As part of our work on the JISC funded Coeducate Project, Phil Beauvoir has developed a ‘blank canvas’ feature as an addition to the Archi modelling tool that offers open source software for Archimate modelling. A significant generic application of the canvas tool ( fully editable and lockable / un-lockable making them very powerful and [...]
Cybernetic explanations are based on a systems analytical approach and are concerned with feedback loops between a system and its environment. The Viable System Model developed by Stafford Beer had at its heart the notion of real time feedback loops that would enable an operation to make corrections to match the requirement of its environment. [...]
This short 10 minute interview is with Dai Griffiths. The purpose was to try and get a relatively simple explanation of what widgets (and in particular those using the Wookie server) might mean for educationalists – what will they be able to do in the future that they can’t easily do now!
In sourcing material for our open learning project with Shaanxi Normal University, we found a useful resource on YouTube of David Wiley making a TED presentation. Using YouTube Cations & Subtitles for an initial transcription (most usefully it automates the time stamps for synchronisation with the video) followed up by a manual check, we have [...]
A project we are currently working on with Shaanxi Normal University is taking a participative action research approach to developing a course with Masters level students working in the field of education technology. Although primarily using asynchronous learning approaches, we had our first synchronous session this week and this is just the start of us [...]
For the past three months we have had access to an iPad (loaned from work). Our daughter Lily is three years old and it is her use of the iPad that most interests me. We haven’t bought many apps, mostly using Video to access movies (Shaun the Sheep, Paddington, etc.) and Doodle which is a [...]
Over the past few months we have been thinking about how we can identify and embed innovations at the University of Bolton, taking a sociotechnical perspective and including new technology, processes ways of working. To help us with this we have begun to use the Gartner STREET (Scan, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelise, Transfer) process (this [...]
Over on the Coeducate project blog I have posted about open learning as a business model for the UoB. The main idea is illustrated by the diagram below where I have attempted to encapsulate the key dimensions of the model. I think the key question I struggle with, however, is whether HEI are capable of [...]
Reading the website about this new BBC project I couldn’t help but think back to the Ultralab project ‘Every Object Tells a Story‘ with the Victoria and Albert Museum back in 2004. Not a project I worked on myself, but the parallels with the BBC are obvious, particularly the ability to ‘add an object’ with [...]
Great as BBC iPlayer is, I like many mac users had struggled when using Firefox to download programmes. For some reason, after each download I was prompted to install the iPlayer desktop application again, but in doing so was still only able to download a single programme before being stick in the loop again. The [...]
