Thursday 25 November 2010

IR Bite Size #2: Prezi!


Image courtesy of Prezi.com



Next week, the second of IR's 'Bite Size' sessions will look at the zooming presentation tool, Prezi. Prezi is free, easy to use, and creates visually stunning presentations that can enhance engagement and understanding. And did I mention that it's free? No? Well, its free! How about that! Come and see me blather on adoringly about it next week on Weds 1st December at 2.30pm in the Eric Wilkes room. Be there or be a sad old PowerPoint rectangle.

Posted by Claire

Friday 19 November 2010

Research Funding Update - Fellowships and Studentships


Photo by edtechie99
Post by Anna
The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

Tuesday 16 November 2010

November's edition of Take Five

Photo by Lst1984
 
The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.

You can view it here

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Anna Cantrell by email a.j.cantrell@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220894

An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here


ScHARRBucks - More Bite Size Learning

Posted by Andy

In collaboration with the ScHARR Library bitesize research sessions, the ScHARR teaching committee are running a series of bitesized teaching sessions, the first of which is tomorrow (16th Nov) at 2.30 in the Pemberton, details below.
'All you ever wanted to know about presenting with Powerpoint, but were afraidto ask..... (in 20 minutes)'. with Paul Wigfield

Come along and find out something new - what have you got to lose, it is only 20 minutes and we will supply biscuits. Apologies to those of you who can't make it but we were keen to get the programme up and running as soon as possible. .
As this will form the first of a programme of 20 minute talks each dealing with a different teaching issue please feel free to let Jenny Freeman know you have anything suggestions for future sessions.

If you want to see how NOT to use PowerPoint - watch the video below



Thursday 11 November 2010

Mendeley on Prezi




Posted by Andy

Following on from this week's inaugural  IR Bite Size session that focused on the excellent reference management and social networking tool Mendeley, I came across this Prezi presentation by Sjúrður Hammer.
The next IR Bite Size session will be run by Claire Beecroft on Prezi!

Tuesday 9 November 2010

IR Technology Bite Size



Posted by Andy


ScHARR Library are launching a new series of short 20 minute 'coffee break' sessions to give staff and PhD students a taste of the many tools, websites and techniques you can employ to work smarter. Ask yourself these questions...

Have you ever wanted to be more flexible with your work?
Have you ever wanted the ability to stay in touch with your research areas any where on the globe?
Do you want to learn about new tools and websites and just don't feel you have the time?
Do you want to form new networks and find people with similar research interests from any where in the World?
Do you want to find the hot topics in your area?
Do you want to create innovative presentations, learn better search techniques, have access to documents any time on any PC and manage your references whilst discovering new research?
Imagine Swine Flu returns, an Ash Cloud leaves you stuck abroad, Regent Court has a power cut - could you still work effectively?
Do you only have 20 minutes free and fancy a cake to go with that mid afternoon hot drink?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, read on....
The sessions aim to be about 20 minutes long and are presented by ScHARR's team of Information Specialists. Over the course of the next few months we hope to show you some of the latest tools that can help you to work more flexibly, efficiently and smarter. All we ask is you give at least one of them a go, all you need to do is turn up with a beverage and we'll supply the tubs of bite size flapjacks and mini rolls.


Bite Size Session #1 - November 10th - 2.30pm - Eric Wilkes Room - Go beyond Reference Manager - Mendeley

Billed as the iTunes for scientific research, Mendeley is one of many next generation reference management tools. Andy Tattersall will give a brief insight into what Mendeley does and what sets it apart from its counterparts, especially traditional reference management tools such as Endnote and Reference Manager.
Foe more information go to:

Future sessions:
All 2.30 pm till 2.50pm in the Eric Wilkes Room

Bite Size Session #2 - December 1st - Claire Beecroft - Prezi


Prezi- Prezi is an on-line tool for creating presentations using 'zooming' to make the presentation more entertaining and more user-friendly. You can zoom in on text and images to highlight key areas and improve student engagement and understanding. It is very quick to learn and you can store your Prezi's both on and off-line, share them or make them private, and copy a completed Prezi so that you can make minor amendments and re-use it for a different purpose! It's fab, its free, and it kicks PowerPoint in to touch. Its the single easiest way to give your teaching or research presentation the 'wow' factor and you can learn it in less that 20 mins- what's not to like? 
Homepage: www.prezi.com
A Prezi about Prezi: http://prezi.com/7okmswx_ex40/
Twitter group for Prezi support: http://twitter.com/#!/prezi
Wikipedia entry on Prezi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi


Bite Size Session #3 - December 15th - Anthea Sutton - PBWiki, uSpace Documents and Disposable Web Pages

Fed up of email attachments clogging up your inbox? Collaborating with others on a document and struggling to know which is the most recent version? Spending lots of time collating comments on a document? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this could be the session for you!
This session will cover several ways to make collaborating on writing documents a whole lot easier.  You may already be familiar with Uspace but did you know you can upload documents allowing others you are working with to edit and add comments.  In addition, in this session we will also look at the Wiki PBWorks, which is a free online workspace which allows the easy creation of a project website which can be used for discussions and to upload documents to name a few functions. Finally, we will show you how to create disposable web pages – web pages that are easy to create and that can be set to self-destruct after 90 days – great for any short-term project work you want to do.
So, come along, see what’s what, and help make email attachments a thing of the past!*

January 12th 2011 Andy Tattersall - rss for Research
January 26th 2011 Angie Rees - Pubget / Louise Guillaume - Google Scholar
February 9th 2011 Andy Tattersall -  Professional Social Networks
February 23rd 2011 Andy Tattersall - Visual Social Bookmarks


Can any PhD supervisors please inform your students of these sessions. 

Monday 8 November 2010

Changing Education Paradigms



Posted by Andy

An excellent animation of a Sir Ken Robinson presentation - best watched on a full screen.

Friday 5 November 2010

Research Funding Update - Projects and Programmes


Posted by Andy 

The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link.

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

HEDS Get Blogging!


Posted by Andy

For those unaware The ScHARR Library is nicely nestled in a much larger organism under the name of Health Economics and Decision Science (HEDS). With the aid of my good self, Professor Simon Dixon has launched HEDS first venture in the realm of blogging with a site that has regular interesting posts about what we do - all of which don't extend beyond 200 words. So no long reams of text, it's all straight to the point, and considering how the average attention span has shrunk to a.........you've stopped reading this haven't you?

More about HEDS
Health Economics and Decision Science (HEDS) is part of the School for Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield.  It comprises of around 80 research staff with expertise in economics, mathematical modelling, systematic reviewing, Bayesian statistics and information sciences.  HEDS is built around reserach funding from several national sources and consultancy from a range of NHS and pharmaceutical organisations.  It runs one Masters degree and its staff teach modules on several others.  In the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise, ScHARR was ranked number 1 for research power.