Cloud computingIn this edition of intouch we take adelve into cloud computing. It’s thelatest buzz phrase of 2010 but whatdoes it mean? And how will it changethe way in which you work and yourlearners learn?
We look at some of the drivers for thischange, offer some advice on how tostart using it in your organisation andgive you some resources andexamples to draw on.
intouchthe termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands Summer 2010 Volume 8: Issue 3
Stimulating and supportinginnovation in learning
Contents1 Cloud computing
overview2 Regional News2 Communication survey
results3 Brief guide to web 2.0
4 Software in The Cloud4 Using Google Docs5 Best practice in the UK5 Resource Corner6 Hints & Tips6 Celebrating e-learning
in the region6 Scholarly activity7 Focus On: Sustainability7 JISC news8 Forthcoming Events8 Changes at the RSC8 Technical training needs
Historically, many organisations havealways kept their electronic files andprograms that they use close at hand byhaving them stored away safely andsecurely on their own computers andnetwork servers. Perhaps the definition of“close at hand” has now changed though.
With Internet connections being so fastand reliable nowadays across the globe,that “close at hand” probably meansbeing able to download and be workingon your document within a few seconds.Do we care where our documents arestored, as long as it is safe and secure andwe can get to them quickly and easily?
A number of universities and colleges havestarted the trend and now outsource theirstudent email accounts to GoogleMail,some are also using GoogleDocs orMicrosoft Live@Edu to create, store andshare their documents, spreadsheets,presentations and other work.
As well as email and workspace storage,facilities offered by The Cloud includesoftware to collaborate and share,graphic/photo editors, projectmanagement tools and programs similarto the Office suite of programs.
So it all sounds great doesn’t it?Reduced costs of hardware/softwareinstallation and maintenance, plus you
can access all your emails, documentsand other programs from anywhere inthe world with an internet-connectedcomputer or mobile device. However,this cloud doesn’t always have a silverlining as any savings in manpower maynot be significant because these extrafacilities still need to be set up andadministered by your IT team.
A main concern, though, is the risk ofgoing over to a system that relies on asafe, secure connection to the Internet.You’ve experienced it yourself no doubtwhen your Internet or email goes down,how many of you feel as though yourhands have been cut off? What will yourstudents do in class now? And whatabout those deadlines?
Strategies therefore have to be in place inyour organisation to cope with thepossibility of internet access not beingavailable for short or longer periods of time.
So does cloud computing sound scaryor does it sound sensible? If workingin The Cloud is good enough foruniversities, colleges and countlessother organisations across the globe,then you seriously have to considerwhether you should use it for your“software as a service”.
Looking to the heavensAs purse strings become tighter, organisations need to bethinking of many different ways to save money but at the sametime improve efficiency in their working practices. For manyyears businesses have been carefully doing this by outsourcingsome of what they do to reputable companies.
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Regional NewsTechnology ExemplarNetworkSeveral East Midlands based learningproviders have been named asdeveloping providers as part of theBecta organised Technology ExemplarNetwork (TEN).
• Acorn Training Consultants Ltd• Boston College• Castle College Nottingham• Chesterfield College• Derbyshire Adult Community• Grantham College• Homefield College• Leicester College• Lincoln College• Linkage Community Trust• New College Nottingham• Northampton College• South Leicestershire College• Stephenson College• Stubbing Court Training Ltd
They join ISIS Training which wasnamed last year as one of theexemplar organisations in the network,who is holding an Open Day on 23rd July in Lincoln to showcase howthey use technology with their learners.
Regional AwardsJane Eaton at Loughborough Collegewas the first winner of an RSC EastMidlands Learning Technology Awardfor her work on development of theCollege’s learning platform, LearnZone.
Jane was selected for demonstratinginnovative use of ILT in her teachingand learning practice in the Hair,Beauty and Complimentary TherapiesTeam, the quality of which had beenrecognised through internalPerformance Standards and Reviewpanel meetings.
She developed the department’sMoodle area into a very attractivelearning environment, as well as aneffective means for communicatingwith learners about news items,course matters, and developments.Staff in her own and other teams haveasked to work with Jane to improvetheir own work using ILT.
What’s in your
At the end of 2009 we carried out a communications survey inthe region to find out how people were keeping up-to-date andfinding out information. The results overall showed that peoplein the sector were generally relying on more traditional methodsand usage rates of newer technologies were quite low.
Jane Eaton being presented with her LearningTechnology Award by Audrey Traynor, one ofthe governors at Loughborough College.
The communications survey had a verygood response rate with 175 completedquestionnaires and a good spread ofrespondents by sector, department andlevel of responsibility, as well as arepresentative sample of the contacts theRSC holds for the region.
Traditional methodsRespondents were asked about thenumber of emails that they received on adaily basis. The pie chart below (Figure 1)shows their responses – a fairly evenspread overall, but still high levels. Only ahandful of respondents had less than 10emails coming into their inbox every day!
17% of respondents had more than onework email address. Did you know thatyou can set up a universal email account(e.g. gmail) so email is forwarded fromyour different accounts into one placeand then you can reply out of the accountusing any of the addresses? A tip that’sworth bearing in mind if you do need tomanage multiple email addresses.
The level of postal mail was, notsurprisingly, much lower than email. Onlya quarter of respondents received morethan ten items a week, but 84% still had atleast one item being sent to them a week.
Receiving SMS messages wasn’t justrestricted to the 40% of respondentswho possessed a work mobile phone.Almost half of the sample received work-related communications direct to thephone, although the majority didn’treceive many messages, as shown in thepie chart below (Figure 2).
Newer technologiesIn the last few years there has been anexplosion of new technologies that havemade e-mail look “old school”. If youare unsure of what any of the followingare then check out the handy little guideon the far right. In our survey the overallpicture was that there was a fairly lowtake-up of the newer technologies.
Respondents were asked whether theyused communication channels such aspodcasting and vodcasting for work;whether they had tried virtual worlds(such as Second Life) for teaching; orused what are commonly referred to asWeb 2.0 tools (such as blogs, wikis andsocial networks) with their learners.
Figure 1 – Volume of email received daily
Figure 2 – Volume of SMS received weekly
inbox today? A very brief guideto web 2.0 toolsIf you’re unsure what some of thesenewer technologies do, then this quickguide will hopefully help.
RSS feedsRSS stands for ‘Really SimpleSyndication’ but many peopledescribe it as a ‘web feed’ or ‘newsfeed’ that you subscribe to. Thesubscription is dynamic, not periodic,with new information delivered to youevery time there’s an update on awebsite you’ve subscribed to ratherthan you having to visit it yourself.You can also set RSS feeds up in someemail clients e.g. Microsoft Outlook.
One to try out: Our news feed
BlogsA blog (a contraction of the term“web log”) is a type of website,usually maintained by an individualwith regular entries of commentary,descriptions of events, or othermaterial such as graphics or video.
One to try out: www.stephenfry.com/blog
MicrobloggingUsers write a message on their mobilephones to create ‘posts’, or ‘tweets’ ifusing Twitter, and send them so thatthey are uploaded on to the internet.The posts can be about any topic andare available to be read by anyone.
One to try out: www.twitter.com/JISC
PodcastsIn its simplest form, a podcast is anaudio file that is broadcast throughthe internet. You can therefore listenanywhere, anytime, either at acomputer or when “on the move”using a mobile media player.
One to try out: Digital Planet from the BBC
VodcastsSimilar to a podcast but this time film-based rather than just audio.
One to try out: MoLeTV
… and that still leaves other toolssuch as wikis (e.g. Wikipedia), socialnetworking (e.g. FaceBook), and socialbookmarking (e.g. Delicious).
You can find out more about some ofthese communication tools in theLearner Voice hub at our e-fair on22nd June in Leicester.
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The usage rates for these tools surveyedranged from 1% to 37% as seen in thechart above (Figure 3).
Those using any of these individual Web2.0 tools were more likely to be alsousing other tools. So usage isconcentrated in a relatively small groupand has potential implications for anyonewanting to adopt these methods.
EventsIn light of the current climate beingexperienced by many learning providersit may come as no surprise to hear thatrespondents had limited opportunitiesto get out of their organisation andattend events, with only a third ofrespondents getting to more than oneface-to-face event a month.
However, generally, there was more face-to-face event activity rather than online,showing that this virtual method ofdelivery is still fairly fresh to many people,with almost half of respondents havingnever attended an online event. See thechart below (Figure 4) for full details.
RSC CommunicationsThe final part of our survey asked morespecifically about the way in which wecommunicate with you. The responsewas very positive with over three-quarters of people rating our efforts asgood or excellent (Figure 5).
We try to target our information as muchas possible to make sure that you don’tget irrelevant emails, mailings orpublications. A small handful (12%)wanted more contact, an even smallerproportion (7%) thought there was toomuch contact, leaving the vast majorityhappy with the current level of contact.
Respondents said that they found our e-bulletins or e-newsletters that go out tothe ILT, Learning Resources andAccessibility & Inclusion email lists(JISCmail) helpful. Likewise our “intouch”newsletter was beneficial with 99% ofthose receiving it finding it useful to them.
A full version of the results of howdifferent communication methods areused by people working in the post-16education and training sector in theregion is available via our website atwww.rsc-em.ac.uk/communications.asp.You can also get intouch with ourInformation Officer, Kevin Spencer on [email protected] or 01509618112 if you have any further queries.
Figure 4 – Attendance at events/forums/networks
Figure 5 – Rating of RSC communications
Figure 3 – Use of new technologies (by percentage of respondents)
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Softwareavailable in“The Cloud”This software in “The Cloud” is usuallyfree to use and can be used for yourown productivity and by students inthe classroom.
Whilst these may not have all thefunctionality of the more traditionaland more expensive products, youmight well find that they provide allthe facilities that you and yourstudents need.
PIXLR available at www.pixlr.com is anonline photo editor and drawing tool,with a similar look and feel to AdobePhotoshop. It even uses layers formore complex editing.
TitanPad available atwww.titanpad.com is an onlinecollaboration tool, for holding onlinediscussions for meetings. Considerusing it for discussions and thoughtswith students in the classroom. Themessages can all be saved for later use,perhaps as evidence for coursework.
ProjectBubble available atwww.projectbubble.com is a simpleproject management tool. The freeversion allows you to create projects,tasks and deadlines for 3 “clients”.Whilst this is a useful tool for use inthe workplace, it could also be usedby students to plan out theirassignments, projects and targets. You can also invite other members ofthe team in to collaborate on tasks.
Dropbox available atwww.dropbox.com is a file-sharing,collaboration, online back-up and filesyncing facility all-in-one, but thisprogram makes it all so easy. Savingdocuments into your dropboxautomatically sends it also to yourweb-based dropbox and anycomputers where you have it installed,resulting in perfect synchronisation offiles between computers.
Documents in “The Cloud”
So far some educational organisationsmight have outsourced only their studentemail systems, but perhaps now is thetime when we should at least consideroutsourcing more to The Cloud with theadvent of document creation and storagesolutions out on the internet, all connectedback to your organisation through JANETor a broadband connection.
GoogleDocs and Microsoft Live@Eduseem to be the key players in onlinedocument generation and storage. Bothoffer word-processing, spreadsheet,presentation and other facilities to createmost office-based documents.
Google doesn’t offer as much storagespace as Microsoft (1GB as opposed to25GB) but both offer the user thecreation of a portable document that canfollow them wherever they have internetaccess. And in the era of a lifelonglearner, that could be an importantconsideration. The learner now has astorage space that could last them alifetime, moving from school to collegeto university to job after job after job.
To use these facilities the user doesn’tneed to have the software installed ontheir local computer, they only require aweb browser connected to the internet. Intoday’s era of server virtualisation and thinclients on desks, the PC provided for theuser need not be so powerful and hencewill be cheaper. So whilst there could besavings on IT equipment and runningcosts, some of that may be negated by thecost of increased bandwidth use.
So why is it that only the students inthese organisations have made thetransition into The Cloud so far and not
the staff? Perhaps for one or more of thefollowing reasons:
• the fear of a security and/orconfidentiality breach with data (e.g. from the MIS, the HR system,students marks);
• the potential of losing that data;• the possibility of losing the internet
connection during the working day;• the required change in working practices.
It is important, therefore, to undertake arisk management exercise to quantify theeffect of a move to more use of The Cloudso you can outline strategies that shouldbe incorporated to minimise the risk.
In your risk analysis, you must alsoconsider what might be happening inyour organisation at present – are USBdata sticks, laptops or insecure emailsbeing used to move personal/criticalinformation from place to place? Whilsthaving an additional separate internetconnection for business critical use mightalso be an option to maintain aconnection, this is an additional expense.
If you were hoping for an answer as towhether you should move toGoogleDocs or Microsoft Live@Edu foryour document creation and storagethen I’m sorry to disappoint. All I cando at this stage is outline some of theissues that need to be considered. Ifyou would like more information andguidance then please contact me.
Gordon MillnerTechnical Infrastructure Advisor01509 [email protected]
Many commercial organisations are moving their software useto The Cloud including their emails, document creation andstorage. However, educational organisations have been a littlemore cautious.
Best practice in the UK
The ChallengeMoulton College was in a position thatmany learning providers find themselves at,where a series of systems integral tolearning in the College had developed overtime, but they didn’t talk to each other.
The learners therefore had to remembermultiple usernames and passwords, andto log in to the different systemsindividually. This led tofrustration for bothlearners and staff. Italso caused a higherrate of abandonment intrying to access thevarious systems.
The drive was thereforefor simplification andautomation in order toimprove the student experience, and cutdown on the amount of technicalresource that was required to supportthe learners initially and on an on-goingbasis in regard to re-setting passwordsand managing the accounts.
The ActivityGiles Batchelor, Network Developmentand Services Manager, and AndrewBailey, Learning Technologies Manager,made a plan to start integrating thedifferent systems.
They decided to use the College’s VirtualLearning Platform, Moodle, as the focalpoint of the learner experience and byimplementing single sign-on withShibboleth this allowed students an easeof access into other systems such as email.
As well as support from the RSC andregional Heads of IT forum, the Collegebrought in external consultants,Kidderminster College’s VLE Middleware,to assist with installation and set-up.
The integration was set up so that when astudent logs on to the College network,three things happen automatically:
• Logs into Moodle which is set as thehomepage on all machines;
• Logs into Google Mail account;• Logs into learner’s shared network area.
The College’s Management InformationSystem (MIS), Unit-E, provides informationto the Active Directory for user accountsthrough a custom script and to Moodle toallow students only to seecourse/modules in Moodle they areenrolled on. The Celcat timetablingsoftware provides tutor information whichis used to allow editing rights on theirrespective courses within Moodle.
The single sign-on alsoauthenticates the link tothe initial diagnostic testthat each student doesas part of their induction,using the BKSB package,as well as givingautomated access toTurnitin, a software toolfor checking originality.
The College has taken the student emailinto “The Cloud” by opting to useGoogle Mail, with email addresses beingin the form [email protected].
Google Mail uses a sync tool overnightto export from the Microsoft WindowsActive Directory to create and updateemail accounts. During the enrolmentperiod this was set to an hourly basis toensure a quick and smooth process.
The OutcomesThe new integration and systems were allinstalled for student use prior toSeptember 2009, so that when studentsarrived the induction process was all set up.
Since the adoption of the system therehas been no downtime from Google thathas prevented access to Google Mail.
Meanwhile statistics show that theCollege’s Moodle usage is four timesthat of the previous academic year andstill climbing. It is felt that this is in partdue to the integration making the userexperience much more streamlined.
We hope that this will have given yousome inspiration for your organisationand the full version of this case studywill shortly be available atwww.excellencegateway.org.uk.
Resource CornerTools for helping accessibilityWe have developed a new set ofguides in pdf format for a series ofopen source and free tools, many ofwhich can be downloaded atwww.eduapps.org. These toolsprovide technology for personalisationand reasonable adjustment; givelearners the opportunity for greatercontrol of their learning; and helpproviders better meet the DisabilityEquality Duty.
The guides are on our Moodle site athttp://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk in the “Events,Resources and Activities” section.
A second version of MyStudyBar isnow available to download fromwww.eduapps.org. MyStudyBar is afree alternative to similar commercialprograms which uses a floatingtoolbar to support literacy.
The latest version is available forWindows XP and/or Windows Vista/7.New applications include:
• Balabolka – converts text intoindividual audio files (MP3)
• Orato – an easy to use text-to-speechapplication
• Stamina – a touch typing tutor
Good e-practice case studiesA new easier way of searching casestudies of good e-practice is nowavailable through a series of bookmarkson the social bookmarking tool, Delicious.
The Regional Support Centres havebeen helping to develop case studiesof good e-practice from aroundEngland for the Excellence Gatewaywebsite over the last two years. Withover 200 case studies now available onthe site we thought it was time for ahelping hand in finding the examplesthat were most relevant to you.
All the case studies have now beentagged using the social bookmarkingtool Delicious athttp://delicious.com/elearningcasestudies.So you can quickly search through allthe case studies using lots of different“tags” or categories, such asaccessibility, mobile learning, LRC ornumerous others.
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In this edition of intouch our example of best practice followsthe theme of cloud computing by showcasing a case study fromMoulton College in which they’ve integrated cloud-basedGooglemail into some of their other IT systems for learners.
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Hints & Tips:PixlrThe free software program, Pixlr(www.pixlr.com), is a great tool forboth novices and experienced photoeditors, particularly if you don’t haveaccess to Photoshop or a similareditor on the computer you are usingat the time. As long as you haveinternet access, you can use Pixlr.
Pixlr has two versions available onlinein “The Cloud”, the express version forbeginners and for carrying out quickfixes on a photo; the full editor versionis more complex, ideal if you want tobe more creative as it uses layers andother tools and is very similar in layoutand menus to Photoshop.
However, we’veonly got space tohave a look atdoing some veryquick typicaleditingtechniques on aphotograph. Aquick word ofwarning though,always make aback up of your photos first so youkeep a copy of the original.
Quick fixes using Pixlr ExpressOpen your photograph either fromyour computer or from a photo on theinternet. You will need the URL (webaddress) for that. Once loaded, thereare 3 sections on the left-hand side ofyour screen:
• Basic – to crop, re-size androtate/flip;
• Adjustments – to adjust colour,brightness, contrast, red-eyeremoval, sharpen and blur;
• Photo Effects – if you want to get abit more “arty”.
When you’ve finished, click Done, thenSave to your own computer with adifferent filename to the original.Simple!!!
This program is perfect for moststudents that require access to aphoto editor for their courses.
The main Pixlr EditorIf you are familiar with AdobePhotoshop then you will soon findyour way around the main Pixlr editor.Definitely something to considerusing for Art students without theprice-tag of Photoshop, as there aremany transferable editing skills to belearnt here.
Celebration of e-learning prize draw
Is there something that you are proud tobe involved with? Is there somethingthat you’ve done that would be ofinterest to others? If so then please takea few moments to let us know whatyou’ve been up to.
To enter the prize draw simply go towww.rsc-em.ac.uk and fill in thefollowing details:
• Name• Organisation• What have you done?• How has it improved learning?
This prize draw is open to all parts of thepost-16 education and training sectorthat we support and can cover anypractice relating to e-learning. Forexample it could be based in learningand teaching; strategic planning;
technical; staff development; quality;learning resources; or teacher training.
The prizes for the draw are:
• an iPod Nano (sponsored byProQuest)
• a Vado USB Camcorder• a 320GB portable hard-drive
All entries will be entered into a prizedraw that will take place at the end ofthe RSC East Midlands e-fair on 22ndJune at the Walkers Stadium in Leicester.
If you have any queries then pleaseget intouch with Kevin Spencer,Information Officer at the RSC, on [email protected] or01509 618112. Full details of thisprize draw are available at www.rsc-em.ac.uk/prizedraw.asp.
Following on from the success of our first celebration of e-learning prize draw that ran last summer, we’ve decided torepeat it. So to recognise the e-learning progress in the EastMidlands region we are collecting details of pieces of e-learningthat have taken place within the last year.
Scholarly activityIn January this year, all relevantcolleges had to submit their HigherEducation (HE) strategies. A statementon scholarly activity needed to beincluded, but what is scholarly activityand how can it be implemented?
Many people think that it involves onlysubject-specific research, but it is morethan that. Scholarly activity embraces allcontinuing and professionaldevelopment including pedagogic andinstitution-specific training.
So how does your HE strategy reflectthis? Is there a clear link between policyand staff reviews and course action plans?How does the HE strategy influence the
training needs or your institution? Howdo you monitor the subject-specificresearch your staff partake in? Are theresimple solutions to improving academiccommunication and sharing?
The RSC can help you embed scholarlyactivity into working practice. Technologiessuch as web 2.0 and e-portfolios are greattools for collecting, analysing anddisseminating new knowledge and skills.
Please get intouch with Steve Saffhillat [email protected] or 01509 618117 to find out how theRSC can help you implement yourstrategic intentions.
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Focus On:Sustainability
In a previous newsletter we advised youthat we were undertaking a project to helpdetermine the extent of the support youthought you would need on sustainabilityissues and how that could be matched tothe support we would be able to give.
Since that newsletter, it has also beenconfirmed that all RSCs across the UKwill be providing support onsustainability to their regional learningproviders. So perhaps now might be agood time to see how we can supportyou and to also point you in thedirection of other resources that mayhelp guide you in determining the“green” strategy for your organisation.
Until now the RSCs have supportedlearning providers with their developmentof Information CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) and Integrated LearningTechnologies (ILT), and we will of coursecontinue to do so. Many of the RSCs overthe last year have also started toimplement green initiatives by holdingevents and forums on sustainability andon providing advice on being green fornew build and refurbishment projects.
Additionally, there have been other JISCinitiatives, in particular the work of theSustainable Information Technology InTertiary Education (SUSTE-IT) team, theirwebsite is www.susteit.org.uk. Theyhave held events and provided usefultools to identify the power consumptionof typical servers, computers and otherIT-based equipment, whilst alsosuggesting strategies that organisationscan adopt to reduce their IT energy bills.
The identification of savings in the orderof tens of thousands of pounds has beenachieved in some universities andcolleges through the use of these toolsand in implementing strategies theyrecommend. Not to mention the effect
overall on reducing their carbonfootprint to help comply with theGovernment’s agenda and legislation.
Whilst financial savings and carbonreduction are an obvious focus fororganisations, an ever-increasing force issocial conscience and our public face.Our students and staff are becomingincreasingly aware of green issues andare beginning to put pressure onorganisations to do the right thing,confirming their commitment to a legacyof how they would want to leave thestate of the planet to their children andtheir children’s children.
The content of our sustainability website,temporarily hosted athttp://cms.loucoll.ac.uk/joomla, isgrowing almost on a daily basis andprovides information and links onsustainability topics includingtechnological solutions, legislation,policies and many other resources.Sustainability is also one of the keythemes of JISC Advance (see right).
Through our forums, newsletters andmailing lists run by ourselves and theother RSCs, we can provide you withmuch information and suitable contactsto help guide your organisation to begreen and sustainable. For moreinformation please get intouch withGordon Millner on 01509 618120 [email protected].
JISC newsNew resources on Business andCommunity Engagement (BCE)JISC Legal has released a set of newresources on Business and CommunityEngagement (BCE). These resourcesprovide comprehensive guidance onthe legal implications of BCE throughexamination related laws andrecommendations for action.
Guidance Documents: 1) BCE – How to Play Fair – A User’s
Guide2) Competition and State Aid – What
is the Law?3 Providing Funds for Business and
Community Engagement
Guidance Videos: 1) Data Sharing and Research2) Creating Intellectual Property
Together3) Using Intellectual Property
Together4) Keeping Confidential5) e-Marketing
They are available from the BCEtheme page of JISC Legal’s website atwww.jisclegal.ac.uk.
JISC Advance Event SeriesDuring the first half of this year weran a series of events in conjunctionwith various organisations that makeup JISC Advance.
Take-up of places for the events wasextremely high and we had moreinterest than space available for mostof them.
If you were unable to attend and wantto find out more about any of the topicsthen come along to the e-fair on 22ndJune in Leicester, where representativesfrom JISC Advance will be on hand toanswer any queries you may have.
JISC Advance has also outlined itssupport for the sector in 5 themed areas:
• Organisational efficiency• Enhancing learning and teaching• External engagement• Sustainability• Research
Further information is available on theJISC Advance website atwww.jiscadvance.ac.uk or, alternatively,get intouch with us and we can sendyou the relevant leaflet(s) in the post.
Sustainability, quite rightly, has made it onto just abouteveryone’s agenda, both from a business and from a personalperspective. We can’t be wasteful of the planet’s resources andshould use them thoughtfully, safely and without doing furtherharm to people and the environment.
ForthcomingEventsJune8th (am) Moodle Users Group9th (am) Learning Resources
Forum: Sharing GoodPractice
9th (pm) East MidlandsInformation Skills(EMIS) meeting
15th (am) SharePoint Forum22nd (full day) RSC East Midlands
e-Fair 201024th (am) Webinar – Approaches
to LRC and libraryinduction
March 201114th-15th JISC Conference 2011(full day) BT Conference Centre
Liverpool
For further details please visit www.rsc-em.ac.uk where youcan also sign up to our EventsRSS feed.
All our events and forums can becounted for CPD hours.
Get intouchJISC RSC East MidlandsLoughborough CollegeRadmoor RoadLoughboroughLeicestershireLE11 3BT
Tel: 01509 618110Email: [email protected]: www.rsc-em.ac.ukVLE: http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk
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Change is normal!
This publication is printed on paper from sustainable sources. In the interests of the environment, please passon to a colleague when you’ve finished with it or recycle it. It is also available online at www.rsc-em.ac.uk.
Funding has been provided in three yearagreements, enabling the RSC to buildconsistent support over several yearsand giving greater security to RSC staff –the RSC’s key asset – who did not haveto worry whether they would have a jobeach August. The current agreementends on July 31st this year.
However, with the machinery ofgovernment changes, the disappearanceof the LSC, the May election and theforthcoming Spending Review, there hasbeen a period of uncertainty – not somuch over whether the RSCs should befunded but what the mechanism forproviding the money should be.
It is widely agreed, and evidenced invarious reports, that RSCs do anexcellent job, and that support isessential if providers are to get maximumbenefit from investment in technology.
In the next few months, the Departmentfor Business, Innovation & Skills (DBIS)will decide how it wants to organise theentire support framework for the use oftechnology. There will not be a formalannouncement about ongoing fundingfor RSCs until all the funding bodies inthe four UK nations confirm their support.
Re-organisation within JISC means that,from the 1st August, RSCs are becomingpart of JISC Advance, bringing togethermany of the front-line JISC services andenabling us to provide more effectivesupport more efficiently.
Everyone knows that technologykeeps changing. That’s the easy bit!Whilst all this settles down it’sbusiness as usual at the RSC.We will have a review of the last tenyears in the Autumn edition of intouch.
Previous newsletters areavailable via our website at
www.rsc-em.ac.uk
For all its ten years of life the JISC Regional Support Centre inthe East Midlands has been primarily funded by the Learningand Skills Council (LSC), with additional support from HEFCE,the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Take-up on the course was fast,particularly as we were able to totally fundit ourselves, thus making it available freefor the delegates. The request to holdsuch an event came from the regionalHeads of IT forum that the RSC facilitates.
We felt it important to stage this for twosignificant reasons. Firstly, virtualisationfits in with the sustainable agenda withreductions in the need for physicalservers, less heat output withsubsequent reduced air-conditioningrequirement. This leads to reducedelectrical running costs.
In addition virtualisation is a technologythat is increasing being installed inorganisations as there are many efficiencies
to be had in testing, installation anddeployment of software systems.
More information on virtualisation canbe found in various case studies on theExcellence Gateway, including anexample from Chesterfield College, atwww.excellencegateway.org.uk/cc.
If technical staff consider that theyhave a specific need for training,please get intouch with GordonMillner by email [email protected] or call01509 618120 to discuss yourrequirements. We can then assessinterest across the region andconsider putting on a future event tomeet the need.
Turning virtualisation into a realityBack in February we were pleased to host a JANETvirtualisation course here in the East Midlands. We invitedtechnical staff from across the region who were consideringvirtualising, or had just virtualised, their server systems.
e-fair 2010The biggest regional e-learningevent in the East Midlands returnsfor its 6th year. There will be theusual wealth of content in relationto e-learning and the event is freeto all supported learning providers.
• Learner Voice Keynote• 12 Workshops• Try It For Yourself area• Exhibition area• Learner Voice hub• Networking opportunities
