An excellent way to spend your coffee time ... JISC Inform 35

JISC, who support the technology enhanced learning in UK HE, have released their Inform newsletter. This is a really good heads up of what is happening across their services and how these are being used in UK HE.

The online resource is available from

• http://e.jisc.ac.uk/QHI-13HQO-7862X8SK2A/cr.aspx

The issue is divided into reading time. This edition contains the following:

If you have 5 minutes – browse our top tips and case studies

• Top seven predictions for the future of research


• Top five e-book readers


• Blogs to follow on higher education


• Top ten tips on how to make your open access research visible online


• Interactive map of London in the Blitz


• Virtual lab of the future


• Catch up with Jisc events in your area or virtually

If you have 20 minutes – advice and guidance

• Too busy to tweet? How you can automate your computer to network while you work


• What’s real anymore? Augmented reality, give it a try


• Making use of your analytics for student retention


• Q&A on improving digital literacy


• Transatlantic views on the future of scholarly discourse


• World wide web of students: tech to support your international student offer


• Stairway to the cloud – supporting you wherever you are on the ‘journey’

If you have 30 minutes – longer features

• Bring your own device


• Is your research information management ready for 2013?


• Paralympic legacy – learners benefit from accessible technologies


• Data driven infrastructure – make your IT systems easier to maintain, adapt and extend


• Janet6: what does the future hold


• A bright future for independent Jisc in 2013

Good morning ... Swansea University: Desktop conferencing at UCS

Did you know you we have desktop conference software so you can present virtually to groups or invite others into your teaching session?

I think there offer significant learning opportunities from bringing external voices into the classroom. Imagine the benefits to your students of inviting an external expert into your teaching session to answer questions or share their experiences and ideas. This can be effectively achieved through the use of desktop conferencing tools, and you are supported through the process by the Elevate Team.



An recent example is Prof David Gill (School of Arts & Humanities) used the GoTo Meeting software in W407 to lecture to a 2nd year undergraduate course at the Swansea University. His presentation was based around a slide show and he was presenting to a lecture room at the University. A key challenge with this delivery was how to encourage student participation? The GoTo Meeting software allows microphones, so a person could act as the facilitator. However, this acts a potential barrier. We overcame this through including a text wall. Where any participant can submit a question to the presenter via a sms txt message, twitter or an online form. In our case David Gill simply read the questions as they appeared (see image).

If you'd like to talk through how you might use GoTo Meeting and Poll Everywhere to enhance your teaching, please email the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk)