The challenge I set myself was to take Tony’s work and see if I could use it as the basis on an online events booking system. The idea was to enter event details into a spreadsheet which would then be used to automatically populate a site and spreadsheet, delegates being able to book in via a form. Here’s how I got on …

#Issue 1 – This solution requires Google App Scripts which aren’t available to in the basic version of Docs/Site. To get access you need at least a Google Apps Standard, which is free but you need to register with a domain url.

Update: I like to think it was because of my post that Google now makes Apps Script available to everyone using Spreadsheet ;-)

Having signed up to Google Apps I then started following Tony’s posts on Updating Google Calendars from a Google Spreadsheet and Maintaining a Google Calendar from a Google Spreadsheet, Reprise. My spreadsheet layout is almost identical except I added 2 more columns, an ‘Added Date’ and ‘ID’.

Tony, I was able to set the locale for the date in the spreadsheet via ‘File –> Spreadsheet Settings’ and added some conditional formatting to highlight items which hadn’t been added yet.

Below is the code I dropped into the spreadsheets script editor.

function processEvents() {
 //declare vars
 var cal = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();
 var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
 var dataSheet = ss.getSheetByName("Events"); // ref sheet name (thought I might have ended up with multiple sheets)
 var maxcols = dataSheet.getMaxColumns();
 var dataRange = dataSheet.getRange(2, 1, dataSheet.getMaxRows() - 1, maxcols);
 var data = dataRange.getValues();
 var cal = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();
 var site = SitesApp.getSite("sub-tweeter.net", "mashe-events-from-calendar"); // .getSite(domain, sitename)
 var annPage = site.getAnnouncementsPages();
 var col_added, col_title, col_desc, col_tstart, col_tstop, col_loc, col_num, col_ID;
 // pull column header
 for (var j=1;j<=maxcols;j++){
   var header= dataSheet.getRange(1, j, 1, 1).getValue();
   switch(header){
     case "Status/Action":col_added=j-1;
     case "Title":col_title=j-1; break;
     case "Description":col_desc=j-1; break;
     case "Start": col_tstart=j-1; break;
     case "Stop": col_tstop=j-1; break;
     case "Location": col_loc=j-1; break;
     case "Number of places": col_num=j-1; break;
     case "ID": col_ID=j-1; break;
   default:
   }
 }
 // pull data
 for (i in data) {
   var row = data[i];
   var added = row[col_added];  //Check to see if details for this event have been added to the calendar(s)
   if (added == "Add"){
     // collect event details
     var title = row[col_title];
     var desc = row[col_desc];
     var loc = row[col_loc];
     var tstart = row[col_tstart];
     var tstop = row[col_tstop];
     cal.createEvent(title, tstart, tstop, {location:loc, description:desc}); // create calendar event
     var message = "Start:" + Utilities.formatDate(tstart, "GMT", "dd/MM/yy HH:mm") +"<br/>Finish: "+Utilities.formatDate(tstop, "GMT", "dd/MM/yy HH:mm")+"<br/>"+desc; // prepare message
     site.createAnnouncement(title, message, annPage[0]); // add announcement to site
     var annList = site.getAnnouncements();
     var eventID = annList.length; // get announcement ID
     // set value in spreadsheet
     var v = parseInt(i)+2; // +2 is an offset to do with the numbering of rows and the "blank" header row 0;
     dataSheet.getRange(v, 3, 1, 1).setValue(eventID); // add the event ID
     dataSheet.getRange(v, 2, 1, 1).setValue(new Date()); // add today's date/time to 'Added Date' column
     dataSheet.getRange(v, 1, 1, 1).setValue("Added"); //set the fact that we have updated the calendars for this event
   }
 }

My main tweaks were:

• dynamically capture the data range using getMaxRows() and getMaxColumns();
• define a Google Site to push data to (as well as the Calendar);
• adding the event to a Google Site using createAnnouncement(); and
• adding the ‘added date’ and ‘Event ID’

Here is the public calendar and Google site populated with data from the spreadsheet (web page view).

Having gotten this far my next plan was to use the Expense Report Approval Tutorial as a basis for a booking form which would allow a submit/approve workflow. To do this my plan was to have a template spreadsheet for each event which I duplicate using the event ID as an identifier.

# Issue 2 – Google Apps Script doesn’t have a method for duplicating spreadsheets

I think I might have got around this by creating a function which would cycle through an existing spreadsheet, storing the values and then creating a new sheet reversing the process to populate it with data. I don’t think it would however have duplicated form functionality. The concept was beginning to unravel however because …

# Issue 3 – You can only have one form per spreadsheet.

Oh dear!

It was all getting a bit too messy which is a shame because it would have been fun to use Contact Services API to add delegates to Google Contacts either using the setNotes() or setUserDefinedField() to record events the delegate had signed up for, dietary requirements etc. and lots more interesting stuff.

One solution to the who registration issue  might have been to Leveraging Google App Engine services from scripts, but that is going into a whole realm of coding I would prefer to avoid.

So SharePoint anyone? ;-)

• BBC News – Mapping the growth of the internet – March 8, 2010
• Tablets, Moodle, and Teachers – March 8, 2010
• Education secretary rules out tuition fees and calls for debate on cuts – Herald Scotland | News | Education – March 8, 2010
• Google Acquires Microsoft Office Collaboration Tool DocVerse – March 5, 2010
• New Google Wave Robot API v2 – March 2, 2010
• Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 With Internet Explorer 9 – March 3, 2010
• How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement – March 1, 2010
• New Report: Active Ageing and Universities – March 2, 2010
• Twitter Handbook for Teachers – March 2, 2010

Unlike the NSS which is looking at general student satisfaction, NSSE is a survey which aims to “assess the extent to which students engage in educational practices associated with high levels of learning and development”. It assesses this by asking how students spend their time and what they gain from attending their institution. My understanding is that NSSE is

using engagement as an indicator of “grades, persistence, student satisfaction and gains across a range of desired outcomes”

The survey is broken into four main areas: student behaviours; institutional actions and requirements; reactions to the institution; and student background information. For examples of type of questions asked you can view past and present NSSE surveys.

The NSSE has been widely adopted in North America (US: 3million responses from 1,400 institutions; Canada: 64 HEIs), South Africa and Australia and been used since 2000 resulting in a rice dataset.

Student engagement varies more within than between institutions

The NSSE has found that there is more local than inter institutional variation in student engagement. i.e. there is little difference in student engagement between the best and the worse institutions, but the differences between institutional departments is major. 

‘How can you get students more engaged?’ I hear you ask, why with ‘high-impact’ learning activities. As it happens George has written book on the topic, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Although it wasn’t explicitly mentioned I image George has used the NSSE survey to identify ‘high-impact’ activities. His top 10 were:

• First-Year Seminars and Experiences
• Common Intellectual Experiences
• Learning Communities
• Writing-Intensive Courses
• Collaborative Assignments and Projects
• “Science as Science Is Done”; Undergraduate Research
• Diversity/Global Learning
• Community-Based Learning
• Internships
• Capstone Courses and Projects

There are some Americanisms in this list but hopefully you get the picture. I would say all of these activities are reflected in the existing academic research on best teaching/learning practices.

Engaging in these activities George suggested that students are more likely to:

• Invest time and effort
• Interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters
• Experience diversity
• Get more frequent feedback
• Reflect & integrate learning
• Discover relevance of learning through real-world applications

The Enhancement Themes have already generated a number of resources covering these areas including research teaching linkages, integrative assessment and assessment, the first year and responding to student needs (as well as flexible delivery). The conference also saw the publication of 5 new briefing papers under the current ‘Graduates for the 21st Century strand:

• Assessment
• Employability
• First Year
• Research-Teaching Linkages
• Responding to Student Needs

In George’s presentation he highlighted three action steps:

1. Use engaging pedagogies campus wide
2. Put money where it will make a difference to student success
3. Ensure programs are high quality 

I’m sure you would agree that all of these are what we are striving for anyway and not particularly earth shattering. If you adopted the NSSE locally there is an opportunity to use the data diagnostically to identify the your ‘local variations’, identifying courses that are not engaging students. I’m sure many of you are already doing this through end of module surveys, but I would recommend looking at the NSSE questions to see if these need to be re-examined.

Slides for all the conference keynote sessions including George Kuh’s are available on the Enhancement Themes plenary presentations page (videos of the sessions will be available shortly).

*pronounced Nessie, hence the title of this post

• Podcasts: enhancing or replacing normal lectures? – February 25, 2010
• HEA cuts threaten future of subject centres – February 25, 2010
• Google Buzz Boosts Sharing On Google Reader By 35 Percent – February 24, 2010
• 10 Essential Chrome Extensions for Web Developers – February 24, 2010
• Mashups for Learning – February 25, 2010 – Mashups for Learning – “paper in the International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Education draws together 5 pieces of research.”
• Podcast/Press Release: How to build a business case for an Open Access policy – February 22, 2010
• *Queen Margaret University* – February 24, 2010 – Open Professorial Event Lecture at QMU on 9th Mar 2010 – Professor Joe Goldblatt on delivery of world class events
• Free UHI seminar series opens with rural health discussion – February 24, 2010
• YouTube to Drop Support For IE6 Starting Next Month – February 24, 2010 – Wonder if many institutions still have IE6 on their desktop. Looks like they’ll be getting back some bandwidth if they do
• Seminar: Podcasting in Assessment: New Technology in Higher Education Research (PANTHER) – February 23, 2010
• 8 Tips for Keeping a Squeaky Clean WordPress Database – February 23, 2010
• Challenges, application and benefits of social media in higher education institutions – February 22, 2010

Interview with Ian Hart

Part 1


Download Links
Duration:  34 minutes
Size: 24MB

Part 2


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Duration:  18 minutes
Size: 13MB

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Summary Part 1

01:00 – Ian introduces himself and the liaison department he is Director of. Liason with HE in FE and schools, and role within area

02:40 – How they interpret requirements from HEFCE for HEinFE. Close co-operation with local HE co-ordinators. Importance of widening participation and ensuring standards are maintained from partner colleges and an integrated approach to the curriculum.

11:00 – How lifelong learning networks will be sustained. Whilst scheduled to be phased out looking at what they can do to safeguard. For example, could they be turned into member organisations or become more commercial. Also what can be sustained with no cost such as progression agreements used by feeder colleges. Use of strong and weak progression agreements. Strong agreements having a guaranteed route into HE.

16:50 – Ian gives more background around how and why strong progression agreements are used. Making students aware of the link between the course they are on at college and the related university course they may end up on.

21:40 - Aimhigher Learning Pathways System (ALPS) database of progression courses for the West Midlands

26:40 - University of Wolverhampton Collaborative Achievement Network (UWCAN) -pulled resources for staff development making it freely available to partner college staff

31:00 – IQER strategy support to partner colleges

Summary Part 2

00:15 – Collaborative provision and strong work partnerships. Reducing costs with a collective approach.

05:20 – Need to work more with employers to maximise impact. Shared and flexible approaches, which might include bite sized learning. Intelligent Career Development approach.

09:00 – Uses of technology to enhance progression include the use of WOLF (VLE), and the PebblePad e-portfolio system being used at college and school level. Supports communication as part of the learning process, removing the boundaries of physical space and time. Enhancing communication and understanding.

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup

“Technological convergence – changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other”

This month Martin responds to a listener request and discusses Google’s latest social feature Buzz. Buzz has been designed to make sharing easier, linking to Google other services including YouTube and Reader as well as third party networks like Twitter and Facebook. We conclude that whilst Buzz is currently of limited benefit to the majority of educationalists it is another example of how the interlinking of separate communication and media streams has the potential to benefit formal and informal learning, technological convergence ‘changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other’. An example of this convergence is outlined in Martin’s recent work which allows twitter discussions made during television broadcasts to be replayed as subtitles in BBC iPlayer downloads.

Aspects of ‘convergence’ are further highlighted by Kevin has he discusses his months blog posts which includes his reflections on the recent Learning Technologies Conference and the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme. In particular Kevin highlights the growing importance of both informal and “rapid e-learning”, discussing some of the tools which can be used to facilitate and measure its impact as well as highlighting some effective practice case studies.

Kevin also highlights JISC’s Business and Community Engagement programme which is “designed to support institutions in their strategic management of relationships … in order to deliver services which benefit the economy and society”. This programme is a response to the Governments desire to enhance knowledge transfer/exchange and Kevin discusses some examples of this happening locally in the West Midlands and nationally. This also links to Kevin’s interview with Ian Hart who is Head of Schools and Colleges Partnerships at University of Wolverhampton. Click here for the interview with Ian Hart.

HE Update February 2010


Download Link
Duration: 36 minutes
Size: 34 MB

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Our blogs

• Gabber – Kevin’s blog
• MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Martin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• Google Buzz – another Web 2.0 service [1:30]
  • Offical Google statement on Buzz [1:30]
  • Orkut, Google’s first social networking tool [2:00]
  • Friendfeed, share your digital stuff  [2:45]
  • Robert Scoble’s (Scobleizer blog), article on Buzz [3:15]
  • bloglines, A web-based personal news aggregator [3:30]
  • What is an RSS feed? or Commoncraft: RSS in plain english [5:30]
  • Google (RSS) Reader [6:00]
  • MASHe Festive fun: Auto tweeting your Google Reader shared items using Yahoo Pipes and twitterfeed [6:10]
• Google Maps [7:00]
  • Geotagging – how to [7:15]
  • Whats is Geotagging
    • MS Bing maps [11:00]
    • TED talks video on Bing Maps – stunning!
  • Google Apps’ for education [7:45]
  • Kevin’s netvibes personal (web based) aggregator [8:45]
  • What is pagecasting? [9:00]
  • Professor Michael Wesch’s course pagecast [9:15]
  • Personal Learning Environments (PLE) – what is a PLE? [9:45]
  • What is push technology? [10:30]
    • Google Alerts
• Martin’s BBC iplayer + twitter subtitle mash(e)up [12:00]
  • Dr Tony Hirst – Open University Lecturer [12:15]
  • The Virtual Revolution TV program supporting website [12:30]
  • What is a twitter hash tag? [12:45]
  • What is a backchannel? [13:00]
  • Embedding Twitter into PowerPoint – free download [15:15]
  • Users who helped make the Virtual Revolution [15:55]
  • Virtual Revolution experiment: Web behaviour test – What kind of animal are you? [16:50]
  • TV streaming through a web browser [17:17]
    • SeeSaw
    • Boxee
    • Hulu

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

• 2010 Learning Technologies conference [18:00]
  • Kineo Brighton based e-learning company – free resources [18:30]
  • Keynote speech by Josh Bresin on Informal learning: new strategies and practices for greater business impact [19:00]
  • Informal learning  – definition [19:30]
    • Mixing formal and informal learning
  • Synchronous e-learning tools [20:00]
    • Clive Sheppard – e-learning network
  • Trending learning tools of 2010 – (Huddle & Yammer, etc) [20:15]
  • The Training Zone website [21:00]
  • The original etherpad techology now used in ietherpad and primarypad [21:15]
  • Wetoku  – tested by Kevin in this post [21:30]
  • SIG Quality Assurance/Quality Enhancement in e-learning [22:15]
  • Micro chunks of (e)learning [22:45]
    • Elliot Masie’s elearning trends
    • Rapid learning wiki page
  • Towards Maturity efficiency indicator [23:45]
  • Evidence for Change case studies [25:15]
  • Excellence gateway e-learning case studies [25:30]
• Screencasting tools (Screenr, Screentoaster) [26:00]
• Business Community Engagement (BCE) [26:30]
  • JISC BCE Infonet Infokit [27:15]
  • Knowledge exchange/transfer and research [28:00]
  • RSC Wales Engaging business and the community – new resource
• Intelligent Career Development Company and JISC funded e-Portfolio based pedagogy for SMEs [28:45]
• Ian Hart WLV partnerships [29:15]
  • UHI Partnerships [30:45]
  • Networked Learning [30:50]
• DimDim webinar tool [32:15]
• Collaborative networking practice [33:15]

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup

In my original post I mentioned that I tried the smilText JavaScript engine without any success. I also had a looked at how radio broadcasts are delivered via BBC iPlayer. As the majority aren’t available for download and the BBC are phasing out RealAudio next month (RealAudio can be synchronised with RealText for captioning) these were also dead-ends (I did however come across iPlayer Converter which is useful if you “want to be able to access BBC Radio programming but can’t use the iPlayer”). I also had a look at Tony’s suggested Accessible HTML5 Video with JavaScripted captions, again a dead-end without converting audio into a compatibly format.

Having exhausted these other avenues I decided to have another look at the smilText JavaScript engine again and guess what I got it to work! So as well as adding a real-time twitter player it made sense to add some other additional features below:

• Real-time twitter playback using smilText JavaScript engine
• SMIL 3.0 SMILText creation/download
• SubRip .srt creation/download
• Timed Text Authoring Format creation/download (used with BBC iPlayer and others)
• API access documentation

And here is the link to the tool:

*** Twitter Powered Subtitles Tool ***

How I got it to work

So what did I do wrong? Quite a bit as it turns out:

1. Didn’t import all of the scripts for the JavaScript SMILText Player. In my defence the official documentation was a little missleading.
2. Understanding the SMILText schema (need a <tev> before a <clear>???)
3. Using closing tags like this <tev /> instead of <tev></tev>. Don’t know if this was because of the DOCTYPE was wrong or the way the JavaScript parsed the document.
4. smilText JavaScript engine doesn’t appear to implement hh:mm:ss ClockValueSyntax

Observations and further development

It is worth noting that smilText JavaScript engine doesn’t appear to automatically wrap on white-spaces. I don’t no if this is a limitation of the engine or the SMIL language. I also wanted to keep <a> tags in browser playback but this doesn’t appear to be part of SMIL 3.0 smilText.

How this tool/concept be further developed? The playback browser is very basic but could be easily enhanced with some TLC. The smilText JavaScript API has some useful methods which could easily be exploited. There is also the question of how this tool could be integrated into other services like Twapper Keeper, opensubtitles.org (which is used by boxee and others) or FanHubz.

As always the source code is available here for further development.

• Is Second Life about to enter its “second life?” – February 22, 2010
• Marine scientist becomes head of the new UHI graduate school – February 22, 2010
• Scheduling Content Round the Edges – Supporting OU/BBC Co-Productions – February 22, 2010
• Raise your game – February 18, 2010 – Raise your game – “20 inexpensive ways to help their institutions climb the league tables” (from THE)
• How To Add Quizzes To Your Self-Hosted Wordpress Blog – February 16, 2010
• Facebook launch ‘Zero’ for mobile – February 16, 2010
• Google Buzz ‘breaks privacy laws’ – February 17, 2010
• Google Buzz copied FriendFeed’s worst features, why? – February 15, 2010
• Tributes paid to Robert Gordon principal – February 16, 2010

Following on from my post on Twitter powered subtitles for BBC iPlayer below is the subtitle file for the latest episodes. More information on the series is available from The Virtual Revolution website.

• The Cost of free Sat 13 Feb 2010 @ 21:15 | Subtitle file (search term: ‘#bbcrevolution -watching’)
• Homo Interneticus Sat 20 Feb 2010 @ 20:15 | Subtitle file (search term: ‘#bbcrevolution -watching -RT)

To use these files follow these steps

1. Download episode from iPlayer
2. Locate downloaded folder for the episode (default for PC it is [My Documents] > [My Videos] > [BBC iPlayer] > [repository] > [obscure-broadcast-folder-name-like-b00qx4t0]
3. Replace the file which ends ‘_prepared.xml’ with the one download above using the same obscure file name ie b00qx4t0_prepared.xml.
4. Start the clip in iPlayer pressing the ‘S’ button to turn subtitles on/off.

If you would like to create twitter subtitle files for other BBC programmes available for download on iPlayer you can use the link to the tool below:

Click here to create twitter subtitles
for other BBC iPlayer downloads

Update: Revised code to include other timed text/caption formats

On demand television like the BBC iPlayer has changed the TV habits of many users. Instead of waiting to tune into the live broadcast views can download and watch programmes at a time of their choosing and on a range of devices. Another media revolution has been status update/social networking sites like twitter. Ever wanting to engage with the listeners twitter is becoming the new ‘phone-in’ or ‘SMS text your thoughts’ for broadcasters. Whilst in the general populous there is still uncertainty over the benefits of sites like twitter broadcasters are already exploring how this technology can be used. A case in point in the BBC/Open University The Virtual Revolution series which is exploring how 20 years of the web has shaped our lives. Its not surprising that a programme of this ilk is exploring how technology can be used to support the broadcast (including allowing viewers to mash-up and reuse clips from the series), it is also the first programme that I’ve seen broadcast a hashtag within its opening credits. The hashtag is a community driven invention which allows comments and content to be tracked across the web including in comments made as tweets.

I find watching the programme with this backchannel communication is entertaining and for me adds a new dimension. There are perhaps educational uses to be explored such as engaging students in real-time discussion, asking them to critically reflect and evaluate what is being presented in real-time.

But what if you are busy on a Saturday night? Whilst you can rewind the programme via iPlayer and use the twitter search to pull up the tweets, these have become decoupled. This might have been a problem Tony Hirst encountered when he tweeted:

psychemedia mulling over how to replay a hashtagged feed in real time from, say, a two hour window (bbcrevolution) View tweet

Tony has been a valuable source for me in past, providing inspiration for my Twitter voting mash-up (TwEVS). Another of his ideas is a Twitter YouTube subtitle mashup, which extracts tweets to use as subtitles in YouTube videos of live events. Using exactly the concept I’ve come up with a way to allow a user to replay a downloaded iPlayer episode subtitling it with the tweets made during the original broadcast.

In action

So first to see the results in action. The video below shows the iPlayer playing ‘The Virtual Revolution: The cost of free’ displaying the tweets made during the live broadcast as subtitles.

How it was done

When you download a programme to watch using iPlayer as well as the video several other assets including a subtitle file in W3C Timed Text Authoring Format. To see this episode in full with twitter subtitles download The Virtual Revolution: The cost of free here. Once downloaded by default the programme should be saved in [My Documents] > [My Videos] > [BBC iPlayer] > [repository] > [obscure-broadcast-folder-name-like-b00qx4t0] (not sure what this would be for non-PC). To view with tweets open this folder and replace ‘obscure-broadcast-folder-name-like-b00qx4t0_prepared.xml’ file with this one [righ-click save link as], keeping the folder name at the beginning of the file name. When you play the video and turn on subtitles the tweets should be displayed.

To create the XML file for any downloadable BBC broadcast I created a tool using the same concept as Tony’s subtitling YouTube example. Here is the Twitter Powered Subtitles for BBC iPlayer Tool I created.

Whilst the tool was designed for the iPlayer it generates a timed text xml file which might be suitable for other applications. Hopefully the tool is straight forward to use all you have to do if find a programme with an active twitter back-channel (you might be surprised at how many their already are once you start searching). If you have any questions/problems post them in the comments below.

Here is the code used for this tool (it also uses the SimplePie code library for handling the RSS). The code includes comments to describe what is going on. Feel free to edit, modify or build upon again use the comments below to share developments.

Limitations and future directions

One of the limitations of this solution is it only replays tweets for the duration of the programme. Having looked around I haven’t been able to find any other twitter replay tools. A solution I did explore was using another W3C format called Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). This standard also integration of multimedia with text, images and other objects. My plan was to use the smilText JavaScript engine to replay tweets in the browser without linking it to any media. Having played around with the JavaScript engine I couldn’t get it to work. Perhaps the baton needs to be passed back to Tony … ;)