Newsletter
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Current Issue – February 2010
This month we were fortunate enough to podcast with two luminaries of the learning technology world – James Clay, ALT Learning Technologist of the Year 2009, and Niall Sclater, Director of Learning Innovation at the UK’s Open University. Both offer useful insights into the present and future of educational technology.
Here at Talis, we have been putting together a raft of mechanisms to help customers and other interested parties to keep informed of developments around Talis Aspire, our next generation resource list management system. We provide further details below.
Sarah Bartlett,
Editor
sarah.bartlett@talis.com
Innovators in Higher Education: Niall Sclater
In this podcast with Niall Sclater, Director of Learning Innovation at the UK’s Open University, we discuss recent online learning developments at the Open University. It’s particularly interesting to hear about the Open University’s experiences with its Moodle VLE, given that the institution is Moodle’s largest educational site. We also look at the future of VLEs and of learning technologies more broadly.
Meet the practitioner: James Clay
In this podcast, Sarah Bartlett talks with James Clay from Gloucestershire College, ALT’s Learning Technologist of the Year, 2009. We discuss technological innovation and cultural change at the college. James’s characterisation of further education students and their relationship to technology may prove useful from a higher education perspective.
Keeping up-to-date with Talis Aspire
Last month we introduced a monthly Talis Aspire newsletter for anyone interested in keeping abreast of Talis Aspire news and developments. Click here to subscribe.
We have put together a range of resources to keep you informed of the current status of Talis Aspire as well as future development plans:
- The Talis Aspire Roadmap shows approximate timings of planned developments and research themes. It covers a rolling 12 month period, and is updated on a quarterly basis.
- The Talis Aspire In Progress Board gives the status of all current developments on Talis Aspire. It is updated weekly.
- We publish details of all our releases on the Talis Aspire blog.
- Our Talis Aspire product brochure details the benefits of our next generation resource list management system.
Challenges, application and benefits of social media in HE institutions
We’ve heard a lot about the student experience of social networking tools, but Sarah Bartlett blogs about a new report surveying UK institutional perspectives on social media.
Learning on demand: Online education in the United States
Sarah Bartlett blogs about the recently published Learning on Demand report, focusing on the issue of student retention in online education.
Meet us at these upcoming events
Talis Aspire Open Days
These free events give you the opportunity to discover how Talis Aspire encourages instructors to engage with students and resources, and integrates with other systems such as the VLE and authentication systems, to provide an engaging, modern and joined-up learning experience. Attendees can see Aspire in action and learn how institutions are rolling out and making the most of Talis Aspire.We are pleased to announce these forthcoming Talis Aspire Open Days:
- Talis offices, Birmingham – Thursday 13th May. Register here.
- London – Thursday 20th May. Register here.
e-learning conference: Learning without limits, Plymouth
Come and visit our exhibition stand at the Plymouth e-learning conference: Learning without limits, at the University of Plymouth on 8-9 April 2010. This conference will challenge notions of traditional boundaries, learning spaces and roles, evaluating new practices, technologies, environments and pedagogies.
JISC Conference 2010, London
JISC’s 8th annual conference will underline the imperative of integrating technology into all aspects of universities’ strategic planning to ensure survival in the coming years. Visit our exhibition stand at the conference which takes place on 12-13 April 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.
From the blogosphere…
- Dion Hinchcliffe’s Ten emerging Enterprise 2.0 technologies to watch
- An excellent interview with Lloyd Armstrong about innovation in Higher Education
- Stanford University offers free journal-publishing software to academics
- US colleges look to new virtual worlds following frustrations in Second Life
- Tony Bates critiques Tapscott and Williams’ views on university reform
- Google’s Vint Cerf calls for “intercloud” standards and protocols
- TechCrunch reports on the latest browser market share figures from Net Applications
- 100 ways to teach with Twitter on the Educause blog
- Using WordPress as a Learning Management System

