Researchers Without Borders

I don’t know if you’ve seen this before but I thought it looked interesting.

http://www.researcherswithoutborders.org

“Researchers Without Borders (RWB) is a home for open research in education. It is a collaborative working environment in which individuals across academic institutions, disciplines, sectors, and levels of organizational structure can direct their efforts to solve shared problems, do collaborative research and development, and build productive working relationships and collaborations.”

Call for papers

UAE Journal of Education Technology and eLearning - http://www.ejournal.ae/ is accepting articles for the next edition of the journal, planned for Sep 2010. The articles can be sent on elearningjournal@hct.ac.ae. I would appreciate if you could also send the website address to your friends who are engaged in Ed Tech and eLearning in other institutes.

Regards,

Michael

Demonstration on E-podium Technology

http://www.admc.hct.ac.ae/itunes/AfterVideoClick.aspx?AssetId=0b92e167-4584-452e-b998-40a8edf5b191

SMS (texting) Students Pilot Project

The College has started a pilot project SMS (texting) students study tips to 620 first year general education students. They are linked by a weekly theme and related to a twenty week semester. As they had to be generic and non-subject specific, for the pilot project students we have gone for the following subject:

1. Course-start review
2. Planning and prioritizing
3. Organizing notes
4. Active Learning
5. Motivation
6. Using technology
7. Study Goals
8. Critical Thinking
9. Feedback
10. Mid-course review
11. Critical Thinking
12. General
13. Time management
14. Educational Technology
15. Managing stress
16. Revision planning
17. Finding out about the exam
18. Revision techniques
19. End-of-course
20. Feedback

Any example of the messages:

Using technology
Try using RSS feeds to keep you up to date with news in your subject area. Google, Yahoo and MSN have tools to help.

Using technology
Photo or video a whiteboard diagram, instead of copying it down. You can easily add these to OneNote why not have a go.

Using technology
Record audio notes to summarise key points. These will become very useful when revising for exams.

Using technology
Look at what apps there are for your mobile phone to help your studies. You will find useful apps for English, Maths, Science and more.

I hope the English is accessible to the majority of readers English been their second language. There has been no official feedback yet but of the 620 students very few have chosen to unsubscribe from the service. I will be blogging any feedback I get but if you would like to know more please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Michael

Educational video for streaming

Some good resources on here of you’d like to have a look. HCT on iTunes aims to support learning by providing high quality educational video for streaming and downloading. All videos are optimized for playback on a variety of media players as well as mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch.

http://podcast.admc.hct.ac.ae

Or

http://www.youtube.com/user/ADMCVideos

Abu Dhabi Men's College

Well I’m finally in my new post and will start properly blogging again soon. There are lots of exciting project starting here at the College already we have the in-house publications now only available online and linked through Blackboard. A student SMS system which if done correctly would make the college front runners in mobile learning. A College assessment project has also started which will look at developing an Assessment in Education Course for all academic staff members and assessment rubrics for the collage. All this and I only started two and a half weeks ago. If you would like to find out more about any of the above project please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be keep my blog up to date on all of the above.

Michael Bolton
eLearning and Educational Technology Coordinator
Abu Dhabi Men's College
PO Box 25035
Abu Dhabi
UAE

Email: michael.bolton@hct.ac.ae

Leaving the University of Leeds

As some of you may have heard I’ve handed in my notice and will be leaving the University. I have accepted a new job as E-Learning & Educational Technology Coordinator at Abu Dhabi Men’s College which is part of the Higher Collages of Technology in the UAE. I have really enjoyed working with you all over the last couple of years and would like to thank everyone for making my job such a pleasure.

I’ve created a list of things you may like to check before I leave to make any transition as smooth as possible:

• Can you access all your semester 2 modules
• Do you need and TA enrolling on your semester 2 modules
• Would you like two modules or more merging into one area (this is a new functions we can offer)
• Would you like a programme level organisation
• Would you like to use any of the VLE tools or have any DVD/videos in your semester 2 modules

If you would like any help with anything VLE related please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,

Michael