Jisc Information Sheet

Take a look a the JISC information sheets regarding the issues and benefits of using personal tools and technologies.Some of these tools may not be available in every institution. However the learner may be using these tools at home to support their learning. The most popular tools were Skype, USB memory sticks, PDAs, digital audio players, such as iPods, and mobile phones. Many learners also use personal laptops.

These tools are selected for their familiarity and personal quality, their low cost and convenience. For example, higher education students in the LXP study use instant messaging and chat alongside email, because these tools are immediate, intimate and freely available to Internet users.

Click on the link to find out more http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearningpedagogy/iowpersonaltoolsword.doc

Wimba and Webcasting

Wimba offer some free lectures for teaching staff. The next series of lectures looks particularly interesting as this focuses on e-learning. All you have to do is register for free and be aware of some of the system requirements for Wimba.



This is a way to experience web casting, the classroom will allow you to access video, add photos and use a document sharing tool. The link to WIMBA is http://www.wimba.com/community/upcoming.php





Alternatively, have a look at Kevin Braces Blog from yesterday, Kevin talks about the web casting and compares Dim Dim to other tools http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2008/08/dimdim-ups-features-o.html

Visiblebody.

This website is extraordinary, excellent 3D models of the human body. Register for free check what requirement s are needed for you PC for this software to work.

Maybe useful for Biology Anatomy and Physiology, Sports science or just for general interest.

http://www.visiblebody.com/

The picture is from the Visibledody website.

Accessibility Apps

RSC Scotland North and East have developed an open source accessibility applications package. All of the software is open source and includes packages like Dasher, D Speech, Thunder and many more. This will be available shortly from us in the form of a USB stick however you will be able to download this from the RSC Scotland website in the next two weeks http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/accessibility_inclusion.php.

Please email if you wish to receive an Accessibility Apps USB stick at a.nock@wlv.ac.uk

Thanks to Craig at RSC Scotland for the information on Audio Feedback, a previous blog.

Staff Development.

At the end of July 2008, the RSC took part in several staff development sessions. Theses were mostly face to face sessions. Many colleges now have the facility to run training sessions online for their staff. Maybe this is an area that could be developed as this would not only give the practitioner first hand experience of what its like to be a learner on a e-learning course, but also this may be a way to engage with the part time staff who find it difficult to attend staff development days. Moodle seems ideal to do this. A few examples of training that could be run in this way could include mentoring training, stress management, personnel safety and home security etc. The benefits to the learning provider would be seen as being inclusive in offering training to all its staff, cost effective and setting an example for all other courses to follow.

Take a look at the Moodle website which discusses some the peadodgical issues. http://docs.moodle.org/en/Pedagogy

If you have any examples of how moodle is being used for staff development please share this information with the commuinty.

The Busbi

Over the last couple of months I have been playing with a Busbi!! No its a video camera!

This little device is worth the money. Excellent for evidence collection for NVQ's or for the learner who is in the work place and needs to be able to make notes quickly, the list of possibilities for this piece of equipment is endless.

But the best is yet to come the price, £29.99. This wont break the back if it breaks down or gets lost. The Busbi is very easy to use, with just three buttons, training will be minimal.

This can be found at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Busbi-BUSCD0001-Point-Digital

Audio feedback.

Users with a specific learning difficulty may find audio feedback useful because they may have slow reading speeds and/or poor reading comprehension skills. Most users might also find the use of text to speech a good way to review their own writing content and highlight grammatical errors.
Users who have a visual impairment or whose study environment makes visual concentration difficult, might prefer text-to-speech as a more effective reading method.

Click on this link and take a look at the Tech Dis website this will give you some useful ideas, http://new.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=9_5_6_16