Notes from 'Staff for iPads' Project Session

Some notes from the presentation by Olaojo Aijegbayo, on Staff Use of iPads, the BERA-funded project which supplied Univ Huddersfield's Business School staff with iPads and evaluated their use in admin, research, and teaching-related tasks:

A link to the project and a preliminary look at a survey of staff using their ipads, with Wordle summary of the apps they use for each of the three kinds of tasks (admin, research, teaching): http://bjetipadproject.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/ipad-survey-results-infographics/


And a link to the recording I made of the session itself, by Adobe Connect. The sound is not great but it's alright. I'm still learning with Adobe Connect!

https://connect.le.ac.uk/p9kwe4kak1d/


One important issue that came out in discussion is the need for some form of support for staff, to enable them to maximise the affordances of a tablet in learning and research. For example, one staff member used Educreations app to mark up and sketch out an explanation of a difficult concept, incorporating images and photos, and saving the whole thing as a short video which is distributed over their VLE, and this gave other staff some ideas to try. At Huddersfield, they are beginning some iPad Coffee Club meetings which try to provide this support.

So on that note, if you have a handheld-learning related issue you would like to explore or question to address, please let me know and we'll figure out a way to address it in an upcoming meeting!

Terese Bird, Learning Technologist, Institute of Learning Innovation, University of Leicester

Evaluating Academics' Use of iPads for Academic Practices

Ola Aiyegbayo, University of Huddersfield

This Friday, 20 September 2013, sees the reconvening of University of Leicester's Handheld Learning Group. We welcome Ola Aiyegbayo from University of Huddersfield, who will share with us his findings from a BERA-funded project evaluating academics' use of iPads for their own academic practice. I also have it on good authority that Ola hopes to see how our ad-hoc Handheld Learning Group is working out, as he is looking at support models, both formal and informal, for university use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

So please join us at 1pm at the Learning Inn, Room 0.08 105 Princess Road East. Bring your lunch if you like; we'll supply a cuppa and a home-baked treat!

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Terese Bird, Institute of Learning Innovation, University of Leicester