Neil Shewry talks about his experience of Networkshop43, Jisc's annual technical event, aimed at network managers and technical staff. Read the original blog post.
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Neil Shewry talks about his experience of Networkshop43, Jisc's annual technical event, aimed at network managers and technical staff. Read the original blog post.
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Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser, Jisc technologies, explains how cloud technology offers more opportunities for innovation than the stereotypes associated with it suggest. Read the original blog post.
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Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser, Jisc technologies, explains how cloud technology offers more opportunities for innovation than the stereotypes associated with it suggest. Read the original blog post.
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12 leading national research and education networks (NRENs) representing the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, and including Jisc’s Janet network, have announced the official launch of the second 'Enlighten Your Research Global (EYR-Global)' programme.
This programme, which helps accelerate international research collaborations by providing selected proposals with improved networking, data transfers, and/or engineering, is now accepting proposals.
The EYR-Global programme reflects two growing trends in research: it is increasingly international in scope, and increasingly reliant on high-speed networks to provide critical resources for managing, sharing and analysing the data driving that research.
Major experimental collaborations such as the Large Hadron Collider integrate advanced networking capabilities as components for managing and sharing data internationally. At the same time, network-intensive research techniques are rapidly emerging across disciplines from genomics to climate research, materials discovery, humanities and the social sciences.
David Salmon, research support unit manager, Jisc, said:
"Global research in many disciplines is increasingly reliant on access to large data-sets and the capabilities of high-capacity networks such as Janet to move these between facilities for processing and analysis.
“We hope that EYR will encourage research groups to collaborate with their UK partners, and to submit proposals for projects that will benefit from access to the Janet network and support from Jisc and the other NRENs to help meet the needs of their research."
ESNet director Greg Bell said:
“Research and education networks have spent the past few years performing upgrades and improving end-to-end network performance. Our next frontier is direct engagement with scientific collaborations. It’s very exciting to see over a dozen of the most advanced networks in the world coming together to collaborate in this way.”
The EYR-Global programme was patterned after SURFnet’s successful national Enlighten Your Research competition in the Netherland. It represents an important step forward in helping researchers in all fields to incorporate advanced global research networks to significantly improve discoveries and collaboration processes.
In 2013, the first inaugural EYR-Global programme resulted in four research projects in climate research, life sciences, and computer science receiving awards in the form of network resources and/or engineering consultations to improve the research workflows in each project.
Regarding his EYR-Global 2013 project, 'An Advanced Distributed Computing Approach to High-Resolution Climate Modeling,' Henk Dijkstra, professor of dynamical oceanography at Utrecht University said:
“Our work within the EYR-Global 2013 programme has enabled our team to perform climate model computations distributed over different supercomputing systems in the world. The software developed in this project and the experience gained with the networking issues will be crucial to be able to efficiently perform extremely high-resolution climate simulations in the near future.”
For 2015, EYR-Global is seeking to support even more projects. The two-step proposal process includes review by a panel of judges representing each of the sponsoring organizations. Final EYR-Global proposal projects may have access to:
The selected proposals will receive resources and/or support from some of the world’s leading NRENs which are sponsoring EYR-Global:
Find out how to participate here.
via Jisc news
12 leading national research and education networks (NRENs) representing the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, and including Jisc’s Janet network, have announced the official launch of the second 'Enlighten Your Research Global (EYR-Global)' programme.
This programme, which helps accelerate international research collaborations by providing selected proposals with improved networking, data transfers, and/or engineering, is now accepting proposals.
The EYR-Global programme reflects two growing trends in research: it is increasingly international in scope, and increasingly reliant on high-speed networks to provide critical resources for managing, sharing and analysing the data driving that research.
Major experimental collaborations such as the Large Hadron Collider integrate advanced networking capabilities as components for managing and sharing data internationally. At the same time, network-intensive research techniques are rapidly emerging across disciplines from genomics to climate research, materials discovery, humanities and the social sciences.
David Salmon, research support unit manager, Jisc, said:
"Global research in many disciplines is increasingly reliant on access to large data-sets and the capabilities of high-capacity networks such as Janet to move these between facilities for processing and analysis.
“We hope that EYR will encourage research groups to collaborate with their UK partners, and to submit proposals for projects that will benefit from access to the Janet network and support from Jisc and the other NRENs to help meet the needs of their research."
ESNet director Greg Bell said:
“Research and education networks have spent the past few years performing upgrades and improving end-to-end network performance. Our next frontier is direct engagement with scientific collaborations. It’s very exciting to see over a dozen of the most advanced networks in the world coming together to collaborate in this way.”
The EYR-Global programme was patterned after SURFnet’s successful national Enlighten Your Research competition in the Netherland. It represents an important step forward in helping researchers in all fields to incorporate advanced global research networks to significantly improve discoveries and collaboration processes.
In 2013, the first inaugural EYR-Global programme resulted in four research projects in climate research, life sciences, and computer science receiving awards in the form of network resources and/or engineering consultations to improve the research workflows in each project.
Regarding his EYR-Global 2013 project, 'An Advanced Distributed Computing Approach to High-Resolution Climate Modeling,' Henk Dijkstra, professor of dynamical oceanography at Utrecht University said:
“Our work within the EYR-Global 2013 programme has enabled our team to perform climate model computations distributed over different supercomputing systems in the world. The software developed in this project and the experience gained with the networking issues will be crucial to be able to efficiently perform extremely high-resolution climate simulations in the near future.”
For 2015, EYR-Global is seeking to support even more projects. The two-step proposal process includes review by a panel of judges representing each of the sponsoring organizations. Final EYR-Global proposal projects may have access to:
The selected proposals will receive resources and/or support from some of the world’s leading NRENs which are sponsoring EYR-Global:
Find out how to participate here.
via Jisc news
Andy McGregor, deputy chief innovation officer, talks about the Summer of Student Innovation competition and why you should take part. He also discusses Call for Participants, a previous winner of the competition. Read the original blog post.
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Chris Thomson, subject specialist - online learning and the digital student experience, discusses the value of digital storytelling to organisations. Read the original blog post.
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Performing arts students from around the globe used state-of-the-art technology to virtually perform together at the Royal College of Music (RCM), London on Tuesday 5 May.
Dancers from the museum of contemporary arts, Barcelona (MACBA) and traditional Nordic instrumentalists from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, joined the performance with musicians from the RCM via live video links.
This collaboration was made possible by Jisc, while the performance was streamed via our Janet network, using very low latency audio and visual technology which means it can broadcast video in real time from different international locations without delays.
The performance was an innovative and cross-disciplinary event in which visual poetry, new music and choreography combine with pioneering digital design and projection technology to explore award-winning writer Peter Cox’s original narrative, The Infinite Bridge.
Michael Ladouceur, a Masters student at the Royal College of Music, who is co-executive producer and one of three young composers on the project, said:
“These technologies have allowed us to create a unique performance environment, changing not only the way we write music, but also the way it is perceived. Along with my fellow music collaborators, RCM MA student composers, Mari Sainio and Sam Jones, I can say we’re immensely excited to be creating a new kind of artwork for the 21st century.”
Emma Smith, Jisc video projects coordinator said:
“The role of digital technology in further and higher education is growing. Thanks to our high-speed network Jisc is helping the Royal College of Music to shape the way music is taught, rehearsed and performed.
We are very excited to be working with the RCM to deliver this performance and demonstrate how the power of technology can be used to remove traditional geographical constraints and help transform the performing arts landscape.”
The performance was a part of the annual network performing arts production workshop (NPAP) which is being held in the UK this year at the Royal College of Music on 4-6 May.
The workshop has been coordinated by Jisc, the Royal College of Music and the GÉANT Association's Amsterdam office (formerly TERENA). GÉANT is the pan-European research and education network that interconnects Europe’s NRENs. Additional technical expertise will be provided by the American NREN Internet2, Italian NREN GARR and CSUC which manages the regional network in Catalonia.
For an overview of some of the talks, performances and personalities of the previous event, held in Vienna in 2013, see the video report.
More information regarding The Infinite Bridge can be found on the Royal College of Music website.
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With digital technology becoming ever more pervasive in learning and teaching, Judy Bloxham, training consultant, Jisc, gives us five reasons why colleges should embrace digital. Read the original blog post.
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Paul Bailey, co-design manager, talks to us about the Summer of Student Innovation 2015 and your chance to improve the student experience. Read the original blog post.
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After four years as Jisc’s chief executive, Martyn Harrow has decided to step down from the role this autumn.
Martin Hall, chair of Jisc said:
“Martyn informed me last year of his plans to move on to new projects and while the board regrets his decision we do understand and wish him the very best.
Martyn has bought about a radical and forward looking modernisation and transformation of Jisc. He has achieved this whilst ensuring minimum disruption to core solutions and services we deliver and that our communities across education and research use and rely on every day.
He has achieved greater engagement with our customers, stakeholder, funders and sponsors while making huge progress in changing Jisc’s structure, cost base and business model. Martyn will hand over to a new chief executive during the autumn and we have now started the search and selection process for his successor.”
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Tracey Duffy, digital media advisor (e-learning), talks to us about using mobile learning to support inclusive practice. Tracey also opens a call for higher and further education and skills providers to submit their own examples to be made into video case studies for Jisc's mobile learning guide. Read the original blog post.
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Nigel Ecclesfield, head of change implementation support programmes - further education (FE) and skills, discusses some of the challenges facing the sector, and sets out the actions being taken by the FE coalition to improve teaching, learning, assessment and management. Read the original blog post.
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Tuesday 5 May marks the start of Images of Research, the annual competition and exhibition from the University of Strathclyde, which is designed to broaden the appeal of the university's research outputs to the general public.
This year, to bring the research to life Chris Thomson, subject specialist - online learning and the digital student experience, helped to support the participants in using digital storytelling. Rachel Clark, project coordinator at the university, talks to us about the thinking behind the exhibition.
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Humanities scholars will now be able to benefit from a collaborative open access (OA) consortium agreement which means that authors won’t have to pay to make their research open access.
The publishing model – the first of its type in the UK – is being offered by Open Library of Humanities (OLH) following negotiations with Jisc.
Not-for-profit and scholar led, the Open Library of Humanities is a gold open access platform for a range of humanities journals. Publishing across a wide range of humanities disciplines, the model works by sharing the costs across its consortium of library members – who pay a fee to join – rather than charging authors and their institutions an upfront fee on publication (article processing charges).
Liam Earney, director of Jisc Collections, said:
“We are keen to engage with a variety of business models to help universities in making their research openly available and compliant with open access policies.
The OLH has a transformative business model that is supportive and inclusive of all humanities scholars. It strengthens the relationship between publishers and libraries by actively involving the libraries in the governance of the OLH. This collectively-funded model offers a cost competitive, sustainable path to gold open access that our universities have told us they want.”
Dr Martin Paul Eve, co-director of the OLH, added:
“We are thrilled and privileged to be working with Jisc in the UK to implement another route to achieve open access. The humanities disciplines still pose a substantially greater challenge than their scientific counterparts.
With our unique financial model and innovative approach to transition, we hope to contribute to a solution.”
OLH has already launched a similar approach in North America. Since the consortium was announced in January 2015 more than 60 libraries have signed up from all across the US, including the GALILEO consortium, which comprises over 2,000 institutions in the state of Georgia.
Furthermore, the OLH has been internationally recognised as an important development in open access for the humanities with David Armitage, the Lloyd C. Blankfein professor of History at Harvard, writing that
“there is hardly a more important project in train for scholarship in the humanities today”.
Institutions wishing to find out more or to sign up should visit the OLH catalogue page or contact the Jisc Collections helpdesk.
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Lawrie Phipps, senior co-design manager at Jisc, talks about the challenges facing colleges and universities when it comes to embedding a technology strategy and how these can be overcome. Read the original blog post.
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Last year, Jisc began work with EDUCAUSE - the US organisation for IT professionals in higher education - to find out the skillset of the CIO of the future.
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One of the findings of our project was that many aspiring technology leaders find it difficult to make the step up.
Louisa Dale, director Jisc group sector intelligence, talks us through some of the learnings and opens a call for IT professionals to get involved in the next phase of work.
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A new report on the potential of collaboration and shared services in UK higher education (HE) launches this week from Loughborough University and the Efficiency Exchange – the service operated by Universities UK (UUK) in partnership with Jisc, Leadership Foundation and HEFCE.
Praise is given to the efficiency savings achieved by universities, estimated at £1.38bn between 2005 and 2011, and the adoption of shared services have made a vital contribution to this sum. However, there is a clear message that UK HE must do more to emulate the business world and further embrace a culture of collaboration if it is to remain competitive on an international stage.
As next steps, the report highlights the opportunities for universities to streamline processes and create new efficiencies across internal departments, and with other institutions.
Martin Hamilton, futurist at Jisc, says:
“We welcome this report, which shows our sector is awake to the excellent opportunities that come with sharing functions, facilities and expertise. We are increasingly recognising that when we come together, we put the UK in the best competitive position.”
The report mentions a number of successful initiatives already in use that are increasing productivity and opening up access to expensive research assets. For example, Kit-Catalogue, a searchable online database of publically bookable equipment, developed by Loughborough University and subsequently taken in-house by Jisc, allows universities to pool their resources to create high technological capabilities.
Martin continues:
“What’s interesting is that some of the most successful shared services have not always been thought of as such. Jisc’s role in providing the Janet network which provides an internet connection for UK education and research institutions, now over 30 years old, probably makes it the first true example of shared services in UK HE. Universities and colleges all around the UK are reliant on this world class infrastructure.
We see shared services as vital for the future of HE and will look to review and refine our offer to support everyone in the sector. We look forward to working with the project team and the Efficiency Exchange to progress the recommendations.”
Jisc is actively looking to support this agenda, making it easier for universities to benefit from shared infrastructure. Last year Jisc launched the UK’s first shared data centre for education and research, which is helping to lower the operational costs and increase collaboration between some of the UK’s leading research institutions.
We believe there is significant potential from taking a shared approach to new developments and work is already underway, including a business intelligence tool, developed in conjunction with HESA, that will bring together data from all UK universities, and our brokerage work on supercomputing which makes £60m of publicly funded facilities and expertise available under a standard contractual template.
The report follows a review from earlier this year led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond, on ‘Efficiency, effectiveness and value for money’ in UK HE, which highlighted shared services as ‘critical’ in improving quality and lowering costs. It was written by Dr Andrew Rothwell, director of MBA programmes, and Ian Herbert, deputy director of the centre of global sourcing and services, programme director (Singapore) and senior lecturer in accounting and financial management, both at the school of business and economics, Loughborough University.
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Jisc is sponsoring the innovation technology excellence category in the inaugural Herald Higher Education Awards, the first awards to recognise best practice specifically in Scottish higher education. Jason Miles-Campbell, head of Jisc Scotland and Jisc Northern Ireland, tells us about the awards and how to enter.
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John Chapman, information security policy and strategy manager at Jisc, describes how a recent consultation is informing development of some new security products and services. Read the original blog post.
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Flipped classrooms are turning education upside-down: students watch videos in their own time, then come together in a curated discussion to interact and learn together with their teacher. But what about flipped learning for professional development?
Flipped learning, blended learning, mixed-mode instruction. The terms change, but the concept stays the same. Learners study material at their own pace, typically through watching videos, and then benefit from an interactive group session. Tutors spend time doing what they do best: working with individuals, guiding discussions, creating hands-on activities, and less time presenting. The pedagogy is starting to gain interest among educational researchers, too. A study in 2011 split a class of undergraduate physics students during the 12th week of their course, with half the students taught in person as usual and the other half taught through flipped learning, without a formal lecture. At the end of the week, they were tested. In the control classroom, students gained an average score of 41%, but the flipped learners scored an average of 74%.
So could this be applied to training the staff themselves? And if tutors were more confident having been on the other end of this practice, would they feel better about using the technique with their learners? Samantha Broom, head of modern foreign languages at St Mary's Catholic Academy in Blackpool, definitely thinks so.
As someone who regularly flips her continuing professional development sessions, Samantha sees a number of benefits:
“Flipping is extremely effective as it gives everyone the opportunity to engage with the learning materials at their own speed, and this then gives you more time to go deeper into the learning during training time with professionals.”
That face-to-face learning between mentor and learner is what turns straightforward distance learning into flipped learning. These sessions may also give learners more time to engage in one-to-one discussion with the tutor, something they couldn’t do in a lecture or workshop scenario. Writing in the US publication Faculty Focus, Dr Penne Restad, who uses the flipped model to teach history at the University of Texas, has said:
"Working in class along with a master of the discipline (you), they learn to think more critically, communicate more effectively, and have a greater appreciation for the unique importance and logic of the subject."
With such a diverse range of staff working in any learning provider, the flexibility of this approach can be particularly useful. Martin Compton is a teacher trainer and elearning specialist at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. He uses flipped CPD to train teachers from various subject areas in one room. They may have watched subject-specific material before the session, but can discuss it more generally with colleagues from other departments.
Isabel Boothby, a participant on the eteaching course that Martin runs, explains,
"I am given tasks to do without a huge amount of support which means that I have to actually research the methods and find a way of being able to do these tasks myself. It’s the process of discovering that not only can I do it, but I can do it without a lot of scaffolding, that has been really really empowering."
Another benefit of flipped learning is in the longevity of materials. Having an online home for a course can provide a space like this one for participants to refer back to and update themselves for continuing professional development in the truest sense.
Harry Wheatcroft talks about the impact and benefits of introducing online health and safety training for staff at Loughborough College
Apart from keeping people happy, Martin Compton argues that teaching using flipped learning is “a no-brainer because it’s so much easier than other forms of training”. If shared openly, the resources only have to be created once, and can then be used across different training providers. The flipped approach is starting to become more and more integral to the second year PGCE course that Martin runs, especially in modules on curriculum development for inclusive practice, which he maintains on Blendspace, an online platform for sharing different kinds of media.
“You could do flipped learning without technology but they go hand in hand. Cloud-based technology is the perfect flipping tool.” In some colleges like Uxbridge, the virtual learning environment is beginning to be replaced by a series of cloud resources. Martin says, “It’s also possible to massively decrease the photocopying budget; you could use a QR code to allow staff quick access to relevant resources.” Expensive projectors and screens, which can cost up to £5,000 per classroom, are replaced by instant access to the technology online. The face to face sessions tend to be lighter on the tech and more focused on peer and trainer interaction.
But it’s not all plain sailing. Doing things differently and taking staff out of the classroom and on to their computers for the presentation part of their learning, can raise eyebrows, at least initially. Martin says, “People panic – managers panic, even the people doing the courses panic. It’s so counter to the norms. It’s requiring them to be independent. They like classrooms and registers.”
But when it comes to actually doing the courses, Martin has been surprised. He says, “I can’t believe how positive everyone is. What we are doing is to do is showing that you can release people to have the confidence to do this.”
If learning providers want to promote this kind of upside-down thinking then they need to empower people at the grassroots, Martin argues.
“The most effective change happens through the pressure of individuals. My desire to share has been supported by an information learning technology, or ILT, strategy.”
That support drives a critical mass of people to become involved, which helps to drive change.
Follow Martin Compton on Twitter @eteachingx3
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Paul Bailey, senior co-design manager, Jisc tells us about the Summer of Student Innovation, a co-design competition to come up with technology ideas to improve education, research and student life.
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This week, Paul Richardson, account manager for Jisc Wales, attended OER15. In this podcast Paul talks to us about some of the learnings from the event, and how Jisc is helping institutions to make best use of open educational resources, touching on our work with Bangor University.
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This year’s Summer of Student Innovation is underway with a new approach to engage a broader range of students and produce new technology that is more likely to lead to wide scale adoption.
Ideas are already being submitted for this year’s competition, offering further education, higher education (FE and HE) and work based learning students the chance to create solutions that could change the education landscape forever.
Now in its third year, the Summer of Student Innovation is a Jisc co-design competition to enable students to realise their big ideas for using technology to improve education, research and student life for themselves and for their fellow students. This year’s competition is open to students in higher and further education and those in work-based learning.
Successful entrants will be announced in June and receive a grant from Jisc. The funding will help students develop their ideas into apps and tools, support successful products to be piloted by universities, colleges and learning providers, and promote all ideas to other interested parties through sustainable routes.
To take part students are asked to submit a short video pitch on the Jisc Elevator website, alongside a short summary and a 300-500 word description of their idea detailing the benefits and how it will impact upon research and education. The four categories this year are:
Those entering the competition must submit their applications by Monday 18 May 2015.
Andy McGregor, deputy chief innovation officer at Jisc says:
The exciting thing about the summer of student innovation competition is that it enables students to use technology to address the problems that they experience on a day to day basis. This leads to new technologies that should benefit universities and colleges and allow them to improve the student experience.
This year we have learned from the past two years and are running the competition differently. This year we are aiming to reach a broader range of students and to work with them to develop killer apps that are sustainable, scalable and easy to adopt.
Lukas Ondrej, an A-level student at Sussex Downs College and winner of last year’s competition says:
“Jisc's Summer of Student Innovation competition was an unforgettable experience that allowed us to not only greatly improve our performance, presentational and interpersonal skills but also to make valuable new business contacts and expand our horizons.”
One of the people who has helped shape the Summer of Student Innovation is John Shemilt, director of IT at Imperial College London, who commented:
“It may sound like an obvious answer, but those most likely to know what students want are students themselves.
Giving our bright generation of young people full credit for their ideas and an ongoing role in their development will improve student satisfaction and engagement and potentially uncover the entrepreneurs of the future.”
The 20 winning ideas teams will be showcased later this year in a ‘Dragons' Den’ style pitching event on 26 August in London.
This year’s Summer of Student Innovation is run in partnership with:
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