Teachers TV Videos now Back Online

"The entire catalogue of 3500 Teachers TV videos was taken off-line recently when Teachers TV came to an end. However, the people who worked there have formed a new company called Teachers Media and they now have all of the videos back online.

Many practitioners will be glad to see that these valuable resources are now back! On Techers Media you are now able to:

1. Stream all the 3500 Teachers TV videos at the highest quality


2. Easily search and navigate the Teachers TV archive


3. Access and download documents and other resources linked to the videos


4. Use the popular Behaviour Challenge interactive training tools

Visit them at Teachers Media at http://www.teachersmedia.co.uk/"

(From John Dalziel at What DL is Happening?)





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Moodle Users Forum

At the end of this month the RSC West Midlands will host another free Moodle forum, intended for learning providers in the West Midlands who deliver funded education and skills programmes in the post 16 education and skills sector.

This forum is a good opportunity for all Moodle users to come together and

· hear about new developments with Moodle and Moodle partner support activity
· share practice through show and tell sessions

This one holds particular interest to the work based learning sector as it will include a demonstration of Totora; a version of Moodle best suited to staff development and competency-based training and assessment delivery such as apprenticeships. Learn more about Totara in this short brochure (pdf).

The forum will also look at PAL Packs (Personally Accountable learning Packs).

The forum will take place at 09:30 - 13:00 on 27 Jun 2011, and will be held at Worcester College of Technology, Worcester, Worcestershire. More details and online booking is available through our website.

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Related wobble links:

Moodle Use in Work Based Learning
Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers



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Online Training: Podcasting - A Practical Guide

Do you want to create an effective podcast that people will want to listen to and share? 'Podcasting - A Practical Guide' is a new online workshop, delivered by Newskills, which delivers practical training, information and advice to help you plan, produce, publish and promote your own podcasts.

The workshop is delivered entirely online. It begins with a session on Monday 20th June, 11.30am-12.30pm, which provides a short introduction to some of the key themes of the workshop, an overview of the web-based training system (Elluminate) and advice in how to prepare for the main training session.

Then join a full day of online training on Wednesday 29th June, 10:00am-4:00pm.

Be one of the first 6 people to book http://bit.ly/fOrRKV and receive a free USB headset (only 6 available).

Regional Examples of Podcasting in Use

Below are a couple of examples of where podcasting has been used to support education in this region:

At North East Worcestershire College, various tutors across different subject areas have incorporated podcasting as a flexible approach to teaching and learning. Available through the College's virtual learning environment, the podcasts have provided a more engaging way of communicating, as well as an effective method for revision and an opportunity to catch up on missed lessons.

At New College, Worcester they have embraced the use of audio technology to support visually impaired learners. The Head of Science at the college has created a series of MP3s for their students to re-enforce learning and help with revision.

Podcasting in Plain English

If you are new to podcasting, or wondering how podcasting can help you, the following video from Commoncraft nicely explains Podcasting in Plain English.

Commoncraft podcasting in plain english from Rob Sbaglia on Vimeo.

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Discover-e, Our Free Annual Online Event

Our free online annual conference is fast approaching, hope you've saved the date!

It's just a couple of weeks now until Discover-e 2011, RSC West Midlands annual online event which this year takes place on 17th and 18th May. This year we will be offering a series of free online webinars and presentations around the theme of Supporting Learning Providers Priorities.
We will be using our Moodle Virtual Learning Environment to show providers right across the post-16 learning skill sector how learning providers have progressed and applied technology to support their own teaching and learning. Guest speakers will provide live online presentations to explain how their organisation has used technology to support their changing priorities. Using this format of virtual meetings, not only will you not have to leave your own desk you will also still have an opportunity to discuss and post questions to guest speakers as well as interact with other delegates.

If you haven't already booked your free place through our website we hope you will do so soon. As you will see from the agenda there is lots for everyone, plus competitions, some fab technology to be won and more.

We look forward to seeing you online...!

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Online Event - Using Open Source in Education

An online presentation on the benefits of using open-source software in education, within both student-facing and back office systems.

Open-source software is “free” in the sense that one does not pay a license fee to use it, and is often a cost-effective option for providing certain IT services. Although, the open-source virtual learning environment - Moodle - is widely used in this region, decision-makers may not be aware of the wide range of open-source software products available.

In this free online session, Mark Taylor of Sirius IT will talk about areas where open-source software can be used, and discuss the factors that may influence the decision of whether to use open-source or proprietary licensed software.

Find out more or book your place on our website.

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Related wobble links:

Open Source Software – JISC keeps us informed

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How to Teach With Technology

In some of his recent blog posts Nik Peachy has done a great job of showing us how to teach ourselves to teach with technology. He has used blog posts to publish a series of tasks that would prove really useful in supporting teacher training, or be of interest to anyone who wants to know how to use some of today’s popular e-learning tools.

He has devised a set of eight activities which are accessible from his blog, or available to download in pdf format to use offline. These activities are structured so that you can pick and choose which you would like to look at and just focus on those.

Here is what he’s covered so far:

1. Creating a learning journal – this task shows you how to create an online journal using Penzu.
2. Create online storage for your teaching images - In this task you create a Flickr photo sharing channel.
3. Create an online speaking activity - In this task you'll learn how to create an online speaking activity using VoiceThread.
4. Create a blog with a video activity for your learners – Here you can create a simple blog and use it to make a video based activity for your learners. Once you have created the blog can use it for other tasks in the series.
5. Create digital books with illustrations – Here you can create a digital image book which you can also embed in the blog you created in the previous task if yoiu so choose.

Nik has since added to these popular five activities and has now also shown us to:

6. Creating a video review activity - In this task you’ll learn how to create a film trailer review activity using film trailers from YouTube and an online notice board called Wallwisher.
7. Creating screenshots using Jing - Jing is a really useful free tool that allows you to create and annotate images grabbed from the screen of your computer. This can be really useful for creating instruction sheets like the ones used in this series and helps you to grab images to add into websites or other documents.
8. Create your own YouTube channel - Video has become one of the most useful resources on the Internet for language teachers.

These are great resources and a good way to get started with one or two tools to enhance your teaching practice. I look forward to seeing the series develop!


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ePortfolios Conference

For those training providers who are currently using e-portfolios or are interested in finding out more about how they are currently used in education, there’s an ePortfolio Conference taking place this month (28th February) in the South West at Taunton School. This event costs just £40 to attend.

The South West Regional Support Centre is offering this cross-sector event which aims to:

* Raise awareness of the range of eportfolios available
* Showcase innovative use and good practice in the application of eportfolios
* Share new ideas and solutions in addition to established successful practice

The event will focus on how organisations have successfully employed these technologies to improve and enhance the learning experience for their students (and the teaching experience for staff).

The programme includes speakers from the University sector, from Further Education Colleges, and from the Adult and Community Learning and Work Based Learning environments.

JISC Consultant experts will also be presenting, giving insight into the national picture and potential future strategies to encourage usage of e-portfolios.

Bookings can be made online at the cost of only £40 per person or for more information contact Lyn Bender.


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Related wobble links:

E-Portfolios for Starters
E-Assessment Online Toolkit
Use Of E-Portfolios In Assessment


To read more of Wobble click here.

Safeguarding: Guidance for Learning Providers

This four-page leaflet addresses the main considerations regarding e-safety guidance for learning providers. This content will support your duty of care for the safe use of technology and contains a checklist for developing effective strategies and policies.

It’s one of a series of four publications currently focusing on the area of ‘Safeguarding in a Digital World’. Other publications in the series (all free to download) include:

• Safeguarding in a digital world: Guidance for technical staff


• Safeguarding in a digital world: Guidance for curriculum managers, teachers and training staff


• Safeguarding in a digital world: Guidance for learners

This series of factsheets is available on the Becta website along with a number of other useful publications for learning providers. However, the website will be closing on 31 January 2011 so to get your own pdf copies to save locally you will need to download them very soon!

See other Becta publications on the publications area of their website.

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Related Wobble links:

Safeguarding Learners – Tips for E-Safety
Getting WebWise and Staying Safe Online
New eSafety JISC Mail List

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Regional Workshop - Instructional Design for e-Learning

In March, Netskills are running a new e-learning workshop in Birmingham, "Instructional Design for e-Learning". This brand new workshop aims to bring together techniques and technologies to help you create high-impact learning resources, focussing specifically on your learner and their experience.

The workshop is aimed at anyone with an interest in the design, development and delivery of online learning materials, particularly teachers, lecturers and trainers wishing to investigate the production of online learning, or review the effectiveness of their existing online learning materials.

To book or find out more information visit the Netskills website here.

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Making Savings through Greener Computing

As part our remit we can help regional learning providers with issues related to Greener Computing. This includes offering advice on infrastructure, IT and business support services with the aim of helping you to make cost savings on your bills whilst being environmentally friendly in the process. For work based learning in particular there are so many ‘quick wins’ that can greatly increase your efficiency when using IT and offer significant costs savings too!

Our E-Learning Adviser responsible for this area would like to contact staff within regional providers who have the responsibility for your IT with a view to sending them an online survey and also to encourage them to engage with a community of practice. Through these communities of practice learning providers in the region can come together (either physically or virtually) to share experiences, hear news about the latest legislation, learn about new ways to be greener with ICT and find solutions to problems.

If you would like to learn how your organisation can become involved, or learn more about making savings through Greener Computing, please contact Jane Edwards at p.Jane.Edwards@rsc-wm.ac.uk

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Related Wobble links:

Greener Computing



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