Educational Enhancement

Revising over Christmas? Fill your digital stocking with the best study tools

Posted on 23rd December 2014 by Sally Burr

creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by Matti Mattila

If Santa was a learning technologist, he might well recommend the following digital tools to help you organise your revision over the Christmas holidays.

Fill your mind as well as your stocking with the TEL team’s top five suggestions for Smart revision and study.

We start our recommendations with the Brighton-based company, The Student Room (TSR).

1.The Student Room

Find at http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk

Cost Free

App? Yes

The Student Room is a large digital student community offering study support to students. The company also owns Get Revising which offers additional revision aids. Read more ›

Tagged with: Revision
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Let it snow! Online options to beat the winter

Posted on 16th December 2014 by Anne Hole

Sussex in the snow

The Autumn term is over and the weather is turning colder. Bad weather and illness can disrupt well-laid plans for face-to-face teaching, but digital technologies offer ways for learning to continue, despite the worst that winter can throw at us.

Digitally re-imagining seminars

If bad weather or other circumstances prevent meeting on campus, you could try to recreate a seminar discussion in an online forum, but why not take the opportunity to experiment with something that you wouldn’t usually do in a face-to-face session?

Students could each write a blog post and share links via a Study Direct forum. Blogs can include images, web links and video alongside text to create really rich resources while the less formal style allows students to express themselves in a different way than they would in an academic essay. Students might be encouraged to peer review each others posts with the process of reflecting and commenting aiding the development of critical skills. Blogging supports a range of digital literacies important for graduates’ employability. Read more ›

Tagged with: Learning
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Delete or file? Managing your inbox

Posted on 9th December 2014 by Sally Burr

creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by Sean MacEntee

Email is the beauty and the beast of the modern workplace. It’s a quick and easy way to communicate, yet there is a dark side. Reading and responding to email can be time-consuming, and teaching staff can find their lesson-planning or research time compromised by the demands of responding to emails from staff and students.

Email epidemic?

In an article by The Guardian, reporter Emma Featherstone reports on a study conducted by Dr Tom Jackson at Loughborough University on email and productivity. The study found that, with email applications set to check for new email every five minutes, individuals could be potentially interrupted up to 96 times a day. Read more ›

Tagged with: Email
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Mobile Technologies Week round up

Posted on 2nd December 2014 by Nicholas Botfield

Two weeks ago University of Sussex staff from the Library and Technology Enhanced Learning team came together to organise and deliver a week of workshops, seminars, drop-ins and challenges revolving around the use of mobile technologies. These sessions ran throughout the week and were held all over the University campus. Interested parties from the Hive research group, the Careers and Employability Centre and IT services also got involved to ensure the week had a variety of different workshops that were relevant for students, faculty, researchers and professional services staff. Read more ›

Tagged with: Events, Mobile Technologies Week, SAGE Seminar
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Nearpod: bring learning to life with interactive mobile presentations

Posted on 25th November 2014 by Kitty Horne

Presentations shared via mobile devices

A big welcome to the TEL team, Kitty Horne; our new Learning Technology Assistant. This is Kitty’s inaugural post; a look at Nearpod and how it can be used in teaching and learning.

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is a tool which allows you to create engaging, interactive presentations. It’s packed with great activities and tools.

You can create a presentation which is then viewed by students on their mobile device. Students can interact via their mobile device, whether they are in the classroom are not. This allows for creating exciting, interactive lessons, as well as potential distance learning opportunities. Nearpod is available for free at GooglePlay, AppStore and WindowsStore and at www.nearpod.com, making it highly accessible. Read more ›

Tagged with: Nearpod
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Box of Broadcasts: media on-demand for teaching and learning #sussexmtw

Posted on 21st November 2014 by Pete Sparkes

BoB’s your uncle for video

TV and radio broadcasting can be used to deliver engaging content in a medium which can entertain, inform and educate. Combine this with online media streaming, on-demand service, educational licensing and you have Box of Broadcasts, a powerful educational resource enabling students and teachers to record, watch and share programmes in the classroom or from the comfort of home.

Broadcast media can be applied to teaching and learning within almost any discipline. It can be used to contextualise theories and ideas through current and historic events, communicate professional, media or public opinion and bias, easily explain complex ideas through visual presentation, provide examples and case studies to generate discussion and develop analytic skills and much more. Read more ›

Tagged with: Mobile Technologies Week
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

‘Technology, technology, technology…’ a student’s view #sussexmtw

Posted on 20th November 2014 by David Walker

Lenart Celar, Eva Brittin-Snell and Lucy Hensher are the University of Sussex Library’s SAGE Undergraduate Scholars. They are part of a three year project that will help the Library to learn more about students’ information and learning behaviours.

They write regular blog posts on topics ranging from “5 books that got you through your first year” to “Print v Digital – which do you prefer for studying?”.

In this latest post to mark Mobile Technologies Week here at the University of Sussex Lucy Hensher (@hensherlucy) gives us an insight into the role technology, and in particular mobile technology, plays in her learning. Read more ›

Tagged with: Mobile Technologies Week
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Take the University everywhere with the Sussex mobile app #sussexmtw

Posted on 19th November 2014 by Nicholas Botfield

Sussex ‘in your pocket’ with the Sussex mobile app

If you’re a student or staff member at the University of Sussex then you might not already be aware of the University’s free mobile app available for download from the IT Services download page.

The Sussex Mobile app was launched in 2010 and now has over 11,000 active users.

The app allows you to have access to all the University of Sussex facilities that you would usually access through a web browser, these include your University email and timetable, Study Direct, Sussex Direct, Skills Hub, and your Library account. Read more ›

Tagged with: Mobile Technologies Week
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Revising over Christmas? Fill your digital stocking with the best study tools