intouch
the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands
COLLEGE
Forthcoming
EVENTS
FOCUS
October 28th
Newark and Sherwood College
ILT Forum
Smart use of Smart Technology: The NELI Project
November 6th 10th 19th 24th-25th 26th 27th
Technical Forum MIS Forum Project Management Ferl Annual Conference LRC Forum Microsoft Technology Day
9th 11th
otherwise be justified. Equally a pupil in the
strong links between its schools and the college.
secondary school may attend college (or visa versa)
NELI (Newark Extended Learning Initiative) aims to
with a laptop and still be able to draw on personal
develop further cooperation and teamwork by
files or shared resources located on their school’s
promoting and encouraging better use of ICT across
own network.
the full spectrum of education and training.
December 2nd
Newark and district boasts good relationships and
Freedom of Information & Records Management Using ILT in Health & Social Care Plagiarism & Electronic Copyright Workshops
Importantly NELI has a role in the proof of concept.
Based in Newark & Sherwood College, NELI is a
We have an enormous opportunity to evaluate
team of education and ICT specialists together with
different ways of doing things. As the technologies
extensive business experience promoting the
emerge, schools and businesses fitted out later in the
benefits of e-learning. Our primary aim is to
project
encourage resource sharing, developing skills and
infrastructures and methods of working than those at
training teachers, tutors and trainers in effective use
the beginning. The key is that all will have the same
of the technologies. We are not limiting ourselves to
connectivity to shared resources.
the schools and college: the private, public and voluntary sectors are also key partners in this project.
January
may
have
significantly
different
NELI relies on collaboration & cooperation between partnership approach between North Nottinghamshire
training but the project is providing the ICT
Learning
infrastructure to enjoy seamless communication.
Council and the Learning and Skills Council.
Partnership,
Nottinghamshire
Sharing is crucial to the success of NELI; the team
enabling both children and parents to benefit from
shared between schools, or being able to employ a
Melvin Millard, NELI e-learning Team Leader
For further details see our website
specialist teacher, the costs of whom could not
mmillard@newark.ac.uk 01636 680680 x 277
14th
21st
home education opportunities with school laptops. It is possible for teachers to visit another school, to logon and be able to access resources or their pupil’s records from their own school. This suggests the possibility of “teacher sharing”: the costs of teachers
As the new academic year gets underway, I am pleased to announce that RSC East Midlands has been granted JISC funding for another three years. This will enable us to continue to work alongside you all, offering you guidance and support as the use of ILT becomes more widespread in the teaching and learning process. On a personal note, I am particularly happy to be given the opportunity to continue to build on the excellent working relationships I have formed with so many of you and I hope to replicate this as our remit expands to include support for specialist colleges and higher education, in particular small HEIs. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all success in the coming year and if we can be of help in any way please do get in touch. As always, if you have any comments about this newsletter, or you would like to contribute an article, perhaps for the College Focus section of the next newsletter, email us at support@rsc-east-midlands .ac.uk Judi Millage, ILT Advisor
welcomes contact from interested parties, whether it
Meet the new Manager
is for more information, or sharing expertise and experience or suggestions on how we may continue to push the barriers of e-learning for the benefit of the whole learning community.
www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk
INSIDE This issue
Welcome Meet the new Manager The Technical Advisory Service for Images: An introduction JISC Services: What’s on offer? RDN Virtual Training Suite: Five new internet tutorials for FE students Specialist Colleges Connect to JANET University for Industry
County
Using the Internet for Learning & Teaching in FE E-learning: Creating, Converting & Re-using content with VLEs Using ILT in PE & Sport Science
13th
Welcomefrom the Editor
many institutions with its foundations in a strong
NELI not only promotes resource sharing and
Wireless networks have been designed to be “leaky”,
Autumn Volume 1 • Issue 4
Forthcoming Events College Focus: Newark and Sherwood College
Hints & Tips: Investigate your College She came up to me when I was having a coffee before the weekly expedition Internet Connectivity Problems around Sainsbury’s. “You won’t remember me,” she said, “but you were my economics tutor twenty years ago. I’d decided to give up my A level course and get a job, but you told me that if I wanted to go to university later, I could. That stuck in my mind, and now I’ve decided to go for it. I start next week. I just wanted to say thank you for what you said.” And she walked away.
s
It’s because teaching touches lives that I work in education. I come to East
I see the RSC as the one-stop-shop for ILT support. As well as providing support
Midlands RSC from City of Bath College where I was ILT Development
ourselves, it is our job to make sure colleges can take full advantage of the
Leader and subject leader for teacher training courses, responsible for the
widespread services, materials and resources that are available. This year, in
Investigate your College Internet Connectivity Problems
development and implementation of ILT strategy. I have
addition to maintaining and refining the full range of curriculum, managerial
also recently worked with City & Guilds as a verifier,
and technical services we currently offer – helpdesk, web site, mailing lists,
Edexcel, FENTO and the LSDA as E-Learning Support
forums, site visits, training, events, newsletter and more – we will focus on:
H
i
n
t
s
Netsight is a JANET monitoring service developed by UKERNA. It allows colleges to investigate their own Internet connectivity problems.
&
T
i
p
Once logged in, the Netsight system greets the user with three main choices:
with BBC.co.uk, then it would be quite likely that one of the transatlantic nodes were non-operational.
The service consists of a number of small monitoring stations deployed at set points around the edge of the JANET backbone, one for each of the JANET regional networks. The East Midlands Metropolitan Area Network runs the monitoring system in our region. The EMMAN constantly monitors JANET’s links to the Internet and to the local regional network.
1. Backbone: this monitors the performance of the whole of JANET. This information is made available in both tabular and graphical formats. If any of the nodes here were displaying the ‘connection down’ symbol then this would explain any regional connection difficulties. For example you may be able to reach a college down south, but if any of the northern Metropolitan Area Networks were ‘down’ you would experience problems connecting to anything in the northern region.
The Netsight website can be found at http://nottingham.netsight.ja.net. The information specific to your college is protected by a unique username and password. If you are unsure of your username details, please contact either JANET Customer Service (mailto:service@ukerna.ac.uk) or RSC East Midlands (support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk).
2. External: this monitors the performance of JANET’s links to the rest of the Internet, such as the circuits to the US and the connection to the LINX (London Internet Exchange). Here would be the first place to check if you were having problems connecting to sites overseas. For example if you couldn’t connect to Microsoft.com, but had no problems
3. Regional: this monitors the performance and traffic levels on all the JANET customer access links within the local regional network. The information collected, covering traffic levels, packet loss and latency, is tailored and made available to each individual college. To access this information you have to be logged into Netsight. Once logged in an option to display ‘Your Sites’ appears in the Regional section. This information is useful because firstly it allows the user to see whether their college can actually see the ‘outside world’ at all. Secondly, by clicking on ‘Traffic’ it can notify a college of any abnormal network activity. And thirdly by clicking on ‘Reliability’, any downtime or dropouts in connectivity can be inspected and subsequently investigated.
Network Co-ordinator for the south west. • the newly launched FERL Practitioner’s Programme To me, ILT is not an end in itself but a tool in the toolkit available to teachers, support staff and managers. It is just another tool, to be selected when appropriate, but with a particular strength in giving learners ownership of their learning, so that it really
• more subject specific events • access to the full range of National Learning Network services • the connection of specialist colleges to the internet through JANET
is student centred. ILT makes learning
Outside of work, I choose to spend time exploring landscapes and making
more accessible to more people and
music. I play keyboards, including the pipe organ, and do a bit of choral
enables it to be tailored to the needs of
conducting. I look forward to working with you to ensure that our students
each learner.
can make the choices they want.
Chris Bell, e-Information Officer
w w w. r s c - e a s t - m i d l a n d s . a c . u k
• the needs of HE students both in FE and HE colleges
Chris Hill, RSC Manager
w w w. r s c - e a s t - m i d l a n d s . a c . u k
intouch
intouch
JISC Services:
?
What’s on offer
SS Watch
Open Source Advisory Service
An Introduction The Technical Advisory Service for Images has been funded by the JISC to help the FE and HE community on all aspects of digital imaging and is hosted at the institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University of Bristol. For those of you who are in the FE sector, TASI provides a number of useful facilities that include:
• The TASI Web site - this provides resources for those who are creating and using digital images for learning and teaching (see www.tasi.ac.uk)
• An Enquiries Helpdesk - if you have a burning question about digital images or how to convert your analogue teaching materials e.g. photographs and slides into digital format, then we can answer those questions and help guide you through the processes. We can also provide help and advice about using digital images within teaching materials. Contact the Helpdesk at info@tasi.ac.uk
• Online technical documentation - an extensive range of reports and FAQs that cover all areas of digitisation and provides specific guides on creating and using images are made available from the TASI Web site (see www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/advice.html)
• Training workshops - specific and practical hands-on training is provided to encourage people within the education community to engage with creating, delivering and using digital images. If you would like any further information about how TASi can help you within the FE sector then please contact the TASI Helpdesk (info@tasi.ac.uk).
Did you know that the JISC has launched a new advisory service called OSS Watch: Open Source Software Advisory Service, for UK further and higher education. This is primarily an online service, aimed at institutional managers, software developers and IT users. Open source software allows users to adapt and modify software and use it for any purpose. They are then free to redistribute copies of the original or modified software. OSS Watch can provide you with advice and guidance on a range of issues related to open source software, including :
• Offering a web-based clearing house for up-to-date information
• Information on free and open source software
• Development of best-practice guidelines • Out-reach
activities aimed at institutional managers, software developers and IT users
• Focused assistance for institutions, software projects and investigative reports
UNIVERSITY
• Re-usable simulation
objects
for
education
• Ubiquitous computing • Widening
Access Technologies.
with
Wireless
OSS Watch is part of the Research Technologies Service based at Oxford University Computing Services. If you would like to find out more about the initial online service go to: www.oss-watch.ac.uk where you will be able to find out more about what is provided and how you can get involved. If you would like to keep in touch with developments at OSS, you can join the JISCmail list OSSWATCH-ANNOUNCE at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/osswatchannounce.html. Alternatively, you can register to be added to the list on the OSS Watch website You can contact OSS Watch by email at info@osswatch.ac.uk or by telephone on 01865 283416 with comments and suggestions. Gwen Callaghan, Events & Admin Co-ordinator
for industry
The JISC Regional Support Centres have had their remit extended to
connection itself, but will also include advice and guidance on a wide
include providing support for specialist colleges. Across the UK,
range of technical issues and very importantly, encourage the sharing of
approximately sixty specialist colleges are in the process of being
best practice among institutions across the region.
connected to the JANET network.
Centre also offers advice and support in the development and use of ILT
include providing support for specialist colleges.
Across the UK,
within teaching and learning to college LRC/library staff, ILT
approximately sixty specialist colleges are in the process of being
practitioners, curriculum staff, developers of web resources, and college
connected to the JANET network. In the East Midlands region, one
senior management.
specialist college was connected as part of a pilot project and a further
Information on the range of services available from the Regional Support
six connections are currently being installed in the first phase of
Centre, for both specialist colleges and mainstream further education
connections, with a final one scheduled to be installed in phase two of
colleges in the East Midlands, can be obtained from the Regional
the project.
Support Centre. You can use our website: www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk
The specialist colleges will be able to call upon the full range of services and support available from the Regional Support Centre, in order to help them make the best use of their new JANET connections. This support and assistance won’t just involve technical support for the JANET
can contact us by telephone: 01509-618110, or email: support @rsceast-midlands.ac.uk. James Higham, Network Specialist.
Five new Internet tutorials for FE students Five more tutorials have now been added to the RDN Virtual Training Suite www.vts.rdn.ac.uk: Building on the success of 56 tutorials already available in other subject areas, the five new “teach yourself” Web tutorials will enable students in Further Education to find high quality information on the Internet to support their course work. The RDN Virtual Training Suite is a highly popular service, built collaboratively by members of the teaching and lecturing community in colleges and universities across the UK. The new tutorials are: Internet for English Studies
If you require any advice to assist in the
advice and guidance to learndirect
provision of learndirect materials please
Aimed primarily at students of:
centres has now come to an end. As a
contact your local Ufi Hub.
- A level English Literature - A Level English Language - A Level English Literature and Language
supports UFI.
to find details of forthcoming events, both regional and national and you
R D N Vi r t u a l Tr a i n i n g S u i t e
The UFI Pilot Project to provide technical
consequence the RSC no longer directly
As well as working with college technical staff, the Regional Support
The JISC Regional Support Centres have had their remit extended to
Written by: Mark Williams, Lecturer in English, Kingston College
Includes examples of how to find full text of plays, poetry and prose on the Internet, and how to find online dictionaries and grammar guides and much more!
Alternatively, if you have particular ideas about how TASI could support you further, then the TASI Director would be very pleased to hear from you - please email karla.youngs@bristol.ac.uk
Page 2
Specialist Colleges Connect to JANET
Internet for Science
Internet for Health and Safety at Work
Written by Dr Stuart Barker, Chemistry Course Leader, Park College
Written by Tony Weston, Construction & Health and Safety Lecturer and ILT Development at Grimsby College, North East Lincolnshire.
Aimed primarily at students of: - A level Biology - A Level Chemistry - A Level Physics Helps students find science museums online, revision Web sites, electronic science textbooks and much more!
Aimed primarily at students of: - Health and Safety (particularly on vocational courses) Enables students to find key H&S organisations on the Web, Trades Union sites on H&S, eLearning materials about first aid, environmental health and much more!
Internet for Maths & Adult Numeracy Internet for Learning Languages Written by Deborah Prence, Mathematics Lecturer, The Sheffield College Aimed primarily at students of: - A level Maths - Adult Numeracy Includes great examples of eLearning Web sites for Maths from around the World eg. “M.C. Escher: Artist or Mathematician” and “Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section” and much more!
Written by Yvan Tardy, Senior Lecturer in French, De Montfort University Aimed primarily at students of: - French, German, Spanish, Italian - English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Helps students locate Web sites that support language learning online and Web sites for: language schools, foreign embassies, tourist offices and newspapers worldwide and much more!
Don’t forget the free posters to download and print available from: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/posters/ HE and FE staff may order a bundle of leaflets for free; please email: rdn-vts@bristol.ac.uk And of course, feedback is always welcome via the online feedback forms on each tutorial, or to: rdn-vts@bristol.ac.uk
w w w. r s c - e a s t - m i d l a n d s . a c . u k
w w w. r s c - e a s t - m i d l a n d s . a c . u k
Page 3