NewsFeed | RSCs Scotland
Fortnightly bulletin from the Scottish Regional Support Centres
12th September 06
Welcome to the latest edition of Newsfeed, designed to bring you up-to-date information on the current issues relating to the use of ICT for teaching and learning.
As always, we welcome feedback on NewsFeed (or any Regional Support Centre service you may have used) through the RSC website.
1. Vacancy at RSC North & East: e-Learning Advisor (Resources)
This post provides an ideal opportunity for development in the expanding field of e-learning as you will engage with a range of colleges and higher education institutions, agencies and organisations on a regional and national level. The position is based at Edinburgh's Telford College at its new campus on the Edinburgh waterfront development. Some travel will be required to colleges and universities throughout Scotland.
e-Learning Advisor (Resources) details.
2. JISC news
JISC Invitations to Tender
There are currently three JISC Invitations to Tender which have been issued to the sector. The deadlines for the first two of these are approaching fast 
while the third closes on the 2 nd of November. You can find further information on each of the requests by clicking on the appropriate link.
- JISC ITT: Information Environment Test Bed Project
This Invitation To Tender invites proposals to undertake the scoping and development of a JISC Information Environment Test Bed that can demonstrate the vision of the Information Environment (IE), and that will enable JISC projects and other interested stakeholders to test and demonstrate interoperability with the JISC Information Environment. Deadline for proposals: 22 Sep 2006 - JISC ITT: Three studies on good practice and technology-supported approaches in recruitment and admissions. This Invitation To Tender invites proposals to undertake three studies into good practice and technology-supported approaches in recruitment and admissions. These studies will inform future JISC work within the e-Learning Capital Programme on the use of technology to support admissions to higher education. The studies are also expected to draw on good human resources practice in the employment sector. Deadline for proposals: 25 Sep 2006
- AHRC-EPSRC-JISC Arts and Humanities e-Science Initiative.
The AHRC, JISC and EPSRC are now inviting applications for research project grants under the e-Science Research Grants scheme. The call will support a portfolio of research projects up to a maximum of 48 months in duration, and for between £20,000 and £400,000 (fEC). The aim of the scheme is to advance research in the A&H through the use and development of e-Science technologies, as defined above. Deadline for proposals: 2 Nov 2006
JISC Content Procurement Company (JISC Collections) - Join now!
JISC has recently established a mutual trading company which will trade as JISC Collections. The formation of the company will ensure continued success at the negotiating table in a dynamic market place and the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to the needs of the JISC community. Membership will ensure your institution’s continued eligibility to take advantage of JISC negotiated and funded agreements. More at JISC website.
JISC Collections Licensing Workshops
JISC Collections is holding a licensing workshop in November in Edinburgh. Here’s an opportunity to learn more about the new and updated Model Licence, to share experiences and to help JISC Collections create new models for non-standard licensing. The JISC model licence contains more favourable provisions than any standard commercial licence for access and use of a resource. JISC Collections Events and Training Days home page.
Film & Sound Online
Following a review of EMOL (Education Media OnLine), the free online multimedia service has become Film & Sound Online. With a new, updated interface, Film & Sound Online also has important new functionality. Users can now browse the archives by subject. Other new features include a "Showcase", which gives a brief, visual demonstration of the range of content available in the service, and a "View or create learning materials" page, which enables users both to view case studies and reviews and to create learning materials.
TASI Online Survey
TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) is a JISC-funded service, providing advice and guidance to FE & HE on the issues of: creating, delivering and using digital images to support teaching, learning and research.
TASI is carrying out a survey to ensure they continue to provide current and potential users with the information and services they need. Your answers will help TASI improve areas of the service and identify potential future developments. Take the TASI Service Review 2006 survey.
JISC Legal Newsletter
Contains up- to-the-minute news on legal issues, publications and events and the JISC Legal Newsletter is available online now.
Thousands register for new web personalisation service
Only a month after launch, over two thousand people have already registered to use My Intute, a new service which allows them to personalise web resources for their own use and alert them to newly available resources. My Intute is part of the newly-launched Intute - formerly the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). Set up Your Intute.
3. UKERNA Video-Conferencing Course
A new UKERNA Training Course 'Introduction to Video Conferencing' is being trialled in Edinburgh on 11th October 2006. This course is for anyone wishing to make use of videoconferencing, including administrative, teaching and technical staff. Although a number of spaces on these trials are set aside for invited subject experts, FREE places are available to other staff from JANET connected sites, available on a first come first served basis, and limited to one delegate per organisation. Simply book online or contact Katharine Iles, (UKERNA training administrator) on 01235 822322.
4. Accessibility News
TechDis Accessibility Essentials Series
TechDis, the specialist JISC service which advises on accessibility, is currently producing a series of publications focusing on the essential knowledge everyone should have in regard to web accessibility. The full Accessibility Essentials series covers
- 1: Making Electronic Documents More Readable
- 2: Writing Accessible Electronic Documents with Microsoft® Word
- 3: Creating Accessible Presentations
- 4: Writing Accessible Electronic Documents with Adobe® Acrobat
The first two documents in this series are available now and will be disseminated to all FE, HE and Specialist College institutions in the autumn term. The well-illustrated booklets are written in plain non-technical English and include an accompanying CD with integrated Flash animated step-by-step guidance. TechDis Publications.
Accessibility is not enough
Good usability practice is essential to making websites that are both accessible and easy-to-use. Last year the website consultancy User Vision surveyed 208 disabled users throughout the UK, asking them to rank in order of preference their most important issues when browsing websites. Surprisingly the results didn’t focus on narrow issues, but instead on more general usability features such as:
- Clear content, straightforward language and clear simple layout
- Good navigation and the ability to know where you are within a site
- Meaningful and clear hyperlinks
More details from the Guild of Accessible Web Designers.
Is your website usable?
Want to test your website with disabled end users but don't know where to start? Do you know what disabled end users actually think of your site? Would you like to try out your web content with a range of different end users?
A website has been set up by Usability Exchange to provide accessibility testing by disabled users. Organisations can now find out what disabled people think of their website by logging onto Usability Exchange.
5. Learning to Socialise! Social Software
Blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, e-portfolios, MY Space – a new raft of software for the Internet bringing a new focus to how we can interact with networks to create more social and yet personal spaces. This section is designed to look at some of the latest ‘Web 2.0’ tools and advice on how to get the most out of them.
JISC info Net - Social Software Overview
Names vary for this new wave of online social activity: Social Software, Social Media and Social Computing. Whatever we call it the key word is 'Social'! JISC infoNet has created a brief overview of Social Software which includes a number of links to examples of the genre.
6. VLE User Groups News
Blackboard & Celtic WebCT User Groups (Joint Event)
October 5th 2006, Strathclyde University. Bringing together both the Scottish BUG (Blackboard User Group) and the Celtic WebCT User groups for the day, this Scotland-wide event will cover both HE and FE perspectives. In addition to presentations by Blackboard, Richard Parsons of the University of Dundee will present as will Catherine Durkin from the University of Strathclyde. Invitations and an agenda will be distributed shortly through the JISC RSC user group lists. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the date, suggested items for the day or would like to present at the event, please contact Theresa Duffy (0141 585 0022) or Carol Walker (0131 559 4112).
Scottish Moodle User Group (SMUG)
The next SMUG meeting will be hosted by the JISC RSC South and West in Glasgow on September 28th, 2006 at the JISC Regional Support Centre in Maryhill, Glasgow. It is open to anyone from a college or university anywhere in Scotland. Deneka McDonald and Howard Miller from The Learning and Teaching Centre at The University of Glasgow will showcase the latest version of Moodle (V1.6) to the group.
Moodle Moot
The third annual Moodle 'Moot' or conference dedicated to users, developers and administrators of Moodle was held in July at the Open University. View the Webcasts of sessions.
7. Digital Curation Conference
2nd International Digital Curation Conference – (21-22 November 2006, Glasgow). The conference will explore the topic of Digital Data Curation in Practice. Keynote speeches will be made by Dr Hans F Hoffmann, CMS Team Leader, CERN and Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). A comprehensive programme of papers, posters and demos will take place over two days along with a conference banquet at the Glasgow City Chambers. Full programme, further info and registration.
8. Learning Spaces e-Book
Space, whether physical or virtual, can have a significant impact on learning. A new e-Book on Learning Spaces, from EDUCAUSE focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments. Moving soon – or planning to? Then inform the debate.
9. Web news
Roadrunner
Computer giant IBM is to build the world's most powerful supercomputer at a US government laboratory. The machine, codenamed Roadrunner, is designed to be four times faster BlueGene/L the current champ, also built by IBM. New Jargon Alert!! 'Roadrunner' will be able to achieve "petaflop speeds," say IBM. (One petaflop = 1,000 trillion calculations per second). Read the BBC article on Roadrunner.
Classic novels from Google - free!
Search engine Google plans to offer consumers the chance to download and print classic novels free of charge. The firm's book search tool will let people print classics such as Dante's Inferno or Aesop's Fables, as well as other books no longer under copyright. BBC article "Google makes novels free to print".
Google Gadgets!
Google Gadgets are mini-applications that Google personalised homepage users can add to their desktops. Gadgets include: calendar, world clock, thumbshot bookmarks and translation tools. Collect the full set from Google.
Google Opens Up 200 Years of News
Web giant Google is further expanding its online empire with the launch of the Google News Archive Search. The web-based tool allows users to explore existing digitised newspaper articles and more recent online content, spanning the last 200 years. A search will return results from both free and subscription-based news outlets. Partners in the project include the websites of the New York Times and The Guardian in the UK. BBC article "Google opens up 200 years of news.
Crabby Office Lady
Solid advice with attitude from Microsoft! Think Crabby isn't real? View her live action videos and see for yourself. While you're at it, take a look at Microsoft Office demos.
Social Search Service from Yahoo
A new service from Yahoo! allows users to ask other people's advice, when looking for anything from a good hotel or bar to an apple pie recipe, rather than rely solely upon electronically generated search results. The search and online portal operator will promote Yahoo! Answers with its largest advertising campaign in Britain since the dotcom boom. Yahoo! Answers is the latest example of social search, a new trend in online applications that allows people to collaborate and share information online - as epitomised by sites such as Wikipedia, Digg and YouTube.
Students given free MP3 players
College students are to be given free iPods so they can catch up on missed lectures in their own time. South Kent College in Dover has spent £25,000 on Nano iPods for 250 students in the hope they will listen to podcasts of lectures, as well as music. Assistant principal Josh Coleman said he had looked to the US and Australia for new ways to encourage learning and insisted that the MP3 players would only be handed out next month to those teenagers who had completed all their assignments and had full attendance.
Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft® Office
Microsoft and Creative Commons have teamed up to release the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office, a copyright licensing tool that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licenses to works created in popular Microsoft Office applications.
Video Jug
This new website can show you how to change a tyre, tie a full-windsor-knot or make Pilau rice using video tutorials. The new venture, called Videojug.com, is the latest attempt to cash in on the boom in online video in the wake of American sites such as You Tube. Visit VideoJug.com
10. Scotland - month-long focus on education in September
As pupils and students return to their desks, September has been chosen as the month to focus on education and learning in Scotland. The Executive, Learndirect Scotland and Scotland's learning community has, for the first time, arranged a series of events throughout the month to spotlight lifelong learning and education. The calendar of events involves practitioners, learners and policy makers, bringing interested parties together to explore current and future educational opportunities. Learn the latest at Scottish Executive website.
11. Training from the RSCs in September & October
RSC North & East
- 26th -October: Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking
- 27th October: Writing for the Web
RSC South & West
- 3rd October: Writing for the Web
- 4th October: WebPages from Scratch
- 5th October: What's up and What's in
- 10-11th October: Dreamweaver Essentials
- 31st October: Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking
The full listing of all the workshops currently being run by both RSCs in Scotland is available at:
These courses and others are listed on the Scotfeict website which also lists other staff development opportunities for FE staff within Scotland. Nationwide training opportunities are available on the NLN events database.