Pontydysgu produces a monthly podcast, Sounds of the Bazaar. The present series is sponsored by the JISC Emerge project.This page provides access to a back catalogue of our audio outputs.

Pontydysgu headquarters in Pontypridd, Wales and ‘Pontydysgu Studio’ as its filial in Bremen – that is how we have experienced it quite a long time. The name “Pontydysgu Studio” was used by Graham Attwell and Dirk Stieglitz when they worked with projects that had a radio program as its major contribution. Altogether, the years when that ‘studio’ was used, they were to a great extent characterised by multimedia, radio and video productions, e-learning … all this as a support for learning in the context of work. But then came the time for changes. Pontydysgu Ltd will continue as usual, but next to it there is the Valencia-based Pontydysgu SL. And alongside these changes the “Pontydysgu Studio” was closed. This week Graham and several friends have emptied it and closed that chapter of Pontydysgu history. Bye bye Pontydysgu Studio, good luck with Pontydysgu Ltd and Pontydysgu SL! I give the word to Paul McCartney to spell out his greetings:

Memories of the “Pontydysgu Studio” and of our joint activities of that era

My earliest memories on working in and with this Pontydysgu Studio go to the years 2004-2005 just before I started working in ITB and the University of Bremen (but had already got the status of Visiting Fellow). Graham had already become a renown blogger with his “Wales-Wide-Web” and he was promoting Open Source software in Education. We remember the pioneering project SIGOSSEE that brought several key actors together. And in the next phase the successor project Bazaar started to look at possibilities to spread out Open Educational Resources by different stalls under the common umbrella of the Bazaar. However, the greatest success story of this project was the radio program “Sounds of the Bazaar” that was continued in several successor projects. And it was then followed by other similar radio initiatives like the conference radio programs for Online Educa Berlin (OEB) or European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). During these years several radio interviews were also made with international guests visiting the Pontydysgu Studio – I still remember the interviews with Ji Li and Tien Je from Beijing, Nikitas from Athens, Lewis and Libby from Melbourne and several others.

But our cooperation was not only about multimedia, there were many research & development projects and initiatives in the field of vocational education and training (VET). Here it is worthwhile to mention that Graham had been recognised as a life-time Visiting Fellow (Gastwissenschaftler) of ITB. So, research in VET had a high priority. However, thanks to Graham and Dirk, the web and multimedia components started to play a greater role in these projects – one after another. And when these components started to become increasingly important, the projects became ‘learning laboratories’ for the research partners as well. Here I try to give a more or less comprehensive overview of projects or initiatives in which we (me and my ITB colleagues) have worked together with Pontydysgu during those years. After the acronym of the project and a nutshell description I have added in brackets the work with multimedia and web resources:

• WLP – Workplace Learning Partnerships (Project website that was enriched with project blog, project wiki and a gallery of video interviews and external video clips);
• TTplus – Framework for training of trainers (Conceptual and field-oriented project, summarised in a project wiki);
• iKoopNet – Initiative for a networked project to introduce e-portfolios and digital tools to vocational learning (was given up because the leading industrial partner was hit severely by the economic crisis);
• “Trainers in Europe” (EuroTrainer 2) – A network activity based on a Europe-wide consortium to promote networking among workplace trainers and trainers of training centres (Creation of a network platform with many communication and sharing functions);
• “Consultation seminars” – Europe-wide series of ‘regional’ consultation seminars (for different stakeholders) to discuss the role of common frameworks for promoting professional development of trainers (Web platform to bring together the results of different regional workshops; enriched with video material from the latest workshops);
• Euronet-PBL – promoting practice-based learning as a work-related learning component in higher education with focus on three domains – engineering, business management, vocational teacher education (Web platform enriched with project blog and a number of video interviews with partners and students);
• Politics – promoting learning about politics by means of storytelling, media commentaries and informal learning (Creation of a single platform with sections using multiple languages and with different kinds of ‘educational resources’, ‘competitions’ and storytelling components);
• Coop-PBL in VET – transnational project for sharing knowledge on problem- and project-based learning in VET with support of specific learning software and ‘virtual community’ section (Pontydysgu was not a partner but supported me in producing a large section of video interviews into the ‘virtual community’);
• Learning Layers – Major European research, technology and development (RTD) project funded from EU FP7 with a several technical, research-oriented and intermediate partners as well as application partners from two pilot sectors (construction and healthcare); the aim was to support learning and knowledge processes in SMEs with the help of widely usable digital tools (that networked web resources and were available as mobile apps). (Pontydsygu was leading the work package in which the digital toolset “Learning Toolbox (LTB” was initiated, developed and piloted in a highly participative and interactive process).

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I guess this is enough of the memories and of the project history. A lot of working and learning was involved in those activities that in many respects were linked to this famous “Pontydysgu Studio” (and to its extension, the “Pontydysgu Meeting Room” further down at Horner Strasse). Those were the days, but times – they are a-cha-anging as the old song tells us. So, we say goodbye to the Pontydysgu Studio with good memories in our minds and wish all the best to Pontydysgu Ltd and Pontydysgu SL in the new situation.

More blogs to come …

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Here is the podcast of our second live programme from OEB15. Our guest on the Friday were:

• John Bibby – Learning Layers
• Hani Malouf – Velawoods English
• Yishay Mor – MOOCs and Co, Spain
• Jane Richardson – Oracle Academy, UK
• Inge De Waard – Open University, UK
• ADInstruments Ltd -Tom Broughton (exhibition stand)
• Entropy Knowledge Network – Rubina  Antonelli (exhibition stand)
• Ilona Buchem –  Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin, Germany

The show was presented by Graham Attwell, Jenny Hughes and Chahira Nouira. The music is by Boom Boom Beckett from the Album “boom boom baby” and you can find it on Jamendo.com.

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We were again with our Sounds of the Bazaar radio stand at the OEB-Conference and broadcasted two programms. Here is the first show we recorded live on Thursday the 3rd of December. On the show were in chronological order:

• Paul Bailey – Jisc, UK
• June Breivik – Norwegian Business School
• Peter Isackson – SkillScaper, USA and Learnscaper, France
• Nick Kearny –  Boundaries Observatory C.I.C., UK
• Melanie Campbell (Bau-ABC Rostrup, Germany) and Raymond Elferink (RayCom, Netherlands)
• Norbert Morawetz and Clayton Black  –  Potential.ly, UK
• Volker Lichtenthäler – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
• Philipp Hoellermann – International Hochschule Bad Honnef, Bonn

As presenters we have had Graham Attwell, Jenny Hughes, Jaanika Hirv and Chahira Nouira. The music is by Gustavo Crochenci and you can find his music on Jamendo.com.

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Here is the second broadcast from our LIVE programme at the Online Educa Berlin 2014.

The music is by “Franck Camu“, which you find on Jamendo.com.

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I’m back from lunch and have just forwarded the podcast version of today’s broadcast to the press office at the Online Educa Berlin. I still work on the text about the participants but here is already the podcast for you to listen too.

The music is by “Red Lion“, which you find on Jamendo.com.

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Here you find the podcast of our second live show of Online EDUCA Berlin 2013. The list of people we had on the show and were interviewed by Jenny Hughes (JH) and Andreas Auwärter (AA) is quite long:

• Ali H. Abureesh, Umm Al-Qura University about Technology and Culture (by JH)
• Prof. Gilly Salmon, University/Business partnerships about Technology and Culture (by AA)
• Michael Moore, Senior Advisory Consultant Desire2Learn about Data mining  (by JH)
• Heike Philp, CEO of let’s talk online sprl about 3D language learning (by AA)
• Jeremy Rudy, Pearsons about Pearsons (by JH)
• Marcus Riecke, iversity about Moocs (by AA)
• Deborah Arnold, Vice Deputy Director, La Passerelle at Université de Bourgogne about Learning Journeys (by JH)
• Anja Lorenz about Open Res. Toolkit in Germany (by AA)
• Riina Vuorikari, European Commission about future trends (by JH)
• Carlos Delgardo Kloos, Departamento de Ingeniería Telemática about Global/Local moocs and companies (by AA)
• Phillip Gienandt, Lingua about using video for languages (by JH)
• Reception (by JH)

As always we played music from Jamendo.com. In the loop you heard Myriam Swanson and during the show we played tracks from Goo Goo Cluster.

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Here is the podcast of our first live show of this year’s Online EDUCA Berlin. More details will follow.

As always we played music from Jamendo.com. In the loop you heard Myriam Swanson and during the show we played tracks from Goo Goo Cluster.

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We had great multimedia fun at Online Educa Berlin. Besides presenting two of our by now traditional live radio programmes from the main bar at the conference, we also staged a Question time session. This offers a topical debate following the popular BBC Radio 4 format for sharp analysis, up-to-date knowledge, insights and a fresh view on education 2.0.

Participants (the audience) were invited to put forward questions to a panel for discussion.

The programme was chaired by Graham Attwell. The panel members were:

Paul Glader, WiredAcademic LLC, Germany

Kirsten Winkler, EDUKWEST, France

Melanie Campbell, Bau ABC Rostrup, Germany

Nick Kearney, Andamio Education and Technology, Spain

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Here is the podcast version of our second live internet radio show from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012. Details about people and programme will follow.

The music we played came from the album “Elixir” by “The TenGooz“. This and more you find on the great music website Jamendo.com. And as pre-programme music we had some great tracks from good old Woody Guthrie.

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Here is the podcast version of our first live internet radio show from Online EDUCA Berlin 2012. Details about people and programme will follow.

The music we played come from the album “Elixir” by “The TenGooz“. This and more you find on the great music website Jamendo.com.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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