Ofsted’s latest examples of good practice

Ofsted’s Good Practice Team has published new examples of good practice by four learning providers. These examples can be found in the Ofsted Good Practice Database – available exclusively on the Excellence Gateway. Most examples give you access to the providers’ original files to help you start your quality improvement journey with  confidence. Read more:
http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=301507

College shares its award-winning practice for inclusive risk assessments

Richmond Upon Thames College has developed an award-winning project that provides guidance and advice on completing inclusive risk assessments for students with medical conditions or disabilities. The project has helped the college to better understand the needs of its learners ensuring all students are given every opportunity to participate in college life. The college has uploaded its guidance resource to the Excellence Gateway so it can be of benefit to other organisations.  Read more:
http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/297676

Excellence Gateway user needs survey

We need your feedback! Please help us to improve the Excellence Gateway to better meet your needs by completing our online survey. Click here to complete the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EG-online-survey

The new Equality Act 2010 came into force in England, Wales and Scotland on 1st October 2010. There is  a lot of general guidance available to help education providers, including the Equality Act guidance downloads from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which  help explain the Act and provide practical examples on how the law has changed for employers, workers, service providers, service users and education providers.

JISC TechDis have produced an excellent and easy to read booklet promoting the wider benefits of inclusive practices for educational providers:  Improve your 3 Rs Recruitment • Retention • Results (PDF)

“As well as complying with the new legislation there are also real practical and economic benefits to adopting inclusive practices. JISC TechDis specialises in
highlighting the use of technology to remove barriers to learning and promoting inclusive practices. Our resources enable universities, colleges and other learning providers to minimise the barriers experienced by a range of learners and can bring significant benefits in terms of recruitment, retention and results.”

JISC TechDis have also just launched their new web resource supporting the Single Equality Duty. The web resource is part of  the  new JISC TechDis website and provides a wide range of useful information and links to resources that can enable your organisation ‘to take a proactive approach to shaping institutional processes and the promotion of equality‘ because ‘merely avoiding discrimination is no longer an option.’

This newly updated advice document from JISC Digital Media looks at how the photo sharing site Flickr and some of its associated tools and services can help you to organise a collection of images. As well as exploring some of the more useful features, this document also highlights Flickr’s limitations and areas for particular consideration.

The guide can be accessed from:

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/stillimages/advice/using-flickr-to-organise-a-collection-of-images/

JISC Collections has been working on a new website:
http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/, which has been set up to provide a more user friendly way of navigating the content that JISC funding has helped made available to the HE and FE communities.

The site is not aiming to give item level access to each collection, i.e. it is not a federated search or discovery service. Rather it is a gateway that provides brief descriptions of each collection, and offers users different and, hopefully, engaging ways to browse through these descriptions, and learn more about what is on offer.

The content currently includes material licensed by JISC Collections and material digitised via the two phases of the Digitisation Programme, the Enriching Digital Resources strand, and the first phase of the JISC – NEH (National Endowment for Humanities) Transatlantic work.

The plan is to update the site over time, and in particular to make some changes in response to feedback gathered over the next month or so. If you have feedback, modifications etc. then please send them to collections@jisc.ac.uk.

Visit the new JISC Content website:  http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/

JISC Digital Media in conjunction with the Virtual Training Suite (VTS) have launched two new online tutorials:
Internet for Audio Resource:
(www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/audio)

Internet for Video and Moving Images:
(www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/video)

The free to use tutorials have been designed to assist staff and students within the education sector to locate audio and video for use in both teaching and learning. (more…)

HEFCE’s Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM)  fund has supported the HE in FECs Expert Programme, an 18-month project.

In the first project stage, four seminars were held in 2009 for principals, senior managers and college governors. Resources that could support the strategic development of higher education provided in further education colleges were identified. In the second project stage, resources and materials were collected.

The project is now nearing completion and the project website provides access to resources and links to other source material relating to six themes:

• the nature of higher education;
• funding of HE delivered in FECs;
• management and planning;
• quality assurance arrangements;
• policy and strategy for HE in FECs;
• governance.

Materials provided by colleges and other organisations are being added to the website and can be downloaded and customised by colleges. The development materials can be accessed at: www.sheffield.ac.uk/heinfestratprog/materials.html

The project team is still looking at and adding materials and any colleagues who would be prepared to submit materials they have used successfully are asked to contact Penny Blackie (p.blackie@fdf.ac.uk) and Anne Thompson (anne.thompson20@btinternet.com).

The launch of a new online resource reveals today’s top literacy issues are the impact of technology and family reading

The new National Literacy Trust website is launching today, Monday 1st March. This free resource will provide literacy news and debate, opportunities for engagement with the Trust’s campaigns, extensive research and policy information, a wiki of good literacy practice, and a wealth of resources for professionals.

The British Library’s new interactive timeline will allow students to get a sense of change, continuity and chronology when studying historical events. Bringing together material from the Library’s vast collections and using cutting-edge technology, users will now be able to discover historical connections and create links in an exciting multimedia experience.

Highlights of collection items featured include:

• Records of major events – from the Black Death and the Great Fire to the French Revolution and the abolition of the slave trade.
• Printed matter – the first English printed book, the first cookery manuscript, the first English bible and the first postage stamp.
• Public Life – posters, advertisements and illustrations documenting everything from public executions and magic shows to plague cures and séances.
• Campaigns – pamphlets and writings from activists such as Abolitionists, Chartists, Communists and CND marchers.
• Manuscripts – written by great figures in history including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Captain Cook, Beethoven, Wordsworth, Abolitionists, Florence Nightingale and Dickens.
• Maps – cities, military campaigns and imagined lands.
• Patents – including those for the Spinning Jenny, the bicycle and the machine gun.

http://www.bl.uk/timeline

Five animations form Netskills, covering social media, podcasting, RSS feeds,collaborative writingand microblogging are now available online.

These animations adopt a fast and easy approach to understanding how new technologies can enhance everyday working practice.

Will Allen, consultant trainer from JISC Netskills, says:

“There’s plenty of evidence that Web 2.0 tools have dramatically affected the working practice of those who‘ve adopt them. But where should new users begin? Our Web2practice animations are designed to help, provide a concise overview of the technologies, the benefits of using them and how to get started.

Each animation is supported by a complementary printed guide, available direct from JISC Netskills and for download from the Web2practice site.

The animations can be freely used, downloaded and adapted by those watching them because they are all licensed under Creative Commons.

Lawrie Phipps, JISC users and innovation programme manager, explains:

“there are really very few people working in universities and colleges today who won’t benefit, in both collaborative and personal practical terms from what Web 2.0 technologies can add to their day-to-day work.”

There is also a feature on the preview site for viewers to comment on the animations.

The full set of eight animations (adding blogging, social bookmarking, communications and digital identity) will be available early in August 2009.

View the animations on the Web2practice web pages

Just launched, ‘Hiding the wiring – a best practice guide for communicating with employers’ has been produced by the Association of Colleges to help business development and communications professionals in Colleges strengthen ties with business through more effective communication.

The guide focuses on relevant marketing and public relations research and covers topics as diverse as branding, reputation, internal communications, social marketing, market research and support software.

Link to AoC webpage and PDFs of the Guide for downlaod