It’s all chchchchanges :)

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On my travels the other day I found the Historypin. If you are either into history or photography go and have a look, it’s a sort of Pinterest mixed with Retronaut and Google maps – really good fun.

As usual I’ve been keeping an eye open for what other folks are doing – if it might be of any interest to us here at the Uni, I grab it. I think this article from the Journal of Medical Internet Research might interest some of you – an article about the relationship of citations of a research paper can be predicted by Tweets about the paper – “Highly tweeted articles were 11 times more likely to be highly cited“. So quick, go and get your friends to Tweet about that article you just had published

On the same (slightly connected) subject of medicine, there is an awful lot of augmented and virtual reality used in healthcare. I like this new programme, called ProtoSphere, by the ProtonMedia company from Pennsylvania. As the video at the bottom of the page shows, it’s rather like a very limited, medics only version of a Virtual World

In a similar way there is also ARCH-Virtual: architecture and design in virtual worlds – not architecture and design for virtual worlds but using a virtual world for corporeal world work. Take a look at the three examples given on this page and take a look at their homepage. Fantastic for all sorts of design work whether it’s buildings, science or furniture.

It all goes to show just how quickly the way we work, learn and live is changing so quickly!

Aggression and citations

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Ummm, so many interesting things, where should I start. Oh yes, let’s do the really serious stuff first.

This video on YouTube by Richard Bacon from the BBC gives you lots to think about. Richard has been targeted by a cyber bully and wants to find him so he can talk to him face to face. Richard also talks to some other people who have bullied online. What do you think – is this type of behaviour ok or should we cyber-writers make the bullies sit up and take notice of, what is usually, the silent majority.

Something for the historians out there. 2014 will be the centenary of World War One and there’s loads of stuff happening on the web. This site is run by University of Oxford in collaboration with JISC. If you have something you’d like to contribute to the site why not contact them (details on the web site).

Finally another JISC funded project, this time at University of Bristol. The m-biblio Project aim is to create an app that allows “smart phones to be used for the recording and organisation of bibliographic information for students within a library context“. See if you agree with some of the comments the Bristol students have made. If you have a new idea add your comment here

Ways of communicating

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I don’t know how much all of you are into metadata but I just had to bring you this smashing little video from some guys at Ghent University. These three guys make metadata sound really interesting (well of course it is).

Now this is one for our budding researchers doing their PhDs. I keep trying to convince them that they have to get out there and get their names and their research known. This short but sweet post is from the Mobilize this! blog which is, “A research impact blog from Canada’s knowledge mobilization network”. I just have one question – how on earth do you keep 70 people in a pub sober enough to have a discussion?!

Carrying on with our theme of Communication for this post. JISC fund lots of interesting things, some of the funding comes under the heading of Digitisation and Content. One of the things JISC funds, which comes under e-Content 2011, is the Cataloguing of Kays (Body Image in 100 Years of Kays Worcester) which has nurtured the World of Kays website in the bosom of the ILS family. Go and have your say on the Your stories page and upload a pic of your granny in her new frock

You see my little chickadees you have to get out there and get noticed

What are people up too!

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Had a really interesting meeting with a friend in the Charles Hastings Building on UW City Campus. She is working on the museum (not sure what the name will be yet) in the old infirmary building, it looks like it will be really interesting. We were talking about the use of QR codes as they will be used in the museum for people to follow-up on some of the exhibits. I found this post by Michael Bromby, Reader in Law at Glasgow University. Michael uses QR codes in his teaching but for me it all seems a bit ordinary. I’ve tried linking by QR directly to YouTube which was fun though and I think students would like to be able to access podcasts by QR. You might like to look at this “Getting Started Guide” from University of Bath that Michael talks about. It’s a bit old (2008) but is enough to get you started. I prefer ihop for creating code though as it is very, very simple to use. Take a look at this Prezi presentation which might give you some inspiration. Let me know what you use QR codes for and whether they are successful or not.

Don’t know if any of you have heard of the DUCKLING project from Leicester University. The project is all about how to provide materials and support for distance learning students. They have come up with some really good ideas though which could just as easily be applied to students in the university or for students on Earn as you Learn. Do have a look at the video on the JISC Design Studio page above, I’m sure you will find it very interesting.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing with a programme called Scoopit (http://www.scoop.it/). It is a really quick way of creating access to interesting web sites. A lecturer might use this for their students but it would also be a great way for students to support one another. Anything that has a url can be scooped and you can add your own text too. You can add comments and/or re-scoop a site from someone else. There are a number of other things you can do as a Scoopit community but I haven’t had time to explore those yet. Why don’t you have a look and let me know how you get on.

Have a good weekend and I’ll see you all next week

So many interesting things

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There are lots going on everywhere copyright, online learning, OER, etc; I don’t know where to start. I did say yesterday that I would write about the Bloomsbury Conference a little more, so I’ll do that first.

I did want to tell you about Tales of Things, something that Claire Ross spoke about. Have a look at the pictures and stories on the site – create your own picture and story and add it to the others. A marvellous way of preserving our memories about things that would never normally get into a museum or the history books.

You must also go and look at Zooniverse – Real Science Online. It’s another networking site you can join. There are loads of projects they are running, just pick one and join in. My favourite is Old Weather. The data for Old Weather comes from the logbooks from Royal Navy ships during the First World War. Lots of interesting stuff from natural sciences to social sciences – everyone should be able to find something that interests them.

Have to go to a meeting now so I’ll catch up with everything else tomorrow.