Discovering and Sharing Freely Available Educational Resources

At the RSC we are increasingly being asked where training providers can obtain good quality electronic resources they can use for their delivery. Many also stipulate that resources must be no cost or low cost, not surprising in today’s economic climate.

Partly in response to this, and in conjunction with staff from RSC East Midlands, our Learning Resources Advisor will be facilitating a training day which focuses entirely on discovering and sharing freely available resources.

Delegates will be introduced to a range of useful tools for sharing, including Delicious and Slideshare as well as a review of the new functionality of the UK's Jorum repository. There are also sessions on Creative Commons licensing and Open Educational Resources and where to find them.

The full days training costs just £55 and bookings are limited to two per provider in the first instance.

To book your place or for more information see the event page on the RSC website.

Other Support...

For other general information on Learning Resources, our Learning Resources Adviser (Matt Gallon) is available to help with your queries on a one to one basis. Contact him if you'd like support in any of these areas:

· guidance on finding and using free and subscription e-resources
· advice on copyright and intellectual property matters
· help with designing and planning learning spaces
· guidance on the range of JISC services and help with accessing them.

Matt also maintains a useful blog which is worth subscribing to, or keeping an eye on for updates.

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Related wobble links:

Copyright Free Images for Resources
Intute - web resources for education
NLN learning resources, whats on the horizon?

To read more of Wobble click here.

Date for your Diary to get Online

Just six weeks to go for Get Online Week...!

Get online week is an annual campaign from UK online centres. Its runs from the 18th to 24th October 2010, the campaign aims to get tens of thousands of people that have never used computers and the internet before online.

This year UK online centres is teaming up with a range of external partners who will be generating huge amounts of publicity for Get online week. They include the BBC, BT, Three, Post Office and MLA amongst many others. Partners will be holding their own events or directing people to one of the 3,500 UK online centres which are situated around England.

To register your own event for Get online week 2010, simply complete the registration form on the website. As a learning provider you could be helping one of the 10 million+ people in the UK who still don’t use computers and the internet. Get online week is the biggest digital inclusion event to date and being a part of it is a great way to help more people in your community to get online and get to know you too.



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Examples of how to use….

…SMS text messaging to capture learner voice:

Using a variety of methods, including text messaging, Northampton College successfully engaged with its learners to build a better relationship with them so that their views are heard and built into their learning experience. This recent case study looks at how a variety of technologies contributed to this:

Northampton College: Learner voice and technology


… hand held games consoles to improve health and wellbeing

ETEC Development Trust purchased various computer games consoles for learners at its drop-in centre in Sunderland. ETEC hopes the games will help to improve their learners' literacy and numeracy skills as well as their general health and wellbeing. One learner has already improved his vocabulary skills through the use of a Nintendo DS.
ETEC Development Trust: Game-based learning brings skills to life

…a virtual world for creating alternative learning environments

e-Learning staff at Barnfield College have created a revolutionary learning environment in Second Life. Barnfield College has been involved in a collaborative project with Museums Luton to create a virtual museum. This has helped drive a culture of innovative and engaging learning in the College and has helped to raise the profile of local museums in Luton.
Barnfield College: Informal learning through collaborative Second Life project

...screen-capture to create animated how to guides
North West Kent College is not alone in trying to solve the various challenges associated with IT-based staff development. Using Adobe Captivate to quickly and efficiently create a series of animated ‘How To' guides, this College has found a highly effective way of providing anytime, anywhere and on-demand IT support for both staff and students alike.
North West Kent College: ‘How to' raise IT skills



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Getting WebWise and Staying Safe Online

BBC Learning has just announced the re-launch of WebWise, the BBC's free online guide to the internet for beginners. As well as two new courses - Internet Basics and Computer Basics - the new WebWise also has over 130 new articles from leading technology writers.

This relaunched version also has a really comprehensive section on Safety and Privacy which offers lots of hints and tips on how you and your learners can stay safe online. For learning providers thats certainly worth linking to or making learners aware of as part of the Safeguarding agenda.

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Related Wobble links:

Free Online Tutorials for Using Video and Audio
OpenOffice Online Tutorials


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Flexibility and Innovation Fund, Fourth funding round: October 2010

Last week LSIS announced the opening of its fourth round of funding for Flexibility and Innovation Fund projects. This current round of funding closes on Friday 29 October 2010.

This time, bids for up to a maximum of £50,000 are invited from consortia of provider organisations for projects which have the potential to significantly enhance the practice and performance of the learning and skills sector. Bids from individual provider organisations cannot be accepted in this funding round.

For this funding round LSIS will particularly welcome consortia bids that address specific issues and problems in defined locations - based on the principles of Total Place. (Total Place is a government initiative that looks at how a ‘whole area’ approach to public services can lead to better services at less cost. It seeks to identify and avoid overlap and duplication between organisations – delivering a step change in both service improvement and efficiency at the local level.)

The following supporting documents for this funding round are available on the website:

· Guidance for submitting applications for the fourth round of funding
· The application form for the submission of bids
· Further information on the marking scheme for assessing bids
· Guidance on the qualities of successful bids in the first three rounds of funding

Further information about this fund is also available on the Excellence Gateway. This includes ‘Frequently Asked Questions’, ‘Qualities of Successful Bids’, further information about the judges’ marking scheme, and summary information about successful bids from the first three funding rounds.

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Related Wobble links:

Bid Writing Resources - resources which may help with the bid writing process.
Supporting resources page from a previous bid writing workshop.


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