Archive for the ‘OEB2012’ Category

Sounds of the Bazaar: Question Time at OEB 2012

December 20th, 2012 by Dirk Stieglitz

We had great multimedia fun at Online Educa Berlin. Besides presenting two of our by now traditional live radio programmes from the main bar at the conference, we also staged a Question time session. This offers a topical debate following the popular BBC Radio 4 format for sharp analysis, up-to-date knowledge, insights and a fresh view on education 2.0.

Participants (the audience) were invited to put forward questions to a panel for discussion.

The programme was chaired by Graham Attwell. The panel members were:

Paul Glader, WiredAcademic LLC, Germany

Kirsten Winkler, EDUKWEST, France

Melanie Campbell, Bau ABC Rostrup, Germany

Nick Kearney, Andamio Education and Technology, Spain

Impressions and trends from Online Educa Berlin

December 5th, 2012 by Graham Attwell

Online Educa Berlin was hectic for us. We produced two 40 minute magazine radio programmes from the main bar at the conference, a 40  minute Question Time radio programme and organised a symposium around the recently launched Learning layers project. We will get posts up with recordings of the radio and presentations from the symposium in the next couple of days.

And we still found time to talk to friends new and old. Online Educa Berlin is a great meeting place, a chance to catch up on the latest personal and work related news and gossip from the educational technology community worldwide.

And it is also a good place to pick up on the emerging debates and on the latest in technology. In the conference, somewhat unsurprisingly, all the buzz was around massive Open Online Courses. And despite a recognition of the potential benefits in extending access to education, most delegates I spoke to were fairly dubious of the benefits of the emergent so called xMOOC model. Firstly it was hard to see a viable business model behind the new MOOCs, other than selling accreditation. And many delegates were sceptical about the pedagogic model underpinning the xMOOCs from the likes of Coursera. One person said to me that MOOCs are taking us backward ten years in pedagogic approaches to using technology for learning.

it was encouraging to see the growing strength of the business strand at the conference and an increased focus on work based learning.

The exhibition at Online Educa Berlin always provides a good snapshot of trends. Whilst there are a number of stands from national organisations and form projects most of the 90 odd exhibition stands are from vendors and companies, big and small. Whilst a few years ago the largest stands were usually organisations like the UK Jisc and Surf from the Netherlands  this year continued on last years trend of Middle East countries dominated the larger exhibitions pace. Last year Saudi Arabia took centre stage, this year is was EgyptOn, although it was a little hard to see what their stand was about, other than perhaps announcing their arrival in the community.

Last year was the year of the interactive Whiteboard. This year I did not see one stand promoting whiteboards! Trends change fast. This year was the year of the video with perhaps as many as 15 per cent of stands featuring video products, hardware and software. Having said that it was a little difficult to see the benefits of many of these commercial offerings. OK, they packaged features nicely. But I didn’t really see anything which couldn’t be done with everyday social software or consumer applications. And although there was some general feeling that we are moving towards a more visual approach to learning, rather than the previous domination of text, there were only limited examples of pedagogic innovation in using video.

Although the  usual VLE vendors were present as always, there was perhaps a feeling that their finest days are over. And it was surprising that there were few vendors focusing on mobile learning, although plenty of iPad apps were on display.

I should add I suppose that this is not based on any scientific enquiry but just is an impressionistic view of what was going on. But it is probably as reliable in predicting trends than the usual rush of end of year predictions to which we are about to be subjected.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who came on our radio shows and with whom we enjoyed a natter. And to those we missed, lets hope we get a chance to meet up next year.

Sounds of the Bazaar live from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012 (2)

December 3rd, 2012 by Dirk Stieglitz

Here is the podcast version of our second live internet radio show from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012. Details about people and programme will follow.

The music we played came from the album “Elixir” by “The TenGooz“. This and more you find on the great music website Jamendo.com. And as pre-programme music we had some great tracks from good old Woody Guthrie.

Sounds of the Bazaar live from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012 (1)

November 29th, 2012 by Dirk Stieglitz

Here is the podcast version of our first live internet radio show from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012. Details about people and programme will follow.

The music we played come from the album “Elixir” by “The TenGooz“. This and more you find on the great music website Jamendo.com.

Join us in Berlin

November 15th, 2012 by Graham Attwell

Pontydysgu staff are busy planning their annual outing to Online Educa Berlin. And as well as our usual radio shows, we have organised a symposium for the recently launched Learning Layers project. If you are coming to Berlin we would love to meet up with you. Better still, come and discuss your ideas on one of our radio programmes. And if you can’t make it to Berlin you can still catch a flavour of the conference through our daily Sounds of the Bazaar magazine programmes and our Question Time panel show.

Here are the details.

Thursday November 29

Time: 16:30 to 17:30 CET

Location: Charlottenburg III

Question Time

Join Graham Attwell in a topical debate which follows the popular BBC Radio 4 format for sharp analysis, up-to-date knowledge, insight and a fresh view on education 2.0. Please send your questions to these speakers in advance to QuestionTime [at] OEB [dot] com

The panel for this session is:

  • Paul Glader – Wiredacademic.com and European Journalism Fellow at Frei Universitat in Berlin.
  • Kirsten Winkler – educational blogger
  • Melanie Campbell – Bau ABC
  • Nick Kearny – Andamio Education and Technology

You can listen to this session live on Internet radio from 1645 CET at http://uk2.internet-radio.com:31022/live.m3u

The stream will open in your MP3 player of choice

Sounds of the Bazaar

“Sounds of the Bazaar” broadcaster Graham Attwell will host a forty minute show live from OEB on Thursday and Friday at 11:00. Each show will feature a mix of interviews with speakers and live debates on issues emerging from the conference. The programmes will be streamed live and can be tuned into using any MP3 application at http://uk2.internet-radio.com:31022/live.m3u

They will also be available after the conference as a podcast at www.online-educa/audio-video

Friday 30 November

Time: 11.45 – 1300

Location: Tegel

Symposium

Using Technology for Informal Learning and knowledge Sharing in Small and Medium Enterprises

This session, around the EU Learning layers project, will challenge our existing thinking about building the skills which are critical for small business success. It will uncover ideas to engage busy business managers and improve performance.

Speakers:

  • Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu
  • Ludger Deitmer, ITB, University of Bremen
  • Melanie Campbell, Bau ABC
  • Tobias Funke, Agentur für nachhaltiges Bauen

If you would like to come on one of the radio shows – or just meet up for a chat and a beer – email or skype Graham Attwell – graham10 [at] mac [dot] com

 

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