e-Learning Stuff

I spoke at the UKSG e-Resources for FE event in London today.

Research from the University of Huddersfield shows that the number of visits to the library has an insignificant impact on learner achievement. However in the same study it was shown that students who took out more books, or used more e-resources achieved higher grades.

How can a library service engage learners who visit the library to utilise more of the resources available to them?

What strategies can be used to increase the use of e-resources and the lending of books?

Can we learn from major retailers, high street chains and other companies and implement their ideas into the library?

James Clay from Gloucestershire College discusses the strategies they have been using to increase the use of books and learning resources by learners.

I’ve recently (been) signed up for a one day event in that London town.

The event cost is £325 and the train ticket is over a hundred pounds.

That isn’t cheap!

I think it will be an useful event and (probably) value for money.

However when you consider the costs of the JISC Innovating e-Learning Online Conference at just £50 and what you get for that, you might want to consider attending.

As one delegate from last year said:

“I think it is a brilliant return for the investment and consider this to be a major part of my CPD each year.”

There is a packed programme and in addition to the usual week of presentations and discussions, there is the activity week, a chance to have a go at stuff.

For £50 you aren’t probably going to find something of similar value anywhere else in the UK.

Of course also as it’s online there are no travel costs either.

Today I delivered a presentation at The 12th Annual Ebooks Conference in Edinburgh in Scotland. Flying up from Bristol, just for the day, I gave a 40 minute talk (with questions) on a layman’s guide to ebook standards and formats.

One thing I wanted to get across, was that many of the problems that causes users to have problems with their devices is because of wider issues. These wider issues impact on format problems.

EPUB, Mobi, PDF, iBooks – what does it all mean for readers of digital content? This session takes a layman’s look at proprietary formats and standards in ebooks helping us to make sense of it all.

Obviously in 40 minutes it was challenging to cover everything in detail, but one thing I did do (which I hadn’t done for a while) was live tweet references, URLs and pictures as I was presenting.

I used Keynote Tweet 2 which is a little Applescript that tweets the text from the notes field from a Keynote presentation. I used it for the first time when I delivered the Ascilite 2009 Keynote.

When Twitter moved from basic authentication to OAuth this broke Keynote Tweet.

Using this guide, I installed Ruby, used twurl instead of curl and today it worked.

What I like about Keynote Tweet is that it is perfectly timed with the presentation timings, no need to set up or automate tweets in advance.

Overall I was pleased with my presentation and the rest of the day was interesting and there was a fair bit to think about as a result.

At the recent JISC RSC SW TurboTEL 2012 conference I delivered a presentation based on one I delivered at a CILIP Excecutive Briefing on e-Books.

Through the use of a number of mobile devices James will give an overview of how the FE sector is promoting their e-book collections through mobile technologies and how this can enhance the learning experience and extend the access and use of e-books.

You can hear a recording of the CILIP presentation as part of the e-Learning Stuff podcast that covers much of what I covered at the TurboTEL event, but in a lot more detail!

At the recent JISC RSC SW TurboTEL 2012 conference I delivered a rapid speed presentation, containing 120 slides in just ten minutes…

This presentation is one that is based on various others I have done this year, and though I now know better, I did include the “historical” slides about resistance to change. I did indeed mention that though they were “made up” there was a message behind them that often teachers are resistant to change, especially changes in technology. I made the connection that we use models to show how change is effected within organisations, but in reality we need to be aware of the importance of the culture of an organisation when introducing change.

I went back to why we use technology, and how technology is often a solution to the many problems we face. I also covered how teachers need to understand the potential of technology and the contexts in which it works best. The example I used was that the traditional printed book is great for many learners, but completely inaccessible when the library is closed, hence the importance of an e-library and an ebook collection.

I wanted to show that technological change is not as rapid as we think it is, mentioning that the first mobile phone call was in 1946, the first handheld mobile phone call was in 1973, the first tablet capable of reading ebooks was demonstrated in 1971. Often it takes a long amount of time before a technology becomes widely adopted.

I also warned about listening to people and asking them what they want. Often people will want what they have already, but faster or cheaper. It takes real vision to produce new things that people didn’t even consider, but suddenly find essential. Be informed by listening to your learners, but not led by them. Most popular technologies are usually invented by a different person to the person who made them popular. Henry Ford with cars and Steve Jobs with mp3 players.

I quickly went over the new technologies that may become popular over the next five years and to watch out for.

I then reminded the audience that not everything is perfect and there are problems. There are cultural challenges, difficulties in been innovative, e-safety, costs, inclusion and connectivity.

My final thoughts were remembering that it is never about time, but priorities and that the reason we should be looking at using technology to support learning is because of the value it gives to our learners.