The newly launched report,  ‘Games Technologies for Learning: More Than Just Toys’ explores the ways in which computer and digital learning games and the extra functionality and affordances of handheld games technologies can be used to enhance and support teaching and learning.

The largest section of the report includes 35 case studies and teaching and learning snapshots provided by MoLeNET projects from phase one (2007/08) and phase two (2008/09). These offer useful examples of how games technologies have been used successfully for teaching and learning via both games and their additional functionality. Examples range across a variety of subjects and learners, and many learning contexts including the classroom, workplace, home, workshop and salon.

The full report is available from here

The successful bids for MoLeNET 2009 funding include the following London Colleges:

Large projects

Ealing Hammersmith and West London College  – Mobile Health Care

Havering Sixth Form College – TWEET! – Teaching with emerging and enabling technologies  – TWEET!

West Thames College - eGo (English on the Go)

Working Men’s College - The ESOL MoleMentor Project

Micro-Projects

Barnet College - MENTOR-ME  Mobile Enhanced Mentoring in Teacher Training

The Learning and Skills Network announced the colleges who have made successful bids for MoLeNET phase 3 at the Handheld Learning Conference earlier this week.

The successful colleges for this next phase of MoLeNET will each lead a consortium. They include three from the London region, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London; West Thames and Working Men’s College.

Jill Attewell, project director for the LSN said, “We are determined to leave a lasting legacy in the use of mobile learning in further education and we will share the lessons learned across the whole sector.”

Following a quiet few months in terms of announcements of funding for e-Learning, some ‘green shoots’ have started to appear with a third phase of MoLeNET available to English FE colleges (including sixth form colleges and Independent Specialist Colleges) and over £50 million made available for interest-free loans to fund public sector energy saving projects; opening up opportunities for some innovative Green IT ideas to be get started.

More recently we have received notice that there will be a second funding round of Capital Motivating e-Learning 2 (Camel 2), that can support capital projects for e-learning in adult and community learning. Work-based learning providers can also expect details towards the end of August about a further phase of Learning Innovation Grant (LIG5).

Thirty successful projects for the second phase of MoLeNET have been announced. They include:

• Capel Manor College
• Ealing Hammersmith and West London College
• Redbridge College
• South Thames College
• Tower Hamlets College

The Learning and Skills Council is making available £4 million of capital funding for this round of MoLeNET projects.