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RSC NewsFeed - 13th January 2004

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Happy 2004 to all our readers from staff at both Scottish Regional Support Centres.

 

In this issue:

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1.      Spring Conference - Changing the Culture with ICT

2.      Invitation to tender for JISC study

3.      New Version of Hot Potatoes Now Available

4.      Get a Life - Join the JISC

5.      Netskills Workshops in the Curriculab on 29th & 30th January

6.      Networkshop: for Network Managers and Technical Staff

7.      The Wonder of Electronic Whiteboards

8.      Crafty . . .Crafty

9.      Oxford Scholarship Online Trial Extended

10.     New Digital Copyright License for FE

11.     Training and Events

 

 

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Diary Date: Spring Conference - Changing the Culture with ICT

 

Further Education is in the midst of a sea of change, driven and fundamentally shaped by the increased use of ICT in Colleges. This conference - to be held at Glasgow Concert Hall on Tuesday 9th March - is designed to explore the meaning of this change and particularly the key area of interoperability and to disseminate the results of the JISC's SWANI programme which has been exploring that area. Organised by the two Scottish Regional Support Centres the conference will be free to interested staff from Scotland's Colleges. Watch this space for details of an exciting programme and booking information which will appear on 27th January.

 

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Invitation to tender for JISC study

 

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has an invitation to tender inviting proposals to undertake a preliminary investigation and foundation study of personalisation technologies and techniques for use within the JISC Information Environment. This work will include both portals and other presentation services and will make recommendations on how these might make use of personalisation to enhance their service to users. The work is intended to be a short-term study to provide greater information on the role personalisation might play in ongoing developments within the JISC Information Environment. As such, the work is proposed to take place over 3-4 months. The deadline for receipt of tenders is 12 noon on Tuesday 3rd February 2004. Funding of up to £35,000 (inclusive of VAT and related travel an subsistence) is available for the study. Further information about the tender and a full ITT can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding_personalisation

 

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New Version of Hot Potatoes Now Available

 

After two years in development, version 6 of Hot Potatoes for Windows has been released. New features, include:

·     Full support for Unicode (so you can create exercises in Japanese, Russian, phonetic characters, etc.)

·     No frames!

·     Timers on exercises

·     Mixing of short-answer and multiple-choice questions in one quiz

·     Question-weighting and percentage correct settings for answers

 

For a complete list of new features see: http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/v6_faq.htm#NewFeatures

Download software from: http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/index.htm#downloads

 

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Get a Life - Join the JISC

 

The Joint Information Systems Committee is an advisory committee to the UK post 16 funding councils (further and higher education) and research councils. JISC is responsible for funding IT services and providing innovation in the use of IT for learning and teaching, research and administration with a  budget of around £64m per year. If you might be interested in becoming  a JISC committee member see: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/vol_com.html for further details on how to apply.

 

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Netskills workshops in the Curriculab on 29th & 30th January

 

29th  January - Web Accessibility: Design for All

 

This workshop is aimed at anyone who produces web pages and wishes to understand and explore the principles and practice of producing accessible content.

http://www.netskills.ac.uk/workshops/event/edcoll-jan04-access-r1/index.html

 

30th  January - Exploring XML

 

A  practical workshop, aimed at experienced HTML authors, introducing a wide range of new and exciting possibilities from multiple content transformations to creating WAP pages and producing XML from databases. This workshop can count towards a Netskills / BTEC Professional Development Certificate (PDC).

http://www.netskills.ac.uk/workshops/event/edcoll-jan04-xml-r1/index.html

 

Both workshops will take place at RSC Scotland North & East's new Curriculab Training Suite at Edinburgh's Telford College.

 

 

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Networkshop 2004 : for network managers and technical staff

 

Networkshop is an annual event organised by UKERNA. Aimed at network managers and technical staff from the JANET community, the conference provides a forum for discussion on the latest network technologies and brings together expertise from all aspects of networking. Bookings are now being taken for Networkshop 2004 which is being held at the University of Keele from the 6 - 8 April. Further details at:

http://www.ja.net/conferences/networkshop/index.html

 

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The wonder of electronic whiteboards

 

'Aren't electronic whiteboards wonderful? The government clearly thinks so. An extra £25m of funding has been allocated to put whiteboards into London schools, and an extra £60m in support funding for ICT will help ensure the chalkboard joins the abacus and the quill pen on the list of extinct educational technologies'. A thought-provoking article from the Education Guardian:

 http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,10577,1116483,00.html

 

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Crafty . . Crafty

 

The Scottish Arts Council has launched a new web portal for the Arts & Crafts Community. The 'Craft Scotland' pilot website showcases the wide variety of crafts and applied arts activity around the country.

 http://www.craftscotland.org/

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Oxford Scholarship Online Trial Extended

 

The JISC is looking for your views on 'Oxford Scholarship Online' and whether access to it should be subsidised for FE and HE. This collection of over 700 books from OUP includes Philosophy, Religion and Theology, Political Science and Economics and Finance and  will increase by at least 200 titles a year. The collection can be sampled online until 30th January and your feedback would be greatly appreciated. To request a trial access, please email consultations@jisc.ac.uk. Alternatively, contact Brian Mitchell from the JISC Collections Team on 020 78481736.

 

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New Digital Copyright License for FE

 

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) has recently launched a new blanket license for Further Education colleges which will provide new digital copying rights. For more information:

http://www.cla.co.uk/media/press_releases/press103.html

 

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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               

http://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: http://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 http://www.nln.ac.uk/events

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