Now here's an interesting challenge!

One of the blogs I follow is Jane Hart's Elearning pick of the day. Although the sites she highlights are sometimes of no interest to me, more often they fall into the "could be worth bookmarking" category. Then, every so often, she adds a link to one which is right up my street.

Like today.

The 140 University delivers learning in regular nuggets of 140 words, by means of Twitter or Facebook. There is a variety of subjects to sign up for and the material is archived to review later.

I'm not a Twitterer and not really a fan of Facebook either (though I have accounts for and have used both), but this could be something I'd like to take advantage of and I might well sign up to see what's what. It's also got me wondering how we might use this idea and take it further. Any ideas? Do share them here, in the comments!

A few links to share

It's easy to tell when I should be doing something else...I start following links on websites! There were some goodies to share today:

Aviary tools looks a useful place to find web based programs which can be accessed anywhere

I'm not a language teacher, so can't evaluate LiveMocha objectively, but it looks a pretty useful site which might interest your learners, as does Xlingo . Another language site which might be worth exploring is italki, especially the facility to communicate with a native speaker. I might exercise the usual internet cautions with that one however, reminding myself of some basic internet security advice before beginning a conversation!

Finally, I'm not sure that the ability to make a balloon starfish qualifies as an essential life skill but who knows when such a skill could come in useful? The 5 min website has plenty of displacement activities, most of which take slightly longer than the name suggests.

Hmmm...I wonder if learning to make a balloon starfish would count as CPD? I'm off to reflect on that right now.

Inspiring Tutors in Adult and Community Learning

That's the title of the presentation Jane C-D and I made at the eCPD conference this morning, showing all the good things Gloucestershire AdEd tutors are doing and sharing here on the blog and elsewhere. We took along some of our Flip video cameras, Pogo printers, eePCs, Sony cameras and Panasonic voice recorders and set the participants in our workshop a ten minute challenge: what could they achieve in such a short time with these nifty bits of technology?






In no time at all, they were filming, printing and recognising what powerful tools these were for recording learning and the air of excitement in the room was wonderful to witness.



We made a list of the achievements in those ten short minutes - quite a long list, actually.

They:

used Flip video to record learning :: bluetoothed an image from phone to pogo :: found the webcam on an eepc :: made a bluetooth connection for the first time :: printed using the pogo :: fell in love (with the pogo!) :: used the voice recorder :: found the USB on the Flip :: took advantage of peer support :: uploaded video to an eepc :: took a still photo with a digital camera :: recorded evidence using a camera :: identified further applications of the equipment in their own teaching :: took a photo with a mobile phone for the first time :: recognised the importance of learner involvement :: recognised the importance of recording the process of learning as well as the outcome :: had FUN!

Thanks to all the participants in our workshops - we had a ball working with you and enjoyed sharing what's going on in Gloucestershire with a wider audience. Thank you Sally, for being such great technical support and for holding it all together for us!

We're very proud of the work our tutors are doing and thank everyone for sharing so many great ideas.

Hurry - only a few places left!

My phone has been ringing all morning and I'm delighted that our Camel Bazaar is attracting so much interest.

If you'd like to come along and haven't already booked a ticket for this inspiring afternoon, please ring 01452 425923 or email me as soon as you can to reserve your place.

Hello

I know we have a lot of new readers as a result of all the core training events recently so I thought I'd say "hi" and encourage you to leave a comment when you visit.

Perhaps it's not clear how to do that - so I'll explain!

At the bottom of every post there's details of who posted it and when. On the right hand side there's a little graphic of a speech bubble and "2 comments" (or however many have been left previously).

Click on the word "comments" and a box will open up for you to type something in. You'll have to complete a bit of word recognition, which is there to protect us from automatic posting systems and you can choose to remain anonymous if you prefer.

We'd love to hear from you, wherever you are, so please, leave a comment!


Photograph above: Yesterday's training event was at the Waterways Museum in Gloucester Docks, a really great venue - do you agree?

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fantastic pics Lizzy

just taken a break and have been enjoying your latest flickr photos. They are fantastic! The group textile celebrating stitch techniques is gorgeous. Where are you going to exhibit it? Sara


Sara, I hope you don't mind my using my "Editor's Privilege" to add a reminder that a link to our Flickr group can be found at the top right hand side of this blog page. I quite agree that Lizzie's photographs are terrific and well worth having a look! Gill

Good tutorial

I find the CRAFT magazine website a useful one to keep an eye on for good ideas and interesting links. Today, I found a link to a useful tutorial about using shisha mirrors in embroidery simply put together using clear photographs. There are some excellent examples of using video and photography in tutorials on this page - beware, there's a morning gone once you start browsing through them all!

Recently I've seen the "real", paper magazine on the shelves in WHSmiths, but think the online version is so much more interesting somehow. I particularly love the slightly wacky ideas and we've just giggled our way through the StarWars Video podcast.

I might have a go at putting a similar tutorial together - do you think I can claim for a manicure on my expenses?

You Tube

Lizzie is having probs posting something here, so I'll tell you about the brilliant videos she's uploaded to our YouTube site. I hope the learners are able to watch themselves creating some great artwork.

So inspiring - thank you Lizzie.

Where we're from

Fi's post has prompted me to lead you to an interesting writing prompt at this blog I've had a go myself and posted my attempt on my own blog here and maybe you'd like to have a go yourself.

In the process of writing, I realise that I find it far easier to express myself by the use of colour, shape and texture than by words. But hey, it was painless and it's good to go outside the comfort zone now and again, isn't it?

Sharing good practice

...or is it pinching someone else's good idea?

This morning I spent time chatting to Julie Smith, one of Alison's colleagues, who is doing some research into tutor training. She asked if she may record our interview and pulled a small digital camera from her bag.

Now, why haven't we thought of using our digital cameras as simple voice recorders? Brilliant idea - and with Julie's permission, I share it here!

Our interview lasted for an hour or so and the camera was unobtrusive. The file will record the date and time of our interview (as long as the camera date/time setting is correct of course!) and is easily saved to disk or hard drive.

It occurred to me that it would be very easy to record a learner's comments alongside a photograph of their work and I intend to give it a try shortly. Watch this space to see what happens....unless you get there first, in which case please share!

I can't find any details in the camera handbook about recording sound, but have experimented using the video mode with the display turned off. The sound quality isn't top-notch but it's good enough for evidence. Your suggestions and ideas would be appreciated.

Video podcast

An online friend shared this link to a terrific video podcast today - sadly, the little mp3 player doesn't have a big enough screen ;-)

But you can watch it on your laptop!

Now, where did all that free time of ours go?

Interesting links

I just came across a couple of interesting YouTube videos which might be helpful in our discussions

The first is a demonstration of how to make Nuno felt

The second is how to tie a Chinese knot:



What do you think?