At RSC Wales we use Moodle as a way to share information and resources about a wide range of topics, as well as to keep up our Moodling skills. As Autumn 2010 settles in we have given our Moodle a facelift, as you will see below and by visiting http://moodle.rsc-wales.ac.uk

Almost all of the information and resource areas are open for everyone to access. Many of them have been created by the RSC Wales team to support the teaching and learning and technical advice we give and the events we deliver and support; some of them have been donated by others … Plagiarism Awareness from Coleg Gwent, eSafety from JISC RSC East Midlands and Gwe-dditectif – Internet Detective from Coleg Merion Dwyfor.

New additions to this online resource include the Newsletters and publications area, which features our new @rscwales Twippets (highlights of the tweets we send out via @rscwales (Tweets + snippets = Twippets) that are shared with Tweeters and non-Tweeters alike in our monthly eBulletin), as well as the recent 2010 Work Based Learning e-Learning survey.

We have also taken the opportunity to provide links to all of our other online resources, like the JISC Advance newsfeeds, gathered in one place using Netvibes and our bookmarked websites on a wide range of topics using Delicious.

Over the next few months we will be adding to this online information and resources area and as always, any comments are gratefully recieved.

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).

I am lucky enough to have had an iPad (a personal one, not a work one) from the beginning and have been using it at home (instead of my home laptop and often instead of my phone), very occasionally for work (I would use it more because of the mobile nature of my job if it was a work device) but also a lot as a learner (Open University, H800 Technology-enhanced-learning: practices and debates). I have resisted blogging about the iPad for a few weeks because I wanted to give myself time to see how I would use it for real  in all of these circumstances, rather than cooing over its loveliness (imo) and then working out what apps were available and how other people might use it. Anyway, here are my thoughts so far (starting with the ‘why nots’) about the iPad:

Why not?

• It’s expensive … especially when you already have tools that do the jobs you need them to.
• Editing online can be difficult / doesn’t happen … which I needed to be able to do via Moodle and GoogleDocs for my Open Uni course.
• It doesn’t play Flash video … which has actually only been annoying when I wanted to watch something on the BBC website.

Why iPad?

• It’s very portable … and less conspicuous than a laptop or netbook when you are using it on the move, for example on a plane or in a coffee shop. I have also literally used it ‘on the move’, taking notes as I walked about a potential venue; I couldn’t have done that with my laptop and it would have been awkward with my phone.
• It has a great battery life … plus the charger is very compact and light to carry too.
• Everything looks great on the screen  … better than a mobile, as good as/better than a netbook.
• More and more apps and support materials are being developed daily …  TeachWithYouriPad is a wiki set up to support teachers, iPads in Education is another such website; iPads are a regular blog  feature of  Gloucester College’s James Clay at the moment too and I’m looking forward to mTouch and  mBook, two Moodle apps that are being developed.
• It is another great tool for supporting mobile learning: accessing online course materials, forums and blog posts (via Moodle for me); carrying and accessing offline course materials (GoodReader app for me); making digital notes (the standard basic notepad is great for simple notes); having online access to all files (Dropbox) and bookmarks (Delicious); staying in touch via Twitter, Facebook and Skype;  listening to course related podcasts and watching videos downloaded via iTunesU or on YouTube.

I am more than happy to say that the iPad isn’t perfect and that (as a learner) there are a few things it doesn’t do well. I also agree with the argument that a laptop or a phone or a mix of both would do the job too. However, having started my working life as a new product development technologist, who was constantly looking for the ‘next thing’, I don’t think that having something that does the job OK already is a good enough reason not to innovate and be creative and think differently. Just because something might not seem to have a place at this moment in time, it doesn’t mean it won’t in the future … how many used to think there was no need for computers in the home, or that mobile phones (and text messaging) would be something for a few? I am not saying that I think everyone will have iPads (or their equivalent) in the future, I just think that when we are talking about personal technology (which I think this is) it is good to remember that it isn’t what the tool can do that is important, it is what the tool can do for you.

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).

Yesterday I eventually managed to catch up with the latest JISC Inform, when I took myself and a paper copy to the coffee shop to get away from my computer! One article that particulary took my eye was ‘Blue sky thinking or head in the clouds?’ which considers if and how ‘cloud computing’ could be used effectively in education.

It is a great article (that, for those of you who aren’t sure, starts by describing what cloud computing is) and I will be following the JISC work on this one with interest from now … but it also got me thinking about whether I have my head in the clouds. My initial conclusion, just from a few things I have done this morning before writing this, is that my head is much more in the clouds that it has ever been … but it is all so integrated in what I do regarding using technology that I wasn’t aware of it. Here’s what I mean:

So far today my head has been in the clouds when I have used:

• Google Docs – to update a document I am collaborating on with a colleague

• Delicious to bookmark a Moodle resource

• Dropbox to store a document I might want to access on another computer but which I also wanted to share (via a URL) with others

• Twitter to share my (RSC Wales) thoughts on a resource I’ve found and also to serve as another sort of bookmark for me too

… but then my feet have been on the ground as I am drafting this in my One Note and I guess I was ‘hovering’ when I accessed my emails from my Outlook client and then replied to a few

The point of all of this is that the cloud has become so much a part of the way that I do things that I don’t even realise I’m using it … and my choices about the tool I use are not to do with if they are cloud based or not but if they are the most effective for the job (to be able to quickly and easily access, collborate, share with others in the examples above) … and at the end of the day isn’t this how we should all (organisations, teachers and learners alike) be choosing if and how to use any technology?