Transcript
Page 1: JISC RSC Northwest e-Learning Focus

JISC RSC Northwest e-Learning Focus

eLF-4LPs

February/ March 2012

RSCs - stimulating and supporting innovation in learning

Become one of a select few to receive a prestigious JISC RSC Northwest Recognition of Innovation (ROI) Award 2012. For the second year running these awards will celebrate the work of learning providers that have used technology in an innovative way.

Winning entries will be awarded at the RSC Northwest’s Annual event this summer and will be publicised in all communications. Nominations are sought within teaching and learning or on the business systems side of a provider’s activity. Projects must be submitted by April 27 2012 by those leading on it, someone who has

benefited from the innovation or a witness of the ventures success. JISC RSC Northwest Manager, Rachel Fligelstone says; “The RSC is committed to recognising and promoting the innovative use of technology to support and improve learning and management throughout the North West. Whether your developments are relatively modest, or have a wider impact, across your organisation, we would like to hear about as many engaging projects as possible. These awards are all about recognising the hard work of those involved”. Last year’s award winners included; a ‘green’ project by Warrington College that saved 221 tons of CO2 by reducing electricity consumption, the dynamic use of Moodle for Blackburn College’s catering course and Myerscough College’s creation of USB sticks with apps to support all students, including those with learning difficulties. To submit an award please click here.

In this issue…

A Vision of the Future at Kendal College P3

Accessibility Forum Show + Tell P4 +5

£1.4m Funding for FE + Skills Sector

P5

Winstanley College’s iPad experiment P6

Free upcoming Events P6

More eLearning resources P7

Recognising Your Innovation

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The Outstanding Technologies for Teaching and Learning event proved popular with delegates -93% of feedback given rated it as excellent or good (69% said it was excellent).

The event held last month at Lancaster University was jointly planned by The Cumbria PRD Group with JISC RSC Northwest and LSIS. It brought together over 60 delegates from across the region to demonstrate outstanding technologies, improve teachers/trainers knowledge with innovative ideas; and improve teaching and learning experiences. JISC RSC Northwest eLearning Advisor Colin Gallacher, who led the RSC NW team running the event said; “Our aim was to demonstrate the simplicity for ‘non techie’ staff to transform existing learning materials into dynamic

resources and how everyday technology might enhance their teaching practice. We are very pleased that the feedback and uptake for the follow up on-line event clearly shows that aim has been

achieved.” The programme revolved around short sessions on ‘How Can I’; make animated movies with XtraNormal, use Prezi instead of PowerPoint, learn to love i-Apps, use Google Docs and ProProfs quizzes and

reach distance learners with Skype. A large show of hands at the end of the workshops indicated that most people were going to try out the new technology. Blackburn College’s e-Learning coordinator, Xiaoxia Wang said; “I found the tools really useful and I plan to use them. Proprofs is a better one than Moodle quiz and I want to build it into our staff development.” Staffordshire University Academic Skills Tutor Librarian, Shaun Coates added; "What we liked was that it was easy to learn, free and you don't have to be technical.“

Each issue we will be suggesting helpful web-links or apps for teaching and learning. eLearning advisor Anthony Beal explains what he likes about itunes u.

Do you want reliable, free information that engages your learners?

Itunes U is:

Free

Media rich

A guaranteed academic source that can be referenced

Curriculum and level relevant – vocational and academic material that’s not “all from universities”

Inspirational – many top entrepreneurs tell their story

Already in many learners pockets. You just need to

unlock the potential - http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/ For more information you can email Anthony on [email protected]. For a host of other online resources/ eLearning tools click here

Learning providers enthused about new technology

Our Resource Recommend

A group session on Xtranormal

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It was something they had never seen before, and when an image suddenly started to tell them what it was like to study at Kendal Col-lege, it resulted in the most incredulous looks. Dan delighted in telling them “this is the real future, next year it will be everywhere, and you’ll be able to say you saw it here first!” The Kendal College app is available to download free from both iTunes and the android market-place.

A Vision Of the Future with Kendal College - by Judy Bloxham

Students looking at Kendal College’s 2012 prospectus are in for a ground-breaking treat as photos literally come to life and start talking about what it’s like to study there when scanned with a smart phone. These Augmented Reality images are the brainchild of Dan Hodge, a lecturer in graphic design at the college. He began by exploring QR codes after visiting the London degree showcases but soon found that augmented reality could capture much more. Inspired by how it was being used to bring movie posters to life at the Cannes Film Festival, Dan was hooked. At the time he was running a one week summer school and his enthusiasm spread to his learners, resulting in an augmented

reality project. With his guidance the learners built an interactive tourist guide to Kendal in just three days. While researching this project, Dan was shown the work of a company called Aurasma. It was exactly what he wanted, a way to bring images to life. Dan contacted the company and by the weekend he had virtual statues standing in his Kendal garden. He took his demo to Kendal College’s Director of Curriculum, Maggie Cawthorn, who said to marketing “we’ve got to have this.” This began six frantic weeks of development that resulted in the production of the world’s first augmented reality prospectus for a college. News of it spread worldwide and the

development was reported in blogs and tweets from Australia to Japan. At the ‘Big Bang in a Box’ event highlighting work by Cumbrian colleges, apprentices and STEM businesses last year, the reaction from the visiting pupils was wonderful to watch.

Point you camera at this image

and watch it come to life by

downloading the Aurasma app

to an iPhone, iPad or android

phone. You also need to search

and subscribe to

‘RSCNorthwest’ in channels.

To watch a video on the Kendal College prospectus click here

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From braille converters to a video site for dyslexic students, ten colleges had a chance to share the technology they use to make teaching more accessible and inclusive when they met last month. The AccessNW Accessibility Forum ‘show and tell’ session at Lancaster and Morecombe College was the third time the new group had got together to discuss ideas and best practice. The forum was set up by JISC RSC Northwest for any representatives from specialist colleges and anyone with an interest in Accessibility, Inclusion and Additional Learner Support in post 16 Education, based in the North West. Lisa Featherstone from JISC Tech DISC started off the meeting by giving the

25 attendees an overview of the latest developments from TechDis. She spoke about available resources including; SimDis which simulates conditions such as dyslexia, autism and visual impairments, the OASES resources for benchmarking accessibility practices within an organisation and a high quality Synthetic Voice – soon to be available for staff and students of post 16 education to use with any text to speech application such as Dspeech, Balabolka and Orato. During the show and tell session Claire Jacob from Preston College showed the group a tactile image enhancer which converts text and images on a document into raised areas. This makes it ideal for producing documents in a braile format along with tactile diagrams and maps. She said, “We’ve been using this since September and it really works for students. They like it and we have a lot of use for it.” Other equipment included a live scribe pen which records audio alongside handwritten notes, an e-pen used to

We are interested in finding out how our learning providers communicate so we can ensure our various communication channels are organised in a way that meets your requirements. We value your feedback so please take a few minutes (5-10) to fill in this survey. To thank you for spending the time doing it, all completed entries will be put into a prize draw to win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers. Entries will close on Friday 9th March at 5pm. Winners will be informed shortly afterwards and details will be made available on the RSC website.

Access NW Show and Tell How do you Communicate?

Preston College’s Claire Jacob shows documents made by the tactile image enhancer (above and top)

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convert written notes on paper into digital text on a computer, a portable scanner which is used to quickly and conveniently save printed documents and books as digital text, and accessibility and communication apps for iPad and android tablets. RSC Northwest e-Learning adviser, Kevin Hickey who hosts the forum said; “With a lot of these things people often buy the technology first and then figure out how to use it afterwards. My advice is to try it out first and get students to play with it and find new ways of using these devices.” “Today has been great as it’s given the opportunity for everyone to test out each other’s ‘toys’ and get a good understanding of what works and why it’s helpful for students.” Helen Redmad from Tame-side college, one of many who contacted the RSC with ideas for taking things further, said; “I really enjoyed the event and came away enthused and with lots of ideas of how we can improve the use of technology at our college.”

For news, views and events

Proposals are being sought by JISC Advance for a £1.4million project to enhance or repurpose exist-ing resources to be used in the FE and skills sector across the UK. The opportunity is split into two strands:

Apply existing re-sources (from JISC or elsewhere) to work and adapt for needs

Follow us @jiscrscnw

Identify gaps in

resources or

current uses for

technology

leading to the

development of

additional

resources for the

sector

To learn more about

the funding (incl. FAQ’s

and applications) visit:

http://bit.ly/fes-drp

Top Tweets

£1.4 million funding for FE+ Skills sector

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Twenty one Winstanley College staff are test driving iPads to explore their potential use as a teaching aid and for the organisation.

The Wigan college’s Network Manager Mike Woods, who instigated the project, said it was an opportune time to try out the tablets as the College is building a new Learning Resource Centre in September and iPads were a consideration. The first group of seven staff volunteers took the iPads home over the Christmas break and another two groups are trialling the tablets during the February and Easter holidays. Psychology teacher, Katie Allan, who was in the first feedback group this month reviewed a number of iPad apps that she felt would be handy in lessons. These included; the interactive blackboard Screen Chomp, the TED

app for gifted and talented students and software to help students who were dyslexic. She said; “I would prefer an iPad to a PC as you

could be more mobile and if there was an individual student who had problems you could go over to them with the iPad to show them what to do rather than have to include the whole class.”

IT teacher, Pat Smith added during the review; “I can see a lot of benefits for revision but I didn’t see enough A-level apps, it was much more the GCSE level.” “There were lots of online magazines though which were cheaper than buying

Promoting your Library service with Technology

Our third event in a four part series aimed at library staff Online event, Monday March 5th 10-11:30am

Encouraging Learner Independence

This is part of a webinar series which will introduce four key areas where technology can help embed inclusive practice. Online event, Tuesday March 20th 2-3pm

E-portfolio “One More Time”

Aimed at enabling Work Based Learning providers to choose and use e-portfolio. Thursday April 19th, full day, UCLAN Westleigh Conference Centre, Preston

Initial Teacher Training

For teacher graduates or teacher trainers to establish support groups and get guidance on technology in the classroom. Wednesday, April 25th, Westleigh Conference Centre, full day, Preston, email [email protected] To book or find out more information on all up-coming events visit: www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/northwest/events

The iPad experiment Events (all free!)

Mike Woods will review teacher feedback on iPads.

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The resources available are:

e-Reputation

Dating and GPS sites

Communication using Social Media

Social Media in the news

Resources include pdf, audio files or video clips for your own teaching or learning purposes. To view or download these files visit: There were a lot of www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/northwest/publications/safeguarding.aspx

Resources www.scoop.it/t/

technologies

www.searcheeze.c

om/p/acljohn/elearning-tools-resources-etc

www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/

northwest/news.aspx

www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/

northwest/publications

Safer Internet Day

Mike Woods will review teacher feedback on iPads.

hard copy and a lot of text books which are going on-line. I downloaded a whole Shakespeare collection in minutes.” In tandem with the group feedback, an Art teacher and Biology teacher who could see particular benefits for using iPads for teaching will be using them in a 3 week pilot this month. Mr Woods says; “We will be reviewing all the feedback but we wouldn’t consider giving all staff an iPad, we would want departments to bid for the technology so they use it.”

JISC RSC Northwest celebrated Safer Internet Day (SID), held on February 7 2012 by discussing and providing material on four hot topics . Under the banner of connecting generations the themes promoted safer and more responsible use of online and other technologies for all ages. E-learning adviser, John Dalziel says; “The online world is an exciting place to be but it’s not without its dangers. We wanted to provide helpful information so that all generations can enjoy today’s technology safely - and we’ve had really good feedback.”

More e-Learning For more on using new and emerging technologies visit: To view a curated site of eLearning tools and resources go to: To read our blogs visit: For an eMagazine or eBook library on eLearning initiatives and good practice click here:

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RSC Northwest

team...

Administrator Christine Hulme [email protected]

eLearning Advisers John Dalziel (Adult & Community Learning; PCDL & OLASS) [email protected] Colin Gallacher (Work Based Learning) [email protected] Kevin Hickey (Inclusion) [email protected]

Anita Holt (Further Education) [email protected] Judy Bloxham (Further Education) [email protected]

Hilary Thomas (Higher Education) [email protected] Anthony Beal [email protected]

Mark Ayton [email protected] Keith Wilson (Technology & MIS) [email protected] Events Co-ordinator Sandra Harris [email protected]

Information Officer Michelle Hyland [email protected]

www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/northwest

2nd Floor Bailrigg House, Lancaster University, Lancas-ter. LA1 4YE

Phone: 01524 510067

Fax: 01524 593798

[email protected]

Twitter: @jiscrscnw

All JISC RSC Northwest staff contribute to the online news-letter.

If you have a story you want

to share or have any feed-

back, email the Editor

Michelle Hyland at:

[email protected]

‘Please don’t print unless

you need to’

Carmel College has joined a growing list of providers who are using eduroam to access the internet because it allows students, staff and visitors to connect without requesting usernames or passwords.

Eduroam stands for education roaming and is a secure world-wide roaming service. There are now 91 colleges and Universities

We work with Excellence Gateway to produce case studies of using technology effectively to improve curriculum design, management and delivery.

using it across England. It allows connectivity across a campus or when visiting other participating institutions. Carmel College decided to implement eduroam because the campus was already under redevelopment and there was the opportunity to significantly upscale the cross– college IT infrastructure. Click here for more info on the technical requirements of eduroam or visit Carmel College’s website: www.carmel.ac.uk/roaming

Take a look at these case studies on good epractice. If you think you could be a case study email Michelle at [email protected]

Eduroam for internet ease

Case Studies


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