Posted by: Ashley Wright | 11 January, 2010

Durham Bb Users’ Conference – Thoughts

Durham Cathedral as viewed from Durham Castle 05.01.10

Durham Cathedral as viewed from Durham Castle 05.01.10

Hello all.

What a couple of snowy days this turned out to be! Although weather apart, I thought this was very well attended, even up to the very last session on the second day.

I find that of all the conferences, seminars or symposiums I have attended in the last few years this is without doubt the most useful and relevant to me in terms of my job role and day to day activities. The presenters are of a high standard and knowledgeable about what they do – which helps greatly as most of them are practitioners.

The main pointers I have gleened are:

  • Single sign on for multiple systems (external especially) is still a big issue
  • Institutional VLE regarded as the core tool and other tools/services added as required
  • If Blackboard make a mess of the release of 9.1 they are in big trouble with HEIs in the UK
  • Start promoting Bb 9 to staff asap
  • Students are not necessarily web 2.0 or more specifically web savvy/literate
  • Students are still students and we some times miss this issue in the web hyperbole

Many thanks to Malcolm Murray, the LT staff and Durham University for hosting a well run and professional event.

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Posted in Blackboard, Conference, Higher Education, Social media, Technology, VLE, e-Learning, web2.0 | Tags: , ,

Posted by: Ashley Wright | 23 November, 2009

Durham is 10!

The Tenth Annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference will be held on Tuesday the 5th and Wednesday the 6th of January 2010.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/lt.team/blog/?page_id=405

Theme
We are inviting presentations at this conference which explore the opportunities and challenges that social networking tools offer to the more traditional (some might say ‘monolithic’) institutional online learning environments. The following examples are meant to be illustrative rather than definitive:

Now that social networking tools are legion, do we still need institutional VLEs? Should we all follow the lead of Michael Wesch, abandon Blackboard and run our classes using free web-based tools such as netvibes?
Do students want staff to get involved in their use of tools such as facebook, or is this the quickest way to kill it off? Are there educational applications for facebook?
If students want to learn using their mobile phone rather than their laptop, where does that leave Blackboard?
What can you teach someone in 140 characters? Is Twitter just for ‘Twits’ ? – That was the word David Cameron used, wasn’t it? :^)
If we embrace connectivism, should we be assessing who student’s know rather than just what they know? I’m not suggesting you grade people by the number of friends they have in facebook, but could/should we go further than the open book exam? How could we measure this?
Does it matter if student learning is occurring online in places we can’t access, audit or learn from ourselves?
Amid all the excitement, are we forgetting to ask who is excluded from the Web 2.0 world?
We will also consider proposals for Discussions or Papers on any other topics that you think the community would find of interest.

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Posted in Blackboard, Conference, Higher Education, Technology, VLE, e-Learning, web2.0 | Tags: ,

Posted by: Ashley Wright | 29 September, 2009

ALT-C 2009, Manchester, UK

Conference web site: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/

All keynote and invited speakers can be viewed here: http://alt-c.blip.tv/

I attended this conference with colleagues of mine and was involved with a wide range of workshops, presentations and seminars. The highlights for me were: Read More…

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Posted in Conference, Higher Education, e-Learning, web2.0

Posted by: Ashley Wright | 2 September, 2009

US Report – Online Learning as a Strategic Asset

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities-Sloan National Commission on Online Learning have produced a report detailing the views of administartors and faculties regarding online learning.

The report comprises two volumes, Online Learning as a Strategic Asset, contains the results of 231 interviews conducted with administrators, faculty, and students at 45 public institutions across the United States and more than 10,700 responses from faculty across the spectrum of teaching positions.

The two volumes can be accessed here:

  • Volume I: A Resource for Campus Leaders
  • Volume II: The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences with Online Learning

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    Posted in Higher Education, VLE, e-Learning

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 27 July, 2009

    Teachers’ Aids on Creating Content for Learning Environments (TACCLE)

    TACCLE, not the snappiest of acronyms but a site worth looking at for information and guides relating to the use, source and creation of learning materials. The TACCLE handbook can be accessed by registering on this site . To give you an idea of the content, here is a list of all of the sections:

    Section 1: Getting started
    Chapter 1: What is e-learning?
    Chapter 2: Tools that are useful for communicating and creating e-learning
    content
    Chapter 3: Weblogs
    Chapter 4: Wikis
    Chapter 5: Podcasting
    Chapter 6: Video sharing
    Chapter 7: Presentation sharing
    Chapter 8: Social bookmarking
    Chapter 9: Voice threads
    Chapter 10: RSS feed readers
    Chapter 11: Image sharing
    Chapter 12: Taxonomies, folksonomies and metadata
    Section 2: The pedagogy of e-learning
    Chapter 13: Different sorts of e-learning
    Chapter 14: The role of the teacher in e-learning
    Chapter 15: The target group
    Chapter 16: Assessment
    Chapter 17: Trends & directions in e-learning pedagogy: social software and
    web 2.0
    Section 3: Learning environments
    Chapter 18: Learning Management Systems
    Chapter 19: Personal Learning Environments
    Section 4: Creating Digital Learning Objects
    Chapter 20: Learning objects
    Chapter 21: Designing Learning Objects
    Chapter 22: Creating text-based content
    Chapter 23: Creating cartoons and comics
    Chapter 24: Publishing digital learning objects
    Chapter 25: Authoring software
    Chapter 26: Copyright and Open Educational Resources
    Section 5: Networks and communities
    Chapter 27: Networked Space
    Chapter 28: Communities of sharing

    Although the content is aimed at classroom teachers the information is useful for anyone working in the education sector and using a VLE in some form or another.

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    Posted in Technology, VLE, e-Learning, web2.0 | Tags: ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 9 June, 2009

    ASKe

    Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange (ASKe) – is the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning based at Oxford Brookes University Business School. It was set up in summer 2005 with a £4.5 million award (spread over five years) from HEFCE in recognition of good practice based on pedagogic research into aspects of assessment carried out by staff in the Business School and the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

    ASKe runs a series of seminars and workshops that staff can attend. They are delivered and organised in a variety of ways – all information can be browsed on their website: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/aske/

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    Posted in Assessment, CETL, Higher Education, e-Learning

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 7 May, 2009

    Prezi – A different way of presenting

    prezi_zebraA colleague of mine recently delivered a presentation using http://prezi.com/. Probably. like you I’ve sat through and delivered many presentations using Powerpoint and I’m probably suffering from ‘PPT fatigue’. It was interesting to see this tool used, It uses Flash, so there are accessibility issues with using it, however it gives you a novel way of presenting and also thinking about how you are going to present. Some examples of presentations from the Prezi website can be seen here:

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    Posted in Technology, e-Learning

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 30 April, 2009

    Computational Knowledge Engine – Goes live in May

    wolfram_alphaNot the most catchy title around but an interesting development in the world of information gathering and search.

    Can be accessed here: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

    The tool allows you to ask questions in a usual spoken manner rather than search terms and receive answers in a similar way. For example who was the UK Prime Minister in 1968 would return Harold Wilson. BBC news article here

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    Posted in Technology

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 29 April, 2009

    The future of the social web

    As forecast by Forrester Research Inc……..

    The executive summary can be accessed here.

    The five eras of the social web from Forrester Research Inc.

    The five eras of the social web from Forrester Research Inc.

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    Posted in Uncategorized | Tags:

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 16 April, 2009

    Blackboard World Europe Conference 2009 – Barcelona

    I recently returned from the BbWorldEurope09 Conference . The full programme and details can be viewed here:
    http://www.bbworld.com/2009/Europe/content.asp?id=1453 

    From my own personal point of view, here are  the highlights.

    • The demonstration of the Open Source e-Learning tool – XERTE - by Gill Fourt and Pat Lockley from The University of Nottingham. Here  is an online tour of the tool. A simple e-Learning tool to use, very enthusiastically delivered by Pat
    • The explanation and demonstration of Yorkshare by Wayne Britcliffe and Richard Walker. The way in which they have developed this area and the high standard of presentation is a leading example to many HE VLEs
    • Trevor Batchelor (Uni of Birmingham), Adrian L. Powell (Uni of Sheffield), Susannah J. Quinsee (City Uni London) and Vicki Simpson (Uni of Surrey) spoke about the move from Bb Vista to Bb 8 or 9 and how each of their institutions are approaching this move. Most of the HEIs have taken the opportunity to review what the institutions currently provides and evaluate their staff needs for the immediate future.
    • John Couperthwaite and Rob Jones (University of Birmingham) explained and demonstrated thier use of the lecture capture software, Echo360. A clear and engaging explanation of thier work to date, similar to that we have done at Newcastle University. Good to see John login live to the system, always a big plus in my book. They have used the system to capture lectures on an ad hoc basis and again as was our experience students find the resource extremely useful and lecture attendance has hardly decreased.

    A great opportunity to visit the city of Barcelona and meet some of the Catalan people. A shame I didn’t get the chance to see more of it.

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    Posted in Blackboard, Conference | Tags: , , , ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 5 March, 2009

    Animation of 6 ways to make web 2.0 work

    Taken from the VizEdu web site…what do you think, does it work?

    http://vizedu.com/2009/03/6-ways-to-make-web2-work/

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    Posted in Sharing, Social media, Technology, blog, web2.0

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 16 February, 2009

    Google Chrome – Web browser

    Looks good. Especially the drag and drop feature  for Tabs.

    Here is a 10 features video clip from YouTube:

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    Posted in IT Services, Technology, web1.0, web2.0 | Tags: , ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 3 February, 2009

    Wordle.net

    wordle_addressWordle.net is a tool for generating word clouds from text that you submit to it. You can do this via a RSS feed or select text and paste it into a text box on their site. It then generates a word cloud, with the highest repeated words displayed in larger text. You can alter the images that are produced by altering the font, layout and colours.

    I’ve seen this used at conferences and during presentations. It gives a useful snapshot for activities like gathering feedback, responses and online discussions.

    In true Blue Peter style here is one I created today from the WP blog feed.

    WordPress Blog Feed Image from Wordle.net

    WordPress Blog Feed Image from Wordle.net

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    Posted in Technology, web2.0 | Tags: , , , ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 27 January, 2009

    I am a CMALTer

    Received confirmation a couple of weeks ago that I now have CMALT status!

    It was a useful exercise for me and brought a few work related issues into focus. Although I submitted on an individual basis all of the aspects of the application were projects and tasks that I’ve under taken as part of a group of people. I basically wrote it up and thought about it a little. I can also use it as post mominal letters, if I wish to do so.

    Ashley Wright CMALT      :-)

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    Posted in Quality Enhancement, e-Learning | Tags: , , , ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 15 January, 2009

    Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference

    chalk_bbI attended the ninth annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference on January 8th and 9th. This was my second attendance at the conference, however, this time I presented at one of the sessions along with my colleague.

    We presented on a project I am involved with at work which is about lecture and event capture implementation and use (ReCap). From the feedback we’ve received it was a successful presentation, with several questions fielded afterwards. I think in the near future we will be welcoming several visits from other HEIs and FEs about our service.

    Full details about the conference can be found here.

    Here is the PowerPoint presentation of our talk.

    Durham Bb Conf 2009 Lecture and Event Capture
    View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: university newcastle)

     The facilities offered by Durham University for the event were first class. The Calman Learning Centre was a great venue, well equiped, spacious and a great vista of Durham City with the Cathedral being the focal point. I look forward to the next one in January 2010.

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    Posted in Blackboard, Conference, Further Education, Higher Education, Quality Enhancement, Technology, VLE, e-Learning | Tags: , , , , ,

    Posted by: Ashley Wright | 5 January, 2009

    How to do everything with PDF files from digital inspiration

    viewpdffilesI stumbled across this site today and thought it might be of interest to some of you?

    A comprehensicve PDF guide and tutorial can be viewed at this url:

    http://www.labnol.org/software/adobe-pdf-guide-tutorial/6296/

    Lots of Q and As on how to use PDF without actually having Adobe Acrobat as well as tips and hints on how to use and manage files. Worth a look in my opinion.

    BTW – Happy new Year!

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    Posted in IT Services, Sharing, Technology | Tags:

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