Happy Holidays!

I'm now on leave till Monday 5th Jan - and that week I'll only be in on Mon and Tues due to the Durham  Bb Conference. Here are my movements for the first 2 weeks in 2009:

Mon 5th Jan - RVC (Camden)

Tues 6th Jan - Birkbeck

Wed 7th Jan - Content System User Group (Durham)

Thurs 8th Jan - Durham Bb User Group 

Fri 9th Jan - Durham Bb User Group

w/c 12th Jan - all clear for work on conference papers and ALT-N article.

Last working week of the year..

...and it's definitely not going to be a slow one:

Mon 15th: BBK (Tech meeting and lunch; Elluminate session 2pm)
Tues 16th: Camden (RVC) (10am Tim Bush, ULCC; 12pm Bb Support call; 3pm Carol Shergold, Uni of Sussex; 4.30pm Bb Community Support call)
Wed 17th: A/L
Thurs 18th: RVC (HH)
Fri 19th: Bb User Group meeting (Imperial College)

w/c 8/12/08

Mon 8th: RVC (Camden)
Tues 9th: CMI course
Wed 10th: A/L
Thurs 11th: LSHTM (am); SOAS (pm) - BLE Pedagogy meeting
Fri 12th: CSWG (LIDC)

Wobbly movements

Not because I'm unsure of where I'll be, but because I tore a ligament in my ankle and my movements are a bit wobbly!

Mon 24th: RVC (Camden)
Tues 25th RVC (Camden) am; LIDC pm
Wed 26th: A/L
Thurs 27th: RVC (Camden) (BLE Tech mtg) am; City University (M25 L&T Group) pm
Fri 28th: JISC Emerge Workshop (Birmingham)

Mon 1st Dec: Wye College (BLE training for SOAS DL staff)
Tues 2nd: RVC (Camden)
Wed 3rd: A/L
Thurs 4th IOE (BLE SG mtg)
Fri 5th: A/L

Busy 2 weeks ahead

Mon 10th: RVC (Camden)
Tues 11th: APT STAIRS luncheon
Wed 12th: WFH and then travel to Edinburgh
Thurs 13th HeLF meeting in Edinburgh
Fri 14th: A/L

Mon 17th: WFH am / personal appt pm
Tues 18th: CMI course (out of office all day)
Wed 19th: RVC Camden am / Birkbeck pm
Thurs 20th: SOAS
Fri 21st: A/L

Sun, snow, rain and hail...

...Strange mix of weather last week. Potters Bar still had snow on the ground on Friday where I was working. Aiming to keep warm this week and plenty happening to keep me busy:

Mon 3rd: RVC (HH)
Tues 4th: CMI Management Diploma all day
Wed 5th: RVC (Camden); APT STAIRS meetings 10.00-12.30
Thurs 6th: BBK; BLE SG meeting 12-2
Fri 7th: tbc

This week...

...may involve a little less running around than last week:

Mon 27th: RVC (HH)
Tues 28th: RVC (HH)
Wed 20th: JISC e-Learning Framework workshop
Thurs 21st: SOAS am; BLE Tech meeting
Fri 22nd: RVC (HH)

Subject to change - any changes will be corrected on this post

Lost track of time...

...due to my new toy (for those not following me on Twitter, I bought a new MacBook at the weekend!) It's very beautiful, but have been a bit side-tracked and forgot to do this on Friday.

Wed 22nd: RVC (HH)
Thurs 23rd: RVC (Camden)
Fri 24th: Bloomsbury

Next week

The sun's out - hurrah! Hope there's a good weekend to follow.

Movements next week:
Mon 13th Oct: Web2Rights workshop (BBK)
Tues 14th: am RVC Camden, pm LIDC (meeting with LSHTM and LIDC staff)
Wed 15: RVC HH
Thurs 16th: pm RVC HH
Fri 17th: am SOAS, pm tbc

Autumn days

Apologies for lack of post last week - been struggling with laptop, which arrived back from Poland minus its memory... Also, the key board has acquired a more springy feel, as three screws which attached it to the base were also been left behind. Seems like the laptop had a fabulous time... Fights with HP have ensued over the last two weeks to get back lost parts. Parts all returned, just need to get them re-installed. I'm going to buy a Mac for myself for home-use.

Anyway, the week concluded with a very good conference held at Imperial College, managed by ULCC, on the Future of Technology in Education. Some excellent speakers including people from Google, BBC Backstage, Warwick University and JaNET. Look out for a write-up I'll be doing for the ALT publication. Info here at www.fote2008.com

This week, movements are as follows:
Mon 6th Oct - RVC (Camden)
Tues 7th Oct - Management Diploma course day (UoL)
Wed 8th Oct - RVC (HH)
Thur 9th Oct - BLE Pedagogy Group (LIDC)
Fri 10th Oct - RVC (HH)

Not even a lousy postcard

So, my laptop was shipped off to Poland to get fixed. Great use of resources, HP... My laptop has quite a carbon footprint of its own - two trips to America, one to Barbados and now Poland. It's a good life...

Anyway, depending on when it decides to come back to work, my movements currently look like this for the week ahead:

Mon 22nd - RVC (Camden)
Tues 23rd - RVC (HH)
Wed 24th - meeting at City University
Thurs 25th - LIDC (BLE Steeering Group am; BLE Tech Group pm)
Fri 26th - RVC (HH)

8-10 days without a laptop??!!?!

HP is taking away my laptop tomorrow for some urgent repairs - the catch to open it has fallen off and makes use somewhat impossible. The next two weeks may prove to be challenging - I'm guessing that I will be mainly working at the RVC (Camden and HH) and from home - unless anyone has a spare laptop/desktop I can use? Time to fish out my old PDA!

This week, these will be my movements:

Mon 15th: RVC (Camden)
Tues 16th: Bloomsbury (meetings at SOAS and with Terry Bishop)
Wed 17th: RVC (HH)
Thurs 18th: LIDC (RVC E-Media Unit team Away Day)
Fri 20th: LIDC (meeting with Abby Deamer)

Links from George Siemen's presentation at ALT-C 2008

www.elearnspace.org

www.knowingknowledge.com

www.connectivism.ca

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress

BLE Anniversary

This week sees my first anniversary as the BLE Service Manager - time certainly flies when you're having fun. This coming year, I will be planning further training events (including GoogleDocs training off the back of the APT STAIRS project) and looking at where next with BLE developments. Hopefully this will become clearer when the Steering Group meets later this month to look at strategic forward planning.

This week, I will be catching up with admin and planning a few events (BLE Pedagogy meeting in October and the November Blackboard User Group meeting).

Mon-Wed 1st-3rd: RVC (Potters Bar)
Thurs 4th: SOAS
Fri 5th: LIDC

Next week (w/c 8th Sept), I shall be in Leeds from Monday to Thursday for ALT-C and related activities.
On Friday 12th, I shall be working at the RVC in Potters Bar.

w/c/ 18th August

This week will be a quiet week in terms of meetings, so I plan to get my head down and work on some papers, which include the BLE 2008 report, and drafting the interim report for the APT STAIRS project. I will therefore be based between the two RVC campuses, but can change my plans if I am needed in Bloomsbury (though a lot of people are on leave right now).

Mon 18th - RVC (Camden)
Tues - RVC (Hawkshead)
Wed - RVC (Camden)
Thurs - RVC (Hawkshead)
Fri - RVC (Hawkshead)

Next week (w/c 25th Aug) I will be on leave; Jodie Bell will continue to coordinate the Snapshot integration project checking that everyone has sent through what is needed.

w/c 11th August

Mon 11th - RVC (Camden)
Tues 12th - RVC (HH)
Wed 13th - Birkbeck
Thurs 14th - IOE (LKL)
Fri 15th - RVC (Camden)

Using Skype and Twitter is also a great way to find out what I'm doing - would be really useful for BLE staff to get signed up - might cut-down on the spam email I send out!! Email me for details...

w/c 4th August

Mon 4th - RVC (Hawkshead)
Tues 5th - RVC (Camden)
Wed 6th - Meetings in the morning; afternoon at LIDC
Thurs 7th - BLE SG @ SOAS
Fri 8th - RVC (Hawkshead)

Next week

Mon 28th - RVC (Camden)
Tues 29th - LIDC
Wed 30th - RVC (Hawkshead)
Thurs 31st - BLE Tech meeting (Birkbeck)
Fri 1st August - Bloomsbury (College tbc)

Bloomsbury Website updated

Today, I have been getting to grips with Zope to update the BLE pages on the Bloomsbury Colleges website:

Check out my hard work here:
www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/ble

w/c 21st July

Mon 21st - RVC (Camden)
Tues 22nd - RVC (Camden)
Wed 23rd - RVC (Hawkshead)
Thurs 24th - RVC (Camden) and LSHTM (Snapshot consultancy); SOAS for lunch with LIDC staff
Fri 25th - IOE (Snapshot consultancy cont'd)

w/c 14th July

Mon - RVC (Camden)
Tues - Keele University (JISC Innovation Forum)
Wed - Keele
Thurs - Birkbeck
Fri - IOE (LKL)

The week ahead

Mon 7th July - RVC (Camden)
Tues 8th July - LIDC
Wed 9th July - BLE SG (am); Bloomsbury (pm)
Thurs 10th July - RVC (Hawkshead)
Fri 11th July - A/L

Not enough hours in the day

It's a poor excuse, but there really isn't enough time in the day to get done what I need to get done. Anyone else feel like that? These past few weeks, I have been trying to catch up with the minutes taken from lots of meetings that I've attended. I've also been supporting Caroline with the APT STAIRS project launch, which is at the London Knowledge Lab. Please come along (email c.bell@bloomsbury.ac.uk) as there are still places left (food and drinks need to be consumed - we don't want to take anything home!!).

Thurs 19th June: working at the LKL in preparation for the evening launch
Fri 20th June: recovering at the RVC in Potters Bar!

Next week's activities and movements are as follows:
Mon 23rd: RVC, Camden (APT Team meeting)
Tues 24th: RVC, Camden (running seminar at the online conference)
Wed 25th: RVC, Hawkshead
Thurs 26th: SOAS (BLE Tech meeting)
Fri 27th: A/L

The following week is looking like this (but subject to change):
Mon 30th: A/L
Tues 1st July: A/L
Wed 2nd: RVC, Hawkshead
Thurs 3rd: IOE (BLE SG)
Fri 4th: tbc

Next two weeks...

Tues 27th May - am RVC (Camden); pm SOAS
Wed 28th - BBK
Thurs 29th - LIDC (BLE Tech meeting @ 11am)
Fri 30th - RVC (Camden)

Mon 2nd June - Blackboard ASP visit (Amsterdam)
Tues 3rd - LKL
Wed 4th - HeLF meeting (York)
Thurs 5th - RVC (Hawkshead)
Fri 6th - BBK (BLE SG meeting)

Coming up

This coming week, I will be focussing on Blackboard developments - v8 upgrade and current issues in Behind Blackboard. I'll also be running the London Bb/WebCT User Group, working on the May BLE-bulletin, helping Caroline with the APT Launch preparations - please mark 19th June in your diaries now - for a 5.30om start.

Monday - working from home
Tuesday - RVC (Camden)
Wednesday - RVC (Camden)
Thursday - Birkbeck (London Bb/WebCT User Group)
Friday - LSHTM (E-learning Implementation Group) and SOAS

More travels

After a a short visit to the US at the weekend, I'm back for a few days and will then be whizzing off to sunny Manchester for the Bb conference next week. Later in the month, I'll be going over to Amsterdam (with Fiona Fenton) to visit the Bb data centre and to meet Kyung, Daniel, Victor and Quentin. The exercise is really for PR purposes - I expect the visit to improve relations and communications.

I was really pleased with the success of the first Bloomsbury-wide workshop (using Elluminate @ the IOE) and am looking forward to tomorrow's podcasting workshop at SOAS. Thanks to Tim and Mike for their help and support.

Last week, Caroline Bell started as the APT STAIRS Project Officer - she'll be starting her own blog soon for members of the Project Team and anyone else who wants to find out what she's up to.

So, coming up:
Wed 7th - RVC (Hawkshead)
Thurs 8th - SOAS (Podcasting workshop)
Fri 9th - Goldsmiths College (M25 Learning Tech Group)
Mon 12th - RVC (Camden)
Tues 13th - Blackboard Conference
Wed 14th - Blackboard Conference

The week ahead

Mon 28th - RVC (Camden) - Caroline Bell's first day
Tues 29th - Google London office and then the RVC (Camden)
Wed - Fri - on leave. Anyone need some yummy(!) Hershey Bars from the States?

Next week

Monday 21st April - RVC (Camden)
Tuesday - SOAS + LIDC launch
Wednesday - IOE + BLE Elluminate workshop
Thursday - BLE Tech meeting @ LKL
Friday - RVC (Hawkshead)

This Week

This week, my diary is looking like this:

Mon 14th April - RVC (Camden)
Tues - Birkmingham, JISC Conference
Wed RVC (Hawkshead)
Thurs - SOAS
Fri - LIDC (tbc)

I wish I could collect rail miles as well as sky miles

Over the next few weeks, I shall be getting to see quite a bit of the country...

Mon 31st March - Southampton (SOURCE workshop)
Tues 1st Apr - RVC, Potters Bar
Wed 2nd - Coventry (Heads of e-Learning Forum)
Thurs 3rd - LSHTM (BLE Steering Group and Pedagogy Group meetings)
Fri 4th - Oxford (Beyond Digital Natives conference)
Mon 7th - Leeds (Web2Righrs workshop)

Putting me to shame

That would be my grandmother who turns 89 in May. She popped up on Skype yesterday - no idea how she found me - or how she found Skype. Old people today...! E-Learning runs strong through the veins of my family...

APT STAIRS Project Plan

I have just breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as the APT STAIRS project plan has finally been submitted to JISC. This really was a mammoth task, but made a lot easier with the supportive team I'm working with (which includes people who readily work at weekends - naming no names, Nick...) and of course using GoogleDocs.

This week, I'll be catching up with myself, working to this timetable:

Tues - Camden
Wed - Potters Bar
Thurs - not yet decided (maybe LIDC)
Fri - Birkbeck

Poor blogging

I apologise for my pathetic lack of blog posts in February - this month will be better (feel free to badger me if it isn't).

Twitter

This week, I set up a Twitter account - a tool that simply displays what you are currently up to (cf to the status report on Facebook). Set up your own account here http://twitter.com/ and search for me under "ble1". A useful , mobile tool - especially if you haven't got time to read my blog - or if I haven't updated in a week... ooops.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours with Leman @ LSHTM. It was useful for me to see how she manages their Blackboard site. Leman uses UltraEdit (http://www.ultraedit.com) as an alternative to Notepad - it's simple like Notepad, but offers a lot more functionality that comes in useful when dealing with long filepaths for Snapshot updates. Download a free 30-45 day trial. I plan to visit one of the BLE administrators regularly to keep up-to-date.

Movements for next week:
Monday - Camden (3pm call with Kyung Ro, Bb)
Tuesday - SOAS
Wednesday - Potters Bar/Camden
Thursday & Friday - York, JISC Project Start-Up

BLE-Bulletin January 2008

Rounding up e-learning news for the Bloomsbury Colleges

Contents

1. News
2. Events
3. Funding Opportunities
4. Resources

1. News

i) Bloomsbury Colleges funded by JISC
JISC has awarded the BLE community £200k for a 15 month project to commence this month. Managed by Sarah Sherman, the project will fund six individual mini-projects across the Bloomsbury Colleges, which will be examining how the application GoogleDocs can be used to support and enhance learning, teaching, research and administration.

ii) WoCRIG
David Flanders has also secured JISC funding, on behalf of the Bloomsbury Colleges, to mange a project supporting the JISC CRIG. The JISC Common Repository Interfaces Working Group was established to identify and address the priorities for enhancing inter-working between the emerging base of UK repositories. In brief, this new project is seeking to get consensus throughout UK HE on using common interfaces of Repository/Content Systems. The project is 18 months long and funded at £150K. Ideally, this project will enable Bloomsbury to have the most advanced architecture in the UK for dealing with content.

iii) Podcasting at the RVC
At the November BLE Pedagogy Group, Ana Mialdea and Brian Cox demonstrated how the RVC is now providing audio podcasts of lectures. Students work with the E-Media Unit to record, edit and upload podcasts of their lectures to the streaming server, which are accessible in Blackboard. Students can subscribe to the podcasts, which means every time new material is uploaded it is automatically added to the aggregator tool being used (e.g. iTunes, Google Reader, etc).

iv) Staff News at SOAS
SOAS is delighted to welcome Mike Green as their new Learning and Teaching Services Co-ordinator (E-Learning). Mike has taken primary responsibility for BLE support, as well as for the support of the distance learning platform provided by the University's External Programme.

v) Records from the IOE's online catalogue have been added to Copac
The Copac library catalogue gives free access to the merged online catalogues of major University and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library. The IOE has the "largest collection in Europe of learned books and periodicals on educational studies". The library covers all aspects of education both in the UK and internationally. It also covers education-related topics such as psychology, philosophy, sociology and linguistics.
http://copac.ac.uk/

vi) Bloomsbury e-Learning Showcase: a date for your diary
This year, the Bloomsbury e-Learning Showcase will take place on 14th February at Birkbeck College. Details to follow soon. For more information contact Sarah Sherman s.sherman@bloomsbury.ac.uk

2. Events

16/01/08 Change Management
Islington City Learning Centre, £75+VAT
http://www.rsc-london.ac.uk/1210/

18/01/08 Power of Information review and unlocking UK Government Info
Brettenham House, London, free
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2008/01/powerofinfo.aspx

22/01/08 Using learning resources: transforming the educational experience
Aston Business School Conference Centre, Birmingham
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2008/01/resourcesconf.aspx

23/01/08 Being Strategic about Innovation: Web2.0 and Social Networking
Free webinar
http://www.rsc-london.ac.uk/1209

24/01/08 Assessment for Learning: Harnessing Technologies
Oxford University Computer Centre, free
http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/range/heajisc.html

13/02/08 Mobile learning: Beyond the Gadgets
Webinar, free
http://www.rsc-london.ac.uk/1211/

13-14/02/08 Training the Trainer workshop
LSHTM, £220
Contact Doug Parkin doug.parkin@lshtm.ac.uk

28/02/08 Digital Creativity Event for Learning and Teaching
Brettenham House, London, £50
http://www.rsc-london.ac.uk/1221/

05/03/08 E-assessment: the next technology-based classroom revolution?
Brettenham House, London, £35.25
http://www.rsc-london.ac.uk/1220/

12-14/03/08 UCISA2008 Annual Management Conference
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/events/2008/conference/

18/03/08 RSC Midlands HE Conference
South Birmingham College, £75
http://info.rsc-wm.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=350

07/04/08 What to preserve? Significant Properties of Digital Objects
British Library Conference Centre
http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/events/080407workshop.html

15/04/08 JISC Conference 2008
ICC Birmingham, free
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2008/04/jiscconference08.aspx

5/06/08 Learning and Learning Environments for the Future
Edge Hill University
www.edgehill.ac.uk/solstice/conference2008

18-19/06/08 Blended Learning Conference 2008
University of Hertfordshire
http://perseus.herts.ac.uk/uhinfo/info/blu/blu/events/blended-learning-conference-2008.cfm

01-03/07/08 2008 Higher Education Academy Annual Conference
Harrogate International Centre
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/conference

14/07/08 Fifth Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF5)
University of London
http://www.cde.london.ac.uk/support/events/event2987.htm

15-18/07/08 BbWorld’08
Las Vegas, USA
http://www.blackboard.com/company/events/bbworld08

8-10/10/08 mLearn08
University of Wolverhampton
www.mlearn2008.org

13-15/10/08 Handheld Learning 2008
The Barbican, London
http://www.handheldlearning2008.com/

TASI (JISC’s Technical Advisory Service for Images) has announced a number of workshops from Jan to April: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/

3. Funding Opportunities
Please find below a link to future JISC funding opportunities for the period January - summer 2008. This information has been put together to provide the community with information about future calls for funding, either through JISC Circulars issued to HE/FE institutions or more open invitations to tender published on JISC's website.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/futurecalls

4. Resources

i) Accessibility Law
The Accessibility Law webcast which is available on the JISC Legal website has also been made available with subtitles, on DVD.
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Webcast/accesswebcast.html

ii) Information Management Toolkit
JISC InfoKits are a set of freely available online “how-to” resources. The Information Management infokit which is based upon the principle of an information life cycle and provides a consistent framework for managing all types of internal information.

iii) Draft Guidance on Institutional Use of Web 2.0
The University of Edinburgh has made an early attempt at drafting institutional guidelines which may help others as they navigate the risks and benefits of Web 2.0 use by their learners and staff. http://www.vp.is.ed.ac.uk/Web_2.0_Initiative/Guidelines

iv) JISC e-books project
The JISC national e-books observatory project is making freely available to HE institutions 36 core and recommended reading e-books, to support HE taught course students. Full details at JISC national e-books project.

v) Considering Open Source Software
Ross Gardler, Manager of OSS Watch, says that procuring and developing IT systems which can meet the needs of colleges and universities requires a full consideration of open source software. In this podcast interview, he explains why open source is so important and how most of us use it even without knowing it….download or subscribe to the podcast here

vi) Guardian/Observer archive
This archive will eventually contain the digital reproduction of every page, article and advert published in the Guardian (since 1821) and the Observer (since 1791 - the oldest Sunday paper in the world). For this launch the archive covers the period of 1821-1975 for the Guardian and 1900-1975 for the Observer as we are still working on digitising the remaining material. From early 2008 onwards the entire archive up to 2003 will be available - more than 1.2m pages covering all major historic events over 212 years as reported at the time. http://archive.guardian.co.uk

vii) The 19th Century British Library Newspapers Website
The 19th Century British Library Newspapers Website, managed by Gale, offers 1,000,000 pages of digital content. It is freely available to Further and Higher Education UK institutions. This digital resource provides access to national, regional, and local 19th century British newspapers. It includes 48 titles, totalling approximately 2.2 million pages, which reflect the social and political developments of the time.
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/19thblib

Please send comments and contributions for next month’s BLE-bulletin to Sarah Sherman, BLE Service Manager, s.sherman@bloomsbury.ac.uk, 07515 580 385.

Happy New Year!

It's back to the grind, but an exciting year ahead. These past 3 days I have been based at the Potters Bar (Hawkshead) campus at the RVC, but will be back in Bloomsbury next week:

Monday: RVC @ Camden
Tuesday: SOAS
Wed: IOE
Thurs: LIDC (London International Development Centre)
Fri: RVC @ Camden

I now have a phone number on which I can be reached:
07515 580 385

Current dates for the BLE calendar:
Wed 9th Jan - BLE Pedagogy
Thurs 10th Jan - BLE Steering Group
31st Jan - BLE Technical Group
14th Feb - Bloomsbury Showcase

See you soon