weelearning

We've got a new home!

2012-01-09T12:48:00.001-08:00

We only went and set ourselves up a cozy wee new home at http://weelearning.co.uk/. Come see us there for information about weelearning II: learnocalypse, Wednesday 18 January 2012...

A modest success

2011-10-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the hardy souls who braved the winteriest evening of the year so far to join us at the Bristol Ram for the inaugural weelearning, and a second but no less important thanks to those of you out there who joined in the conversation on Twitter!

Those that made it were "treated" to a couple of short talks that worked well to stimulate debate. First up, Kate Graham spoke to the group about the need for care in choosing the words we use to express ourselves. Kate, who is a marketing consultant with lots of experience of the online learning world, sparked a debate that spread far beyond the walls of the Ram - you'll find a discussion on Twitter, quite literally with our name on it, that picked up on something Kate had said about the naming of things.If you want to know more about Kate's talk, do check out her blog (linked above) as she talks about the experience of giving the same talk under pechakucha conditions.

The second talk, given by yours truly, took a look at some examples of the fad de jour, gamification, and how they can be applied to learning. The talk will be on slideshare shortly and we'll provide a link as soon as it is.

Zak Mensah has superpowers and flew
home from the Ram with his new
online library licence from Packt.

For those that attended we did offer up two remarkable gifts from our sponsors, Packt Publishing. Sue from Willow DNA and Zak Mensah from JISC were the lucky recipients of 12 month licences to Packt's online library of elearning resources - that's over 20 titles. In addition, in recognition of Reading-based Kate's efforts to join us, she received a copy of Wordpress 3 Complete to help her create her new website while a couple of days later, our keenest champion on Twitter, Craig Taylor, received a copy of Moodle 2.0 e-Learning Course Development, a guide to creating courses in the open-source LMS. A huge thanks to Packt for their support, and if you are keen to check out their products, then come along to the next weelearning as Packt have offered to help us out again!

So, a good night was had and with that behind us, we're working the next one - keep an eye out for news on that soon.

Are you ready for WEE1?

2011-10-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

So we may be cutting it fine, but here's a detailed look at what's happening tomorrow night at the very first weelearning social at the Bristol Ram on Park Street:

19:30 - "doors open" arrive early to avoid disappointment!

20:00 - 3 short talks to provoke a bit of debate for the rest of the evening:

Mark Bradshaw tells us why "elearning is rubbish"

Kate Graham takes a swipe at the jargon we use in learning and development circles

and lastly weelearning co-founder, Dan Roddy, looks at gamification

20:30 onward: informal chat and debate

21:30ish We'll announce the winners of the raffle.

Packt publishing have kindly given us this great selection of books and two online library licenses to give away.

So weeel see you there... (groans)

Our sponsors - Packt Publishing

2011-10-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

weelearning is really pleased to announce Packt Publishing is to sponsor our first event.

Packt are a modern, UK-based publishing house who produce indispensable books for elearning people - developers, administrators and newbies. Packt have a strong commitment to open source software too, in particular they have strong support for Moodle, but also other great tools for elearning folk like GIMP, Inkscape and Wordpress.

Since 2010 Packt have also offered a great e-book offer - PacktLib. For a monthly fee you can access their full catalogue of books online - that's over 640 titles or to put it another way, 100,000 pages of useful information.

Why did I (Dan) approach Packt? Because I have several of their books on my shelf - in particular I refer to Moodle Administration pretty much every time I have to tweak a setting in my workplace Moodle install. They're also big supporters of open source software, which I like, and they're British and doing well. Best of all, Packt are useful to all of us in elearning, whether in-house specialist, working in education or as a commercial elearning developer; Packt's books are relevant to everyone we want to come to weelearning.

What does Packt's support mean for weelearning? It means we can run the event free of charge, and we might even have some really useful things to give away on the evening...

What can you expect from weelearning?

2011-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

There's no shortage of events, conferences and seminars these days about learning and technology, so why should you give up your free time to come to weelearning..?

The idea for weelearning was born a few months back when Dan and I arranged to meet down the pub one Sunday afternoon. We didn't know each other, we'd never met face to face, but we knew of each other thanks to the eLearning Network and Twitter. To some, especially my wife, this may seem a little odd,

"you're going out to meet some guy you met on the internet for a few drinks"

"er, yes"

"why"

"um, we thought it might be fun to talk about what we do at work"

Now one of the reasons this seemed peculiar to her was because she's a solicitor and she works with lots of people her age, with similar interests and there's a great social life at her firm. They're always going out for drinks and more often than not they end up talking about work. If, like Dan and I, you are the only person who deals with learning technology in your office you tend to miss out on that sort of thing.

So to make this modest dream a reality we have secured exclusive use of the downstairs area of The Bristol Ram on Park Street, Bristol. The evening will start around 7.30pm, we'll have a couple of short talks to kick things off about 8.00pm for no more than half an hour, then we'll just chat and have a few drinks.

It's completely free to attend and if enough of you turn up we'll make it a regular event.

Support the eLearning Network

2011-09-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

The eLearning Network is a not-for-profit organisation that supports and promotes elearning in the UK. Associate membership is free with different tiers of paid-for subscription available, all of which include a subscription to e.learning Age. Through its activities it brings together users and vendors and the eLN is a key contributor to the annual e.learning Age awards - our industry's black-tie awards for the year.

Why are we mentioning them? Because we're members and lots of the people we know across the country are too. Until 2011 they had restricted their activities to seminars in London but this year, in response to member requests, they set out across the country, with Bristol their first destination outside the capital! They have a full list of events all year, with many free online seminars hosted in conjunction with ALT, the Association for Learning Technology.

Can we call weelearning an unofficial chapter meeting here in Bristol? I'm sure the committee wouldn't be offended if we did, but everyone is welcome to weelearning, eLN membership or not. (Did we mention it is free to join?)

Who's behind weelearning?

2011-09-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

weelearning is being arranged by Dan Roddy and Sam Burrough, who realised after meeting up that it was good to speak to new people and not have to explain what they did for a living, or apologise for every tawdry piece of "text 'n' next" compliance training the conversee had ever been subjected to. They are both on the Twitter so you can stalk them if you like.

weelearning is fixed

2011-09-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

Announcing the first weelearning event, coming to Bristol on Wednesday 19 October to the Bristol Ram on Park Street. Come along and join other people who use technology to help people get better at their jobs, or just to learn for the sake of it.