the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands
Volume 5 • Issue 2
Spring 2007
Welcome
Our theme this term is Change
CHANGE! The dictionary definition is: make or become different in some particular way; transformation; the result of alteration or modification. People don't like change. Why? Because we like the familiar, we are accustomed to doing things in a particular way. We know where we are if we do it the same way. In spite of this we cannot avoid change. All living things will encounter change and every person is a change agent. Success, like walking, is a form of falling so that we are always in a state between stability and instability. Interestingly, the JISC Infonet Change Management infokit has a lot to say about emotional responses to change: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/change-management
INSIDE This issue Change Management RSC funding and strategy RSC East Midlands 2007 e-fair JISC funding bids Athens and Shibboleth New Build Forum Social networking software eCPD Framework Hints and Tips: Photo Story 3 Forthcoming events
The future starts here… Funding for the next three years of e-learning support has been agreed between the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the JISC.
Round 3 will see further development of the services provided by Regional Support Centres. Although final details are still under discussion, two key aspects are:• significantly increased strategic support; e-learning is not just for enthusiasts, it must be embedded throughout the whole organisation;
The LSC and the DfES carried out extensive evaluations of the support needs of the Learning and Skills sector and the way support is currently provided.
• in addition to our own activities, we will be brokering more services in order to increase the overall amount of training that takes place
This study highlighted the effectiveness of the Regional Support Centres (RSCs) and the high regard in which RSC services are held by learning providers. As a result, RSCs will enter Round 3 of funding which will run from August 2007 until July 2010.
Other changes include the support of teacher training courses and the likely extension of services to include work based learning. The summer term edition of the newsletter will set out the new services in more detail.
RSC East Midlands e-fair 2007 This year’s e-fair is on 21 June at the University of Derby. This year’s theme is helping you to help yourself. The purpose of the e-fair is to enable delegates to find out about developments, initiatives, effective practice and the support available to them. Keynote speakers will include Lee Davies, Development Manager at the Institute for Learning (IFL). If you wish to exhibit or showcase your practice please contact us: support@rsc-em.ac.uk Last year’s e-fair was a great success. Here are the keynote presentations: http://www.rsc-em.ac.uk/efair_report.asp
w w w. r s c - e m . a c . u k
intouch
New Service:
RSC support for funding applications
RSC East Midlands has introduced a new service supporting learning providers across the region in finding and bidding for development funding. We have provided support for FE colleges in bidding for the recent round of JISC funding (which was up to £200K per project). The service covers: discussing the suitability and viability of initial ideas; providing advice on planning a project and putting a bid together; support in the project phase; support in
disseminating the outputs of your project. The RSC are organising an event, Finding and bidding for funding on 16 March. Details will be available shortly on www.rsc-em.ac.uk JISC are planning another significant round of funding for Spring 2007. If you are interested in applying for this or other sources of funding, contact Ben Williams at the RSC to find out more about the support we can provide. ben.williams@rsc-em.ac.uk
Athens and Shibboleth new ways to access online learning resources Changes in access to resources: Mark Williams, JISC, and Mark Samuels, Features editor of Computing, introduce the new access management arrangements for learning providers. JISC and Becta have recently announced the launch of the UK Access Management Federation – a system based on technologies such as Shibboleth – which represents an important step on the route to single sign on for resources hosted by multiple sources such as those provided by publishers. The Federation represents a next generation alternative to Athens, the existing access management service that centralises institutional authentication processes. JISC services director John Robinson says federation – which will give control of the authentication process back to institutions – is a whole order of magnitude more functional than currently available systems. ‘It gives institutions greater control and technical capability to be an identity provider,’ he says.
Benefits of Federated Access Management Users will have a single sign-on using an institutional ID and password for a wide range of resources, as well as increased security for personal data. Librarians will be free of the burden of user name and password administration, and will have new tools for managing licenses and service subscriptions. IT managers will have more control of the access management process. Institutions will have a single service to meet the requirements of e-learning, e-research and library-managed resources.
Preparedness Athens will not cease working overnight, but will move from its current fully funded status to a subscription-based service after July 2008. It is, therefore, important that institutional decision makers are ready to make informed decisions about federation. Robinson says two factors are key to federation preparedness: a high level of technical capability and a high level of management buy-in. He also says institutions often have to make difficult choices about resource allocation, especially when cash flow is tight. ‘But the benefits of federation will come later if processes are improved,’ says Robinson. ‘Identity management is a concept that needs to be grasped. It’s technical – your members often work online now and at a distance, and the institutions that manage identity better will be more successful.’ Training and Outreach JISC’s outreach programme will help ensure the federation message is pushed out to as many institutions as possible. A specialist team is being formed that will target appropriate educational organisations for training. Robinson says the outreach activities will adapt over time to meet evolving institutional needs.
Choices Institutions will have three choices about how they plan to handle access management after July 2008: • Become a full member of the UK Access Management Federation using community-supported tools • Become a full member of the UK Access Management Federation, using tools with paid-for support • Subscribe to an ‘outsourced Identity Provider’ to work through the Federation on their behalf, such as continued use of Athens with the Gateways
Further Information JISC will be providing comprehensive training and support, such as training events, documentation, case studies, and a helpdesk. For further information about this, how to join the Federation and the benefits that membership can bring to Users, Librarians, IT Managers and Institutions please go to: www.jisc.ac.uk/federation and www.ukfederation.org.uk
RSC Support As always, the RSC will offer advice and guidance to any institution that needs support with these choices. We have already held two awareness raising events and will continue to update you on the latest developments via our mailing lists and forums. In the meantime, please do get in touch if you have any queries. For technical issues contact James Higham: james.higham@rsc-em.ac.uk and for library/LRC issues contact Judi Millage: judi.millage@rsc-em.ac.uk
Page 2
w w w. r s c - e m . a c . u k
intouch
New Build Forum Bilborough Sixth-Form College, 5 December 2006 This was the second East Midlands New Build Forum. Our visit to the new Bilborough Sixth-Form College included a tour of the college and three presentations from Martin Slattery, Principal, Bilborough Sixth-Form College, Clyde Hinton, Senior Tutor - Skills For Life, Portland College and Jacquie Kelly, Senior Adviser, and Janette Hillicks, Researcher, JISC infoNet The presentations are available on http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk There is an RSC East Midlands New Build mailing list. Please get in touch if you wish to join: support@rsc-em.ac.uk The next New Build Forum is on 13 March 2007 Bilborough College: lower ground floor plan
The new Learning Centre at Portland College
The trapeziums attached to “the street” have given rise to the local name The Toblerone
Social networking software Sharon Hutchings, Adult and Community Learning Advisor provides an overview of the technologies that have changed the way we contribute to the world wide web. Flickr, MySpace, Blogging, You Tube, Wikipedia, Del.ici.ous, Podcasting, Furl, Videojug, are just a few of the sites that are flourishing in a second wave of Internet development. These social networking tools and services, known collectively as Web 2.0, enable anyone to put up material on the web, moving closer towards the ideal Tim Berners Lee expresses here: “a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute.” (Tim Berners Lee, 2005) Who is generating the content with Web 2.0? If the first generation of internet use was about content delivery, Web 2.0 is about users creating and sharing content, communicating their interests or constructing their own knowledge online. The joy of social networking software is that this can be achieved without technical skills, allowing users to build sites and generate their own content. This can be done either individually, eg MySpace, or collaboratively, eg Wikipedia. The essence of Web 2.0 is that users can do it for themselves and this can only increase the possibilities and value of the Internet. Challenges and possibilities of social networking tools to learning and teaching So, if Web 2.0 has the potential to offer wider and more active participation with the Internet we need to consider two things: firstly how can these tools add to existing teaching and learning strategies and secondly what new approaches to learning and teaching may emerge.This brings us closer to personalised access. Not only does the Internet have the capacity to provide a richer experience for the individual, the possibilities of social learning are also increased. As with all technology, however, it is the way the tools are used that will enhance the learning experiences and not simply the tools themselves. Considering the possible long term impact of web 2.0, learners may truly personalise their learning and extend it beyond formal learning opportunities through design of their own curriculum, selecting their own content, sharing knowledge and collaborating online . With 1.6m blog posts a day and 75 million My Space users how we choose to engage with
w w w. r s c - e m . a c . u k
these technologies in the learning and teaching community might be a decision learners make for us! Finding out more about Web 2.0 Here at the RSC East Midlands we plan to run a one day event on 21 March to explore the possibilities of social networking in learning and teaching, plus a half day event on 6 Feb for library/LRC staff to look at ways in which library services might be enhanced by the use of social software. Details can be found on the website: www.rsc-em.ac.uk. Useful web 2.0 sites http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/page/0,,1939196,00.html http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has described Wikipedia as “an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest quality to every single person on the planet in their own language.” http://del.icio.us/ A social bookmarks manager. Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list and categorise them and share them. http://www.myspace.com/ MySpace.com (or MySpace) is a free service that uses the Internet for online communication through an interactive network of photos, weblogs, user profiles, e-mail, web forums, and groups, as well as other media formats. This all-inclusive service is sometimes called a social networking interface. MySpace is a very active site, and additions and new features are being added constantly (Wikipedia). http://www.videojug.com VideoJug is popular aspects of life explained and illustrated through an ever-growing number of common sense, informative, helpful and entertaining videos. It’s like having an army of top-class experts at your fingertips 24/7 to “show you how” and to help you out. And you can contribute your own knowledge, experience, wisdom and tips too. Example – How to use RSS feeds http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-use-rss-feeds
Page 3
intouch
Forthcoming
EVENTS Some dates are provisional
February 6th
LRC Forum
8th
Digital audio for Teaching and Learning
20th
HE Forum
22nd
Change Management FULLY BOOKED
27th
Modelling Practice e-learning for teachers in teacher training
28th
Learning Journey
March
FOCUS
ON...
Using the LSN’s Continuing Professional Development framework for e-learning Changes in Continuing Professional Development; an article by the Learning and Skills Network East Midlands regional advisors, Adele Cushing and Brian Lambourne. In November 2006 the Learning and Skills Network launched the first of a series of national events to promote the use of their Continuing Professional Development framework for elearning. The East Midlands event in Birmingham in November 2006 focused on the eCPD Units available and the resources to support these Units. The second event in December highlighted the way a wide range of open source e-tools can be used to support teaching and learning. The third event in early February in Nottingham aims to showcase the way the eCPD framework has been incorporated into specific projects funded by the Learning and Skills Network. eCPD projects in the Easy Midlands include a staff development programme within the Hair department at South Nottingham College, where the aim is to enable staff to use City & Guilds Smartscreen for lesson planning and resourcing. The eCPD units being undertaken in this project include “e-learning fundamentals” and “exploring the application of e-tools”. At Boston College the eCPD framework is being used to support a small group of Advanced Practitioners who are learning to use discussion groups and create and upload content to the college’s Virtual Learning Environment. eCPD units included in this project are “using learning environment platforms and on-line learning” and “blended learning”. West Nottinghamshire College is adopting the framework in hairdressing for the creation of
video clips of cutting techniques for the H6 City & Guilds hairdressing unit. These videos will support students’ class work and cover eCPD units “assembling and adapting materials” and “developing materials and learning objects”. In addition Derbyshire County Council Adult and Community Learning Department are delivering staff development to their colleagues and adapting paperwork and their Learning Platform to include reference to the eCPD Framework. The eCPD framework is being adopted by LAGAT in Lincoln who are a work based Training Agency. LAGAT offer training and assessment in a wide range of vocational qualifications in the following areas: business administration, using IT, customer service, retail, warehousing,travel services, management, catering and hospitality, team leading. The trainers assess learners in their workplace, whilst additional off-the-job training and support is delivered in their centre. The eCPD framework devised by the LSN was recognised by LAGAT as being a vital tool to supplement their staff development programme to help practitioners and managers to take advantage of the benefits of using readily available e-tools. The resources to support the eCPD programme are free to use and are available at http://www.tower.ac.uk/ecpd; simply register and you will then have access to the resources and information which have been collated to support the programme. For further information or support in using the eCPD framework please contact either: Adele Cushing cushinga@snc.ac.uk or Brian Lambourne lanbo@boston.ac.uk
1st
ILT Forum
1st
Specialist Colleges Forum
7th
Blended Learning
8th
Learning Technology - am I missing something?
13th
New Build Forum
15th
Learning Journey for Scientists
16th
Finding and bidding for funding
21st
Social networking
23rd
Technical Forum
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx
29th
Moodle Users Group
This is a free download from Microsoft which will allow you to create a wmv file from still images. The software allows for some minimal “movement” by tracking across the images. You can also add music, text and transitions and each image can be edited within the software. Worth having a go to see how easy it is.
April 19th
Using Moodle strategically
24th
Staff Development to embed e-learning
Hints
and
Tips:
How to make a presentation with your digital photos using Photo Story 3
Ideas for Activities using Photo Story Here are a few suggestions. You can no doubt think of more. 1.
See our website for further details
www.rsc-em.ac.uk
2.
3.
Working in pairs, learners select images from a store (or find them) and build a movie on the topic of their choice – things like “put one sentence of text per picture” or “record one sentence of speech per picture” lead to a very achievable task. Whole class work with one laptop/ projector going through the process step by step. Discussion can centre on the selection of the most appropriate images, sequencing and the best text and voice-over to put on each one. Take pictures of a practical activity and ask groups to use Photo Story to produce a report – not just about the activity, but also how they went about putting the report together: who did what, how roles were decided etc
These suggestions came from the Learning Discovery Centre: www.learningdiscovery.org.uk
w w w. r s c - e m . a c . u k