The Auricle

Asynchronous technologies undoubtedly make a major contribution to the e-learning armoury but sometimes synchronous solutions are required. One such solution, the electronic whiteboard has stimulated some interest amongst some of our faculty. But problems arose from a totally unexpected quarter. Our university has adopted eBeam a solution which converts a conventional whiteboard into an interactive […]

The Scottish joint FE/HE E-Learning Working Group report was published in July 2003. How the Scots intend to implement the recommendations of the report is described in Circular letter HE/09/04 - 5 March 2004. If you want 'factoids' and 'micro-commentary' read on. HIGHLIGHTS Continued investment in the national IT infrastructure, e.g. ongoing SuperJanet developments A […]

Here's a useful commentary about Eduplone by Wilbert Kraan of CETIS. Similar to Graham Blacker's recent article ATutor IMS Content Export Wilbert's article describes how Knowledge Objects can be exported from Eduplone as IMS compliant packages. Wilbert's commentary also highlights how an individualistic model of learning seems to underpin even new e-learning initiatives like Eduplone. […]

At the moment our thinking about e-Learning and information systems is usually predicated on the assumption that the institution knows best. In UK higher education, the assumption usually translates into designated centrally or faculty-supported vehicles for e-learning delivery and support, i.e. MLE/VLE/LMS 'xyz'. A situation which offers at least some comfort to increasingly hard-pressed institutional […]

Way back in January, one of the first Auricle articles was Alternative Sources of Learning in which I highlighted the BBC as an increasingly relevant source of high quality learning resources. So it's good to see that the BBC have finally begun to waiver in their support for the proprietary RealPlayer format. You can hear […]

I'm currently writing a paper on e-learning and accessibility so the publication of the Disability Rights Commission report on the accessibility of UK web sites was timely for me. Read on to find out more. At present I've only read the introduction and summary to the report but it does make disappointing reading to know […]

W3C has just announced the relaunch of Math Activity, which had ended in November last year, to maintain the standard and set up a Math Interest Group. Read on for my commentary. As a former physicist, I can empathise with our scientific and technical colleagues as they struggled to communicate using symbolic notation on the […]

Here's a conference with a difference. The second BloggerCon (April 17, 2004 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA) assumes that everything's for attribution and everyone's a journalist. Want an example of what can go wrong or right (depending on your perspective) when this happens? Then read on! This year's BloggerCon offers sessions on blogging […]

To improve the performance of Auricle, from today, only the home page will display syndicated sites, demonstrations and polls. Anyone accessing a 'More', 'Comments' or 'Archive' page who wants access to these features just needs to select 'Auricle - Home' from the menu. Download article as PDF

Whilst researching hosted Wiki services for a use by one of our faculties I found it interesting that despite this category of collaborative software having the potential, in some contexts, to enrich teaching and learning, few educators, in the UK at least, have chosen to use Wikis. It seems that despite the rapidly growing popularity […]