After a short break for Easter welcome back to a bumper edition of NewsFeed. This one is chock-full of information on technology and its use in FE and HE, how we use it today and how we might be using it tomorrow. Look out especially for news of a major conference from the Scottish RSCs guaranteed to be 'transformational' plus advanced news of courses and resources to keep you busy as the days get longer.
As always, we welcome feedback on NewsFeed (or any Regional Support Centre service you may have used) through the RSC website.
This major conference for managers and practitioners in FE and HE, set for Wednesday 31st May 2006 at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, is already proving very popular and places are disappearing fast. The conference will examine the potential positive transformational effect that new technology and methodologies can have on the learner experience, and how learners themselves are central to the change. Keynote speakers include:
In addition, we have a range of stimulating workshops and discussions at which we hope your perceptions of educational transformation will be challenged and broadened. If you'd like to put your name down for this conference, please sign up via the conference website at: The Learner Driver website. There's no charge for attending the Learner Driver Conference, but remember places are going fast – book today!
This exciting two-day staff development event – hosted by the two Scottish RSCs - is aimed at librarians and staff involved in the organisation of learning resources within Scotland’s Colleges. This specialist e-Olympics to be held at the Edinburgh Training Centre on the 8 th and 9 th of June is designed to lead delegates through the process of systematically planning and creating online learning sequences. This is now a tried and tested formula which has been enthusiastically received across the country.
But this time there’s an extra twist and added value.
Colleges carry out detailed induction procedures for all new staff and students and of course much of the information imparted is very similar across the country. College VLEs and Intranets now provide the opportunity to move elements of the induction process online and this training event is designed to help you create the web-based materials needed to do that.
So, an added objective of this Library e-Olympics is to use the two days to work in teams to create shared online induction materials. These will be built using simple tools such as PowerPoint and can later be easily customized to suit the demands of your home College.
The event is free of charge to all library and learning resources staff but e-Olympics usually book up fast. So act quickly and book your place by going to the eOlympics web site.
JISC and ALT (Association for Learning Technology) have signed an agreement promising a significant increase in the already close level of cooperation between the two organisations. Learning technology skills are central to the agreement and its implementation and among the main areas of collaboration will therefore be support of community-strengthening initiatives such as UK Lab Group and ALT’s certified membership scheme, CMALT. The partners will be particularly active in supporting events of interest to the UK e-learning community. Mutual sponsorship arrangements, communication activities and regular and ongoing information exchange are other areas in which ALT and JISC have committed themselves to support their mutual aims and objectives.
For further information, please go to: JISC and ALT partnership
You can't add any more hours to your day so learning to manage your time more effectively will help you plan your work more efficiently and ensure deadlines are met. Managing time effectively is a particularly crucial ingredient in successful projects. This latest addition to the JISC stable of management toolkits explores all aspects of time management and how you can use simple techniques to save this most precious of commodities. Download the Toolkit.
The JISC's Digitisation Programme, an ambitious project designed to provide access to a range of digital assets across the academic community, has now established a blog where members of that community can monitor new developments in the programme, comment on them and potentially shape the way forward as further resources are earmarked for digitisation. (One more blog out there in the blogosphere – see later items on this – and potentially an innovative way of encouraging participation.)
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) invites proposals to undertake a review of the RDN. The recommendations from the review will inform decisions about JISC funding of this resource and its strategic development. The review should begin by 15 June 2006 and will provide the evaluation report by 6 July 2006. The final report of the strategic review scheduled for the end of September 2006.
Funding of up to £30,000 including VAT and expenses is available for this study. The deadline for proposals is 13:00 hours on Tuesday 16 May 2006. The full Invitation to tender can be found at the JISC web site.
UKERNA, which manages the operation and development of the JANET network on behalf of the JISC has recently issued an important security warning. Organisations which provide web sites or other opportunities for individuals to publish on the Internet should be aware of new requirements contained within the Terrorism Act 2006. Under this the police can give written notice to an organisation that a particular statement they publish electronically is unlawful, because it relates to terrorism. Such material must then be removed within two days. An organisation served with a notice is also required to take all reasonable steps to prevent future re-publication of the same or similar statements. The Act itself is published online.
NewsFeed has monitored the growth of blogging (the creation of online diaries - weblogs - and related discussion areas) in recent times and new figures indicate that growth in the use of blogging is still exponential:
Get the full picture by going to technorati.com
And now a chance to talk about the phenomenon and its implications for education face-to-face at the UK's first educational blogging conference. This is scheduled for London on the 2 nd of June and will bring together practitioner and research-based expertise to explore cutting edge issues surrounding the educational use of weblogs and weblogging software. Keynote contributions from Stephen Downes and Barbara Ganley form part of the programme which can be viewed at the conference blog at: http://www.incsub.org/edublog/
Genealogy is the second most popular pursuit on the Internet (no prizes for guessing the most popular) and resources are constantly being added which make tracing family details easier – no matter who you are. Now the 1841 census details for England and Wales have been published. Search there and you’ll find details of Queen Victoria and Albert happily registered at Buckingham Place and the young Charles Dickens domiciled at London's Devonshire Terrace. This latest release means that all the publicly available censuses - from 1841 to 1901 - are now online, featuring a total or about 165 million names. For fuller information see the BBC article.
Nintendo has sold nearly five million copies of its three Nintendo DS brain training games since the series launched in Japan a year ago. The first title in the series, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, sees players follow a daily regime of brain- enhancing exercises and is due to be released in the UK in June. The software comprises a variety of activities designed to give brains a workout including solving simple maths problems, counting people going in and out of a house, drawing pictures on the Nintendo DS touchscreen, and reading classic literature aloud into the device's microphone. Players are given a brain age reflecting their performance. In theory, at least over time, your brain age should get younger as you achieve better scores. Read the full BBC article.
In a recent speech in the House of Lords the neuro-biologist Susan Greenfield raised the question of whether the avalanche of new technologies we are exposed to is actually changing the nature and function of the brain. There has been a massive and radical change in the environment we inhabit and we are rapidly moving away from a culture based on words to one based primarily on images. Yet we take this massive shift in the nature of human life for granted. For detailed discussion (words mostly) see the full article.
This new – short – report from BECTA (the British Educational and Communication Technology Agency) looks closely at some of the emerging technologies which are likely to have a major impact on the world of education. Its five major sections cover:
Download the 'Emerging Technologies for Learning' Report.
The era of mass media with its roots in the printing press is giving way to a new media world which is personal and participatory. Such a change is set to profoundly alter the world that we live in and the media industry. This change is featured in the latest edition of The Economist magazine which contains a pull-out survey of new media by Andreas Kluth, the mag’s technology correspondent. Two articles are freely available online: Among the audience and It's the links, stupid.
You can also download a series of audio discussion in MP3 format.
The final view looks at science and how it is being changed and will be changed in the future by the new technologies. The computing revolution of the last two decades has revolutionised the way scientists work. From sequencing genomes to monitoring the Earth's climate, many recent scientific advances would not have been possible without a parallel increase in computing power. So what is just over the horizon for the relationship between computing and science? The February issue of the magazine Nature has a series of features on the subject – sponsored by Microsoft Research. Click the future of computing to go there.
Disabled users to test websites Disabled people are being drafted in to help ensure websites are usable by all. The pool of disabled surfers has been brought together by the Usability Exchange, which aims to give instant feedback on website navigation. Website managers can use remote viewing software to watch how easily the surfers are able to move through a site as it is tested. The service launches as new guidance is issued calling on websites to involve disabled people in the user-testing. For more information have a look at the BBC article.
This four day online conference is aimed at everybody who is responsible for using and implementing learning platforms, including Virtual Learning Environments, in education (higher and further education, ACL, schools). The conference has two main themes:
For more information and booking details please go to the becta web site.
Microsoft has launched Windows Live Academic, a potential competitor to Google Scholar. The Microsoft version, though still in beta, covers peer reviewed articles on computer science, physics, electrical engineering and related subjects and boasts more than 6 million records from approximately 4300 journals and 2000 conferences. Though the initial version is limited to the subjects above, content from other subject areas is promised. A review of the service is available from the Resource Shelf.
This is a new course aimed at both academic and admin staff covering the tools available in Microsoft Outlook which can help you to manage your time efficiently. The course which costs £50 will be held at the Curriculab in Edinburgh.
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