Tag Archives: rscsw

eBooks go Mobile at TurboTEL

Sony eBook Reader

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!

Rates of Change

JISC RSC SW TurboTEL 2012

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.

A few of my favourite things…

Over the last two years of owning the iPad, I have downloaded lots of different apps, some of which were free and a fair few that cost hard cash!

At the recent JISC RSC SW TurboTEL event in Taunton I delivered a ten minute presentation on my favourite iPad apps.

Here are the links to all the apps in the iTunes App Store as well as a brief description of what the app is about and why I like it. Continue reading A few of my favourite things…

One month later…

I recently noticed that I’ve not posted to the blog for a while, nearly a month!

It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say, much more I have been busy doing other things, holiday, mainly work, but also moving house. June is also a busy month in terms of events and I have been out and about a bit too.

I have posted to my other blogs, notably on my technical blog.

Voice Dictation – trying out Apple’s voice dictation.

Lost my Fibre – having moved house I lost my FTTC connection.

Music, books, movies and tan slacks – YouTube’s speech-to-text transcription can sometimes result in amusing closed captions.

In terms of events I went to the RSC Turbo TEL event where I presented four ten minute sessions on various learning technologies.

I also blogged at Anglia Ruskin’s Learning and Teaching Conference in Cambridge. I particularly enjoyed the keynote session from Bob Duke.

Lord Ashcroft Building #ltaconf

I have also delivered two webinars as part of an LSIS project on learner owned devices which was useful and interesting.

Yesterday I attended the RSC SW Learning Resources Forum, a really useful opportunity to share ideas and issues with colleagues who do a similar role in other colleges.

So hopefully not long now before I write another blog post.

Moodle Audit

I recently gave a presentation and had a discussion on auditing your VLE installation at the RSC SW VLE Forum.

Gloucestershire College has recently undertaken an external audit of both their current VLE setup and their recent procurement process with outsourcing the VLE to ULCC. The audit process is a useful way of looking at the systems and processes an institution has in place for such a mission critical system like the VLE. This session will go through the key aspects within an external audit and delegates will discuss with colleagues how they would “fare” if they were to undergo an external audit. This may also be an opportunity to think about peer assessment and auditing.  

Using the VLE better – RSC SW Turbo TEL

Yesterday I attended the JISC RSC SW Turbo TEL event in Bristol. In a change to previous conferences that I have attended and delivered at, this one comprised short six minute presentations and an opportunity for delegates to talk about things they wanted to.

I did a few presentations, one though was on using the VLE better, based on my series here on the blog of 100 ways to use a VLE.

I delivered over fifty slides with over fifty ways in which the VLE can be used to support, enhance and enrich learning in just six minutes.

The idea behind the presentation was not about substance, can you really do substance in six minutes; it was about inspiring others to think about how they could work with practitioners (and learners) to use the VLE more effectively to support the learning process. The fifty odd ideas (and the 100 ways articles) are based on how practitioners at my college (and others) are using the VLE now with learners everyday.

RSC SW Summer Conference

Despite earlier problems with embedding a Flickr slideshow into a WordPress.com blog, Vodpod appears to have resolved the issue.

Here is a slideshow of photographs I took at the RSC SW Summer Conference.

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2792873&w=425&h=350&fv=offsite%3Dtrue%26offsite%3Dtrue%26lang%3Den-us%26page_show_url%3D%252Fphotos%252Fjamesclay%252Fsets%252F72157619902384508%252Fshow%252F%26page_show_back_url%3D%252Fphotos%252Fjamesclay%252Fsets%252F72157619902384508%252F%26set_id%3D72157619902384508%26jump_to%3D]

more about “RSC SW Conference“, posted with vodpod

Keynoting in the South-West

This morning myself and David Sugden delivered the keynote for day two at the JISC Regional Support Centre South West Summer Conference.

glitterball

Our keynote was entitled, Cultural Confidence.

We used Activexpression, learner response systems, with the audience to allow them to interact with the keynote.

We also used Ustream to stream a video of the presentation, however flaky wireless meant that we kept losing the stream, however I did also record the presentation using my HD video camera.

I will post the video and the slides later, when I have sufficient bandwidth to upload.

Down the road…

rscsw01

Over the next two days I am attending the JISC Regional Support Centre South West Summer Conference 2009 which is just down the road for me in Rookery Manor in Somerset, just South of Weston-super-Mare.

I am presenting (with David Sugden) a keynote tomorrow morning and running a workshop later on in the day.

This afternoon I am on an expert panel which will be interesting as I have no idea about what we will be asked!

Today’s keynote is from Derek Law who is going to be running the JISC Services Management company which goes live in August.

Was quite interesting, now onto the workshops.