CETIS 2006 The future of educational content

Overview
Over the two days of the conference we looked at some aspects of current and emerging practice in the creation, sharing and access of educational content. We will covered issues such as:
 * what type of content is most likely to be created e.g. blogs, wikis, audiovisual recordings of lectures etc.
 * where they are likely to be stored e.g. VLEs, YouTube, library,
 * how they are likely to be discovered,
 * and how they are likely to be used.

Outcomes and suggested activities
Over the two days we had a rich and wide ranging discussion which ranged from how to best to use and create podcasts to what impact can using these various types of software actually make to teaching and learning.

Possible areas for development
 * Inventory of social tools - a basic list, possibly supplemented/link tocase studies/examples of how software is actually being used.
 * More easily understood information on web-services ,api's etc.
 * Evaluation studies of the impact of using different tools/resources on t&l? Do they make a difference?
 * Guidance on interoperablity of web services e.g. flickr, beyond RSS.
 * Exemplar workflows for using social software in educational context.
 * Guidance on how social software can integrate with institutional VLEs - what services should be integrated with institutional technologies?
 * Development of accessible, lightweight tools.
 * Small development projects creating widgets from tools listed in inventory e.g. google calendar for moodle.
 * Develop more links between RDF community and the teaching and learning community.
 * Sustainability and exit strategies- development of risk management advice.
 * Futher research in to how successful communities are creating through social networking tools and see what lessons we can learn and bring into our community.
 * More advice on legal issues of creation, use and re-use of content when software such as flickr is being used by students outwith the normal institutional boundaries.
 * Advice on what happens to student generated content (perhaps stored in an eportfolio) when a student leaves an instituion - how/should they be able to access it?
 * More staff development opportunities in this area.

Day One
Topics covered: For full detail see the notes page for day one.
 * examples of content and how it would be shared/accessed in the near future.
 * what social software can you use? limitations of each/risks of using social software.

Day Two
Topics covered:
 * Personal v institutional perspectives
 * [[Media:Lou_mcgill.ppt|Lou McGill's PowerPoint presentation]]
 * Lou McGill's MP3 presentation


 * Bringing it all together & creating final presentation
 * We agreed on the possible areas for development listed above and [[Media:Future_of_educational_content.ppt|created a single PowerPoint slide summarising our thinking over the two days]].