. This isn't an issue that is singular to the university in question, it is one that I fear runs across the entire educational system.

The first thought would be that this is an age issues - that older teachers are becoming out of touch with 21st century technologies, whereas "youth born after roughly 1980 are presumably used to parallel processing (simultaneously processing different incoming stimuli) and multitasking (completing different tasks simultaneously)"(Guo et al, 20018) due to their upbringing coinciding with the digital age. Prensky notes that:

"Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century". (Prensky, 2001)


While there may be a link between age and technological capability, I do not feel it is a direct link, I have seen many people within my generation who show the same distain and distrust of technology. But the fact remains that the students we are teaching prefer to use these technologies and so, as 21st century teachers, we must be willing to embrace these technologies, or step aside for those who are willing.

References

Guo, et Al. (2008). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: An Analysis Of Age And ICT Competency In Teacher Education. Journal of Educational Computing Research, [online] 38(3), pp.235-254. Available at: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Petrina/publication/253603266_Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants_An_Analysis_of_Age_and_ICT_Competency_in_Teacher_Education/links/54238e820cf238c6ea6e445f.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon, 9(5).

Ted Talk - I Listen To Colour

In Neil Harbisson's TED Talk he discusses how he used a sonic implant to allow him to hear colours.



Neil Harbisson was born with full colour blindness, meaning he only sees in greyscale.

"Harbisson's original "eyeborg" – devised a decade ago by Plymouth University cybernetics expert Adam Montandon – required him to wear headphones connected to a laptop. Subsequent operations allowed him to ditch all this, as a vibrating chip was placed first against, then inside his skull. In the process, he became the world's first cyborg artist" (The Guardian, 2014).

This device is essentially a camera that focuses on the colour of the image in real-time. The colour is then converted into sine waves that are then transmitted through a plate in the back of his head so that he can hear them. What this means is that every shade of colour gives off a different frequency and, with practice, Neil was able to distinguish the audio frequencies as different colours. Although this was rather interesting to see installed as part of someone (making Neil now refer to himself as a cyborg) it is not a new concept to me; I have already done similar things with colours and sound.

What actually interested me in this talk was how Neil had used this extra sense in a more abstract way. By learning to distinguish different sounds as colours he had, in effect, given himself Chromesthesia. The artist within him started to use this in other ways. Instead of simply using the device to distinguish colour, he started to use it to create art based on his interpretations. In the TED Talk he discussed how the faces of different people sound to him whilst comparing the sounds of different people and how some of them sound rather similar. The other way in which he uses this new sense is to use his newly-gained chromesthesia to turn famous speeches and compositions into works of art based on the colours that he hears.

Beethoven's Fur Elisa (Remarkable, 2015)

Far from simply allowing Neil to perceive day-to-day colours, the device also allows his to experience colours in a far more involved way than most as "by installing this cybernetic eye in my head I've actually transformed my own body into a musical instrument as I can play music by looking at things now" (Harbisson, 2013). He is also quoted in the video, when explaining why he is dressed the way he is, that he no longer "dresses in a way that looks good, but in a way that sounds good".

While there is nothing in this talk that I can strictly add to my teaching, I could certainly use his outlook on this technology and how he adapted it to create art to not only inspire my students but to open their minds to the artistic possibilities that can be gleaned from seemingly specifically designed technologies.

References

The Guardian. 2014. Neil Harbisson: the world's first cyborg artist. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/06/neil-harbisson-worlds-first-cyborg-artist. [Accessed 15 November 2015].
Harbisson, N. 2015. WATCH: How a Colorblind Cyborg 'Hears' Color. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-harbisson/hearing-color-cyborg-tedtalk_b_3654445.html. [Accessed 15 November 2015].

Remarkable. 2015. This colourblind artist might just be the first person ever to develop a 'sixth sense'. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.remarkably.com/colourblind-artist-might-just-first-person-ever-develop-sixth-sense/. [Accessed 15 November 2015].

Socrative & Kahoot!

"Socrative empowers you to engage and assess your students as learning happens. Through the use of real-time questioning, result aggregation, and visualization, you have instant insight into levels of understanding so you can use class time to better collaborate and grow as a community of learners." (Socrative, 2015)

Socrative is a piece of software no dissimilar to Nearpod in that it is run on multiple devices by the students and controlled by the lecturer. Unlike Nearpod its sole function is to run quizzes, after which the data can be assessed by the lecturer. The types of quizzes available are the usual options of multiple choice, true/false, text-box submission etc, but there are a few ways of implementing them.

• The Standard Quiz is where you can build up a quiz and then have the students work through the questions.
• The Quick Question is a method of quickly posing a question mid-class.
• The Space Race is a mini-game style quiz where teams will race to answer questions to be the first to reach a designated score.
• Exit Ticket allows you to run a quiz where, upon completion, students are then allowed to leave the classroom, but not until they have all the correct answers.

Where this differs to Nearpod is that it doesn't contain any presentation element, so it's purely an assessment based application; but this is not necessarily a downfall. With nearpod you're somewhat steered down the path of conducting the entire lesson using it; with Socrative you can just use it to augment a lesson - jumping back and forth between conventional teaching methods and the Socrative software. In my personal opinion this is a more preferable approach as it allows you to move away from the presentation side of things whilst still getting the feedback that software based assessments give.

"A Kahoot is a learning game created on the Kahoot! platform, which consists of multiple choice questions - as a quiz, discussion or survey - in any topic, language or ability. It’s projected at the front of the classroom, & played by the whole class together in real-time (answering on their own personal device)" (Kahoot, 2015)

Kahoot is similar to Socrative in that it is an application based quiz program, but it is quite obviously targeted towards a younger audience - it's full of bright colours and cartoon fonts. The format is the same: Input your questions, pick the right answer, link your students to the quiz, analyse results. However, the results don't go as in-depth as they are in Socrative.

In my experience of using it, the software is a little buggy. I made 2 quizzes when testing it out and both times the final quiz didn't actually display any text for the optional answers, just colours. I'm are this was probably easy to fix, but to be completely honest I had already lost interest in the software.

There's really not much more to say on Kahoot - it's a education quiz program aimed at a younger audience. I would say that it's almost definitely aimed at an audience too young for Higher Education; I would designate it as being designed more for a pre-teen audience.

In conclusion - I could see myself using Socrative within certain lectures, but not Kahoot, 

References

Kahoot. 2015. Kahoot. [ONLINE] Available at: https://getkahoot.com/tutorials/Kahoot_Tutorials.pdf. [Accessed 13 November 2015].

Socrative. 2015. Socrative. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.socrative.com. [Accessed 13 November 2015].

Microsoft Word within Academia

Often with these posts i'll compare the software in question to a similar piece of software; but in regards to Microsoft Word it somehow seems futile to even compare it to anything else. Sure, there are other document programs like OpenOffice, Wordpad and TextEdit, but Word is such a universal standard that the idea of even considering using something else to put an essay together would be like deciding to release a film on Betamax, or HD-DVD (if anybody still remembers that format?). Since the late 1980s Word has been the main word processing software for computers, having beaten off the likes of WordStar and WordPerfect, and it's become such a household name that many wouldn't even consider that another product exists, especially since the free Word Online was released.

So i'm not going to write a review on Word and how great it is for typing things like letters, CVs etc. Instead i'm going to look at its uses within academia. More precisely i'm going to look at its functions that are useful when creating an academic document. Then again, there are even so many of these that it would take an entire blog dedicated to it to cover them all, so i'll select References and Figures lists for this post.

Referencing

Referencing, also known as the bane of an undergraduate's life, is one of the most important components of any academic work. May students (myself included) spend 3 years of their life developing an extreme distaste for referencing, even to the point of going through the 5 stages of grief:

• Denial - "I don't actually need references, that's just for English Lit. students".
• Anger - "I hate the Harvard system, it's so pointless and complex, I can't see why it's even needed".
• Bargaining - "Why can't I use a different method of referencing? The one with the numbers is much better"
• Depression - "I hate my life, I want to be done with this assignment but i've got about 5 days of referencing to go".
• Acceptance - "I guess it serves a purpose, I suppose i'll just get on with it".

Throughout my undergraduate degree I strived to find a hack to speed up the whole referencing process. We'd obviously been taught how to use the Harvard system properly, with a whole thick handout on how to reference every type of document within the Harvard style. This all seemed far to complex so I searched through the internet to find something to make it easier, or that would do it for me. I remember for the first 2 years I was using A reference generator from Niel's Toolbox

(Neil's Toolbox, 2015), but the method involved filling in the information into a series of boxes, which would then be converted into the text i could paste into my essay. An issue I always had with this was that I would need to reformat the text afterwards, meaning that it didn't actually save me any time. Next I discovered HarvardGenerator.com (Harvard Referencing Generator, 2015) which created it for me from a simple web-link or ISBN number (Incidentally, I used this to create the references for this blog). This made things go a lot quicker, but still left me with formatting issues. It wasn't until my final project of my 3rd year that I discovered the way of doing it within Word, and i've never looked back.

To begin referencing within Word, head to the Document Elements tab

Which will bring up this section on the right end of the toolbar

There's a dropdown box to pick your referencing style - All of the major ones are in there, or you can create your own. The other two parts are to insert the Bibliography section or add a new reference with the Manage section. Clicking the Bibliography button will bring up this menu

Both of these options create a table in the document that can be updated to contain all the works referenced within the file. I always go for the bibliography one. Clicking the Manage button brings up this box:

The one pictured is taken from an essay i'm currently working on, so it already has some sources within it. To add a new one click the + icon at the bottom. Double clicking on one of the listed documents will add an in-text reference to it, which makes it really easy to reference something multiple times.

I've highlighted the additions that double clicking makes to the document.

When you add a new reference, you'll be presented with a box like this:

The drop-down menu at the top lets you pick which type of document you're referencing, which then gives you different options to add. Handily, Word puts a little asterisk next to the most important things to add, so you can easily fill in all the required information.

Here's a screenshot of what the references section at the end of the document will then look like:

Figures

Similar to how the referencing system works, Word also has a Table of Figures function. For those unfamiliar with figures, it's basically a was of labelling an image within a document so it's easier to refer to it in the text. Instead of "as you can see in the image above" you can say "as you can see in Figure 4". You can also use this figure section to insert your referencing and a caption on the image, such as in the image below... or figure 4 ;)

This whole Figure process is rather straightforward. Once an image had been inserted, right click the image and select insert caption:

Which then brings up this menu:

You'll notice that the caption already says Figure 1 in it. This will change depending on how many figures come before it in the document. As an added bonus, Word will also automatically update these numbers if you insert another figure between other figures, so they will always be in numerical order. How handy! Simple add your caption and referencing into this box and hit OK.

After you've inserted a number of images, you're going to want to draw up a list of where these figures are located within the document. This is done in a similar fashion to the Bibliography table, but it is located elsewhere:

After you click this menu, you'll be presented with this option box:

Clicking the Table of Figures tab will allow you to choose your formatting options for the table before hitting OK. Once that's done, you'll get one of these lovely tables:

With a bit of practice the entire process of referencing and figures becomes second nature and you can forget about all the hard work and simply remind Word that you want it to do something for you. Word will become more than just a tool for writing, it'll become your writing assistant!

References

Harvard Referencing Generator. 2015. Harvard Referencing Generator | We love referencing!. [ONLINE] Available at: http://harvardgenerator.com. [Accessed 06 November 2015].

Neil's Toolbox. 2015. Harvard Reference Generator Tool: Harvard/APA Referencing created for essays, reports and dissertations. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/. [Accessed 06 November 2015].

Nearpod

With the current trend, especially in the younger generations (many Millennials and nearly all of Generation Z), to be attached to their phones, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Vine, it can often be a struggle for teachers to maintain the attention of students and learners when they are often subconsciously checking their phones for updates. I've been a victim of it myself; I've actually had to delete the Facebook app from my iPhone because I found myself addicted and unable to tear myself away from it. I once even closed down my Macbook because I was wasting my afternoon on Facebook, only to instinctively pick up my iPad and open the Facebook app. After realising this I put the iPad down, only to realise a few minutes later that i was browsing the app on my phone. The reason I tell this story is because I completely understand why students appear constantly glued to their phones. I've always considered that making students go cold-turkey from their smart-devices is probably a bad idea; they're just as likely to be distracted by the thought of what they're missing out on. Instead, the better idea would be to distract them from one app with another. When I discovered NearPod it seemed as though somebody else had been thinking along those same lines.

At its heart, NearPod is essentially a multi-screen wireless display for presentations; and those other displays are computers, tablets and smartphones, but it's brilliance lies in its other capabilities.

1. Teachers create enriched multimedia presentations with interactive features anywhere using the Cloud-based NearPod Content Tool.
2. In the classroom, teachers share content with the students and control the activity with the NearPod app.
3. Students receive curricular content and submit responses on their mobile devices using the NearPod app on mobile devices or any web browser (PC/Mac).
4. Teachers monitor classroom activity and measure student results on an individual and aggregate basis.

The technology involved allows for each student to have a screen in-front of them that is controlled by the teacher; this means an end to students moving around to see the projector screen or squinting to see it from the back. It also allows dyslexic students to cater for themselves in regards to colour screens etc and for students who struggle with vision to have their own zoom settings on their smart-device. A great thing here that doesn't appear to be promoted in the NearPod marketing strategy is that the students will be able to take a screenshot of the slides at any time they want (this function would make many of my lessons easier as I often find myself standing at the side of a board while the students take photos of it before I wipe it).

Another unmentioned bonus of this is that the students always have the internet at their fingertips, so they can easily switch to a browser app and search for information on a question that you have posed, before switching back to answer it. I used the phrase "switching back to answer it" intentionally there, as that is another of the great functions of NearPod that really help sell it (don't worry, it's free). NearPod has quite a number of interactive functions: You can pose questions to students, ask them multiple choice questions to assess their understanding of something, ask them to fill in a questionnaire, or even get them to input text answers to a question. 

With these answers you are fed with streams of data on percentage who got it correct, the overall score of each student, and the individual answers of each learner. It also possesses the capability to pull up an answer (this can be posted anonymously) and project it onto each students screen, prompting a discussion on it.

The bonus' here are instant assessment and instant feedback on both the student's learning as well as the teacher's delivery. With the application compiling all of the data and giving you the results it certainly takes a lot of the leg-work out of assessing the learning of students. All of this with the added advantage that your students aren't trying to check Twitter the entire time.

NearPod could easily be used in almost every lesson throughout a school-year by simply prompting the students to install the NearPod app on the first day and to use it from there onwards, thus negating the need to book computer labs when such work needs to be done. The issue would be to expect that all students have a smartphone. It's an easy assumption to make based on how adults conceive the younger generation, but it could just as easily single out the poorer students*

This is my first review that has been entirely positive. I've tried to find negative aspects to this software but I have struggled to find anything that I consider a let-down. I'm going to attempt to integrate this into some of my lessons throughout the year, but I think i'll need a few practice sessions on it to make sure it all runs flawlessly, as is the trouble with using new technologies in the classroom.

*I recognise that cost is not the only reason someone wouldn't own a smartphone, but it could be considered the most embarrassing.

Powerpoint Vs Prezi

So... PowerPoint or Prezi. This question of superiority is not unlike the arguments about Windows Vs Mac, or Starbucks Vs Costa, Tesco Vs Asda, United Vs City, or my opinion Vs your wrong one. Some people prefer Prezi, others prefer PowerPoint. I opened by getting that roundup out of the way because this post isn't about which one is better. After seeing a presentation deliver using each one its quite clear that they're designed for different audiences: Prezi for the flashy eye-catching here's-my-idea person, and PowerPoint for the workhorse of the here's-a-ton-of-information person.

To start with, lets get links to the software out of the way. Prezi can be found Here and PowerPoint can be found Here (This is the online version of PowerPoint, and installable version is available by purchasing the MSOffice suite).

Unlike previous blog posts, I quite like both of these pieces of software and will use both of them interchangeably; the decision will be based upon what I am presenting - whether I am being a here's-my-idea person or a here's-a-ton-of-information person*. Each has their owns pros and cons, and I feel that this is the best way to compare these two softwares.
                                                         *I would like to point out that I, personally, am not a serial death-by-PowerPoint-er but occasionally need to throw a lot of information onto walls.

PowerPoint

Pros

• Easy to use (after basic learning)
• Unlimited number of slides
• Comes with many templates
• Varying from these templates is simple
• Creating a template is simple
• Available in most institutions with or without internet
• All required software is in-built
• Reliable

Cons

• Predictable presentations
• limited embedding of digital media (must use links)

Prezi

Pros

• Lots of great looking templates
• Simple to fill-in a template
• Seamless links with digital media
• Available anywhere with internet access
• First use engages a tutorial

Cons

• Templates are complicated to modify (such as adding another slide)
• Extremely time-consuming and complex to create an original presentation
• Requires Flash player

From this list it becomes quite obvious that these two pieces of software contrast each others pros and cons. This further reinforces my point that using each piece of software depends on what you plan to use it for.

As an example to aid this comparison I created a similar presentation on both softwares. I say similar because the difference in their designs and layouts would have made it somewhat pointless to attempt to recreate one within the other. For each version I used a template that was supplied, and made some modifications such as adding new slides and altering the design slightly.



Pasting this Prezi into this blog was extremely simple. Once the Prezi was completed it offered up the embed code on the final page, alongside the options to download it and/or share it through e-mails, social media sites etc.


It took a rather large amount of googling to find out how to embed the PowerPoint version of the presentation into my blog, perhaps a bit more that the average user would bother going through (and I also had to upload my presentation to the online version of PowerPoint), but now that I know how to do it it'll take a few seconds next time.

I've copied the explanation into this blog for the reference of anyone who may be looking to do the same.

When you want to share a presentation or a picture slide show with your friends, family, or colleagues, you can embed it in a web page or blog.

1. After you create your presentation in PowerPoint Online, on the File tab, click Share, and then click Embed.
   
2. To create the HTML code to embed your file in the web page, click Generate .
3. In the Embed box, under Dimensions, select the correct dimensions for the blog or web page.
   
4. Under Embed Code, right-click the code, click Copy, and then click Close.
   NOTE    The HTML embed code you copied is an iframe tag supported in many web authoring environments and blog services.
5. Go to your web page or blog editor, write your post, and then switch to HTML editing.
   TIP    Make sure the embed code you copied is still the most recent item in your clipboard.
6. Press Ctrl + V.
   
   *Taken from support.office.com

For the Prezi version, the modification I made were to add the College of Art logo and add a new slide (in this case it was adding another yellow circle and moving the camera to zoom into it). I was honestly quite surprised at how long this took to do: It took about 20 minutes to add all of the information to the presentation, and then 35 minutes to create the new slide.

For the powerboat version I made the same addition of the College of Art logo to the front page and created the image placeholder in slide 3 from scratch. This whole presentation, including all of the modifications too about 20 minutes.

I would consider myself moderately competent at using both pieces of software so the time taken to create each one is what I would consider to be average for most users. With the PowerPoint taking 20 minutes and the Prezi taking nearly an hour, its not hard to see why most teachers still prefer to use powerpoint - I wouldn't want to be nearly trebling the time I take to create the presentation for every lecture just for the sake of flashy transitions. However, if I were doing a one-off presentation that I wanted to impress people with, I think I would opt to spend the extra time making a Prezi presentation.

So in conclusion - they both make presentations, but not all presentations are the same, and so it's a case of choosing the right tool for the job at hand.

Wordle (and other word cloud generators)

Word clouds are images created from chunks of text that make the more prominent words larger and then create the image based around them.

Rather than attempt to explain what the software does, here's an example of a word cloud created by Wordle: (the text for this word-cloud was taken from my previous Blog entry on Hot Potatoes).

*On a note related to the last post, this word-cloud took about 3 minutes to load as the website kept insisting that I upgrade to the latest version of java, but i'm not gonna start another rant on that.

So from the information I've gathered, the idea of word clouds is to give a representation of the words used in the text and reflect how often the words are used. One might be inclined to think that this would give a good overview of the context of the text, but in this example we see that this is not true. The blog text is a somewhat scathing review of the software, but the word-cloud brings words such as useful, technology, software, quizzes, appropriate, challenge, and better. This list of words, taken completely out of context, do not reflect the content of the text, but merely the words within.

But this isn't going to be another scathing review of a piece of software written in Java, for this one could actually prove useful to me. From the standpoint of an academic, it serves a purpose as a writing tool. Once a report/essay/paper has been written it can be run through a word-cloud generator to see if the same word has been used too many times without need, perhaps leading the writer to reach for a thesaurus more often. Lets see what comes up when I run my MA dissertation through Wordle.

It would appear that I use the words sound and sounds very often and the words piece and scene a large amount of times too (the words figure appears a lot, but since it's an academically referenced document we'll accept that this word will appear a lot anyway). The document describes the making of a work of sonic art, so it's natural that the words sound, piece and scene would appear a lot. But had I used this software when I wrote the paper I may have reworded a few sections where I had overused the word sound.

Another use I would find for this kind of software is based on the fact that the output is pretty. In a previous life I had studied web-design at postgraduate level, so clean but interesting designs are something that appeal to me. I would certainly take an image like this to use as the cover for a handout, or maybe to open a presentation on a heavily discussable topic.

In a teaching sense I can only ponder on ways to force this software into lessons; I can not propose a situation where a word-cloud-generator might be considered invaluable to the lesson, but it would certainly be interesting in some situations. Such a situation might be in the early stages of a class group project where I might have the students write a paragraph describing their thoughts on a subject, and then compiling all of the replies into a word cloud in an effort to draw out the most popular aspects that each students had considered. But I must admit that this feels like a way to force the software into the lesson and doesn't feel like something that would tremendously benefit the learning.

Wordle is not the only word-cloud-generator available for free online; a quick google search led me to an article on Educemic.com where 10 word-cloud-generators are listed. These all perform the same function, but to varying degrees of artistry and efficiency.

To round this post off, here is a final Wordle cloud created using the content of this post:

P.S. Stop making everything using Java.

P.P.S. Dear OSX autocorrect - in this instance wordle is actually a word.

Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes(Available on Windows and OSX HERE) is a piece of software for creating a number of different types of quizzes. The types on offer range from crosswords to fill-in-the-blank questions and general quizzes. It gives options for multiple choice answers and hints, with slots to add additional info on questions.

It's quite a well thought out bit of software and makes making quizzes and crosswords very easy. It also allows you to export the finished product as an html file, so you can open it anywhere... in theory.

Here is where Hot Potatoes starts to fall short: it's made in Java. Anyone who's spent longer than 10 minutes on a computer will know how much of a pain the existence of Java is. A friend of mine who studied computer engineering once cracked a joke about how "the computers in this film are so unrealistic; he's been using it for over 30 seconds and it hasn't asked him to update his Java software". This gripe with Java was punctuated during the lesson where I was introduced to it, where the entire class got caught in the deadlock of "you must update Java" Vs "You don't have the user permissions to update Java". This problem is exacerbated by the fact that browsers such as Chrome and Firefox are dropping support for Java (and lets not mention tablets).

There are alternatives to Hot Potatoes available, such as LearnClick and QuizPress, and these have various pros and cons when compared to Hot Potatoes in regards to price, usability and functionality.

But lets assume that we get Hot Potatoes working just fine and we have no issues with Java, how useful is it in the delivery of a Music Technology course?

I feel the answer to this question lies in how useful a quiz of these types might be to the field. I certainly wouldn't feel like asking students to complete a crossword was appropriate to ask of undergraduate students, and neither would I feel comfortable in asking them to perform another similar type of quiz. Thinking back to my days as an undergraduate I think I would have been quite insulted if my lecturer had asked me to open a browser and try and complete a quiz (unless of course it was the Philips Golden Ear Challenge).

Perhaps I am looking at it wrong. I understand that quizzes such as these can be useful in assessing whether students have retained the information you have given them, I just fail to see a way of applying it within Music Technology that would not be better served by another assessment method.

There was, during my class, the suggestion that quizzes could be useful in assessing the level of students when they begin a course/module and get an overall idea of their knowledge base. This is a fair comment, although personal experience tells me that having a class discussion where everybody talks about their background and we, as a group, go through some topics that students may or may not have knowledge on tends to serve the purpose in a better way. the discussion adds a bonding element to the group as they get to know each other and the students also get to learn snippets of information from the discussions. The method of using quizzes would (i feel) be a far more individual task and wouldn't have the added bonding-bonus that the discussion provides. This is something I feel is very important for Music Technology students as, in this university at least, there are a lot of group and class based projects.

Quizzes do have a place within Music Technology, such as with the Golden Ear Challenge, with AB-tests, and with surveys for research papers, but all of these are serviced in a far superior way by other software.

So, to conclude, Hot Potatoes does what it does, but if thats what you need to then there is better and more up-to-date software available. I also cannot think of a way in which using quizzes would be the most appropriate assessment method at an undergraduate level.

Introduction to this blog

The idea behind this blog is to explore the uses of ICT software in regards to teaching Music Technology. I'll be covering quite a few pieces of software that are used within teaching in general and will evaluate their viability and practicality for use in teaching in my particular field.

This is probably a good time to give a little background info on myself. I studied a BSc(hons) in Music Technology and then went on to study an MA in Creative Sound Design. After that I moved on to becoming Artist in Residence for Music Technology at UWTSD. During that time I started lecturing in the department and continue to do so. I'm currently studying a PGCE/PCET alongside lecturing which has driven me to produce this blog. Music-wise I play in a number of punk and rock bands, and I also produce some experimental/avant-garde tracks. I'm currently on a bit of a minimalism and atmospheric trip, so i'm putting out stuff like this:

So this academic year i've been charged with lecturing in 4 modules: The Studio Engineer, Creative Practice 1, Creative Practice 3, and Spatial Audio. The reason I mention these is that the practicality of the ICT tools i'm reviewing will be mostly in relation to delivering these modules. I have previously delivered modules called Sound Lab (essentially advanced-studio-engineer) and Contextual Studies, which was very much presentations and class discussions.

I'm going to try and keep each bit of software to a separate blog post, but at times I may see fit to combine pieces of software into a single post (such as a Moodle/Blackboard post).