Blogging Again - getting going for the new academic year

Out and about with our Roadshow this week reminded me how hectic it is in the FE colleges over the next couple of weeks with student induction underway. Wouldn't it be great if prior to starting new learners could login into the systems and prepare themselves for a new phase in their lifelong learning journey, hitting the ground running so that the excitement and motivation I could see in all the faces this week can be exploited.

I think most people would concede that, particularly young people (so called  Digital Natives), are well able to work their way around a system that has user friendly help. One of the attractions of coming into an FE institution is the perception that they will be treated like adults and technology, in particular some of the social software applications, I think can help in that respect. The ability to customise the interface, the opportunity to choose how other applications are integrated all add to the development of learner autonomy. Induction is a good place to start and I'd be interested to find out the views of my colleagues out in colleges.

Of course there is a need to follow through on this promise and ensure that the learning experiences meet the expectations set at induction time. I guess it all comes back round to taking a strategic approach to course development and delivery but in practice that's a tall order of course any strategy is dependent on a many variables. The team here at the RSC have been working out how to support colleagues in the learning providers we support to do this. Our Collaborative Course Design initiative aims to provide this, with the team working intensively with a whole course team over a couple of days and providing a mentoring role beyond that if appropriate. We'll be piloting this before Christmas and the focus will be on collaborative development of collaborative learning that exploits ICT to the full. Get in touch if you'd like to know more or feel free to comment here - ideas are always valuable and welcome.

Introducing JISC and the Regional Support Centre

I realise that this is probably a bit late in the day, but this week the team here have been out and about in the West of Scotland with our Roadshow. An element of the Roadshow is delivering half hour briefing seminars the first of which gives an overview of JISC and what we do at a regional level here at the RSC. I’ve done a couple of these this week and also hosted a meeting with a couple of visitors to one of our supported colleges, from Gdansk University of Technology. Responses, to a man, from people I’d assumed knew what we do, was interesting and it became evident that it’s probably time to re-introduce ourselves. So here’s a few paragraphs on the JISC world - according to Joan !

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is funded by the UK Funding Councils and various research bodies. The mission of the JISC is to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research. It does this by funding a number of national services and a range of programmes & projects. The JISC is not an institution in itself but is governed by a series of committees which determine strategy and oversee the work, with the JISC’s operational activities provided by the FE & HE communities themselves.

There are currently 48 services provided for by JISC. Most of the services provided through JISC are hosted within one of the UKs Higher or Further Education Institutions and they include services which broadly fit into the following categories:
· Archiving and Data Services including Access and Authentication Services including Federated Access Management Service, UK Data Archive & MIMAS
· Content Services including INTUTE, JISC Collections, Hairdressing Training, & EDINA
· Multimedia Services including TASI, BUFVC, Film & Sound Online & The Education Image Gallery
· Research & Development Services TechWatch, OSS Watch & JANET CETIS
· Strategic Advisory Services including JISC Legal, JISC infoNet, JISC Internet Plagiarism Advisory Service TechDis & Regional Support Centres
· Technical Services JANET, JANET CSIRT
· Training Services including Netskills & Regional Support Centres

Regional Support Centres were established in 2000 in the first instance to support the Further Education sector but have subsequently broadened the scope of support to include (in Scotland) smaller Higher Education Institutions. There are 13 RSCs in the UK, 2 in Scotland with institutions in North & East Scotland supported by the RSC Scotland North & East based in Edinburgh’s Telford College. Institutions based in the South & West of Scotland are supported by the team based at the RSC Scotland South & West located at the West of Scotland Science Park, part of the University of Glasgow.

RSCs provide support, offer guidance and facilitate activities that lead to organisations themselves taking responsibility for developing and implementing their own solutions. With funding in place until 2010 the RSC is the first point of contact in the region for all issues to do with the use of the network and new learning technologies.

While JISC determines the national core remit of the Regional Support Centres, each centre responds to local circumstances and determines appropriate methods for delivering the common core remit. RSC Scotland South & West provides support to 20 colleges of Further Education and 3 Higher Education Institutions from Cumbernauld to the outer reaches of Dumfries & Galloway and with the exception of some events and training, services from the RSC are free to supported institutions.

Each member of staff interfaces with an appropriate college contact who can disseminate information more widely throughout their own organisation e.g. the RSC Manager works with a member of the Senior Management Team and the eAdvisor for technical and infrastructure management interfaces with ICT managers. The eAdvisor for Accessibility and Inclusion works through senior support for learning staff and the main contact for eResources is generally the head of the library and learning resources centre. Information about individual staff members and the focus of their work can be found on the RSC Scotland South & West website as can the details of the strategic and operational support we offer to our supported institutions.

So there’s a very brief overview of what we’re about here at the RSC. Comments and questions are most welcome – Joan

A Virtual or an Actual Visit?

Among the team at the RSC this week we've been working out our schedule for the rest of this academic year. As a small team - just 7 of us - we have to work flexibly and very closely with each other and think of ways in which we can maximise the impact of our work across the institutions we support.
RSCtv which we began broadcasting in October 2007 each 2nd Tuesday, continues to grow in popularity. Designed as half hour lunchtime sessions on a range of topics to appeal to a range of staff in HE & FE, RSCtv provides a live video broadcast from our offices, that include opportunities to interact with the presenter and other delegates. Sessions have been aranged for the rest of this academic year and the topics for our broadcasts in the Summer term will be published soon. The next broadcast may be of particular interest to you. Fionnuala Carmichael will be presenting an Update for Senior Managers of JISC and RSC activities at lunchtime on Tuesday 26th February. Contact support@rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk for details on how to login.
You can see our regular diary of events for the coming months on our website and we will also be supporting a conference to be held at Glagsow Caledonian University on the 1st of May on the use of Mobile Technologies in education - Theresa Duffy our eAdvisor for HE is finalising the programme at the moment.
In the lead up to the Summer break we will be arranging to bring our Roadshow to visit. Not only will we bring lots of information about JISC with us, we are also planning to hold short surgeries and a drop in clinic where staff can visit to find out more about JISC & the RSC and discuss their ICT ailments. More information on that to follow. If you do have suggestions to make on how best we can support your ICT efforts please let us know or leave a comment here.