In the discussion at the 28 April CAMEL meeting, Gabi and Terese presented the learning innovations developed through the DUCKLING project and considered whether these could continue, and how well, once the DUCKLING project is completed. Their presentation looked at the sustainability of each of the three technologies and the pedagogy behind their use. Below is a snapshot of what the presentation environment looked like -- the image was doubled and beamed down onto a whiteboard fixed to a table, around which sat the meeting participants each armed with a whiteboard marker. As the presentation progressed, everyone began to scribble their notes and impressions and questions --- it was a great environment for presentation. But I digress.

Psychology used Second Life as a forum for role-playing and simulation, to give students a taste of the experience of living and working on an oil rig with its dangers and isolation, as preparation for their assignment to write a health and safety training manual for oil rig workers. Beyond Distance techies supported this work. However, the actual role playing and leading of the sessions was (perhaps arguably) done by Psychology academics and could continue that way, with some tech support.

Education sent their students into existing language class forums in Second Life, where students observed and could participate in the classes. This was a very flexible way of making use of Second Life --- students simply went in and signed up for classes already taking place pretty much 24/7. Observing language classes in Second Life has now been embedded into themodule as an optional activity. As long as there are such forums in Second Life, this activity is sustainable.

Podcasts have been fully embedded into the Psychology curriculum for the masters programme in DUCKLING -- especially as part of the dissertation-writing process. These podcasts been rolled out to all cohorts on that module. Psychology academics have been making and distributing (via the University VLE, Blackboard) podcasts without any help from Beyond Distance for months now. Education has especially recently begun to record podcasts for its Masters TESOL students, and again the work of recording and posting onto the VLE is straightforward enough to continue without difficulty after DUCKLING's conclusion.

The continuing use of ebook readers can be viewed largely as a question of finance. One department saw savings over printing and shipping stacks of handouts to students, and instead shipping fully-loaded ebook readers. In some cases the students themselves experienced the savings, realising that they did not have to purchase hard copies of notes and choosing instead to simply read these on their ebook readers. Converting module handouts from Word format into format suitable for ebook readers (epub format in the case of the Sony ebook readers we are using) is not a very difficult process -- instructions to do this are included elsewhere on this blog. The fact that public libraries are beginning to offer ebooks for download in epub format, and students are looking for reading material compatible with smartphones, presses the point that the use of this technology will only increase in future. We predict it will be sustained by popular demand.