Learning technology news

The eLN has responded with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) to the UK Government's Skills for Sustainable Growth consultation. See our letter here.

Following on from last year's highly successful inaugural debate at the Oxford Union, a prestigious 186-year-old debating society, Epic will be taking the oldest of topics, informal learning, and then weaving it into a thoroughly modern debate motion about learning technologies:

"This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance."

A highly prestigious speaker list for the event on October 6th at 4pm includes informal learning guru Jay Cross, author and academic Dr Alison Rossett and Professor William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute. For more information, visit the debate website.

Mark Tointon of Aardpress, one of the Premium Sponsors of last week's eLN Showcase, presents John Curran of e-Konsult with his new iPad. All attendees at the Showcase were entered into a draw and John's name came out of the hat, much to the dismay of the other participants.

Register for the eLN Member's Showcase on July 9 in London and you stand to win one of the amazing new Apple iPads. If that wasn't incentive enough, this year's event is jam packed with inspiring and informative sessions and provides ample opportunity to network with your peers in the elearning community. Members at level 2 gain free admission to the Showcase. All others pay just £100 + VAT. Click here to register.

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.

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.

On Monday 28th June 2010 OnTrack International will be hosting two exclusive webinars on social learning and mobile learning. Featuring two experts they will share how both social learning and mobile learning can impact upon your employee training and development.

The Social Web and Learning in a Digital Age Webinar - 11am
In the morning session guest speaker Steve Wheeler will be looking at the Social Web and how it is changing and becoming increasingly interactive as we move into the Digital Age, featuring: new web tools - their uses and learner impact; the digital generation - how they work and learn; learning management systems vs. personal learning environments.
Steve Wheeler is the Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Learning Technology at the University of Plymouth.  After almost 30 years of working in and around IT and learning Steve has published many articles and has presented at over 100 conferences. 

Mobile Learning Webinar - 2pm

In the afternoon session guest speaker Dr Norbert Pachler will be covering Mobile Learning: definitions, issues and projects.

This webinar presents key aspects of the work of the London Mobile Learning Group . Including definitional bases of the concept, issues emerging from research as well as an overview of practice with particular reference to the field of work-based learning.

Dr Norbert Pachler is a Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence for Work-based Learning for Education Professionals (WLE) at the Institute of Education, University of London.   He is one of the founding members of the London Mobile Learning Group and also co-wrote the book Mobile Learning.

If you would like to attend either of the above webinars please simply email info@ontrackinternational.com.

If you are responsible for implementing learning technologies in your workplace and are under pressure to accelerate their impact, then eLN  invites you to get involved in the 4th Towards Maturity Learning Technology Benchmark.

We are great supporters of the Towards Maturity’s independent learning technology research and would  like to recommend that you take part in their 2010 benchmark .. This year, many organisations are under even more pressure to deliver more learning with less resources and need their learning technologies to work even harder. By taking part you will be able to benchmark your own progress and receive free personalised feedback and practical advice to help you accelerate the benefits of learning technologies in your organisation.

So if you want to continue to:

• increase e-learning and learning technology adoption and effectiveness
• accelerate change
• improve business engagement
• deliver better results and improve efficiency 
• receive independent, personalised feedback & practical advice

... then please take part today. If you have not already received an invitation, you can access the benchmark directly from here.

What will it cost? Approx 40 minutes of your time to reflect on your current practice via this online review (apart from that, it is completely free!).

What will you get? All those who complete the benchmark will receive a copy of the final research findings (due November 2010) and your own personalised benchmark report (value £200) that:

• highlights your strengths and weaknesses
• compares your activity against benchmarks established over the past 6 years that are proven to improve impact and take up
• directs you to examples of great practice and free resources to help you on your learning technology journey.

So we would ask you to schedule some time in your diary to complete the benchmark –the investment will pay off in the long run! Thank you for your ongoing support, we appreciate it!

About the benchmark

The Towards Maturity benchmark is now the most comprehensive, independent and authoritative review on the use of Learning Technologies in the workplace in the UK. The 2010 benchmark represents a unique industry collaboration reflected by endorsements from many organisations, including, IITT, eLearning Network, L&S group, e.learning age, TrainingZone, Training Journal and many more, to ensure that this benchmark represents employer needs from all sectors in 2010. To date over 800 organisations from the private, public and not for profit sectors have participated in this independent benchmark research which provides compelling evidence into how we can improve the impact of learning technologies in the workplace. Find out more about the benchmark at www.towardsmaturity.org/2010benchmark.

24th June 2010, Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Building, All Saints, Manchester, M15 6BH

Get hands-on training with Maple & learn how this revolutionary software can help you teach A-level maths.

On 24th June, Adept Scientific will be working with Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) to deliver a one-day conference that demonstrates how Maple can be used to help deepen students' understanding of a variety of maths and technical concepts and give them a solid grounding in maths from the outset.

Discover how Maple TA can automate assessment for all kinds of maths-based courses. This web-based solution has the power to free up teachers' time, enhance teaching capabilities, improve teaching standards, help schools meet government targets and improve the overall student learning experience.

Maple has a 25-year track record of delivering significant teaching benefits to leaders of a wide range of maths-based courses at school, college and university level. Maple experts and novices alike will see how this revolutionary software delivers real results in the classroom environment.

Featured Speakers:
Surak Perera, Maple Product Specialist, Adept Scientific
Stephen Lynch, MMU author of Dynamical Systems with Applications using Maple

Space is limited and registration is required.  More information and registration details can be found at http://www.docm.mmu.ac.uk/maple_maths_conference/

The Capsule Company, based in Spain, is searching for partners in order to expand their operations into the UK. They expect the following from their partner: A consultancy/training provider; a background in new technologies and elearning; ongoing sales plans in your region; a portfolio of prospective clients to introduce the service.

The Capsule Company offers an online service to create, distribute and track learning capsules for companies and other institutions. We are based in Madrid and our team includes two sales people, one support technician and one IT developer. Our first clients have been big companies from the private sector such as: Mapfre, ING, Almirall, Renault, Axa, Banco Popular, Cetelem, Grupo Transhotel, etc.

You can find further information on our website www.thecapsulecompany.com and at the following links:

http://www.slideshare.net/loriat/the-capsule-company

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zgnLZLZVNY

They will provide our partners with sales orientation, technical support, remuneration based on a percentage of sales. The partner will be responsible for promotion of the service, mainly focused on big accounts (companies and institutions), keeping an active sales attitude for the TCC service as well as providing a quick response to any prospective clients or sales, and defining and closing sales through the proper legal paths in accordance with the local law.

Contact: info@thecapsulecompany.com