The RSC Wales blog has been running for almost 5 months now and we have decided to combine 2 of the blog pages within our blog … this one, the Learning Technology one, and the eLearning (blog homepage) one. The elearning blog is going to be renamed as ‘Teaching and Learning’ and can be accessed via http://blogs.rsc-wales.ac.uk
RSC Wales Learning Technology blog page is moving!
February 11th, 2009 by Helen HodgesOn the horizon
February 3rd, 2009 by Helen HodgesThe Horizon Report 2009 was published by the New Media Consortium a couple of weeks ago and now that I have had a chance to read through it I am pleased to see that two of the things I have been investigating and talking about are actually now on the horizon and coming towards us at a pace … mobiles and cloud computing.
Mobiles first … and infact Christine blogged about this only today. I used to only want a mobile to text and make calls if I was out and about. Now I have 2 mobiles … my ‘home’ one that essentially still does that (with the odd photo taken and video captured) and my work one … a Windows mobile with a slidy keyboard that I feel lost without when I am working. It helps to organise me in that I can check my Outlook emails, calendar and tasks wherever I am; I can communicate in a number of different ways … phone and text but more often email andTwitter tweets; I can make notes on it during meetings so I don’t need to carry pen and paper or laptop … and then I can email those notes to myself for later use. And thinking about it … aren’t these all things we want our learners to do … be organised, communicate, make useful/useable notes …? And these are only some of the things that mobiles can do today …
Cloud computing … another phrase (like Web 2.0) that needs to be explained but essentially means stuff that you used to do only on your computer that you can now do online … like word process and create spreadsheets (e.g. Google Docs), save your favourite websites (e.g. delicious) and store your files (e.g.Sky Drive). Stepping aside from the potential downsides of ‘cloud computing’ (where is your data actually stored, who can really get access to it, what if the service provider disappears …?) the main benefit of all of this is that provided you have access to the web you have access to your stuff. And if you choose to share your stuff … then that access is available to others … for example, fellow learners, tutors, moderators, examiners, parents ….
I haven’t spoilt the ending of this ’story’ by revealing all of the things on the horizon (or even just around the corner) with regard to technology in education … if you want to know more then the Horizon Report 2009 is well worth a read.
Blogging about blogging
January 30th, 2009 by Helen HodgesAnyone know of any good courses on blogging? I thought I would like blogging, when I was asked to contribute to the RSC Wales Learning Technology blog. Writing about something I love to talk about … having a secret (or not so secret) ambition to one day write a book … no problem, I thought. But, I am going to admit to worrying about writing this blog, having that nagging voice telling me that I should be doing it, feeling as though I was about to sit an exam or go into a job interview, hoping that when I have published it no-one will read it … and then I think about the learners who are being asked to blog … how do they feel? Their work is usually only seen by their tutor … blogs can potentially be viewed by anyone. Having a purpose / writing for a real audience is great … but it actually doesn’t make me feel any better about this
Maybe it’s because I’m blogging as RSC Wales Helen, rather than as Helen, which I think would be different. Maybe the learners only ever blog as themselves. Maybe they don’t worry like I do …
Anyway, now that I have shared my concerns/fears about blogging … I am going to share how I am attempting to overcome this using another technolgy … Twitter … the microblogging service. Only being able to ‘tweet’ (tweet = post to Twitter, for those who haven’t come across this one) 140 characters is much less daunting than having to write this potentially never ending blog. I also have a handy application on my phone that means I can ‘tweet’ at the moment I have something to say, which I am finding helps a lot too. In the last week I have actually found myself tweeting (about technology) every day… and looking forward to it.
I will continue with this blog because facing my fears is something I need to do … but if you are interested in knowing what I am really thinking about technology, as I think it, then you can follow my tweets – HelenHRSC is my Twitter name.
… and going back to my first question … anyone know of any good blogging courses?
Go mobile!
January 22nd, 2009 by Helen Hodges 
Yesterday I finally got my hands on a paper copy of the LSN/JISC TechDis ‘Go Mobile’ publication, which I initially heard about back in October at the Handheld Learning 2008 conference, and I must say that so far I am impressed with the amount of useful information it gives and resources it suggests that could potentially lead to much improved learning experiences for a wide range of learners.
The book (which can be ordered online from LSN or is also available to download as a pdf) focuses on how mobile learning can benefit all users in different ways but can be particularly beneficial for learners with disabilities. The case studies described are easy to read and give lots of ideas for how these pieces of handheld technology (mp3 players, mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, handheld games consoles, ultra mobile PCs, digital video and voice recorders) can be used to benefit specific needs.
The companion DVD (in the back of the book … or available online from the JISC TechDis website) contains a huge amount of information with loads of really easy to follow guidance on how to create text, image, audio and video resources (from both the tutor and learner’s point of view) for the mobile devices, using a lot of things that are free or you are likely to have access too already. My favourites so far are:
- using Powerpoint and a free GIF animator (UnFreez) to make animated images for a mobile device … click here for a ‘walkthough’ of how to do this
- making use of a BT phone with the 1571 answerphone service enabled and access to the account online to create an audio mp3 recording … click here for more details
… but I am sure I will find quite a few more useful tips yet.
Well worth a read!
Express yourself
January 19th, 2009 by Helen Hodges
Having seen (via my RSS feeds) lots of whizzy gadgets coming out of the BETT show last week I was pleased to see the free video focused website TrueTube, which aims to help young people (and their educators) ‘think, speak out and act on important issues happening in the real world’, had been nominated for a Bett 2009 award. Some more snippets of information about True Tube and their service include:
- TrueTube are a registered charity
- TrueTube are part of CTVC who make ethical radio and television programmes for all the major UK broadcasters including BBC, ITV and Channel 4
- TrueTube kick start a debate on a topical or difficult issue by providing some short films and information as inspiration
- You can post your thoughts and send in your videos responding to the issues
- TrueTube is a moderated service
To see what the website has to offer and to find out more visit www.truetube.co.uk
Moodle facelift
January 15th, 2009 by Helen Hodges
RSC Wales’ information and resources area (Moodle) has had a facelift! For the last 9 months or so we have been gradually developing the contents of the RSC Wales’ Moodle to make it into a (hopefully) useful place to visit if you are looking for information and resources on things like access management, accessibility, eBooks, emerging technologies, information literacy, Moodle, reader development, using technology in teaching …
We decided that we would like to start the new year with a cleaner, fresher look to the homepage and have gone down the route that a number of others (including Moodle.org) have gone down, with a largely icon driven / visual front page (Note: the icons used are from the same source as those used by Coleg Gwent). As the amount of information and resource areas have grown and are continuing to grow the facelift means that rather than having one long A to Z list of all areas we have also grouped similar topics by introducing the categories that you can see identified by the icons on the front page … shared resources, Moodle stuff, technical things, ACL, WBL and HE information.
Enough about the facelift – we just hope that you like it and that you are happy to share any comments you have about it with us.
BUT before I go … a note of caution. Although the majority of the areas in our Moodle are open to all (i.e. no login required) at the moment you may experience some difficulty logging in if, for example, you want to post to a forum. Unfortunately we are having a few problems with the site’s security certificate because of a domain name ownership ‘issue’. This means that when you try to login securely to our Moodle you may be presented with some scary looking warnings. For some idea of what I mean, click here. I want to assure you that our site is secure, please choose to ‘continue anyway’ (Internet Explorer), ‘add an exception’ (Firefox) or ‘proceed anyway’ (Chrome) and we will resolve the ‘issue’ as soon as we possibly can.
Best of 2008 … looking forward to 2009 (IMHO)
January 13th, 2009 by Helen HodgesI know that I am a bit late for a ‘Best of 2008′ but I thought summing up what I thought were the best bits of ‘technology’ I had used (and would recommend to learners and teachers alike) in 2008 would lead nicely onto what I am looking forward to in 2009 (particulary as all of the delights of the ‘Consumer Electronics Show 2009′ have been dropping into my RSS reader over the last few days). So here goes …
Best of 2008 (IMHO)
(not the latest technologies but ones I have found almost invaluable in 2008)
RSS readers – mainly Outlook 2007 (but Google Reader for the weekends) … where would I be in terms of keeping up to date with what is going on in the worlds of technology and learning if I hadn’t discovered that I could set up RSS feeds in Outlook … somewhere I visit daily during the week?
Shared, online document creation and editing - having tried a number of ways of sharing creation and editing of documents at a distance, Google Docs seems to be the most reliable service for me. It also has so much about it that is familiar that it is easy to learn to use and to keep coming back to. Being an iGoogle user it is also great to be able to have my GoogleDocs visible at a glance (this is my last comment about Google … although if Google Lively had still been around things would have been different ).
Online tool for presenting collections of information in a viewable way – i.e. Moodle ‘Books’. RSC Wales use ‘Moodle’ as a way of sharing information and resources with you in an easily accessible way. For those of you who know Moodle well you will know that ‘Books’ have been round for a while … but as with any technology, it is only useful when you have a real purpose for using it … have a look at one of our ‘books’, which presents a collection of stuff from several sessions with Coleg Gwent learners where we were trying to find out what they thought of the some of the handheld technology we have been evaluating.
I could go on but having given it some thought I think these are the 3 key ‘technologies’ of 2008 that have made me able to work more effectively.
Technologies I am looking forward to in 2009
(either promoting to our learning providers or finding out more about)
Free, portable applications in an easy to access format - ‘AccessApps’ is a collection of over 50 free technologies that have been put together in an easily accessible package for use by learners/teachers and anyone else who would find them useful. This was around in 2008 but I have only just got to grips with what a fantastic resource this could potentially be.
Visual online bookmarks – a website I found today that adds a visual element to an online bookmarking service, like delicious.
And then there are just a few of the ‘technologies’ on show at CES with the potential to be useful to support learning:
… and just so that Mac fans don’t feel left out …
So many good resources already out there … and so much more to look forward too …
Assistive technologies for all
December 4th, 2008 by Helen HodgesI visited a college last week to try and help them spend a lump sum of money that they had for ‘assistive technologies’. In preparation for this visit I pulled together a collection of resources that, on reflection, might be a good starting point for those who are just beginning to think about how technology could be used to assist or enable all of their learners … or as a reminder for those who are already thinking about and doing it. So here is that list …
Accessibility in Learning - JISC TechDis approach hosted on the QIA Excellence Gateway (as blogged about by RSC Wales’ Paul last month)
URL: http://excellence.qia.org.uk/page.aspx?o=jisctechdis
Summary: Starts with the needs of the learners and then looks at the technology that could assist. Has some useful advice and guidance sheets to download
Ability Net – the factsheets
URL: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/athome_factsheets
Summary: The Ability Net website has some excellent resources but the factsheets highlighted here are particularly useful starting points
Tech Dis - Accessibility Essentials and the Assistive Technologies database
Accessibility Essentials
URL: http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_20
Summary: A selection of 4 easy to read, downloadable publications (pdf) that help you make the most of the technology you and your learners are probably already using – Windows computers, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Adobe pdfs
Assistive Technologies database
URL: http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_1
Summary: A searchable, online resource of information and products (recommended by TechDis) available to assist disabled students and staff
Excellence in Inclusivity – from RSC Yorkshire & Humber
URL: http://inclusivity.rsc-yh.ac.uk/
Summary: Case studies of assistive technologies in use
Portable accessible applications
I also showed the college some free ‘portable’ resources that could be made available to all learners on USB sticks (or possibly via the college network). The ones that are my particular favourites are all available to download from the RSC Wales Accessibility area.
A much broader range of portable accessible applications can be downloaded from the RSC Scotland North & Eastern website. These ‘AccessApps’ have just won the ‘Excellence in Education’ award in the Open Source category at the Scottish Software Awards, so are definitely worth having a look at.
This is the end of my list for now … hopefully it is of use as either a starting point or a reminder of the technologies that are out there that can be assistive to all.
P.S. I didn’t manage to help the college spend any of their money whilst I was there but this list and the discussion have hopefully helped them make some decisions.
P.P.S. An audio version of this blog post can be downloaded by clicking here. The audio was created by pasting the text into one of the free portable apps, ‘DSpeech’, and saving as an MP3 file.
Digital students
December 3rd, 2008 by Helen HodgesYesterday I did something totally out of character and bought a newspaper, rather than using my now preferred source of news and information … the web. The reason for this was that the Guardian had a very interesting (IMHO) supplement entitled ‘Digital Student’ and although I could view the contents online (as you can by clicking here) I found myself wanting to remove myself from the technology to read about technology.
Anyway, having perused the supplement a number of times my conclusions are that:
- The learner does really seem to be at the heart of things with regard to most of the colleges and universities featured in the articles in this supplement … a reassurance for a person like me who really does want this to be the case.
- There’s lots of evidence of good stuff (that is working) going on in the world of education with regard to technology … another reassurance for someone whose job is about ’stimulating and supporting innovation in learning’ through the effective use of technology.
- Despite there being negatives about the experiences with technology this hasn’t stopped the featured colleges and universities carrying on because the value to staff and learners outweighs the difficulties encountered. The first of 2 examples of this that stand out for me are the Oaklands College eMentors, where despite some staff being initially reluctant to accept the role reversal idea of the learners being the teachers when it came to using technology, they now appreciate it, as do the learners who have been given the responsibility of being eMentors. The second example is the use of audio feedback for learner’s assignments at Leeds Metropolitan University. Here a group of staff and students have been piloting (as part of the JISC Sounds Good project) audio feedback to establish whether this will save staff time and give students better feedback. The conclusions so far seem to be that although it generally takes staff longer to give audio feedback compared to the more traditional feedback, that they feel “they are giving students a better service” outweighs this and they will carry on.
… and so we come back to the learners being at the heart of everything we do …
Centre for Future Storytelling
November 28th, 2008 by Justin SpoonerMassachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) Media Lab have announced the creation of a Centre for Future Storytelling.
The goal is to create “a sort of living story that can continue to evolve and shape depending on who is listening to it and how they can derive meaning from it.”
Amongst the technologies that they are investigating will be Everything Tells A Story: A project that will enable everyday objects to keep running “diaries,” of what happened to them. The information could be used for “personal story creation” by individuals.
Could this technology develop into a self writing e-portfolio?
For more information on Media Lab’s projects click here
