Thursday, 14 May 2009

Awareness of QR codes

Talked to 163 people today as they entered the library (so we know they are current library users) and showed them a picture of a QR code.

8% said they recognised what it was (though often struggled to put it into words!).  Not as many as at Bath (13.8%), but not a bad amount. It still adds up to almost a couple of thousand students if extraploated to our whole student population.

We wanted an idea of awareness as one of our measures of success will be if more know what they are this time next year!

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Mobile quiz

Just found a lovely little JAVA based quiz generator for mobiles - mobile study. 

I'll have to work out how I can use it! Meanwhile here is a really short one based on the first few questions of a library trail we do with visiting school children:

qrcode

Saturday, 2 May 2009

Engaging our Digital Natives event 12th June

Details should be going out in the next few days about a YU-INFOSKILLS event only open to Yorkshire universities (though it may be opened up if we don't get fully booked!). I'll be presenting some stuff about QR codes in the afternoon.

I've pasted the details below!

Engaging our Digital Natives: Technologies to Inspire Information Literacy Teaching

YU Information Skills Group invites you to a training event aimed at anyone interested in how technology might be applied effectively to information literacy in order to engage our students. The event will showcase examples of good practice from the region.
This one-day workshop will be held at:
The Learn Higher Room, J.B. Priestley Library, University of Bradford.

Friday 12th June 2009 10am-4pm

Fee: £35
Lunch and refreshments provided


In the first instance, this event is only open to staff from Yorkshire
Universities and there are 2 guaranteed places per institution. We will also guarantee 2 places for members of the RSC FE group.

Reserve names may be sent and will be kept on a waiting list.

After 22nd May, if places are still available, this workshop will be offered outside the Yorkshire Universities Information Skills Group membership.

Numbers are limited to 30. To book your place, please contact Grace Hudson (g.l.hudson@bradford.ac.uk) with the following details:

Your name:

Institution name:

Postal address:

Email address:

Additional requirements, e.g. diet/access:

Address of person to invoice if different from above:

Order number (if applicable):

Cancellation policy: cancellations less than one week before the event will be charged for, but an alternative may be sent.
Engaging our Digital Natives: Technologies to Inspire Information Literacy Teaching
Yorkshire Universities Information Skills Group Workshop
Learn Higher Room 01.58, JB Priestley Library, University of Bradford,
Friday 12th June 2009
Programme
10:00 Registration and coffee

10:15 Welcome and introduction

10:20 Using technology to be more inclusive and effective – Dr Simon Ball, JISC TechDis Service

11:15 Coffee

11:35 Title to be confirmed - Dave Pattern, University of Huddersfield

12:15 Group discussion

12:45 Lunch

1:35 Putting it into practice: Showcase of working examples from the region

First round – chose two out of three from:

Tutorials using Captivate, Articulate and Informs – Alison Robson, Susan Smith and Jennifer Wilson, Leeds Metropolitan University

QR codes and mobiles – Andrew Walsh, University of Huddersfield

Web-based information skills tutorials, screencasts, Flash tutorials, and blogs – Jenny Pacheco and Vic Grant, University of Sheffield
 
Second round – choose two out of three from:

Integrating interactive workbooks into BlackBoard using Wimba Create (Course Genie); Elluminate classrooms – Diane Kearns, Maureen Readle, Sarah George and Donna Irving, University of Bradford

QR codes and mobiles – Andrew Walsh, University of Huddersfield

Interactive tutorials: bite-sized chunks for new students, and engaging undergraduates and researchers with Articulate Engage – Helen Howard and Michelle Schneider, University of Leeds

3:05 Group discussion

3:30 Refreshments and plenary

4:00 Close

Friday, 24 April 2009

First mobile video

Created my first "mobile friendly" video - a quick tour of one of the floors of the library. I've just done it as a series of photographs interspersed with nice large chunks of text, so hopefully easy to see on a small screen!

I've put the version online I've tried on my windows mobile device. It looks okay to me on a small screen, so I'll be tidying it up and creating a few more in 2 different formats and giving them to people to test with some trial phones as soon as I can...

Here's a QR code that links to it in various formats on MoLeTV:


Sunday, 19 April 2009

Mobile videos

I'll try and create my first mobile friendly videos next week.

We've a few videos created in Captivate that I want to convert from flash to MP4 / 3GP files - so I've ordered a bit of software to help convert them (sothink SWF to video convertor) as I should fairly easily be able to update and adapt the Captivate videos to be better for a small screen even though they are a nightmare to convert to any other format!

I also need to create some from scratch, but still not sure the best way to go about it. To start with I might just create one or two "slideshow" type videos combining a series of static pictures with text captions and slides - probably with an audio commentary. I'm guessing that taking this simple option will let me create something easy to view on a small screen. I could probably use something rubbishy like Windows Movie Maker to do this as well, which will save the massive effort it takes to get anything else installed on our work PCs.

Brief presentation in Bradford

The YU-INFOSKILLS group are organising an event in Bradford on 12th June on using new technologies to help students develop their information skills. They’ll be a couple of talks in the morning followed by a series of people from University libraries within Yorkshire and the Humber region showing what their currently working on or have recently developed. I’ve volunteered to show off what we’re doing with QR codes at Huddersfield University and hopefully I’ll take along 2 or 3 ‘phones for people to play with…

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Feedback from LILAC

Had some nice feedback from the talk I gave at LILAC, including blog postings from Vicki Owen; Matt Borg; and Sarah Whittaker.

Couple of other people got in touch as well to ask what we were doing with mobiles in the library, in true librarian style I'm happy sharing anything we're doing - as long as others let me know what they're up to as well!