SSPEL Newsletter: Research and Scholarly Activities

Thursday, October 05, 2006

(Sorry -- I thought I had posted this one but I hadn't)

The JISC Regional Support Centre South West Summer Conference, Exeter, 22nd June 2006.

My attendance at this one-day conference was funded by CLT. Three other Marjon colleagues also attended.

The first keynote session was offered by Ros Smith (Chris Yapp having been withdrawn at the last moment). The theme was how the design of learning spaces might be considered to be an essential aspect of learning and teaching. Reference was made to a JISC publication and a background academic paper. The themes were the familiar ones of 'normalising' learning and making it 'fun', expressed in the design of multi-purpose facilities. A clear break must be made with conventional academic interior design. Some of the examples, largely of FE colleges, looked very attractive, but both the general premiss and the specific claim that the investment in 'good' design produces measurable benefits seemed debatable.

My first optional session involved the work done at GLOSCAT using MOODLE. Considerable enthusiasm was shown for the particular software, and its participating online community of designers, and the presenter was himself a systems analyst as well as a teacher. The context was FE teaching, and considerable emphasis was given to the centralised record keeping that the VLE permits and the teaching time that this frees up. It seems that the Open University is going to develop MOODLE for its students in the autumn, and will be writing and making available a number of customisable scripts for other users (including the software for an e-portfolio ). GLOSCAT had developed a particular piece of file sharing software so that students could publish and share their work with a chosen group on the VLE.

Among the lunchtime workshops and presentations I attended, the University of Plymouth video conferencing presentation demonstrated the latest equipment (Apple platforms); the EvalueD team explained their software for evaluating the use of electronic information services; and another team demonstrated the latest portable technology from Dell.

In the afternoon, I attended a session on enabling non-technical staff to producing learning materials, run by Liz Falconer at the University of the West of England. A team of expert teachers was drawn together to explore the possibilities of e-learning, and soon encountered a 'technological boundary' faced by staff. Some aspects of this involved an inability to work with suitable electronic formats such as html and Flash. The solution was to load onto the Network software that would easily translate from familiar formats: Transit (Word to html), Pointe Cast Publisher (a plug-in that transforms PowerPoint presentations to streaming video), and ActivePDF (Word to PDF). A quick demonstration was given of the Powerpoint software. The main pedagogic principles were that the VLE should not be seen as a repository for course documents, but should be used to help students navigate according to what they were supposed to be doing. As an example, the navigation buttons on Blackboard should be changed from their default settings to represent activities such as 'discover', 'reflect', and 'check'. Discussion forums could be described as an arena for collaboration, and other areas could be reserved for resources or administration.

I then went to a presentation by a Cisco representative on new developments in wireless technology. Some familiar paradoxes and developments were revealed here. In essence, a fully functioning wireless system, with extensive access instead of a few 'hotpoints'would be expensive to install. As a result, a number of applications were being developed which would also use wireless technology in order to spread the costs. These included CCTV and facilities offered by the new 'dual mode' mobile phones which could be charged as if they were extensions to a company network. Some commercial applications would include being able to target passers by with text messages containing particular offers. The whole presentation offered a good example of 'technology push'.

Ian Southwell, of Salisbury College described a typical use of mobile technology in his institution, involving using texting to contact students. Main uses included notifying students of last minute administrative changes to stop them travelling in. The discussion went on to consider a number of suppliers and systems, and the best one was seen to be a local company who would provide both service and software. The system has not yet been costed but it is expected to make savings, especially over the cost of contacting students by letter. Texts tend to be acknowledged rather than e-mails and are cheaper than phone calls. The presentation included a handout with some useful contact URLs.

The final presentation was one of the most valuable for our purposes: a keynote from Mike O'Brien of North Devon College. The main theme was the diffusion of innovations from a management perspective. Successful innovations appeared to be based on surveys of user statistics to identify three sorts of lecturing staff (according to how ready they were to use e-technology). The more reluctant ones were targeted in a number of ways and offer a series of rewards (including free laptops for particular innovators, staff development leading to qualifications and public congratulation) and reminders (audits and measures of teaching performance that included use of technology, discussions with management). The existing technology was embedded in a straightforward way, such as including interactive wide boards in all the teaching environments, recruiting a team of ILT champions, and making sure that senior management was seen to be fully involved). New developments include the possibility of encouraging staff to work in groups of three (the groups to be composed in terms of the readiness described above) and establishing an 'ILT buddy system'. The strategy seemed to involve using fairly straightforward technologies -- hard-wired interactive white boards and a VLE -- and developing ways to involve staff first before students. The interaction between the two technologies included practices such as keeping all the actual materials for a presentation on the VLE instead of on the whiteboard or on personal laptops or flash drives. Overall, a refreshing 'can-do' attitude was evident from this senior manager.

Dave Harris