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Delegate rate: £50.  This includes a full days worth of presentations, case studies and networking.

Bookings are well underway for our big annual event, So if you haven’t booked already, follow the booking link below and book today!

What have we got in store this year?

The full programme is available from the Best of the West website but here is a small sample of what we have lined up:

• Scottish Keynote speakers who are informative and entertaining!
• Highlights from 6 of the very best of local case studies showcasing clever use of technology to support learning and teaching.
• A chance to chat with the experts from JISC Advance Services and educational support partners at the 10 information stands.
• Over the buffet lunch,  you can have a look at how some institutions are using Wii fit for Education or speak to students who will be on hand to demonstrate how gadgets and assistive technologies have helped them succeed in tertiary education.
• JISC Digital Media will give an iPad demonstration on the pedagogical uses of the latest must-have teaching tool or you could speak to “BoB”, the Box of Broadcasts gurus.

Why not drop in and see them all?

Stay until the end for a networking opportunity and join us for a chunk of cheese and a glass of chardonnay.  You might win our door prize of an iPod Touch!

Back by popular demand, Green & Blacks chocolate bars will be in your delegate pack to sustain you through the day.

What are you waiting for?  Book your place now and avoid disappointment.  Don’t delay – there are less than 30 spaces left!

Click here to go directly to the online booking form

Click here for the full programme

The popular ICT and Inclusion event organised by CALL Scotland will take place over 3 days in June 2010.

ICT and Inclusion provides people with an opportunity to see and compare the latest software and technology to support students with additional support needs from most of the leading UK companies.

In addition, there will be a series of short seminars presented by local teachers, staff from FE and HE and other invited speakers on the use of different software and technology for students with additional support needs.

Find out more about ICT and Inclusion and book your place online

This event is a unique opportunity for practitioners to engage with innovative ways of assessing learners to make assessment e-asy for them. Organised by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the JISC Regional Support Centres the event is designed for lecturers from all disciplines who teach on HE programmes in FE Colleges and Universities or anyone who is involved in the design of assessment.

Professor Phil Race will provide the keynote and a hands-on insight into key issues with assessment. The afternoon workshops will be led by experienced practitioners and will cover the following:

• Designing multiple choice questionnaires and providing feedback;
• Curriculum design;
• Assessment for reflection; and
• Creative assessment to eliminate plagiarism.

This event costs £75 per person and will take place on 17th May 2010 at the National Space Centre in Leicester.

Click here for further information and online booking

February also sees the return of the popular series of lunch-time broadcasts created and delivered by staff from the two Scottish Regional Support Centres. Sessions start at 12:30, just click on the titles to book a place!

The aim of this guide is to promote awareness of open source and freeware Windows applications that can be used to support learners with additional needs. The overall collection of more than 50 programs is called AccessApps. In many cases, the programs on AccessApps are very similar in functionality to well-known commercial products.

The guide, which has been specially prepared for Disabled Students Allowance (DSA Assessors), is split into 7 sections: mind mapping, colour preferences, dictionary and thesaurus, text-to-speech, word prediction, visual support and voice recognition. Each section provides detailed information on 14 typical AccessApps applications.

To download the guide select this link

…they were sighted, to be exact,  at the RSC Scotland North & East Winter Fayre which took place at the beautiful and historic National e-Science Centre in the capital on the 15th of December. The event was designed to showcase the work of JISC Advance and the JISC Service companies and to celebrate the progress that has been made in the first decade of the 21st century in applying technology to teaching and learning.

The theme for the Fayre was ‘where were we, where are we, and where might we be in the future’. The first keynote from John Burt, Principal of Angus College, staff member Mina Welsh and Angus student Iain Scott, who presented a very positive picture of how a typical FE College in Scotland is engaging with technology to the benefit of its students and the wider community.

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Keynotes were accompanied by a series of presentations and workshops by RSC staff and outside speakers. The  silver pennies in the dumpling  here were sessions on Google Wave, podcasting, e-books, games in online assessment and Access Apps. And, as if the bird wasn’t well enough stuffed by then, JISC Services such as JISC Legal, Mail, infoNet, Digital Media, Netskills, CETIS and JANET showcased their finest in the conference ‘marketplace’. There was even time for running a competition through the day, the star prize of a new Sony e-Book reader going to Colin Maxwell of Carnegie College.

The recent ETNA4 survey conducted by the Scottish RSCs offered prizes of Flip cameras to two students and two members of staff whose names were drawn at random from all of those who had completed the survey. In a tense nanosecond at the RSC office our patented random number generator drew the names of staff Fiona Goldie (Ayr College) and Denise Cunningham (Moray College) from the electronic hat.

The images below show Fiona and Denise being presented with their prizes by Theresa Duffy of Scotland South & West (left) and Chris Travis, Chief Executive of Scotland’s Colleges (right) respectively.

Congratulations also to student winners Ljudmilla Kindjajeva (Aberdeen) and Louise Wilson (Reid Kerr). Thanks to all staff and students who took part and look out for the ETNA4 Report in the autumn.

The ETNA 2009 online electronic training needs analysis recently conducted by the two Scottish Regional Support Centres finally closed on the 1st of May. This is the fourth such exercise we’ve carried out since 2001 and compared with ETNA3 in 2006 the results this time have been excellent, almost exactly doubling the final tally for that year. The final responses from each cohort can be seen below:

Thanks to all staff who took the time to complete the survey. We will announce the names of the winners of the Flip cameras over the next few weeks and the full ETNA report is scheduled for publication in the autumn. Here at the RSCs we’ll use the information to fine tune training programmes to make sure they meet the needs of the colleges and universities we support.

(Image wherry weather vane by leo reynolds from Flickr, used under Creative Commons)

The ETNA2009 online training needs analysis, designed and delivered by the two Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres is scheduled to close at the end of this Friday, 1st May. The survey is designed to take a snapshot of where we are in Scotland’s FE colleges with the application of technology to teaching and learning. And given that this is the fourth in a series of exercises going back to 2001 it’s also designed to tell us how far we’ve come and possibly where we should head next.

There are seven ‘flavours’ of the survey available, designed to capture the spectrum of views including those of the learner and already well over 3000 responses have been received (50% up on ETNA3 in 2006). If you’ve not already made your views known then there’s still time to do so by simply clicking here which will take you to the ETNA survey site.  Our thanks to everyone who has already been there and done that.

The report is scheduled to appear in the autumn.

With over 50 members, the RSC online inclusion forum is a place to discuss, share, and join other colleagues who support learners with additional support needs in further and higher education.

The RSC online inclusion forum is a thriving community of people with an interest in accessibility, inclusion and e-learning related issues. A feature of the online community is the Group section which currently offers a range of issues from open source software to web and multimedia content accessibility.

To find out more select this link to visit the online forum