| Yes | It's that time of the decade again: 27th March is the date for the next national census. In preparation, Census 2011 have prepared a short explanation of what will happen and why in a single document in about 50 languages. You can find it in the document library to the left. In addition, copies of the census forms in community languages will become available from www.census.gov.uk nearer the date itself. | 30/04/2011 |
| Yes | As requested at the last SW hub, I've set up a place for SW advisors to collaborate, debate and generally swap war stories. There is a link to it in the weblinks box to the right.
It's not a public space, so to access it you will need to firstly be in possession of a login for Merlin in general and secondly you'll need to contact me with your name and the name of the LA or other establishment you work for. I'm at steven.donohue@wiltshire.gov.uk
You will need to be logged in to Merlin before clicking on the link, otherwise you'll get an incomprehensible error message. There's a link to login on the top left of your screen.
Hope it proves useful. | |
| Yes | Sheilagh Crowther has been in touch to suggest that while we're in a bit of an L1 limbo, we work on what content and format we'd expect an L1 place to have. With this in mind, I've created a wiki (link bottom left) where users can record ideas, thoughts and comments on a single document. | |
| No | 
I've come across a recent edition of "School Matters" on Teachers TV dealing with online social networks like Bebo, Myspace and, potentially, Merlin It is a particularly intelligent and nuanced piece of work, dealing with both the associated dangers of social networking and their potential for new forms of learning. It spends almost equal amounts of time talking to experts, teachers and learners themselves. It would work as both a general introduction to the themes and issues involved as well as a thought-provoking watch for staff already involved in this area. I'd urge colleagues to have a look. Find it here: http://www.teachers.tv/video/24687#share
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| Yes | Jane Watson, in Cornwall, has been carrying out consultations with new arrivals in Cornwall, and the very interesting results are in the document library.
It's a particularly useful document in that the students reinforce many of the messages about inclusion and setting that I'm sure we regularly give to schools, and colleagues may find it handy for CPD sessions.
There is also some enthusiasm, and some useful suggestions, about how the learners would like to use VLE first language spaces as well - take a look! | 13/04/2010 |
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| Yes | Courtesy of Sally Hawken in Cornwall, there are now leaflets on Swine Flu in Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and English in the document library.
I've had it, and would recommend avoidance wherever possible (although of course it's nothing seroius to worry about.)
Steve | 11/10/2009 |
| Yes | I hope those of us who had a holiday in August had a restful break. Apologies to those who don't get school holidays.
What's New
My colleague, Simon Taylor, has been very busy stocking the resource library with bilingual resourcess he's used or seen in use in Wiltshire. There's a lot of stuff in particularly in Japanese, but other languages are available too. Take a look!
I've updated the step by step guide to managing other user's permissions to take account of changes to Merlin. It's in the document library.
There's a lot more meat on the acceptable uses wiki - thanks particularly to Cecilia for her contributions. This is a code of conduct for students using a shared first language space. Please take a look and add you thoughts.
I've made some quite substantial changes to the timetable for choosing a first language for the pilot shared space. I think I need to accept that getting things up and running is taking longer than I anticipated - it's certainly not been easy to get all the members of the Wiltshire team up and running on Merlin. I'm now anticipating started a student L1 shared place in January.
The survey to consult on what first language we should pick for the shared space is now up and running, with a short note on criteria for selection in the document library. Find it in the place content list (bottom left). I'd like to have chosen a language by the beginning of November. | |
| Yes | We have created a short url for the EMA site. You can now simply type gotoourplace.com/ema in the address bar. Should make it much easier to remember - and to pass the web address on to others.
The existing url http://public.merlin.swgfl.org.uk/establishments/998la02/EMA will still work.
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| No | I've uploaded a step-by-step guide showing how to grant (and revoke!) permissions to other users, provided you yourself have full control of the space. It's in the document library. Please use this to allow relevant people within your authority access to the space as they receive Merlin logins. I would strong recommend allowing other users "modify" privileges, but reserving "full control" for yourself. | |
| Yes | In preparation for the launch of two pilot first language spaces (one for students and pupils, one for parents), I've started a wiki to draw up an acceptable use policy that can be translated and pushed out to new users. There's a link to it on the left of the noticeboard.
Ruch Common School (see the Merlin and EMA blog for more details of this school) have been kind enough to send me the policy their Year 6 drew up for their shared spaces. I've put it in the document library. There are some ideas there we could use, although their policy is naturally a little more focussed on collaborative work than we will need, and I also think we probably don't want to prohibit "general chat", as the chance to "chat" is perhaps one of the greater needs of isolated EAL learners.
I'll stick down some ideas when I have a chance, and I look forward to reading other's thoughts on the issue. | |
| No | Welcome to the new EMA space for users of Merlin in the South West.
Obviously, content is a little limited right now, but I promise there will be more to see when I've learnt what I'm doing.
The link to your left reading "Merlin and EMA" will take you to a blog I've transfered from my e-portfolio, with thoughts about how we're hoping this space will used. I'd really welcome any comments, thoughts, constructive criticism, flashes of inspiration...
Also, in the document library, you can find a development timetable (which, in the spirit of all the best IT projects, we're already slightly behind) and feedback from the learning platforms session at the last hub meeting.
Steve Donohue. | |