Last week, the UKCLE held the first in a series of four e-learning seminars across the uk. The focus on Collaborative and Distributive Learning was well attended at UCL in London. Photos of the speakers and the event are here.

Sara de Freitas from the Serious Games Institute led as the principal speaker, illustrating the the current range of technologies are diverse and that convergence of what we can do with technology for education will enable more integration and ultimately more usefulness. Current policies on technology will not have an effect on frontline innovations until they are more connected and “back in whack”.

The YouTube video by Michael Wesch was played to demonstrate the new ways in which we should consider web 2.0 – I will certainly link to in on blackboard for some classroom inspiration!

I gave a presentation on using discussion boards, which was recorded with Camtasia and I think Fed will issue a podcast at some point soon, so watch this space! Update – see here!

Irene Anderson and Alan Hilliard from the Blended Learning Unit at Hertfordshire gave a presentation on podcasts and then actually got us to join in! Photos of the brainstorming exercise will be posted, as well as the group podcasts that discuss the challenges of using podcasts in education… listen here!

Caroline Coles went on to discuss blogs and provided a good few tips – here are a few that I noted down:

Paul Maharg rounded up with a session on wikis and their use, not only for distributive writing, but also for academic teaching and for assessment. Interestingly, Lessig’s book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace is receiving the wiki treatment for the second edition in a web 2.0 style. Paul is following suit with his recent book Transforming Legal Education. For those less familiar with wikis, the YouTube basic introduction guide for staff and students alike is an entertaining piece!