Bamberg is an old lovely town in northern Bavaria and the location for the next German Moodle Moot.

Bamberg is called Small Venice

has a ninteresting townhall

and the Kaiserdom



But we will meet there for a great conference at University.

Our partners are
University of Bamberg
MoodleSchule eV
Digitale Schule Bayern eV
Bayrischer Volkshochschulverband -adult education centre
eLeDia German Moodle Partner

Time March 19-20th
Preconference at March, 18 th

We just published the Call for Papers and invite you to add suggestions. The call for Papers is just available in german (translation will come asap).

We invite you to present interesting things about your work with Moodle. We will try again to held a conference with lots of discussions in the presentation and outside.

In our database you can add your suggestions until November 10th at. We will start the conference registration in three weeks and publish the final programm in December.

We love to meet you in Bamberg.

Newsflash!
OK - after much hard work it looks like we *Will* have a MoodleMoot in the UK again - we are currently planning to hold MoodleMoot 09 UK at Loughborough University during the UK Academic Easter Break period - April 7th and 8th 2009.

We are currently finalising the venue details with our contacts at the University, and will be opening registrations shortly. See here or on http://moodlemoot.org for further updates soon.

Part of the excellent facilities available will be up to fifty rooms available on a Bed and Breakfast basis On Campus! You will be able to book these as part of your registration online. More details very soon.

This is to let you know that we will shortly be removing the MSG instant messaging and online presence tool from OpenLearn. As one of the experimental learning-support tools developed and deployed during the 2 year startup phase of OpenLearn (2006-08), we have now completed our evaluation of this prototype, and will be taking the best ideas forward in future tools.

If you're interested to know more about the motivation and technology behind MSG, and our evaluation results, please read this article in the 2008 special issue of The Open University's online journal, devoted to Open Educational Resources:
Little, A., Denham, C. and Eisenstadt, E. (2008). MSG Instant Messenger: Social Presence and Location for the "Ad Hoc Learning Experience". Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2008, No.2. http://jime.open.ac.uk/2008/02

The MSG project website at The Open University's Knowledge Media Institute contains additional information, including resources for installing MSG on your own server (requires technical knowledge): http://kmi.open.ac.uk/technologies/msg

This week OpenLearn has released some long-awaited features to the website.

Learners can now print a "Statement of Activity' report from their personal myLearningSpace. This shows which pages in OpenLearn they've accessed to provide some evidence of their learning.

Another new feature recommends OpenLearn study units to learners, based on what people with the same interests are studying.

For educators (and anyone else with a passion for creating learning materials) there is a simpler way to edit OpenLearn study materials in the LabSpace. New versions of the material can be easily published within OpenLearn to share to the world.

A How To guide on remixing and creating content directly in the LabSpace can be found at: http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2398

This week is Adult Learners' Week in the UK. Coordinated by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education the week seeks to engage and inspire people to pursue adult learning. OpenLearn offers a number of free online study units related to the themes of the 2008 Adult Learners' Week in the LearningSpace.

Globalisation and the changing world of work

Living and working in the new economy
This unitlooks at the impact of information and communication technologies on the economy as a whole.

What is Europe?
Despite the EU's growing size and significance the question 'What is Europe?' still resonates through the continent.

Managing the European economy after the introduction of the Euro
The Euro was first adopted as a currency in 1999, but what impact has it had on the European economy?

Developing countries in the world trade regime
This unit will help you to analyse the relationship that exists between developed and developing countries.

Managing local practices in global contexts
From'Big Macs' in Moscow to Blockbuster video in Beijing, this unit examines the dimensions of globalisation.

Claiming connections: a distant world of sweatshops?
This unit examines how campaigners have successfully closed the distance between the brands and the sweatshops, while others argue that such production 'kick starts' economies into growth.

Living in a globalised world
Using the US and Mexico as the main example, this unit examines how inequalities in access to material wealth can lead to border tensions.

ICTs in everyday life
This unit will enable you to gain an understanding of the information and communication technologies that drive our networked world.

Textiles in Ghana
This unit will help you to understand how textiles can carry an assortment of meanings and values, including wealth, status and office.

Am I ready to study English?
Even if you feel confident using English in everyday situations, studying in English at higher education level might present extra challenges.

Environmental Sustainability

An introduction to sustainable energy
This unit takes a brief look at where the world may find energy in the future.

Working with our environment - an introduction
This unit examines the use of ozone depleting technology, the impact of fossil fuel use and explores how the development of technology can influence the direction of a society.

Health and environment
This unit will look at interactions between plants, animals and the physical and chemical environment, as well as considering ways in which humans are altering this environment.

Introducing Environment
This unit provides an overview of Open University Course Y161 Introducing environment.

Surviving the winter
In this unit, we consider how organisms living in a temperate climate, such as that in Britain, are adapted to cope with winter.

Finding information in science and nature
This unit will help you to identify and use information in Science and Nature, whether for your work, study or personal purposes.

Climate change
This unit explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.

Global warming
This unit provides an introduction to global warming.

Climate change: island life in a volatile world
This unit examines the potential problems faced by the people of the Pacific Island of Tuvalu as a result of rising sea levels.

Managing coastal environments
Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This unit looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England.

Technological Change

Living with the internet: learning online
This unit looks at the basic skills for online study, such as file management and installing software.

Information on the web
This unit will provide you with the foundation skills to use search engines confidently to locate both information and images on the Web.

Living with the Internet: online shopping
This unit will help you understand how to use online shopping sites.

ICTs: information
This unit will look at how news is gathered and the technology used for its dissemination.

ICTs: device to device communication
This unit will gently guide you to an understanding of how devices 'talk' to each other using Bluetooth, Ethernet and WiFi.

Citizenship and belonging in a diverse society

Life stories
This unit considers the contribution that our own life stories make to who we are.

Identity in question
This unit looks at the many different ways in which identity can be categorised.

Teaching citizenship: work and the economy
This unit explores aspects of work, including child labour and its relationship to citizenship.

Engendering citizenship
How do you create citizenship? How do you feel you belong? This unit examines social citizenship.

The politics of devolution
This unit contains material from the current Open University Politics course, Power, Equality and Dissent.

Children’s rights
This unit examines the implications of seeing children as citizens.

Retiring lives? Old age, work and welfare
This unit looks at why people are expected to stop work at a certain age and what impact this has on their lives.

Who counts as a refugee?
This unit explores how changing social policy and terminology help to shape, and are shaped by, the experiences of people seeking asylum in the UK.

Sexuality, parenthood and population
In this unit, we look at how attitudes to parenthood and sexuality have changed.

Economics explains discrimination in the labour market
Discrimination in the labour market exists in many forms: the 'glass ceiling' ageism, racism, etc. This unit will help you look at this problem with a new perspective: through economics.

Poverty reduction
 
Personal finance: Debt and borrowing in its wider context
In this unit, you will explore the different types of debt and loans, arming yourself with more information to plan your financial future.

Prices
This unit looks at a wide variety of ways of comparing prices and the construction of a price index.

Welfare reconstruction
This unit examines the approach adopted by Tony Blair and New Labour to welfare reconstruction in the United Kingdom.

Changing expectations and perceptions of the Third Sector

ICTs: e-government
While studying this unit you look at the scope of e-government.

Democracy? You think you know?
In this unit we explore different interpretations of democracy and strategies for involving pupils in consideration of these issues within the citizenship curriculum.

Managing relationships
This unit will help you to understand your role as a fundraiser by analysing a variety of issues about the fundraising.

Building relationships with donors
This unit will help you to gain the skills necessary to persuade individuals to become donors.

Creating an ethical organisation
This unit explores the business case for an ethical approach to human resources management.

Well-being and happiness

The meaning of home
This unit looks at the way people identify and become attached to places, buildings and objects, impacting on personal well-being.

Understanding Children
This Unit provides an overview of Open University Course Y156 Understanding Children.

Picturing the family
This unit looks at some of the ways photographs can reveal, and sometimes conceal, important information about the past.

Issues in complementary and alternative medicine
This unit explores why people use complementary and alternative medicine.

Active, healthy lifestyles
In this unit, aimed at teachers of Physical Education, we consider how active young people should actually be.

Obesity: balanced diets and treatment
This unit looks at the science behind obesity, examining the dietary, physiological and genetic aspects of the topic.

Young people’s wellbeing
This unit will examine the range of factors affecting young people’s wellbeing, such as obesity, binge drinking, depression and behavioural problems.

This week OpenLearn reached its target of publishing 5400 learning hours of materials from Open University courses in the LearningSpace and 8100 hours in the LabSpace. OpenLearn launched in October 2006 with an ambitious target to publish almost 5% of the OU’s learning materials online by April 2008. The OpenLearn website now boasts almost 2 million users globally.

The latest release of the website offers a range of new features. Visitors to the site will be able to rate the study units, using an Amazon style five star rating system and share units with friends via email.

The team have also responded to interest – initially from self organising groups of learners and organisations – in creating Learning Clubs. People will be able to set up their own Learning Club, with free access to a discussion forum and events calendar. Members can book and publicise online meetings using OpenLearn's communication tools such as MSG instant messenger and FM video conferencing. Anyone visiting the site can view the Learning Clubs on offer and either join an existing club or set up their own.

Patrick McAndrew, Research Director, explained the motivation behind this: "We have set up our Learning Clubs to help people who want to group around a shared interest. Just as with the growing number of social networking sites that provide features to help people connect with one another, we want our users to connect with each other. That may start with their shared interest in OpenLearn study materials and go much further. The support of other learners helps motivate and inform students and the clubs will provide space for collaborations between educators who want to reuse the materials."

Commenting on the most recent updates he added, "The Technical Team, led by Jenny Gray, have been working hard to make improvements based on feedback from our users. We’ve simplified the forum structures, improved the layout of the study unit homepages and de-cluttered the pages by removing links to the less popular features. From May we'll be able to provide our learning support tools anywhere in the site – before the learner could only access the tools from the unit homepage, now they can use them at any point in the learning journey.”

OpenLearn publishes cohesive learning objects taken from high quality Open University courses under a Creative Commons licence. This means that users can download and reuse the materials, amending them to suit their purpose and context.

From 25 March, OpenLearn will be adding a new topic area to the site – Law. The first study units to appear under this heading will be:

Judges and the law (W100_3)

Making and using rules (W100_1)

Parliament and the law (W100_2)

Watch out for more Law study units in the months to come!