Exploring Openness at #OER16

Posted on by Nicole Ingerson

This year I attended the 7th Open Educational Resources Conference. ‘OER16: Open Culture’ held on 19th-20th April 2016 at the University of Edinburgh. For the uninitiated, ‘Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes’ (Wikipedia). OER16 saw the annual coming together of the openness movement.

flickr photo by fastfonz https://flickr.com/photos/asintjago/5549078477 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

flickr photo by fastfonz https://flickr.com/photos/asintjago/5549078477 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

In preparation, I’d participated in the Take 5 Open course during Open Education week. Part of the course involves sharing your thoughts and opinions on a Padlet wall.  This was a big deal for me.  I’m used to sharing my thoughts and observations online in my personal domain but not so in a professional capacity.  Readily sharing information about nights out, food I’ve consumed and sleep quality but nothing of any real depth.  With the theme of Open Culture for OER16 I was hoping to gain a greater understanding from an institutional perspective but was pleasantly surprised to also gain some personal insight.  Read more ›

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Posted in Open Education, Technology Enhanced Learning

‘Speak’ your documents with Google Voice Typing

Posted on by Sally Burr
Google Voice typing tool

Talk instead of type your documents! by psd shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

Today we are introducing Google Voice typing, a feature of Google documents which allows you to dictate and format your documents by voice.

Voice typing is an effective free tool. It could prove useful to anyone wanting an alternative to typing. 

First, what are Google docs?

Google documents are one of a range of free tools offered by Google housed in Google drive.

The docs, slides and sheets (word processor doc, presentation slides and spreadsheet) are stored in a Google drive, they are online (cloud-based) and they ‘sync’ (all catch up with each other). You can access your Google Drive contents from any device and you don’t need to press save – they constantly update.  Read more ›

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Posted in Learning Design, Technology Enhanced Learning

Doing it digitally – presentations

Posted on by Anne Hole
Digital presentations

Creative Commons for free images! flickr photo by Kalexanderson shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

Giving presentations is as much part of academics’ lives as it is their students’. Whether presenting at a conference or in an undergraduate seminar, there are digital tools to help with every step of the process.

In previous posts such as Smarter study – 5 essential apps for students, Clever apps for smart researchers and A-Z of apps, reloaded! Piktochart, Plickers and Trello, we have discussed many different tools to help with aspects of academic life. This time, however, it is all about presentations and the many ways you can ‘do it digitally’.  Read more ›

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Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Designing digital learning activities and interactions

Posted on by David Walker
Learn

flickr photo by opensourceway shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license

In the face of the myriad of technologies available to support teaching and learning, considered approaches to the planning of activities and integration of technology into curricula have never been more important.

Universities across the sector have invested in specialist learning technology provision to aid this process while initiatives such as the Jisc Building Digital Capability project have provided individuals and institutions with the means of evaluating digital skills, informing training provision and shaping the development of professional practice.

When transitioning to the digital environment and seeking to embed technology in teaching it’s crucial to reflect on your pedagogical goals before progressing to think about the practical implementation of technology in your practice. What is it that you want students to do/learn using technology?  What level of engagement are you looking to achieve?  Read more ›

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Posted in Learning Design

Happy Easter from @SussexTEL

Posted on by Sally Burr
Happy Easter from the Sussex TEL team

flickr photo by flythebirdpath shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Technology meets One World Week

Posted on by Kitty Horne
One World Week at Sussex. Exploring how we can use technologies to collaborate and communicate across the globe.

One World Week starts Monday 14th March

This week, 14-20 March, is One World Week at the University of Sussex.

One World Week is an annual event which features a great programme of events, from performances and competitions to talks and debates, all of which aim to celebrate the diversity of cultures and nationalities here at Sussex.

Take a look at the programme of events this year featuring a Technology Enhanced Learning seminar!

One World Week is a great opportunity to look at the ways in which technology can keep students connected with the university, even when they are physically away from the university for long periods of time, such as during placements.  Read more ›

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Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Women in tech #Internationalwomensday

Posted on by Kitty Horne

Tuesday 8th March was International Women’s Day, falling at the perfect time to align with the UK’s only festival celebrating women in digital – Spring Forward in Brighton. 

wespringforward.com

wespringforward.com

Among their month-long series of events was Saturday’s Women’s Day Photo Pop Up at 68 Middle Street, an experimental day of portraiture and discussion between some of the most creative minds in Brighton. Attracting a range of educators, writers, journalists, artists and digital pioneers, it was the perfect chance to reflect a little more deeply with the women who are truly changing the world of tech in our city.  Read more ›

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Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Inclusive Digital Teaching Practice

Posted on by Pete Sparkes
Inclusive teaching to enable learning for all

flickr photo by teddy-rised shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

To celebrate the launch of our new Inclusive Digital Practice Award, supported by funding from Santander Universities, this week’s blog post will look at ideas for how technology can be used as an enabler for inclusive teaching and learning.

What do we mean by ‘inclusive’ teaching practice?

Inclusive teaching considers the variety of learners’ individual needs and requirements when delivering pedagogic practices by seeking to pro-actively engage, enable and involve all students.

Inclusivity is one of the fundamental aspects for educators to take into account at any point during the design and delivery of teaching, learning and assessment.  Read more ›

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Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

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We are the Educational Enhancement team at the University of Sussex. We publish posts each fortnight about the use of technology to support teaching and learning. Read more about us.

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