The Web is a place where someone is always watching what you do. I understand that… but there again, the Web is such a giant metropolis, how and why would anyone notice what one individual like me is looking at and which links I’m clicking on?
Then up pops Tom Barnett, the MD of a technology company that specialises in digital publishing, to tell me that ‘Google has a file the size of an encyclopaedia on everyone in this room.’ Hmmm… I start to feel a vague sense of paranoia. Then I think… pull yourself together, Neil! Google really doesn’t care who you are. They just want to put things in your line of sight that are likely to get you to part with your wages!
With recent news of a school in Bolton 
Learners consistently give their experience of assessment and feedback 
Advantages offered by the internet and current technologies are widely recognised and actively adopted in education. Students, for example, will often choose and be expected to use their own devices to share ideas, problem solve and carry out research. Despite the opportunities on offer, risks such as internet safety must be managed appropriately.
So why should universities devote effort to caring about application programming interfaces (APIs)? I work at Jisc as a programme manager and have recently been involved in work that could provide some answers as to the benefits of APIs.
As 2013 dawns, and with predictions from Cisco that by 2014, video will exceed 91% of global consumer traffic on the internet, it seems timely that a new Research Education Space from us at 
On 3 December 2012 at the prestigious annual awards ceremony, the 
Many of us are aware of the potential benefits mobile learning can offer. It can allow learners to communicate with tutors and peers, as well as providing access to learning resources whenever needed. However, utilising technology to offer such a flexible environment can provide a number of challenges that need to be met.
I believe that developing digital literacies within your organization is key to providing a dynamic and engaging experience for every learner, but we all know that co-ordinating this across the whole college can sometimes be a challenge, so what’s the answer?
Times have changed beyond recognition for college librarians: we are no longer thought of as softly-spoken, book stamping people with a bun and a cardigan, and our job titles have changed too: research/information specialists, learning resources tutors, e-librarians and more. We can confidently say that we know a lot about Web 2.0 and new technologies and how good it is to embed them into teaching and learning… All very well but when it comes to embedding them into the library instruction, (instructional programs designed to teach library users how to locate the information they need quickly and effectively), is it actually worth it?
A workshop, held in Barcelona, demonstrated the level of interest in the issues of open access and preservation across Europe. Representatives from the UK, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and many more gathered.
You’ve just spent years researching and then writing your monograph. This is the book that will kick start your career – your proposal was accepted by your top publisher – you got great comments back from the peer reviewers – you’ve negotiated a great front cover and the blurb is short and snappy.
The September 2012 
The day I packed my bags and left for University felt like the biggest and most daunting step of my life. I now know that this is from the frightening realisation that occurs in that first night – I am alone – complete independence means being away from the comforts of home and security of parents.
Here at JISC we are lucky enough to have a view across the education sectors in teaching, learning and research. I’m delighted to be at the 
Savvy students will choose to attend universities and colleges that offer them an excellent student experience.
It isn’t often that when I am delivering a plenary session at a conference that the audience is moved to tears, but that is exactly what happened at 
Why bother paying inflated fees to attend university? Why pay to spend three years living on a campus, attending seminars and tutorials, running up debts? What if you could get it all for free, online?
What links an 
From the late Nineties, European and UK funding agencies across sectors, from education to cultural heritage, have invested significant resources in the creation of digital content in the not-for-profit sector. The grants have facilitated major digitisation and encouraged innovative work that paved the way for forms of scholarship and communities possible only in an online environment. In the words of the recent Comite des Sage report ‘The New Renaissance’:
The temptation within an innovative organisation like JISC is to concentrate on talking about what is new. But a chance conversation on twitter with Alex Di Savoia at University College Falmouth (UCF), holder of one of our early JISC/Higher Education Academy 
Unthinkable a couple of years ago, and it still feels a bit April 1st: 
The first thing that has struck me about Open Education Week is how genuinely global it is. Scroll through the 
One of the most enduring miracles attributed to St David is that while he was preaching, he caused the ground to rise under him so that his audience could see and hear him, according to the 
Ebook standards may lack the glamour that the technology attracts, but the arrival of ePub3 has the potential to transform how the academy creates and delivers its content to students and researchers.
JISC has long been associated with licensing and exploring ebooks for education, 
Stanley Fish recently published a blog post in the NY Times with the grandiose title, 
Activity data is big business. We see it in the recommendations we get every time we look at something on Amazon, we see its importance every time we get asked if we have a club/nectar/loyalty card when we buy something and we see it in the 
Is your institution ‘open’? Open education resources are becoming an essential component of academic practice.
Suddenly it seems as if everybody is waking up to the potential of open educational resources. People have been sharing digital teaching materials for years, but now creative commons licensing, increased familiarity with the web and increased attention from policy makers have created a surge of activity. The question was recently posed [don't more academics use open educational resources] on the 
On Friday I shared with you my thoughts on the recent UUK report and why it’s important for universities to engage with it at a strategic level. In the spirit of sharing work that JISC has undertaken or has underway that go some way to addressing the recommendations, today I’ll give some pointers to some of the relevant JISC activity alongside some of the recommendations; this is only a small taster of some relevant work.
As chair of the 
This is very good time to talk about effective research data management. It has recently 
The environment of further and higher education is changing in response to economic pressures, government policies and a cultural shift marked by an increasing emphasis on student satisfaction and concerns about the impact of rising student fees.
JISC is considering future opportunities for innovation funding in collaboration with university web departments who manage the .ac.uk pages of their website, and we’d like to make sure that what we are proposing would be of value to the sector and is interesting enough for several of you to consider bidding. Please make your opinion known using the #lncneu hashtag on Twitter or via the comments below. 
How do universities and their libraries respond to an increasingly mobile world? At what point does mobile find itself at the heart of what a university does? Are we at a tipping point with those that fail to address students’ mobile expectations experiencing falling numbers? 
We now have approximately 198 repositories in the UK and JISC programmes have played a major part in the set up and development of this infrastructure. Drivers for this growth vary from open access to research, to better information management or easy access to digital collections for teachers, learners and researchers.
Last month I was asked to submit evidence to the UK parliament’s science and technology committee for their report about peer review. Though most researchers agree with the principles of peer review, many feel there is room to improve how that process is implemented. JISC is already looking into tweaks to the current system, such as open peer review, including funding universities to develop open access academic journals which are compiled from other openly available material.
One hundred years ago this year the very first explosive device was dropped from the air in Libya, of all places, and the age of “war from the air” was inaugurated. Somewhere in Italy’s state archives in Rome are the photographic and audiovisual records of that war. But how easily accessible are these documents to researchers and learners?
It is a challenging time to be educating the next generation of learners. As fees increase, so do the expectations of learners who need top-quality courses with a broad appeal that equip them effectively for future employment. Keeping the curriculum responsive to these changing demands is essential to any institution’s marketing and learning and teaching strategies.
If you are looking for audiovisual content it is hard to know where to start. Google can search vast amounts but there is a whole section on the web that is only available to education, and Google by itself is not enough for scholarly use.
It has been a busy week for research. The UK Research Councils (RCUK) and HEFCE announced 
“We are historians, we’ve never studied people who answer back”. This is how a team member from the 
We have today launched 
Blogging is a well-established vehicle for personal reflection and commentary and can play an effective part in the delivery of formal curricula. But blogs and social networking sites also have the potential to engage students and improve the quality of their writing and communication skills. We are seeing good practice emerging where tutors are guiding students on how they can effectively utilise these technologies for their learning. 
I have come to the conclusion that the answer to several questions is: the 
At JISC’s recent annual conference, both Professor Eric Thomas (Vice Chancellor of Bristol University) and I stressed that higher education cannot afford to slow down in its adoption of information and communications technology (ICT). Quite the contrary: the challenging financial environment and the increased international competition require innovative approaches to ensure that the UK remains a leader in world class teaching, education and research.
The UK keeps a huge amount of information about research. From funding applications to datasets, from HESA and REF reporting to publications lists. People and institutions across the sector need to manage and share this information at every level. The challenge, however, is that this information is often stored in different systems and formats, some commercial or proprietary and some home-grown and unique.
The UK is a knowledge economy and as the coalition government looks to also to make it a digital one – how is JISC helping to share the UK’s knowledge and our resources online?
Accessing freely available media digital content and tools can be an effective way to improve educational provision and maximize resources in difficult times. On the other hand, without support, a sharing of best practice and awareness what we’re getting into we might waste a lot of time and money undertaking tasks which, on reflection, should have been done by someone else or done in a different way. The sharing of good practice and direct experience, in addition to free content and open source tools, may be the only way to ensure we receive the benefits of digital media while avoiding the pitfalls.
There are clear financial benefits for universities and colleges in ensuring that as many students as possible complete their course. Equally learners are paying more than ever for their education, so will be keen to see a return on their investment.
With just one week to go before the 
There is a great 
We are heading into a new chapter in JISC’s history as we embrace the opportunity to change for the future.
In the week following what President Obama described innovation as a “Sputnik moment” and Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport launched the Year of Philanthropy – an attempt to get more FTSE100 businesses to provide financial support for the arts - it seems timely to consider how innovation in a time of fiscal tightening can be achieved and supported. Organisations such as JISC, whose role includes nurturing innovation and providing shared services that save colleges and universities time, money and effort, have stepped up their efforts to monitor, interpret and report on the financial implications (income and savings) of a range of activities.
Last month, Tim Marshall’s 
To me, one of the enormous surprises regarding the 
and with more reviews and uncertainty to come it’s easy to feel like the distraught lover in L’Âme Immortelle’s song – “life will never be the same again.” While this is de facto true it is certainly not the end!
This 
Today, another round of UCAS applications gets underway with the first of the application deadlines. Meanwhile, new students are settling into universities up and down the country. But how many of them will have embarked upon the right course?
New politics, fragile economy, ageing student market, a society rapidly absorbing new technologies. Any one of these presents challenges to our sector, but together these form the complex reality of our working lives.
