This week is my last week here before I go on leave; I will be taking my laptop with me and will have intermittent internet access. For this period only, I will ask institutional Blackboard administrators to raise Behind Blackboard queries if they can't be left till 2nd Jan, when I'm back.
Today, I shall be going over to the London International Development Centre to see how it's going there. Tomorrow, I will be at SOAS all day as usual. Wednesday, I'm meeting Leman at LSHTM to get a better idea of how Blackboard is used there. Thursday will be a busy day - a meeting at SOAS in the morning, the BLE Steering Group at lunchtime and then the CRIG Unconference, hosted by Birkbeck. Friday will be my last day before I fly out to the States, so I will be up in Potters Bar at the RVC's Hawkshead campus tying up loose ends.
Monday 3 December 2007
Tuesday 27 November 2007
Deja Vu
I am currently sat in the library of the Institute of Education (having been set up on their wireless network), about to do some prep for my class before I head off to Birkbeck. Really weird sense of Deja Vu... I used to work here when studying for my degree at UCL and when I was a student at the IOE. Bloomsbury really is my "stomping ground"!
Friday 23 November 2007
Virtual Insanity?
This week, I attended the Steering Group meeting for the University of London's distance education e-Learning Benchmarking project. This activity, left over from my last job, provides an interesting insight into an institution auditing their e-learning.
On Tuesday, the BLE Pedagogy Group met for the first time since the summer - Ana and Brian from the RVC demonstrated how audio podcasts are being made available. The Group were so keen and full of questions, that unfortunately the pair did not complete their presentation. A Bloomsbury workshop on podcasting would obviously be of great interest and something I can arrange next term.
On Wednesday, I attended the HeLF (Heads of eLearning Forum) at City University - a group set up independent of JISC and the Higher Education Academy, which means the content of the meeting is purely strategic for the institutions. Made a refreshing change! The theme of the event was Second Life usage in education - I'm not convinced, though I can see the benefits in distance learning. Anyone had a play with it?
Next week, the BLE Technical Group meets and I have arranged a conference call with Blackboard engineers to discuss the reporting database. Monday I will be at the RVC (Camden), Tuesday at SOAS, Wednesday at RVC (Hawkshead) and Thursday at IOE. Friday is yet to be decided...
On Tuesday, the BLE Pedagogy Group met for the first time since the summer - Ana and Brian from the RVC demonstrated how audio podcasts are being made available. The Group were so keen and full of questions, that unfortunately the pair did not complete their presentation. A Bloomsbury workshop on podcasting would obviously be of great interest and something I can arrange next term.
On Wednesday, I attended the HeLF (Heads of eLearning Forum) at City University - a group set up independent of JISC and the Higher Education Academy, which means the content of the meeting is purely strategic for the institutions. Made a refreshing change! The theme of the event was Second Life usage in education - I'm not convinced, though I can see the benefits in distance learning. Anyone had a play with it?
Next week, the BLE Technical Group meets and I have arranged a conference call with Blackboard engineers to discuss the reporting database. Monday I will be at the RVC (Camden), Tuesday at SOAS, Wednesday at RVC (Hawkshead) and Thursday at IOE. Friday is yet to be decided...
Thursday 15 November 2007
Bloomsbury.ac.uk
I'm turning more generic... you can now reach me at s.sherman@bloomsbury.ac.uk, which is great.
Yesterday, I met with Nancy Turner at the University of the Arts; Nancy is currently Director of Professional Development, but will be covering for the Dean of Learning & Teaching Development who will shortly be on maternity leave. UAL are also customers of Blackboard ASP, and Nancy and I shared some very interesting stories about ASP and some of their consultancy services - the inaugural meeting of our"Blackboard Support Group" (I knew my counselling course would come in useful). We look forward to meeting regularly to update each other with progress and see how we might be able collaborate.
After a short spell squatting in the London Knowledge Lab, I visited Michelle Wake - Head of Library & Information Services at the School of Pharmacy. Michelle has been invited to join the BLE Steering Group, which she has accepted. A good move forward in encouraging more collaboration with SoP.
I'll be at the RVC in Potters Bar today and Camden tomorrow.
Yesterday, I met with Nancy Turner at the University of the Arts; Nancy is currently Director of Professional Development, but will be covering for the Dean of Learning & Teaching Development who will shortly be on maternity leave. UAL are also customers of Blackboard ASP, and Nancy and I shared some very interesting stories about ASP and some of their consultancy services - the inaugural meeting of our"Blackboard Support Group" (I knew my counselling course would come in useful). We look forward to meeting regularly to update each other with progress and see how we might be able collaborate.
After a short spell squatting in the London Knowledge Lab, I visited Michelle Wake - Head of Library & Information Services at the School of Pharmacy. Michelle has been invited to join the BLE Steering Group, which she has accepted. A good move forward in encouraging more collaboration with SoP.
I'll be at the RVC in Potters Bar today and Camden tomorrow.
Monday 12 November 2007
Blackboard, Birkbeck and Beer
These 3 Bs were on the agenda on Thursday and Friday last week.
On Thursday I met with Richard Horton (Regional Manager), Lenny Khan (Client Manager UK) and Dave Hayward (Marketing Manager in Europe) from Blackboard plus Philip Butler (e-Learning Adviser) @ JISC RSC London. The meeting was set up to discuss the London Blackboard Regional User Group, which I have recently taken over moderating and how we will be re-launching it by organising a meeting in late Feb/early March next year. Blackboard will subsidise the cost of the event (accommodation, catering) and will pretty much stay behind the scenes, but will drop into meetings to give presentations (e.g. demo of Bb8). I intend to use Bloomsbury Colleges as the venues for these meetings - to raise our profile and for convenience as they are centrally located.
Richard took the opportunity to talk to me about Blackboard consultancy offers for Snapshot, Startegy and Content System, but I told him now was not really the best time...
On Friday, I spent an enjoyable day at Birkbeck, meeting a staff development manager in the morning; attending the e-Learning Advisory Group and then a focus group looking at the interface of their future Blackboard site. It's great to be a part of this; seeing the implementation from the very beginning and being able to support it.
And the beer? Well I'd best leave it at that...
On Thursday I met with Richard Horton (Regional Manager), Lenny Khan (Client Manager UK) and Dave Hayward (Marketing Manager in Europe) from Blackboard plus Philip Butler (e-Learning Adviser) @ JISC RSC London. The meeting was set up to discuss the London Blackboard Regional User Group, which I have recently taken over moderating and how we will be re-launching it by organising a meeting in late Feb/early March next year. Blackboard will subsidise the cost of the event (accommodation, catering) and will pretty much stay behind the scenes, but will drop into meetings to give presentations (e.g. demo of Bb8). I intend to use Bloomsbury Colleges as the venues for these meetings - to raise our profile and for convenience as they are centrally located.
Richard took the opportunity to talk to me about Blackboard consultancy offers for Snapshot, Startegy and Content System, but I told him now was not really the best time...
On Friday, I spent an enjoyable day at Birkbeck, meeting a staff development manager in the morning; attending the e-Learning Advisory Group and then a focus group looking at the interface of their future Blackboard site. It's great to be a part of this; seeing the implementation from the very beginning and being able to support it.
And the beer? Well I'd best leave it at that...
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Bb Admin training
Yesterday evening, I attended a reception for the Bloomsbury Colleges Groups, where I waved the flag for the BLE - which was mentioned as an example of good collaborative practice in the consortium by David Latchman, Master of Birkbeck College.
This morning, I set up access to the JANET Roaming Service which will allow me to use the wireless networks in some of the colleges. Well, hopefully - it seems to work when I sit on the edge of the desk at SOAS. Will try Birkbeck later this week...
I am currently sat next to Fitri at the IOE, watching over her shoulder as she answers queries from staff and course administrators using Blackboard. I've also been doing this with Martin at SOAS and Fiona and Ana at the RVC. It's a great way of learning how the systems are used, looking at the sorts of queries that are common between colleges and will enable me to pinch any good ideas and spread them around the consortium. Will be setting up a date at LSHTM with Leman.
This morning, I set up access to the JANET Roaming Service which will allow me to use the wireless networks in some of the colleges. Well, hopefully - it seems to work when I sit on the edge of the desk at SOAS. Will try Birkbeck later this week...
I am currently sat next to Fitri at the IOE, watching over her shoulder as she answers queries from staff and course administrators using Blackboard. I've also been doing this with Martin at SOAS and Fiona and Ana at the RVC. It's a great way of learning how the systems are used, looking at the sorts of queries that are common between colleges and will enable me to pinch any good ideas and spread them around the consortium. Will be setting up a date at LSHTM with Leman.
Friday 2 November 2007
Today and the week ahead
I had every intention be in Camden today but upon leaving my house, I realised that my travelcard had expired and my car keys were in my pocket - so I have headed back to Hawkshead.
On Monday, the BLE Steering Group will meet and will be attending a Bloomsbury Colleges meeting straight after; Tuesday, I will be at SOAS all day; Thursday, I will be meeting Richard Horton (Regional Manager), Lenny Khan (Account Manager) and Dave Hayward (Marketing Manager) from Blackboard to discuss the London Bb Regional User Group; Friday I will be attending BBK's E-Learning Group meeting.
On Monday, the BLE Steering Group will meet and will be attending a Bloomsbury Colleges meeting straight after; Tuesday, I will be at SOAS all day; Thursday, I will be meeting Richard Horton (Regional Manager), Lenny Khan (Account Manager) and Dave Hayward (Marketing Manager) from Blackboard to discuss the London Bb Regional User Group; Friday I will be attending BBK's E-Learning Group meeting.
Thursday 1 November 2007
Welcome
Do I welcome myself to my own blog or is this a welcome for the reader? Please forgive my lack of blog-etiquette (blotiquette?) - this is the first time I intend to maintain a blog (though I have set up others to demo!).
Yesterday (Wednesday), I was out and about in Bloomsbury. I met Magdalena Jara at the IOE and had a good chat about how the Learning & Teaching Unit (LTU) is supporting staff with Blackboard. Need to meet up with Juliette (MIS) and the Helpdesk to see how the whole thing fits together. After that, I hung out in the Knowledge Lab, connected to the wireless (new laptop arrived last week - a lovely HP tablet) and did some work there.
In the afternoon, I attended the Bloomsbury Staff Development Group meeting, where I introduced myself , raised the issue of e-learning training provisions across the colleges and brought up possible joint Bb training across the Bloomsbury Colleges. Currently, the RVC, SOAS and LSHTM SD depts each coordinate e-learning training, which is managed by their respective learning technology teams. The IOE SD Manager leaves training completely to the LTU. BBK and SoP were not in attendance.
In terms of sharing training, the model of opening up institutional training to other Bloomsbury Colleges (as offered by the RVC at no cost if led by the eMedia Unit) was thought to be problematic. Firstly, staff based in Bloomsbury may not want to travel to Camden. Secondly, the training be need to be generic enough to be applied to other colleges. Thirdly, the fact that the RVC's offer to external participants would only be confirmed 24 hours before the training was not thought to be useful and may discourage staff from attending.
The issues of joint Bb and e-learning training was viewed as positive by the group but, again, problematic. If, for example, the RVC eMedia Unit provided training, there would be the costs associated with their time that would need to be accounted for. The notion of "free training" is great, but may reduce commitment of attendees; SD depts may be more willing to pay £50, for example, to send staff to sessions.
I came away from the meeting feeling a little disappointed that the task of setting up shared training would not be as straight-forward as I thought. The SD group recommended I now approach the respective e-learning teams in the colleges; if they are willing to share training, then the SD group will be happy to support it by promotion.
I finished off the day purchasing a laptop case on Tottenham Court Road, which cheered me up! Today (Thursday), I am at the RVC's Hawkshead campus in Potters Bar doing some admin work and waiting for Ana and Fiona to alert me to any Bb emails - I am currently learning to be a Bb administrator!
Yesterday (Wednesday), I was out and about in Bloomsbury. I met Magdalena Jara at the IOE and had a good chat about how the Learning & Teaching Unit (LTU) is supporting staff with Blackboard. Need to meet up with Juliette (MIS) and the Helpdesk to see how the whole thing fits together. After that, I hung out in the Knowledge Lab, connected to the wireless (new laptop arrived last week - a lovely HP tablet) and did some work there.
In the afternoon, I attended the Bloomsbury Staff Development Group meeting, where I introduced myself , raised the issue of e-learning training provisions across the colleges and brought up possible joint Bb training across the Bloomsbury Colleges. Currently, the RVC, SOAS and LSHTM SD depts each coordinate e-learning training, which is managed by their respective learning technology teams. The IOE SD Manager leaves training completely to the LTU. BBK and SoP were not in attendance.
In terms of sharing training, the model of opening up institutional training to other Bloomsbury Colleges (as offered by the RVC at no cost if led by the eMedia Unit) was thought to be problematic. Firstly, staff based in Bloomsbury may not want to travel to Camden. Secondly, the training be need to be generic enough to be applied to other colleges. Thirdly, the fact that the RVC's offer to external participants would only be confirmed 24 hours before the training was not thought to be useful and may discourage staff from attending.
The issues of joint Bb and e-learning training was viewed as positive by the group but, again, problematic. If, for example, the RVC eMedia Unit provided training, there would be the costs associated with their time that would need to be accounted for. The notion of "free training" is great, but may reduce commitment of attendees; SD depts may be more willing to pay £50, for example, to send staff to sessions.
I came away from the meeting feeling a little disappointed that the task of setting up shared training would not be as straight-forward as I thought. The SD group recommended I now approach the respective e-learning teams in the colleges; if they are willing to share training, then the SD group will be happy to support it by promotion.
I finished off the day purchasing a laptop case on Tottenham Court Road, which cheered me up! Today (Thursday), I am at the RVC's Hawkshead campus in Potters Bar doing some admin work and waiting for Ana and Fiona to alert me to any Bb emails - I am currently learning to be a Bb administrator!
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