Archives: 2012

Ten years of digital preservation recognised

On 3 December 2012 at the prestigious annual awards ceremony, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) recognised initiatives from researchers around the world that have made an outstanding contribution to safeguarding digital resources for the future. The DPC is dedicated to developing … Read more

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

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 … Read more

Match-make your students with local employers

With a very competitive business market and unemployability at high levels for young people, I believe it is important that we try to maximise educational opportunities and match learners’ skills with business needs as best as possible. We need to ensure … Read more

Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolf? – Advice on curriculum planning for further education management

I was working late in my office the other night, at Chesterfield College when there was a knock on the door.  Without waiting for an answer in strolled a furry looking chap who put the kettle on and settled himself … Read more

Is embedding digital literacy in your curriculum working for you?

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 … Read more

How e-portfolios helped us to improve our college’s digital literacy

I am the learning zone and e-learning manager at Deeside College.  I work with an extremely dedicated group of people with a passion for taking the student forward and developing real world skills.  The students too are a wonderful group, … Read more

Harnessing new technologies to boost engagement for library instruction

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. … Read more

Top 10 tips on how to make your open access research visible online

So you’ve deposited your research paper in your institution’s online repository, now what?  Just because it’s online, doesn’t automatically mean it’ll get lots of interest, you can harness the power of the social web to promote your papers and engage … Read more

Open Futures in Open Access

As Heather Morrison describes in her blog post, there is plenty to celebrate in the continuing growth of open access. Here at JISC we have been supporting emerging open access practices for over a decade. We’re busy building services and communities … Read more

UK contributes to European Open Access progression

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.

Exploring open access to save monographs, the question is – how?

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 – … Read more

Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology

The September 2012 AoC Learning Technology Survey Report carries interesting messages for all of us working within further education and in particular for me and the team at JISC working to support the sector.  Although we will be considering the report in … Read more

How has technology helped me during my first year of Uni?

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 … Read more

Wikipedia in universities and colleges?

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 EduWiki Conference this week, which is run by the Wikimedia UK Foundation and brings … Read more

Two universities share experience of curriculum redesign

Savvy students will choose to attend universities and colleges that offer them an excellent student experience. As learners become more discerning about their choice of course they will make use of services such as Unistats to compare courses and the … Read more

JISC and Research Councils UK work to reduce reporting burden on universities

JISC and Research Councils UK (RCUK) are announcing new coordinated work which will ease the burden on universities of reporting research outcomes. As UK universities face increasing demands to share information with other sector bodies, it is more important than … Read more

No such thing as a free MOOC

In his recent JISC blog, David Kernohan asks: ‘Why bother paying inflated fees to attend university? …What if you could get it all for free, online?’ Of course, it is tongue in cheek, because as my title above suggests, you … Read more

“Knowledge is the currency of the new economy” where research is “intelligently open”

A flow of policy reports focusing on research and access to the outputs of research appeared over the past month.  Today the European Commission published two communications that respond to the way the “internet has fundamentally changed the world of … Read more

Behind the headlines of the new JISC Techdis tools – a personal view

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 ND2012. Let me explain what happened…. It was the final plenary on … Read more

Developing digitial literacies for working in a digital world

We heard this week that too many young people lack the social skills needed to get their first job.  The report by the Work Foundation (PDF) doesn’t explicitly mention digital literacy, but perhaps it should. With an estimated 90% of … Read more

Where there’s MOOC, there’s brass?

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? This is the compelling pitch … Read more

JISC and crowdfunding

What links an e-paper watch, a statue of RoboCop and an open alternative to Facebook? The answer is that all of these ideas have been funded via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is an exciting new approach where individuals can … Read more

How to feed, nourish and sustain your digital resources

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 … Read more

Where the open things are

The issue of making Open Access books discoverable was discussed in nearly all of our focus groups that we held earlier this year as part of the OAPEN-UK project. It’s not just about putting the PDF onto a platform and … Read more

Open Practice: University College Falmouth see the big picture

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 … Read more

Blackboard’s new open source strategy: how virtual learning environments became commodities

Unthinkable a couple of years ago, and it still feels a bit April 1st: Blackboard has taken over two other virtual learning environment organisations: the Moodlerooms and NetSpot Moodle support companies in the US and Australia. Arguably as important is … Read more

Text mining: removing the red flag

“It’s a complete no-brainer,” said Sir Mark Walport. The director of the Wellcome Trust was responding to JISC’s Digital Infrastructure Directions report into the value and benefits of text and data mining, which recommends that the UK should create a … Read more

Why “open education” matters

The first thing that has struck me about Open Education Week is how genuinely global it is. Scroll through the list of events and webinars and you’ll spot Brazil, Mexico, China, Korea, Africa, Spain, Europe. The big brand US universities … Read more

Open Education: becoming mainstream?

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” Writing in Simulacra and Simulation in 1981, Jean Baudrillard could scarcely have predicted the way in which the growth of a global network … Read more

St David’s Day: Researching Wales or Welsh history? / Dydd Gŵyl Dewi: Ymchwilio i Gymru neu hanes Cymru?

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 Museum of Wales. There … Read more

How important are open ebook standards to universities?

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. Just weeks into the New Year and already … Read more

Apple’s new iBooks: a force for good?

JISC has long been associated with licensing and exploring ebooks for education, and research by JISC Collections has shown increasing numbers of students enthusiastic about such resources as publishers and librarians seek to find suitable business models in a changing … Read more

The digital humanities surrounds you

Stanley Fish recently published a blog post in the NY Times with the grandiose title, The Digital Humanities and the Transcending of Mortality. The article is engaging; it seems to sharpen the knife for the Digital Humanities but then decides … Read more

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