Access Apps

Accessibility Apps is growing and still free for you to use with your learner. This is a suite of over 40 open source software programs which will run from the USB stick without interfering with the PC in any way.
This suite of programs is useful for planning,reading and writing and visual support software to make reading screens easier, accessible browsers and alternative input tools, multimedia and presentation tools. In the suite of programs you will also find the Open Office which replicates familiar and expensive tools like Word and Power Point.
You can download the whole suite of applications or you can pick and choose those which are more suitable for your learner. Go to www.rsc-nescotland.ac.uk/accessapps

Second Life Opportunity

The JISC RSC West Midlands is pleased to announce that it has recently bought an island in the virtual world, Second Life ™ for learning providers in the region to use.Over the past few years, the RSC has been watching developments of virtual worlds with great interest, particularly the use of virtual worlds in education. Requests have been received asking if we know of available space in Second Life ™ that educators could use to experiment on. It was felt that the amount of requests warranted the purchase of some space by the RSC. Learning organisations will then be better informed to decide on whether they feel it would be useful for them to either rent some space in Second Life ™, buy their own space, investigate other virtual worlds or proceed no further.The “JISC RSC WM” island has been set up. There is a central ‘sandbox’ where West Midlands educators can practise creating temporary objects, changing their avatars, accessing the free resources and meeting up with other West Midlanders.Surrounding this area are several plots which are available for learning organisations. These will be for their sole use and for a more permanent set up. Depending on the take up of this offer, these plots can be used for a period of 3 to 6 months for people to come and experiment on, building objects and structures, using for staff development and even taking small groups of learners.If you would like one of these plots, you should submit a brief outline of your intended use to Jane Edwards – p.jane.edwards@wlv.ac.uk by .A few things you should know…This island is not for establishing an organisation’s presence in Second Life ™ , nor is it for people outside of the West Midlands region. It is meant for educational use only. You will be asked to sign an Acceptable Use Policy.If you would like to have informal chat about the island, please contact Jane on 01902 518983 01902 518983

Staff Development Models

Firstly I should apologise for not posting before now, however the year is coming to a close again with lots of staff development days, this is our busiest time at the RSC as we are invited to join many colleges and deliver staff development sessions.

However the timing of the staff development sessions seems to a be an issue with many staff, who feel that the end of term staff development days are almost too late and rely on you having a really good memory come the start of term in September.

A couple of colleges that I have visited have adopted an all year round staff development programme which allows the staff to try their new skills out and have time to reflect on how this will be integrated into the daily routine.

My experience of the end of term staff development has always been positive; however I do feel that the all year round programme has many advantages. The issues of time and money are real factors. So I would be interested to hear about what’s happening in your organisation with regards to staff development what model are you using ? Please let me know by replying on the blog.

Alison

Zoom It

I have recently been given a excellent link to Zoom IT from Theresa Welch our work based learning advisor. ZoomIt is a desktop zoom and annotation tool, that enables you to zoom your desktop with your wheel mouse or the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. This acts like a magnifier, it also has a excellent colour pen which you can annotate over the top of of your desk top, excellent for presentations and demonstrations. Download the software free from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

Copy Right Free Images

I have recently been searching for images for a Accessibility Blog, I came across Flickr CC http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/.

There are some excellent images available as long as you attribute the photographer. You can enlarge the photo by clicking on the thumb nail, also there is a search facility available.

Also you could try Pic Finder this is a search engine that will , PicFindr , search ten different sites to find images you can freely use in your own work.

This years online conference is nearly approaching we have some excellent session's which will run from the 19th May - 21 st May 2009. Discover-e will run through the RSC's Virtual Learning Environment - Moodle. For most sessions, you can log in to take part in activities at a time to suit you. Each day of the event is themed as follows:
Day 1- Personalising e -learning
Day 2 - Managing Access to e-Learning
Day 3 - Game for Learning ?

Four sessions will take place on each day and will cover the latest developments in e -learning on topics including:
Mobile learning
Implementing Sharepoint
E- portfolios
Games based learning
Object repositories

The event is free however we are taking bookings now and as ever this is really popular so to book for the event go to http://www.rsc.-wm.ac.uk/ as soon as you can.

Jisc Info Nets

Jisc info Nets is a advisory service for managers in the post-compulsory education sector promoting the effective strategic planning, implementation and management of information and learning technology. They have a collection of info kits which can help to provide support for Project Management, Process review, Contract Review, System Implementation. These kits are free and provide a excellent source of advice and guidance. The latest edition to the set is the E-portfolios info kits, which will help to identify what a e- portfolio is and how it to embedded it into teaching and learning. Take a look at the website http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools.

JISC infoNet are currently looking for up to ten institutions from across both the further and higher education sectors who are willing to review the draft content of their forthcoming ‘Strategy info Kit’. Those selected will be given access to the draft content via a private URL, asked to consider the appropriateness of the content, format, structure, ease of navigation and overall usefulness of the resource from their perspective and to provide structured feedback and suggestions by completing an extensive evaluation form. All comments and suggestions made will then be considered before the production of the final version due for launch in November 2009.

Access to the draft version will be available from May 2009 and the evaluation template must be completed and returned to JISC infoNet by the end of August 2009. A grant of £5,000 will be paid to each institution selected to take part upon receipt of their completed evaluation form.

If you are interested in taking part in the survey please contact Steve Bailey (steve.bailey@northumbria.ac.uk)