1. JISC Digital Media, 2010. HTML5 vs. Flash (à la VHS vs Betamax). Bristol: JISC Digital Media. [Online] Available at: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog/entry/html5-vs-flash-a-la-vhs-vs-betamax [Accessed 27 January 2012]

2. LongTail Ad Solutions, 2012. The State Of HTML5 Video. New York: LongTail Ad Solutions. [Online] Available at: http://www.longtailvideo.com/html5 [Accessed 27 January 2012]

Image: HTML5 Logo / The World Wide Web Consortium / CC BY 3.0

Jeremy Keith - All Our Yesterdays from Build on Vimeo.

Taken from the talk summary:

Our communication methods have improved over time, from stone tablets, papyrus, and vellum through to the printing press and the World Wide Web. But while the web has democratised publishing, allowing anyone to share ideas with a global audience, it doesn’t appear to be the best medium for preserving our cultural resources: websites and documents disappear down the digital memory hole every day. This presentation will look at the scale of the problem and propose methods for tackling our collective data loss.

analogfilmseminar / Gerda / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This webinar will focus on the post-production phase of the video creation process, where the video is constructed from the footage that has been shot and any other relevant materials that have been collected.  Topics to be discussed will include basic and more advanced editing techniques, music, delivery formats and accessibility issues.  A brief Q&A session will close off the webinar.

These weekly posts contain links to the various items of interest that the team has come across throughout the week and were previously posted elsewhere such as our mailing lists, twitter, or facebook accounts.

Previous 'Weekly pickings'

• JISC TechDis Tuesdays
  TechDis Tuesdays are online fortnightly workshops that cover a short video conversation on a specific accessibility theme
• New technologies for e-learning in 2012 and a little beyond, Tony Bates
  Tony Bates looks at what is coming in 2012 "Keep running. The technology innovation treadmill grinds on with no sign of letting up."
• Recording student presentations using ReVIEW
  Loughborough University. Dr Dave Elder-Vass is a Lecturer in Sociology and a recent user of the ReVIEW automated lecture capture system. Here he describes his experiences and those of his students.
• Everything you need to know about buying a camera
  The verge continue to bring out great guides and this one on choosing a camera is worth a look

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In November I presented edmediashare.org at Media and Learning 2011 with independent consultant Theo Kuechel. The conference was a great event with many thought-provoking presentations from leaders in the field of media in education. Presentations in the main auditorium were professionally recorded by the on-site video crew, but those given in break-out rooms (like mine) were not. Fortunately I had my lightweight video recording kit with me and was able to quickly set up and shoot my part of the presentation - which the Media and Learning 2011 Team have recently uploaded to their Vimeo account:

You can see that the resulting image is not great - the slides are mainly illegible and I am only partially lit. However, because I wore a lapel microphone the sound is reasonably good (considering I used a very cheap radio mic kit) and with the PowerPoint slides added later, the final result is quite usable.

The kit:

Kodak Zi8 camera shooting 1080P at 29.97fps
A wide-angle lens
Lane LWM-300II VHF radio microphone kit
Gorillapod Original tripod
16Gb SD card.

Total cost: approximately £140.

Sadly, Kodak have discontinued all of their cameras that had external microphone inputs. However, the Zi8 and it's replacement - Kodak Playtouch - are currently available from some online stores.

The Lane LWM-300II is recommended for use in education by Reflections Kit. It uses a VHF carrier frequency range (110-130MHz), is susceptible to interference and (as you can hear) carries a fair amount of noise.

Previous 'Weekly pickings'

• Making better videos: shooting your video
  Our 2/3 free online surgery was held this week and the recording and resources are now available.
• Video Production - lecture capture
  A guide to setting up video and audio for lecture capture. Viewers are asked to reflect on camera positioning, framing, sound recording and safety.
• jiscPUB report: Digital publishing landscape, exemplars and recommendations
  The paper provides background on the state of ebook publishing today, and concludes with a set of recommended projects that aim to improve digital scholarly publishing in the UK.
• Developing Digital Literacies: final JISC national workshop
  A free workshop from the JISC e-Learning Programme on developing digital literacies is taking place on 22nd February 2012 in Edinburgh.
• Lighting Techniques for Video Interviews
  A 7min video demonstrating various lighting techniques
• The pirates of YouTube
  Cory Doctorow Guardian piece on how companies are pirating Youtube videos
• Why Apple Is Winning the Mobile Video Format War … For Now
  Interesting article from the creator of the widely used JW Player for embedding video on why we encode how we do
• JISC Netskills Workshop News
  Spring programme is now online and open for bookings

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On Wednesday 14 December at 1:00 pm, JISC Digital Media will run the second in its series of three live, free, online one-hour webinars on video creation.

My First Car Rig / Kelly Herrin / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This webinar will focus on the production phase of the video creation process, where the actual shooting of material occurs.  It will look at ways to ensure that you get the best possible results at the lowest possible cost  (and with the least possble headaches).

On the 18th of January at 1:00 pm we will hold the third webinar in the series which will look at the post-production phase, where the video is constructed from the footage that has been shot and any other relevant materials that have been collected.

Previous 'Weekly pickings'

• JISC Regional Support Centres 
  The 12 sister services now have a new web home.
• Making and using clinical healthcare recordings
  This site contains guidance material aimed primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording or patient data for learning and teaching.
• CMU Researchers One-Up Google Image Search And Photosynth With Visual Similarity Engine
  The researchers have determined an interesting way of comparing images.
• JISC e-learning programme webinars
  As part of the following JISC e-Learning programmes we shall be running several webinars that are free and open to interested parties:  Assessment and Feedback, Developing Digital Literacies,     Curriculum Design, Course Data,  OER
• Grading the Digital School: Online Learning, Personalized
  The NYtimes reports on the Khan Academy
• Living Books about Life
  The project will develop a sustainable series of co-edited, electronic open access books about life - with life understood both philosophically and biologically - which will provide a bridge between the humanities and the sciences.
• Linking the physical to digital
  Steve Boneham from one of our sister services has posted about a recent session that included: QR codes, augmented reality and NFC.
   

Book now
Nex week we'll be running a FREE 1hr online session on guidance for shooting video - Wed 14th Dec at 1pm

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

But what about environmental sustainability?  Do we know as the creators, users and preservers of digital resources what impact digitisation has on the environment? 

A new article released today by JISC Digital Media looks at these very questions in "Digitisation and the environment".

Photo Credit: JISC

The article examines the literature and research already available  on the subject of Green ICT to establish just exactly what the environmental implications are for those involved in digitisation.  It looks at Government policy on carbon reductions; the scope for digitisation to reduce emissions by lessening our dependence on carbon intensive products and activities like travel and use of paper; and goes on to assess the green implications of an ever increasing quantity of digital data created for learning, teaching and research.

The article argues that as digitisers we have a responsibility to involve Green issues in our discourse and to adapt our digitisation methods, processes and workflows to maximise the possibility of an environmentally sustainable future for digitisation.

The article was launched at the first ever national webinar on Green issues, hosted by the JISC RSC  London on the 5^th of December 2011.  A download of the conference, where you can hear the paper being introduced, will be available from their website shortly.

Read "Digitisation and the Environment".

Clinical images, videos and other recordings are vital to good teaching and learning within the health care professions. Increasingly these are originated outside the institution that wishes to use them. This raises a number of legal, ethical and other issues relating to their re-use and this new online guide has been created to ensure that guidance on good practice is easily accessible in the community.

The materials have been created by a collaboration of cross-sector organisations and individuals, including the General Medical Council (GMC), Wellcome Trust, Institute for Medical Illustrators, University of Bristol and  Newcastle University.

The materials aim to help users of clinical healthcare recordings to:

• Understand how to deal with consent issues in using recordings of patients in learning and teaching resources;
• Understand the difference between copyright ownership and licencing and how to use resources shared under licence;
• Demonstrate best practice in ‘digital professionalism’ and manage risks when creating sustainable teaching resources;
• Be better placed to share resources with colleagues.

The guidance is aimed primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording for learning and teaching.  It will also be of interest and use to other clinical and healthcare workers as well as to university staff where patient recordings are being made available for learning and teaching.   

The new advice and guidance materials were launched at a workshop in London at the Wellcome Trust, which will be followed by a free lecture from Sir Donald Irvine on the importance of patient centred medical education.

The advice and guidance materials will be available online from today, visit Making and Using Clinical and Healthcare Recordings for Learning and Teaching.