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RSC NewsFeed – October 5th  2004

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This Newsfeed issue has a virtual presenter, another opportunity to win something, a bit of technical talk and (as always) links to some great online learning resources and professional development events. . Whether you’re happy or disappointed with  NewsFeed,  please help us to help you by offering feedback through our website at www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/rscne/contact.html.

 

Here’s your starter for 10 … or rather 11 ….

 

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  1. e-Olympics Get Off to a Flying Start in Edinburgh!
  2. Becta E-Learning Conference
  3. Health & Life Sciences Online Learning
  4. It’s an MLE, Jim – but not as we know it!
  5. Teaching Resources for Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences
  6. TechTalk – the nuts & bolts of online delivery

·         UKERNA Security Workshops

·         UKERNA Web Services Trial

·         Network Security Unit Trial

·         Location Independent Networking Trial

·         Microsoft squares up to the Linux threat

  1. New ‘Junior Exec.’ Website launched by the Scottish Executive
  2. New JISC guide to Intellectual Property Rights for Content Developers
  3. Is Copyright Dead? Creative Commons Goes Live at Last!
  4. JISC Funding Opportunities
  5.  Training and Events from the RSCs this month

 

 

 

 

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e-Olympics get Off to a Flying Start in Edinburgh!

Graeme Obree (: http://www.flying-scot.co.uk/individuals/graeme_obree.html), Scotland's own world record speed cyclist, launched the first ever e-Olympics on September 23-34th in the 'Athens of the North'. Forty delegates from all over Scotland, from the Borders to Shetland, took part in this intensive training event designed to lead participants through the stages of creating a learning object, to end up, finally, with a finished object for use with real students in real learning situations.

The e-Olympics had a very practical focus on the nuts and bolts of online learning. With specialised input from EDINA and the JISC Collections and Services teams, delegates were introduced to cutting-edge solutions to the problems of e-development and to new resources designed to make learning truly interactive.

The event was supported by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council's eMerge Programme ( http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/emerge/index.html) and  the RSC is committed to sharing the good ideas that flowed from the hard work of all the teams on the day. Please bookmark this site - http://www.e-olympics.org.uk - and see how it develops over the forthcoming weeks as a thought-provoking collection of exemplars and good practice.

Look out for the Highland Games, later in the year!

 

 

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Becta E-learning Conference

 

The Post-16 E-learning Practitioners' Conference 2004 organised by Becta and supported by the National Learning Network (NLN) will focus on personalised learning.
The conference will be held at the Manchester International Convention Centre from 29-30 November 2004 and  is aimed at practitioners, lecturers, technologists and senior managers in the learning and skills sector.

 

Delegates will also have the opportunity to hear about the vision for personalised learning and e-learning from key policy makers; see how other practitioners have successfully implemented personalised learning; and try out the latest software and hardware.

Charges to attend the conference are: non-residential £189 for one day or £299 for two days. Residential charges start from £379. Online booking and further information is available at https://www.livegroup.co.uk/post16/

 

 

 

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It’s an MLE, Jim … but not as we know it!

 

Is a Managed Learning Environment (MLE) a thing or an application? According to the latest JISC-funded review of MLE developments across the HE and FE sectors it’s neither. It is instead “ … a framework for the integration of both legacy and new systems that enables an institution to conduct its core business more effectively and efficiently.” [6.8]  As Angus Deayton would say, “So now you know …” 

If, however, this isn’t as clear as you would like, have a look at the full report, which covers all the MLE development work funded by JISC to date, evaluates the impact and appropriateness of these activities and makes recommendations for future activities. More information can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=mle_review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Teaching Resources for Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences

PSIgate and GEsource, two of the JISC-funded hubs within the Resource Discovery Network (http://www.rdn.ac.uk/) have developed a selection of Subject Packs aimed at lecturers and students in Further and Higher Education. Each of the Further Education Packs covers a particular topic relevant to the curriculum and provides a list of websites appropriate to the topic and level. The websites are fully described, and provide either a tutorial, or lecture notes, or material that can immediately be used by the student. An HE pack in mineralogy is currently being prepared.

Nineteen packs for FE are available, in Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Physics, by accessing PSIgate at http://www.psigate.ac.uk/ and clicking on ‘Subject Packs’

GEsource offers nine FE Packs in Geography and the Environment, available at http://www.gesource.ac.uk/home.html through ‘Subject Packs’ in the same way as above.

 

Health & Life Sciences Online – a chance to win £30!

 

BIOME, the JISC hub for the Health and Life Sciences (http://biome.ac.uk), would like your feedback to help shape the future development and enhancement of the service. Complete the short questionnaire and you will be entered into a draw to receive one of six £30 book or Amazon  tokens.

See http://biome.ac.uk/questionnaire/ for further details and to complete the survey.

 

 

 

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Online Theatre Resources
 
‘Stagework’ is a website that goes behind-the-scenes of British theatre to explore the people and processes behind current stage productions and offers a virtual  ‘access-all-areas’ pass to the work of the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Rep. The site contains video-streaming of rehearsals and performance; interviews with actors, directors, designers; lots of questions, plenty of answers and material designed to stimulate debate. There are also learning and teaching materials in Citizenship, Drama and English as well as guidance on careers in the creative industries. 
The site currently covers productions of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Shakespeare’s Henry V, a retelling of European folk tales by poet Carol Anne Duffy called Beast and Beauties, and (forthcoming) a production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Log on to www.stagework.org.uk to discover one of the best theatre resources around at the moment!
 
 
 
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TechTalk – the nuts and bolts of online delivery

 

 

·          UKERNA Security Workshops

 

UKERNA are offering two security workshops aimed at staff who are responsible for site information security on 1st and 2nd November 2004 in the Teacher Building 14 St Enoch Square Glasgow G1 4DB. The Security Management Training Course is to be held on 1st November and the Security Technical Training Course on the second .

 Full details on these courses are on the UKERNA/JANET website at http://www.ja.net/training/security.html (for course background) and http://www.ja.net/conferences_training/calendar.html for location and timing details.

To book a place on either course complete the online booking form available at: http://www.ja.net/training/booking-form.html

 

·          UKERNA Web Services Trial available until July 2005

 

Since the start of the year, UKERNA have been offering a set of Web services (Web Filtering, Web Mail and Web Hosting) to a limited range of Specialist and Adult & Community Learning Colleges. Interest in these has grown, and they have now agreed with JISC that the services can be offered to a limited number (approximately 25) other JANET sites with a primary connection on a trial basis until July 2005. The intention is to use this trial to consider longer term funding and policy issues connected with the service. The trials are available on a first-come, first-served basis – so hurry, while stocks last!!

 

General information about the UKERNA Web Service can be found at :

http://www.ja.net/services/webservices/webmail/JANET-Web-Mail-Service.html

Web Filtering details are at http://www.ja.net/services/webservices/web-filtering/web-filtering.html

Web Hosting details are at http://www.ja.net/WebHosting/index.html

 

 

·          College ICT Managers : We have a Fortinet Network Security unit available for evaluation!

 

The RSC Scotland North and East has taken delivery of an FG100 unit from Fortinet for evaluation. This unit provides real-time network protection through a combination of network-based antivirus, web content filtering, firewall, VPN, network-based intrusion detection and prevention, traffic shaping, and anti-spam. It also eliminates viruses and worms from email, file transfer, and realtime (Web) traffic. If you would like to evaluate this type of security device, contact the Regional Support Centre Scotland North and East Helpdesk on 0131 315 7674

 

 

 

 

·          Location Independent Networking Trial

 

A Call has been issued by UKERNA, to provide JANET connected organisations with the opportunity to participate in a National Location Independent Networking trial. Full details about the trial are available at http://www.ja.net/development/network_access/lin/callforparticipation.html

The deadline for responses to the call is 12 noon on Tuesday 12 October 2004.

 More details about Location Independent Networking are available at http://www.ja.net/development/network_access/lin.html

 

 

·          New Windows XP releases aimed at ‘open source’ Linux

 

‘Open source’ developments featured heavily in last month’s Newsfeed (21.09.04, section 3) and they are back in the news again. Linux is the popular open source Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world.  PC vendors in developing markets such as Russia and India have increasingly been using the freely available Linux as an alternative to installing Windows, saving themselves licensing costs and threatening Windows’ dominant position with new users. 

 

Now Microsoft has decided to fight back with new ‘Starter’ editions of Windows XP. These are ‘specially localised’ versions of the main operating system, incorporating interfaces adapted to the language of the developing region being targeted while cutting out some of XP’s more sophisticated features such as home networking and the ability to support unlimited open programs. Microsoft has run into trouble in this area before, when it bundled Internet Explorer as the default browser within Windows, pre-empting the user’s ability to choose alternatives such as the open source browser then offered by Netscape. On that occasion (in 1996) critics alleged that Microsoft was engaged in anti-competitive activity.  Netscape challenged the practice in court and were steamrollered by the legal might of the world’s largest software corporation. Round 1 of that battle went to Microsoft. Round 2 seems to have started already, with Microsoft tackling not only Linux, but Google (in a re-run of the ‘browser wars’) and Real Player (in a similar dispute over the bundling of Media Player within Windows packs).

Read more about Linux events at http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158470 and http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39123240,00.htm.  The Real Player battle is covered at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1318190,00.html. The Linux World Conference is being held this week at the Olympia in London : you’ll have to be very fast to get there, but you can check out what’s happening at http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.uk/index.htm

 

 

 

 

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New ‘Junior Exec.’ Website from the Scottish Executive

 

A new website aimed at explaining government and current issues to young people aged 8 to 12 has been launched by the Scottish Executive.  The Jx site uses a much simpler design than that of the Executive, and has sections dealing with topics such as Voting, the Environment, Law & Order and Sport. It also introduces Seonaid, a ‘virtual presenter’, who links each of the pages.

 

The Jx site can be found at http://www.juniorexec.gov.uk/juniorexec/jx_display_home.jsp?p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&pContentID=419&

 

 
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New JISC guide to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for Content Developers

 

The JISC Legal Information Service has just published a user-friendly introduction to IPR for e-learning content developers and managers. It is intended to act as a point of entry to the field of IPR in e-learning that will provide a good foundation for building expertise in the e-learning developer community. Written by an e-learning content developer who has had to deal with these issues in practice, the style of the guide is practical and approachable with many useful tips and observations. It’s a minefield out there , but fear not – help is at hand!

The guide is available in both Web and text formats at http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/publications/johncasey_1.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is Copyright Dead? Creative Commons goes live in the UK at last!

 

Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright law have long been the ghosts lurking at the feast of online learning, threatening to spoil the party. A possible solution to the problems they pose is the alternative copyright model offered by Creative Commons.  This enables authors and developers to make material available to others through a flexible menu system of more liberal copyright options. This was the model referred to when the BBC announced its intention to make its archive publicly available through the Creative Archive project earlier this year.

The UK version of this has now been developed, and is out for consultation until the launch date of 1st November.  Read about developments at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/04/creative_commons/

but also be sure to have a look at the excellent Creative Commons site at http://creativecommons.org/

The BBC Creative Archive project was launched at http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/05_may/26/creative_archive.shtml and the many issues it raises are covered by Wired magazine’s news service at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63857,00.html

 

 
 
 
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JISC Funding Opportunities

 

JISC offers regular funding opportunities across both the FE and HE sectors, generally by calling for project proposals which tie in with work areas identified by the various JISC Committees. You can check these opportunities, or look at the work of completed projects, on the JISC website at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding

 
 
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Training & Events
 
A full listing of all the workshops currently being run by both RSCs in Scotland is available at:
 

RSC Scotland North and East                

www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/rscsupport/training.html
 
RSC Scotland South and West                
www.rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk/events.htm
 
These courses and others are listed on the Scotfeict website at:
www.scotfeict.ac.uk/events
 
which also lists other staff development opportunities for FE staff within Scotland. 
Nationwide training opportunities are available on the NLN events database at
www.nln.ac.uk/events
 
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