Summary of 3 years of Enterprise at JISC CETIS Conferences

In response to a request from Christina at eLearning Focus, I have written a summary of 3 years of the Enterprise SIG / Systems Integration / Future of Institutions strand at the JISC CETIS Conferences from 2004-2006, discussing priorities identified and progress made. The summary is here: Priorities and Progress: 3 Years of the Systems Strand at JISC-CETIS Conference.

Tencompetence meeting in Manchester

Hi, regular blog readers! Does anyone read my work blog? Feel very welcome to leave some comments (nice ones, please).

The good news is that my computer is working again, and I’ve been back online since last week. I went to Manchester last Thursday to the Tencompetence meeting. Mark Stiles gave a great keynote presentation, as ever, and it was followed by a really interesting presentation about Ultraversity, a distance learning course where students only meet at graduation. It was inspiring to hear about people who have found this a great way to study without giving up work (who can afford to study without a job these days?), or combine study with parenting. As Enterprise SIG Coordinator, I also found it useful to hear Steve Bennet’s presentation on using Enterprise Web Services to connect Smirkboard and Perception (see his article on eLearning Focus for more info), and really liked the Heather Mills example he used to illustrate a point about the transient nature of student data. If you come to my SIG meetings, you’ll know I’m very much in favour of using silly or simple examples to make things easier to understand!

Welcome to 2007

The Enterprise SIG coordinator is back to work, feeling very rejuvenated after the Christmas break. I’m keen to get on with the next SIG meeting, and am looking for a kind host with access to a meeting room for 30 or more delegates, with internet access and a data projector. Contact me at vashtizarach@yahoo.co.uk if you can help.

I’m off to the TENcompetence meeting in Manchester next week, and have also registered for the JISC Conference in March.

 It should be a busy year for the XCRI (eXchanging Course Information) project, as JISC are currently looking at bids for new projects to implement and test XCRI.

 The Enterprise SIG will also be keeping an eye on IMS which are currently working towards version 2 of the Enterprise Services Specification.

And finally, JISC’s Techwatch are writing a report entitled Service-Oriented Architectures: the way forward for H&FE?

Enterprise Sets Course to Eden!

I’ve been looking into holding the next Enterprise SIG meeting at the Eden Project, and they have reasonable rates in their meeting rooms in the Foundation Building. I don’t have a SIG budget now, so have to keep meeting costs as low as possible. Possible meeting dates are: Mon 4th Dec, Wed 6th, Thu 7th, Mon 11th, Tue 12th, Wed 13th or Thus 14th. Please let me know if you have a preference.

Enterprise SIG Settling Into New Home

The Enterprise SIG has now officially moved from the University of Wales Bangor to the University of Bolton (central home of CETIS). In practice, this means that I have moved all my files from my Bangor office to my home office, and spent part of yesterday assembling a new bookshelf from Argos to house them, with help from my boyfriend (I don’t own any screwdrivers, only tiaras, and they are not much use for flat pack assembly). Now on with the serious work: sourcing an animal print computer chair.

Welcome to Vashti’s Work Blog

Hello, I’ve just set up my first ever work blog, on the CETIS blogs site.

If you’ve come here looking for nonsensical rambling about muppets and bellydancing, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is a serious work blog, and will be all about my Enterprise Special Interest Group (nothing to do with Star Trek) and the world of e-learning.