Tag: OER

Weeknote #10

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

This week I have been mostly…

Ill

I wasn’t very well at the start of the week – just a bug but it made me feel awful. I took a couple of days off work.

Camping

With my parents away on holiday and Hannah at work I’d booked Wednesday off to look after Ben. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to go camping, just us two, for the first time.

Ben was really well-behaved, but the rain was absolutely torrential on Tuesday night! I thought he’d slept reasonably well, but he asked to go to bed when we got home and slept for another 3 hours…

Preparing

I’ve got some important stuff coming up:

Tomorrow it’s my first ever running race – the BUPA Great North 10k in Sunderland. I’m aiming to do it in under 50 minutes. I’m running for UNICEF.
Next Friday it’s the JISC OER International Symposium in London. I’ll be demoing the OER infoKit.
On Thursday 29th July it’s Google Teacher Academy (#GTAUK) in London. I’m a Lead Learner running the sessions on Google Earth. I’ve started putting together a wiki and ebook to accompany my session which will be of use to more than just those attending. You can access it (and help build it!) at http://sites.google.com/site/gtaukge.

Writing

I’m continuing the JISC Mobile & Wireless Technologies review I started last month, having some really interesting conversations with some extremely innovative people. There’s so much to learn and synthesize!

My thesis is starting to slightly concern me. Although I’ve announced that I’m no longer blogging here every day I’ve got so much left to do. The trouble isn’t the writing of the thing, it’s the keeping up with such a fast-moving field! I undertook my Ed.D. mainly because I love researching but I have to say I’ll be glad when it’s all over.

An idea went through my head earlier this week about a short, free ebook that would serve as a productivity kickstarter. I couldn’t stop thinking about what to include, how to format it, etc. so ended up spending a few hours writing #onfire: ignite your productivity. Do let me know what you think!

Open Educational Resources infoKit

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

As this post goes live I’m at the Higher Education Academy Conference 2010. Last night I helped launch the OER infoKit on behalf of JISC infoNet which is something I’ve been working on ever since I started my new role at the beginning of April this year. 🙂

The above video is simply a rolling demo (no sound), but I’d encourage you to visit the OER infoKit itself. If you’re involved in education, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something worthwhile in it! 😀

Short URL: http://bit.ly/oerinfokit

Weeknote #4

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

This week I have been mostly…

Gaining clarification

I’m part of the team putting the finishing touches to the Open Educational Resources infoKit. It’s going to be launched in a couple of weeks’ time at the Higher Education Academy conference so I needed to ensure I was doing thing properly at my end. I approached David Kernohan, JISC Programme Manager and all-round OER guru after a wider e-learning team meeting down in Bristol this week. When I asked if there was anything he wanted me to do with the OER infoKit before launch, he told me to “make it shiny”. 🙂

Re-considering my workwear

Up until a couple of months ago I worked in schools. Which have 6-week holidays. So it’s pretty easy to wear long-sleeved shirts and trousers all-year round. OK, so you might swelter for a couple of weeks, but it’s not worth buying whole new work outfits for such a short period of time.

It’s only really just hit me that I’ll be working all through the summer. Which is fine, but kind of means I should invest in some more workwear. And then there’s the whole roasting hot outside/air conditioning inside problem – but I’ll stop before I sound too metrosexual…

Buying (and almost buying) a new phone

I’d decided on the Nokia N900 as the replacement to my ageing iPhone 3G; I wanted something open and different. The trouble is, a crafty eBayer scammed me on Monday (I’ve since got my money back through Paypal) and then I managed to input my details incorrectly in my excitement at seeing that Carphone Warehouse had some reconditioned SIM-free N900s in stock for half their normal retail price. So I ended up N900-less.

In the end, I’m pleased I did have those problems, because the phone/tablet/slate/hybrid thing I bought yesterday really does seem to kick some ass. It’s a Dell Streak which sports a 5″ screen and runs Google’s Android operating system. I’m going to review it on Tuesday but suffice to say I feel very futuristic using it compared to my iPhone! :-p

Pulling out of the SHP Conference

I was due to speak with Nick Dennis at the annual Schools History Project Conference again this year, for the fourth year in a row. However, I’ve decided for a number of reasons, not least that I’m not currently in the classroom, to let Nick speak by himself at the conference this year. I’ll be helping out with the first-ever TeachMeet at the event virtually.

Getting excited about Google Teacher AcademyI’ve had a couple of conversations with the legendary Tom Barrett recently about the upcoming Google Teacher Academy on Thursday 29th July 2010. I’ll be running at least one of the sessions and am really looking forward to meeting innovative educators at the event!

I really would encourage you to apply to be one of the 50 at GTA UK. Everything you need to know is on this page and you need to apply by Thursday 17th June 2010. It involves both an online application and a 1-minute video. I know it’s a busy time of year and being held during the summer holidays, but you’ll definitely not be there if you don’t apply! 😀