If you have any comments and/or contributions to make, please send them...

• ...using the Online Comment/Feedback Form or
• ...email the editor John Dalziel at support@rsc-northwest.ac.uk

The Regional Support Centre eMagazine provides news of funding, current projects, initiatives and examples of good practice in eLearning, and offers ideas and support for the HE, FE, ACL, WBL, 6th Form and Specialist College Managers & Practitioners, that are supported by the RSC here in the Northwest.

Note: - Although every care has been taken in the preparation of this eMagazine, no warranty is given by the author or the Regional Support Centre-Northwest as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it and neither the authors nor the RSC-Northwest shall be responsible or liable for any errors or omissions. 

Venue: Midland Hotel, Forster Square, Bradford BD1 4HU

Fee: £45 per person including refreshments

NIACE does not charge VAT on conference and course fees

This conference is aimed at raising awareness of the e-learning activities taking place within the OL&S sector, and the OL&S e-learning national framework. It seeks to influence policy and decision makers with regard to ICT and e-learning.

Engaging offenders is particularly challenging in view of their difficult past learning experiences. Since the use of ICT and e-learning has been linked to increased learner motivation, it has a role to play in the Government's change agenda. Offender Learning and Skills is one of the LSC's key priorities, as announced in its annual statement of priorities. The LSC has asked NIACE, in consultation with the sector, to develop a new national framework for Offender Learning and Skills in England. The framework will assert the need to make best use of ICT for learning; both as a discrete subject and key skill for living and employment and as a medium for learning other subjects.

The event will be of particular interest to:

• Policy and decision makers working within OL&S
• Heads of Learning and Skills
• Probation managers OLASS Provider managers
• Managers working with offenders in the Third Sector
• Other organisations engaged with the offender learning and skills agenda.

For further details and to reserve a place, look up:

http://www.niace.org.uk/Conferences/Conferences.htm

Enquiries to Gurjit Kaur on 0116 204 2833; e-mail: gurjit.kaur@niace.org.uk

 

Building on the success of the 2007 conference, which attracted over 200 delegates from across the UK and as far away as Russia and New Zealand, the 2008 conference will focus on the relationships between research, innovation, and development. There will be a distinct spotlight on the concepts of learning environments and their elearning components - as they exist now, and as they might transpire as time progresses.

Keynote Speakers:

Les Watson, Freelance Educational Adviser, Interim Director of Information Services at the Royal Holloway University of London and Consultant to the Joint Information Systems Committee e-learning programme on Technology Enhanced Learning Environments

Eric Hamilton, Research Professor and Director, Centre for Research on Learning and Teaching, Institute for Information Technology Applications, US Air Force Academy

 

Call for Registration:

The conference is open to everyone working in further and higher education, both nationally and internationally. You can register a place at the conference by completing the online electronic registration form (http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/Sites/SOLSTICE/Form/Conference/Registration.htm).

Fees for the conference and evening seminar are detailed on the website.

For further details please visit the conference website at www.edgehill.ac.uk/solstice/conference2008.

Navigate to http://www.networkadvanced.com/webclips/iphone/showClip.php?id=1007

From your iPhone or iPod Touch running firmware version 1.1.3, tap the plus icon below at the bottom of your screen to add this WebClip to your home screen. The icon on your home screen will be that showed above, and the web page opened when tapped will be http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk

OR...

If you are on your iPod Touch or iPhone, click here. If not, go to http://www.NetworkAdvanced.com/webclips/iphone/ and in the search field search for ID1007

P.S. If you want to make your own icon for your contacts, learners, staff etc then go to http://www.networkadvanced.com/webclips/index.php.

To upload your own correctly sized (57x57pixels) PNG image (Make it before you go to the website) and then use that as your webclip icon.

• Join the MOB
• Memory Game (another fun way to pass your time)
• Music using ONLY sounds from...
• Procrastination...
• Songerize : Simple Song Finder

In this music, the only sounds are Windows XP and 98 sounds.

Signs of Compulsive Procrastination

Compulsive procrastinators may not have all the signs listed here, but if you, or your colleagues, identify with many of these characteristics, you are probably a compulsive procrastinator.

1. Disappointment is a way of life. We constantly disappoint other people and ourselves by not keeping our promises.

2. We have enormous difficulty getting started on new projects, or transitioning from one project to another.

3. We have a very poor sense of time, chronically underestimating or overestimating how long a task will take us to complete.

4. We have difficulty organizing projects by breaking them down into steps; we don't know where to start, even when we're willing to start.

5. We are surrounded by clutter and disorganization in our homes and work spaces.

6. We are regularly late for appointments.

7. We are acutely aware of what we should be doing, or think we should be doing, and oddly out of touch with what we actually want and need.

8. We feel uncomfortable saying "no" to requests from others, and instead express our resentment through the passive resistance of procrastination.

9. We suffer from Demand Resistance, causing us to do anything and everything except the one thing we most need to do.

10. We are short-term thinkers, focusing on short-term pleasure while ignoring long-term well-being.

Songerize is a web-based song finder and music player in its simplest form. Or you just enter the name of your favorite  artist and let Songerize choose and play one of their tracks. Apart from that, Songerize also allows you to search for songs by title and (if found) listen to them.

Check it out and enjoy your eBreak at http://www.songerize.com/ 

The Academy is pleased to announce the 2008 eLearning research call is now available and funding to a maximum of £30,000 per project is available for up to 6 successful projects. This years call themes are:

 

1. Using technology to support the learning contract between employers, students and higher education institutions
2. Using technology to support student transition into higher education
3. Using technology to support assessment and the delivery of student feedback

For further information and a expression of interest form please go to e-learning research observatory page http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/elearning/elro

The Eduserv Foundation has announced it will make up to £300,000 research grant funding available.

Bids are invited with a closing date of 14 March.

The main e-learning and computing themes where projects are encouraged are:

• online identity*,
• the 'open social graph'**, and
• always-on Internet access and mobile computing***.

*An "online identity" is a persona that people establish in online communities.

**The "open social graph" is a machine-readable description of the online identities in one or more online communities and the relationships between those online identities.

***"Always-on Internet access and mobile computing" results from the growing availability and use of personal, mobile computing devices (laptops, PDA, hand-held devices, mobile phones, etc.), coupled with increasingly pervasive wireless network access.

For more information go to http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/grants/0708.

Dr Katherine Clark, Associate Academic Adviser Centre for Bioscience, tells us...

"The Centre for Bioscience, a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, supports teaching in higher education to improve the student learning experience in the biosciences. As part of this support we offer funding to practitioners for teaching and learning projects within higher education."

"We are currently offering grants of up to £3000 for members of the HE in FE bioscience community, this funding is offered to encourage the development, establishment or validation of innovative learning, teaching and assessment materials or methods. Deadline for applications is Wednesday 16th April 2008 further information is available from our website at http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/tdf/."

"If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me"

Dr Katherine Clark, Associate Academic Advisor;

• E-mail: k.a.clark@leeds.ac.uk

• http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk

• Centre for Bioscience
  The Higher Education Academy
  Room 9.15, Worsley Building
  University of Leeds
  Leeds LS2 9JT
• Tel: 0113 343 1852
  Fax: 0113 343 5894

Two areas of project work with deadlines of 31st March 2008 are...

• ADM-HEA (Art Design and Media Subject Centre of the Academy) is offering teaching fellowships of up to £3000 with the aim of rewarding innovative and exciting studio-based teaching.
  Details at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/detail/fun57;
• The Physical Sciences Subject Centre is offering development grants of up to £5000 for projects in a number of areas of teaching. Deadline 31 March.
  Details at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/detail/physci_dev_grants.

Note: - Find out about funding opportunities for e-learning and other projects with the Academy at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding.

ISC Circular 1/08 - Institutional responses to emergent technologies - has been issued with a closing date of 26 March.

JISC invites institutions to submit proposals for a number of small-scale pilots to support institutions in their response to staff and student expectations of flexible, convenient and time-saving access to institutional systems through 'Web 2.0' technologies and mobile devices.

Find out more at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2008/02/circular0108.aspx 

Girls are more confident than boys about using a computer, a survey of more than 1,000 children suggests.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7270307.stm.

The share of female professors has edged up slightly, but they are still out-numbered more than five to one by their male counterparts, figures show.

Read the full article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7269436.stm.

The government is not on track to meet its target of 90% of adults achieving the equivalent of five good GCSEs by 2020, the Conservatives warned today.

According to the latest figures from the Department for Innovation, Skills and Universities (Dius), 30% of adults do not have level 2 qualifications.

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2260698,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

"While respecting the old adage of never judging a book by its cover, titles can be very illuminating. Last week saw the publication of the government's Strategy for the Future of Apprenticeships in England.Two aspects stand out. First..."

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/opinion/story/0,,2252388,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

Universities will be urged to nourish students' souls as well as their minds and wallets at the Guardian Higher Education summit in London.Today's students are as interested in their own personal development as they are in learning about their subject or getting a well-paid job, university and student leaders will say.

Read the complete article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2254743,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

The government on the 29th February 2008, set a 15-year deadline to equip the higher education system to meet and beat its global competitors.

John Denham said:

"I think we should aim to produce together a 10- to 15-year framework for expansion and development of higher education, setting out what universities should aspire to achieve and the role of government - not to write government policy but to inform it and stimulate debate."

 

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/administration/story/0,,2261202,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

"Universities may have to drop their dependence on exams and consider new ways of assessment if they are to respond adequately to the needs of dyslexic students, according to the higher education independent adjudicator, Lady Deech.

Speaking today at the Guardian's Higher Education summit, she said a large number of complaints came from dyslexic students saying they had been refused extra time in an exam, or had been unable to take exams at all because of their disability."

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2255910,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

A new report puts the drop-out rate at 1 in 5, but some universities have a knack for keeping numbers up.

Find out more at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2259841,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

A UK-wide independent inquiry that will look at how the use of new technologies by the "Google generation" will shape higher education was launched on the 29th February 2008.

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2261078,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

"Are FE colleges being pushed into offering diplomas by tough new targets for A-level courses?"

"How far is the government prepared to go in its effort to make sure that diplomas bed down and take root? Would it, for instance, squeeze the number of A-level courses in further education colleges in the expectation that students would have to sign up for the new qualifications"

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2255759,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

"Universities should offer more detailed information about courses to the Facebook generation, the shadow universities secretary, David Willetts, said today.

The Guardian's Higher Education summit heard that students were sharing information about the offers they receive for university courses on social networking sites, forcing universities to rethink the kind of information they give out."

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2255922,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8.

"Though nobody could be more anxious to discover the fate of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) than the people who work there, the rest of the further education sector also watches with interest."

Read the full article at http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,2252357,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=8. 

The government has published its Apprenticeships Review (See publications section of this eMagazine) which outlines the measures it will take to ensure apprenticeships become a mainstream option for young people, as well as plans to boost apprenticeships for older learners.

Last November the Government announced increases in funding to expand the Apprenticeship programme over the next three years for both young people & adults and this latest review sets out how:

* that expansion will be delivered
* the quality of apprenticeships will be improved
* better support will be offered to employers providing high-quality apprenticeship places

The plan sets out objectives to make apprenticeships a mainstream option for 16-18 year olds, alongside other education & training routes and to ensure that an apprenticeship place is available for all qualified young people by 2013, with significant growth in apprenticeships for older learners as well. On this basis, it anticipates that 20% of all young people will be undertaking an apprenticeship within the next decade.
The 'Apprenticeship Review' is published alongside a joint command paper, 'Ready to Work, Skilled for Work: Unlocking Britain's Talent' from DIUS and DWP. This sets out how Government intends to work with business and employers to raise the skills of the country.

Read more at http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/0/2FF1295AA9DAC919802573DE0042473B?OpenDocument.

Post-16 vocational courses are providing students with the relevant skills to meet industry needs according to Ofsted’s post-16 good practice survey reports... Read the full report at...

http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-7B5JVF

The five good practice reports can be found on the Ofsted website at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk

• RSC Monthly Podcast...
• CamStudio
• iDesktop.tv
• SciVee Pubcast
• Screencast-o-Matic
• VideoSpin
• What is going on in Primary Schools? (Slide show and useful links)

This month's Podcast Interview is with Mick Merrick and is about eAssessment Portfolios at Mid-Cheshire College

Mick Merrick, Assessor and Internal Verifier at Mid-Cheshire College, talks about their use of eAssessment Portfolios.

Mick discusses the advantages of using eAssessment Portfolios, how they have been used at Mid-Cheshire College, as well as advice on choosing an ePortfolio system.

Use this mp3 player to listen to the podcast...

Or go to http://www.garageband.com/mp3/Assessment__ePortfolio.mp3?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2raVWxZW1l

...to download.

If you wish to...

• ...make any comments on our podcasts or
  
• ...be a volunteer for future podcasts (sharing good practice)

then please contact Kevin

He can be contacted by email
at kh@rsc-northwest.ac.uk

CamStudio

• ...is appearing in more and more workshops as "the Tool" to make videos without a video camera!
• ...is a nice free open source capture program that records all screen and audio activity and creates standard .avi files.
• ...has its own built-in SWF Producer and can turn those .avi files you converted into stream-friendly Flash video .swf files.
• ...uses their own lossless codec that produces nice, clear results all the while at a smaller file size than most other popular codecs.

Findout more and/or download at... http://camstudio.org/.

Note: learners can use this tool to provide evidence for certification.

The idea of a "pubcast" sadly wasn't the vision I had initially...

'Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciVee encourages scholars with a paper hot off the press to make a short video called a "pubcast" highlighting the key points'

"Phil Bourne, a pharmacologist at UC San Diego, launched SciVee this summer after seeing his students hooked on YouTube. Bourne wanted a reputable virtual place where researchers could trade techniques without the potpourri of topics found on general video-sharing sites. "

"'It's quite a quantum leap for scientists to present their research in this way,' Bourne said.""The age-old practice of reporting scientific results in peer-reviewed journals or at scientific conferences isn't going away soon. Most journals with online editions are taking a wait-and-see approach about YouTube-type videos, although many routinely add podcasts and other media to accompany papers."

The image below provides an overview of what a 'Pubcast' is...

visiting http://www.scivee.tv/scivee_overview provides more background information and visiting http://www.scivee.tv/pubcast_tutor provides a video tutorial.

More information is available by visiting the home page at http://www.scivee.tv/.

Screencast-o-Matic is a neat online application that creates videos. It actually allows you to create video recordings from your browser.

This really is a simple tool to use with options of creating

• titles,
• descriptions,
• notes at certain times in the video,

and, if you select the options, even allows comments and making the screencast searchable.

Or you can export it to a .mov file for viewing later. There’s even a Screencast to show you how to screencast.

Why wait, have a go at http://www.screencast-o-matic.com./

You can take a look at my first effort at http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cjeVfPV6f

Some useful ideas for 'Family Learning' perhaps, plus some useful links. Go to http://www.slideshare.net/creativeict/podcasting-as-a-whole-class-activity-243840 to view full-screen in Slideshare.

If this is going on in Primary Schools then...

The leadership units that form part of the ePD framework have been published by LSN on behalf of CEL and the LSN.

These units have been revised from the original units in the document that went out for consultation in January 2006 and whereas the previous units looked at vision, strategy, culture, resources and policy separately, they now reflect the developmental process that leaders and organisations need to go through as they progress through the maturity model.

These units underpin all the programmes that CEL offer as part of their Leadership and eLearning portfolio.

The FE and Skills E-newsletter is a direct news and information link from DIUS to the further education and skills sector and will be produced on a regular basis as part of their continued efforts to improve communications with FE and skills providers and partners.

Find out more and/or sign-up at http://www.dius.gov.uk/mailshots/newsletters.html. 

Keeping Citations Straight, and Finding New Ones 

At first glance, it seems like a nerdier version of Facebook. There’s the profile picture, the list of interests, the space for your Web site. Most of the members have Ph.D.’s, though, and instead of posting party invites or YouTube videos, their “Recent Activity” is full of academic papers and scholarly treatises. Read the full article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/31/citeulike.

Or go directly to http://www.citeulike.org/.

The LEGO Group of companies (LEGO) is providing LEGO® Digital Designer 1.6 (the Software) at no charge.

If you haven’t tried LEGO Digital Designer yourself find out more at http://ldd.lego.com/.

Yale now offers a range of course materials online free to the public. While currently the number of courses is rather limited, the scope of materials for each class is substantial and more thorough than many alternatives. The Yale Online Initiative is a step in the right direction, and is opening up the knowledge production of the University.

To find out more go to http://open.yale.edu/courses/. 

GIFUP.com is a GIF animation generator.

Simply...

• capture photographs with a webcam or
• upload images from your computer or
• get them from Flickr or
• any web site

and let GIFUP do all the magic.

You get your animated GIF slideshow in a sec!

You or your learners can then save it to a computer or memory stick, share it with others or post it in an eAssessment Portfolio, eRARPA Portfolio or ePDP Portfolio etc.

This could be a useful way of...

...revising and teaching vocabulary,

...showcasing course 'outcomes',

...displaying evidence for assessment - progress - achievement etc.

...getting learners to make notes of any words they relate to the images they see for language development etc.

...testing observational skills, reporting skills etc.

Go to http://www.gifup.com/ and have a go. It isn't going to have a huge effect on learning or teaching but it has potential (It is also FREE)

Tom emailed me and said,

"I was told about a useful free plugin for Internet Explorer/Mozilla the other day, and thought it would be idea for your monthly magazine. It is called PicLens, and it changes the way you view pictures on the internet. You can view google image results, flickr, myspace/facebook...etc pictures as a interactive picture wall and cuts out the need to go to the next page to view more images."

"...I believe it will be much more entertaining for the students searching for images on the internet. Plus it makes searching for images on the web a fun activity on an interactive whiteboard."

I couldn't agree more Tom; for me it saves time as well! Find out more by going to http://www.piclens.com/site/firefox/win/.

Or view a demo at http://www.piclens.com/site/firefox/tutorial_pl_ff_16.php.

TabGenerator is an online tab maker that lets you quickly create stylish tabs for your website.

• Set desired tab parameters,
• preview it, and when you’re satisfied
• download it to your PC for use in your stylesheets.

Go to http://www.tabsgenerator.com/.

...covers his framing of a wiki assignment, the reasons he uses it, and the specific guidelines he gives students. Jason uses PBWiki (which isn't the most feature rich platform, but it is free, caters to educators and is easy to use for those not familiar with wikis).

Go to http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/collaborative-literacy-wikified-notes/ to read the full article. 

This movie is about how to set up and configure an Interactive Smartboard safely.

This type of resource has the advantage of being available at a time it is needed rather than "having to attend training"! or as a reminder to those who have not done this for some time!

We currently have, running on Auto-pilot, this month's storyboard of video clips (Looping approximately every 15:21 min) The clips are...

1. A Vision of Students Today (04:44 min)
   - a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University
2. testing...testing (00:37 min)
   "A little bit of silliness" (their words not ours) as Gloucestershire Adult Education try out a camera for some RARPA fun.
   Our thanks to Tracey Morris (e-Learning Advisor ACL JISC RSC South West)
3. Digital Rhetoric 2007 Class (02:21 min)
   An overview of an Autumn (Fall) 2007 class at UC Irvine about social media and persuasive games. Elizabeth Losh made this YouTube video for her "DIGITAL RHETORIC COURSE" so that students who signed up for it would know that this course in "social media and persuasive games" would involve some media production as well as media theory. You can read Elizabeth's reflections on teaching Digital Rhetoric at https://lists.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2007-December/003015.html.
4. Evolution in Five minutes (05:45 min) The theory of evolution in action in only five minutes.note: a really good video
5. South Park Mac vs. PC (01:50 min) A parody of the Mac vs. PC commercials with South Park characters. Created as the final project for a multimedia production class at California State University Northridge (CSUN). There's an error in the credits: South Park studio is at www.sp-studio.de Software used for animation: Flash 8 Pro Software used for voices: Cool Edit 2000

Why not take a look yourself and go to http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/RSC_TV/index.html and watch the RSC-Northwest's TV channel

RSC-NW TV Channel, will aim...

to provide news of...

• funding,
• current projects,
• initiatives and examples of good practice in eLearning

...to offer ideas and support for the Higher Education, Further Education, Personal and Community Development Learning (ACL), 6th Form College, Work Based Learning and Specialist College Managers & Practitioners etc., that are supported by the RSC here in the Northwest.

...and to produce videos of events and/or training and to show them...

...so that those who are unable to attend face-to-face events, will be able to experience martini learning (any time, any place...)