The presentations from the conference “Innovating e-Learning 2011″ are now available openly online at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference11, These presentations include both the Powerpoints and the recordings of each session on Elluminate.  This event, which took place in November last year,  was the sixth in the popular series of JISC online conferences. Like its predecessors, it brought together delegates from the FE and HE sectors for presentations and discussions of the key issues facing educators in a shifting technological landscape.

There were traditional keynotes from Lord Puttnam, Bill Rammell and Mike Sharples, and an original, thought-provoking and highly participative closing keynote by Ewan MIntosh. More than ever before, the conference opened its doors to the wider educational sectors in the UK, especially those who teach in workplaces and communities, as well as FE colleges and universities. We saw presentations from the wider sectors which had ‘Innovation’ running through them like a stick of rock. I am thinking particularly of the sessions on ‘Students as Agents of Change’ by Elisabeth Dunne and colleagues at Exeter, and ‘Workforce and Employer Needs – a Collaborative Solution’ by Andrew Comrie and colleagues from Scotland. This latter presentation showed how collaboration across organisations from a range of sectors can work in practice, providing that common aims are agreed, and also how learners can benefit from a blended learning experience, even when they have limited prior experience of using ICTs in an educational context. For me, another highlight was Bex Ferriday’s (Cornwall College) presentation, in which she debunked many of the myths about the dangers of using social networking (Facebook) in Further Education.

Take a look around – I hope that you will enjoy what you see.

‘Teachmeets’ are a radical concept in staff development: instead of presentations given by experts, participants can hear raw stories told by other teachers from the chalk face. It’s a chance to learn from and share with real practitioners about their successes and experiences. In other words, it is about teachers teaching each other.

This idea has been spreading amongst school teachers for several years now, but has not yet made a significant impact in Further Education. A new collaboration between NGfL Cymru and RSC Wales aims to change this, by bringing a ‘Teachmeet’ into an FE college, and give teachers in FE the chance to experience this type of event for themselves, and perhaps to participate by giving a presentation. Presentations can be ‘Micro-presentations’ – lasting 7 minutes, or ‘Nano-presentations’ – lasting 2 minutes. The event will be streamed via the web to anyone who would like to connect and watch the proceedings.

‘Teachmeet: Bridging the Gap’  will take place at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru (Rhos on Sea campus) on Wednesday February 8th from 17:30.  If you would like to give a presentation, or you would just like to come along and find out how this works, please visit the Wiki here: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/48452275/Bridging%20the%20Gap

….and sign up. It’s going to be “turbo-charged CPD”.

My thoughts on how apps are changing the way we use our mobile devices to access information on the move.

View a recording of our Lunchtime Byte – Google Goggles – apps for searching the internet without typing text!