Free Webinar: How to run a virtual classroom session

The eLearning Network are running a free webinar on 'How to run a virtual classroom session'

Date: 2 August 2010
Time: 12 noon
Venue: Online

More and more education and training providers are making use of web conferencing as a way to bring learners together for events that would have previously been conducted in the classroom, or which may not previously have been practical or economic on a face-to-face basis. Effective virtual classroom sessions go way beyond webinars or online meetings to involve all participants as much as or more than the physical classroom, through the use of a wide variety of multimedia and interactive techniques. In this session, Clive Shepherd and Barry Sampson will share the benefit of their extensive experience with virtual classrooms to help you both assess the potential for the greater use of live online learning in your organisation and ensure that the sessions that you do deliver are as least as successful as your face-to-face events.

A joint eLN/ALT webinar. To register, follow the link below
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=371

Jorum Learning and Teaching Competition 2010 – now accepting entries

Do you create open educational learning and teaching resources? If so, the Jorum Learning and Teaching Competition is for you.

Following on from last year’s successful competition, which resulted in six highly creative and valuable resources winning places, we are pleased to announce that the 2010 competition is now open and accepting entries.

The competition runs again in conjunction with the ALT-C conference in Nottingham, 7-9 September, and the six winning entrants will have the opportunity to present and showcase their resources at the conference.

The panel of judges will be looking for exciting and innovative resources created under a creative commons licence, and entries will be judged against a set of criteria - appropriateness, engagement, effectiveness and reusability.

We have engaged another great range of judges this year, including Russell Stannard and James Clay, who are both advocates of sharing resources openly.

Final judging will also take on a new twist this year, as the judges will be asked to rank their top ten resources, which will then be placed on the Jorum Community Bay to allow for a public vote - so never mind The X-Factor – vote for your choice of resource to win!

You will be able to vote from 19th August, and details on how to vote will be announced nearer the time.

There are three cash prizes up for grabs, along with three commended awards.

Closing date – Friday 25th June 2010

Full entry details on the Jorum Website.

The Association for Learning Technology’s Open Access Repository

The Association for Learning Technology’s Open Access Repository was formally launched at ALT’s annual conference ALT-C in September and is now available. The repository represents a long-awaited development in ALT’s work and services as it allows users to contribute assets and make them available via the repository. Since it went online the repository has had about 10,000 visitors, browsing, searching for and downloading journal articles, conference presentations, links to webinar recordings and similar content.

The repository currently contains post-prints from the ALT’s peer-reviewed journal ALT-J from its inception in 1993 to Vol. 16 (2007) and will be updated periodically with new volumes 18 months after publication by Routledge. The repository also contains items relating to:

• ALT-C conference
• ALT events and webinars
• Learning Technology topics, events or publications
• ALT Members
• ALT’s Certified Membership Scheme – CMALT
• ALT Special Interest Groups such as the recently established Learning Environment Review SIG (LERSIG)

It will be extended further to cover:

• exemplars of best practice
• guides for good practice in design & use of education technologies
• research papers
• sector reports related to e-learning
• wiki-based content that can be added to and extended by practitioners

For further information or if you would like to contribute assets visit
http://repository.alt.ac.uk
You can also create your own user account on the repository homepage.

Instructional Design for Serious Games Free Webinar

Jointly with the E-Learning Network, ALT will be running a free 90 minute lunchtime webinar.

8th December 2009 12:00-13:30


Serious Design
There is currently much debate over the exact definition of a ‘Serious Game’. This has led to wide variety of development practices in which their design runs the risk of being unbalanced by any number of factors, such as technical limitations or focussing too much on graphics or pedagogical learning outcomes.

This session will explore the skills which game designers can bring to the development process, and how those skills can provide coherence between other competing factors. For example, how techniques of pace, discovery, conflict, and reward systems can be used to provide engaging learning environments.

How do you build a learning game?
There is now a legitimate place for game based learning in the workplace and education with evidence and case studies to support the effect that learning games have. This session will look at how learning games are being developed and what you need to consider. With a range of platforms and software tools available we’ll take a look at the options that are available including OpenSim, iPhone SDK, Thinking Worlds, Unity and Flash.

How to take part in the webinar
The session is free to all eLN and ALT members. If you are a non eLN/ALT member your participation is welcomed, together with your consideration to join either or both organisations as a member.

Booking deadline: closing date for bookings: 1 December.

The webinar will be hosted in Elluminate. Details will be emailed a week in advance to those who have registered to participate.

To take part in this event, please complete the booking form.

The latest in learning technolgy - ALT Newsletter

The latest edition of the Association of Learning Technology Newsletter has just been published. You can view the online version here:
http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/112pjdfj9xp15pbvrjm4bf?email=true

Articles include -

Curt Bonk shows how technology is facilitating self- and peer-facilitated learning "aboard ships or planes, high up in the mountains, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or when standing on thinning sea ice".

Alan Cann and colleagues from the University of Leicester consider Twitter's potential for gathering data relevant to student support and communication.

The College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh recently replaced their infrared student response systems with radio frequency technology. Daniela Gachago reports on reactions to the new system.

ALT-C 2009 : earlybird deadline approaching

ALT-C 2009: “In dreams begins responsibility” – choice, evidence, and change.
8-10 September 2009, Manchester, UK.

Earlybird rate available until Monday 6 July, midnight (BST):
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/registering.html

Presenters Registration deadline: 29 June *TODAY* Registrations close: 14 August

Conference fees: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/delegate_information.html
Accommodation details: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/accommodation.html
Social programme: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/social.html

Keynote speakers:
Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor Designate at the Open University, UK;
Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, USA;
Terry Anderson, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada

Confirmed Invited Speakers include:
Jonathan Drori, Heather Fry, Diana Laurillard, Matthew McFall, David Kennedy, Richard Noss, Vanessa Pittard, Aaron Porter and David Price.

For more information, visit: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/ or call the ALT office: +44(0) 1865 484125.

Another chance to win?

The ALT-Epigeum Award for the most effective use of video in an educational or training context The winner will receive a £500 cash prize together with an expenses-paid trip for two people to central London to spend half a day meeting and learning from the Epigeum team. The winning and any highly commended entries will be showcased at the September ALT Conference in Manchester, with the prize awarded at the 2009 ALT Conference Dinner on Wednesday 9 September. The closing date for entries is 19 June 2009.

For more information go to http://www.alt.ac.uk/awards.html
For more information on the conference visit http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/

ALT-C 2009 "In dreams begins responsibility" - choice, evidence, and change

Learning technologies and learning technologists are now at the heart of modern learning, and yet our community still faces many challenges, for example:

• learning from history to build on past gains and avoid previous mistakes;
• spreading innovations that are of true value, rather than mere fads;
• redesigning pedagogy, the curriculum, and assessment methods to secure a substantial positive impact on learning;
• ensuring cost effectiveness by various means, from working effectively at a large scale, to supporting peer-assisted learning cultures;
• developing a research culture that informs practice, and a culture of practice that uses research evidence.

To rise to these challenges, we must dream and act on our dreams, but evidence must justify the choices we make. ALT-C 2009 will provide a broad forum for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from all sectors to explore, reflect, and learn.

Keynote speakers will be:

Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor Designate at the Open University, UK;

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, USA;

Terry Anderson, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada.

Book online to attend ALT-C 2009

ALT's online booking system is now open:

• Presenters' booking deadline: 29 June 2009.
• Earlybird booking deadline: 6 July 2009.
• Bookings close: 14 August 2009.

Price information and booking conditions; accommodation; socials.

JORUM’S LEARNING & TEACHING COMPETITION

JORUM’S LEARNING & TEACHING COMPETITION– closing date 3rd July 2009

Entries for the 2009 Jorum Learning & Teaching competition are now open.

This is the third year that the Association for Learning Technology (http://www.alt.ac.uk) has run the awards. The competition previously known as the Learning Object competition, will be asking for the submission of exciting and innovative learning and teaching resources that have been created under a Creative Commons licence to showcase at the conference.

The Award will be presented at ALT's annual conference, ALT-C, during the Wednesday Gala dinner on 9 September. This year ALT-C will be held at Manchester, 8 - 10 September 2009.

The deadline for entries is 3rd July 2009.

First, second and third prizes kindly donated by Intrallect will be awarded to the top three resources entered. 1st prize £300; 2nd prize £200; 3rd prize £100.

For full competition details: http://www.jorum.ac.uk/community/altcCompetition.html

Call for Papers - ALT-C 2009: “In dreams begins responsibility” – choice, evidence , and change

ALT welcomes paper submissions for ALT-C 2009: “In dreams begins responsibility” – choice, evidence, and change. In preparation for when the submission system opens in late December 2008, please find details below of the research paper guidelines (including the research paper
template) and guidelines for other paper types e.g symposia, workshops, short papers etc.

First call for papers and abstracts for:

ALT-C 2009: “In dreams begins responsibility” – choice, evidence, and change 8-10 September 2009, Manchester, UK http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/

Keynote speakers:
Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, USA.
Terry Anderson, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada.

Submission guidelines for Research Papers and for Abstracts are available from:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/guidelines_papers.html
- a Research Paper Template is also available from this webpage and is a word document so it can be downloaded and used to submit your research paper proposal.

ALT welcome submissions of two broad types:
- Full 5000 word Research Papers, for publication in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of ALT-C 2009, with a 350 word abstract (taken from the
paper) and a 200 word presentation overview both of which will appear in the conference Abstracts Handbook, and online.
- 350 word abstracts describing 30 minute Demonstrations, Posters, 20 minute Short Papers, 90 minute Symposia, and 90 minute Workshops. All abstracts will appear in the conference Abstracts Handbook, and online.

Key dates:
Proposals accepted from late December 2008 (the link to the submission system will be available from http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/) Deadline for receipt of proposals: midnight UK time on 16 February 2009 Bookings open during May 2009 Presenters' registration deadline 29 June 2009 Earlybird registration deadline is 6 July 2009 Bookings close on 14 August 2009

50% off Association for Learning Technology Certification

The Association for Learning Technology (http://www.alt.ac.uk) is launching a 50 per cent reduction on certification fees for learning technology practitioners applying to become Certified Members of the Association. The limited offer applies to applications received up to 31 July 2008 and is part-funded by a grant from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) e-Learning Programme. JISC supports higher and further education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support research, teaching, learning and administration. JISC is funded by all the UK post-16 and higher education funding councils.

Learning technologists are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting or enabling learning with the use of communication, information and related technologies. Work ranges from digitising art-historical content to using games technology for educational purposes, electronic portfolios, online resources for patient case information for medical students and virtual worlds such as Second Life. It also includes research and development in the learning technology domain.

Any individual working UK higher or further education (including Adult & Community Learning and Work Based Learning) may apply for the discount.

Seb Schmoller, Chief Executive of ALT, says, “We expect plenty of interest in the special offer for CMALT applicants. Learning technology is playing an increasingly important role in education and training in the UK, and certification is one way for learning technologists to have their experience and capabilities judged by peers, and to demonstrate that they are taking a committed and serious approach to their professional development.”

David Burrows, Director of Public Sector, Strategy and Marketing, Microsoft UK, says, “We recognise the value of schemes like CMALT, with its emphasis on enhancing the professional standing of people whose work involves the effective application of IT in teaching and learning, wherever they are employed.”

For more information, contact cmalt@alt.ac.uk or visit http://www.alt.ac.uk/cmalt.html