Welcome to technologyenhancedlearning.net, the home of learning technology development at Plymouth University. You'll find details of all our Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) projects, developments and support activities on this site.


The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Showcase Day, to be held on 6th July, is less than a month away!

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Janice Gibbs Leave a comment

This is the last chance to register interest in presenting at this event!
If you have used technology to enhance teaching and would like to share your experiences with others at this event please email a paragraph about the work you have been doing to tel@plymouth.ac.uk by next Wednesday 15th June, so we can include it in the programme!

Whether skeptic about use of technology in education, novice or expert, we hope everyone will come, be involved and be inspired by the innovative practice in the area of TEL taking place across the institution.

This day will provide:

  • Practitioner Experiences
  • Practical Workshops
  • Student Views and Expectations
  • Details of Latest Developments and Available Tools
  • Networking Opportunities

Registration is required and free to staff. To register or for more information please visit http://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/telshowcase/

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University of Plymouth OER update

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Neil Witt Leave a comment

If you want an update on the University’s Open Educational Resources projects the project teams have just produced  a newsletter detailing activity and progress.

Download the University of Plymouth’s OER Newsletter

Posted in JISC, Open Educational Resources, Publications | Tagged ,

TEL Showcase Day 2011 – Register Now!

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Mark Lyndon Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce the next Annual Technology Enhanced Learning Showcase Day will be taking place on the 6th July 2011. This is a day for you to discover good and innovative practice in the area of TEL which is taking place across the institution! Come and learn what your peers are doing, what they would have done differently and what they hope to do in the future and hear the student voice describing what they want as part of their Plymouth learning experience! Please visit the TEL Showcase Website for more information or to register for the event!

If you have used technology to enhance your teaching we would love to hear about it so please email us! Whether you are happy to be a presenter at the TEL Showcase Day or be featured in our showcase website, we need to hear about the work you are doing so that we can all benefit from a community of practice and promote the University’s excellence in this field!

Please also email us your ideas for what the Showcase Day should include and what you would like to take away from the day.

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JISC RSC South West Project Expo Event 2011

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Neil Witt Leave a comment

A number of University of Plymouth projects (the 3 OER projects, Pineapple and Building Capacity) will be presenting at this event.

JISC RSC South West Project Expo Event 2011
Taunton Rugby Club, 6th April 2011

-PROGRAMME NOW AVAILABLE-

JISC is at the heart of UK Further and Higher education, driving the innovative use of technology to support the sector’s activity and its competitiveness globally. The sustained, managed and strategic nature of our activities means the resulting impacts far outweigh the initial investment. All our successes and achievements are realised as a direct result of our ability to drive innovation within the sector through research and development. Put simply, UK academia would not enjoy its worldwide recognition for excellence without JISC.

Within the South West, JISC have funded a plethora of Innovative projects in a multiplicity of diverse areas, ranging from Business and Community Engagement to Improving the sustainability and environmental credentials of Institutional Information Communication Technology. The expertise gleaned from these experiences is invaluable; Such insights often prevent other Institutions making expensive and demoralising mistakes when they undertake similar ventures, and also serve to inspire other prospective innovations.

The JISC Regional Support Centre South West will therefore be presenting a major “expo” event on the 6thApril, where project teams from around the region will disseminate on their outputs and experiences.  Additionally, valuable networking opportunities will be incorporated, allowing delegates to mix with project and JISC staff. There will be 3 strands of activity running concurrently on the day:

  • Teaching and Learning/Research
  • Open Educational Resources
  • Partnerships

The programme for the event, along with short abstracts, is now available .  There are a few blanks, but  wanted to get this out ASAP so you could see the range and diversity of projects being expounded upon.  The event will take place at Taunton Rugby Club on the 6th April.  Online booking is available now; You will just need to make a general booking at this juncture, and be asked to select session choices in due course.  In the meantime, if you have any queries about the event, please contact Daniel McCaffrey, eLearning Adviser-Higher Education at JISC Regional Support Centre South West:danmccafrey@rsc-south-west.ac.uk

Attendance at the event is £50 all day.
You can book online now at: http://www.rsc-south-west.ac.uk/index.php?p=14

Please come along and allow your Institution to benefit from the JISC funded experiences of others.

Posted in Events, JISC, Open Educational Resources, Projects | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Facing the consequences… a social networking horror story – the movie!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Flea Palmer 3 Comments

Here is the final video as described in a previous post, which we hope will remind students how, in the real world, they have many different types of relationships with people and to be aware that this is also the case online. How you present your digital self is crucial, as is being careful about what information you are giving away about yourself. Have a look at Facebook’s own ‘Guides to Facebook Privacy Settings’ to make sure you’re happy with the information you’re sharing online.

We would like to thank all the staff from the Faculty of Health, the Teaching and Learning Directorate and Human Resources who volunteered to be in this production – you were great sports!

The movie was created in iMovie and Adobe After Effects. For those who are interested, the ‘cartoon’ effect was created using ‘cartoonr‘ – a fantastic free plug-in you can download from newbluefx.com

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ATbar – The Accessibility Preferences Toolbar

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Mark Lyndon 2 Comments

Regular visitors to technologyenhancedlearning.net may have seen and used the JISC TechDis Accessibility Toolbar which has been rebranded as the ATbar. We have just updated the button which is still located in the top right hand corner of the website.

The ATbar

The ATbar in action

The ATbar has become part of the Fix The Web campaign, where people can now report sites to volunteers using the toolbar.

The ATBar was developed by researchers from the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. For more information please see the ATbar homepage and ATbar Functions where you can discover what each button can do to meet your accessibility needs.

Posted in Accessibility, JISC, Tools | Tagged ,

JISC Learning and Teaching Innovation Grants 2011

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Neil Witt Leave a comment

JISC logo

JISC has announced its latest call for funding proposals for projects to undertake work under the sixth round of its Learning and Teaching Innovation Grants Programme.

JISC wishes to fund one year projects and activities (up to £50,000) that fit with the vision, outcomes and principles of the JISC e-Learning programme and support innovative approaches to learning and teaching. This is an open call, and projects dealing with any aspect of e-learning are welcomed. To reduce the initial investment in time and resource needed to develop a traditional JISC proposal and to encourage speculative and innovative ideas from the community bidders are invited to submit outline proposals.

For the purposes of this call, innovative proposals are considered to be ones which fulfil the following:

  • are unique or pioneering – something that has not been done previously
  • could be considered to be a “high-risk” intervention
  • use innovative technologies or practice to directly benefit learning or the learning process for learners.

For further details see http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/01/grant0408.aspx

Details of previously funded LTIG bids can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/ltig.aspx, this also includes a review of previous bids by Neil Witt (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/review_of_ltig_v3.doc)

If staff from the University of Plymouth would like to discuss a possible bid to JISC under the Learning and Teaching Innovation Grants Programme please contact Neil Witt

Posted in JISC | Tagged , ,

Open Educational Resources

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Neil Witt Leave a comment

The University of Plymouth currently has three Open Educational Resources (OER) projects funded by JISC and the Higher Education Academy.

These projects are funded from Phase 2 of the HEFCE-funded Open Educational Resources (OER) programme, managed jointly by the Higher Education Academy and JISC. The programme runs between August 2010 and August 2011, it will build on and expand the work of the pilot phase around the release of OER material, and commence research and technical work examining the discovery and use of OER – specifically by academics.

The OER projects currently running at the University of Plymouth are:

These projects build on the experiences ganined from the previous C-change in GEES Project, funded under the Open educational resources programme – phase 1

Posted in JISC, Open Educational Resources | Tagged , , , , ,

Facing the consequences… a social networking horror story!

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Flea Palmer 2 Comments

OK – just missed Halloween (doh!) but here’s a cautionary tale about the possible perils of using social networking sites…

I was asked by Lee Wright, a Lecturer in Midwifery, to create a resource to advise Health & Midwifery students about using social networking sites. Working with him and Stephen Hodge, the Faculty of Health’s Learning Technologist, we decided to produce a video telling the story of a nursing student, Tracy, who is careless using Facebook and therefore has to ‘face the consequences’.
The storyboard (above) was created using the excellent toonlet, a free ‘web comic blogging’ tool, although I confess I cheated and also modified some of the panels using Photoshop. The next step is to produce the video and we are currently looking for actors. So, if you would like to get involved UoP peops, please let me know ASAP!
Posted in Projects, Tools | Tagged , , , ,

New Facebook Groups

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Flea Palmer Leave a comment

Facebook recently modified its ‘Groups’ feature. Here’s what they have to say about it…

There is some good stuff here, more fully described in this post by allfacebook.com… everyone can post links, photos, videos and events. You can also upload and collaborate on a document. Another new feature is the ability to have live group chats. All of these could be great for student groups. BUT…

  • group members can add their own friends so, even a closed group can quickly have hundreds of members, which means you will receive lots of emails unless you turn this off via ‘Edit Settings’ on the Group page. This also raises privacy issues as consequently you are sharing posts with complete strangers!
  • you can be added to a group by a friend and will automatically be associated with it until you go to that group and remove yourself
  • there is nowhere to add a description of the group, or to publicise events – you are only given the option to add posts, which, of course, get hidden as people post to the wall
  • the discussion board has been removed

At the moment, Facebook are continuing to support old groups but, if you want to set up a new ‘old style’ group I’m afraid you’ll have to find someone who is willing to donate an unused one.

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