Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Ways to produce bespoke video resources

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Sarah Aynsley

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Medicine

Abstract: Video use in our student population has soared in popularity over the years and there have been benefits to using videos identified in regards to teaching and learning. However just capturing a lecture as a recording doesn't always fulfill the needs of the students or topic, instead I use three different approaches to produce short custom video animations to support learning including bespoke video animations, Snagit capture of images and lecture snippets and hand drawn responses to student questions captured as short video responses. This session will introduce you to these three different approaches how they work and what you could use them for.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Why diversity in tech matters: A personal journey of using technology

Theme: Creating an active learning environment

Author: Cat Hallam

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract: This session will explore the relationship between the use of digital technology and challenging unconscious bias. Using examples from Keele, personal experience and pedagogy, you will gain insight and strategies to reflect and review your current practices.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Applications of Google Apps in Chemistry at Keele

Theme:

Author: The Chemistry Team

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Chemical and Physical Sciences

Abstract: The intention of this lightning presentation is to highlight the breadth of applications of Google apps to support teaching and learning and the administration of teaching within Chemistry at Keele. Examples include: Google Docs for undergraduate group projects; Google Slides for Group Presentations; Google sheets for data pooling (e.g. laboratory practicals); Google forms for module evaluations; Google sheets for assessment timetables; Google sheets for marking teams; Google sheets for Peer Observation of Teaching; Google sheets for coordinating external examiner feedback on assessments and responses.


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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Moodle 'Database Activity', facilitating specific pedagogical needs in the virtual learning environment (VLE)

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Phil Devine

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Lancaster University

Abstract: At times the institutional VLE, third party applications and related plugins can not, or do not, meet the pedagogical needs of lecturers. Reasons for this can be legion, for example, the institutional VLE may not have that native functionality available to meet that specific pedagogical outcome or, the wider institutional suite of existing applications and third party tools do not integrate with institutional processes, regulations, systems or financial budgets. Set within that context, my presentation will give an account of, the use of, the 'Moodle Database Activity'. The 'Moodle Database activity' is a semi-flexible 'in' VLE 'small' scale development environment that can combine, html templates, cascading style sheets (CSS), javascript and database field entry - connecting with Moodle Grade-Book.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Social Media Trends for 2018

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Paul Newton, Tom Maurice

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Marketing and Communications

Abstract: Social media has changed. So far in 2018 we have seen organic Facebook and Snapchat reach decline, Instagram stories become even more important, and the benefits of a 'mobile first' social approach. Paul and Tom (MAC) will talk about the latest developments in their world of social, and how colleagues can get the best communications results from their social media presence.


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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Digital DeLC: Connecting digital with experiential and authentic learning opportunities in language education.

Theme: Creating an active learning environment

Author: Phil Devine

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Lancaster University

Abstract: Digital has the capability to transform experience. If we accept that is the case, and understand that experience is the key to the acquisition of knowledge and understanding (Vygotsky et al) we can begin to unpack more deeply the relationship between digital and learning (and teaching). My presentation will be an attempt to do just that. The presentation will view digital as a conduit for new and existing student experience in language learning by accessing the immediacy, interactivity, fluency and responsiveness of digital technology, in this case, the Microsoft Surface Hub - bringing experiential and authentic learning opportunities into the seminar or workshop.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Stand and Deliver: Blending technology with tradition to develop public speaking and presentation skills

Theme: Creating an active learning environment

Author: Ella Tennant

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Language Centre

Abstract: Whether learning, teaching, or in the world of work, we often find ourselves in situations which require us to speak in public.

In the past, a proliferation of books and training workshops were available to help in this (Ellis and O'Driscoll, 1992, for example), and it could be argued that technology might now have superseded the need to develop the art of speaking. This talk will provide an overview of how digital technology and resources can be blended with traditional ‘old school’ methods to practise public speaking/voice performance in a learning environment, in order to develop public speaking and presentation skills.

For many, the idea of standing up in front of a room of people - friends or strangers, can be the source of anxiety (Idzikowski & Baddeley 2007), or what is termed ‘communication apprehension’ (Robinson ll, 2009). However, by ‘blending’ the old and the new, learners can develop confidence and overcome anxiety, as well as improve other factors, which are often overlooked in the age of PowerPoint, but are still important in the success of a presentation. These factors form part of ‘elocution’, originally the art of delivering speeches (see Thomas Sheridon’s 1762 Lectures on Elocution) and include, voice: its level and projection, posture, body language and gesture, as well as the ability to communicate with and actively engage the audience.

The incorporation of technology in teaching and learning does not mean that traditional methods are no longer valid. This presentation will show that the combination of both traditional and technological approaches in an active, anxiety-free learning environment can have a positive impact on helping students to practise and develop confidence in speaking in public, and enable them to effectively Stand and Deliver.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - The E Files - The truth is out there… Making the storage of electronic student files manageable for professional services staff.

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Alex Goffe, Nick Vaughan, Sarah Thirlwall

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Faculty Medicine & Health Sciences

Abstract: The Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences introduced electronic student file storage to keep a record of student documents that would have traditionally been kept in paper format in a filing cabinet. The students digital file follows them through to graduation in harmony with SITS. Staff can easily save, create, find and restore files without the need for specialist tools or knowledge.


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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Parody, Caricature and Pastiche: (Mis)using Digital Tools to Create an Artwork

Theme:

Author: Tim Anderson

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Humanities

Abstract: In the creation of Tim Anderson’s performance piece Mother, Baby, Life,(1) sounds, images and video were carefully harvested from the media and digitally subverted to parody themselves and to provide caricatures. This is permitted by the government’s handy Exceptions to Copyright regulations (2). The sources of the clips were diverse: popular music samples, exploitative websites, Freeview television, action movies, and on-line catalogues.

Additional material was created from serendipitous street video and children’s toys. Live elements were introduced for performance: two brief narrations plus several outbursts of my collaborator, Guillaume Dujat’s digitally-based percussion and electronica. Tracing our journeys from birth to death, the piece looks at childhood, media exposure, deference, rage and violence, individual and state sponsored. Each topic lasts a minute. 

By examining two of these segments, the digital processes involved can be seen and demonstrated. 

The first one, Baby, draws from René Magritte’s 1958 the Golden Legend where a sky full of golden baguettes is viewed through a window. My sky is made of doting mothers, providing a background for their babies to drift past. A sound sample, Freddie Mercury starting Bohemian Rhapsody, is stretched out of recognition before other melodic drones, built on samples from the Spice Girls, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, take over. Real sound, edited from a live recording in a Rochester haberdashery completes the segment. 

The eighth segment, War, colours a still photograph of a mountainous landscape with cut-outs of tanks and fighter planes selected from online catalogues of children’s playthings. The images are digitally animated and trundle or zoom across the scene accompanied by heavy gunfire and artillery sampled by Dujat from computer games and played live on electronic pads using the video as a diegetic score. 

The majority of the digital tools (mis)used are easily available and require little specialist knowledge.
1. https://youtu.be/eG2K47j5mgc 

2. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright#fair-dealing

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Analytics in the School of Medicine

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Adrian Molyneux

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Medicine

Abstract: Traditionally, despite the high cost of summative medical examinations, opportunities for capturing useful in-depth performance data for all students have been limited, often resulting in a simple pass/fail result. Investigations in the School of Medicine demonstrated the wealth of data available that could be utilised for individual students to target and improve their weaker areas.

Summary of work: A bespoke analytics system was designed and developed from the ground up. This comprises (1) a feedback website giving students the means to view and listen in multiple different ways to all the feedback captured and compare themselves to the cohort average; (2) the server and database infrastructure to provide the necessary storage and statistical analysis; and (3) auditing tools to quantify the usage of the site by students.

Summary of results: Audit reports demonstrated that students made very heavy usage of the feedback website immediately following the release of results. Most made between 50 and 100 separate page “hits” within the first 24 hours. Separately, tutors report their satisfaction with the new streamlined electronic marking processes and their preference over the previous paper implementation.

Conclusions: A huge amount of data is available for capture during the various examinations that is of benefit to students in targeting areas for improvement. A technological approach facilitates this data capture and presentation.

Take-home message: With some initial investment in time and resources, summative exams may be extended to provide extremely valuable individualised and timely formative feedback for students.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Using PowerApps for collaborative student app development

Theme: Creating an active learning environment

Author: Luke Bracegirdle

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Pharmacy

Abstract: Applications for smartphone or tablet devices ("apps") are ubiquitous and used across many disciplines. Apps are often sought as solutions, but their development requires thought beyond the technical process of producing an app. This session will discuss how students on a foundation year programme used PowerApps (part of the Office365 suite currently available to all Keele staff/students) to develop a working health app within a single semester. It will explain the process used and share supporting files that fast-tracked students beyond the technical process, to think how the app would benefit potential patients. The activity formed part of a summative assessment and produced innovative ideas from the student group which can be presented.


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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Online learning environment to support open academic skills workshops, Google it?

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Kizzy Beaumont

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence

Abstract: Within the Student Learning department at Keele University, we have launched a series of university-wide freestanding workshops focusing on developing academic practice. Alongside this, Google Classroom was used to create a blended approach to these workshops, providing an online community for students to share and open dialogue around topics discussed during workshops. The aim was to bring students from different faculties together and create a sense of community surrounding enhancement of academic practice.

We selected Google Classroom for its intuitive and accessible interface for both staff and students, and its ability to create an online community. From both a student and staff perspective feedback was very positive. Students engaged in discussions, answered and posed questions to incite discussion, and gave feedback on resources. There is still much to do and learn in establishing whether Google Classroom can be used effectively in creating a sense of community through the shared want to improve academic practice. This conference paper will demonstrate how we have used Google Classroom whilst sharing frameworks for colleagues to explore in their own practice.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Enhancing the quality of remote feedback to students using screencasting technology

Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice

Author: Ben Simkins, Keren Coney

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence

Abstract: Feedback nationally has been consistently identified as an area for improvement through the National Student Survey. Screencasting has been identified as a form of technology that can help improve student perception of the feedback that they receive. It is also an approach associated with benefits for those who provide feedback. This session will explore, in detail, the benefits of adopting screencasting to both student and staff and will share the findings of a HECSU-funded research project conducted at Keele University. The research project explored the impact of adopting screencasting on the quality of feedback, in terms of depth, level of understanding, the extent to which the feedback is perceived as more personal and the impact of introducing this approach on learning gain.

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Digital Festival 2018 #KeeleDigiFest - Emerging technologies in the legal classroom: subject of the study, object of research and tool for active learning

Theme: Encouraging students to use digital platforms and tools for collaboration, debate and the production of online research and learning outputs.

Author: Maria Tzanou

School/Directorate/Research Institute: Law

Abstract: This proposal aims to explore the various ways Law students can approach and learn about new technologies and the relationship between these and the law. The contribution draws upon the innovative methods employed to teach a recently designed and developed module on ‘Law and New Technologies’ to third year undergraduate Law students at Keele University. The module which was awarded the 2018 Routledge/ALT Teaching Law with New Technologies Prize, adopts an active learning method and approaches technology in four ways: first, it encourages students to critically think about new technologies and evaluate how the law can approach these; second, it examines how new technologies respond to and incorporate the law (code is law); third, it uses new technologies at the object of socio-legal research; and, fourth, it employs technologies as a tool to enhance the actual learning in the module. In this way, new technologies play three distinct, crucial roles within the context of this module: they constitute the subject of the students’ learning, the object of their research and they are instrumental tools enhancing the learning process. An active learning approach is adopted in order to foster deeper understanding of the subject alongside transferrable skills based on teamwork, public speaking, advocacy and mooting.


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