Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Dear All,

I've had a paper on the use of Crosswords for teaching and learning accepted for the conference below:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_conference06_programme

I need to "present" the paper at this online conference before making it more widely available. It isn't an academic paper as such but a short "plain English" discussion of their merits and potential for use. I will be uploading some supporting materials for this JISC paper this weekend, which will give you a flavour of the kind of thing I have in the pipeline for the SWAP Think Tank follow up materials. Some of these are already done and with the imminent end of the teaching term the rest will soon follow. At long last I hear you chorus! Visit

http://www.philwane.com/jisc2006/

from Monday March 19th.

Regards from, Phil

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Spring has nearly sprung...

Spring has nearly sprung upon us and reminds us all that time is flying by.

I have begun work on some of the promised materials but I'm not going to make any more announcements/promises/excuses until they are online.

I'll be pushing the SWAP Think Tank incubated interactive Crossword concept on the JISC eLearning Conference, details at:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_conference06_programme

In fact I have to send them the materials tomorrow so this has been a useful way to make me put some time aside and just get on with things.

My undergraduate teaching effectively finishes on March 24th as that is the end of our second term and I'll then be freed up during the daytime to get on with all my non-teaching projects, including the work associated with the SWAP Think Tanks.

Fingers crossed things will appear before then. In the meantime feel free to contact me about anything related to the SWAP Think Tank activities and the things I spoke about.

Phil

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Hiatus About To End!

Dear All,

There has been a little lull in activities in relation to this Think Tank Blog.

I'm pleased to say that this is about to end as I've just finished marking a large batch of essays and finally have some time again to progress the materials as agreed. I had set aside some time in early January to do this work but I was ill for several days and I therefore missed the necessary window of opportunity.

I'm sure you've all experienced this where we have such ridiculously full diaries that if you miss a few days you cannot simply make up the time a couple of sunrises later because you are already committed to other things. Such was the case with my SWAP project. But the material will begin to appear this week and I will email everyone to let you know - just in case you haven't popped into this Blog for a little while.

Regards from, Phil

Sunday, January 08, 2006

New Materials Imminent

Dear All,

Just to let you know that the new materials will appear shortly - as promised.

I'll email everyone once they are uploaded. Realistically I'll upload them in 2-3 batches as I need to produce these inbetween some other equally urgent jobs for my undergraduate teaching.

The first batch will include some help with the Blog itself in response to a couple of emails I've had from some people reporting problems posting to it.

Phil

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the recent lack of postings but I've been tied up with the family over Christmas.

Quite right too in some ways.

Anyway may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Lots of exciting things ahead (I hope) for all of us and lots of work (I'm sure) for all of us.

Best Wishes from, Phil

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

SWAP TT2 University of Calgary Links

Dear All,

Julia has asked me to upload these links and information from our colleagues in Calgary.

E-learning resources at the University of Calgary - move toward blended learning - see reports http://commons.ucalgary.ca/elearningservices/index.html

At the U of C and in the Faculty of Social Work, we use video-conferencing and Blackboard.Elluminate Live is an new feature integrated with Blackboard that uses voice over IP so synchronous sessions can be held.

http://commons.ucalgary.ca/elearningservices/elluminate.html

We offer the following programs/courses via distance education:

The Faculty of Social Work offers a Distance Learning MSW program concentrating in Leadership in Human Services. The Distance Learning MSW in Leadership in Human Services is only available to applicants who have completed a Bachelor of Social Work degree.

http://fsw.ucalgary.ca/main.htm?page=ss_msw.shtml

Continuing education eventVirtual Communities of Practice A virtual community of practice uses the Internet to help participants share information, interact, collaborate and learn together. The practice benefits of participating in a community of practice include: access to a rich source of peer-reviewed information and other online resources; the opportunity to collaborate with other practitioners; an expanded network of professional contacts and resources; and relevant, practice-based professional learning. Three Communities of Practice will be offered: 1. Adoption: Impact of attachment on children and care-givers - a post-conference COP 2. Clinical Supervision in Social Work 3. Inter-professional practice Date: November 13 -30, 2005. 10 hours over 3 weeks. E-learning:

http://fsw.ucalgary.ca/main.htm?page=ce_programs.shtml

Instructors: Graduate Students in the MSW program under the supervision of the Director, Continuing Professional Education. Registration Deadline: Nov 4, 05 Course Fee: $25 each

Problems Posting Messages?

Dear Everyone,

Some people have reported problems posting messages to the Blog and I'm 99% certain that I know where the problem lies. My work PC isn't working at the moment but once it's fixed I'll produce some Help materials for you. They will clarify and hopefully solve the issue.

I'm sending this post from a colleague's machine but she doesn't have all the editing software that I have on mine for making nice User Guides. Today is Tuesday and if the machine isn't fixed today I won't be able to upload the instructions until Thursday. In the meantime if anyone has anything urgent that they would like me to upload on their behalf then please email it to me at philip.wane@ntu.ac.uk

Regards from, Phil

Monday, December 12, 2005

Think Tank 2 Follow Up Items

Dear All,

Well I found the event to be really useful, perhaps even more so than Think Tank 1, and the improved facilities may have helped induce a spirit of even greater productivity. I thought we had a good and rather busy (but not ridiculous) programme and the presentations were all very good. I certainly found them useful as were the exercises organised by Sue and Julia.

Just as important at this type of event is the chance to meet people, so it was nice to see a few familiar faces from Think Tank 1, where I didn't know anyone when I went along, as well as some new folks to me at this event. Just a pity we didn't get more time to chat...

I've not forgotten that I have various people to contact and some tasks to complete. Realistically I won't get into the bulk of this list until tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. Just in case anyone is having problems accessing the blog I'm going to email a copy of this text to everyone as well. That way if you having any problems you can simply reply to my mail and I'll try to help. I'm aware of a couple of things that people would like to know about in relation to the blog and I'll post up some info regarding these tomorrow evening. I'll also post up more photo's and link in another useful service (Flickr).

Regards from, Phil