GeekCaster » Resources

Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolios Beginners Guide

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:08:45 +0000

I have already discussed Mahara and the wonderful range of features it offers in an earlier post on the blog and have received some inquiries regarding it’s implementation. While the initial setup process is fairly straightforward I can appreciate for those not technically minded or with the same knowledge and experience with computers as myself it may prove more of a challenge. Indeed although the basic setup and usage of the platform is fairly intuitive, Mahara provides a wealth of features and functionality that can really only be understood by persistent experimentation. Thankfully the guys at Packt Publishing, providers of instructional material for a wide variety of open source software applications, offer the fantastic Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolio Beginners Guide.

The book has just recently been published and is available in both print and e-book format, a characteristic of the Packt Publishing service. Needless to say my love of the electronic format and fascination with the Mahara software resulted in a day one purchase, something which I can recommend to anyone wishing to learn more about the open source e-portfolio solution. Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolio Beginners Guide is written by Richard William Hand, Derrin Michael Kent, Glenys Gillian Bradbury and Margaret Anne Kent – educational developers, Mahara learning designers and geeks one and all, which is evident as you read it’s pages. The book provides a step-by-step guide to building an impressive professional e-portfolio using Mahara. It covers the key features of Mahara that will help you set up your customised digital portfolio and display artifacts in your preferred way allowing contribution from selected users only.

It introduces the reader to the exciting features of Mahara framework and helps the reader develop a feature-rich e-portfolio. Sections deal with features such as how to create folders, upload multiple files like journals, project documents, pictures, and videos and share them with your friends. You will learn to set up views of these files, choosing to make them visible to your chosen friends only or be shared with whatever people you desire. You will learn to create blogs and forums and get connected to the rest of the world. Customisation and administration of your Mahara site will become easy after you have gone through this book. Imagine how good you will feel when you will see your knowledge, success, and ideas going live and available to your chosen audiences for their inputs.

The pacing is just right with a logical progression followed from the opening chapter through the various aspects of Mahara configuration and usage. I have always found the Packt Publishing books to be informative and educational but I believe this titles along with some of their Moodle books raises the bar in terms of instructional content. Each page provides valuable knowledge and insight into the use of an application which fascinates me and furthermore provides an invaluable service to my students at absolutely no cost. Packt Publishing’s targeting of open source software provides a unique resource for those embracing the new media culture and indeed the emerging culture of e-learning. The provides knowledge for just about every aspect of Mahara installation and use, some of the key concepts learnt include:

•   Create folders in Mahara
•   Upload multiple files – journals, reports, presentations, videos, and sound clips – easily and set permissions for your group to view, edit, and delete them
•   Create a blog in Mahara
•   Make an impressive profile using Mahara profile fields and tailor your own profile view
•   Create a new web page entirely from scratch and customize it to allow much more flexibility and control over who sees what and when
•   Set an environment to receive public or private feedback on your pictures, videos, and articles
•   Connect with other Mahara users and get social: discuss topics of common interest in forums and share views with each other
•   Customize and administer your Mahara site to our own preferences using a number of configuration settings for easy administration

I believe this book to be an incredible resource for anyone working in education or developing learning solutions, particularly those interested or working in the field of e-learning. It assumes no prior knowledge and covers in clear and concise detail everything that an academic, student or developer needs to know about the Mahara platform. It has provided me with hours of informative and engaging reading and resulted in the implementation of my own Mahara resource.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Competition

The lovely people at Packt Publishing have kindly offered to provide blog readers with the opportunity to win a copy of of one of their e-publications. The competition offers the winners to select any title from the Packt range more than three months old. The competition is open from now until the 12th March with one winner selected on Friday 5th March and another on the 12th. Entrants need to leave a reply to this post stating how they would use Mahara in their work flow to support and enhance the learning process. Packt Publishing offer a great range of titles so I’m sure that everyone will find something of interest. Good luck.

GeekCaster Podcast Episode 11

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:02:42 +0000

This week on the show I talk about Sony getting things on track & my growing admiration for what their game platforms offer, I talk about Heavy Rain, Moodle & Mahara, Halo Legends & some ideas for future shows.

This week’s show contains information about a competition, the full details for which will appear on the blog later tonight.

As always please feel free to leave a comment : )

Review: Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:53:23 +0000

Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review copy of Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques distributed by the wonderful people at Packt Publishing. I have long been an advocate of Moodle and indeed of all things open source, so I must complement Packt Publishing on the excellent job they do in providing educational material on a wealth of open source software. I have ordered several e-books from them over the past few months, with each delivered quickly and securely, while saving me money by eliminating any print costs. Packt Publishing offer books in printed format as well but I really like the quick availability of e-book content and knowing I have an electronic copy with me wherever I go. Books available cover a wide range of areas; from e-learning, e-commerce, coding, web development and e-portfolios. For more information check out the website – Packt Publishing

Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques by Susan Smith Nash and William Rice offers guidance on creative ways to utilise Moodle to support teaching and learning through the development of online courses. Moodle, for those unaware, is a powerful open source LMS or learning management system which provides a framework for the delivery of teaching and provision of assessment. It is used by many colleges and universities throughout the world supporting small classroom environments and whole universities. Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques provides step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions and learning theory to give you tools and techniques to support learning within Moodle. It aims to provide educators with a clear and developed processes which can be used to communicate with students online, and aid teachers in developing an enthusiastic, open, and trusting relationship with their students and with their colleagues.

It is important to note that this book is not a how to guide for Moodle, Packt offers other titles which are more suited to that requirement, it is more a guide to developing good, solid, dynamic courses that will last by making sure that your instructional design is robust, and that courses are built around satisfying learning objectives and course outcomes. In saying that the book does an excellent job of informing the reader of some of Moodle’s key features and provides suggestions as to how these might be utilised. The core objective of the book is to provide educators with insight into the development process allowing them to produce dynamic and engaging content for their students. The following should be possible upon completion:

Build a learning outcome-focused approach that enables your students to perform well

Different techniques for creating a dynamic learning environment

Put all the ideas you’ve wanted to implement, but never could, into action to create unique courses with reusable elements

Motivate your students to collaborate and demonstrate what they are learning and to create projects together

Develop materials you can re-use in your future courses

Incorporate Web 2.0 features to encourage student sharing of resources

Create online workshops and galleries for your students to make presentations about what they have learned

Build e-portfolios for students to collect their work and demonstrate mastery of the units

Engage your students in team work that helps them connect course content with their experiences and prior learning

Feel confident in finding ways to accommodate your students’ learning styles and preferences to guide them to a successful outcome for the course

Develop high-quality courses that will last and stay useful and relevant to create a personal inventory you can use and re-use

I have been using Moodle extensively for a number of years yet still found value and worth within these pages, at times I was a little frustrated that the techniques were not explored or showcased as explicitly as I would have liked but overall I found reading to be informative and worthwhile. Knowing how to use Moodle is one thing but knowing how to develop learning materials and construct a sound learning environment is another. This book provides knowledge on how to do both.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Mahara

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:01:28 +0000

My involvement with education over the past number of years has spawned an intrinsic fascination with educational technology. Not only has my career required exploration of the field to support my teaching but I have become passionate about the use of technology & software to enhance the learning process. Nothing frustrates me more than educators who refuse to embrace the wealth of resources available to them, often for free, and remain stagnant in established, antiquated. out dated & redundant forms of teaching. Perhaps two of the greatest tools available to support learning through technology or the concept of e-learning are Moodle & Mahara.

I have talked a little about Moodle in the past and will do so again in the very near future on the blog but I would like to focus this post on Mahara. It is perhaps a little less well known but nonetheless an invaluable tool in supporting 21st century learning. Mahara is an open source e-portfolio platform and can be best understood by exploration of the concept of an e-portfolio.

E-Portfolios

An electronic portfolio or ePortfolio is a generic term encompassing as wide a range of types and products as there are reasons for using them. The simplest starting point is to consider an ePortfolio as an extension of the paper based-portfolio, bringing with it the obvious benefit of making a portfolio of evidence portable and shareable anywhere that you have Internet access – “the new generation of the three ring binder” JISC My World Project Final Report, Roberts. 2006

In fact, an ePortfolio has a much broader scope as an online collection of reflections and digital Artefacts (such as documents, images, blogs, resumés, multimedia, hyperlinks and contact information). Learners and staff can use an ePortfolio to demonstrate their learning, skills and development and record their achievements over time to a selected audience.

“ePortfolios … are personal online spaces for students to access services and store work. They will become ever more useful as learners grow up and start moving between different types of learning and different institutions” Secretary of State for Education and Skills, UK, January 2006.

There are sound applications for the learner, the teacher, the institution – and sometimes combinations of the three. A teacher and learner for example can be one and the same person, with differing requirements from the same ePortfolio. It can be used to create collections of artefacts to share with fellow students, peers, family and friends, to present to potential employers and to complement applications for research funding. In short, it is an online space from which to manage your life, learning and goals.

An ePortfolio is an ideal tool for meeting the needs of established and emerging pedagogy and approaches to learning. It allows for building in reflective activities for learners and staff, through blog functions and the creation of ‘Critical incident diaries’ in which users reflect on their learning and experiences over a given period or activity. For example, this could be reflections on how a student dealt with a problem, or processed some new information on a given topic. This can become a two way process with a tutor or peer providing feedback via the same diary.

It works as a user-centred, personalised learning space allowing the user to shape the way they present themselves to the world. Content and layout can be personalised to create multiple Views which meet the specific, differing or changing requirements of the user. This ties in with one of the key tenets of personalised learning, that students become key partners in the design of learning to suit their needs.

“Personalising learning involves thinking about knowledge as an active process. Students get to be informed, active participants in their own learning, they contribute to decisions about what learning can work best for them, and they have a much better understanding of how they are progressing.” Minister of Education, NZ, 2007

Mahara Features

Mahara then provides a unique feature set to cater for the needs of both the learner and the instructor. What makes Mahara different from other ePortfolio systems is that you control which items and what information (Artefacts) within your portfolio other users see. In order to facilitate this access control, all Artefacts you wish to show to other users need to be bundled up and placed into one area. Within Mahara this compilation of selected Artefacts is called a View. You can have as many Views as you like, each with a different collection of Artefacts, and intended purpose and audience. Your audience, or the people you wish to give access to your View, can be added as individuals or as a member of a Group or Community.

ePortfolio owners create Views using a 4 step process and Views have the following features:

ePortfolio owners can receive public or private feedback on their View and Artefacts within that View.
Users accessing a View can report any objectionable material directly to the Site Administrator.
Users can add Views and Artefacts within a View to their Watchlist and receive automated notifications of any changes or updates.
ePortfolio owners can Submit a View for Assessment by a tutor or teacher allowing for a snapshot of the View and associated Artefacts on a certain date.

File Repository

Mahara includes a file repository which allows users to:

Create folder and sub folders structures
Upload multiple files quickly and efficiently
Give each file a Name and Description
Manage their file allocation Quota
When uploading a file users must agree to a configurable Copyright disclaimer.
Can extract .zip, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 from within the files area

Blogs

A comprehensive blogging tool is provided in Mahara, where blogs and blog postings are considered Artefacts and may be added to a View.

The blogging tool allows users to:

Create blog posts using a WYSIWYG editor
Attach files to posts
Embed images into postings
Configure whether or not Comments may be received on their blog
Create draft postings for later publishing

Social Networking

Mahara provides a social networking facility where users can create and maintain a list of Friends within the system. ePortfolio owners choose whether other users can add them to their Friends list automatically or by request and approval.
An ePortfolio owner’s Friends lists shows those Views to which they have been assigned access.

Resumé Builder

Mahara includes a resumé builder which allows users to create digital CV’s by entering information into a variety of optional fields including:

Contact and personal information
Employment and education history
Certifications, accreditations and awards
Books and publications, professional memberships
Personal, academic and work skills and
Personal, academic and career goals

Profile Information

Within Mahara users are able to share details through a variety of optional profile information fields including:

Preferred Name
Student ID
Postal address and contact phone numbers
Skype, MSN, Yahoo & Jabber name
Introduction
Profile Icons images

Administration

Administrators are able to customise Mahara via a number of configuration settings which include:

Language packages and themes
Virus protocol
Session and account lifetimes
Authentication methods
Institution setup
Core page editor
Main Menu editor

In addition with the Modular plugin structure of Mahara, Artefact and Block types may be configured, disabled or enabled, according to the organisation’s requirements.

Interface with Moodle

Mahara provides a single-sign on capability that allows users, at the option of the administrator, to be automatically logged in to both their Mahara and Moodle accounts by providing a username and password at only one of these sites. The user can sign on at Mahara, and click on a link to her Moodle account, or sign on at Moodle, and click on a link to her Mahara account. The single-sign-on feature runs over an encrypted transport, and the user’s passwords do not have to be shared between sites.

Scalability

Mahara has been designed as a web application with a plug-in architecture. This means it is possible to scale the application up by separating hardware for search, database, file storage and web servers. It is also possible to replicate each of these operational components to further scale the system upwards. In addition Mahara is designed to:

be load balanced across several web servers
have a share file data from a centralised file server
and have a separate database server.

This hosting set-up has proven scalability for similar systems like Moodle.

Security

Mahara automatically detects system settings that a pose security threat.
Session key handling code has been tightly integrated with the core form/request APIs.
Provides database abstraction that prevents any database injection attacks and input validation that prevents script injection attacks.
User authentication can be tied to external systems such as student management systems or other databases such as their Student ID number.

Interoperability

Mahara includes an Import/Export system with LEAP2A suport, and static HTML export.
Users can place their views under any of the Creative Commons licenses.
Mahara is built using PHP web scripting language and leverages PHP5’s OO features.
All plug-ins follow a consistent structure and inherit from a common base class (core functions of plug-ins are implemented once)
Mahara currently supports plug-ins for Artefacts, Authentication and Search. Therefore interoperating with an existing product simply requires the development of a plug-in.

I have just implemented my own Mahara e-portfolio which can be found here – at the moment it is still in beta but I fully intend to be making use of it in the very near future. I urge everyone involved in education to take half an hour out of what I personally know will be an almost impossible schedule and explore what Mahara has to offer. There is a wealth of information available at the official site and plenty of people, including myself, willing to lend a hand or answer any questions you might have. Mahara is entirely possible on shared hosting, if anyone requires assistance in that matter, please leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Keep an eye out for further Mahara & Moodle information in the week ahead.

GeekCaster Podcast Ep 10

admin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:56:29 +0000

Episode 10 of the GeekCaster podcast, discussion of Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain and Kodak Zi8 usage.

Imagine Fx

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:20:20 +0000

I have been lecturing in digital media applications for almost ten years now, in that time I have aimed to provide my students with the best resources and learning materials possible to aid them in their studies. It hasn’t always been easy, quite often I have found myself scouring the Internet at 2.00am looking for examples to showcase a particular technique or process – it’s all very well illustrating how things are done in a software application but with so many disciplines and techniques out there, it really is a case of studying people who are good at a given principle. Moreover artists develop their own work flows which are almost impossible to teach, to gain an insight into these it is necessary to study both the works of the artist and indeed the artist him/her self.

While there are resources available, particularly on the Internet, these are often fragmented and vastly distributed making them difficult to utilise in a process of learning. Thankfully things got a lot easier about four years ago with the introduction of Imagine Fx into the UK market, finally a monthly publication that provided content relating to digital art production. Imagine Fx provides workshops, gallerys, interviews, tutorials, artist Q&A’s all wonderfully packaged in a monthly print publication. Each month the magazine focuses on a particular core topic which it explores in detail highlighting some core principles and techniques relevant to the area, as well as featuring segments with artists who specialise in that area. In addition each month there are hardware and software reviews, a news section focusing on the world of digital art and a section which showcases the work of the publications readers. If that wasn’t enough each issue is accompanied by a companion DVD which provides software trials, video screencast tutorials, assets and files relating to magazine tutorials.

It really is a fantastic package and one I consider essential reading for all my students. The content lends itself well to many of the subject areas that I teach in and the fact that content is geared towards fantasy and sci-fi art goes down well with both the students and myself. This month’s issue, cover preview picture below, focuses on pin-up art, an area I personally have a lot of admiration and enthusiasm for and features contributions from Adam Hughes, Hajime Sorayama and Serge Birault. Fascinating details are often unearthed in feature segments and this month the inspiration behind Adam Hughes Catwoman covers is revealed, as a fan of comic books and owner of those actual covers it is both insightful & informative. A myriad of techniques and tips are explored and documented while a feature article by Mike McCain discusses the issue of artist’s block.

I find Imagine Fx invaluable as an educational tool and make use of it on a monthly basis to support my teaching, furthermore I find it’s pages a place where I can spend recreational time with ease. If you are interested in fantasy and sci-fi art or digital art techniques in general you really should be subscribing right now.

Check out a video preview of this month’s edition below!!

GeekCaster Podcast Episode 9

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:11:51 +0000

Episode 9 of the podcast and the first of 2010, topics discussed include:

Bayonetta & Darksiders – Xbox 360
Collaboration & Information Sharing – Twiducate, Edmodo, SlideShare, Vimeo, Posterous
Dragon Age Origins Mac – GamersGate
On The Job
Development Projects – GCNN, GCS

Educational Podcasting

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:45:52 +0000

A friend of mine gave a very interesting presentation at Podcamp Barcelona last year on the topic of educational podcasting. Obviously it’s something I have great interest in and try to utilise wherever possible in my teaching. You can check out the presentation below.

Educational Podcasting – Podcamp Barcelona – Devia

View more documents from Stefaan Lesage.

GeekCaster Podcast Ep 8

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:58:24 +0000

Episode 8 of the podcast with reviews of Assassins Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and an update on GCNN. Podcast recorded in new recording studio!!

GeekCaster Podcast Ep 7

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:13:24 +0000

The podcast returns with details of what I have been up to over the past few weeks, an interview with some of the guys at Telestream and the announcement of the winner of the ScreenFlow competition.

Blue Snowflake

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:30:17 +0000

The podcast has been put on hold for the past few days but I feel it is probably a good idea for many reasons to get an episode out this week. For one it will help raise awareness of the ScreenFlow 2.0 competition and indeed give me the opportunity to voice some audio thoughts on some recent developments. To date most of my audio recording has been done using the MacBook Pro integrated microphone, which works fine for the most part, but having recently experienced the awesomeness of the Blue Snowflake at a mate’s house I think today may be the day that I enter the professional portable audio world!!

My brother is in the city for an interview at the moment but has agreed to pop into the Apple Store when he finishes around 3.30pm – I have already phoned to confirm stock, so with any luck when he returns home this evening I should be the proud owner of one truly great and undeniably cute Blue Snowflake. The investment seems like a sound one, if you pardon the pun, I am doing more and more audio production on the Mac with both the podcast and student learning materials in the form of screencasts, feedback and lectures. Also the podcast is a long term commitment so enhanced audio for that is something I certainly want to achieve, moreover I hope to be conducting an interview with a representative from Telestream in the near future and have been asked to guest on the Mac 20 Questions podcast as well – having a decent microphone is well worth investing in.

The Blue Snowflake is a condenser microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern so should provide added sensitivity for podcast recording, it will set me back £65 which is affordable and reasonable for the quality by my estimations. Research would indicate that it provides much greater sound quality than the integrated MacBook Pro mic – almost every review I have read commented on that fact. I hope to have an VideoCue unboxing and initial impressions on the blog later.

ScreenFlow 2.0 Competition!!

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:53:26 +0000

In conjunction with an upcoming e-learning event to be held on November 11^th the very kind people at Telestream have provided me with a copy of ScreenFlow 2.0 to give away to one lucky winner. The competition is open to viewers of the blog, listeners of the podcast and to those attending the event on the 11^th November.

To have a chance of winning all you have to do is identify how you would use ScreenFlow in your daily work flow. All entries will be judged in terms of creativity and usefulness and a winner announced on the 12^th November via the blog & podcast. If you are new to the concept of screencasting you can get some ideas via online research or by visiting Telestream. For example I use ScreenFlow for both software tutorial demonstrations and for providing students with video feedback on the work they have done.

Online entrants should add a comment to this post on the blog and will be asked to provide their email address for identification purposes, please make sure this is correct as details will be forwarded to this address. Only one entry per person please. Comments can be made by clicking the little sticky note to the right of the post.

Attendees at the e-learning conference will need to complete a paper based form available on the day.

The closing date & time for the competition will be 5.00pm GMT 11^th November.

Good luck, get creative and you could bag yourself a copy of the most powerful screencasting development application on the Mac.

GeekCaster Podcast Ep 6

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:58:08 +0000

This weeks show features discussion on:

FIFA 2010
Zombie Apocolapyse
ScreenFlow 2 Beta Participation
Fringe & Paramore
Time Management

GeekCaster Podcast Ep5

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:44:25 +0000

Finally episode five of the podcast there have been a few delays but better late than never right. This week I talk about:

Halo3 ODST
WET
Western Digital Studio, Neoprene Sleeve, HDD Case
E-Learning Development
Fringe
New Albums

The show also features an interview with one of my students in relation to ODST, cheers Matthew. Hope you enjoy the show, as always feel free to leave a comment.

GeekCaster Podcast Ep:3

admin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:46:56 +0000

Episode 3 of the podcast – Snow Leopard, Birds of Prey, PlanBook and Toe Breaking. Forgive the little audio blips – my head hurt a lot while recording this : (

Podcast Preview

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:32:41 +0000

The first week back to work has been the usual roller coaster experience, I have some idea of my new timetable but nothing fully established as yet. Hopefully everything will work out, in the mean time I am getting on with development and have a busy weekend ahead.

Episode three of the podcast will be available over the weekend, hopefully on Saturday. Below is an outline of the topics I hope to discuss:

Snow Leopard Review
PlanBook Review
News – Apple Conference
Watching – The Hurt Locker, Knightmare, Black Book
ScreenSteps Competion Results
Toe Breaking – What not to do!!

Content subject to change but an indication of what to expect.

GeekCaster Podcast: Ep2

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:43:03 +0000

Episode two of the podcast a little later than intended, but better late than never.

This weeks show has discussion on:

Batman Arkham Asylum – I review the Dark Knight’s latest video game outing.
ScreenSteps – A review of the application along with a competition to win a copy of the software.
Snow Leopard Preview
My Mac Work FLow – How and what I use to develop on the Mac
TV – Doll House & Fringe Reviewed
Pakuma Chokora K1 MacBook Pro Messenger Bag
Xcode & Moodle

Remember to respond to this post with how you would use ScreenSteps in your daily work flow for your chance to win copy of the software. Competition closes Wednesday 2nd September with winners announced on next weeks show. What I consider the most creative / useful ideas will win.

GeekCaster Podcast: Ep1

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:38:46 +0000

Even earlier than expected episode one of the podcast. Please forgive the background noise and less than perfect audio in places, I recorded this on my balcony window somewhat oblivious to the concept of background noise…. I promise to improve. Hope you enjoy.

The GeekCaster Podcast

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:09:07 +0000

With the dawn of a new blog structure, one I am pretty pleased with to date, comes the introduction of new projects and concepts. I have thought about producing a podcast/screencast for a long time now and although I have experimented with the idea in the past, I believe that I have a clearer idea of what I want to produce now than ever before. The GeekCaster Podcast then would essentially be reflection and exploration of geek culture, taking into account subject matter such as video games, alternative music, comics, technology and film. For the most part it would be an individual production in the form of an audio production or screencast, but round-table and group productions would also be considered when the opportunity presents itself. One of the main reasons for failure in the past was the logistical complications of getting a group of people together for a recording, either physically or indeed via the Internet, it is something I am just not prepared to do with any frequency this time round.

I would like the production to include some core components such as segments on what I am reading, watching, playing etc as well as Mac software reviews, development segments and weekly news. I hope that by exploring the things I find interesting in further detail others will also find something of interest and worth to listen to. Ideally I would like to have episode one available by the weekend but I know from past experience that these things take time, as a compromise I may settle for lower production values to begin with than what I consider ideal just to get the core work flow components in place. My pre-amp and podcasting microphone are both Mac compatible so I think I will install those and get set up at some stage after lunch.

Expect more details soon…