LectureCapture.com: Alt-C 2009: review of lecture capture presentations - LectureCapture.com

Last week's Alt-C 2009 was a really enjoyable, interesting conference. The keynote presentations were of a high standard, as usual - I particularly enjoyed Michael Wesch's presentation entitled "Mediated Culture/Mediated Education" which looked at how media 'mediates' so many of our interactions with others and with our environment. Michael and his students created the widely seen "A Vision of Students Today" video (http://www.youtube.c.../6/dGCJ46vyR9o), and it was a privilege to hear him speak in person.

In addition to the keynotes, there was a raft of very interesting papers given on a wide range of topics relating to technology and how it can be used in education. Of particular interest to me were three papers that looked at lecture/classroom recording:

- Nick Short from the Royal Veterinary College (United Kingdom), "Learning from the Learners - some lessons for all of us?"
This paper looked at the way in which students have been driving the lecture capture initiative at the College by seeking permission to record from individual lecturers, then recording lectures on portable devices, editing and uploading them for the rest of their class members to access.

- Lisa Carrier, Dominic Pollard and Julie Voce from Imperial College London, "Student perceptions of the value of lecture recordings as a learning resource"
Starting with an overview of lecture capture and current research, the paper then looked at the implementation undertaken at Imperial College. It shared the findings of initial evaluations that have been conducted into student usage, mainly focusing on the areas of student satisfaction.

- Philip Bradley et al from Newcastle University (United Kingdom), "Large scale implementation of a lecture capture system: a value added initiative?"
This paper reflected on the campus-wide approach to lecture capture implementation that has been taken by Newcastle University in the UK, sharing the results from evaluations that have been conducted as well as talking about the institution's plans for the future.

On a related note, whilst at the conference, I was interviewed about my paper and lecture capture in general by Simon Davis from the University of Leeds for their Learning Technologies @ Leeds podcast series. Once ready, Simon says it will be published at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sddu/podcast/