paddling around the PebblePad newsletter issue 03 - 2009 Introduction Once upon a time we wrote a newsletter. Sometime after that we wrote another and then… nothing. For ages! This issue of Paddling Around is the first of a much more regular series of newsletters keeping you up-to-date with what’s been happen- ing; what’s coming up; what’s good to know, and who and what is around to help you make the most of PebblePad. There’ll be at least three issues a year and we’d love to include some of your tips, stories or resources. Welcome new customers PebblePad continues to grow and we’d like to welcome our new users into the fold. Special mentions for Victoria University and the University of Plymouth as our latest enterprise users. Peb- blePad, and its bespoke versions, can now boast 100 custom- ers worldwide – a great milestone for the first, new look newslet- ter. New users may wish to sign up to our Ning community for support and the latest Pebble news. Email [email protected] for a Ning invitation password. The Past Over the last 18 months we have seen a very healthy increase in the use of PebblePad around the world. We now have around 400,000 users based in over 100 organisations pebbling away. Since our launch in September 2005 we have seen a wide range of uses for PebblePad including: primary school pupils creating portfolios to support literacy; undergraduate students produce rich and varied portfolios for assignments; for employ- ment; and to support their own learning. We are now seeing an increased use of PebblePad to support recording and reflection of professional practice, particularly at the Institute for Learning and the Chartered Society for Physi- otherapy. It’s fair to say that PebblePad has come a long way since our first pilot with 160 students at the University of Wolver- hampton in 2004! The Future Better mobile paddling… PebblePad users will soon benefit from improved mobile use thanks to work funded by the IfL for their bespoke version of PebblePad called REfLECT. As a result there’s now an updated PebblePDA; a better version of PebbleMobile and a java-based widget for your phone allowing users to send any file from their phone, including images, sound and video, straight to their PebblePad account. http://www.pebblepad.co.uk/mobile Free Alumni accounts… We will be providing free accounts to graduating PebblePad us- ers. Accounts will last for a year and will allow users to transfer up to 250MB of assets into a 500MB account using the new LEAP2A exporter. Projects we’re involved in We’ve been lucky from the start to be involved in a range of innovative projects that have helped shape PebblePad. Some projects have been for professional organisations like the Chartered society of Physiotherapists (CSP) and the Institute for Learning (IfL) whilst others have been part of the body of work funded by the JISC. Recent projects include: PortisHEad: the application to HE project where we demon- strated how students could send tailored eportfolios to each HE institution they were applying to. This project also showed how users could utilise data from PebblePad’s about me to auto- complete online forms. Flourish: the eCPD project has been run at the University of Cumbria and has explored how ePortfolios can be used to sup- port a range of staff activities including appraisal; professional accreditation and personal administration. PIOP: is the Portfolio Interoperability Project which looked at creating much simpler ways of exporting and importing eport- folio assets. The initial project involved PebblePad and the universities of Nottingham and Newcastle and led to a second phase with 4 additional developers all managed by Simon Grant at JISC-CETIS. We have always led the way in eportfolio in- teroperability and will be endorsing the new specification in the clearest way possible by implementing it fully into PebblePad and using it to support our Alumni service. The Pebble Learning Office The Present Version 2.3 has arrived with these updates: Multiple inline images and re-orderable page sections in the • webfolio editor Institution desktop theme tool available for enterprise users. • VU’s new default desktop is on the next page New search and filter options on gateways • Zoho integration for directly editing MS Office and Open • Office documents from PebblePad Full release notes are available in the Ning group. 01 Competition We are giving away an iPod Touch, an iPod Classic and three Nanos for the best example webfolios we receive. Users should be creative and should use the whole range of tools available in Peb- blePad. For example including a CV and about me section. We are looking for stories about the impact PebblePad has had on users working practice. Submission details and rules are available at http://www.pebblelearning.co.uk/competition.asp