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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