JISC RSC Northwest Newsletter Countdown begins until Annual Event… The JISC RSC Northwest Annual Event programme for Wednesday, June 27 2012 is ramping up and learning providers are urged to book a place now if you haven’t already.
and to see practical examples by speakers, presenters, suppliers and wider JISC services. There will also be a number of other sessions covering themes such as Accessibility and Inclusion, Social Networking, Video Conferencing and Augmented Reality.
Around 40 exhibitors representing a cross sector of the industry will be attending the ‘All the Fun of the (technology) Fair’ themed event, providing an insight into the latest software and technologies available and how it can benefit learners or an Delegates will be offered a mix of organisation. presentations, workshops and exhibitors stands.
The Annual Event is free to all supported Learning Providers in the North West and will be held at Southport Convention Centre from 10am -4pm. It is a chance to learn about the innovative uses of eLearning and technology in the region
Over 200 delegates have already registered to attend the Annual Event from a range of learning providers. Click here to book a place
or to listen to recordings about the event.
Summer 2012 RSCs - stimulating and supporting innovation in learning
In this issue…
College case study showcase P2
Two NW bids successful in JISC Funding P3
Microsoft Technology Day P4
Tameside ACL experiment online P5
Accessibility Tablet Apps P5
Strategic Challenges Do more with less P8
Case Study showcase New case studies showcasing the successful ePractice of three North West Colleges were published on the Excellence Gateway website this month to share good practice.
An Innovation and Excellence Room supports a radical approach to using technology
Preston College took a creative approach to their use of technology which has resulted in an entrepreneurial teaching and learning culture. Improving the learner experience involved students and staff trialing different technologies and the creation of an Innovation and Excellence Learning Room utilised by the Preston College students enjoying the whole faculty. Innovation and Excellence Room. This room is equipped with a A summary of each range of technologies College’s activity is including; iPads, xBox Kinect, opposite and full TV screens, 3D camcorders and cameras, Paper Show details can be found and Kindles. Its flexible set-up, through the web links. fast Wi-Fi and décor are all geared towards it being a learner-led environment. This inspirational take on learning required a cultural shift in how technology supported learning, backed up by a college-wide staff development programme. http:// www.excellencegateway.org.u k/node/21011
Warrington Collegiate IT Director Nick Smeltzer with their virtual servers.
Green ICT initiative reduces 409,000kw of electricity consumption a year through technology Warrington Collegiate has always been cutting edge when it comes to technology
but its first major environmental project started in 2007 with its new rebuild. Since then it has been continually improving its energy efficiency through the use of technology. At current levels they are measuring an overall saving of 409,000kw of energy per year. This is equal to cutting 221 tons of Co2 emissions and removing 48 cars off the road per year - or planting over 10,000 trees. http:// www.excellencegateway.org.u k/node/21009
Efficient online system tracks student progression and attendance Birkenhead Sixth Form has developed a new programme which hosts student information and monitors progression and attendance. It holds details such as; a photograph, basic student details, attendance rates and GCSE score. This is primarily used to track punctuality and pastoral progression and can be viewed by students, teachers and parents. Part of the initiative is that students with bad attendance owe teachers ‘time’ which they can pay back. Parents also receive a text message when a student is absent from class and teachers can text individual students about their progress. http:// www.excellencegateway.org.u k/node/21013 If you think you could be our next case study email mh@rsc-northwest.ac.uk
Two NW bids successful in FE and Skills Funding Call Two North West bids have received the green light for funding by JISC Advance.
learner experience and increase efficiencies across the sector.
Both projects, one large and one small, will be made public once terms are agreed.
The UK proposals include:
Over 180 bids were received nationally in response to JISC Advance’s FE and Skills Resource and Development funding initiative. More successful bids are yet to be announced because of the large volume of submissions that were received on the last day. In the North West 20 bids were seen by the team from a range of learning providers interested in creating new resources or repurposing existing ones. RSC Northwest Manager Paul Deane says; “We are pleased that at least two of the innovative ideas that we know exist locally have secured funding so far. There is a real focus on these projects improving the learner journey and I am looking forward to the successful ones being shared within the sector.” Nationally the uptake has been impressive with bids detailing some fantastic new and innovative ways to use technology to improve the
• Developing student apps to reduce costs when recruiting and enrolling students • New uses for mobile technologies to engage learners and extend their learning • Developing augmented reality support for learners and employers • Producing employability resources for learners with disabilities • Establishing a secure Moodle environment for offender learning.
New Augment Reality APP A new Augmented Reality (AR) App has been created for North West learning providers to try for free on iTunes. AR is a way of making an image come to life by turning it into a moving image when scanned through an AR app. RSC Northwest eLearning adviser Judy Bloxham who created the RSC app says; “I’ve been looking at ideas for using AR as a learning tool. The aim is to provide inspiring ideas for how this could be implemented to expand your learning space.” The app is available here. Trigger images found here.
ROI AWARDS Finalists for the JISC RSC Northwest Recognition of Innovation (ROI) Awards have now been selected. A good range of submissions were received from across the region which showed how technology was being used to improve teaching and learning or institutional effectiveness. The seven winners of the ROI awards will be announced and presented with an award after lunch at the RSC Annual Event, Wednesday June 27, at Southport Convention Centre. Winners will be publicised in all RSC communications and will have case studies written about them.
Microsoft Technology Day Delegates at last month’s Microsoft Day were treated to an overview of all the company’s latest technology and systems. Microsoft Business Managers and Technology Specialists presented on a number of new products including using Office 365, Microsoft Cloud and the latest Windows 8 touchscreen technology. DreamSpark software was highlighted for its free curriculum materials from Key Stage 1 to post graduate which cover hundreds of Computer Science topics. It also offers professional developer and designer tools. Other sessions explored; Licensing ESP-A, UltimaSCCM2007, the Microsoft System Centre and looked at how to embrace consumerisation of IT. The materials relating to this event are available here.
eMagazine keeps finger on the pulse of new technologies Readers of the RSC Northwest eMagazine were encouragingly vocal about its usefulness for keeping up- to- date with new and emerging technologies when asked about its impact in a questionnaire.
The second top reason was it raising awareness of the resources available. Both hit the 90% mark of those taking part, bearing in mind percentages can go over 100% when people selected more than one option. A lot of feedback centred on the eMagazine’s relevant teaching and learning resources saving staff time and others enjoyed discovering tools such as wordle, QR codes and picture editing that bought learning to life. Pete Collins from Manchester Adult Education Service says; “As an IT Manager coming into an Adult Education service from a completely unrelated private sector
position, the eMagazine has been a huge help in getting me immersed in learning technology and in passing that knowledge on to tutors and other colleagues. I would miss it very much if it stopped.” Wirral Metropolitan College Lecturer in Applied Science, Liz Epps adds; “Staff don’t have time to search for and investigate relevant resources for themselves and their students. They are very appreciative of good resources that have been recommended to them. Each month I compile a list of eMagazine resources that I think are relevant to staff in my area and I always receive emails thanking me.” Other survey results on the eMag impact include: • 82% said they use it to disseminate relevant content to others • 82% used it for the learning & teaching content • 73% said that it had impact on them and/or their organisation and; 82% said they would miss the eMagazine if it finished. Click here to read or subscribe to the emagazine
Tablet Apps for Accessibility and Inclusion Twenty Five useful apps to aid Accessibility and Inclusion were highlighted to learning providers during a webinar run by RSC Northwest. The session proved popular with over 35 delegates joining the online tutorial and 90% of those rating the session said it was ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’ Participants were given an overview of accessibility Apps which could be used for image communication, text to speech/screen reader, voice recognition, making notes and mind maps. All of these could be used on blackberry, apple or android devices, or a combination of the three.
Accessibility and Inclusion eLearning Adviser Kevin Hickey says; “Judging by the people who signed up to my webinar there does seem to be a huge need for us to provide support on tablet devices. There are so many great apps out there which can make a huge difference to the learner experience and I plan to provide a more detailed event after the summer.” For those who couldn’t tune in you can listen to a recording to the event, watch the PowerPoint, or see a spreadsheet to all the apps mentioned and a link to find them.
At the beginning participants voted on what tablet their learners or colleagues used and iPads still held the market with 72.4%, this was followed in second place by Android on 27.5% and third place was Blackberry on 17.2%. There was another 24% who were not yet using a tablet device. When asked who uses the tablet devices, the majority said staff on 64.2% followed by learners on 42.8%, again there was 21% not yet using tablets at work.
Kevin also writes an Assistive Technology Blog which contains short descriptions and video demonstrations of over 140 assistive technologies.
Tameside ACL experiment online The enthusiasm for new online resources was evident when Tameside and Oldham Adult Community Learning Services took part in an RSC training session last month. RSC Northwest eLearning advisers John Dalziel and Anita Holt went through the benefits of using learning resource tools such as Triptico, Zoom.It, Pointer Tools and Functional Skills. 30 delegates, mainly from Tameside Council, were then given a demonstration of the resources and individuals got a chance to develop the resources themselves. If you are working in Adult and Community Learning and are interested in receiving eLearning staff development contact John Dalziel on jd@rsc -northwest.ac.uk
Interview: eLearning Advisers Anthony Beal, Hilary Thomas and Mark Ayton ran an event to equip delegates with collaborative approaches and strategies to get learners thinking more independently. We ask how it went… Why did you put this event on, were there any driving factors? When we have been travelling around the North West there has been a reoccurring theme that learners need to be able to think critically and independently as they progress in FE and move to HE or employment. Especially when we all have such ready access to digitised content that allows us to cut and paste other people’s thoughts and arguments it’s important students learn to think for themselves. We could also see the benefit of teachers and librarians working together more and wanted to give them the chance to work collaboratively in an event setting in order to develop this idea.
Event to encourage critical thinking What outcomes did you want people to get from the day? What we set out to do was to get people thinking about what independent learners and critical thinking meant in their own context and then give the opportunity to plan how they would put their ideas from the day into action. We had some great input from both teaching and library practitioners which we intended should prompt and inspire those there to make positive changes in their own practices. How was the reaction from delegates? They were really positive. They joined in and contributed which was great. There was an emphasis on not having too many speakers so people could discuss ideas and there was a real atmosphere of people sharing experiences. Were there any areas you felt worked particularly well? Everyone enjoyed hearing the practical examples of how you can work to help learners think critically and independently. For example one of the presenters talked about using Pinterest [ http:// pinterest.com ] for a
fashion design class. The presenter got students to use Pinterest as a tool to collect information and resources for different project ideas, but it didn’t stop there. Students went on to evaluate what they’d collected and this commentary then resulted in a dialogue in the site between the teacher and student - and also with other students. This was a way of coaching critical thinking. Is there any follow- up to this event? We asked people to put one thing on a post-it note that they will take forward – along with the date when they’d do it by! We’ll be catching up with delegates in a couple of months to see where this has led! Having the twitter #rscnwil worked well too for getting people talking about the event.
RSC Communications on the right track Feedback from the RSC cluster communications survey earlier this year was positive with 80% of respondents across the North West, East Midlands and Northern regions rating our communications as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. The survey aimed to gauge what tools learning providers were using to communicate in their work role and to gain valuable insight into what communications are preferred. Response rates were pleasing with 355 participants from all three regions completing the survey, 160 of which were from the North West. The first part of the survey looked at tools that people use in any part of their working lives. Here are a few of the headlines:
Not a lot of difference regionally between respondents’ use or preference of communication; 40% of respondents receive more than 30 emails a day at work; 36% of respondents have a work mobile phone, with about half of these devices being
Smartphones; The majority of respondents didn’t use Web 2.0 tools for work;
The most popular web 2.0 tools used were reading blogs, listening to podcasts, watching vid casts and reading wikis; Where respondents did use social media tools, popular ones like FaceBook, Linked In and Twitter easily ranked highest. The second part of the survey looked specifically at RSC communications. Overall the feeling about the way the RSC communications was very positive, with a lot of respondents saying they were really happy with the work of the RSCs. Across the three regions 85% of respondents said the amount of contact
was about right and 59% rated the RSC communications as “good” and 22% said it was “excellent”. The newsletters also got a lot of praise in the open comments and 68% of respondents in the North West said they found the newsletter useful or very useful. Thanks to all those who participated in the survey. Feedback will be used to improve the way in which we communicate with you. We are also currently putting together a series of webinars to offer training in the web 2.0 technologies that a number of respondents showed an interest in.
Strategic Challenges Doing more with less - JISC RSCs can help
RSC Manager Paul Deane
Doing More with Less— JISC RSCs can help “What does that have to do with JISC, they are the technology/ elearning boffins aren’t they? My IT Manager / Learning Resources Manager / ILT Champion deals with them and we’ve got our technology sorted.” The above view is not uncommon and JISC itself is partly responsible for this perception but it is working to put the record straight. We understand that a senior manager’s role involves scanning the horizon to anticipate potential problems and seek out innovative solutions, to see how the very best are doing things and aim to do it even better. That is hard to delegate when the staff above may not have the role of looking at the big picture that you do and will find themselves more and more stretched and it is hard for you to do alone.
Funding cuts are a reality with further on the horizon so are you coping, managing to do more with less? Improving and growing in such a climate? It is hard to find the time to look outwards for inspiration and solutions but a small investment of your time could pay real dividends in a short period. Look outwards to stimulate innovation and creativity, to deal with the difficult funding climate, JISC RSCs can assist you to do this. I’m encouraged to see many of you taking advantage of JISC RSC NW services, our consultations, eProgress Reviews, staff development, events both face to face and online, and our forums, but I am also conscious that there are many more of you that could benefit and we’ll strive to make that as easy as possible for you and tailor our support to your needs. The majority of our feedback is excellent and where it isn’t we are listening closely to what you tell us. As we look to the future we would like to hear from you about your challenges and priorities for the coming year. Doing more with less – Technology the enabler
To contact the JISC RSC Northwest team visit: http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/ northwest/ contact.aspx
Within JISC RSCs there are not only ideas for how to deploy technology to enable you to do more with less but also real life examples of providers using technology to do more with less and a
desire to share these with you whether your interest is in: *Curriculum re-design/ epedagogy – technology supporting the reduction in GLH *Optimising your infrastructure Virtualisation, thin client, Open Source Software *Cloud Computing - Cloud infrastructure, software as a service *Mobile working/teaching/ learning - combinations of hardware & software that opens up possibility of new markets, reduce the cost of travel *eProcurement - use technology to make the most of your budget *Business Process Improvement - Technology supporting more efficient and effective recruitment, enrolment, retention, teaching and learning, assessment and progression processes *eMarketing, use of technology to raise your profile and efficiently grow markets. So invest in your future, invest some time to do more with less, contact RSC North West on 01524 510067 or even better come along to our Annual Event on June 27 at Southport Convention Centre and talk to our advisers.