Research community events archive

November 2007

Event

Cherchez the 'Learning Object'

Funded by:

10am to 4pm, 9th November 2007
University of Southampton, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (LATEU), Level 3, Building 25, Highfield Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

eLanguages and the Learning Societies Lab at the University of Southampton held an L₂O community day, supported by the CLAReT project (funded by JISC) and MURLLO (funded by Eduserv).

We have been building tools over the last year for language teachers and learners to find and share resources. At events since February, you have helped us to design better tools by giving us feedback. You told us that you liked reusable LO's and assets, but:

Finding them was difficult
Adding your own LO's and assets was difficult and time consuming
You wanted to know how useful an LO might be before trying it
You found web 2 sites more interesting and appealing

This was an opportunity to see what we've done in response:

Visual tools for searching and navigation (like a shop window)
Web 2 look and feel
Ratings and reviews
Wiki like editing tools for the LO's and their metadata
Shopping trolley tool for collecting and downloading LO's

As well as previewing the new tools, we presented some exciting news about a new public repository website which will feature these tools and more.

October 2007

E-Learn 2007

Julie Watson presented a paper for eLanguages at E-Learn 2007, the annual World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education, to be held from 15th to 19th October 2007 in Quebec City, Canada. The paper was entitled, "Versioning RLOs as 'Study Skills Toolkits' for Different User Groups and Developing Community Tools to Support Sharing and Customisation".

September 2007

Project update

L₂O Final Report: JISC Regional Distributed e-learning SE Region Pilot Project

Kate Dickens, Julie Watson and Kate Borthwick, University of Southampton
This final project report discusses the objectives, findings, achievements and conclusions from the L₂O project.
Download the whole report as a PDF document (601kb)
Download the Executive Summary as a PDF document (74kb)
View the Executive Summary online

June 2007

L₂O case studies

Five case studies have now been published for the L₂O project:

Miguel Arrebola: Applying Lessons Learnt from the L₂O Project in the creation of an institutional repository of LOs and pedagogic assets
Download PDF document (262kb)

Alison Dickens: Is this resource repurposable?
Download PDF document (119kb)

Joan McCormack: Sharing Language Learning Objects
Download PDF document (78kb)

Marga Menendez-Lopez: Building on the L₂O experience of designing Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs)
Download PDF document (652kb)

Julie Watson: Developing a pedagogically-driven process model for L₂O
Download PDF document (45kb)

13th June 2007: Reading University

Reading University hosted a third major dissemination and evaluation event for the L₂O and CLAReT projects. The day consisted of workshops around the concepts of sharing and re-using learning objects, along with presentations on key L₂O project findings. The CLAReT project presented the latest version of the WEB 2.0 repository interface, and this was tested and evaluated by workshop participants. The feedback that has been obtained from this event will shape the future design of the interface and have a direct impact on the development of effective searching tools.

Full details of this event

May 2007

10th May 2007: Sheffield University: Kate Dickens and Kate Borthwick gave the workshop 'Finding, sharing and re-using online resources - personalising the experience for the teacher and the learner', as part of the programme to disseminate learnings from the L₂O project.

April 2007

The L₂0 Project and CLAReT Projects held a major dissemination and evaluation event at the University of Portsmouth on 25th April 2007.

The day consisted of workshops around the concepts of sharing and re-using learning objects, along with presentations on key L₂O Project findings. The CLAReT project presented the latest version of the WEB 2.0 repository interface, testing and evaluating with workshop participants. Feedback from this event will shape the future design of the interface and have a direct impact on the development of effective searching tools.

Further details of the event:

Finding, sharing and re-using online resources - personalising the experience for the teacher and the learner

Key Workshop facilitators: Miguel Arrebola (University of Portsmouth); Kate Dickens, Julie Watson, Kate Borthwick, Ann Jeffery (University of Southampton), Dave Millard and Yvonne Howard (School of Electronics and Computer Science, Southampton); Marga Menendez-Lopez (University of Surrey); Joan McCormack (University of Reading)

Date: Wednesday, 25th April 2007
Venue: University of Portsmouth (Park Building)
Time: 10.15 - 16.30

Join our research community!
(A limited number of bursaries are available for attendance)

The L₂O research community is a group of language teachers and learning technologists in the SE region whose founding members are the Universities of Portsmouth, Reading, Surrey and Southampton. The community is currently expanding to include other HEIs/FEIs, Sixth Form and Adult Education institutions.

Our community works on exploring and developing innovative tools for the sharing and re-using of online language learning resources, and aims to foster good practice in this area.

Workshops include:

Share and Share alike? Online learning materials in a repository: would you give as well as take? (hands-on workshop and focus groups)
Finding a needle in a haystack: how the learning and teaching context helps you find the online learning materials you need (hands-on workshop)

You will also look to the future! Help us with your expertise by:

Exploring the search terms needed to locate online materials for your own students
Playing a key part in the creation of innovative searching software using Web 2.0 technologies
Influencing the development of future educational search tools

Registration is at 0945 for a 1015 start, lunch and refreshments are provided.

Details of the programme will be provided on registration. The day will consist of several 'hands-on' workshops, case study presentations and plenary/group discussions. All reasonable travel expenses will be covered.

March 2007

CLAReT workshop - held at University of London Union (ULU), Wednesday, 14th March, 2007

This eLanguages project is running in collaboration with the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton. Participants at the workshop consisted of language teachers, librarians and learning technologists. They explored the teaching and learning domain, in preparation for the creation of a WEB 2.0 interface which will assist in online resource discovery. Feedback from the workshop will inform the next stage of development as the concept map goes online. Look out for future workshops, if you want to get involved in testing. For more information, see the full event report.

February 2007

e-Learning Conference at the University of Southampton

1-2 February, 2007, eLanguages held an e-Learning conference in conjunction with the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies at the University of Southampton. Day two focused on dissemination of the concepts highlighted by the L₂O project: Sharing Language Learning Objects, an eLanguages-led project, through a series of workshops. The conference and workshops were attended by language teachers and learning technologists from all over the country.

Themes were: mobile learning, Web 2.0 technologies, and sharing and re-using learning resources.

Kate Borthwick and Ann Jeffery, two members of the eLanguages team, gave a presentation on the use of the virtual world 'Second Life' in language learning: 'Piccolo Mondo: Virtual worlds for language learning: a look at Second Life.' Download the presentation (Powerpoint, 2.5mb). For more information, see the full event report.

January 2007

Design Tools for Creating Online Learning Materials

Workshop conducted by Julie Watson, in Mexico, 22-26 January, 2007

This workshop was attended by participants from all over Mexico, from Cuba, Peru and the USA. Participants explored the development of online learning materials using a newly-created template and toolbar. This design package includes pedagogical advice on the creation of online materials.

The first Latin-CALL Conference

Held at Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango, Mexico, 18-20 January, 2007.

Julie Watson, from eLanguages, conducted a plenary discussion on 'Can learning objects meet the need for a pedagogically-driven design for online learning materials?' She also led a workshop 'Exploring different ways of using and blending a set of re-usable learning objects (EAP Toolkit) with face-to-face teaching.'

June 2006

Lifelong learning for all: eLearning from concept to practice

eLanguages presented information about the JISC-funded L₂0 project at this conference held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (5th June 2006). 'L₂0 - Sharing Language Learning Objects' - download presentation (Powerpoint, 256kb), download the project plan (.doc, 152kb).