Guide to Google Scholar

An excellent guide to Google Scholar and other Scholarly Search Engines has been brought to my attention by Linda from Library Services - do, please, you are welcome (urged!) to make use of it with your students.

This from Linda's (and Lisa's) Blog:

Google Scholar is Google's academic search engine, aimed at finding published material like journal articles, books, technical reports etc of relevance to students and researchers in higher education. As a librarian I recognise its value for our students, but want them to be aware of its strengths and weaknesses - hence the Library Guide mentioned above.

I would also like to make a plea for people to make more use of Google's Advanced Search, which allows you to not only makes the use of the Boolean 'and' and 'or' more obvious, but also allows you to refine your search to different domains like .ac, or looking for different formats such as .pdf. This results in fewer, more relevant results.

Any comments on my Library Guide would be most welcome as I'm always looking to improve it.

You can contact Linda here: l.norbury@bham.ac.uk

Using WebCT with Digital Media

Jisc Digital Media have just released an updated version of their Using WebCT with digital media. This advice document aims to introduce WebCT and how you can use digital media to support your WebCT course content. They look at why digital media can enhance the teaching and learning experience.

Something rich and strange: Caliban's Island

I came to The Tempest by way of Eliot's fragments in The Waste Land, so the original play was mysterious and enigmatic to me even before I read it. And, of course, reading a play designed for performance is not the best way to come to it - which is why I was very excited about Somesuch Theatre's production of 'Caliban's Island' on Saturday.

And it was enthralling. 'Caliban's Island' is The Tempest re-imagined and re-told by and through the mischievous spirits of the island after the play is over - a brilliant conceit, brought to fruition by a wonderful production and a really engaging couple of hours in the talented company of Somesuch Theatre's company.

It's easy to imagine the spirits re-telling their story again and again on the magical island as the years unfold: Long continuance, and increasing,/Hourly joys be still upon you!

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

You can download and read an important report out today about the impact of Web 2.0 on teaching and learning: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

Haven't read it myself yet, but I'm liking the recommendations for 'Staff Skills:

• HEIs support staff to continue to reflect on research into learning so that they are able to make fully informed choices about their teaching and assessment methods (paragraphs 86; 88; 98)
• HEIs support staff to become proficient users of an appropriate range of technologies and skilled practitioners of e-pedagogy, incorporating both into initial staff training and CPD programmes (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
• HEIs explore ways in which the tutor/student relationship might be developed based on the Web 2.0 skills and attitudes of students (paragraphs 52; 89)
• HEIs provide ongoing support for staff to maintain the currency of their information literacies (paragraph 74)
• JISC uses its Regional Support Centres2 to assist colleges in the development of staff in the use of Web 2.0 technologies (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
• HEA develops a targeted staff support and CPD programme, cross-cutting its subject centres, aimed at identifying and spreading best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools in pedagogy (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
• The Leadership Foundation3 considers the best way to include awareness of the full range of new technologies in their senior management development programmes(paragraphs 86; 98)
• JISC and Becta4 continue to support research into teaching and learning using Web 2.0 tools (paragraphs 86; 88; 98)
• TDA5 and LLUK6 consider ways in which Web 2.0 technologies are embedded into training programmes for new staff (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
• HEA works with Universities UK7, Guild HE8 and the HE funding bodies to review the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education to ensure that it pays due regard to awareness of new and developing technologies, their capacities and impact on students and learning and teaching (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71;74; 80–81; 86; 98)
  

Jisc Digital Media

Formerly the not very memorable TASI, JISC Digital Media "exists to help the UK’s FE and HE communities embrace and maximise the use of digital media - and to achieve solutions that are innovative, practical and cost effective."

Well, the website is certainly an encouraging start, it's very user-friendly with three main categories: advice, training and blog. I like simplicity! So, you can subscribe to the blog or check out training opportunies, but best of all, the advice section breaks down into advice on still images, moving images, audio and cross-media into:

• Managing a project
• Digitising analogue media
• Creating new digital media
• Managing your digital resources
• Finding and using digital images
  

This resource is extremely comprehensive and looks like it might be THE place to go for info about sound and visual resources - well done, JISC!

JISC Digital Media

Our WebCT - news updates

News relating to WebCT and other elements of the iVLE, including details of scheduled downtime, will be posted here - and you can subscribe to an RSS feed. A list of previous items can be viewed in the News Archive. For details of the current status of the major computing facilities provided by IT Services, please view the IT Services Status Page.

Carol Ann Duffy

"Poetry, above all, is a series of intense moments - its power is not in narrative. I'm not dealing with facts, I'm dealing with emotion." The new Poet Laureate.

See and hear Carol Ann Duffy's work here at the Poetry Archive.