following COSN conference in Austin Texas via twitter

Well I know Vanessa Pittard presented our web 2.00 work commissioned in UK schools by Becta at the Consortium fro School Networking Schools conference in the USA but other presentations are there as well .

http://www.k12schoolnetworking.org/2009/index.cfm they are also running a twitter feed http://twitter.com/CoSN

Worth following you can find conference programme here
Full conference programme can be downloaded here

some UK flavoured ones


Stephen Lucey of Becta presented on
TH501: UK Leadership: Home Connection and
Innovation Strategies


Another UK prsentation by
W306: Integrating SMS for education – the
European experience
MR412
Steve Sidaway, Sales & Marketing Director, txttools.co.uk,
Leeds, UK
Mobile phones are now universally available and accepted.
They are transforming how students interact and with each
other, with organizations and with ideas, and this is only the
beginning. The technology is there but each university, college
and school must explore and experiment with what it can do
for them and their students. This presentation will draw case
examples from one of the largest education message
communities in Europe.

Long way away but whats distance with technology anyhow.

From Computers to ubiquitous computing by 2020 BCS discussion event

17th -18th March in London this looks like a really good event .

see the website and download programme at link below. one of my favourite speakers Adam Greenfield is speaking.

Event website at



http://royalsociety.org/event.asp?id=6065



Some of the speakers and chairs are:-
Professor Marta Kwiatkowska, Professor Tom Rodden and Professor Vladimiro Sassone

The convergence of wireless networks with new sensing technologies and devices has started to embed computers into our everyday life. This meeting will consider this shift to 'Ubiquitous Computing' as an interdisciplinary grand challenge affecting all aspects of computer science that has massive implications for how we might reason about, build and experience computer systems with considerable issues for society.

Speakers and chairs include:
Professor Ozalp Babaoglu, Professor Gaetano Borriello, Professor Jon Crowcroft, Professor Sir Ara Darzi, Professor Rocco de Nicola, Mr Adam Greenfield, Professor Wendy Hall, Professor Tom Henzinger, Professor Andy Hopper FRS, Professor Anupam Joshi, Professor Marta Kwiatkowska, Professor Gary Marsden, Professor Margaret Martonosi, Professor Robin Milner FRS, Professor Morgens Nielsen, Professor Ronald Rivest, Professor Tom Rodden, Professor Timothy Roscoe, Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Professor Morris Sloman, Professor Jeannette Wing and Professor Jonathan Zittrain.

Micks Vod/podcasting down under at Mlearn as easy as cracking eggs !!

Mick Mullane session at Mlearn my spies tell me went down well!

you can see why the eggs pun at :

http://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk//blojsom_resources/meta/mlearn/megansegg.mp4

And see all of Micks and Steves Podcasting efforts from mlearn at at

http://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk/weblog/mlearn/

I wouldn't get him to make a omelette but as for a vodcast !! My spies tell me the table for dinner at the aquarium was wild !! If you were there leave a comment !!

More from Mick when he writes up the OE (Overseas Experience) !!!

Handheld 2007 3 Day two

Up very early getting ready for the day . The first day of Handheld 2007 proper a morning of key notes and an afternoon in which I am moderating a great session on emerging pedagogy .

Some great presenters in this session

Bob Harrison
Joceyyn Wisehart
John Traxler
Mark Van Hooft

really looking forward to the debate. Bring it on !!!!

Why Dont YOU !! The Cubie !!!

Why Dont You !!
As some of you know I am gigging at Futurelabs forthcoming conference "Why Dont You!" 30-31 October at immarasat Conference centre in London http://www.futurelab.org.uk/events/listing/why_dont_you

Doing a workshop called

BLOG OFF: these Web 2.0 tools will never make it into the learner
experience

Much has been made of learners being
so deeply embroiled in technology that they see it as commonplace, neutral and
invisible. We call it ‘Web 2.0’, they use it without thinking. Teachers are
failing to keep pace with awareness of this technology, never mind incorporating
it into their practice. This workshop involves a rapid tour of some Web 2.0
tools that are already used by learners, and examines issues such as the
barriers to teaching staff deploying these tools to support learning. The
session also gives participants a chance to create artefacts.

But what's really cool as part of the marketing they have sent out a assemble yourself cube with the programme on it

Well my children loved it see the flickr slideshow below or the link to the splashr one below it




Splashr


BTW isnt splashr cool find out more at www.splashr.com

I when in the office saw at least four cube around the office . Whats really cool is Dan Sutch "Crusader of the creative side" of Futurelab is going to run a competition getting people to email in photos of where they put their cubes.
Could this be the rubics cube of 2007 who knows but watch out for the competition.

Handheld 2007 Mark Van Hooft presenting twice !!

Just back from Mobile and wirless'ing Glasgow and picked up through my feeds Mark Van Hoot is coming to Handheld. Mark is a really well respected member of the e-learning communitiy and he has view on things. Marks blog is worth a read you may not like what he says all the time but you should read it. Another great hit for Handheld2007 getting more excited !!!! How sad is that !!! 10,11,12th October 2007. BTW Mark mentions two sites were discount codes can be found .

http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/preparing-to-attend-handheld-learning-2007-or-the-wild-wacky-wireless-and-wonderful-world-of-mobile-learning/

EPICT conference future trends in learning

Mobile Learning and Online Communication

ajb1962@gmail.com

The normal caveat my view of what’s happening and its probably wrong. This is many way showcases excellent work that others are going to talk about

Plus if you want to keep up to date watch technology blogs my blog is www.andysblackhole.blogspot.com

Also subscribe to

Becta Technews
Becta Content developers news subscribe to both at http://industry.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=1672
RSS feeds of BCC technology pages

1Power

1.1 Switch IT off

1.1.1http://www.pcpro.co.uk/html/switch_it_off/

PC pro ran a campaign this year investigating the amountof cash wasted through PC's being left on overnight.

It was quite suprising,

if you leave a pc on overnight it will quickly consume 1kWh of energy, meaning you are needlessly spending more than £35 per year. And do not think that putting it into standby will help: we found one PC that consumed 78W in this mode, only reducing the wastage to about £25.

If your college has 100 pc's that's possibly £3500/year

AS well as saving cash, the scheme is approved by the carbon trust, as helping to reduce CO2 emmisions.

1.2Batteries

1.2.1 Battery powered printer

Flexibility in delivery and assessment.

The advent of online testing for keyskills, and various other assessments can make a difference. The city and guilds online testing facility allows the test to be downloaded and put on a laptop and carried out to the workplace taking the test to the user. A portable printer powered by Lion battery pack means provisional results can be given instantly.

1.2.2 Battery projection device

you don't believe me ???

1.2.3 Fuel Cells

Forget the miniature vodka shots you will be carrying alcohol to top up your laptop. Fuel cells are going to be appearring very soon . The much vaunted $100 laptop using wind up technology will have spin offs elsewhere .Intel are also talking of parrallel product educational $100 device

2Devices

2.1 Tablets

New software that is ink enabled turning up all the time Reg Microsoft one note, Agile Go binder, Blackboard backpack. see Becta tablet PC evaluation http://www.becta.org.uk/research/research.cfm?section=1&id=3357

Power toys from Microsoft for tablet:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/tabletpc.mspx

Trend

1) slate

2) laptop plus keyboard . The days of tablet being less powerful than laptop are long gone

2.2UMPC

UltraMobile PC 's heres two I made earlier

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1856508,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=20

Q1 by samsung with added USB Keyboard (theyre tablets to)

UMPC 650 by Remtech

2.3Handheld device

As with UMPC couple of places to stay in touch if you know the future let me know

Is it Portable Digital Assistnat PDA or Education Digital assistant EDA

or is it an phoneww.handheldlearning.co.uk

Join PDA in education jiscmail list

PDA-EDU@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

I have seen the future and its Apple !!

2.4Memory Sticks

wireless usb memory is coming

2.5Games machines

2.5.1PSP

2 million devices in the UK by Christmas 5 million by Easter !!

with WiFI ability to run flash and browser capability

2.5.2Nintendo DS

2.5.3WII

2.6MP3 Players

IPOD released 2001 by September 2007 110 million world wide !!

stuff seen Glasgow yesterday link here

2.7Wireless projectors

3Connectivity

3.1Wi FI

8011b

8011g

8011n

Spanish firm Fon could change the model very Wi Fi 2.0

3.23 G

It isn't cheap but neither is paying for one off wireless hotspots. In major centre works well and most provincial towns have coverage

3.3Wi Max

WiMax will cover most of the UK witih two to three year . Intel trialling with University. Several city wide trials of wimax and mesh wireless technology being talked off

3.4GSM Edge

See document: happy-birthday-gsm-network.html

3.5Bluetooth

Bluetooth 1 10Metres

Bluetooth 2 100metres

4social software

4.1Blogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs

http://edublogs.org

blogger

http://www.blogger.com

4.2Wiki

A shared resource of web page allowing multiple users to edit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

PBwiki

http://pbwiki.com

Wiki spaces

http://www.wikispaces.com

4.3Subtopic

4.4RSS

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) (20th May 2006)

Web feeds

a push technology linked with stuff like

you can read feeds in live book marks in Firefox, www.bloglines.com , RSS reader in Google.

my bloglines are public www.blogslines.com/public/ajb1962

4.5Podcasting

Downloads of MP3 was definitely the emerging technology in education of 2004/2005 Podcasting was the emerging technology of 2005/2006

4.5.1 St Johns Podcast

Downloads of MP3 was definitely the emerging technology in education of 2005 Podcasting is the emerging technology of 2006 . Saint Johns Ambulance have even done simple First Aid advice as podcasts http://www.sja.org.uk/firstaid/info/default.asp . Look out for More and The Ferl website at becta is going to be doing a trial podcast in the new year

4.6Photosharing

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com

my photo's

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysblackhole/

Picasa

http://picasa.google.co.uk

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

4.7Face book

www.facebook.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

the UK now has 5.2m Facebook users

4.8MySpace

http://www.myspace.com

MySpace has cracked the 10 million user mark in the UK, meaning more people have put a profile up than drink bitter, according to the social networking website.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2122397,00.html

4.9Youtube/teachertube

See document: get_video.flv

5SMS phenomena

UK 4.5 billion text messages sent in March !!!

The majority of the now 2.5+ billion mobile subscribers are located in developing countries. This is a stunning new kind of event for our planet: the dominance of leading edge technology is emerging from marginalises places. That has not happened before, particularly on the enormous scale of the mobiles.

Pupils at a school in Buckinghamshire have been getting extra help with GCSE revision by texting their teachers. Far from banning mobile phones, Cottesloe School in Wing has decided to turn modern technology to its advantage in an attempt to improve results. Since Easter, Year 11 pupils have been able to message teachers from home with revision queries and get a text answer. The school said “text mentoring” had also seen teachers messaging pupils with revision prompts and exam tips.

c

TeachMeet007, Scottish learning festival and EPICT conference

Lucky enough to be going on a bit of a Scottish Fest over next few days:-

First of All In the wild arranged on behalf of Channel 4 by Steve Moore of policy unplugged on Wednesday afternoon .
http://inthewild2channel4.eventbrite.com/

Secondly Swiftly followed on by TeachMeet07 early evening thanks to Ewan Mactintosh and Merlin for suggesting this. I am doing a 7 minute presentation called Andy Black unplugged I will be showing a range of ultra mobile device s other gadgets and a range of approaches http://wiki.scotedublogs.org.uk/index.php/TeachMeet07#Seven_minute_micropresentations

Thirdly a busmans holiday of a day at the Scottish learning Festival. http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sett/

Last and not least a workshop at the Epict conference on Mobile Learning and Online Communication http://www.epict.co.uk/conference.php

No sleep till friday !!!!! Bring it on !!!!! Oh yes and of course I will blog it !!!!

less than a month to go and counting to Handheld Learning Conference

Well I am excited and I am pleased to be facilitating at the conference yes Graham persuaded me again. I am doing the breakout on "Reflections on Pedagogy"

cant wait but loads of stuff to do before then .

See the current programme at http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/hhl2007/hhl07_programme.pdf

Its going to be great and yet again it will take me weeks to recover and sustain my enthusiasm through the dark winter months "BRING IT ON !!!!

I dont believe !!

Just realised I haven't got links to Handheld 2007 in my sidebar going to put it in now and also the forum !! Cor must be loosing it !!! Just over a month to go and the buzz is getting louder over HHL2007 going to be a good one !!

ALT C reflection on programme by fellow blogger . See you there maybe ???

Huge heads up to Steve wheeler for this bit of content analysis about ALT C whereI am most of the week. He's done a Bob Harrison style word search and look mobile is way up there !! hang on folks the mainstream is picking up speed

e-Learning 31
Web 2.0 Social Software 25
VLEs 24
Blogs 20
Mobile learning 19
Social networking 18
Wikis 16

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2007/08/top-7-topics-at-this-years-alt-c.html

Who else is going to ALT C and if you are blog about it !!

ICT Conference -The Essential Skills for the 21st Century

If your interested in the area of ICT as a skill for life this event maybe of interest.
Organised by NIACE
Wednesday 7 November 2007

Venue: East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park, Nottingham
NG7 2RJ


Background

In order to successfully participate in 21st century society requires individuals to be competent and confident users of information and communication technology (ICT). ICT has changed the way we work, learn and live our lives. Over 90% of all new jobs require ICT skills and the growth in government and commercial online services means that people who are unable to use them are increasingly at a disadvantage.

Employers require employees with ever improving levels of ICT skills and knowledge therefore 20 million employees will need to continuously enhance their skills. Almost 17 million adults do not use the Internet and are at risk of serious social and economic disadvantage.

At the moment there are many new initiatives and developments underway that make it important to be aware of the main trends in assisting people to develop their ICT skills. Some of the new developments are:

* ICT as a Skill for Life
* ICT Functional Skills
* ICT Diploma
* the relationship between ICT and other skills for life
* vendor standards
* ITQ.

The main aims of the event are to:

* understand the ICT needs of the country
* gain an understanding of the main developments within ICT users
skills
* gain an understanding of the relationships between the different
developments.


Objectives of the event

Participants will gain an understanding of:

* the new ICT User Skills developments (e.g. MyGuide - how to
reach the millions of people who do not use the Internet)
* the relationship between initiatives such as ICT Skills for
Life, ICT Functional Skills and ICT Diploma
* the relationship between ICT and the other skills for life.

This event will be of particular interest to:

* ICT teachers, tutors and trainers
* Managers with responsibility for ICT User Skills delivery.
* Arrival and registration is at 9:30am for a 10:00am start. The event will end at 4:00pm.

For further details and to reserve a place, look up:

http://www.niace.org.uk/conferences/Conferences.htm

Enquiries to Gurjit Kaur on 0116 204 2833; e-mail:
gurjit.kaur@niace.org.uk

Mlearn melbourne 2007 ;Making the connection

OK I cant go but youve got to follow this sign up for the newsletter updates at least http://www.mlearn2007.org/newsletter.php#mobile_learning

I wish Caryl Oliver conference chair and colleagues a good one !! Caryl has done some great stuff with FE type learners. Great also to see a UK company doing the sms
side of the conference.

I love Five Quick Strategies to ease into using mobiles for learning

• Think of mobiles as mini-computers: call them by a new name!
• Think of mobiles as tools to share, not just for individuals
• Think of learning, as well as social applications
• Focus on creation, rather than consumption
• Develop etiquette for mobiles with students

so go one register for the newsletter better still get there. Sell the Mac, the pet or whatever but get there !

Designing human centred technologies for the developing world

Interesting area of work technology in the developing or the forgotten world !!! so if your out there got any work to showcase get that submission in because the deadlines been extended. Is developed world thinking technology transferable and is it sustainable any help to the vast bulk of the population ????

link at
http://hct4d.blogspot.com/
Workshop: Designing human centered technologies for the
developing world: HCI but not as we know it. Tue, 4 Sept. 2007 at the
HCI 2007 conference, Lancaster, UK

With
huge investments being made in ICT for development (ICT4D) and
education (e.g. "$100 laptop," UN programmes etc.) and high
expectations being raised, it is critical to ensure that ICT
developments are in fact usable, useful, appropriate and well adapted
to the communities and contexts in which they are intended to be used.
This requires well designed solutions, which in turn requires
appropriate human-centred design methods. However, it is unclear that
methods largely developed for and with users in the developed world
will prove appropriate in the developing world. This workshop aims to
bring together interested parties and strengthen the User-centred
design for development (UCS4D) community, as well as contribute to the
body of knowledge about designing for and with communities in the
developing world.

GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP

• Share experiences of Human Centred Design in the developing world;
• Identify key issues and patterns;
• Explore new, alternative and modified methods for human centred and participatory design of Development Technologies;
• Develop new partnerships - particularly international partnerships;
• Disseminate learning from this workshop through online and and offline publication; and
• Strengthen the HCI in Development Technology community.

Its part of the main HCI 2007 conference link to that is here http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2007

MLearn 2007 early bird deadline for submissions approaching.

Got thank my fellow M learning protagonist Elizabeth.Hartnell-young Of Nottingham University for making me aware of this. I prsented at Mlearn2006 in Banff Alberta and it was great Melbourne should be even better. I cant go unless one of you blog readers fancies giving me a free flight ;-))

We are rapidly approaching the early bird deadline for this year's mLearn conference in Melbourne 16-19 October. www.mlearn2007.org Please pass on to your networks!

Moving Learning 2007

Based in Utrecht in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

see teaser preview of Elliot Massie keynote

http://www.youmoveme.com/speakers/elliottmasie.asp

main conference website
http://www.youmoveme.com/

Going native at going wild at in the wild

In the wild at channel 4 today with what seems like a who's who of interesting people in the social networking world in the UK !!Event doesnt start till 9.30 but already picked up interesting stuff from the related virtual conference looking forward to it. Promise to blog !!!

see the excellent programme here

I give up just reads Ewan Mcintosh's blog posting out blogged by Scotland best blogger !!! read ewans blog here

10th- 12th October Handheld 2007

The headliners include.

Stephen Crowne of Becta doing the Keynote followed by visionary and digital native ? Marc Prensky
details at
http://www.handheldlearning2007.com/pages/home.php

If your serious about M-learning you've got to be there.

Flyer can be downloaded at http://www.handheldlearning2007.com/docs/hhl2007.pdf

ePortfolio 2007, Maastricht 17-19 October 2007 call for papers

ePortfolio 2007, Maastricht 17-19 October 2007
This event was in UK last year and some of my Colleagues at Becta supported it and reported good things.
http://events.eife-l.org/ep2007/

ePortfolio 2007 is the key international event for the growing community of
professionals interested in, and working with, ePortfolios. It brings
together policy-makers, researchers, teachers, trainers, human resource
managers and technologists. As a thematic event devoted to one domain,
it allows an in-depth and broad exploration of the issues - and results
in real outcomes. Past events have resulted in the creation of national
and international networks, contribution to ePortfolio policy, the
launch of the ePortfolio for All campaign, progress in ePortfolio
interoperability through the Plugfest, transnational projects and
numerous publications.



if you want to submit a paper workshop link is at http://events.eife-l.org/ep2007/call

Innovating e-Learning 2007 - Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning, 11 - 14 June 2007

This is likely to be a great event.

Supported by my friends at DirectLearn who are rapidly becoming the online conference organisers in the UK.

This is to let you know about the Jisc 2007 online conference, following last year's successful conference. This year, the topic is Innovating e-Learning 2007 - Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning, 11 - 14 June 2007

The conference focuses on the potential of e-learning in transforming practice within institutions and in supporting lifelong learning. The keynote presenters will offer a rich variety of perspectives on these themes:

Theme 1: Institutional transformation Day 1: Terry Mayes, Emeritus Professor, Glasgow Caledonian University, and Day 2: Dr John Guy, Principal, and Dr Mike Docker, Director, ICLT, the Sixth Form College, Farnborough

Theme 2: Supporting Lifelong Learning, introduced by Robin Mason, Professor of Educational Technology at The Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University

The concluding presentation will be given by Oleg Liber, Professor of e-Learning and Director of the Research Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS), University of Bolton.

As well as these keynote presenters, there is a very large number of other sessions and presentations, making up what we hope is an exciting and useful programme. The full programme (and booking
information) can be seen at:

www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_conference07

As last year, the conference will be open for a week for pre-conference reading, from the 4th June. The conference itself will run from 11-14 June and will then remain open for viewing for a full month, until 15 July.