“The medium is the message”: The message of educational technology

Image courtesy of Pranav Bhatt

I’ve had it wrong all along. Time and again I have said that technology is simply a tool and it is how we use it that makes it good or bad, but that isn’t entirely true.

This week I have been preparing to submit a conference proposal on how to critically evaluate the educational technology we choose to use in our classrooms. It got me thinking about the old adage, “the message is the medium” and I started to explore what that really means. The saying actually comes from a book by Marshall McLuhan called “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” (1964) where McLuhan carefully unwraps the idea that the instruments of delivery, the medium, also has a message embedded within it. In fact, you can even have a medium without “content”, but still sharing a message.

His simplest illustration is that of a light bulb. As it is, the light bulb doesn’t deliver “content” unless it is used to shine out a message, but without it, surgery or nighttime sports would almost be impossible. As McLuhan puts it, “This fact merely underlines the point that ‘the medium is the message’ because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action” (emphasis added). He continues by stating:

“The message of the electric light is like the message of electric power in industry, totally radical, pervasive, and decentralized. For electric light and power are separate from their uses, yet they eliminate time and space factors in human association exactly as do radio, telegraph, telephone, and TV, creating involvement in depth” (emphasis added).

When you consider the use of any particular educational technology “medium” such as webtools, apps, LMS/CMS/VLE, and hardware, we also need to be aware of the “message” that is being delivered simply in the choice, or non-choice as is the case in certain situations. When it comes to learning environments such as Class Dojo, Blackboard, Canvas, and many others, we need to also be aware of the theory of learning that is foundational in its creation.

Take ClassDojo for example. You can love it, hate, and even don’t care, but whatever your feelings towards it, this environment carries with it a theory of learning and even human psychology that is instrumental in its design and implementation. It comes from a certain perspective of the role of teacher and student, human motivation, and learning approaches, and places these within the “medium” of the platform. There is no implicit message, but it there.

Even some of the simplest “tools” have a message embedded in them. An example of this is Quizlet, the online flashcard platform. While it is simply a “medium”, there is a message carried though it on how people learn through repetition and memorization. Even something as simple as cloud storage communicates a message much in the same way that McLuhan talks about electric light and power.

What we need to do as educators is to educate ourselves on the messages embedded in the medium we are using in our classrooms. Are they communicating the message we want? In order to know that, we first need to deeply understand what we believe about teaching and learning, something that I think we have, but maybe haven’t taken the time to articulate. From that, create a set of questions to ask ourselves when evaluating the effectiveness of the instruments we choose to carry our and our students’ message. Like it or not, those “tools” are shaping and controlling “the scale and form” of the interactions between students, ourself, and all others with vested interest in what goes on in our classroom.

Audacity vs. Ocenaudio – Comparing Free Audio Editor Programs

Image courtesy of Kris S.

If you have been involved in language teaching for any length of time, you have probably had some experience in using the free, open-source audio program, Audacity. In fact, for some schools, this is installed on all of the lab computers and is the primary audio recorder for both students and teachers. It comes in various versions, such as a portable version you can take with you on your USB drive, and for multiple platforms, such as Mac and Windows.

Recently, I have come across the free, but not open-source, audio editor Ocenaudio that is also cross-platform, but for myself is a much more user-friendly offering for those wishing to record and edit audio on their computer. Because of this, I have decided to do my first head-to-head software comparison by looking at the installation, features, and usability of these two apps.

Audacity

Cost: Completely free. Audacity is open source which means that it can be adapted by anyone who wants to tweak or change the source code. In other words, it has been created over time by a whole lot of people working apart, yet together on the same project. The advantage to this is that if anything goes wrong, anyone can fix it. Also, since there is no company involved, there is no fear that the support will dry up.

Installation:

• Windows (Option 1): Download the main installer (23MB) and run the installer. You will need administration rights to do this.
• Windows (Option 2): Download the ZIP file of the installer (9MB) and uncompress the file and then run the installer. You will need administration rights to run the installer.
• Windows (Option 3): Download the portable version from PortableApps (21MB) and run the installer to uncompress and copy to a portable drive such as a USB thumb drive. You can get around the administration rights problem doing it this way, but it takes longer to boot up each time (minimal) and you can’t associate file types with it (ie. you can’t make Windows always open certain file types with it simply by double-clicking on the file. You will need to start Audacity and then open the file that way).
• Mac (Option 1): Download the DMG file (33MB) and open the DMG file (click or double-click depending on where you do this) and copy (ie. drag-and-drop) the Audacity folder to the Applications folder (actually, you can copy this anywhere you would like on your computer, but the Applications folder makes the most sense).
• Mac (Option 2): Download the ZIP file (15MB) and open the file (click or double-click depending on where you do this) and then move the folder to the Applications folder (actually, you can copy this anywhere you would like on your computer, but the Applications folder makes the most sense). Note that this option does not have the help files with it.
• Additional installation: For either the Mac or Windows version, you will need to install the LAME plug in if you want to export (ie. save) your work as an MP3 file. Since most devices (computers, portable audio players, phones, and so on) can play MP3 files, this is highly recommended. In order to do that, you will need to download the LAME plugin and run the installer (Mac or Windows). Once that is done, you will be able to export any file as an MP3 file.

Basic Features:

• Recording: Once you open Audacity, you will be presented with the main window with buttons, drop-down menus, and the main audio channels. It can be very overwhelming for someone who isn’t used to audio editing or the options that you are presented with. To do a simple audio recording, you need to choose the audio host, the output and input devices, and the input channels. Once that is okay, you can simply press the Record button to start and the Stop button to stop.
• Cutting: If you have just recorded something, you will see the waveform of the file in the central window. To edit, simply click-and-drag over the area you would like to delete and press play to hear if that is okay. If you need to adjust, simply move either end of the selection and play to check again. Once you are satisfied that you would like to remove that section, simply hit the delete key and that section will be discarded and the remaining two sections will merge. If you are editing an imported file (ex. MP3) file, Audacity has to encode it as a lossless file before editing and then re-encodes the file, losing quality along the way.
• Adding: Select the area you would like to copy from by clicking-and-dragging over the area. Copy or cut that section (I use hotkeys, but you can also use the Edit menu or right-click on the mouse and select copy or cut) and then click in the area you would like to insert the new section and paste your selection.
• Adjusting the audio for a section: Select the area you would like to adjust the volume by clicking-and-dragging over the area. Along the top menu, choose Effect and then Amplify. Adjust the slider up or down and click on OK to apply the changes. If the OK button greys out (ie. you can’t click on it), either adjust your slider since you have put it up too much and part of the audio wave will be cut off (ie. clipped), or select the ‘Allow Clipping’ option and then OK.
• Saving: You can save an recording or editing project as an Audacity file, allowing you to continue working on it at a later time. Once you are finished, you can export the product in various formats including MP3 if you have the LAME plugin installed (see above).

Usability / Design: Audacity is an older program (started in 1999) and the design has basically remained unchanged over that time. It was designed to be a full-featured audio editor for those who were familiar with all of the terms and features of a full blown audio editor. As a result, the design is a bit overwhelming for the average user and also a bit clunky to operate. To be perfectly honest, it is ugly. I don’t expect it to be super stylish, but the design often works against the usage and makes it more difficult to use than necessary. After saying that, at least it is consistent. Once a person learns how to use it, future updates should remain familiar if the past is any indication. There is something to be said about not having to re-learn everything with a new update (I’m looking at you Microsoft!).

Ocenaudio

Cost: Completely free. Ocenaudio is not open source, but did start off with a research group in a Brazilian university needed an app for a specific project. Therefore, it can not be adapted or changed by anyone outside of that group. If the group wants to kill the project or start charging for it or any part of it, they can. The likelihood of this is remote, but something to consider.

Installation:

• Windows: Download the installer (16-18MB) and run it. You will need administration rights to run the installer.
• Mac: Download the DMG file (22MB) and copy the app to your Applications folder (actually, you can copy this anywhere you would like on your computer, but the Applications folder makes the most sense).

Basic Features:

• Recording: Upon opening Ocenaudio, you are presented with a very clean, minimalistic main window with a few buttons, a file window on the left, and a audio window in the centre. It looks very easy to use, even for those who are not accustomed to audio editing. To do a simple audio recording, simply press the Record button to start and a menu for the sample rate, channels, and resolution options drops down. Click on ‘OK’ to start recording, and then click on the Record button to stop recording.
• Cutting: If you have just recorded something, you will see the waveform of the file in the central window. To edit, simply click-and-drag over the area you would like to delete and press play to hear if that is okay. If you need to adjust, simply move either end of the selection and play to check again. Once you are satisfied that you would like to remove that section, simply hit the delete key and that section will be discarded and the remaining two sections will merge. If you are editing an imported file (ex. MP3) file, Ocenaudio doesn’t require re-encoding, making it faster and simpler as well as cleaner since the audio is compressed multiple times.
• Adding: Select the area you would like to copy from by clicking-and-dragging over the area. Copy or cut that section (I use hotkeys, but you can also use the Edit menu or right-click on the mouse and select copy or cut) and then click in the area you would like to insert the new section and paste your selection.
• Adjusting the audio for a section: Select the area you would like to adjust the volume by clicking-and-dragging over the area. Along the top menu, choose Effects and then Amplitude and Gain. Adjust the slider left or right and click on OK to apply the changes.
• Saving: You can save an recording or editing project in various formats including MP3 (no plug in required).

Usability / Design: Ocenaudio is a new program and the design certainly shows that. The interface is welcoming, clean, and easy to use. It feels familiar for those who are used to using similar programs. Instead of opening multiple windows, each file is listed along the left-hand side, making it easier to toggle between them. Also, the lack of buttons makes it simpler for those who just want to record, edit, and save.

Conclusion

After using Audacity for many years, I am aware of the quirks and benefits of this fairly well known program. Ocenaudio is a newcomer to this market, but a welcome one. From what I can see, Ocenaudio is more than capable of handling what language learners and instructors need in an audio recorder / editor, making it more user friendly to install and use. Where Audacity still has an edge is in the area of portability. If you have to switch computers all of the time and don’t have the recorder installed on all of those machines, the portable version of Audacity is a handy friend to have in your bag. After saying that, it isn’t very often that I have this problem and I suspect that is the same for most instructors. If that is the case, I would lean towards Ocenaudio as my main audio editor.

Text2Mindmap – A simple, registration-free webtool for creating mindmaps

In my class, I often have students brainstorm ideas and then share them as a group to the whole class. One of the ways we do this is through mind maps. I have a love / hate relationship with mind maps due to the fact that they can be quite effective in visualizing ideas and information, but that image can get quite muddy and messy if you have too many items or are using paper and pens with lots of scribbles and changes.

To overcome some of that, I like to use computer-based mind mapping tools, especially if the creators are able to share that with others and they can then add to it or simply view it. Either way, it makes it much easier to expand the discussion beyond the people in the room.

One of the online mind mapping tools I like is the simple and minimalist approach used by Text2Mindmap. Instead of a flashy, all-in-one approach, the designers of this site have gone with a clean, easy to use look, even down to the lack of registration requirement. It works on almost anything and users don’t need to do much more than simply type in their mind map as an outline and the tool does the rest. Here is how it works:

• Go to www.text2mindmap.com and a sample map will appear showing the months of the year along with the seasons.

• Click on ‘New’ just below the box on the left-hand side of the page to get a clean slate to work from.

• In the box labelled ‘Outline your text’, type in your outline of the map using indents (the tab key) to create branches and sub-groups.
• To view what you have created so far, click on the ‘Draw Mind Map’ button at the bottom of the box. Your map will appear on the right-hand side of the page. You can now click-and-drag the items around. If you want to continue editing, simply continue typing in the outline box and clicking on the draw button to refresh.

• At the bottom of the outline box is an options tab. Clicking on this brings up options about locking the position of the items, fonts, colours of the items (I like the level instead of branch option), and line colour.

• Below the box are the ‘New’, ‘Save’, ‘Download’, and ‘Zoom’ buttons.
  • New – Creates a blank outline. Be careful with this one since it will erase your current work without warning.
  • Save – Will ask for a title and an email. You can use a fake email address in this place. Once you have done that and clicked on the ‘Save’, you will get two links to share: one for editing and one for viewing only.
  • Download – This will give you the option of downloading your map as a PDF or JPG image.
  • Zoom – This is actually two buttons, one for zooming in and one for out.

• To remove the box on the left, click on the ‘Text2Mindmap’ title in the top-left corner and you will be left with only the mind map visible. Click on the title again to make it re-appear.

Yes, it is pretty simplistic in that you can’t add any documents, images, links, and so on, but it does provide a nice clean interface that is familiar for users who are not as tech saavy. I work with adult learners and sometimes the added ‘benefit’ of more options is actually more than some of them can handle up front. A tool like this gives them a place where they can develop and share ideas with others without the steep learning curve. It is also easier for some teachers to understand as was the case in one of my tech sessions that I gave. One such teacher was drawn to the ease of use for her as she often felt nervous trying to get students to use something she didn’t feel totally comfortable with herself. In the end, she gave a short session to the others in her group on how to use it and she felt like she had something she could take to her class in confidence.

Let me know what you think of it and ideas of how you may use it in your classroom. Thanks!

Tozzl – A simple, registration-free pinboard

I am giving a presentation at REALIZE 2015 on the use of collaborative bookmarking and I stumbled upon this neat little online pinboard that is free and registration-free as well! I think it could be a really great curation tool for the classroom. The teacher or the students could create boards that they share with others and invite others to add to as well. The content can be files, texts, links, videos, and even Twitter hashtags. Here is how it works:

• Go to tozzl.com and click on ‘Create a new tozzl’.

• Type in a name for your board, a short description, a password to edit and add content to the board, a different password to allow you delete the board, the ‘captcha’, and then click on ‘Create a new tozzl’.

• You will be presented with two main boxes: one that shows the title and description, and another with a chat box. You can hide the title/description box by clicking on ‘hide’ link in the bottom-left corner of the box.

• To add content to your board, click on the little pencil icon in the top right of the blue bar running along the top of the screen. Enter your password and click on the ‘Enable’ button.

• You now have a series of icons appear on the left side of the blue bar along the top of the screen. These allow you add all sorts of content:

Text: You can enter rich text along with lists, images, and links within a box.

Tasks: You can create a task list with check boxes.

Picture: You can upload an image from your computer or phone.

File: You can upload any file up to 10MB in size.

Links: You can post web links (you can add more than one by clicking on the plus button in the bottom left) with a description and short text.

YouTube: You can paste in a YouTube link and it will be embedded in a box on your board.

Twitter: You can add a Twitter hashtag and it will show you a live feed of the last 15 tweets with that hashtag.

Information: If you have hidden the title/description box, you can bring it back by clicking on the last icon.

• To share your tozzl with others, simply copy the URL from the top of your browser. Remember, anyone with the link can view it, but to edit it, they will need the edit password as well.

Notes:

• You can edit and delete most of the boxes you have added, but you can’t delete or add or new chat box. You can hide the chat box by click on the down arrow at the top left of the chat box and choosing ‘hide’.
• You can move the boxes around by clicking and dragging the title of each box. The exception to this is the chat and information boxes.
• You can make the boxes different sizes by resize button in the bottom left of the screen. It will toggle through the different sizes as you click on it.
• There is no way to password protect the viewing of the board, so be careful when sharing the link.

Application:

• Group projects
• Listening and reading labs (the subject of my session coming up)
• Presentations
• E-portfolios
• Blogging
• Brainstorming
• Sharing content with students (flipped classes)

Let me know what you think of tozzl! You can post a comment below or share with me on Twitter (@nathanghall). Thank you!

Archive Webpages Using WebCite

Before the advent of online texts, it was easy to cite material based on publication dates, editions, and volumes. All one had to do to verify your citation was to look in the reference section of your text, locate the book or journal, and then read it for yourself. One of the advantages with online texts is the fluidity, but this also creates a citation problem. Most websites have some sort of update, whether it be major or minor, and references can become invalid almost as soon as they are added.

One tool that is attempting to rectify this issue is WebCite. It offers users the chance to archive the page they are referencing and a permalink so users can provide a valid citation link that will not expire. It is incredibly easy to use and there is a simple workaround so users do not have to give any personal information to use it. Here is how it works:

Steps:

• Go to WebCite Boomarklet page and enter in a valid or fake email address. Since it does not verify your email, you can use whatever you like as long as it has an @ in it and a .com or something like that at the end.
• Once you click on ‘Build my Bookmarklet’, you will see some text appear along the bottom. Drag the ‘WebCite this page’ link to your bookmark bar in your browser.

• Go to a website you would like to archive and click on the bookmarklet. You will then be taken to the WebCite archive form.
• You are welcome to add any information you would like to the archive metadata, but this is completely optional.
• Once you are ready, click on ‘Submit’ and you will be taken to the submission page with some links on it. The first link is the original link you archived. The second link starts with webcitation.org and is the link you can use when referencing. Clicking on this link will take you to a new page with the WebCite header that includes the original link in it, and the archived page below. Some pages take longer to archive than others.
• Copy the webcitation link and add it to your citation in your paper or text. People who visit this link will always get the same information, even if the website is deleted, moved, or edited.

 

There are some other uses for this tool that come to mind. Wikipedia has a permalink option for a certain edit version, but the link only retains the text, not the formatting or images. Also, if you want to archive a website before something gets pulled / taken down, this keeps it in its original form.

I hope that helps!

Nkwiry: A Free Collaborative Bookmarking Tool For Schools

A little while ago, I wrote a short overview of collaborative writing tools and amongst them was Scrawlar. What I didn’t know at the time was that Scrawlar was created by Brian Aspinall, a teacher in Ontario, Canada. I found this out when he followed me on Twitter and I started poking around his website. I was initially led to Scrawlar by Doug Peterson, another Ontarian educator and technology consultant. All of this eventually led to another tool that Brian created called Nkwiry, a tool for teachers and students where they can share resources they have found on the internet, a sort of collaborative bookmarking, but private and secure. Teachers create an account and then share the class code with their students. Best of all, this is completely free. Here is an overview:

Creating an account and a class:

• Go to Nkwiry and click on ‘Teacher Signup’ at the top of the page. You will be taken to this dialog box where you enter in your email address, password, and class code. The password is just for you since you will create individual student passwords later on. The class code needs a number in it and must be in all lower case letters.
• Click on ‘I agree to the Terms and Service’ and then ‘Sign up’. You will get access immediately, so you don’t need to verify through your email. That means you can use a fake or disposable email address to sign up, but you won’t get any access if you forget your password. It is better to use your email address if you are comfortable doing that.

Getting started:

• Once you have registered, you will be taken to this screen. This is the default topic setup which can be easily modified. You will notice the  Add and Remove buttons located amongst the topics. This is for adding or removing topics. At this time, there doesn’t seem to be a way to edit a topic title, so make sure you choose wisely since you will be adding bookmarks to this area and you don’t want to delete those to change to a new topic name. I suspect this is something that may come in later updates.

• When you click on the ‘Add’ button, you will see this dialog box. Just enter a topic name and a description so participants will know what to add. Once you are done, simply click on ‘Add Topic’.

• When you click on the delete button, the topic buttons change to what you see above. You simply click on the ‘Delete’ link in the box you wish to remove to delete it. Be careful, once it is gone, it is gone.

• Another function found along the top of the page is something called ‘Class Feed’. This is where students and teachers can post questions or comments for the whole class to read and reply. Simply type in the message and click on ‘Post’.

• When you go to the Class Feed, you also can see this message on the righthand side. Clicking on this message will delete the entire message feed, so choose wisely. This could be helpful for when you use this with a different class.

• If you would like to change your password, click on ‘Settings’ at the top of the page and you will see this dialog box appear. Enter your old password and then your new one twice before clicking ‘Save’.

Adding students:

• Once you have set up the topics and are ready for students to join, you will need to add them first and give them each a password for them to login in. Click on ‘Manage Students’ at the top of the page and you will see a page similar to the one above.
• Type in a student name into the ‘Name’ field and hit ‘Add New’. You will then see them show up below with a password appearing beside it. You can keep this password or change it to something else that they will remember. Make sure to give each student a unique password since this is how Nkwiry keeps track of who is adding what on the forum or in the bookmarks.
• Once you are done, click on ‘Save Changes’ to save all of the settings.
• To remove a student, simply click on the red X to the far right of their name.

Logging In:

• When you would like students to join, simply give them the class code and the password you set up for them and tell them to go the main Nkwiry page. From there, they click on ‘Login’ and they are taken to the page shown above. They click on ‘Select’ and choose ‘Student’. From there, they enter the class code and password before clicking on ‘Login!’.
• For you, just choose ‘Teacher’ and enter your email and password before clicking on ‘Login!’.

Adding bookmarks:

• For both students and teachers, it is the same for adding bookmarks. Click on any of the topics where you would like to add a bookmark. Type in or paste in the URL, add a short title, and then type of a short description of what it is before clicking on ‘Add Bookmark’.

• Once you have added a bookmark, it will look similar to the link above. Click on the image or the URL button to go to the page in a new window or tab.
• Students and teachers can also give it a ‘thumbs up’ by clicking on the green thumb button. A number will appear beside it showing how popular it is.
• Click on the red X on the far right to remove the link.

• You don’t have to leave Nkwiry to search for links, you can also use the ‘Explore’ function at the top of the page. It is a custom Google search that is safe for students.

That is a general overview of Nkwiry. It isn’t the most comprehensive tool out there, but I think that is what makes it good for most classrooms. Keeping it simple will make is more manageable for students and teachers to use. I think there are some things I would like to see added such as creating different classes for each teacher, but that may come in future updates.

I hope you find it helpful. Share your thoughts in the comment section below or send me a tweet at @nathanghall. Thank you!

CutePDF Online Editor: A Registration-Free Online Multifunction PDF Tool

While there are a number of free PDF tools online, Cute PDF Online Editor is one of the easiest and most complete. You can crop, reorder, add blank pages, password protect, and so much more for free and you don’t even have to register. Here is how it works:

Steps:

• Go to CutePDF Online Editor and click on ‘Open File’ and choose the PDF file from your computer that you would like to edit.

• Once you have your document open, you have a number of tools at your disposal. Click on the ‘Advanced Tool’ option.

• Once you have that open, you will see a window similar to the one above. In here, you can rotate pages by click on them and then the rotate tools on the right. You can also delete pages by highlighting them and then clicking on the delete button. You can also click-and-drag pages around to move them. If you hold down the CTRL key in Windows or the Command key in Mac while you are moving them, it creates a duplicate page and leaves the original where it was.

• If you have a PDF with a lot of pages and you know the pages you would like to move or delete, you can exit the Advanced Tools option and choose the Extract Pages option instead. You will see a box like the one above where you can enter the page numbers in the appropriate boxes.

• If you don’t want to use the Advanced Tools to rotate your pages and your know the number of the pages you would like to rotate, use the Rotate Pages option instead. You will see a box similar to the one above where you can type in your page numbers and rotate them that way instead.

• Sometimes you will get a PDF where one or more pages are not the same size as the rest and this makes printing difficult. You can use the Resize Pages option to change the size of any of the pages in your document.

• Another thing you can do is add a blank page to your PDF. This is especially helpful when you want to print a PDF double-sided and you want certain pages to appear on a particular side of the page, such as in an exam document. Simply choose the Insert Blank Page option and tell it where you would like the blank page to appear.

• Once again, if you don’t want to use the Advanced Tools option to delete pages, you can use the Delete Pages option instead and just type in the page numbers you would like to remove.

• The Crop Pages option is useful when you get a PDF that has a large margin around the edge, or you would like to remove a section of a page. Simply choose the Crop Pages tool option and then either drag the corners to change the crop marks, or type them in. You can also select the pages to which you would like to do this.

• There are also a number of utility options available to add passwords, merge documents and images, add headers and footers, or put in document properties in the file.

• The Security option gives you the dialog box above. You can add a password, turn off printing, turn off editing, no extraction of material such as text or images, and no comment or form field options.

• Using the Merge PDFs option, you can put more than one PDF together and can also add image file as well into the PDF. You can also specify where to add them in the current document.

• Another handy option is to add a header and/or footer to your document. This is great when you want to specify certain information such as where the document is from or to add copyright information.

• The last option in the utilities is the Document Properties option. You can add add searchable metadata that can be used by the computer to find documents in a computer search. You can also change what happens when the PDF is opened such as turning off menu bars and hiding tool bars and window controls.

• Lastly, you can print, save, and close your document using the tools at the bottom of the page. Make sure you save your document before closing since it won’t prompt you to do so.

I hope that was helpful. Feel free to add your comments below or send me a tweet at @nathanghall. Thank you!