We looked at Lectopia back when it was still called iLecture and had meetings with Michael Neville of The University of Western Australia, Richard Bennett of Apple and others in 2005. At the time there were several prohibiting factors to us trying a full scale uptake of the system. It is interesting now to read of the acquisition on Monday of the Lectopia software by Anystream, the large US based company specialising in streaming media encoding technology.

Full press release: Anystream Apreso Acquires Lectopia from the University of Western Australia

Next Monday 3rd September Aidan and Caroline will attend a Caledonian Academy Learning Communities Forum here at Glasgow Caledonian University. The forum entitled ‘Student and Staff Perceptions of Web-based Lecture Recording Technologies’ will be led by Dr Rob Phillips from Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. This should be an excellent opportunity for us to hear about recent developments in Australia, and for our team to discuss the recording and curation of lectures with Caledonian Academy staff and other colleagues. We are seeking permission to record the event and will write an event report on this blog.

The Guardian featured our new Saltire Centre in its recent Educational Supplement (published Tuesday the 19th of September). The review is a very positive one and highlights on how the building is changing the way in which students interact with each and how the building is a sign of things to come and is paving the way for other Universities employing such a forward thinking approach to student learning and learning environments.

The Saltire Centre, a futuristic but people-friendly learning space at Scotland’s fourth largest university, has a serious purpose. But its impact on visitors and users, from the talking lifts to the inflatable igloos, is anything but solemn. It lifts their spirits and makes them smile.

Read the full article here.