Shock horror! Over already?

The Suffolk E-Learning Service ended 30 April 2007 after 16 months of operation during which time it delivered or hosted 39 training and awareness raising events involved over 600 participants from across the post-16 sector in Suffolk. We would like to thank friends and supporters in JISC, BECTA and the local post-16 and schools community for all their help and involement. The final evaluation report for the project will be delivered to Suffolk LSC (our main sponsors) on 30 April 2007.

There have been a number of outcomes and findings from the project, impossible to list here, but perhaps importantly we should emphasise:

• E-Learning is still relatively poorly understood, and perhaps the term itself is not helpful. Perhaps we should go back to talking about ILT - or as someone recently defined it to us - teaching which involves anything with a plug attached.
  

• E-Learning skills and awarenessness are unevenly distributed within and across institutions and sectors. There is still a considerable training and development job to be done.

• Cooperation and knowledge exchange across the educational sector works - if there is sufficient commitment to it and an agent to facilitate it - and it can save individual providers both a lot of time and money (as tax-payers we should all be interested in this)

Netskills Workshop - 23rd April 2007

As part of the efforts of the E-Learning service to raise awareness of VLEs in Suffolk we recently purchased a Netskills workshop for teachers in the FE and HE sectors. The workshop, which was designed by Steve Boneham, focussed on managing and enhancing content in Blackboard, but also featured examples using WebCT and Moodle.

The training was delivered by Simon Fitzpatrick who did a great job in raising awareness of the numerous resource gateways that exist and how material from here and other sources can be integrated in the course areas of VLEs.


Attendees reported finding the training very useful, although I am sure most would welcome more time and opportunity to explore how to integrate the skills and materials introduced by Simon into their own teaching contexts.

Mobile Learning Event - December 8th 2006

One of the problems we have experienced with Web2.0 technologies is keeping various blogs and wiki's up to date with recent news. Actually, that's a poor excuse for failing to add news of our Mobile Learning Event which took place in December 2006 and featured the combined talents of Andy Black (day job with BECTA), Di Dawson (ACL Consultant), Geoff Stead of CTAD Tribal and Steve Siddaway of Edu-Text.

The St Nicholas Centre, in central Ipswich, was the venue, and coped just about, although we had some problems with accoustics and technology - although we now suspect that Andy may have just overloaded the anglican technology with his hi-tech gizmo-mad-stuff. Either way the audience of 55, representing schools, colleges, ACL providers and other areas of the public sector, were subjected to a range of new mobile technologies including Edu-texts school-based system for community texting .

Learning & Accessibility Event

3rd November 2006

The Learning and accessibility event was held at the IP-City Centre, Bath Road, Ipswich. The event focussed on issues surrounding ICT and accessibility; using technology to make learning experiences more accessible to all learners with the emphasis on using inbuilt, free or cheap technologies that require limited technical skill.

Alistair McNaught (Senior Advisor for Further Education - TechDis) started the event with "Quick wins with Accessibility".

Eileen Perrins (Advanced Skills Teacher ICT, Belstead School and Suffolk Outreach Team) talked on ICT and accessibility for students with multiple learning difficulties.

Judith Lisgarten from Thurrock and Basildon College, BECTA award winner for Inclusion 2004, presented "Teaching Out of a Paper Bag.

Feedback from the audience was outstanding - reflecting the quality of all three speakers. Most attendees felt they had learnt something which they could use in their own work.

Web 2.0 Technologies

One of the things that currently interest the e-learning service, as it should all educationalists using the internet and ICT in teaching, is the potential impact and influence of Web2.0 technologies - blogs, wiki's, myspace etc. We have started to experiment with blogs on a number of levels and within a range of contexts, including documenting conference proceedings - see www.cepsconference.blogspot.com and www.suffolkmug.blogspot.com. The influence of user generated web-sites is yet to fully unfold, but certainly the sophistication with which 14-20 year olds are using www.myspace.com to host text, images, audio and video suggests that they are unlikely to be impressed with virtual learning environments in schools and colleges that can't offer similar utility and accessibility - that is if we still have VLEs in their current form in a few years time...

Hands On Moodle

9th June 2006 Moodle VLE Training event

Feedback from previous events highlighted interest from all sectors in the open-source virtual learning environment Moodle. In response the e-learning service project installed a 'trial' Moodle site and organised a 'hands on' training day on 9 June 2006 which was attended by over 30 representatives of local schools, colleges and work-based learning providers. Four expert presenters and trainers led the day which began with Chris Ryall and Sue Crawte from Gt. Cornard Upper School and Technology College who discussed their own experiences with Moodle and also covered a range of generic issues for all prospective school users. The next session was led by Peter Kilcoyne of JISC West Midlands who gave an authoritative introduction to administration issues in Moodle. Following lunch, Geoff Rebbeck of Thanet College led attendees through a range of learning activities in Moodle. Feedback from the event highlighted the valuable contribution of all the presenters and included requests for a further Moodle training event in Autumn 2006. Stand by for 'Hands On' Moodle II.

SMART Technologies

Spring/Summer 2006 and onward

During the last few months the Suffolk E-Learning Service have been involved in running training sessions for SMARTboard users at the Suffolk College. Manufactured by SMART Technologies and distributed in the UK by Steljes, these interactive whiteboard have real potential to add value to what teachers do in the classroom, particularly in regard to increasing student involvement and interaction, with further benefits in terms of resources and recordability (is that a word?). www.smartboard.co.uk. Our sessions, which can be delivered either at our HQ or on-site are now on offer to the WBL sector as well as FE and HE departments in local Colleges.

E-Assessment

4th and 5th May 2006 - E-Assessment

E-Assessment in all its guises is a hot topic at the moment, particulary given the recommendations contained within the DfES strategy Harnessing Technology within this area. As a consequence the Suffolk E-Learning Service Project in partnership with JISC decided to provide a series of consecutive workshops in Suffolk on e-assessment using the services of the specialist e-learning trainers NETSKILLS. Dr Steve Boneham of Netskills proved a highly knowledgeable and informative trainer and over 2 days worked with 20 college lecturers to further develop their awareness of e-assessment issues, solutions and software.

Making IT Happen

17th March 2006 - Making IT Happen

The Suffolk E-Learning Service Project enjoys a fruitful partnership with the national e-learning/ILT advisory service JISC and this was no better demonstrated than on 17 March 2006 when our Regional Support Centre delivered 'Making IT Happen' at our HQ in Ipswich for 18 tutors from local Colleges and WBL providers. The training day, which was delivered by Catherine Bone, Janet Scully and Shri Footring, focussed on a number of practical workshop tasks including using the Internet to find resources, creating WIKI's and developed interactive learning materials using MS Word and Powerpoint.

Experiences of VLEs

3rd March 2006 - Experiences of Virtual Learning Environments

In early March over 70 educators from across the post-16 sector in the East of England gathered at the Ipswich HQ of the Suffolk E-Learning Service to hear 5 presentations focussing on experiences of VLEs. The day began with welcoming words from Gerrard Hayes (JISC) and Harvey Osborne (Suffolk E-Learning) and an introductory presentation by Phil Butler of JISC on current generic issues in VLE implementation. Phil's session was followed by that of Geoff Rebbeck of Thanet College who gave a full account of his work with Moodle. Next up were Caroline Mason and Laura Locke of Otley and Suffolk Colleges respectively who spoke about their experiences with the now closely related WebCT and Blackboard solutions. After lunch it was the turn of schools, and Sue Crawte of Gt. Cornard Upper School, assisted by a team of students, gave a full account of her school's develoment of Moodle.

Why we started blogging!

This is the blog spot of the Suffolk E-Learning Service Project. The Service is supported by Suffolk LSC and exists to raise awareness of and skills in e-learning among teaching practicioners across the post-16 sector (colleges, schools, WBL providers, libraries, voluntary and adult and community sectors). We decided to create a blog after speaking to Ray Robertson of West Suffolk College http://wscelearning.blogspot.com/, where blogging is being used as a support to learning and teaching activity and as an adjunct to VLE development work. Over the next 12 months we will experiment with this blog to share news and investigate its potential for supporting our work. Phew....long sentences.