RSC Northern's e-Fest 14 - an e-Ventful Tale

Guess what? As usual I've left this too long from the event to writing it up. Bad practice I know, and not what I was taught whilst doing my Chartership. So first of all any action plan I have should start with must reflect sooner on training rather than later.

What can I remember about the e-Fest?

I can remember tweeting all day rather than taking notes. This is a first for me and something I would like to continue doing. What I haven't done is collected the tweets together so let me put that as another point on the action plan.

I am a digital native apparently, this came as a surprise. I'm not saying i'm no good at it and I'm not scared of it, I just don't find it as intuitive or as easy to use as (some) other people - especially those who are younger. I do though make the Internet my first port of call when I want to find out something which is what supposedly makes me a digital native. I'm still not convinced!

Minecraft - using it as an educational tool. I tried to do a bit of homework before this session, I'd heard of Minecraft but never seen or played it, so I decided to take a demo of it and get a feel for what it is about. I was so inept I drowned myself 3 times in about an hour of play :( Anyway as an educational tool, I can see the benefits of Minecraft, build something collaboratively, project management, teamwork, decision making etc it is all there and in a fun way.

Sensory Pods - definitely the most fun thing of the day. An immersive learning experience where you have smell, sound, climate and movement to accompany the topic you are learning about or you can go in and chill out, which makes it ideal for learners with special needs, as it is a safe haven for them. This is todays version of Star Trek's holodeck, we are not quite as advanced as in Star Trek but we are getting there.

CoLRiC Roadshow, Durham - my top 5 most interesting points

Last week, I attended the CoLRiC Roadshow event in Durham. To help get me back into blogging, I am writing this post about it. Also to help me get back into blogging, i'm going to try to keep it fairly short by writing the top 5 things I took from it. These are in no particular order:

1. I enjoyed using the Socrative app, which is an online and mobile student response system app. I was pleasantly surprised that when I downloaded it onto my phone, I didn't have to put in my e-mail and password. It only asked for a room number, which is provided by the person taking the session.
2. Dundee and Angus College have front facing IT Technicians. This is very refreshing and sadly for most of us probably a pipedream.
3. In order to survive the LRC / library service needs to make itself essential to the College. To do this you need to identify what the College needs and then provide this service. Where I work the first service that springs to mind as being essential is our assignment submission service. This service allows students to hand in their work at a central location. I will be looking at the other services we provide to see if anymore are essential and also thinking about what else is needed that we could provide.
4. The Six Book Challenge can now be ran from September. The Reading Agency has moved up the timescale for when the packs are available to accommodate the academic year, as there are so many Colleges taking part now and some would like the full year to do it in. Whilst my College hasn't yet started running the Challenge, I am now going to give it another push and see if we can get a group going in September.
5. LRC induction done as a gameshow complete with compare and scoreboard using the Cephalonia method of learning - looks and sounds great. Done in a lecture theatre, so it reaches many students at once. I really like the idea and would love to give it a go.

Library Camp North East

I have heard a lot about Library Camps in the last year and wondered what they would be like, so I was excited at having one in the local area. I wasn't sure what to expect except for cake - an absolute must at these events. I knew the theory about them - whoever shows up are the right people and what we discuss are the right topics. 

This is actually a very refreshing idea because so many times I can look at conferences or training days and think that it is a narrow scope or predominently (to the point of exclusively) aimed at university libraries and whilst there is crossover in some areas, many current hot topics for universities are not for colleges until much later. Although it is good practice to have a wider knowledge and keep up with these things.

So an unconference, where anything can be discussed, surely would have a broad scope and diverse attendees. And so it proved to be, attendees where from assistant up to senior management level and from many different sectors which was wonderful. I got to meet new people from public and specialist sectors, many who have the same issues as I do in my library. I always find it reassuring that it isn't just me or my sector that has 'x' problem and it is fabulous that I can discuss with colleagues from the wider sector their approaches.

I very much enjoyed the Library Camp and recommend to others to go to one if you have the opportunity. It is a great way to discuss important issues in an informal manner.

ARLG Members Day

This was quite a long time ago now - 15 May at Regent's College which we now have to call Regent's University. I was especially interested in the sessions about partnerships with academics and creating learning hubs. These are both things that get spoken about a lot where I work, sometimes that's a good thing and other times it worries me.

Partnerships with academics

The partnership is similar to our curriculum liaison only dealing with specialist collections. This session discussed the proactive approach at Goldsmiths, University of London to marketing and making the most of their specialist collections by targeting groups and showing them what can be done for them. It raises awareness of the resources, their content and the profile of the department. I think that this is a very important aspect of library work because it demonstrates a high level of professionalism from the library staff and helps consolidates the importance of the library services to their institution. For many years we have tried to forge close links with the curriculum staff at the College and have had varying degrees of success. This year I think we have made a significant breakthrough by attending directorate meetings that give us an overview of the wider department and what their plans are. Now that there is a foothold, we can build on this and maybe this is a way forward. We have a wide range of resources many that are underused, with more awareness and targeted promotion of them they may start to get used more.

Creating learning hubs

This is something that worried me or so I thought. The term learning hub has been used to decentralise the library I work in and that is something I don't want to see happen. It feels like a step backwards because we were orignally on 4 sites and have been brought together onto 1 purpose built site. This session however wasn't actually about this kind of learning hub, it was looking at a new way of delivering information literacy and integrating the library into teaching and learning. This proved a very timely session for me, as my College are currently piloting self supported study which they hope to roll out across the College next academic year. My Senior Librarian and myself realise that this potenially could have a huge impact on our services and are going to review our information literacy provision during the summer to take into account these changes.

Going to the ARLG Members Day was extrememly useful for me, it has given me lots to think about and has provided a starting point from which I can review and build on my library's services.

Mobile Technologies webinar

I signed up for this webinar as I was curious to find out what other institutions are doing and to see if anyone had anything to say about using tablets in College. I wasn't disappointed, the presentations covered roving with an iPad and lending iPads to students. Both of these are to be introduced in my LRC within the next year.

iPads are good to rove with because they have a good battery life according to Jackie King, from Reaseheath College. She hasn't compared them to tablets so that is something I will need to consider before buying ours. A case or bag is needed to carry it, thus freeing up your hands and so that you don't put it down and then forget about it. I think that is especially important, whatever I get to carry it in though will depend on what I buy, as size and shape will be a factor. Jackie gave a list of free apps that she found useful for library staff to have on. This was interesting because at the moment I can't see my staff needing to use any apps, just internet. The purpose for me of introducing iPads or tablets, is to provide a better customer service by negating the need to go back to the enquiry desk to use a PC. I would like the ability to have apps, as I believe this is the way forward and I'm sure that once we are using the tablet or iPad, we will discover useful apps - Jackie's list will be a good starting point.

The second presentation was from Ihar Ivanou of North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, where they already lend iPads to students. They are lent for 4 hours, are issued from the LMS and the library try to make sure they are charged before lending. Students are allowed to use them for what they want, there have been no thefts and sometimes the iPad needs to be cleared of apps that students have downloaded. Originally students were asked to sign an agreement for use before they were allowed to borrow the iPads, this has since been abandoned as it was too much paperwork and the College agreement that students have to sign cover them anyway. This was of particular use because we have not decided yet how to loan out our tablets or iPads. There is an exisiting equipment for loan service, where staff can borrow different types of equipment to either aid their teaching or to help students do work. At the moment there are sets of netbooks that can be borrowed if the classroom does not have PCs. In the LRC, there are laptops for loan within the LRC for groupwork purposes or for when all PCs are in use. As we are looking at the tablets / iPads to replace the netbooks and laptops, we haven't decided whether to keep the same system as we have now or to change it, hearing Ihar has given me much to think about. Although it won't be solely my decision, I can take this information to my colleagues for consideration.

IOSH Managing Safely

Having recently been nominated the LRC health and safety representative, I found myself going to meetings and not having a clue about the subjects discussed. That isn't to say I didn't know anything about health and safety, I have a rudimentary idea, know it is important and common sense often tells me if something is a hazard. However, I wanted to know more and be in a better place to be able to represent my department and help contribute to the overall College strategy, so when the opportunity came up to attend the IOSH Managing Safely course, I was only too glad to sign up.

It was taught over 4 consecutive days, which is very intense for any course and on the 4th day there was even an exam to sit. I would have preferred a day a week or a short evening course, however I'd signed up so I had to get on with it.

The course covers:

·         Introducing Managing Safely

·         Assessing risks

·         Controlling risks

·         Understanding your responsibilities

·         Identifying hazards

·         Investigating accidents and incidents

·         Measuring performance

·         Protecting our environment

All are interlinked especially when you come to do risk assessments, which is the final project on the course. It also proved timely from the point of view that the LRC risk assessments need updating and having done this course; I am more confident in doing the risk assessments and understand more what I’m looking for and why. These are ongoing currently, I haven’t had time to do them all yet for this year. One of the most positive things for me to come out of the course was being able to understand the reports I was reading that come to me as part of the Health and Safety Committee meeting papers. I know that if I hadn’t done this course most of it would have had to be explained to me. I would definitely recommend doing this course if you have health and safety responsibilities and believe me when I say - you all do, the buck might not stop with you but everyone is responsible for health and safety.

ALT-C 2012

I attended my first Association of Learning Technologists (ALT) Conference in September, primarily because I was co-presenting a short paper with my former line manager, Claire. Although the Conference was over 3 days, I only attended the day I was presenting, which was Wednesday 12th September.

The things that struck me immediately was that it seemed a bigger conference than i'd attended before (I don't know if it was) and that the format of it was very different to what I was used to. 

The format is what I want to explore because unlike other conferences I've attended with traditional keynote speeches and hour long workshops, this conference is multifaceted regarding the 'workshops'. This is in inverted commas as it needs an explanation. Where you would normally have an hour long conference workshop, ALT-C has a variety of things:

• PechaKucha sessions of no more than 10 mins and 9 slides
• Short papers (20 mins)
• Symposia (60 mins)
• Workshops (60 mins)
• Demonstrations (30 mins)
• Hybrids - combinations of the above (60 mins)

The sessions were in 1 - 1.20 hour blocks, so if you were attending the PechaKuchas or short paper sessions, you got a variety of presentations. This I found liberating because it meant that I was hearing about many different things in a short space of time, keeping me interested and alert.

My presentation was part of an Institutional Mainstreaming theme and in this session there were 4 presentations (inclusive of mine). I got to hear about:

• Open University's final year projects that use a peer open forum to help students choose their topic
• mainstreaming e-learning and innovation in higher education teaching
• and possibly the most inspiring talk I have ever attended, about the use of lecture capture technology to deliver classes for students of the American University in Cairo (whose main campus is in Cairo's main square) during the Arab Spring

I especially like this as it means that even though you are presenting, you are not missing out on hearing about other people's experiences. I felt at the ARLG Conference I went to in June, I was missing out on very interesting sessions, as I was presenting when they were on. The short papers at ALT-C meant I presented for part of the session and then it was someone else's turn. Granted, I had no choice over what I was hearing about in this session but I felt I was learning something, rather than only sharing my experience.

The next 'workshop' I attended was a PechaKucha session. Claire and I went along to this, in support of my colleague Richard, who was presenting. Here (including Richard) there were 5 presentations, which gave a succinct overview of each topic. The PechaKucha sessions didn't have any overarching broad theme like the short papers, (other than their use of e-learninig technologies). They again provided an interesting and diverse range of presentations that kept the delegates engaged.

The last session I attended had the broad theme of Changing Learners. The presentations here were about using digital sorytelling for reflective practice and using social media as an audience response system. Again I got a brief introduction to the subjects. I think that when you are at a conference this is all you need. You can't take in all the information you are receiving, so for me I would rather take away lots of small introductory ideas and then follow up by contacting presenters, than hear something very in depth but then forgetting most if it due to an information overload. I appreciate that other people may want the in depth information and that option is available through the other 'workshops'. This variety is why I think that the multifaceted option of workshops offered at ALT-C is a fantastic idea.