innovation
Over 18 million students and staff to benefit from faster and more secure cloud-computing in the UK
More than 18 million students, staff and researchers at institutions across the UK could start to benefit from a faster and more secure connection when using their institution’s cloud-based IT services, thanks to a new peering arrangement signed on 21 May 2013 between Microsoft and Janet, the UK’s research and education network..
Connecting the networks privately eliminates the need to traverse data over the public internet. This enables a high bandwidth connection for students and staff to use Windows Azure. Bandwidth is managed, ensuring high-speed delivery with no delay or latency.
The move to peer the Microsoft Windows Azure data centre to the Janet network comes as part of a new strategic alliance between the two organisations.
“Cloud computing has the potential to revolutionise research by offering vast compute resources on-demand. At Newcastle University, we already have over £20M of research projects that are supported by the cloud. However, one of the major barriers holding back further cloud adoption is the time it takes to transfer large datasets from the lab to the cloud for analysis. This new link between Janet and the Azure Cloud removes this barrier, and will allow a far greater range of research projects to fully exploit the benefits of cloud computing,” said Paul Watson, Professor of Computing Science at Newcastle University.
The alliance agreement also means any UK education institution can benefit from standard terms and conditions on Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity software suite Office 365, negotiated by Janet.
Schoolfy - a classroom management system for educators
The Schoolfy classroom management system builds upon social-networking technology to facilitate teacher planning, support online grading and enhance educators' time management.
The Schoolfy platform has been in development for more than two years and caters to the diverse needs of educators of all kinds, from school teachers to university instructors and corporate trainers.
This new social network’s technology is integrated with a wide range of tools that save time and reduce paperwork. Tasks such as assigning students to small groups and collecting dues for field trips become streamlined and digitized. Educators can also make their worksheets interactive; students can complete worksheets online and receive feedback in digital form.
The technology will be made available to the public during the summer of 2013. Educators are now invited to register for Schoolfy during the pre-launch.
Pebblegogy
Bridging the gap between technology and learning, “Pebblegogy” is a book aiming to help tutors and learning designers who use the PebblePad online platform to create meaningful activities that will support their curricula.
“Pebblegogy” is addressed to those new to PebblePad who want practical guidance in making best use of this personal learning space. For those who are already experts, the book offers a rich source of inspiration for designing engaging and motivating learning experiences with PebblePad.
PebblePad has now been used for over eight years by over 100 organisations, and the second half of the book presents a rich collection of learning designs resulting from the contributions and collaborations of more than 40 practitioners from the UK and Australia.
A companion website provides a wealth of further information such as activities and presentations. Each of the activities described is accompanied by guidelines usage covering, for example, tutor complexity, student’s ability to use PebblePad, and recommended number of students participating.
Analysing Professional Discourse in Interactive Learning: Integrating Historical and Situational Perspectives
Written environments in online learning enable professional discourse to be analysed in depth and provide greater knowledge for improving learning and for planning and delivering courses aimed at professional development.
Until now, research into professional discourse has highlighted the importance of a) interaction in the development of professional discourse, b) the need to analyse professional discourse as much from a historical point of view as from a situational one and c) the influence the demands of the context have on this discourse.
Published by the “Journal of Interactive Learning Research” in 2010, this paper takes this triple result and delves further into the professional discourse verbalised by 21 educational psychologists taking an online practice development course, and incorporates an integrated historical and situational analysis.
Available for download from UOC's Institutional Repository.
“There is much more into the MOOCs than what we see”
Pierre Dillenbourg, Professor of Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), is co-author of the article MOOCs are More Social than You Believe, included in issue number 33 of eLearning Papers.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are indeed changing the educational landscape, says Mr Dillenbourg in a podcast interview with eLearningEuropa.info, but “in terms or technology and the kind of pedagogy involved, there is not a major revolution compared to what was done before.” The major changes, he points out, are on the social dimension.
“My goal is to show there is much more into the MOOCs than what we see”, he says. For instance, it is already being acknowledged by university teachers that on-campus students who follow MOOCs are better prepared when they take their exercises, “because they have time to digest” the information. This single fact, he says, justifies all the energy put into the design of these courses, as “being better prepared for an exercise is a key factor” for educators.
Professor Dillenbourg also stresses that “you need to be quite self motivated to follow a MOOC”, as these are usually tough and contents are highly demanding. This is for example something valuable that potential employers might want to know, and students should start adding MOOCs in their CVs because “they are an indicator of motivation.”
Researchers on learning technologies should analyse in-depth “the innovative practices that come around what seems a traditional medium”, he recommends.
Media & Learning 2013
Media & Learning 2013 is targeted at practitioners and policy makers interested in exploring and discussing media supported learning at all levels of education and training.
Media & Learning 2013 is for all those interested in the latest developments, services and uses of media in education and training. Aimed at both policy makers and practitioners, the purpose of this annual event is to identify policies and initiatives that promote digital and media competence at all levels of education and training as well as to promote best-practice in the take-up and application of media in education and training.
Net Texts: an app for the classroom
Net Texts is a free app which organises and delivers the wealth of Open Educational Resources available on the Internet.
Net Texts helps schools replace or supplement printed textbooks with customized multimedia courses delivered to students' iPads, Android tablets and laptops.
- Teachers use the app’s Content Management Website to select existing courses or to create new courses by mixing and matching items from the library with their own educational material.
- Students use the Next Texts iPad or Android or web app to download and view these courses, filled with videos, slideshows, e-books, PDFs, text, audiobooks and links.
ICERI2013 - Call for papers
ICERI2013, the 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, will be held in Seville (Spain) from 18 to 20 November 2013.
A platform to discuss the latest developments in the fields of teaching and learning methodologies, educational projects and new technologies applied to Education and Research, ICERI2013 is inviting authors to submit research papers based on a wide array of topics, which they may present in person during the event or virtually. The submission deadline is July 11th.
Two ISBN publications will be produced with all the accepted abstracts and papers, and all accepted contributions will be included in the IATED Digital Library to form part of its database of innovative projects in Education and Technology.
ICERI2013 Publications will be included in Google Scholar and sent to be reviewed for their inclusion in the ISI Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
More than 700 delegates from 75 different countries are expected to attend ICERI2013 in Seville.