Shri Footring

A thought provoking event which I was pleased to be able to attend.

The day was particularly useful for me because a number of our supported learning providers are in the process of re-writing their social networking policies and guidelines. It was wonderful to be able to hear from people who have done a lot of thinking on this subject. I was particularly grateful to Mike Roch for sharing his University’s  social networking policies with me.

The presentations from the day are available here:

http://www.eduserv.org.uk/events/wn4di.aspx

Tweets here: http://twapperkeeper.com/wn4di/?limit=500

and photos here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=%23wn4di&m=text

(I have copious notes and thoughts from the day scribbled down, but am just going to publish this much for now. Who knows, this post may grow :-))

An Update from RSC Eastern

The usual RSC Update from the forum meeting is available here for reference.

Accessibility and Assistive Technology

Toolkit: We have recently updated our accessibility and assistive technology toolkit. It is available for you to explore here, today. We can also loan the equipment out to you, should you wish. Please contact Maryse or Gerard if interested. Techdis Assistive Technology Scheme

EduApps: This time last year we had started to distribute AccessApps memory sticks. This initiative has now developed to include applications specifically aimed at learners and teachers. Keep up with the latest updates here: www.eduapps.org

Support for the E-Guides programme

Regional Support Centres will be working closely with NIACE to offer E-Guides Plus training. In this region, this will be in addition to our successful E-Guides day. Please watch this space for details of forthcoming events. We are looking for suitable venues, please get in touch if you would like to host an event.

Details of forthcoming E-Guides training

Events

• VLE forum Our next meeting will be on the 6th November at Suffolk New College.
• Generator Training Regional training session on the 10th November.
• Moodle training Early December, please watch this space.

For a full list of forthcoming events, please see our website. Please note that the RSC e-skills resources are available on our Moodle. Please see Catherine or Malcolm for further details.

The RSC e-Skills programme

Please note that the RSC e-skills resources are available on our Moodle. The pilot phase is complete. If you would like to offer this programme at your organisation, please see Catherine or Malcolm for further details.

Funding Opportunities

WBL e-learning Content Creation pilot programme:
http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=252965

Deadline for Technology Exemplar Networks is 30th October.

Excellent day at Epping forest college.

Highlights for me were the lovely cartoon created by Andrew Hill and of course Lawrie’s keynote.

See website for full details:

http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=558

http://twitpic.com/94s3l

At Braintree College:

http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=606

http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=607

RSC West Midlands have set up a regional forum to support those interested in learning and teaching in virtual worlds. The forum, which meets once a month, provides an opportunity for the showcasing of regional projects as well as a chance for all to have a conversation about emerging themes, issues and developments.

An announcement was made that RSC West Midlands are to purchase their own island to enhance their support for learning providers in the region.

The day included presentations from the following:

Wolverhampton University
Virtual Worlds Watch
The British Council
BKSB (NeverWinter Nights)
Wolverhampton University, Kriti Island
Daden Limited
Geminix Ltd
The Theatron Project
Skills in Services
Worcester University

There were also some informal updates including one from Staffordshire University and another from a group of Leverhulme Trust funded PhD students at Coventry University who are developing theoretical models for socio cultural aspects of virtual world interactions. http://cuba.coventry.ac.uk/leverhulme/

The muve blog was also announced, and participation invited:

http://muve.jiscinvolve.org

Many thanks to Jane Edwards and the RSC West Midlands team for the invitation to attend this event. It was extremely useful for me to be able to learn more about activities in the region and meet the people involved.

Virtual Worlds Mailing List: http://jiscmail.ac.uk/virtualworlds

For reasons which have now become obscure, the twitter tag for this event was #jiscfrisk (and occassionally #jiskfrisk). See related tweets below:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23jiscfrisk

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23jiskfrisk