I’m very excited. Sometimes I think that doesn’t happen very often, but actually I do get quite excited by things that will make a major difference to the learning experience, the student experience, even if I then am frustrated by not being able to achieve it. But one should never squash the desire for improvement! I’m excited because I can see a vague light further down the tunnel to engaging in providing richer media for students. I’ve been talking over some project s for next year today, and have some other meetings coming up on this topic. We really want to get the good practice that we identified some time ago actually embedded through this coming year, so there’ll be a whole series of info and posts on audio coming up.
The provision of audio and/or video within your modules is so much easier than it used to be, when we presented on it at BbWorldEurope in 2007. (It will be even easier in the version of Blackboard that we’re testing, but unfortunately ICT can’t install this summer). Video and class capture are only a small part of the potential, using simple audio from everything from introductions in the pre-induction sites to instant feedback on exams, through topic overviews, regular announcements etc can make a big difference to student engagement in your modules.
Here are a few things to whet your appetite. Some great tech talks for teachers (individual talks) and some top podcast series (audio, many for secondary, but don’t let that put you off trying a few). How about browsing some of the iTunesU offerings to think about what you might be able to have captured from your teaching next year (or your guest lecturers, perhaps). Or watch a demo of a really cool (very cool but also very new integration, so sometimes the site is unavailable, still under construction) open source solution that would let you edit video and upload materials to Blackboard direct from your machine.
