There's a one in eight chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer in the average woman's lifetime. There's a one in 10 chance of developing depression. Yet we're far more likely to openly talk about one than the other. In a guest post, Tania Browne complains bitterly about her lack of complimentary baked goods
I once had a friend who was almost suffocated by cheesecake. She was a nice woman let's call her Penny. I met her in a hospital, as you do. Penny was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and let's just say she was a little bit pissed off with it. Not the breast cancer, but the way she had become "Poor Penny with Breast Cancer How Tragic She's Only 38, You Know". Penny felt that everything interesting about her had been stolen. She was no longer a clever woman who knew a lot about how ants form orderly societies by leaving chemical trails for each other, or how to get the best deal on a new washing machine. Cancer became a definition of who Penny was.
It had become quite literally the first thing people would ask her about. Not her opinion of Desperate Housewives, not the life cycle of caterpillars or any number of other interesting things she knew about. Just cancer. How her treatment was going, whether she looked "well on it" or "not so great" and because they could offer her nothing else constructive, they gave her food to show they cared. It started with a few casseroles for the slow cooker when she had chemo days, and escalated to cheesecakes and homemade choux pastry at an alarming rate. Weight loss was never an issue for Penny through her chemotherapy she had raspberry pavlova to raise her spirits. I bet she still has cheesecake in her freezer from that time. And not just that, people she barely knew suddenly laid claim to her. A bloke with halitosis she got off with at the office Christmas party in 2004 ran a marathon with her face on his T-shirt.
I had reason to remember Penny and her profiterole problem over Christmas, when I myself was ill. At the beginning of December I went to my GP, he agreed with me that something was horribly wrong and I was prescribed both chemical and non-chemical treatments. I was honest, I told friends and family that I was battling against something nasty. I confess that I was partly hoping for a shower of cake, but unlike Penny's friends mine aren't terribly good cooks.
But there was something else, too. Although aware of it, very few people asked me how my treatment was going. Even fewer told me if I looked better, or still much like I was auditioning for a new version of Worzel Gummidge. People went quiet, distant. They left me alone even when I opined about how isolated I felt. I had very few people I could talk to about my condition, and only fellow sufferers seemed to care. Why?
I didn't have breast cancer. I was depressed.
There's no easy way to slide depression into a conversation. When people ask after you when you bump into them in the supermarket, it's OK to say you have a nasty cold or some irritating health issue (especially if they've caught you in the haemorrhoid cream aisle), but not OK to mention that it's the first time you've left the house since December and you're feeling pretty pleased with yourself for venturing out to buy toilet paper. Depression is invisible. You can't see it (though you might be able to smell it: at my worst I would go without showers for days at a time), it has no obvious physical symptoms, and people don't like to talk about it.
Why not? Let's examine this in more detail. If you ask about my depression, am I likely to:
a) Shout "You know? At last, I'm free!!" And run around ripping my clothes off in the detergent section of Morrisons.
b) Corner you with a monologue about how my therapist made me realise remember that goth boy who looked a bit like Nick Cave who dumped me when I was 15? chances are we wouldn't still be together if dyeing my hair black had changed his mind, after all.
c) Scream "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME!!" And make a break for the nearest slammable door, bedroom or otherwise.
Yes, people are often scared they'll say the wrong thing and show their ignorance of depression. Even though it's an issue for many, most of us know very little about it.
Footage of Joanne Milne is a powerful reminder of the life-changing nature of technology, writes Nicola Davis
The moment when 40-year old Joanne Milne, who has been deaf since birth, first hears sound is heart-wrenching scene. Amateur footage showing her emotional reaction has taken social media by storm and touched viewers across the world, reinforcing the technological triumph of cochlear implants.
Its a story I have touched on before. Earlier this month I wrote about how cochlear implants changed the lives of the Campbells whose children Alice and Oliver were born with the condition auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Implants, together with auditory verbal therapy, have allowed them to embrace the hearing world. It was incredibly moving to glimpse the long and difficult journey this family had experienced, and the joy that hearing - a sense so many of us take for granted - can bring.
Orwell was a truth-teller whose courage and sense of social justice made him a secular saint
I admire Orwell for how he lived as well as for how he wrote. He would have sneered at the notion that he was a saint he once described the Christian heaven as "choir practice in a jeweller's shop". All the same, for me he was a secular saint. His road-toDamascus moment came when he resigned from the Indian Imperial police in 1927. He was aware, he said, of an "immense weight of guilt" he had to expiate, so he joined the beggars and outcasts, as described in Down and Out in Paris and London and "How the Poor Die".
He was a truth-teller, admitting to feelings others would hide. In Burma he had found the taunts and insults of the radicalised Buddhist priests hard to bear. Part of him thought of the British Raj as a tyranny, but another part thought "the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts".
As a teenager, Alek Wek shook up the fashion world and inspired, among others, a young Lupita Nyong'o. The Sudanese supermodel tells Sali Hughes why quirky is good
Alek Wek was 19 when she was approached by a model scout from a top London agency at a fair in Crystal Palace park. Her mother, she remembers, was horrified, thinking her daughter was about to become a Page 3 girl. She laughs loudly: "I had to point out that I wasn't really built for that." Wek, one of the most successful models of the past two decades, has inherited her father's height and extraordinarily long limbs, her mother's cheekbones and her "little booty and big smile", but she's not exactly glamour-girl material. But the agent persisted, finally convincing Wek's mother that theirs was a reputable agency, and her daughter's career began.
She went to New York and had been there barely a week when Ralph Lauren booked her to open and close his catwalk show (the spot normally reserved for the big model of the moment, not a newbie). Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham and Anna Sui followed suit. Wek was booked to star in Tina Turner's GoldenEye video, named Model of the Year by i-D magazine and, in 1997 (less than a year after starting out), became the first African model to appear on the cover of Elle magazine.
Action star has appeared in state-owned Russian media to back his personal friend the president and blast the west's anti-Putin stance on Ukraine
Vladimir Putin's decision to annexe the Crimean peninsula may be opposed by the combined political might of Europe and the USA, but one man stands ready to defend the Russian president. Action hero Steven Seagal, who considers Putin a personal friend, has labelled the former KGB lieutenant colonel "one of the greatest world leaders" and declared his actions in the Russian-majority Ukrainian province "very reasonable".
Students on the pro licence course from the much-decorated Gary Neville to Graham Kavanagh at struggling Carlisle outline the benefits they are gaining from it
Stuart James: a revamped lesson in leadership
The FA's Uefa pro licence course who, what and when
England coach
The Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly star on throwing himself into plays to avoid being hit at school, having an uncle famous for playing Sherlock Holmes, and his love of animals
My earliest memory is a picnic in the park near our house, which was next to Wimbledon Common. Why on earth we went to a park when we lived so near the common is a mystery, but it had formal gardens and lawns perhaps it was that very difference that took my parents there. As a child, I remember being parked outside pubs with a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps and left to wait for the grownups. Later on, Wimbledon Common was my stamping ground riding my bike, climbing trees all sorts of hearty boy stuff. My sister is older than me I was a typically infuriating little brother who nicked her toys and was probably a right pain.
Singer says she is 'completely overwhelmed' by the response to her first shows in 35 years
Kate Bush's only tour: pop concert or disappearing act?
Tickets for Kate Bush's forthcoming tour have sold out in less than 15 minutes.
The singer, who added a further seven shows to her residency at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith this week, will now be playing 22 gigs in all.
The label that dropped the Man in Black in 1986 is now polishing up recordings from the same era, with the blessing of his estate and Rick Rubin, the producer who resurrected his career
"One person can't save another person, but almost," Rosanne Cash once said about her father meeting the super-producer Rick Rubin. The union between the veteran country singer and the famed producer began in 1993 and resulted in a series of six albums (and a box set of outtakes) that revitalised Cash, both critically and commercially. He had spent the best part of 20 years in the wilderness, but the recordings re-established Johnny Cash as a great American artist doubtless helped by their mythic banner name of "American" and slowly restored him to public favour, too. Their first album, 1994's American Recordings, only made No 23 on the US country music chart and 110 on the Billboard 200 (though they were his highest placings on those charts since 1978 and 1971, respectively), and its follow-up, Unchained, fared worse. However, by 2002's American IV: The Man Comes Around, the man truly had come around. Propelled by the video for a cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, the album went platinum in the US and cracked the top 40 here; then, after his death in 2003, Cash had his first No 1 album since 1969's At San Quentin with 2006's American V: A Hundred Highways.
American V was just the first in a slew of posthumous releases that includes 2010's American VI: Ain't No Grave, compilations of unreleased material (a four-volume bootleg series), expanded editions of classic albums and numerous greatest-hits packages. In total, press cuttings list 37 compilations on a variety of labels since his death, plus one collaboration album, one gospel album, two live albums and three studio albums. The best of these releases were bought in large numbers (American VI, the last album proper, has sold 250,000 copies in the US and 62,000 in the UK) and it's into this fertile environment that Cash's estate, which is privately owned by his family, is now releasing a "lost" record from the early 1980s, Out Among the Stars.
Mourners from across the political divide come together to honour the man who dared to stand alone
The scene outside St Margaret's church in Westminster at Tony Benn's funeral was, rather appropriately, like an impromptu demonstration: trade union, Labour party and peace banners fluttered in the breeze.
In the crowd was 30-year-old activist Ian Chamberlain, holding a banner belonging to the Stop the War Coalition, a cause Benn championed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "Tony Benn was president of the coalition, and he was an inspirational leader of the anti-war movement, always on the streets with us whether it be over war in Iraq or Afghanistan. We want to make sure his political legacy continues long after his death," he said, reflecting the mood among those gathered.
As his 1980s play A Small Family Business is revived at the National Theatre, Alan Ayckbourn tells Nicholas Wroe why its mood of moral resignation is even more apposite now, and why Scarborough is vital to his creative outlook
In 1977 Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce was the first of his plays to be staged at the National Theatre. He was widely regarded at the time as a provider of middle brow, bitter-sweet comedies of middle-class lives and marriages such as How the Other Half Loves, The Norman Conquests and Absurd Person Singular, and had recently broken the record for having the most productions running simultaneously in the West End and on Broadway. "I was very pleased to be invited," he recalls, "but I do remember a lot of people saying to Peter Hall: 'What the hell is Mr Shaftesbury Avenue doing in the National?'"
Ten years later, at the high-water mark of radical Thatcherism, Hall asked Ayckbourn back to the National as both a writer and a director. The play he produced, A Small Family Business, which will be revived there next month, was not only a commercial success, but went on to be hailed by Mark Ravenhill as "one of the most intensely political plays of the period", and ranked by Michael Billington among the 10 best British plays of the 20th century for its "devastating assault" on the "entrepreneurial values we were taught to admire in the 80s".
A new project uses vintage photography to explore race in US history. From mock lynch mobs to Ku Klux Klan members and people in 'blackface', here are some of the most astonishing and disturbing images from America in the 1800s
Mirror of race: antique photographs show the history of race in black and white
The gay lifestyle magazine Attitude was launched in 1994 and to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the editor Matthew Todd, who says it feels serendipitous that Attitude turns 20 just as people of the same sex can begin marrying in England and Wales, has picked some of his favourite covers from over the years. They include the Harry Potter star, twice, The Voice coach Kylie Minogue and stars such as Lady Gaga, David Beckham, Ian McKellen, plus the five collectible covers for the anniversary, one of which features Ed Miliband
As vintage shopping becomes increasingly popular charity shops are seizing the opportunity to get involved. Organisations are making the most of recycling and offering revamped pieces in their stores. They are also picking up tips from the high street stores on how best to showcase their products. Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, CLIC Sargent and Ty Hafan have all adopted new methods and ideas to sell their stock and make the most money for their causes.
We asked you to show us your retro holiday snaps to capture how things have changed for holidaymakers over the years. Last week we looked at the 60s. This week it's the 70s, with photos of Greek ferry trips, a day at Warwick castle and lots of flares
We want to see your holiday snaps from the 80s and 90s. Click here to submit them for next week's gallery
What do we mean when we say someone is cool? A new exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery will explore this very theme, through photography, history and popular culture
'Cool is the opposite of innocence or virtue. Someone cool has a charismatic edge and a dark side.'
All photos courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
Jisc today welcomed the announcement by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Department for Employment and Learning that from 2016 they will expect all articles submitted to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), a system for assessing the quality of research, to be available by open access.
This framework will be used by the HEFCE, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland to inform the selective allocation of their research funding to higher education institutions. This means that any university which applies for research funding will have to show how they support open access.
This is potentially great news for universities and researchers keen to raise their profile and their impact. However, as with any benefit, it will require some investment on the part of the sector.
Jisc, the Association for Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) , Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) have come together to help universities reduce the investment needed so that good practice and lessons can be shared between those responsible for putting the REF policy into practice.
Lorraine Estelle, executive director of digital content and resource discovery and CEO Jisc Collections, said:
“There are few things to which universities pay more attention than the REF, so I’m delighted that Jisc is working so closely with our partners to help universities prepare for it, and gain the maximum benefit from doing so.“
Jisc works with the Open Access Implementation Group to offer a range of support and guidance which can help your university choose a model of open access which is right for your institution. We are supporting the open access implementation community with a number of Jisc-funded pathfinder projects, along with events, workshops and briefings over the next two years until the policy comes into force. And we are working with HEFCE, the Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust to provide the Sherpa FACT service, advising authors on complying with open access policies.
Simon Kerridge (ARMA), Stella Butler (RLUK), Sara Marsh (SCONUL) and Neil Jacobs (Jisc) agree that
“working together in this way, our organisations can reduce the burden on universities as they adopt open access in ways that best suit their missions in a diverse higher education sector”
The future of research is open access. Jisc is proud to be ensuring that institutions are involved in shaping that future and equipped to get the best out of it.
via Jisc news
Today the Wellcome Library and Jisc are pleased to announce that they have strengthened their successful working relationship by signing a new three year agreement for the digitisation of more than 10 million pages of 19th century published works.
These are focused on medicine and related disciplines and drawn from university and other research libraries across the UK.
The Wellcome Library is one of the world’s major resources for the study of medical history and provides access to a growing collection of resources relating to contemporary medicine and biomedical science in society.
The Wellcome Library is digitising its 19th century collections. Jisc will support the digitisation of complementary collections which are housed within universities to create a comprehensive online resource for the history of medicine and related sciences. The Wellcome Library will also provide support to allow non-university research libraries to participate in the project. Open access to all of the content will be provided across multiple platforms, including the Wellcome Library’s website, the Internet Archive and through Jisc.
By collaborating on the creation, dissemination and aggregation of digital content the charities will streamline the provision of digitised historical medical content by deploying common standards, infrastructure and best practice.
The project will significantly increase the availability of digitised text for teaching learning and research. The project is being undertaken in partnership with a number of higher education and specialist libraries, co-designed with Research Libraries UK (RLUK), and informed by an academic advisory group.
Simon Chaplin, head of the Wellcome Library said:
“We are building on the success of the US-based Medical Heritage Library, which already has over 50,000 digitised books online – our project will add significantly to this. For the Wellcome Library, this forms part of a bigger project that will digitise over 50 million pages of historic medical books, archives, manuscripts and journals by 2020.”
Stella Butler, chair of RLUK and chair of the academic advisory group for the project said:
"RLUK is delighted to be working with Jisc and the Wellcome Library on this important project which will make a step change to the availability of research resource for humanities scholars enabling important projects in areas such as medical history, ethics and the social sciences.”
Lorraine Estelle, Jisc’s executive director content and discovery and divisional CEO Jisc Collections said:
“By working with the Wellcome Library and the Internet Archive to aggregate dispersed medical collections of books and pamphlets, we are building the UK’s research capability in the most sustainable way.
High quality digitisation allows text to be liberated from its page, and the resulting data enables new forms of research inquiry. The project also meets the increasing demand, from our customers, that traditional content should be made digital for use and reuse.”
via Jisc news
Student coursework is not the reason behind the huge increase in the number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests received by UK universities last year.
On average, just seven percent of the requests came from staff, researchers and students from other institutions and only five percent from a university’s own students. These percentages are lower than they were in 2005, the first year of the survey.
That’s one of the findings revealed in the ninth annual Jisc infoNet, GuildHE and Universities UK information legislation and management survey, which was published earlier this month following the Times Higher Education (THE) who reported the increase earlier this year.
The Jisc survey is broadly in line with THE’s own survey, showing that the number of FOI requests received by UK universities has risen by 43% since 2012 and by 147% in the last five years.
The 53 universities that took part in the survey averaged 184 FOI requests each, with 426 reported by one. In 2013 universities in Yorkshire and Humberside received most, followed by those in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Universities in the East Midlands and the East received fewest.
Journalists made the most FOI requests (26%), followed by members of the public (17%) and commercial organisations (13%). The key interests were student issues and numbers, followed by financial information, and HR and staff issues.
Last year was the busiest so far for FOI requests, and also the most unpredictable, with numbers varying between an average of just 11.2 in February to 26.8 in November. Moreover, the pattern of requests seen in previous years was broken, with the final quarter being the busiest for the first time since the survey started.
Jisc infoNet researcher and analyst Teresa Tocewicz comments,
“The big upsurge in FOI requests has put an added burden on universities, especially in 2013 when it became much harder to predict when they were likely to be made.
Even so, the HE sector managed to beat their performance in 2012 by dealing with 93% of requests within the 20 working days set out in the legislation. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to sustain that high level of performance without increased resources or organisational change.”
More details about the survey are available on the Jisc infoNet website.
via Jisc news
As part of World Storytelling Day today, a new scheme on technologies for inclusion and accessibility is launching called Jisc TechDis ambassadors.
It invites disabled learners to share stories celebrating technology, independence and individual achievement.
Sal Cooke, director of Jisc TechDis explains,
“An ambassador is someone with a disability who shares and celebrates their use of technology in learning or work. We are encouraging disabled learners (who are 16 or over) and staff to send in their personal stories. We want to know who you are, what technology you are using, what it does and how it helps you.”
The scheme provides a voice for disabled learners and a unique opportunity for them to share their specialist knowledge and skills with one another as well as with education providers across the UK. It gives us the chance to learn from them and for them to learn from one another.
Lisa Featherstone, adviser at Jisc TechDis says,
“There is a lot of discussion in the sector about bring your own device (BYOD) but very little consideration for enabling and assistive technologies within this discussion. The ambassador programme redresses this by showing how they use their devices in their own unique and personalised way.”
Ambassadors will receive an official letter and certificate for use in portfolios. In addition, their story will be published on the Jisc TechDis blog, where you can find a number of interesting and inspirational example stories.
The aim is to get a wide range of stories from both higher and further education as well as the wider skills sector. These stories will then be shared throughout May which is National Share-a-Story Month.
The short individual stories may be a video, an audio file or a written document. The scheme is inclusive; it is not a competition and the technology need not be new or innovative. It simply needs to have helped the individual.
Ambassadors are champions of technology. They are not representatives of Jisc TechDis nor do they need to ‘do’ anything on behalf of the service.
For more information, guidance and to fill out an application form, visit the Jisc TechDis website.
via Jisc news
Speaking at the close of the two-day Jisc Digital Festival Jisc’s chief executive, Martyn Harrow highlighted the organisation’s continued support in enhancing digital capabilities within the education and research communities.
The event which took place at the Birmingham ICC, saw over 650 delegates attend with 286 more following the coverage online.
In its inaugural year, the Jisc Digital Festival drew together 132 speakers from the sector to share best practice on a number of topics focused on enriching student experience and boosting research excellence. In addition to speaker-led sessions and workshops, the event offered an exhibition showcasing the practical teaching and research applications of technologies including augmented reality, 3D printing and cloud computing.
The event which has already been confirmed for March 2015, gained huge participation with an online audience, attracting over 16,000 tweets and #digifest14 trending in the UK. Online participants who logged on to watch the live stream of the event represented countries including Japan, Canada and South Africa.
Supporting Martyn Harrow’s assertion that the best of digital is yet to come, keynote speaker Diana Oblinger, CEO of EDUCAUSE said:
“My talk was designed to try and make people understand that although we have been using digital technology, we maybe haven’t designed our systems in a way that is truly digital, and that is the next frontier for us. Engagement is a fundamental value for learners, and there are many ways of using digital technology to enhance engagement; whether it is a simulation, games or visualisation. Digital technology promotes a deeper understanding.”
In her address, Diana also addressed the pertinent issue of higher education using data activity to monitor ‘at risk’ students and intervening with personalised support to avoid them failing their degree programme.
Other keynote addresses were delivered by City University London’s vice-chancellor, Paul Curran and educationalist Sugata Mitra, who shared the success of his schools in the cloud experiment. Also presenting at the Jisc Digital Festival was futurologist Ray Hammond, who spoke about need to create a language of the future and how educators and researchers were in the privileged position to drive innovation and shape the digital future.
Summing up Jisc’s commitment to enhancing digital technology use, Martyn Harrow said:
“Digital technology is the core, and what you can do with it is the core subject matter of the Digital Festival. It is the fastest growing, most powerful tool to enhance human organisational performance and it can do that for individuals, for teams for groups, nationally and internationally.
The role of Jisc is quite simply to help UK education and research across the nations and the sectors that we serve, really harness and exploit the potential of technology and the fast developing capabilities of that technology for the advantage of colleges and universities. We’re at the start of the digital age, the digital future is going to be bigger than the digital past and we have to go there if we’re to keep up with that game and turn it to our advantage.”
To view the live stream of the event for free visit the Jisc Digital Festival pages.
via Jisc news
The two day Jisc Digital Festival exploring the latest policies, issues and technologies at the heart of the further education (FE), higher education (HE) and research sectors begins on Tuesday 11 March at the ICC in Birmingham, with its pioneering programme of content streamed live to online delegates from 9:40.
Award-winning keynote speakers, education experts and futurologists Prof Paul Curran, Ray Hammond, Prof Sugata Mitra and Dr Diana Oblinger will join leading practitioners from the FE, HE and research for a programme of content that mixes inspiration and futurology with practical advice and guidance. The online audience can also join in with debates via live feeds and Twitter conversations using #digifest14.
Sessions cover topics such as preparing new generations for the digital future over the next 20 years, aligning IT and university strategy, the student experience, big data, organisational change and mobile technology.
Keynote Dr Diana Oblinger, chief executive officer of EDUCAUSE, commented:
“I’m looking forward to attending and speaking at the Digital Festival. As well as sharing insight, I hope to come away from the Digital Festival with tangible and innovative ideas on how we can collectively advance the use of information technology in higher education.”
Day two keynote, Sugata Mitra, commented:
“It is refreshing to see Jisc hosting a conference like this. Ours is a time when we need to factor in the internet into every aspect of education. It is time for teachers and lecturers to be ready for change.”
Speaking about the event, Jisc’s chief executive, Professor Martyn Harrow commented:
“Following a two year break from our annual conference, the Jisc Digital Festival offers a programme that encompasses the achievement and innovation that is enhancing education and opening the door to exciting new possibilities in teaching and learning. The headline speakers embody the purpose of this festival, which is all about sharing cutting edge ideas and best practice.
I am confident that visitors to the event, both onsite and online, will come away with useful advice they can implement in their institutions.”
Jisc champions the use of digital technologies in the FE, HE, research and skills sectors to position the UK as the centre of digitally advanced education and research. The Digital Festival, which replaces Jisc’s annual conference, will offer the sector an opportunity to share ideas of best practice and learn and discuss innovative ways to harness digital technology.
To follow the live streamed coverage of the festival, visit the Jisc website.
via Jisc news
With just one week to go, today Jisc is announcing details of how to follow its Jisc Digital Festival 2014 online.
The Jisc Digital Festival, which will be held in the ICC in Birmingham on the 11-12 March 2014, will bring you its highlights, showcasing innovations in higher education (HE), further education (FE) and skills, as well as exploring the future of digital technology from the comfort of your office, home, or on the move.
Online participants will be able to follow the event online thanks to Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite software which will stream the keynote speakers and expert presentations from the festival’s ‘Hangout’ area. There is no need for registration, simply visit the live coverage page on the Jisc website to join in on the day.
In addition to the four keynote addresses, the Digital Festival will offer a wide selection of workshops, surgeries, panel discussions, expert speakers and live demonstrations of the latest education technology.
As well as the livestreamed video, there will also be a social media team live-tweeting all keynotes, workshops and expert speakers as well as highlights from the Technology Garden and images from around the site.
For the keynote speakers, follow the @JiscLive Twitter account and for expert speakers, workshops and the Technology Garden check the programme to find out which member of the team to follow. Follow the @Jisc Twitter account for updates on activity from around the site.
Robert Haymon-Collins, Jisc’s executive director customer experience and one of the event’s online hosts said:
“Whilst there’s no replacement for attending an event in person, our livestreaming highlights, combined with delegate and speaker interviews, provide a great opportunity to take part in the Jisc Digital Festival.
Being able to deliver the event through multiple online channels means that as many people as possible have the chance to discover the latest innovations in digital technologies for education and research.”
If you are tweeting, blogging or sharing photos, videos or other materials related to this event, please use the event hashtag #digifest14.
via Jisc news
Students offered £5k grants for innovative ideas to improve education, research and student life.
Registration opens today for this year’s Summer of Student Innovation, offering digitally savvy further and higher education (FE and HE) students the chance to create technology solutions that could change the education landscape forever.
The Summer of Student Innovation is a Jisc co-design programme with RLUK; RUGIT; SCONUL; UCISA and ALT. Successful entrants will receive a £5,000 grant from Jisc to develop their ideas further, with the aim of improving students’ creative design, research, entrepreneurial and project management skills.
The successful entrants will be announced in July and given opportunities to join networking workshops with fellow students and experts to further their ideas. Volunteer education organisations will trial the technology developed and those products that are successful will be provided to other interested parties through sustainable routes.
Sharing why RUGIT designed to be a co-design partner in the Summer of Student Innovation, John Shemilt, director of IT at Imperial College London 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.”
To enter, students must submit a two to five minute video pitch on the Jisc Elevator website alongside a short summary and a 300-500 word description which includes details on the benefits of their idea and its impact on research and education. To be considered for funding, entrants must hit a target of 2501 votes before 10 June 20142. Deadline for submission remains as 30 May 2014.. Voting is open to everyone but votes must come from ten3 different FE and HE institutions.
The winners’ ideas will be showcased later this year to FE and HE IT directors, learning technologists and librariansRemoved commercial companies - May 2014, offering them the chance to learn more about the benefits of these newly-developed technologies.
Andrew McGregor, deputy chief innovation officer at Jisc said:
“Technological developments should not only come from academics, college and university managers and organisations operating in the education sector but from the ground up, enabling an internal and needs-led perspective. After the success of last year’s Summer of Student Innovation, we’re sure this year will be even bigger and better.
We look forward to receiving more creative ideas in different areas to support young people in improving the way they and their classmates interact with technology in their education.”
The deadline to apply for the Jisc Summer of Student Innovation is 30 May 2014.
To enter your ideas and encourage your fellow students to vote for your suggestions visit the Jisc Elevator website or follow #studentideas on Twitter.
via Jisc news
Jisc will be showcasing a number of exciting and futuristic projects at its inaugural Digital Festival. The purpose-built Technology Garden will display the latest innovations in education and research through a series of live demonstration and talks.
The Jisc Digital Festival is a two day event that will take place at the ICC Birmingham from 11-12 March 2014, designed to celebrate the best in digital technologies and explore the future trends that will impact education and research.
In the Technology Garden, visitors will experience a variety of presentations including a 3D printing and scanning demonstration from The British Geological Survey (BGS) of the world’s first 3D virtual fossil collection. The GB3D Type Fossils Online project, funded by Jisc, has developed a single database of macrofossil species and subspecies specimens found in the UK. This includes links to photographs and laser scans to produce a selection of 3D digital models. The collection aims to provide an incredible insight into the history of life on Earth, providing a record of the evolution of creatures, how continents were once connected, and how environments across the globe have transformed.
Visitors will also have the chance to view the specialist collection of Digitised Diseases, a web-searchable 3D record of chronic diseases that affect the skeleton, using archaeological and historical exemplars from world-renowned collections housed in the Biological Anthropology Research Centre, at the University of Bradford and the Museum of London Archaeology and Royal College of Surgeons of England. These digitised records combined with current clinical knowledge will make it easier to view, manipulate and safeguard these valuable type-specimens, as well as develop a more detailed understanding of the progression of diseases.
Working closely with the academic community to foster innovation, Microsoft Research will also be in the Technology Garden demonstrating their Kinect sign-language translator which enables communication between signer and non-signer, as well as translation between different sign languages. Visitors will also have the chance to hear about the team’s Windows Azure for Research programme which is helping researchers discover how cloud computing can expand their work in environmental science, humanities, research data management and infrastructure.
Also on show in the Technology Garden will be the SCARLET project, an initiative which enhances the experience of studying first-hand medieval manuscripts, landmark editions and modern literary archives using augmented reality, ‘surrounding’ the pages with digitised content; images, texts, online learning resources and related information. Matt Ramirez, technical lead on The SCARLET project will be delivering an interactive presentation on this.
With demand for open data growing, delegates visiting the Technology Garden will also have the chance to listen to a presentation from Chris Gutteridge, linked open data architect at the University of Southampton and creator of Data.ac.uk. He will speak about how the higher education community can best use the wealth of data it has access to.
In addition, visitors will be able to learn more about BatMobile, an ambitious new project which identifies bats from their ultrasonic calls using a smartphone and an external microphone. Using the GPS signal from a smartphone, the information gathered will provide researchers with accurate information about species distributions which can be used to support national research programmes and inform conservation policy.
Rather appropriately, the Technology Garden will also showcase Leaf Watch, a citizen science app which enables the public to help academics at the universities of Bristol and Hull to identify the UK horse chestnut trees damaged by a species of moth.
Commenting on the current lineup of projects, presentations and demonstrations in the Technology Garden, Rachel Bruce, director of technology innovation at Jisc said:
“The Jisc Digital Festival marks an exciting return for us to the conference circuit, promoting the best of what the UK has to offer in digital innovation. The Technology Garden gives attendees a chance to see first-hand the great work being done across the sector in using technology to enhance learning, teaching and research as well as technology innovations of the future.”
For registration and to see the full programme for the Jisc Digital Festival on the 11 and 12 March 2014, visit the event web pages.
via Jisc news