pspteachers

Scheduling RSS Channels

2007-01-18T15:05:00.000Z

Hi Everyone!

Happy New Year!!

The recent firmware update on PSP - Version 3.02, has some great new features in it. One particularly exciting development is the timer for RSS Channels.

So what does this mean...?

It is now possible to set a timer on the PSP so that it will automatically download material from a specified RSS Channel. In essence, the PSP will 'wake' itself up, connect to specified wireless network, connect to RSS Channel, download specified content and then switch itself off again.

Sounds great, but so what...?

We had a real challenge last term with getting video files quickly onto the device. Whilst RSS Channels went a long way in solving some of the challenges, it did not help with speed, as some video files took too long to download. This new feature will enable you to do that download during the night, so that the content needed for the next day is already on the PSP before the lesson.

This will save time and also burden on the network for downloading.

If you go to your RSS Channel, and press triangle, a menu will come up and at the top is timer - follow the instructions from here.

Please post a comment to this post if you have used this function to any effect.

Ok... not so hot

2006-11-28T20:16:00.000Z

The TVersity website says this:

The TVersity Media Server allows any device with a web browse to access the media library and download or stream the multimedia content of the library. Whether media is downloaded or streamed is device dependent, for example the web browser running on your desktop may do either of these things depending on its configuration. The web browser on the Sony PSP is configured to download content to the memory card.

So it doesn't really stream, then. No better position that using RSS.

Really, Sony need to allow the PSP to stream video. I can't see the reason why this isn't already configured in the current firmware. If a special educational firmware is on the cards, it must must must have the ability to stream video.

TVersity

2006-11-28T20:03:00.000Z

This looks very tempting as a (hopefully short-term) solution to the vital need we have for streaming video to the PSP. TVersity allows media content to be watched on any web-based device like the PSP. I would imagine that it's aimed at people who want to access their videos on their home pcs when they're out. The question will be if it allows multiple connections and, if it does, whether we could put videos on our school servers and then use this service to stream it to students using their psps. I'll have a play with this and see how useful it is.

Inappropriate Usage

2006-11-27T14:45:00.000Z

With 8b2 I've had the first misuse of the PSP. Two students - Jake and Jordan - were using the PSP memory sticks to transfer games (flash games, I think) between their laptops. I had already warned the class about misuse and, consequently, have taken away their PSP use for the rest of the week. What the rest of the class are doing on PSPs and laptops, they have to do lo-tech: in their English books.

Typical teacher question: What do we think should happen if students use the PSPs inappropriately?

Year Eight Assignment progress

2006-11-27T13:52:00.000Z

The Year Eight assignment continues very well. Students are busily making their advertisements and, one group, filmed advertisement. I've started using the cascade approach to showing students how to do things: I'll show one student how to do something and expect her to show the rest of her table. It's been much better in terms of classroom management. Currently, students are in the process of exporting slides from PowerPoint as JPEGs, uploading them to PXN8, resizing them to 480x272, saving them to their laptops, connecting their laptops to their PSPs and transferring the pictures to them. Students are getting the hang of this pretty well (though it's early days). They're very pleased when their slides work - and look good - on the PSPs.

iMovie to PSP

2006-11-24T06:35:00.000Z

Made a short revision clip on iMovie on AppleMac using photos found on google search for English GCSE poetry which had both music and spoken soundtracks. Used something called 'Virtual Hub' which converted iMovie clip to psp readable video but lost music and resulting sound very faint when clip played on psp. Any way to improve sound?
Daniel, our Media technician, has set up a site and successfully managed to download clip to one psp wirelessly but haven't tried it with a whole class set yet -may be very slow?
Also, if we are going to use sound a lot, need to provide different earphones to in-ear ones we already have? There is a hygiene issue with those if lots of kids use them.
But in spite of these issues, can see lots of potential, especially for Media both in students using prepared material and creating short films, podcasts themselves to use on psp.

Firmware Upgrade to 3.01

2006-11-23T12:11:00.000Z

Sony have upgraded the PSP firmware to 3.01 and added some neat features such as the ability to use a (compatible) camera, some PS3 linkage and visualisations to the music player. I upgraded the one I'm using at school with no problem (though my own will stay in its preferable 1.5 state). Everything seems to work - though I've not tried out the new movie formats.

Should we just upgrade? Any reasons why not?

Next Step.... Differentiation (by RSS)

2006-11-23T12:06:00.000Z

With the Year Eight groups, I got to the stage that we are ready to create content for the PSP. As this is going to be a differentiated activity, the lower-achievers will be given more specific scaffolded support while the higher-achievers will be given a greater amount of freedom (plus their assignment is to create a video advertisement to show on the PSP). The differentiated tasks are going to be delivered by RSS, which is up and running to test. I'd appreciate it if anyone can check it works ok.

English PSP Assignment RSS feed

Mylo

2006-11-23T06:13:00.000Z

Youtube of the mylo in action (from comments on the last post):

Some Thoughts About This... and What We're Doing

2006-11-22T19:34:00.000Z

Thinking about PSPs as a genuine learning tool, if Sony could create a tiny - but useable - keyboard (like the Stowaway ones) plus a suite of simplified applications like Office, the PSP would be the "killer" device in schools.

Having children use some sort of PIM instead of the dreaded planners all schools use would be a fantastic personal organisational tool. Imagine students checking their schedules using the PSPs, teachers able to "send" homework to students so that there's no issue of homework not being recorded, links to resources, etc. It'd be great.

I wonder how far Sony actually would go in opening up the PSP in this direction for education? It'd be excellent to be involved in this sort of area, which I think would have much more impact than simply using it as we are at the moment. I know that Nintendo already has PIM cartridges for the DS (albeit in Japan) but a tailored organiser for students... that'd be the real selling point to parents and schools.

It's interesting to look at the One Laptop Per Child initiative. There are some videos of the OS in action - that would be a good starting point for the UI of any educational software on a PSP. [Apparently images of the OLPC OS can be downloaded and run through an emulator, which I'll have a go at, just for interest value.]

Would it be worth us thinking more about this and doing a mock-up of the PSP running this sort of software? Or is this project just looking at how we can use the PSPs now in the form they are?

Year 9 PSP 1st Lesson

2006-11-22T11:30:00.000Z

Took my first lesson using PSP today with some degree of success.

The aim was for pupils to subscribe to my RSS feed -

http://web.mac.com/rkipling/iWeb/PSP/PSP%20Blog/PSP%20Blog.html

and download a video podcast. The file is very large so had other activities to do whilst they were waiting.

The feed is now on the PSPs so could I ask that nobody delete it please?

Lesson outline

The pupils were instructed to help each other to gain access to the website and add a bookmark. They all (with the exception of two pupils with tech probs) managed to subscride to the RSS channel and download and watch the video.

The level of engagement was very high and all were enthusiastic teachers to their peeers.
They all got to grips with the interface very quickly.
Some pupils experienced network problems but after several attemps managed to overcome difficulties.

Issues for discussion

I used my own blog for the downloads as I wasted an awful lot of time attempting to attatch file links to the school blog. Access for teachers to facilities such as FTP needs to be implemented.

Many teachers are having the same difficulties as I experienced. For the project to be successful it needs to be easy to implement for non-specialists.

I found class managment a little tricky as they are so focused that getting their attention for further tasks took a little time. I asked them to place PSPs face down on the case while I spoke. Any other ideas for this?

Overal a great experience for the learners and I now have a subscribed feed so future content should be easy for me.

I have some video footage that I will add later.

Year Ten PSP Lesson

2006-11-21T12:56:00.000Z

Very successful lesson this morning with 10b1 (much, much better than I've had with younger students). The purpose of the media lesson was to analyse the symbolic and written codes in a trailer from the American tv series Veronica Mars. The PSP is ideal for this as it enables students to individually analyse the media text at their own pace and examine features they are interested in.

Unlike the lessons with Year Eight, I gave less guidance about using the PSPs and focused more directly on the task students needed to complete. I told students to play with the PSP until they worked out how to use the controls. To be honest, this discovery-mode approach was more effective than my laborious explanation of the controls to the Eights. All students - including girls - used the PSPs confidently. The only problem was a single PSP that repeatedly turned the video into "corrupt data". Switching the PSP off then on again temporarily sorted out the problem. Why it did this needs investigating.

I was particularly pleased that the students used the PSP as a tool to complete the task I had set rather than as the focus of their activities. The video above shows one student, Michael, expertly using the controls of the video player while making notes at the same time. With the other class I am using PSPs with, students seemed too excited about the devices and this got in the way of the learning activity. With these older students this wasn't the case. Perhaps its age and a greater experience of using mobile devices. More of these students seemed to have prior experience of PSPs.

You can see in the videos that the PSP was used as another piece of equipment alongside pen and paper. Unlike a laptop, they don't get in the way. Watching a video clip on a laptop and making notes at the same time is, in my opinion, pretty difficult (and not helped by the clumsy video controls in most video playback software). The PSP is ideal for this sort of activity.

My gripes about this lesson come in the form of the work I had to do to beforehand. For some reason the school website isn't allowing us to post from Blogger or put files on it. After too much time trying to find a workaround (originally I wanted students to download the video) I ended up manually transferring the files onto 30 PSPs (luckily I had a small Year 11 class who I could help and do this at the same time!). Really, we need to have ftp access to part of the school website so we can upload files directly.

Link to sound file

2006-11-20T16:45:00.000Z

I have created a sound recording for access by PSP but I cannot link it the the blog.
I have tried both relative and absolute links.

Anyone know how to do this?

Movie File Formats

2006-11-20T12:23:00.000Z

I am creating some podcasts for delivery through RSS feeds for PSP. However, I am dissapointed that the blog entry does not seem to be visible and the feed only delivers the file (picture, movie or sound). Is this a limitation of the PSP?

Secondly, does anyone have a list of acceptable movie formats that can be viewed in the PSP?

I have already discovered that the PSP cannot access .mov files throught the feed but will allow you to store a file on the meory card. Any format recommendations for video podcast feeds?

Flash on PSP works well

2006-11-15T20:39:00.000Z

Still playing around with the PSP and have got a swf (flash) file working pretty well. [The example is here: Test SWF presentation.] It is possible to run a flash file directly from the memory stick - the address is wrong in the post below, though: it's file:/flash/nameoffile.swf . Really, though it is easier to put the swf files on the net (it saves putting them on all the memory sticks, which is a real chore). One of the advantages of using flash is that it opens up the possibility of producing some pretty good content - not only presentations but quizes, educational games... perhaps short streamed movies.

Flash on PSP???

2006-11-14T22:34:00.000Z

Possibly a pretty useful means of delivering content (I'll have a go tomorrow night):

Directions for putting flash content on your psp.
1.Fist update to firmware version 2.70
2.Create a folder on your PSP called Flash. Put this in the root folder of your PSP memory stick.
3.Transfer your swf file into this PSP folder.
4.Go to the internet on your PSP and put in this address: file:/psp/flash/(name of file).swf

Useful Web Sites

2006-11-13T19:44:00.000Z

Over the weekend I spent some time looking for resources and ideas to use. I was surprised how many people are interested in using mobile devices in education (not necessarily PSPs, though). Here are some of the more interesting ones:

Learnng in Hand - this site is referenced by a lot of others. It doesn't really cover PSPs but has a wealth of ideas about handheld use in learning, particularly podcasts.

K12 Handhelds - has a posting where the writer talks about using differentiated video to support individualised learning (something I'm beginning to think is a pretty important means of using the PSP).

Make Your Own Playstation Resources - this looks useful if it works! The author already produces software for devices like the PocketPC and, if his PSP stuff is similar it would be very useful indeed. I think it would be a good idea to contact him and find out where he is in terms of its development. I would hazard a guess that he is running the software on a firmware 1.5 PSP which easily allows what's called "homebrew" (ie non Sony applications).

Handheld Learning 2006 Conference - lots of presentations here (I think this was the conference Richard attended).

Forum Post about new features of PSP - with some useful photos, this posting reminds that obviously Flash content can be played on the PSP (if it could do it standalone, outside the web browser, that would be one way of easily making educational games, etc.)

Lastly... Computing @ Every Student - a tremendous resource of links and articles about mobile computing (with a few PSP links).

Y13 lesson

2006-11-13T13:10:00.000Z

Hi - Y13 PSP lesson:Received very well by students; very simple lesson.Uploaded one radio 4 MP3 file I hade cut out of a law in action program - I downloaded this to psps manually (only 7 students) and then sent out a jpeg file which was a picture of the worksheet that I made up to accompany the mp3 file.

Studnets loved the novelty of the psps and it allowed focused listening (individual rewaind etc) of a sound file.

2006-11-09T13:51:00.000Z

Its OK Gary sussed it. I was just going to the link rather than in through the website.

Please make use of the new technician everyone. Its well worth booking him for the lesson everytime you use the PSPs.

First Lesson

2006-11-09T11:59:00.000Z

First lesson using the PSP was, from my point of view of mixed success. The students - especially boys - seemed to think that the lesson was brilliant, however. (To my annoyance one boy said: "This is the best English lesson we've had. Usually English is boring.") In the lesson students managed to use the PSPs to access the internet, subscribe to an RSS feed, view a slideshow drawn from the RSS feed and begin watching the video. All the students were keen to use the PSPs (though the girls seemed to want more help and often asked the boys to do things for them; one girl told me she was afraid of doing something wrong in case it broke the PSP). More or less we covered everything I wanted to do with the class.

There were technical difficulties. I couldn't understand why some students could easily subscribe to the RSS feed I had set up and others couldn't: it seemed about half the class could do this. Equally, the video didn't work on these machines. Phillip, our PSP technician, was on hand and brilliantly worked out that some of the PSPs hadn't been updated to the latest firmware (2.82). We sorted this out - some of the students did this, too - and managed to support almost all students in subscribing to the RSS.

The major "issue" that we're going to find in using the PSP in lessons is simply how students interface with it. Boys who already use a PSP had little problem in getting to grips with the controls and helping others. Others, who were starting fresh, find the arrangement of buttons confusing. A few students who struggle in accuracy of spelling were frustrated that they couldn't copy the url correctly. Probably, with practice students would become confident in their use of typing on a PSP and accessing its menus. [No doubt a keyboard would vastly improve the ease of use.]

From a pedagogic viewpoint, it was interesting to watch how students (again, boys) got to grips with using the PSPs: they seemed to involuntarily get up and group together to work with the PSPs collectively. My "teacher"-inclination is to keep students seated but, after a couple of times, I realised that the boys were working / learning much better this way at that point. I guess putting me outside my comfort zone as a teacher is a good thing.

Overall, a good start to using the PSPs. As I said, the biggest challenge we are going to face is students actually learning how to use the PSP easily. I think that students in "one-off" lessons will spend too much time coping with the controls. I also got fed up answering the question: "Sir, have you got a PSP?" "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" For the upteenth time!

PSPs Ready!

2006-11-08T17:31:00.000Z

The lapsafe is ready.

It's charging.

The PSPs are waiting...

More or less the PSPs are ready to use. I've unpacked them and put them into the lapsafe which has taken about 2 hours! Some of them are still not configured for the network, but I'll do that in the morning. I'm going to put a booking form on the front of the lapsafe and book from there (it'll be far simpler than keeping an electronic booking system). I'll also do a checking in and out form to keep track of the PSPs (a bit like renting a car) just to keep tabs on where they go. I've got a big plastic box that they can travel in to classrooms until we get hold of a better means.

First Lesson Preparations

2006-11-08T10:37:00.000Z

The first PSP lesson in English is ready to run tomorrow. I'm going to use it as a time for the group (8b2) to get used to the PSPs. I'm going to be ambitious and get the students to use the web browser to connect to the
English Assignment RSS Feed. This is to see how realistic it is for students to actually use RSS as a means of delivering content in lessons. After that I'm going to get them to watch a 12 minute video on their PSPs about the charity WaterAid and then answer some questions on the video.

Until we sort out moving these blogs over to the Maplesden Noakes School website we'll have to keep them at blogspot. I've tried accessing the PSPlearners blog and it CAN be accessed by the PSPs in school. I would guess that the filtering stops student laptop use. (Access to inappropriate web sites via the PSP may be an issue that arises, though...)

RSS Feed Success! Please check it out!

2006-11-06T22:00:00.000Z

I've managed to be able to make an RSS feed so that galleries of pictures and videos can be downloaded by students straight from the internet (which saves moving everything manually to the PSP's memory stick). Please check this out to see:

PSP Art Gallery RSS feed

I'm not sure about the speed, though. From home, the pics took a long time to download (though I guess if I optimised them to suit the PSP screen it would reduce the size).

So far I can:

1. Stream audio to a PSP
2. Create an RSS feed to supply photos to the PSP
3. Create an RSS feed to supply videos to the PSP

The next thing I really want to do is work out how to stream video to the PSP.

Anyhow can you test out the above feed and let me know how fast it works?

Hi

2006-11-06T19:40:00.000Z

Here's my first entry here - attached link and photo to test! Wow!

Link: http://www.maplesden.kent.sch.uk/PBL%20WEB%20SITES/PBL%20Home/PBL/html/index.html

and: current year 8 project:

http://www.maplesden.kent.sch.uk/PBL%20WEB%20SITES/Year%208%20Projects/Project%202/index.htm

Does this work?

2006-11-04T11:08:00.000Z

Audio Revision Guide

I can't get this (link above) to work (from home anyway on my PSP). Can anyone else try to subscribe to it and see if it downloads to your PSP?

[It's part of a series of revision guides I made for my Year 11 class at Thamesview about 2 years ago... it sounds dumb and amatuerish now, sorry... just using it as an experiment]

RSS Feeds

2006-11-04T10:23:00.000Z

I've been looking at ways to put RSS feeds easily onto the PSP. At the moment I think that RSS is probably going to be the primary means of delivering content to the device. It's particularly useful for (smallish-sized) images to be delivered. I've been trying to write an RSS feed using the specs from Sony (PSP RSS specs) which seems straightforward enough but I'm having problems with getting the feed to save to my PSP (I think it's my PSP that's the problem & I'll try at school with one of the PSPs next week).

Rather than tapping out the RSS feeds using the PSPs browser's keypad, I've found a piece of software, MioMediaBox, that you use on your PC to collect the feeds easily and move them over to the PSP. It seems to work easily enough and provides an alternative to waiting for RSS in a lesson.

An advantage of using MioMediaBox is that it turns text feeds into jpegs and moves them to the Photo folder on the PSP so they can be read as a slideshow and podcasts go into the music folder.

PSP-friendly web pages

2006-11-02T22:29:00.000Z

While I'm sorting out these blogs, I'm looking at how to make web pages PSP-friendly. Here's a useful page for this: How To Make Your Website PSP Ready.

If I get time I'll try to set the PSPlearners page so that it displays differently depending on whether its accessed through a pc-based browser or the PSP.

First Post!

2006-11-02T20:50:00.000Z

Ok... this is the first post. Move along. Move along. Nothing to see here...