Free Software Options for Work Based Learning

A very big thanks to Derrin Kent of the Development Manager, who recently presented a session on free software at our online conference. Derrin kindly donated much of his time to present information and answer questions on free and open source software, showing how these tools can be used to enhance provision in the work based learning sector. He also shared a number of excellent resources some of which I'll shortly make available on our RSC wiki .

Derrins session presented a wide-ranging “training toolkit” of software applications – all available at zero financial cost. With his many years' educational management experience, Derrin perfectly understood the concerns with using free software and nicely contextualised the area, addressing both managers and trainers concerns. He also offerred a very long list of things that are currently available and can be adopted and used for free.

If you’re interested in discovering ways that your organisation might be able to make use of free software I’d suggest Derrin would be useful to know. His details are available on his website along with just a few reasons why so many of us all think that free software is increasingly becoming the way to go.

More ALP Learner Innovation Grants - Phase 4

ALP has just announced that a further £4 million pounds will now be made available as Phase 4 of the successful Learner Innovation Grants programme of funding. (I've previously mentioned earlier rounds of funding here).

These Learner Innovation Grants provide capital investment for Government funded, independent work-based learning organisations (offering Apprenticeships or Train to Gain learning programmes) to exploit the use of technology in learning and management. The programme has already enabled over 400 organisations to benefit from the grants, enabling the development of a range of innovative projects which vary in complexity and size. In this region, there are already some great examples of these grants being used to enhance the learners experience. For example:

* At Triangle Training LIG funding was used to purchase equipment (laptops, digital cameras and voice recorders) to enable their assessors to use the Paperfree E-Portfolio system with a cohort of Apprentices. Learn more here.

* Juniper Training’s LIG Phase 2 project used multi-media technology to improve E2E referrals, retention and achievement. Learn more here.

* Greenspring Training’s 21st Century project aimed to remove the myth that learning cannot be enjoyed. Fun was provided through music, IT, Interactive Boards allowing their young learners to embrace learning in a way best suited to them through assessments. Learn more here.

Want to know more?

If you are interested to know, ALP are hosting a one day event (in this region, which is great) that will be focusing on this new Phase 4 of the grants. "Provider of the Future - Learning Innovation Grant 4 funding " will be held on 17 June 2008 The ICC, Birmingham.

The event will inform providers on the new criteria and new process of application and raise awareness of other funding and services available for the sector. Use the links below to book. Hope to see you there!

Book Online
Print a booking form
Register your Interest

Things Learners can do with a Mobile Phone

In this short post Steve Dembo lists ten things learners can do with a mobile phone in the classroom. He also asks “let’s stop exerting so much energy trying to ‘bust’ students for carrying the same devices the rest of us carry. Rather, let’s start focusing on how we can use them to improve education in the classroom…” (Too right).

Later this month as part of our online conference Di Dawson will also be exploring ways that mobile phones can be used for learning.

Her Mobile Learning session will take you into the world of mobile learning to explore what mobile learning means and to hear how learners are currently using handheld devices to support their learning and capture evidence for e-portfolios. She will share ideas and tips about m-activities, such as podcasting, using text messaging and e-books.

More details can be found in a previous post or you can sign up online.

(Image courtesy of johnmuk)

Really Simple Syndication Day

Today is RSS Syndication Day. "RSS is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. The main benefit of using RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them."

So if you want to stay up to date but dont want to have check back, find out how you to can use RSS here.

Searching for Images - another way

When searching for images do you have to click through online photo galleries or squint at thumbnails? Here’s what my colleagues and I now use to search for images on the web. PicLens, a free browser add-on which enables rich, full-screen slideshows of images.

It’s proved really popular here in the RSC office as its a great way to search for images on the web without having to go forwards and back from page, to page, to page - sure you get the picture.

PicLens is also free to download, and free to use. So it gets my vote there.

If you haven’t seen it yet try the guided tour here or a demo here. There's also a tutorial showing you how to use it here and an FAQ page for answers to questions about features, compatibility, and more.

(Thanks to John Dalziel for sharing!)

25 Tools for e-learning

Do you want to get to grips with the wide range of technologies and tools available for learning? If so you can now do this in a very practical way by trying out a core set of 25 tools (taken from the current Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008).

In this new free online staff development activity - simply called 25 tools - Jane Hart has grouped a series of simple tasks into activities which aim to help you to understand various e-learning technologies and find out what they are so popular. The suite of tools shows you how to:

· Understand the bare essentials
· Get an online presence and keep up to date
· Build content and share it with others
· Bring people together
· Develop and manage courses

Sounds good. But what I also like is that fact that the tools it covers are all FREE.

What’s more, 25 Tools “… doesn't reinvent the wheel; it makes good use of existing resources in a variety of formats including video and audio….It also encourages a social and collaborative approach to learning and includes a community, where users can share valuable input in terms of their own thoughts and experiences. Engagement comes from working with people not just interacting with content.”

I like the look of this and think its a great way to learn more about some of the e-learning tools you might have heard about or just have a nosey at what's popular and why. To get started have a look at what’s covered in the core toolset or learn more about the resource on the 25 tools site.

RSC E-Learning Conference - over at your place

The Regional Support Centre West Midlands is holding another annual e-learning conference for LSC funded learning providers in the West Midlands - and to take part you don't have to leave your desk!

This free event, will take place over 3 days (20th - 22nd May) and will be run completely online using the popular Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle. To join in the discussions, view presentations or meet and chat with other WBL delegates, you simply login at your own PC and take part at a time and place to suit you, giving you the flexibility to fit attendance around your work commitments.

The event will feature guest speakers discussing the latest developments in e-learning. For Work Based Learning there's also an opportunity to learn about using free software for training and education, and catch up with the latest development in mobile learning. See the workshop descriptions here (pdf format).

During the course of the event, there will be opportunities to win some great prizes, including an Apple iPod Nano and an Asus mini laptop.

To book your place visit our website where youll also find the full program and workshop descriptions too. We hope you will be able to 'attend' and look forward to meeting you online!

The RSC West Midlands Team

National Support of Work Based Learning

There's a lot happening in support of Work Based Learning on a national scale. In this recent podcast interview Carolyn Lewis, the JISC RSC National Work Based E-Learning Co-ordinator talks about the RSCs role in supporting Work Based Learning providers and outlines some of the current national activity. She also introduces examples of innovative practices that have been identified and that can inspire others as well as useful links that might benefit WBL providers.

To listen to the interview, visit the networking pages of the Work Based Learning INNOVATE site and scroll to ‘latest activity’ near the bottom of the screen.

Help with your E-Learning Strategy Development

In a recent West Midlands based survey 58% of Work Based Learning providers said they dont have an e-learning/ILT strategy and 70% of respondants noted this an an area they would like support with.

All types of learning providers are being encouraged to develop strategies that support their e-learning activity and to further support this, RSC West Midlands is offering an e-learning strategy workshop at the Science Park in Wolverhampton in June. This half day session will include:

· A review of sample strategies
· A look at what makes an effective strategy?
· Communicating, reviewing and monitoring the strategy
· Launch of the 'eLearning Strategy Sharehouse' initiative - online downloadable sample strategies available to all participants

For those of you who are interested in developing a stratgey but who perhaps can’t make this event, it’s worth noting there are a number of resources available to support WBL strategy development on Innovate. These resources include some useful links on ILT Strategy as well as access to the WBL e-Learning Positioning Statement (WBe-LPS) a tool which helps organisations to identify their current position in relation to e-learning.

Emerging Technologies for Learning

A recent report from BECTA, Emerging Technologies for Learning “…aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education … It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.”

It has various articles which will be of interest to learning providers but a couple which caught my attention include:

Growing up with Google: what it means to education This explores the ‘net generation’ …whose behaviours, preferences and expectations may be very different from those of their teachers (trainers). It examines the characteristics of these learners … and the skills that an education system needs to provide for the 21st century.

Mobile, wireless, connected: information clouds and learning In this, Mark van’t Hooft looks at the implications of using mobile devices, pervasive wireless connectivity, and internet applications and services. .. describing some examples of how these technologies are being used to transform learning and discusses the barriers and issues to their effective use.