The toolbox  allowed us to look at resources in a structured way -  using the learner journey as a guide to what and how to use the resources. the group of DTLLS tutors using these resources thought the layout and ease of use of the website was good, some of the resources might need a better introduction to what they are and how they can be used ( i suppose that the project will have generated some good practice examples which would be a good addition to the website )

The project gave some valuable real life opportunities to share good practice, show others what we're doing and firmly focuse the idea that resources are about helping the learners , involving learners and having an impact in the classroom.
The project also raised the profile of where and what type of resources are available - many of our new tutors are new to IT/ICT/ILT and indeed to teaching.

Some of the simple resources have been the most productive, although learners and tutors were initially attracted to the animation resources. We're hoping to get more tutors to try out the Job Match resource - it's something that we need to investigate further with our learners particularly in light of the large number of employability courses we run.

the project timelines were a bit tight, but we're hoping that some of the resources will be "slow burners " and their use will slowly spread - some of the resources that were popular ( animoto , quizlet, Poll ) will be shared at a newly proposed show and tell session. 
The latter " show and tell " session is also a direct result of this project, the group enjoyed taking part in the project ( thanks LSIS and Vic ) and it's reinforecd the idea of having  more structure around the sharing of this type of resource and effective practice in ILT generally.

Final Thoughts on the Toolbox - CLP Way

Community Learning Partnership's experience - Final Thoughts
We have found that the toolbox has enabled us to:

• Review what we use that became hidden from 'plain sight' & pass on to our 'discovery scout' to share
• Commit a member of staff as a 'discovery scout' to tell us what he has seen in the project and report back to us
• Discover what tools being explored by others
• Have a source of reference for future

This is the beauty of the 'Hive effect'. Sharing a collective goal that nurtures Collaboration, Co-discovery & Contribution.

Legacy, sustainability & the curation effort

Community Learning Partnership (CLP) have really enjoyed putting staff and resource into this project. We have been inspired and would like to see it continue after.

However, we are aware about the time & effort behind reporting the use of newly discovered tools. We experience a time lag between the capture of interesting tools (via the use of social bookmarking site Diigo - via a specific group set up for this project's purpose) and their dissemination - on this blog. In the case where staff require support/training with tools, we will be more than happy to share them in an expanded way. Otherwise the captured tools that are examined for their potential utility will be saved for posterity in our Third Sector Tooblbox Diigo Group. We have more tools and articles than we have been able to share here.

 You're invited to a reduction of effort in sharing your discoveries
So I cordially invite you to find out a bit more about Diigo (on this site), and if you wish to join our ThirdSector Toolbox Diigo Group you are welcome to request an invite. We can socially bookmark, hightlight, make notes on tools that we all co-discover, with much, much less effort. I have outlined CLP's workflow approach to sharing, hope you find it useful too.

One of our member's of staff who is obsessive about open-source, cloud tools, and new ways of enhancing learning will continue to populate this group as he makes new discoveries. Will you leave our lone ranger on his own? ;-). Who knows what he will discover next.

May you all continue to make fantastic new discoveries that makes your learning and teaching practices more engaging and inspiring.

InterAction-MK Have Fun With SlideShows

Played with Google Slides and made this simple little presentation using screen prints of our web site. I'm not too sure what I'd really do with this but I like the way a presentation can be set to display in a blog post like this, or on a web page (if I knew how to edit mine!)



I tried doing something similar with Animoto:


Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

I should have used some actual images I suppose but I like the general presentation and choice of music. (My account didn't seem to work though so thanks to Andrew Hill for setting up one for us so that I could share this here). Lastly, much better is my Picasa album of photographs from an exhibition last summer. With all the cold and miserable weather we've had, I needed this to cheer me up! Here I used the embed as slideshow option to add the code to this post.

All pretty simple stuff but thanks to LSIS for the money and opportunity to try out things that I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. We could do with a session or two to help staff get a bit more familiar with some of the tools here as I am pretty sure we could make good use of more of them given a bit more time to see what they an do.