Market Place, Tuesday 15th July 2008

In the marketplace this evening.

There’s a hum of activity in the room right now (16;45), and most stands have large groups surrounding them. One of the largest has gathered around  a huge flat screen TV on which  David White  is giving a demonstration of philosophy forums within Second Life and how it can be used to help distance learning.

In contrast on the other side of the room, a very old technology board – with paper and a permanent marker has been put up next to the JISC e-research stand…Interestingly, no one has used it, although the stand itself is busy and there are dozens of laptops currently floating around the room.

Plenty of stands, in fact, are giving away pens and paper… [which in the context of this JISC conference seems slightly old-fashioned! I made the most of it, however, as my pen had recently run out - just goes to show machines can’t do everything…]

Most notably, The British Cartoon archive:

www.cartoons.ac.uk

Funded by the JISC digitisation programme, huge numbers of cartoons are currently being transferred to digital formats to preserve them for the future and to make them more widely accessible. Making a valuable -  but often all but lost – resource live and breathe again.

On the stand sit a number of colourful Giles books as one of their ongoing projects – thanks to a JISC grant -  is to transfer the work of the renowned Daily Express and Sunday Express cartoonist into digital format.

Just down from this stand is the JISC Digitisation stand itself. Here they have programmes for their forthcoming conference on 20-21 July (a date for the diary) and a booklet of  information about their current projects. A few more of these are scattered around the room - the one that really caught this blogger’s attention being the huge project to make available British Newspapers from 1620-1900. More than 1.2million pages from the British Library archive are currently being digitised to create a virtual library of this hugely important national resource. Some seriously impressive figures to digest before supper-time…

Just a few of the things going on in the marketplace this lunchtime…

Mr Cute

Mr Cute is an optional add-on to the Moodle VLE and is available free of charge under an Open Source licence. It extends the functionality of the IMS Repository system.

Before Mr Cute there was an existing Moodle IMS repository system, which was widely adopted in the
UK. However, the Mr Cute add-on addresses many of the problems that this system presented. Such as:

What does Mr Cute mean?

Sweet name but what does it stand for?

It’s an acronym for Moodle Repository Create Upload Tag Embed.

More information on the project is available here http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_rep_pres/repositories_sue/mrcute.aspx.

Revolve project

The Revolve project is developing a technology-enhanced module which will be delivered by e-learning. The module, in Customer Experience Management, will use and re-purpose existing materials from a variety of sources.

Over half the materials will be sourced externally and they will be complemented by existing UCLan materials and bespoke materials.

The module will initially become a new module for final year undergraduates studying Business and Management courses. However, once it becomes established the module will be offered to part-time students as a stand-alone certificate of 20 credits.

Developing the materials

The Revolve project is developing Re-usable Learning Objects (RLOs) from external and in-house content using the Revolution model developed by the E-Evolve project. This method ensures that resources are kept separate from tasks. It enables individual resources to be re-used or re-purposed as well as allowing the whole packaged RLO to be re-used in another module or at another institution.

More information on the Revolve project is available here: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_elearning_capital/reproduce/revolve.aspx

The Kultur Project

The Kultur Project is developing two new research repositories for the University of the Arts, London and the University of the Creative Arts. It is also improving the way Southampton’s repository showcases arts research.

Broader outcomes of the project include:

A working model of a common arts repository which will be transferable to institutions and departments across the sector.

Improved information infrastructure for practice-based research.

EPrints repository software enhanced with respect to visual and multimedia material.

Greater understanding of how metadata and copyright licences can be applied to digital objects in the creative arts,

The project has developed a flexible demo repository which can accommodate a broad spectrum of practice-based outputs. They range from digital versions of video art, textiles, performances and installations, to design, painting, sculpture and artists’ books. The demo will be split into separate institutional repositories by March 2009.

For more information, see the project website http://kultur.eprints.org

July 15, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Author Hector Peebles 

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