Month: December 2011

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Podcast: I have no idea where this podcast is heading…

After listening to one of his podcasts at the weekend I contacted Craig Taylor to see if I could be on it. He kindly accepted and thus ensued a series of tangents around e-learning, how us FE/HE types and corporate folks converge (measuring success and ROI).

I super briefly met Craig earlier this year at the Plymouth e-learning Conference and via twitter/podcast felt like I knew him enough to cheekily ask to chew his ear off!

I suggest you subscribe to his podcast and stalk him on twitter.

Listen to our podcast

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Project: The Right Year for Children site

Screengrab, ry4c webiste

Today I launched a new website The Right Year for Children, which is part of a year-long campaign to highlight children’s rights in England.

I was approached by the committee as I have previously worked with one of their members. The campaign involves a coalition of children’s charities (Save the Children, UNICEF, CRAE, Action for Children and many more) but they had no funding….so I agreed to the work for two reasons: firstly, donating my time and skills for a good cause is something I try to do at least once a year and secondly, at my day job we get 1 day per year to volunteer for a charitable cause.

So the challenge was to plan, design and build a site in one day which is the kind of mountain I enjoy climbing. Including talking with the campaign team, building the html/css and fighting with WordPress, I think the whole project came together nicely in the 1 day I was afforded. It is worth noting that the budget and time constraints meant that while a bunch of stuff wasn’t possible in the time we had, these restrictions also greatly helped speed the project up as it decided some aspects for us.

I have given myself the task earlier in the year to get to grips with WordPress  and this project has helped me identity some sticking points with the CMS platform that I can tackle in the new year.

So I hope the site is well received and if I can find the time will try and make it responsive to mobile devices….

The Right Year for Children

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Speaking: Mobile learning at Bath Spa

In my talk today at Bath Spa I set out to touch on key aspects of mobile learning, what is mobile learning and why we might be taking the time to care. Below are my supporting notes:

What is mobile learning

  • If you read nothing else, the JISC Mobile Learning infokit is a great body of work to get you started
  • It isn’t just about wheeling out devices, it is about seeking ways to enhance our teaching and learning by taking advantage of the opportunity and constraints
  • Mobility of people with devices opens new doors
  • Context is king
  • There are 100s of devices (demo’ed 3 tablets) and there can be social pressure on students to get the devices everybody else has
  • Mobile learning is leading to transformation in the classroom AND institutions are having to address this. Many institutions are are starting to address this with steering groups, research and initiatives such as “mobile clinics“.

Why Mobile learning?

Further signposts