Shane Sutherland introducing the Future Ready Symposium
Last week I travelled to Birmingham for the ‘Future Ready Symposium’. The event was hosted to explore the role of technology in helping to develop the ‘future ready’ learner.
The Symposium coincided with Jisc’s publication of the ‘Technology for Employability’ report by Dr Peter Chatterton and Geoff Rebbeck QTLS. Read the full report here or the fast read here. Read more ›
flickr photo by S@Z shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license
When academics and students start using an iPad some of the first things they want to be able to do are make notes (in lectures, at conferences or in meetings) and annotate pdf documents.
There are many apps available to accomplish these tasks so we have been comparing some of them to help new iPad users to decide which to try.
First, it is important to think about what you want or need to be able to do. For example, do you only want to make notes, or do you want an app that will let you organise your notes as well? Will you be keeping the notes on your device or do you want to sync them so that they are available with a web browser or other mobile device(s)? Additional questions to consider include:
What lies behind a learning technology project? What are the steps involved in taking a project from initial idea through to delivery? In this post Pete Sparkes’ shares some insights to his role as a Learning Technologist by taking us through his involvement in a recent initiative designed to further enhance mechanisms to support student engagement here at the University of Sussex.
The brief for this project was to produce a bite-sized, fully online course to be delivered to 200+ newly appointed student representatives. It was anticipated that moving from face-to-face workshops to a fully online solution would encourage participation by allowing reps to work at their own pace to complete training, and as a result deliver a stronger student rep programme.
For this collaborative project I provided input on instructional design, advice on the use of appropriate technology and the structuring of course materials. Colleagues from the Student Rep team in the University of Sussex Students Union (USSU) and University’s Academic Development and Quality Enhancement Office provided a brief, acted as subject matter experts, and reviewed and tested the course prior to its official launch. Read more ›
You may have spotted that this week is Mobile Technologies Week! We are halfway through Mobile Technologies week and today, Ant Groves, Learning and Teaching Librarian from the Library, talks about the wonderful ‘MakerClub’.
Over to Ant……
The second day of Sussex Mobile/Technologies Week began with an inspiring set of talks from last year’s TEL Innovation Scheme winners, where the importance of tinkering and taking a playful approach to learning was mentioned on several occasions. Read more ›
flickr photo by jannekestaaks shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
Involving students as researchers can have huge benefits in terms of motivation, learning and the development of discipline-specific skills. There is also much to be learnt by teachers carrying out research into their own teaching.
Either of these activities is likely to involve collecting data through the use of surveys, and there is a range of tools which teachers and students might consider using. This post will look at some of the most popular and some you may not know about to help you choose the right digital tool for your task. Read more ›
This year Mobile/Technologies Week will run from 23rd to 27th November and once again the Library and Technology Enhanced Learning have come together to provide staff and students at the University of Sussex with a great programme of events around the use of mobile devices and technologies to support teaching, learning and research. This year we have broadened out the programme to include examples of innovative use of technologies at Sussex, with input from our students and academics. See the Mobile/Technologies Week webpages for information and booking details for each of the following events. Anyone with a twitter account can also join in online throughout the week using the #sussexmtw hashtag. Read more ›
flickr photo by meenaghd shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
‘Digital skills’ are frequently referred to both inside and outside of higher education. What are they and how can we judge if we are digitally skilled or not? We turn to the Jisc framework, originally developed by the work of Beetham and Sharpe (2010), to help answer the question of digital literacy. Read more ›
The TEL Innovation Scheme gives staff the opportunity to develop or experiment with new tools, resources or teaching approaches with the potential to inform practice in their School or disciplinary area. Participation also demonstrates a commitment to enhancement of the student experience.
In 2014/15 the Scheme awarded six grants covering a range of developments from physical computing to gamification. All of the selection criteria and proposal information can be found on the TEL website. One of these is that the proposal must “clearly demonstrate what is innovative about the proposed project and how it will enhance the student experience” Read more ›
