Plastered

Had a really good session this morning with a group of Plastering lecturers. They are keen on creating video podcasts on plastering techniques and using video for assessment.

I have lent them an Asus EeePC to experiment and pilot with (as it comes with a webcam) to see if they feel it is of use for what they want to do, or whether they want to use traditional digital video cameras.

We went through the process of capturing and converting video, putting the video on the VLE, on a PSP and on a mobile phone.

Though will have a minimal impact on the MoLeNET project, will have a much larger impact on learners next year, which is to be honest what Glossy is all about, long term impact and sustainability.

Advanced Practitioners

Gave a short presentation to our College’s Advanced Practitioners on what they will be doing to support the Glossy project.

As well as helping create the learning scenarios and mobile learning content, they will also be contributing to the comparative case study.

Asus EeePC went down well and lots of useful and interesting questions.

Key thing was how this will impact on the embedding of mobile learning into the college over the next few years, something that I want to come out of the Glossy project.

Researching

Good news, I have a very keen member of staff willing to do a lot for the project, not just in terms of scenarios and content, but more importantly the research side of things.

Actually I have two members of staff, one from National Star and one from Gloucestershire College.

Talked to IV Group

Spent twenty minutes talking to our college’s IV group today about how mobile devices can be used for assessment, internal verification and even supporting external verification.

Lots of keen interest in both this and mobile learning in general.

Sparkly shiny glossy things generated  a lot of interest.

TQMs keen

On Friday I met with the college’s two Teaching Quality Managers (TQMs) to discuss how they would (with their Advanced Practitioners) support the Glossy project.

We agreed that the APs would develop mobile learning scenarios, work with myself and my team on content for mobile learning and would work with some of the work for the case studies.

Overall a very useful meeting.

Well that wasn’t planned…

This afternoon I got invited to a focus group meeting in the college and just happened to take an iPod touch. After the meeting I got talking to a few of the other managers there about the iPod touch, we then had a look at the other mobile devices we had got for the MoLeNET project and soon they were talking about how they wanted to use mobile devices to support learning and mobile learning scenarios.

After they left one of the managers came back with some colleagues and we went through the process again.

Really useful discussions, planning and staff went away really interested in the concepts behind the project and mobile learning.

Well that wasn’t planned…

Chat with Director

Had a quick chat with the Director of the Sixth Form about MoLeNET. Showed him some of the potential of the kit we had ordered and got from him possible staff that would be interested in working on the project.

These staff cover Health & Social Care and Sports.

Talking about the “toys”

Just spent fifteen minutes talking through with some staff the benefits of various mobile devices and how they can be used for learning.

For me it certainly makes a difference in having the devices, having content on the devices and for the audience an opportunity to try and feel the device.

All were impressed with the PSP, the iPod touch and the UMPC I demonstrated.

Meeting with Tim Evans

Having a meeting with Tim Evans our Head of Media, about him and his team contributing to our MoLeNET project. Hopefully he will have someone in mind to replace another member of his team who was keen to work on the project and then went and got a new job at another college!

Turning things around…

Just been talking to a construction lecturer about harvard referencing and VTS. As my desk was full of mobile devices we got talking about mobile learning and the Glossy project.

He’s very keen to be part of the project, so another member of staff interested and keen to work on stuff.

Key tip is if you want to get staff involved, not only do you need to talk to them , but get them interested even if they came to talk to you about something else.