Publish and be damned?

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I try very hard to keep this blog fairly light but there are times when I just have to speak out and this is one of them.

There is so much going on about Open Access, publishing, copyright, etc that I felt I must write something about it all. Lots of us get very cross about everything involved with publishing – it’s not surprising. For some academics it is part of their livelihood, for others it is about getting their research recognised in the “correct” way, for most other people it is something really annoying that gets in the way of getting their job done and for some it is an ethical issue that strikes at the core of their beliefs. So not a small issue for any of us. As the title to the blog today implies, this post is all about getting published.

As most of you know I’m a follower of The Thesis Whisperer, otherwise known as Dr Inger Mewburn. Inger has guests on the blog who write some very interesting posts, I have found this current post (To Posh to Promote) and the comments that follow fascinating. Evelyn Tsitas, the author, is known for being outspoken – which isn’t a bad thing. I would love to read her PhD thesis as it’s on werewolves, vampires and the nature of being human (wow I would like to have written on that). Inger’s own post on the PhD2Published blog is also critical of those who will not/cannot engage with modern technologies to promote themselves and their ideas. I agree a lot with most of what Evelyn and Inger say but I think we should give far stronger support to a call for universities to help, people to develop modern communication skills. People should have the opportunity to experience all sorts of communication in university whether it is blogging, micro-blogging, streaming video or 3D communication environments.

Another of my favourite blogs is from the LSE (London School of Economics). I nearly always find their posts to be extremely good reads, as I have this time. This post, The politics of the public eye, by Melonie Fullick, a PhD student at York University, Canada, is excellent. One of the reasons that people do not blog or use other modern communication media is because they are frightened that “bad things” will happen. Melonie’s post acknowledges this fear, discusses it and argues for the support that a good online, social network give. Melonie also identifies the elephant in the room – the question of what universities and academics are here for – aren’t we the ones who are supposed to, ask the difficult questions, be controversial, open up issues for discussion?

Now, to get away from being quite so serious here are a few things I think you will like to look at. First a video from the Open Access publishers BioMed Central. If you are not sure what all this Open Access and research stuff is about this video will help you understand it – a very good summary of OA from the RCUK supported by Springer. Next on my list of interesting things is a little promotion for Snagit. I find this little programme really useful, I use it all the time for all sorts of stuff – have a go. After you have tried out Snagit you can read these two articles from JISC Inform – great stuff, easy to read, very interesting. There is this piece on Learning in Adverse Weather (I just love that title lol), then some future gazing with, Coming soon… Can you see yourself using any of the things they mention? If you haven’t heard of the Khan Academy you should have done. This is their YouTube channel – see if you can find a session here that is useful to you, I bet you will. Finally a slide show for you about Maximising the potential of your network. Most of the slides are self-explanatory so, even though it does not have a voice over, this is one slide show I don’t mind promoting.

Have a lovely Easter

Media and pretty robots :)

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I am meeting with some research students later on today and that rather has me thinking about research type things. So first I’m going to write about some social media and research, some of it might be more interesting to researchers but there’s lots here for everyone else too

I started thinking about social media first of all and that brought me to this site where there is an infographic about how people in HE use social media as part of learning. Have a look, do you use social media like this or do you do something more? Here are two pieces from the BishopBlog, the first is how not to get a research proposal accepted and the second is on how to bury your research. Really good stuff and well written too. The final article is a discussion on the LSE blog about why blogging is important for academics. Sit down with a cup of coffee for this one it’s a bit long but very worth reading.

No for the fun stuff. The first thing I looked at was an article on Google Glasses. There is a great video at the beginning of this article which you must watch. My first reaction was, “why is it just the women doing the shopping”? Just look at the comments following the article – very good As most of you who are regular readers of this blog will know I love robots Asimo, dear pretty little Nao and now this very life-like one from Kokoro – fantastic! Are any of you robot makers? If you are send me a picture of your robot and I’ll put it on the site

I’ve decided that I’m going to try out Issuu, I’ll let you know how I get on

Open(ing) and closing

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Wow, it’s March already! That caught me unawares, the last time I looked it was February and still winter – now it’s spring

Unfortunately Twitter have decided that they are going to kill off TweetDeck. Outrage! I hear you cry – yes indeed. TweetDeck is far better than Twitter’s own interface and, unlike many programmes that offer the same facilities, it is free. However, come the end of May TweetDeck, and all of its apps, will be gone. The best I can suggest in its place is Hootsuite (I used this before I used TweetDeck), I expect it will be the one I will use. This post by Kevin Allen gives you lots of advice about the alternatives available to you. Don’t let your networks disappear – take a look and make up your own minds before May when TweetDeck will start to be shut down.

If you are interested in all sorts of, free, online courses then take a look at this post about 700 of them There are some really good lectures, by well-known speakers listed here. Some are old recordings but still very useful. You are bound to find something helpful.

Open Learning Week starts on Sunday March 10th through to March 17th. All you educationalists out there are sure to be interested in one of the webinars. As this is an international thing you might want to check that the webinar is in a language you speak

Not only is it spring but all sorts of new things are on the horizon. Just look at Leap Motion on the video in this article from Huffington Post. I can’t wait to try one of these

The complex and the simple

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What do I have for you all today? To start with here is an article from the University of East Anglia (UEA) INTO Partnership. Tim Powell-Jones has introduced the use of iPads to the International Business Diploma programme, he is really pleased with the results. Have a read and see if you think iPads would be useful as part of your course.

Paul Williams suggested this next piece from the Guardian to me. I must admit that, like Paul, I get very frustrated by the whole ebook/ejournal divide and Digital Rights Management (DRM), there really should be a better way of dealing with ebooks by now. I’m not too sure that I agree with Jefferson Pooley that we should make everything into Portable Document Format (pdf) it’s really difficult to read. On a semi-serious note I don’t even agree with his statement that, “[M]odern academics don’t read supine, snacking on grapes”. I thought modern academics read anywhere. I suppose part of the problem with pdf is that publishers insist on using stupidly old-fashioned layouts and font-faces. With all the clever digital stuff we do now we really should have a better option. Wolfram brought out Computable Document Format (CDF) ages ago, why do we not see more of that for ebooks.

Now for something completely different This is a site from the Government of South Australia, it has loads of really useful stuff for those people who would like some basic questions answered. This link is to their information about Skype. Do take a look and encourage other people to make use of it too

What can’t you do online?

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I’ve found quite a hotchpotch of things for you all today. In fact I didn’t find the first item, that came via Paul Williams.

This Prezi is from Royal Holloway, University of London. A great resource for research students and undergrads alike. I’m sure you will like it and the funny video near the end

I’m guess by now that everyone knows what Creative Commons Licenses are. The CC organisation gets involved in all sorts of things like the Open Data Hackathon earlier in February and the EasyBib Webinar on Thursday 21st. On the site the time says 4pm ET, for us that means 21:00 hrs (9pm). Even if you don’t join in do go and listen to everyone talking about the Open movement.

And now for something completely different If any of you are interested in Web Analytics, for example finding out more about your own footprint in Twitter or you want to do some research about networking/social media, you might like to have a look at some of these programmes. Some of them are aimed at commercial sites but that is no reason why they cannot prove useful to people in HE. Some are free – check them out:

Open Courses on Web Analytics from University College Falmouth

TwitSprout will collect information and create diagrams from Twitter and Facebook

Netlytic will find and automatically analysis and discovery social networks from electronic communication such as emails, forums, blogs and chats.

followerwonk will find out all about your own Twitter account

There are lots more but I think the above will give you some insight into the sort of thing that can be done

Finally something which I think is charming. It shows just how comfortable we are all becoming with technology, the children in this post are not just Digitally Literate they are Digitally Fluent

Why technology?

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Why technology – why want it, why use it, why create it? Technology basically means just anything man-made, now-a-days it tends to mean the most modern man-made things. I’ve found a few things to share with you that, for me, answer the questions I just posed at the beginning of this paragraph.

This article in the Wall Street Journal by Katherine Rosman is a good example. Katherine writes about an online company called Craftsy, this company sells education in all sorts of crafts. You can learn about “Advanced Fondant Techniques,” “Explorations in Brioche Knitting,” “Mastering Lace Shawls”, “Handcrafted Sugar Flowers” and “Stupendous Stitching” and all for only $20-50. People like to learn, they like to learn how to do things, even very much more expensive courses are successful online. Do read the article it’s fascinating – may be you’ll sign up for one of the classes All joking aside though, this article answers so many questions that we might ask about modern technologies – people are using technology to save money, to make money, to have fun, to replace classes that cancelled due to the current financial climate, to help them deal with loneliness and frustration, in fact for all sorts of reasons.

This next example is particularly interesting for me as it is about how to get helpful information to people quickly – rather like the University’s QuileR site (see the link in our blog roll). The post in the Fast Company blog is actually about how to help the “average” computer user to know how to use their computers more efficiently and, at the end of the post, there are links to some great videos from Google about how to do things. Technology provides not only the means to help people but to do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Great reasons for using modern technologies.

I really like the Retronaut site, they have a wonderful collection of images and do some very clever things with them – things that we just would not be able to do without these modern technologies. The Retronaut site provides us with insights that would not normally be available to us. The images of the WWI soldiers on the particular page I’ve linked to are also an example of things we would not normally have seen.

This page from Edinburgh University of Undergraduate students’ advice to first year students is another example of something we would never have seen before. The ordinary person just did not get an opportunity to make their voices heard. In the past we would never have heard from individual Undergraduates like this, in fact you probably wouldn’t have heard from Undergraduates at all I rather thought that some students here would like to have a go at this sort of thing. If you do, just get in touch with me and I’ll arrange it all.

Socio-Edu Media?

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As most of you know I also run the University Scoop.it site called Calling All Lecturers (it’s open to everyone, it’s just more focused on education). This morning I’ve been having a look at some of the other scoop.it sites that I follow and found some things that I’d like to share with you.

Susan Bainbridge’s scoop.it The 21st Century is always very interesting. From there I picked up on the use of Pinterest in the classroom and I wondered if any of you use Pinterest for your academic work at all. Do you use it to keep track of stuff you find on the web so you can share it with others? Do you create your own things (infographics, mindmaps) about your studies and Pin them? This infographic was on AvatarGeneration where I then found the next item I want to share.

This is probably not as reliable as Gartner but this infographic is a vision of the future of educational technology – all of you are using some of the things mentioned. Do you think this view of the future is possible or is it just pie in the sky?

ok, enough of the heavy stuff let’s see what else I can find.

Now this really looks good, they claim that DisplayNote is, “more than just your normal remote desktop application” I wonder if it is real or a scam? DisplayNote an app that could really be of use in a lecture hall or conference – has anyone tried it yet? Students can save presentations to their own devices and make their own notes on them. Students can also send private messages to one another and the lecturer on the same system. No more need for lecturers to print handouts – I’m must have try! I think it is only in Beta version at the moment but they claim that this App can be used by any platform to present and receive from a mobile device – I can’t wait to use it Do go and look at their video (link above) and their “About” page.

That will have to be all for now but I’ll find something else to bring you soon

Some good reads with a cup of cocoa :)

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What ghastly weather! Now is the time when you should be tucked up with a good book, a mug of cocoa and a roaring fire. Not quite what I have at this very moment but I do have lots of goodies for you to read on your iPad or hot PC

The first App I have for you is sweet – Piktochart provides you with everything you need to make your own infographics and it’s really, really simple, hurrah! I like simple and I like it even better when it is either free or has a good financial offer for those in education and Piktochart has both – good yeh?

The next thingy I have is for those of you who are a little more experienced with computers and have a web site of your own. Google Chart Tools is in the Google Developers area of their site. Take a look then, copy the code, paste it into your web site and, if you want, run the data from your database. Presto you have your own data chart on your own web site and it changes as your data changes!

Now I usually try to find three or four things to put on the blog for you so what else is there that might tickle your fancy on this nasty, cold, wet night.

Oh yes, Introduction to Blogging. I rather like this as I think it will save me time when people say, why on earth should I blog. This little infographic very neatly explains just why blogging is useful and how it develops into something special. It does all that without making any real effort – nice

Now for something a little more serious. If you or a friend have any problems with reading or writing using modern technologies have a look at this web page. This web site has a really long title but it is all about supporting Universal Access. All the Apps mentioned are for iPad or iPhone and most of them are free or are very, very cheap. I’ve looked at them and some I think can be useful, others not so much. There is also a link to a page with the same type of Apps but for PCs and Macs, just in case you do not have a mobile device.

As a final and very serious note, if you are interested in the wider issue of Universal Access, you might like to look at this site too.

A little behind is better than more :)

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Arrrgh – look at the time! I’m all behind today (don’t you dare say anything about the size of my behind)!

I have quite a lot I could give you today but I only have a little time so let me see what I think is best.

For those researchers out there who read the blog, if you haven’t heard about ResearchGate before, you should have done Pop off to the site and go and collaborate with all the other lovely researchers. You might also like to look at this article from Nature about social media for researchers (and PhD students). Whilst I have your attention you ought to look at DEVONthink too. Devon think can also be very useful to all you other students so go and get stuck in to something that will really help you cleverly manage all your documents.

For some of you who are more interested in technology and writing your own web site go and download Google Goggles – it’s great fun.

What a start to the week – enjoy yourselves

From printing to reading

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ok everyone let’s see what I have managed to find today.

If you are into gadgets you might have already heard of 3D printing but I still think it’s worth exploring. If you have never heard about 3D printing before, here is a BBC video about it. I think this stuff is fantastic, especially as the technology is reducing in price very quickly – I bet that in three years time it will be the thing every student wants to come to Uni with Just imagine what you could make with it – no, may be I shouldn’t ask you that!

I know this isn’t about technology but I just had to include this as it is one of my pet hates. Britain and America have been described as, “two nations divided by the same language”. For those of you who get confused by constantly seeing American spelling, or if you just want a laugh, here is a little help from the Online College.

I found this on the Technology for Teachers site but I think that it could be very useful for students too. Similar to Storify but just for pics is Pixntell. This would be a great tool for giving feedback in class (or in the VLE) on stuff you have had to find – much less boring than a written paper or PowerPoint.

Now then this is American but there are going to be lots of books and articles you want to read that are printed in America – so take notice. This next piece I found is all about how to find online, digital books, articles, papers from Libraries all over America and they are FREE! There is academic stuff and recreational reading so go and enjoy yourselves

So much to do …

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A competition, an online conference and even more interesting stuff today ok let’s look at the competition first.

On Monday I was in Birmingham at Daden Ltd, they create all sorts of virtual, immersive reality sort of stuff. One of the programmes they have created is an “immersive data visualisation application” called Datascape. Some of the data they showed me was really rather cute – it was so much easier to understand than seen as a flat or simple, non-immersive 3D diagram. Any way, they have a competition for people to produce the, “best immersive 3D visualisation” of their own data. You can download the Community Edition of Datascape for free so of you go all you researchers, mathematicians and psychologists get going with your data!

For those of you interested in dyslexia I found a really good site about it called dislexiawayofthinking. There is loads of information and support on this site – there are videos, an ebook, webinars, tests, information about helpful apps, you can follow them on Twitter and join the group. Have a look it’s a really, really useful site.

There’s a fantastic conference on 8th to 9th of November. It’s at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark but don’t worry you can follow it and join in, all online! The conference is about New Media and the Public Sphere – how are all these new communication technologies affecting our lives, is it changing our basic understanding and conception of “the public”, is there a still a definite divide between the public and the private? Go and add your four penny-worth to the conference – the Twitter hashtag is #NMPS2012. Go on – have a bit of fun

Try Ginger it is fantastic for proof reading! It is soooo very difficult to check text when you are tired and you have been reading each version over and over again. Even if you use the Microsoft spell checker you can’t be sure if it’s right. Coming to the rescue is Ginger – tra daa! A great tool for doing your proof reading – but do try to learn from it as it corrects your dreadful grammar

Here is a little bit of fun to end with. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks smashing. Xtranormal is a programme that will create a video from your words. Have a go and see if you can make something really funny

Stimulate your brain :)

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Mustn’t forget to put in a title today I just get so excited by some of the things I find for you that I completely forget simple things like titles!

Today I have found something that I think is a really good idea. Don’t know about you but I often get a sort of writers (or even thinkers) block, especially first thing in the morning, so it’s great to find something that can deal with that. There is a site called, 750words.com where you can go and write 750 words on anything. It’s all completely private, it’s not like a blog or Twitter. It just helps you to get all the morning, muddled, mess out of your brain so you can get going properly – you might even find the answer to some of the questions you have. Great!

I also have a couple of research things for you. You don’t have to be doing your PhD to look at these they are very useful even if you are just beginning. I’ve mention Mendeley and Zotero before and if you get along ok with those that’s fine but different people have different needs and I thought you might like to try Quiqqa. All of these programmes do similar things in slightly different ways – they manage your papers, your references, help you connect with other people interested in the same/similar subjects – all in all very helpful stuff.

Finally I must give my friend’s new book a plug. If you’re not sure about how or when to use social media in your research/academic work then have a look at this book written by Shailey Minocha and Marian Petre and published by Vitae Innovate, the research organisation. The title is a bit posh, “Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors Digital technologies for research dialogues” but it has lots of good advice in it – go on have a look

Whoops! No title

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I’ve found a lot of interesting things out on the metasphere today – I’ll just pass on a few of them here.

For all the new people who joined us on Monday I thought I’d provide a link to something helpful – well I think it’s helpful. This comes from the site of the Information Commissioners Office (huh bet you didn’t know we had one of those did you). The site has some interesting stuff on it so bookmark/favourite it when you get there. This little nugget is about personal safety online, not too long, not preachy and gives basic, sensible advice.

I like this piece of news from ISPR, “uGenius replaces bank tellers with ‘PAT’ (personal assisted teller) technology” but just how long will it be until we don’t have bank tellers at our local bank at all? Most of my banking is done online, in fact I can’t remember the last time I used a bank teller. How about you?

I’d really like to recommend Doug Belshaw’s blog. Doug is a very sensible person when it comes to digital technologies, he’s not over the top but he doesn’t put them down when it’s not necessary. Go and have a look I’m sure you’ll like some of the stuff he talks about.

I just could not resist giving you a link to this video. What a great way of meeting people – someone should really start it off here. It is obviously what QR codes were made for

Here we are again …

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Hello everyone! Here we all are again being very, very busy in Freshers Week. All the oldies settled back in last week and are now back in study mode, whilst everyone new to this game is wandering around looking slightly dazed Welcome to you all whether you are returning or have just arrived!

First of all I have a tip for anyone having difficulty finding the login page for the UW wireless network. Just type in bsc2.worc.ac.uk if you are on the St John’s campus or bsc4.worc.ac.uk if you are on City campus and that should take you straight to the login page. Do let me know if you have any problems at all.

As it’s a special day I have five items for you. The first is about E-skills; whether you are just interested in doing things with your computer or you are ICT student this site has lots of things to try out. The next is another thing to play with or you could use it as a different presentation device. The site is GoAnimate! go and try your hand at creating animated videos.

The next two are a little more serious. The web2rights.com contains lots of information about IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) which can help you understand all about Referencing for when you do your assignments. Something more to help with your assignments is the Learn Higher site on Academic Writing. There’s loads on this site so do check it out.

Hope you’ve all had a great day today

Happiness is a warm computer

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I hope you are all prepared for tomorrow – it is supposed to be very, very wet! Get your sou’wester and galoshes out folks

Just to make you feel really cheerful I bring you a post from The Thesis Whisperer. It’s all about getting in the doldrums when you are working on your thesis but I think the principles can be applied to dissertations too – it’s called The Valley of Shit. Not a very inspiring title but it might just help you get that paper finished rather than throwing up your hands in despair and walking out of the University

As I am sure you all know, I am very interested in the use of technology in education, particularly augmented reality and virtual reality. For those of you interested in this sort of thing I thought I’d include a link to a blog I found recently called, Mariis’ explorations of 3D remediation. The post that caught my eye was a discussion on whether Virtual Worlds were games or not – I support the idea that they are communication devices and therefore not games. If you are interested in the academic side of Virtual Worlds and such like you will find this blog and the links from it rather interesting. I found Women Academics in Virtual Environments, a useful ning for getting us girls together

Now just a few things to look at for when the sun has come out again and you can go out and play How about trying out augmented reality with Junaio? Try out some of the augmented reality already created for you or download the metaio Creator tool and create some of your own. If that doesn’t float your boat how about turning your iPad or iPhone into a remote control and track pad using Mobile Mouse, if you are not already a couch potato this might make you into one – so beware If you really can’t be bothered with all that and just want to relax with a good book you might prefer this instead. Try out Free Books, download the app and search away to your heart’s content.

Hope you all have a lovely wet Thursday