Saturday 8 February 2014

Reading materials and Learning resources on the H800

The OU provides a broad and varied range of online resources for the H800: Technology-enhanced learning: practices and debates as you can probably imagine. 

By default Chrome OS does not support epub (ereader files) or .mobi (kindle reader files) However I like the idea of being able to read all the files across my range of mobile devices. This is where epub files become really useful in my opinion. In order to keep things as simple and in the cloud as possible I have been looking at how to keep things Chrome so that I can move between different machines and devices but only have one copy of the files. 

So after a little research I found Readium, a chrome browser app. 



In Chrome OS you can upload the files to your Google Drive and then link directly to them. The reader itself is highly configurable as with most ereaders. I would highly recommend you check it out. 

Update - Readium do not support .mobi files unfortunately.


Chrome OS and first stumbling block.

So as part of my course I am supposed to log into OULive a collaborative discussion space that allows students and staff to have live chats. Great I thought! I bought myself a USB Headset clicked on the link and it downloaded a .jlnp (a Java Network Launch Protocol) file, double clicked on it and Chrome does not Support this file type.  So off I went digging for more information.

OU Live is essential Blackboard Collaborate a Java Based system that often required a launcher app. Chrome OS does not and is very unlikely to support Java in the future as it is pushing for the full adoption of the HTML 5 standard and other open standards.

So unfortunately for me I will have to use my Mac to drop in to the OU Live chat. It's a shame really as I wanted see if I could use open systems to undertake the course.

From an educational and open context what are my options. I could use the chat facility on Moodle, If students all had an Android tablet or the Chrome Web browser or Chrome OS on a chromebook or chromebox then Google Hangouts would be a possibility. It supports up to 9 people at a time and I would anticipate that 9 people talking would be more that enough for a group and would definitely need coordinating. Having chrome as a web browser usually means that you have a google ID/mail account as does having an Android phone/tablet so this may be a possibility.

Skype is multi-platform (except chrome OS) and works on Windows, Mac and Linux environments without too many problems.

If an institution is locked into a Mac or iOS platform then iMessage is a real strong alternative but it requires an Apple ID.

Facebook may and the video messaging may also be a viable solution.

I will log into my OU Live session next week and report back.

I'm going online..I may be sometime...

I have been thinking about this for sometime now and I have decided to take the plunge.


As my masters programme is all about Online and Distance Education I decided that I am going to practically investigate if I stay online and not rely on desktop based, Mac, PC or Linux based applications and try to live in the could as it were. At my place of work (Leeds College of Art) we use Moodle as our VLE, we call it eStudio to avoid any brand issues and we see it as a virtual extension of our actual studios (so e could be interpreted as electronic or extension, either way I don't mind). We use Google education apps for our student email and calendars which work well, however we haven't really pushed the rest of the cloud apps. Something I would like to pursue further.

So I have bought myself an Acer C720 Chromebook, got 100gb of free cloud drive space for two years and we shall see what happens....

The obligatory 'Hello World' post.

Well here it is 'Hello World'. The very first post on my new blog, hopefully this one will last slightly longer than some of my previous ones. 

The focus of this blog will primarily revolve around educational pedagogy and it the links with art and design practice. Hopefully it will explore some of the debates around how educators can use technology within their delivery within a creative studio environment. The bulk of the commentary and discussion will stem from my recent re-enrolment onto the Open University MA in Online and Distance Education. I enrolled on this course several years ago but life and children and moving house got in the way of everything, no regrets but far too many things to juggle. So I am back to studying for myself again and on the second year of three of my MA programme. 

Feel free to comment on any future posts.