Looking at ways to save money and help further and higher education institutions enable their technology to work greener is the aim of a series of workshops being run by the JISC funded SusteIT project over the coming months. Follow this link for more information
The JISC e-Learning Programme will be running its third international Online Conference Innovating e-Learning 2008 between 4th - 7th November. The theme for this year's event is Learning in a Digital Age - Are we prepared?
Theme 1: Embracing the future now asks us to assess how prepared we really are for models of learning and teaching appropriate for a digital age.
Theme 2: Going boldly into the dark explores the uncertain but stimulating possibilities technology will bring to learning and teaching in the future. Disruptive and mobile technologies in the hands of IT literate learners are already changing current practice. What is coming next on the horizon?
Keynote speakers include Gilly Salmon, Professor of E-learning & Learning Technologies, University of Leicester
See the JISC website for further information.
The Open University launches a new course this September which offers practitioners with an interest in accessible learning the chance to learn about good practice in this area.
H810: Accessible online learning: supporting disabled students - is about the challenges for disabled students in post-16 education and the positive and negative impact that technology and online learning has on the way that they study. It is about the assistive technology that enables them to use computers and the internet and about creating accessible resources. It covers the technical and pedagogic practice that is necessary to make teaching and learning accessible, institutional and global legislative contexts and the challenges to staff in all roles. Students are encouraged to discuss accessibility from their own perspective and to learn about the concerns of those who share responsibility for improving it. The course counts for thirty points of postgraduate credit towards the Masters in Online and Distance Education, but you need not register for the MA initially and can stop study after one course if necessary.
OpenLearn Scotland brings together a collection of free educational resources which are of particular relevance to Scotland. They are intended to be of interest not only to people living in Scotland but to anyone, anywhere in the world, wishing to know more about Scottish society, culture and landscape. For more information go to http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/scotland
Effective Practice with e-Portfolios draws out key points from established and innovative examples of practice in further and higher education and from a selection of significant JISC-funded projects on e-portfolios. A copy of the publication can be downloaded from the JISC website.
On our Blog home page read about:
On our Resources Page read about:
On our 'Making the web accessible' page read about:
On our AccessApps page read about:
On our Alternative Formats Page read about:
Follow this link to view the Inclusion Blog.
We are pleased to welcome William Paterson to the RSC as our new eAdvisor: eAssessment. William joins us on secondment from Langside College.
"Internet for Image Searching" is a new, free-to-use online tutorial to assist staff and students within the education sector to locate images for use in teaching and learning. The emphasis of the tutorial is on finding copyright cleared images and other visual resources.
Our counterparts in the JISC Regional Support Centre in Yorkshire and Humber (YH) have been running a major project looking at inclusivity. The RSC YH Excellence in inclusivity portal has been developed to help promote best practice and share knowledge to support enhanced inclusivity. The portal provides a simple route to accessing a range of case studies which show how inclusivity has been enhanced through the use of appropriate technology. Options include exploring the case studies by learner need, technology used or by organisation involved.
Follow this link to go to the RSC YH Excellence in inclusivity portal
You are invited to share good practice at the Thursday 5 February 2009 national launch conference for the eCPD Enhancing Learning Programme. A conference in central London for all those engaged in the Further Education (FE) system. BDP Learning, the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and a consortium of FE partners have been commissioned to deliver the programme on behalf of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).
JISC's third online conference Innovating e-Learning 2008 ran between 4-7th November and attracted nearly 400 delegates from higher and further education. The programme, which featured live interactive sessions in Elluminate - a tool for online collaboration - and in Second Life, was judged a resounding success by delegates.
Presentations and papers from the conference are now available online and will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and thinkers in the field of pedagogic innovation.
JISC's briefing paper on Shared Services in UK Further (FE) and Higher Education (HE) surveys the current landscape, discussing the benefits of and barriers to such administrative partnerships for the sector. Shared administrative services are defined as 'institutions cooperating in the development and delivery of services, so sharing skills and knowledge, perhaps with commercial participation'.
An Infokit clarifying the issues concerning shared services also went online. It gives examples of the current drivers, benefits, inhibitors and enablers of using or developing shared service infrastructures, and is the ideal first step for managers or institutions considering moving in this direction.
The JISC Conference is being held in Edinburgh this year on 24 March 2009. The full programme, with details of all parallel sessions is now available online and you can sign up to the sessions that you want to attend. Make sure you register as early as possible to avoid disappointment!
See the JISC Conference 2009 website for booking information and programme details
The JISC Legal team have recently prepared templates in order to provide FE and HE institutions with details on what each of the blanket copyright licences are that they may hold. To complement the templates they have also produced detailed guidance on how the templates could be used.
Template for FE Institutions - - and - - Guidance for FE template
Template for HE Institutions- - and - - Guidance for HE template
Each template is aimed specifically at either FE or HE institutions and offers advice on some key points to consider in relation to blanket licences. The template is intended to be helpful as well as offering a readily available point of reference, ensuring that you have up-to-date knowledge on the licences held by your institution.
Further and higher education establishments across the country could save thousands of pounds - and thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions - just by introducing simple measures, according to a report issued by JISC.
The report presents the findings of JISC's Green Technology report, and outlines ways in which the intelligent use of technology can create savings of cost, energy or carbon output, and shows how Liverpool University's self-developed 'PC PowerDown' software is already saving the institution £64,000 a year and over 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The paper also offers guidance for ICT staff and senior managers within FE and HE to make informed decisions concerning the sustainability of their current and projected technology provision.
Commenting on the report Peter James, Professor of Environmental Management
at the University of Bradford, and head of the JISC-funded SusteIT project,
said,
"The sector must do more to make its ICT use more sustainable, and this
report raises awareness of the issues facing ICT planners and senior
institutional management. It also highlights a range of cost-effective
measures that are already being taken in some institutions that could easily
be introduced in others.
"These include switching off PCs, better management of cooling in data
centres and the increased use of video-conferencing via the JANET network.
The SusteIT project also provides a tool to prepare a footprint of
ICT-related energy and carbon consumption - the first step to improvement -
and inspiration in the form of over 20 case studies."
JISC commissioned the SusteIT project to help educational institutions meet the increasingly stringent environmental demands placed upon them by government.
For further information, please visit the SusteIT website or download a copy of the report from the JISC Publications website.
For details of JISC's other green technology projects, visit the green ICT blog
A useful guide is published by The Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) - Using Flickr to Organise a Collection of Images
Whether you have a small number of photographs you would like to share privately with a few colleagues, or a larger collection you need to make more widely available, Flickr offers a possible alternative to setting up an in-house image database.
As well as exploring some of the more useful features, the document also highlights Flickr's limitations and point out areas where particular consideration needs to be taken.
JISC invites tenders to assist with a mid-term review of the JISC Regional Support Centres (RSCs) as they approach the end of the second year of their round three funding. The review will consider the effectiveness of round three and the impact of changes which are taking place in JISC's service management processes and the funding environment in order to establish a road map for the future of the RSCs. This ITT invites tenders to undertake a funding and organisational landscape study; a review of the governance and operation of the RSCs in round three and obtain formal feedback from the funding councils on the effectiveness of the RSCs in meeting their strategic goals and priorities. Total funding of £35,000 (including VAT, travel and subsistence) is available for this work. Work is expected to begin on, or around, 16 March 2009 and complete by 31 July 2009.The deadline for proposals is 12 noon on 18 February 2009.
Throughout the year just gone the two Scottish RSCs have scoured the virtual highways to bring you the best and most interesting new technologies to add sparkle and value to teaching and learning. Before we press on with the task for the year to come we thought we'd prepare this small but action-packed e-FirstFoot, culled from some of the best and most interesting items which appeared in NewsFeed in the year which has just passed over the horizon.
As part of JISC's ongoing strategy to deliver world-class services to the further and higher education sector - a new JISC Services Management Company will be launched in August 2009. Today, JISC is announcing the appointment of Guy Lambert as the new managing director to lead this new company. Guy has spent his career in commercial and managerial roles at UK board level within the IT industry, both within the public and private sectors. His roles with Honeywell, Bull, Steria and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have all involved managing operational improvement programmes and cultural change alongside delivery of a variety of services to clients. Guy Lambert, managing director of JISC Services said, "I am delighted to be joining JISC and I am looking forward to working with the services to build this new company."
The team will continue to provide advice, training and guidance on the creation and use of digital media collections. In addition, the recently expanded service now provides expertise in moving images and sound in addition to still images and their use in learning, teaching and research. From help with finding and using the right media, to advice on creating and delivering digital formats or consultancy on managing a digitisation project, JISC Digital Media promotes good practice, technical expertise, the use of appropriate standards and the sharing of knowledge within the UK FE and HE communities.
QCA and JISC have undertaken a study to review the terminology used in the field of e-assessment. A glossary of e-Assessment terms has been produced for use by awarding bodies, teachers, lecturers, practitioners and administrators across all types of educational institutions and across all sectors, as well as software developers and providers
The British Library's Archival Sound Recordings project now has 1,000 classical music recordings online. The recordings include previously unheard concertos and sinfoniettas from composers such as Bach, as well as orchestral suites and concerti by Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms
Missed this year's JISC Conference in Edinburgh? You can now listen to the Keynote speeches and all the parallel sessions online at the Conference Website Keynote speeches
JISC and UCISA (the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association) have formalised their working partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. This will help define projects and programmes of work, enabling JISC and UCISA to work together in an even more effective and complimentary way.
Teaching Inclusively Using Technology, a suite of new learning resources is now available online from JISC TechDis.
On 1 April 2009 the JANET network celebrated 25 years of delivering world-class, innovative networking solutions to UK research and education. Since beginning operation on 1 April 1984, just over ten years after the idea of a national research network was first mooted, JANET has acted as a key enabler for the research and education sectors.
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