Pontydysgu - Bridge to Learning Pontydysgu.org

Three weeks ago we broadcast a pilot edition of a new radio programme produced for Jisc, the elearning programme. And ia couple of days later we released the full podcasts of the interviews which we had undertaken in making the programme. The interviews were very interesting - particularly for anyone interested in research, policy and practice in work based learning, progression routes, eportfolios etc. However somehow a bug crept into the system and some listeners may have had problems accessing the recordings. Fear not, the gremlin has been eradicated from the system and you can now listen to the interviews inline or download the podcasts. Just to remind you, the interviews are with:

• Rob Ward, Centre for Recording Learning Achievement
• Sandra Winfield, Nottingham University
• Tony Toole, University of Glamorgan
• Alan Paull
• Bob Bell, Jisc Northern Regional Support Centre
• Clive Church, EdExcel.
• Derek Longhurst, Foundation Degree Forward
• Lucy Stone, Leicester College
• Lucy Warman, University of Central Lancashire.

They can be found on the following blog posts:

E-learning, work based learning, e-portfolios, mobile devices and more - the podcasts

E-learning, work based learning, e-portfolios, mobile devices and more - the podcasts (2)

Pontydysgu does a lot of work with audio. we enjoy it, particularly the live Sounds of the Bazaar internet radio show. And like the good techies we are, we have accumulated a fine collection of gadgets and devices for recording and broadcasting.

But producing good quality audio takes time. And that is why I love Audioboo, which promises to do for audio what Youtube did for video. It is a bit limited at the moment - you can only upload from an iPhone or iPod touch. But it is quick and easy. So we have set up an Audioboo channel for Sounds of the Bazaar (called, imaginatively, Sounds of the Bazaar, and will be braodcasting regular 3 minute boos (??) on that site. If you want to here our latest contribution, Dirk has installed a widget on the right hand sidebar of this page.

Last week I was at the final event of a series of six workshops on the training of teachers and trainers. The workshops were organised as part of a policy consultation exercise by the European Commission, who regard the training of teachers and trainers as a priority area in terms of economic and social development.
Whilst [...]

Read more

June is the month of meetings and i seem to have been in meetinsg for ever. Just a short few hours break before the next ones start so time for a quick bog entry.
This morning I received an email from Effie Law from the University of Leicester, UK/ ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
“Dear Graham,” she said, “I [...]

Read more

Regular readers of this blog will know I have been much concerned lately with how we organise research in technology enhanced learning, and particularly with the organisation of the various seminars, conferences and publications associated with academic research. One issue that has bothered me is the gap between the radical pedagogies we often propose and [...]

Read more

For years past, projects have routinely included electronic and video conferencing as a means of communication between meetings. Of course, this rarely happened. Ultimately, the technology was not up to it. But in the last two years, with improvements in bandwidth and the release of new and better platforms, video conferencing has become common, for [...]

Read more

There has been a lot of discussion regarding my post on the TEL summer school held two weeks ago in Terchova in Slovakia. Many of the respondents have replied at some length. Most were at pains to stress the positive sides to the event, whilst pointing to how it could be improved in future. It [...]

Read more

Every year, colleges and universities invest large amounts of time and money into the recruitment of students. The process can involve numerous steps from the obligatory form filling, interviews, conditional and unconditional offers to open day events and induction weeks. The purpose of these stages are two directional, the institution wants to fill its courses [...]

I have many ideas floating around in my head at the moment. One is the notion of appropriation. Writing last weekend, Tony Hirst said  the idea of appropriating technology could be important in at least two senses:
“Firstly, in the sense of us appropriating technologies that might have been designed for other purposes in order to [...]

Finally got around to finishing the survey last week, tried it out on my sisters and a student friend (thanks all) who suggested a few tweaks to the language.
The final version is here.
Now I’ve got to get it to as many students in the UK as possible. Hope they don’t mind breaking from revision for [...]