Sharing your research in
the Web 2.0 world
Terese Bird tmb10@le.ac.uk
Learning Technologist and SCORE Research Fellow
Institute of Learning Innovation
Graduate School Networked Researcher 27 Feb 2013
www.le.ac.uk

What will we talk about?
• Comparing the formats
• Downloadable
• Text
• Sound
• Video
• Interactive

What are you hoping to learn today?
Photo by shaun wong on Flickr

What format for content?
• It’s usually faster to read than to listen or watch
• A picture paints a thousand words
• Photos can mislead
• More is communicated by voice than just the words
• Video: some things must be shown
• Interactivity encourages exploration

Mobile is important
• In mid-2012, 51% of UK citizens
owned a smartphone (The
Paypers, 2012)
• 14% of adults in Europe owned
tablet in 2012 (Lomas, 2013)
• 30% of UoL Medical School 1st
years own an iPad
Photo by mike cogh on Flickr

What format for content?
Medium Positives Negatives
Text •Speed •Flat
•Pre-existing material •Does not communicate
emotion
Image •Much communicated in •Can be misleading
a single simple package without context
Sound •More communicated by •Not seen as flashy as
voice than just words video?
•Convenient for
multitasking
•Smaller file than video
Video •Most info •Bulky and padded
communicated •Demands attention
•Great for
demonstrating skills

Tbird Top Tips – Overall view
• When I designed for Apple
devices, things worked nicely
on Android as well
• Dropbox is from heaven
• iTunes can be fiddly
• For downloadable items,
consider a Creative Commons
license

Text – ebooks!
• iBooks Author – simple easy, produces .ibook format
• Free with latest Mac OS
• Print to PDF – it’s beautiful
• If you don’t wish to stop there…
• Can take it into Adobe Acrobat Distiller and save as
Word

Take advantage of iBooks Author

Take advantage of iBooks Author
• Free with latest Mac OS
• Saves as pdf and text

Now make an epub
• Copy and paste the text into Pages.
• Add photos.
• Add video if you’re sure the devices can handle it
– iOS: iBooks
– Android: Kobo, Ibis Reader
• Let it flow!
• Tips: Only inline. No floating objects.

Calibre
• Take a Word doc
• Save as html
• Import into Calibre
• Save as epub or mobi
• Pdf to epub doesn’t really work
• Also try epubbud.com

Picture books!
• Just use simple pdf!!!
• Brilliant results!
• I tried everything else
• Maps, drawings

Handy guide to ebooks
File format What device positives negatives
pdf Everything Runs on Does not flow,
everything does not take
advantage of the
device’s power
epub Everything but Flows, takes
Kindle advantage of the
devices’s power
Open source,
somewhat
futureproof
mobi Kindle Kindle is big Kindle only
.ibooks Apple iBooks only Beautiful & easy Apple iBooks only
iPad is market
leader

Share your stories!

Sound
• Why sound?
– Copyright is easier – recorded lectures
– File size is smaller
– Listeners can do something else at the same time
– No bad hair days – staff like it!
– Voice communicates more than the printed word
– Excellent, easy way to close distance

How?
• Audacity
• Garageband
• Window Sound Recorder
• But please save as mp3 (wma and wav are dead)
• And apps!!!...

Audioboo
• Like YouTube for sound
• Record in browser
• Attract comments in browser
• Or simply upload
• RSS out, iTunes out  it’s like magic
• Can send these to Apple if you like
• 5-minute sound limit

Soundcloud
• A bit more socially aware
• The app lets you record so good for students to
record their own stuff and post up
• Very intuitive
• Longer sound limit

Sound threaded discussions
• Wimba Voiceboard
• Voice Thread
• Voxopop

Examples of use
• Audio feedback – increased marks & retention
http://www.le.ac.uk/duckling
• Voice discussions
• Audioboo – Field use – listen to teacher’s description
of a flower, student audio-records her own
comments and findings
• Student can record, using Audioboo for iPhone (don’t
use iPad app yet)

Sound on iTunes U
• Easy to get going
• Oxford example

Share your stories!

Video
• How many of you have made a YouTube video?

YouTube facts
• 10 minute limit
• Great to embed into LMS
• Comments are a mixed blessing
• Good statistics
• Use branding
• Not too easy to download the video
• Good way to convert files to mp4

Vimeo
• Longer video than
YouTube
• Much less junk
• Pretty much just as
easy to do
• Downloadable

How to embed a Vimeo or YouTube video
into your website
• This video on ScreenR will show you:
http://www.screenr.com/fiF7

ScreenR

Recorded lectures
• Record the face or just the slides?
• Streaming or download?
• Automatic enterprise, or one-by-one?
• Huge server space required, very expensive
• Screen capture software: QuickTime, Camtasia,
iShowU

Editing movies – keep it simple
• iMovie – free with Mac – saves as .mov, .mp4
• Windows MovieMaker – but doesn’t save as mp4
• Only go to Final Cut Express if you have to!
– Bleeped out sounds
– Fuzzed out faces
– A cut-out logo floating over the image

Share your stories!
Shall we try it?

Easy interactive
• Clever Powerpoint, save as pdf
• Prezi

Get some helpsheets!
• http://tinyurl.com/mobi-learn-mat

Thank you!!!
• Lomas, N. (2013). Forrester: Tablet Ownership In Europe To Rise 4x In 5 Years — 55% Of
Region’s Online Adults Will Own One By 2017, Up From 14% In 2012 | TechCrunch.
TechCrunch Website. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/20/forrester-tablet-ownership-in-europe-to-rise-4x-in-5-
years-55-of-regions-online-adults-will-own-one-by-2017-up-from-14-in-2012/
• ThePaypers. (2012). The Paypers. Insights in payments. Retrieved January 3, 2013, from
http://www.thepaypers.com/news/mobile-payments/smartphone-adoption-in-uk-reaches-
51-students-lead-the-way/747745-16