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Listening to a Webcast from the Open University on "The Net Generation" I'm struck again by how much time we spend trying to categorise and label technologies and usage of technology which are used innately by those who are the most active participants. It reminds me of David Attenborough, high on the African plain doing a softly worded piece to camera about the behaviour of the animals he's observing... all the while the animals in question are simply getting on with their own thing and merrily ignoring his insightful, considered words.

The story of the frustrated student is the subject of a short video produced by students at Manchester Metropolitan University. The university is looking into alternative ways to communicate with students, specifically an SMS service in which messages are sent directly to students’ mobile phones. The system is incredibly simple: staff post a message to the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), and if the message is urgent, the staff member begins the message with the keyword ‘urgent’. The next 160 characters are then sent as an SMS. It’s an opt-in system which students value - not least because they are more likely to receive the messages if they go straight to their mobile device.

We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. - Marshall McLuhan

Launch event for report on Web 2.0 in higher education A  report  that  explores  the  impact  that web 2.0 and the collaborative, social web are having on higher education in the UK will be launched on May 12, 2009. The report, produced by the committee of inquiry into the changing learner experience, also contains a comparative international review covering the USA, Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands. The report, titled ‘HE in a Web 2.0 World’, will be launched at an event at The Barbican, London and will be hosted by committee chair, Sir David Meville. He said, 'The report evaluates the challenges for universities and their staff in keeping pace with, and capitalising on, these trends and argues there are very strong drivers for change.' Ewan McIntosh, 4iP Digital Commissioner for Scotland and Northern Ireland will also be speaking at the event. The  committee was formed to investigate the impact of students’ widespread use  social  networking  technologies  such  as  Facebook,  blogs, twitter, podcasting,  YouTube  and  the  like  on  Higher  Education. Although an independent committee,   it   is   backed   by  all  of  the  principal  bodies  in  UK post-compulsory  education,  namely:  the  Higher  Education  Academy  (The Academy),  Universities  UK  (UUK), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC),  the  Higher  Education  Funding  Council  for England (HEFCE), the Scottish  Funding  Council  (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW),  the Department  for  Employment and Learning for Northern Ireland  (DELNI),  Lifelong  Learning UK (LLUK), Becta and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). When 6pm – 8pm, 12 May 2009Where The Garden Room, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS