Happy New Year to all our readers! The new session is already well under way, and we have a range of new material to support you in your use of ILT in the curriculum. We start by updating you on two RSC initiatives from the end of last year, and then offer round-ups of the latest online learning resources and conference opportunities. On the way, we also look at topical elearning resources such as Moodle and blogging, and include useful links to supporting material for each area, before concluding with information about new funding and training opportunities. As always, we welcome feedback on NewsFeed (or any RSC service you may have used) through our website.
The second round of the RSC’s image-based online learning development project began at the end of last week. Over the next 12 weeks, staff from nine colleges across the North & East region will be meeting regularly to develop their skills in sourcing and producing digital images for online content development, and the end results of their work will be available on the web for the benefit of everyone in further and higher education. The second round of the project, which starts on 4th April, is still open to potential image engineers, although applications are building up rapidly – so if you want to develop your online skills, apply now!
Find out more about the Image Engine, see the results from the project pilot, and find out how to apply, at the Image Engine website.
It seems strange to be talking about advent in January, but the RSC’s Online Advent Calendar competition to win a MP3 Player/Recorder is still open for entries – until Friday 21st of January, anyway, when the winner’s name will be drawn from the correct entries, and posted on the RSC North & East website. So if you haven’t entered yet, get onto the website and work through the simple questions. You’ll learn about some of the JISC resources that are on offer to further and higher education and you’ll get the chance to win the prize in the process!
Google have announced plans to feed their 'Google Print' project with content by digitising large selections of several of the world's best libraries. Material will be drawn from some of the most prestigious institutions in America, such as Stanford, Harvard and Michigan (where 7 million books are planned to be digitized over the next 6 years). Selected material from other institutions will also be incorporated , including 1 million items from the Bodleian Library in Oxford). The aim of Google Print is to make library-held information more easily accessible by incorporating it into the Google search process. The complete text of material will not normally be available through the service, but users will have the chance to read extracts and bibliographies of copyright work, and they will also be able to see whether a local library has the work, or link to commercial online sellers such as Amazon.
The background to the service is explained in a Google Press Release.
The beta version of Google Print is explained on the Google site at http://print.google.com/.
Other coverage of the launch is in Search Engine Watch.
And on the BBC website.
The open-source VLE product Moodle continues to generate a significant amount of interest from colleges and universities looking either to introduce a VLE to their current ILT provision or to change from an existing commercial VLE provider they have become dissatisfied with. Ferl has several resources that should provide a good starting point for those considering a Moodle move :
Some of the main features of Moodle and considerations for anyone considering implementing it are covered at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=7007
Mike O’Brien, Vice-Principal at North Devon College, talks about his college’s recent changeover to Moodle at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=7693 and a case study of implementation at Bromley College is available at: http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=7591
Ferl is keen to encourage contributions from all FE practitioners that can help them increase their current guidance on making best use of both Moodle in particular and the use of ILT in general.
Contact them at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/contribute to make a contribution.
Within Higher Education, several universities are experimenting with open source VLEs, and Dublin City University is one of those which has decided to implement Moodle institution-wide. The university has helpfully made publicly accessible its deliberations in coming to this decision, which are available for view at http://odtl.dcu.ie/wp/2004/odtl-2004-01.html
GetRef is a cross–searching tool, developed at EDINA, for finding bibliographic references contained in Abstract and Indexing (A&I) services. GetRef is configured to access numerous resources, and provides access to only those that the user is entitled to via an Athens username. It can be accessed by means of a web interface or act as a tool for library portals.
For more information, see the GetRef site.
To request an institutional trial of GetRef please contact EDINA at edina@ed.ac.uk
The JISC-funded Digimap service has been making Ordnance Survey map information available in digital form to both further and higher education for the last five years. Now EDINA, the providers of DigiMap, have announced that they are to extend the service by offering users access to the Landmark series of historical map data These are digital scans of OS paper map sheets and will include: all available County Series maps at 1:2,500 and 1:10560 scales published between 1843 and 1939; all available National Grid maps at 1:1,250, 1:2,500 and 1:10560/10,000 scales published from 1945 and before the introduction of the Ordnance Survey’s digital Land-Line product.
For further details of the new service, go to http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=news_digimap110105
A Pilot Service for this new data will be made available during March 2005. If you want to be an early adopter of the service, wish to take part in associated workshops and usability testing, or just want more information, please contact EDINA direct at edina@ed.ac.uk.
The popular SCRAN website has been redesigned and relaunched as ‘a virtual laboratory for the Arts and Social Sciences’ There are new templates to create handouts, posters, calendars and online resources, and downloadable ‘how-to’ guides for creating PowerPoints and online content with SCRAN material. Formally launched last week at the BETT Conference, the new site has been running as a beta version alongside the original site for the past few months but the handover has now been completed, and users are no longer presented with a choice between the two versions. If you haven’t had a chance to see it for yourself, why not have a look by going to www.scran.ac.uk
The Guardian’s end-of-year round-up reviewed the top 100 websites across 20 categories, including Reference, Blogs, Offbeat and Education. List compilation is always an inexact science, but the article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1374155,00.html is worth looking through to check for familiar friends and to discover new acquaintances. The Education section is (inevitably) schools-based, but there is some maths and science material here that will be of interest, and it also features the National Theatre’s interesting Stagework site, available at stageworks
JISC and Thomson Learning are working in partnership to develop an interactive online resource covering all aspects of automotive technology, including both practical methods and the essential theoretical knowledge needed to complete motor vehicle courses for all awarding bodies (NVQ, IMI and C&G) and at all levels (1-3). JISC would like to obtain feedback on the development so far, and have prepared an online demonstration and consultation form to enable lecturing staff to trial the resource and comment on it.
Both are available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_tmvd_cons.html. Consultations are asked for by 18th February.
UNDERSTANDING VORN (UV) is an online image generator from the creator of the 10X10 news visualiser, Jonathan Harris (previously featured in NewsFeed on 14.12.04). Drawing on the open-access Flickr image repository, and on more than 800,000 weblogs, UV is a constantly changing image display, created by scouring the Web for the four most recently posted images which begin with the letters V, O, R or N. These letters spell out the title of a German alternative art magazine (http://www.vornmagazine.com/ ), dedicated to 'open access' art publication. There is no control over the nature of the images displayed (which may create problems for use by some students within a college setting) but the arbitrary and unmediated nature of the site presents interesting opportunities for use in design and media-related subjects.
According to the site : "The harsh impermanence of this system stands in stark contrast to a magazine, which is obsessed with collecting and archiving. UNDERSTANDING VORN is about experiencing and forgetting, reflecting the transient intangibility of the online reality. From the chaos can emerge extreme ugliness and extreme beauty, but the lack of premeditation makes it all very human. Understanding VORN has seen suicide notes, sex pictures, and love letters, but these poignant moments inevitably get swallowed by time, as the program advances, obsessed with finding what's new." Objets trouvées for the digital age? UV can be found at http://understandingvorn.org/vorn.html
Eduserv (the not-for-profit educational IT suppliers) have a range of material to promote accessibility which is either discounted, or available free-of-charge. These include MindGenius, Inspiration, Dragon Naturally Speaking, ViewletBuilder and the LIFT products to aid web and online learning accessibility.
Full details of these offers are available from http://www.eduserv.org.uk/chest/agreements/atindex.html .
The activity of ‘blogging’ (weblogging, for short) has been receiving a lot of attention recently. Blogs are basically online web diaries, posted by enthusiasts and open to others to read and/or comment on as they see fit. Largely uncensored and unlicensed in any way, they have usually been welcomed as an expression of the democratic freedom of speech which underlies the internet. The Guardian, for example, made extensive use of posts by the ‘Baghdad Blogger’ Salaam Pax during the Iraq war, to provide an insider’s view of the US invasion (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,14024,1081974,00.html), and New Scientist recently featured the rise of blogging in China as an example of the way in which the technology can be used by people to effect cultural change (see http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6707)
Large claims have also been made for the usefulness of blogging in education, especially to capture the collaborative, ‘ground-up’ building of knowledge through co-operative activity :http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/articleprintversion.cfm?aid=4677.
However, not everyone is so enthused with the blogging phenomenon. The news recently has been full of references to the Edinburgh employee of Waterstone’s sacked for referring to his employers in passing in a private blog (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,14024,1388466,00.html ) and others have sounded a note of caution about their use for teaching (see http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/9.1/binder.html?praxis/krause/index.html).
As ever, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of all of this fuss, but to help you make up your own mind, a general introduction to blogs is available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/0,14024,1076754,00.html.
Can this be true? It is, according to a report on ‘The Developing Impact of ILT’ presented to the National Learning Network by the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) and Sheffield Hallam University, and this has been the line taken on the story by the press (see, for example ‘Boy’s Toys’ in Education Guardian).
The report has much more to say on the issue than just this, however, and it’s well worth going to the LSDA website to look at the Summary Report in full.
Introducing e-learning in a changing educational environment isn't easy, as many readers will know from experience. A joint ALT / JISCinfoNET / JISC Development workshop addressing this issue is happening in the Orange Studio, Birmingham on 24th February 2005. The workshop will explore the cultural issues involved in connecting learners and institutions, and ask how best to overcome traditional barriers to progress with e-learning. Think tank sessions will discuss practical solutions to problems and presenters include Mark Stiles from Staffordshire University and Paul Bailey from JISC. The event costs £70 : further details are available at http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=174
OSS Watch are hosting a one-day conference on 20 January 2005 in central London looking at e-Government, central research funding bodies and open source licensing, copyright etc and the picture on open-source adoption from other European countries. The conference runs from 10:00 to 17:00O and the conference is free for delegates from UK higher and further education. See http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/events/2005-01-20/ for further details.
If you are not from a UK institution of further or higher education but would like to attend this event, please contact OSS Watch prior to registering, info@oss-watch.ac.uk.
UKUUG's 2005 LISA/Winter Conference with the theme 'Security & Networking' will be held at Birmingham's Paragon Hotel on Thursday, 24th February and Friday, 25th February. This conference is a must-attend event for system and network administrators. As well as the technical talks, the conference provides a friendly environment for members to meet, learn and enjoy lively debate on a host of subjects. Full details are available from the User Group website.
The National Centre for e-Social Science at Manchester University is hosting the first conference on the subject from 22-24th June this year. The call for papers, and further details of the conference itself, are available on the conference webpage .
JISC invites proposals to trial (that is install, test, demonstrate and evaluate) the use of one or more of the e-Learning Framework (ELF) toolkits to integrate two or more existing e-learning applications or to enhance the functionality of an existing e-learning application. A total of £300,000 is available for this work. As a general guideline it is anticipated that most projects will be awarded funding of between £10,000 and £30,000 depending on the extent and complexity of the work involved. The deadline for tenders is 1300 hours on 8 February 2005. The full invitation to tender.
JISC is commissioning four studies in the field of scholarly communications, covering the areas of Publishing Trends, Open Access Business Models, and Citation Information and Disciplinary Differences and Needs. Total funding of £110,000 is available. For further details, go to http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding_scholcommsstudies
For further information on these and all the RSC’s courses, or to book a place, please go to the RSC websites at http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/training/index.php and http://www.rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk/events.htm .
Are you involved in reviewing your processes? If you are designing or implementing an MLE, reviewing your Records Management in the light of the Freedom of Information Act or selecting and implementing new information systems, the answer is ‘Yes’. You may be simply interested in how you can provide a better service to students. These and many other activities can be handled more easily and effectively when a thorough analysis of the related processes is undertaken. This is a one-day workshop offered by the RSC and delivered by JISC infoNet, the Centre of Expertise in the Planning and Implementation of Information Systems. The cost for this event, which is subsidised under the eMerge programme for FE Colleges, is just £50. Staff from Higher Education are also welcome to enroll for this course, though the SFEFC subsidy may not apply. Contact the RSC for further details.
OASIS (Organisation, Access, Storage, Integration and Sharing of electronic resources) is a new set of e-learning activities funded through the eMerge programme, and run by the two Scottish RSCs and the SFEU. There are two OASIS courses being offered to colleges in February 2005 at special subsidised eMerge rates of £50 per day:
This course is designed for staff involved in cataloguing library materials using MARC21. It is particularly useful for libraries just beginning to use MARC21 or about to change to it. The course has the following objectives:
The Learning Object Metadata Application Profile has been developed by the Higher Education Academy for the cataloguing of Learning Objects used in the Higher and Further Education sectors. This two-day training programme, devised by Allegro Training Hampshire, provides an explanation of the profile and its associated cataloguing interface. It provides detailed instruction on the use of the various elements within the profile, and, on the second day, practical sessions using the interface to catalogue selected examples.
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.
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