work from home

Six in ten households in Scotland (60%) have a broadband connection compared to 68% across the UK as a whole. the highest was Aberdeen at 72%, Glasgow was the lowest at 39%. The report also highlights the broadband ‘not-spots’ where those living in those areas cannot properly acces, or fully benefit from the full experience of using online services which require higher downloading speeds or Internet telephony services. The exact scale of the problem is difficult to ascertain although the Digitial Britain reports estimated that around 11% of UK housholds are unable to get broadband at 2Mb/s. It doesn’t give figures for Scotland but does say that the Scottish Government has been funding an initiative to address ‘not-spots’.

One in five households in Scotland use social networking sites = 20% up 5%. UK wide average is 30% with Aberdeen the highest (31%) and Glasgow the lowest (12%).

One in seven people (14%) in Scotland used a mobile phone to access the internet, comapred to 20% across the UK. The highest in Scotland is Aberdeen (19%) and in the Highlands and Islands (21%).

More than one in four households in Scotland (27%) are mobile onlyfor their telecoms needs. The highest level was found in Glasgow (27%) which has lower than average income levels. They were more likely to rely soley on their mobile for their telecoms needs than in any other UK city (UK as a whole is 12%). The figure for Scotland is 15%.

Useful information when you look at the discussions about Web 2.0 and the use of mobile technology in learning.

They include shopping, cake baking, planning a dinner party and sporting activities. Reading this it just occured to me that you could probably add gardening to this – type of soil, effect you are after, knowledge of plants and their planting, growing, pruning or picking season etc (plder sister, husband and parents are all keen gardeners).

• Information literacies …. – represent a significant and growing deficit area. – pg 6 & 24

• JISC develops ongoing research and support programs for institutions in best practice in developing information literacy and web awareness – pg10

• reference to staff skills – initial staff training and CPD programmes – pg 10 there is an equal imperative for employers to use and develop the skills of the people they already employ – pg 18

• it appears that lecturers and teachers are not generally disposed to interactive communication online – pg 24 (this is similar to LTS’s finding re teachers lack of ICT skills / confidencidence in using ICT and why they developed the Masterclass ICT community)

• interacting face to face – acquires added importance and significance. Face to face contact with staff matters to students. – pg 28 (supported by students protesting at Edinburgh University on cut in staffing / lecturer numbers)

• some reference to pedagogies and the use of web 2.0 technologies in assessment (tracking individual contributions in blogs, wikis – one of the case studies presented at the GCU RealWorld seminar springs to mind) but they also talk about the students becoming part of the assessment – essays (from the web) found and critiqued.

• the use of social networking software, usually Facebook as a means of helping students establish contact with each other – make friends – prior to enrolement – pg 31 also gain an understanding of the prior experience and expectations of their new entrants so that they are able to respond appropriately and effectively to them – pg 34

• Web 2.0 technologies fit perfectly with …. – the constructivist approach although this type of learning does not sit comfortably with all present day students who expect the tutor to function as a an authoritative transmitter of information. – pg 36 (Relates back to independent learning and information literacy).

• Most of the presenters of oral eveidence are based in Scotland – University of Edinburgh, Napier, Strathclyde (CAPLE), interestingly Ewan McIntosh used to work at LTS. – pg 49