Virtual Gardening

Image via Wikipedia

Well… this is the first day of my Gardening Leave. I’d only ever heard the phrase in TV dramas, usually when a Police Officer needs to be taken off a case for some technical reason.  So, of course – I looked it up.

Yep, I guess I could be seen as a potential threat, having full access to the IT systems, etc.  However, I worked for the same college for 12 years and never once abused the trust they placed in me.  But, I can see their point – and to be honest, I’d probably do the same.

Our garden is immaculate at the moment because we’re selling our house.  I suppose I could play a virtual gardening game on my computer – but my limit is Pacman, Space Invaders, Galaxians, Defender (1980s original arcade games).

I do have a couple of jobs on, I’ve got to prepare some material and work out my banter for the session I’m co-presenting at the JISC Conference next week in Liverpool.  I’m also going to be co-creating a podcast on Wednesday.  Plus, there are the usual bits & pieces to do around the house.

Tell you what… I am missing my iPhone already.  I’ve got an ‘old’ hand-me-down Windows Mobile now – it’s awful.  I think my first kit purchase will have to be an iPhone or iPad.  You don’t always realise how good certain items of technology are until you don’t have them.

Related Articles

• Space Invaders iPhone Case is “Bawlin” May Lead to Muggings [IPhone] (kotaku.com)
• AR Invaders: Battle UFOs With Augmented Reality iPhone Game (laughingsquid.com)

MoLeNET Conference 2010

QEII Conference Centre

Sleeping has never been one of my favourite pastimes…  I know that our bodies and brains are supposed to rest in order to rejuvenate but I’ve always found sleeping to be such a waste of time and a bit of a chore.

So, having gone to bed at around 1am – I was up again at 4am to get ready for the MoLeNET Conference & Awards, which this year was held at the QEII Conference Centre in London.  The taxi was on time and so was the train (5:25am)

2 hours 10 minutes passed by so slowly, especially stopping at such delightful provincial towns as Runcorn, Stafford, Crewe and Milton Keynes… but fear not  I arrived in London 3 coffees later and after some deliberation took the tube to Westminster.

The MoLeNET conference had a definite tinge of sadness about it this year – I guess due to the lack of funding of worthwhile research by the current government.  However, we made the best of a depressing situation and put on a decent display of mobile learning practice and pedagogy.  It’s great to see how people are tackling what are fundamentally the same issues in so many different ways.

MoLeNET 2010_1

I was privileged to have addressed the conference by giving an insight the the thin.clusion project and had a conference stand (in the corner – was that deliberate?)  I must admit, I wasn’t really prepared to speak to the entire conference – I thought it was going to be a small session…

I’m really proud to have had so many people interested in the project and I’ve now been approached by a few different JISC representatives, to do Case Studies about LODs.

So, the whole conference went well – it was very different to the conferences I’d been to before as a delegate… it’s a shame, because I was on my own, that I didn’t get time to go and look at other stands and chat to anyone away from my stand.

I came away knowing that the 19 hour round-trip had been worth it, even though the

weather had been cruel (I was soaked through trudging around London) – there’s a lot to be said about paying £70 more to get home early, rather than waiting for the first off-peak train at 19:05.

Oh, the joys of Nuneaton station in the dark autumn rain…

Anyway  – I got home, sat down – reflected on the day and couldn’t really believe it was a year ago that we’d gone down to the LSN to pitch or project…

Check out my conference photos

or my audio blog – Setting up for MoLeNET Conference

thin.clusion

where are the stairs?

Reflecting on our BECTA TEN meeting, this week (May 13th & 14th) at  Novotel St Pancras, London – Hosted by our Exemplar lead, BL Hairdressing – also in our mini-network are Academy of Training, Asphaleia, and Haddon Training.

The meeting was a great chance to catch-up and discuss what we’ve been up to since our last meeting in Darlington, for partners to give a presentation about their own ePortfolios and to look at how we’re all tackling similar issues and academic needs etc.

We also had an interesting guest presenter,  Bernard Aghedo, e-Learning Advisor at JISC RSC London.  Bernard ran through the many ways that JISC RSCs can advise and assist with video conferencing using the many free webtools available and the services JISC RSCs can offer in your area.  He gave us a live demo of Wimba, which the London RSC use – Top guy! Fun & enthusiastic

At our college, we don’t use an ePortfolio system in the sense that our WBL colleagues do – it is something we will have to develop, most probably it will be an in-house job for my software developer, though I do like the look of Mahara. Anyway -  I gave a presentation of our Moodle and described the various components (plug-ins, etc.) that we’ve been utilizing – and probably bored the pants off everyone for an hour

The hotel was really nice – although a little pricey (ours was at a reduced rate, I guess because we were using the conference facilities) Dinner was very tasty and a good veggie option then we had a few drinks and a good chance to chat a bit more informally about our tech and how we’re all looking at using technology to enhance what we’re doing with learners.

DAY 2: Col has a bad throat… it was either all that waffling about VLEs on Day 1, or the London air.

More showcasing of ePortfolios and a great demo of things that the guys from Asphaleia have been up to.  I presented a ‘quick’ 40 mins session based loosely around Macs and what you get ‘out-of-the-box’ – typically a demo of the seamless integration between applications, using FrontRow etc.

Colleagues on our mini-network are a really great bunch of people to work – we’re all getting on so well and most importantly (for me), we’re all sharing really effective practice and helping each other out – which I think, is really what it’s all about.

How could I forget…

How do I get to Reception?

Source: fdecomite

The elevators weren’t working on day 2, so getting down to breakfast was an experience.  I was escorted down in the staff elevator by a guy from the office… then I tried to walk back up the stairs to my room – but the stairs didn’t seem to go past the 4th floor (16 floors!), I eventually found a way to the 5th floor,  got my bag and tried to come back down to check-out. The elevators were still not working and I couldn’t find my way back to the stairs… I got talking to a German couple who were also looking how to get out… none of the chamber maids seemed to understand our German/Scouse English but we were eventually pointed in the direction of the staff elevator again… it wasn’t working either.  We found a set of stairs, which didn’t go down to the reception floor… and somehow ended up getting lead through the kitchens by a porter and back through the dining rooms to reception.

It kind of made me think that there are many ways to achieve an end point or outcome.  Whether it be trying to get from your hotel room to reception, or trying to find ways that technology can enhance what you’re doing.  In our BECTA TEN mini-network, we’re all working towards solving very similar business and academic problems but using different techniques, models and software solutions.

References (things I mentioned):

• Apple iLife
• Apple iWork
• Moodle.org
• TurnItIn
• WikiSpaces
• WikiEducator
• EduTechWiki
• WordPress
• iPadio
• Slideshare
• Creative Commons
• Sheffield College – LeTTOL
• JORUM

Making it Personal – elearning@greenwich #mip

#mip

I returned to the University of Greenwich for the 7th Annual e-learning@greenwich conference, having been inspired and enthused by last years’ conference.

The theme this year, was ‘Making it Personal’ – here are some high-lights:

KEYNOTE: ‘Personalization: the good, the bad and the ugly.’ Professor Johnathan Drori.

A fantastically unique Keynote – which is the delivery style I prefer – a Keynote to challenge your thinking and preconceptions, rather than just listening to someone give you their academic life-story or an overview of their most recent research.   He was witty (which is always good!) and went off on some very interesting tangents.

Session 1: ‘Learning, teaching and social networking.’ – Cheryl Reynolds and Liz Bennett – University of Huddersfield

The basic outline of this session, was that the MSc students did not find official course VLE (Blackboard), to be interesting or particularly useful as part of their course.  A Ning was created and students were invited in http://numanuma.ning.com

There was a noticeable increase socializing and freedom of expression within the Ning. It created a valid social learning space with increased activity and participation.  Students now had some ownership of their group, etc.  The photo below (with permission of Liz Bennett), is taken from the session and is quick round up of suggestions from the audience, as to ‘what makes a good teacher?’

What makes a good teacher?

Session 3: ‘Tag Clouds and Skill Conversations.’ – John Davies and Carol Shergold – University of Sussex

Excellent session on Tag clouds and how Sussex have created software to aid students recognise and build-up a personal profile by answering some questions about tasks and work they have completed as part of the course.  The software builds up their profile for them based on their answers.  Apparently, many undergraduates do not know what skills they posses.

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/skillclouds

#JISCRSCNW09

This year, the Annual Conference was billed as the Annual Event and included a pre-event dinner and JISC Services ‘speed-dating’ activity.

I have been to many RSCNW events and conferences but this year we negotiated an exhibition stand for the college, to showcase the work our eLearning Champions have been undertaking in conjunction with the college ENGAGE project.  ENGAGE is a college-wide initiative to introduce and embed Learner Owned Devices into everyday teaching and Learning.  One day, I hope we will not be referring to eLearning or mLearning, but simply have it embedded as learning.

ENGAGE came about as a response to our unsuccessful MoLeNET (2) bid.  We (College) were already working as part of  the BECTA Technology Exemplar Network and I had been on the pilot LSIS Collaborative Leadership Skills and Technology programme. We knew we had experience, skills, enthusiasm and pedagogical cases for looking to actively promote mLearning – ENGAGE was an opportunity borne out of a lack of funding.  Our students have mobile devices, they are often more advanced than our own – college cannot fund equipment on that scale and certainly could not maintain or sustain it.  Students also know how to use their own devices and are comfortable with them – they carry them everywhere.  I’ve blogged about this a week or so ago…

Back to #JISCRSCNW09 – I found it to be both an interesting and successful format.  The RSC had taken the brave decision to break away from the usual conference format of Keynote1, Keynote2, Seminar1… etc. and created a flowing event, which included Pecha Kucha presentations, open-house seminars (what! no need to pre-book?!!!) plus plenty of event stands comprising most of JISC/JANET services along with service providers and universities & colleges.

We had many visitors to our stand and felt we had a very successful day, both through making new contacts and also establishing some new funding opportunities and collaboration possibilities.  I would like to think we also got a few people thinking about the work we have been carrying out and hope to have shown that you should not give up on an idea if you’re not successful gaining the funding.

Thanks to all at the JISC RSC NW Office for a really worthwhile and successful event.

Key points from the day: Pecha Kucha – Kevin Hickey and David Sugden.

Also a mention for:

Beaumont College stand – always inspiring, Jane

LSIS – helpful and informative as always

BECTA – likewise, friendly and informative

Pecha Kucha

Just putting the finishing touches to my part of a collaborative Pecha Kucha presentation on Learner Owned Devices set in the context of mLearning.  We’re working independently, with limited funding, to develop practical integration of students’ own technology,  whilst ensuring teaching and learning is pedagogically driven.

You can see this presentation and further work we have been undertaking on LODs at our exhibition stand at the JISC Northwest Annual Event June 24th & 25th – Southport Convention centre. #JISCRSCNW09 – Look out for ENGAGE @ BSFC.

A copy of the Pecha Kucha show