Welcome to our third episode of RSC-MP3 for this academic year. RSC-MP3 is a monthly audio podcast highlighting some Higher Education focused e-learning news, interviews and resources brought to you by Kevin Brace (JISC RSC West Midlands) and Martin Hawksey (JISC RSC Scotland North and East). As ever we have summarised links to the various topics we discuss and indicate the timestamps so you can jump straight to our insightful repertoire. You can listen to this podcast on your computer, or when “on the move” by adding it to your ipod playlist. Here is an archive of our recordings, which is also available on iTunes.

“For the love of money, not learning!” So say some responses to the new Higher Ambitions framework announced by Lord Mandleson.  This month Kevin runs through his latest blog posts which  cover reports connected with the importance of Higher Education to the UK economy, focussing on research. Innovative e-research projects, funding and bidding, and UK drivers are covered. Topics such as open repositories, knowledge sharing, and research based communities of practice, also feature.  Providing advice and support to the community in the form of second life “sandpits” and new eportfolio publications add to the e-learning mix this month.

Meanwhile Martin has been immersing himself in Google Wave. Wave enables real-time collaboration over the internet and whilst not full released yet educators are already exploring its potential impact in a number of areas of teaching and learning. Building on last month’s discussion Martin highlights the flexibility of Wave including how it be embedded into different websites, including the institutional VLE, enabling students to have greater choice over their personal learning environment.

As part of this month’s RSC-MP3 we also have an interview with recognised ‘recognition of prior learning’ expert Ruth Whittaker. As government policy continues to place emphasis on ‘lifelong learning’ and the ‘knowledge economy’ institutions have an important role in recognising and accrediting prior formal and informal learning. We discuss existing frameworks and legislation already in place both nationally and internationally, touching upon how technology is being used to support the process. Click here for the interview with Ruth Whittaker.

HE Update

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Duration: 32 minutes

Size: 22 MB

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Our blogs

Gabber – Kevin’s blog

MASHe – Martin’s blog

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

Second life spaces for educators to try out 3D immersive environments [01:15]

RSC South East inaugurates Staff and Community Islands in Second Life [01:30]

Innovating e-Learning 2009 Online Conference – Conference presentations and resources, including keynotes, will be made available within the next few weeks on the JISC website for general viewing [01:45]

JISC online conference 2009 post by Kevin [02:48]

Phoebe Pedagogy Planner

The Design Studio

Electronic Portfolios: Personal Information, Personal Development and Personal Values. Book review [03:10]

Author Simon Grant’s blog

JISC study on the role of e-portfolios in formative and summative assessment practices.

Higher Ambitions HE framework links [04:30]

DBIS Higher Ambitions framework

Lord Mandelson statement to the House of Lords ( 1 hour video) [05:57]

Academia responses to Higer Ambitions framework

Research and bidding advice – links to external resources [09:55]

From inputs to impact: a study of the impact of JISC funding on universities [10:00]

Useful bidding resources [11:30]

Understanding Global Activity in Higher Education and Research:Primary, desk and web-based research [11:35]

e-research and the knowledge economy [12:20]

JISC Inform publication which includes descriptions of current e-research [12:34]

Google knol – publish and share your research [13:20]

Richard Price’s [...]