NewsFeed | RSCs Scotland
Fortnightly bulletin from the Scottish Regional Support Centres
5th December 06
Wild winds and driving rain have marked the start of another Scottish December. So why not take a short refuge from the elements? Get yourself a fresh cup of coffee, snuggle up next to a warm monitor and read the latest and greatest eLearning news brought to you through the RSC Newsletter.
1. JISC News
Frequently Asked Questions on Open Source Software Licensing
This new publication from the JISC deals with many of the legal aspects of the ownership and operation of open source software. So have a look at the FAQ on OSS from JISC! (PDF 92KB).
Swap your software for free Open Source versions
Still in the land of Open Source, there is a piece of 'free' software waiting to be downloaded which can replace most of the standard software that comes with a new PC. You'll find software for everything from recording sound files to managing your money at the Simple Dollar website.
If Open Source Software (OSS) is a new concept to you then you might want to visit the specialist JISC site on the subject, OSS-Watch, for a basic introduction.
TechWatch Call for Report
JISC TechWatch (the service which monitors emerging technologies and standards) has issued an open call for a new report on: Service-Oriented Architectures: the way forward for HE & FE? Which will evaluate its relevance to HE/FE, and its likely future direction. Further details can be found on the JISC TechWatch site.
CAMEL used to Build a Community of Practice
CAMEL (Collaborative Approaches to the Management of E-Learning) was a JISC programme which set out to explore how institutions who were making effective use of e-learning and who were collaborating in regional lifelong learning partnerships might be able to learn from each other in a community of practice based around study visits to each of the partner institutions.
A CD-ROM is now available which provides a guide to using the CAMEL model to build a community of practice. The CD-ROM can be ordered online from the JISC infoNet Publications page.
Join a JISC Sub-committee – but you'll have to be quick!
Ever wanted to be on a JISC sub-committee, but were too afraid to ask? Well, here’s your chance! JISC wishes to refresh its database of persons interested in becoming members of JISC committees and contributing to the work of the JISC to the benefit of UK education and research. Applications received are reviewed on a quarterly basis and those received by 6 December 2006 will be reviewed by the Nominations Committee in January 2007. Your JISC needs you! Apply immediately via the JISC website.
2. Disability Equality Duty (DED) comes into force
45,000 public bodies across Great Britain are covered by the Disability Equality Duty (DED) which came into effect on 4th December 2006. DED is designed to ensure that all public bodies - such as central or local government, colleges and universities, health trusts or emergency services - pay ‘due regard' to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of their work. The Disability Rights Commission has produced a range of guidance and information for public bodies and disabled people on the duty so for fuller information from the Disability Rights Commission.
3. Late breaking news
last chance for training workshops
There are limited number of places still available at 2 workshops running this week! Thursday 7th December JISC infoNet Change Management at Edinburgh's Telford College and Netskills Project Management for the Education Sector at the Edinburgh Training Centre. Further details for both workshops.
4. Resources roundup
Spruce up your VLE skills
Need to squeeze better performance out of your VLE? Want more bangs per buck? Then this free e-book from the learning guild might just help you do that. '339 Tips on the Implementation of an LMS' (Learning Management System) is available from the ELearning Guild.
How do you Moodle?
Moodle made even easier! How about adding a video clip to your online course? But where do you get it and how easy is it to pop a video into your VLE? This how-to guide from FERL (BECTA) is designed to help you find a video on YouTube and then embed it as a resource in a Moodle course.
Scottish Moodle User Group (SMUG) meeting
The next meeting of the SMUG group will take place December 7th. SMUG is jointly hosted by the Scottish RSCs and the venue alternates between Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you’re interested in finding out more details of SMUG meetings or how you can join, check the SMUG website.
Free coursework for Special Educational Needs teachers
Coursework.info has announced that it is now providing free access to all of its 130,000 essays, to academics teaching students with special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities.
5. The great and the good – naughty or nice?
Giving Big Brother the slip - online
Net censorship is a growing issue, and several countries have come under fire for blocking online access. Now a new tool capable of circumventing government censorship of the web has been created at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. The free program, called 'Psiphon' and released on December 1 st , has been constructed to let citizens of countries with restricted web access retrieve and display web pages from anywhere. Read the full BBC article Web censorship 'bypass' unveiled.
PowerPoint games
Learning through play. Parade of Games in PowerPoint contains easy-to-assemble educational games to support key points and reinforce learning - all based around familiar software. More of the same is also available from PowePoint Games.
Netiquette for blogs
Blogs and other Internet sites should be covered by a voluntary code of practice similar to that for newspapers in the UK according to Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin. At a recent conference on free speech he said opposed government regulation of the Internet, saying it should be a place "in which views bloom", but unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content. Read
Voluntary code for blogs 'needed' from the BBC.
Sharing the limelight
Gone with the Wind 2: you too could be a movie mogul ...follow the link to a useful roundup of the pleasures and problems of sharing video online - where to do it, how to do it and key factors to be aware of when you are doing it. View the rushes at master new media.
Podcasts are non-habit forming
The number of US Internet users who have experimented with downloading a podcast continues to grow but new research suggests that few remain hooked. The survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found 12% of US people online had downloaded a podcast, compared to just 7% earlier in 2006. But despite this growth, just 1% of respondents said that they would download a podcast on a typical day. This figure remains unchanged from the February survey. Get the full story from the BBC.
6. Picture this – image information
TASI Technical Training Times
TASI (the Technical Advisory Service for Images) has announced times and locations for staff development courses in 2007. The TASI training programme is aimed at those involved in image digitisation projects, those who wish to capture digital images and those who wish to use them in learning and teaching. Check out what's on offer from TASI.
Snapshots of the world
A few issues back we featured Geograph a photo library which is trying to gather images of every square kilometre of the UK (so far an impressive 58% of all the grid squares - each 1km 2 - in Great Britain have been filled with photos and 7% in Ireland).
Now this trend is gathering pace world wide and you can find more details in an excellent Guardian article 'Snapshot of true content generators'.
Franco-files. Educational images from France.
Advertising images from France present a funny take on a serious subject - saving power (and helping to save the planet).
7. Scottish Executive
New Chief Executive for the Scottish Qualification Authority
Dr Janet Brown has been appointed as the Chief Executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). Dr Brown joins from Scottish Enterprise, where she was the managing director of industries, and will take up her new post at the end of February 2007. Until then, Tom Drake will continue as the SQA's interim chief executive.
Funding Council to get tough on retention
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC), responsible for distributing public funds to Higher and Further Education, is to seek yearly updates from institutions whose retention rates are poor. Figures released earlier this year revealed universities and colleges north of the Border have the highest drop-out rates in the UK.
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, 12 per cent of Scots students left university after their first year, compared with the UK average of 9.5 per cent. The SFC's own figures show a fifth of Scottish college students leave before the end of their course, compared with 14 per cent in England. In its corporate plan for 2006-9, published November 2006, the Funding Council says addressing this problem is one of its "highest priority actions". The SFC's full corporate plan.
Scottish education authorities branded "weak"
Leadership in more than a quarter of Scotland's education authorities has been labelled "weak" in a new report. A study by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published on November 28th found leadership in two of Scotland's 32 local authorities to have "major weaknesses", while a further seven had "important weaknesses". Read the full article 'Inspectors: schools leadership weak at quarter of councils' in the Herald.
8. If music be the food of love...
Your music. Your way
Specify a music style, mood, tempo and "age" of the music you want to listen to and Musicovery does the rest for you. Musicovery, is a new completely visual streaming web radio that allows you to precisely customize the genre and style of music you want to listen to and then it streams it for you through your browser, PDA or smart phone. Listen in...
What's the score?
A new variety of software such as eJamming, WorkshopLive, and In the Chair can connect students and teachers in online groups or in solo sessions to record and edit music online. The growing number of homes with access to broadband internet service has helped fuel this emerging trend. eJamming, a software application and online service that enables musicians to find, network, and play music online with one another in real time, facilitates music education, collaboration, and social networking over the internet, its authors say. Does this spell the end for air guitar?
What's Goin' On? Know the score at eSchool News.
9. Training from the Scottish RSCs
RSC South & West
- 5 December 06: JORUM workshop
- 12th December: Film and Sound Online and Education Image Gallery
- 13th December: Creating Inclusive E-Learning Resources (AM)
- 19th December: eSkills for LRC Staff
- 17-19th January: Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database
- 23rd January: Design Solutions for e-Learning
- 24th January: Detecting and Deterring Plagiarism
- 25th January: Modernising Learning
- 30th January: Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking
- 31st January: Surviving Web Overload
RSC North & East
- 7th December: Scottish User Moodle Group Meeting
- 7th December: Change Management
- 8th December: Project Management for the Education Sector
Netskills in Scotland
- 16th January: Developing Problem Based e-Learning (Glasgow)
- 17th January: Effective e-Learning with Moodle (Glasgow)
The full listing of all the workshops currently being run by both RSCs in Scotland is available at: