1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Interacting With Users, Remote In Time And Space: A Presentation From UKOLN Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath UK Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is supported by: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/solstice-2006/ About The Speaker Brian Kelly: Funded by JISC and MLA to advise HE/FE & cultural heritage sectors on Web technologies, standards & best practices Based at UKOLN, University of Bath About The Speaker Brian Kelly: Funded by JISC and MLA to advise HE/FE & cultural heritage sectors on Web technologies, standards & best practices Based at UKOLN, University of Bath This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 licence (but note caveat)

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Collaborative Web 2.0 Technologies Examples of Web 2.0 collaborative technologies: Blogs – user-focussed Web content creation (usually with calendar metaphor) Wikis – collaborative Web-based authoring Instant messaging – e.g. MSN Messenger, Jabber, IRC, … VoIP (Voice over IP) – e.g. Skype Podcasts Example of the Web 2.0 culture: The network as the platform A willingness to experiment A culture of openness (e.g. Creative Commons licences, open source software, …)

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 Using Such Technologies We can use the technologies to support learning: Blogs: so students to reflect on their (and their peers) learning Wikis: so students can work collaboratively, whilst avoiding difficult-to-use tools IM, VoIP: so students can easily communicate with each other, with support staff, etc. Podcasts: so students can create reports, etc. using new medium Lecturers can be using the technologies in similar ways: Delivering learning content Engaging with students Exploring benefits and limitations of the technologies

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Barriers To Their Use There are various barriers to use of the technologies: IT Services barrier (not addressed here) Inertia Fears Lack of training, understanding, … Concerns over funding and resourcing … Google for "IT Services help or hindrance" to find relevant talk at UCISA conference

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Addressing The Barriers This presentation is intended as an example of how such barriers can be addressed: Use of Skype is planned: to demonstrate an example of distance collaboration; possible accessibility benefits; … A recording of the talk is available as an MP3 file and a Podcast: to demonstrate ease of creating such resources A live instant messaging channel is planned: to demonstrate benefits of real-time chat for local and participants Use of PowerPoint to provide an annotated set of links, to allow for interactive use A fall-back position, in case of problems (a pre- recorded talk and SMIL presentation)

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Conclusions To conclude: Web 2.0 collaborative technologies are available for use in teaching & learning They can provide a variety of benefits …. … but will also have limitations We'll need to gain experiences in their use Conferences such as SOLSTICE 2006 provide a valuable opportunity for gaining experiences Note that resources mentioned in this talk are tagged in del.icio.us with solstice-2006-05 tag Also note that many of these issues will be addressed at the 10 th Institutional Web Management Workshop, at Bath University on 14-16 June (Google for IWMW 2006)