Poetry and Puffins - LRC celebrates National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day

The Learning Resource Centre is celebrating National Poetry Day by holding a poetry competition. We have been encouraging students and staff to try writing Twitter poems – i.e. a poem that is no longer than the length of a text or tweet. Ironically, Twitter announced this week that they are piloting increasing their character limit to 280. A poem which is exactly 140 characters is known as a “twoosh”.

You can search for these mini poems by using a range of different keywords such as Twihaiku or micropoetry or the phrase "twitter poe*". (Putting "" marks round the two words keeps the words together as a phrase and the * allows for poet, poetry, poem and poems in your search).

 You can also search for these mini poems on Twitter using the keywords above as a hashtag (i.e. #micropoetry).

Poems

It has been said that Brian Bilston is the Banksy of the poetry world. Have a look here at some of his Twittle poems (as he calls them).

https://brianbilston.com/category/twittle-poems/

A couple of other short poems of his you may want to read in an odd spare moment are

You took the last bus home
No you cannot borrow my mobile phone charger 

Chester exploring the National Poetry Day display in the LRC
Photograph: Peterborough Regional College

Puffin news 

Finally, for those of you wondering what name has been given to the LRC mascot – it is Chester. There was a lot of discussion about whether the name should begin with P but in the end Chester had the most votes.

As it is National Poetry Day we close with an attempt at our own Twitter poem as we felt we shouldn't expect of others what we wouldn't try ourselves. We are sure your poems will be much better.

 There’s a puffin

Doing nothing

In the LRC

At PRC

There is nothing

Like that puffin

In the LRC

At PRC

Ok……..we won’t give up the day job!

Learning Resource Centre welcomes students at Freshers' Fair

LRC stand at Freshers' Fair

This week the Learning Resource Centre staff were at the College Freshers Fair with their stand welcoming new students with information, quizzes and freebies. It was great to meet everyone and to welcome them to the College.

Student at LRC stand at Freshers' Fair
Photograph: Peterborough Regional College

2 students at LRC stand at Freshers' Fair
Photograph: Peterborough Regional College

Thanks to the generosity of some of our electronic resources suppliers, we were able to give out some headphones, notebooks, pencils and some students were also able to choose their own Quick Read book. (These are also available to loan from the LRC).

We produced a Fictional World Quiz matching fictional worlds with book covers and particularly popular was our Name the Puffin competition. The puffin is our new LRC mascot (as chosen by an Inclusive Learning student last year) and below we've managed to photograph him/her taking a book out at the counter (usually puffins are very shy birds!). We'll let everyone know the chosen name on Twitter as soon as we've checked the entries.

LRC's puffin mascot taking a book out in the LRC!

We have UCP Freshers next week and again we look forward to meeting many of the new degree students then. We are already booked in for quite a lot of inductions over at UCP with LRC tours too so we will be kept busy over the next few weeks, but if you have any questions about how things work in the LRC, see our Moodle pages or come in and talk to us.

Welcome (back) to College and the newly refurbished Learning Resource Centre

New Learning Resource Centre

Welcome (back) to College and to the new Learning Resource Centre (LRC). We have a new name (Learning Resource Centre) and therefore we have changed the URL for this blog too so if anyone bookmarked this last year, you will need to change it.

Having spent the last 3 months operating from 2 classrooms, we have now moved back into the newly refurbished space and groups of students have been visiting us for tours and to carry out tasks set by their tutors. We have also created a Kahoot quiz activity for students to do in class (all details for tutors are on the tutorial pages) which will introduce the basics of using the LRC and the resources we offer. If you want details or have any problems accessing this, please ask someone in the LRC.

 Before /during the refurbishment
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

After the refurbishment
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Below is a walk-through video from the College's YouTube channel so you can get an idea of what the new LRC looks like.

The LRC team looks forward to welcoming students and staff to the new space. If you have any queries about using it, then please ask one of us for help.

Blended learning and the flipped classroom

Blended learning and the flipped classroom

Library information skills sessions

The library staff often go into different classes and lessons to help introduce different information and research skills to students. At the end we ask everyone to fill in a feedback questionnaire. Overall the responses are positive with a majority saying they feel more confident in researching after the session. When we ask them to say how the session might be improved we sometimes get a suggestion about making them “more interactive”.

Our sessions are very hands-on and involve various activities and discussions, but these comments have led us to start thinking about how we might develop more blended learning activities to improve how we introduce information literacy skills. 

So what is blended learning and what is meant by the flipped classroom?

Jisc defines blended learning as providing “a combination of face-to-face learning and dynamic digital content that facilitates anytime/anyplace learning”.

For more information see - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/creating-blended-learning-content.

The flipped classroom or flipped learning is part of this approach. Jisc quotes Educause  - "The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements are reversed” 

The Higher Education Academy has a page about this at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/starter-tools/flipped-learning-0 with the following 1 minute explanatory video:  Flipping your Class: What is a Flipped Class?  from Texas' Learning Sciences. 

Some of you may also find the Digital Technologies Network website  interesting  for some practical resources and ideas.

Library induction on Kahoot

So, next year we hope to offer a library induction on Kahoot for teachers to use in the classroom which will help free up library staff to deliver more in- depth sessions on our electronic resources, for example. Please contact library staff if you have queries about this and want to know how to use this with your groups. 

We have also already created a Harvard Referencing and Plagiarism  blended learning package with accompanying quizzes so tutors can check knowledge. Find it on our 24/7 page. This can be used instead of or in addition to a librarian-led session - lecturers have the choice and know what works best for their groups.

This is the last blog post of the academic year. When we publish our next post, we should be back in our newly refurbished space and we will be known as the  Learning Resource Centre (or LRC for short). For those of you here next year, do come in and use us and enjoy the new surroundings. 

Procrastination

Procrastination

It’s nearly the end of the academic year and we’ve noticed there are still lots of students finishing off their work – especially in the library.

Perhaps you are a student who always seems to leave their work to the last minute or are you a lecturer who puts off doing their marking? Perhaps you put off doing the cleaning or tidying at home. Most of us procrastinate.

This can be down to 2 things
1) Procrastination
2) Poor time management

Photo by Kalyan Kanuri. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kalyan/3184149164

Even the best time management skills (such as planning) can fail to have the required results if we don’t actually get on with what is needed, so what is procrastination?

What is procrastination?

For those of you who don’t know this word, procrastination often involves

· Delaying what needs to be done

· Putting off something that you don’t like or find boring

· Being easily distracted by other things (e.g. Facebook!)

· Finding something easier to do instead

· Falling behind and not achieving what needs doing

You may identify with Tim Urban in his humorous TED talk below

Tips for avoiding procrastination

In Psychology Today, Elizabeth Lombardo Ph.D, gives 11 tips for avoiding procrastination

To summarise, paraphrase and apply this:

• Don’t make a huge deal out of having to do your work (manage those emotions)
• Think about the long term results (ie qualification, better job, better mark) rather than trying to feel better in the short-term
• Plan your work (but not to the extent you have no time to do it!)
• Give yourself plenty of time to achieve what you need to do –be realistic and don't leave it too late.
• Break the piece of work up into smaller chunks
• Stop making excuses
• Find someone who will check up on you and make you accountable
• Think about your environment. Turn off your phone, email, Facebook, internet and other distractions
• Reward yourself when you complete stages and/or the whole of your work
• If you get distracted, don't beat yourself up about it and just get on with your work again
• Avoid perfectionism. Aim for better and your best rather than perfect.

As Martin Luther King Junior said " You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step"

How to keep up to date with new developments in your area of work

Impress at job interviews and keep up to date

Lots of students are now leaving college and applying for jobs. Many will be working in a particular sector such as hairdressing, construction, fire service, nursing or child care.

New developments are being made and affect the workplace all the time e.g.

• ·         new legislation or guidelines passed (e.g. health and safety)
• ·         new initiatives being piloted,
• ·         new problems being tackled
• ·         new people with new ideas.

 Hairstyles change, new research comes out in helping children’s development, new fashions in cooking and hospitality, and new materials and techniques in building homes and structures, for example.

Keeping up to date with professional Periodicals/ Journals

In the library (due to the refit they are currently in Room 121 and then sent out to departments) we have a range of professional periodicals which are one way of keeping up to date in your field. If you want to have the edge in a job interview, why not read up on what the latest issues are so you can mention these and show that you take an interest in the work you will be doing.

Some titles we currently hold are:

Building
Caterer
FE Week
Fire (I expect a lot will be written about the Grenfell Tower fire in forthcoming issues)
Hairdressers Journal
Highways (previously Surveyor)
Leisure Management & Health Club Management
Make Up Artist Magazine
Marketing Week
Navy News
Nursery World (with archive online)
Nursing Times
Professional Beauty
RAF News
TES
THE
Travel Weekly

Library Periodicals. Photograph by Peterborough Regional College

Some other ways to keep up to date and keep learning in your chosen profession/ job

Websites of professional bodies (organisations which represent a profession) – e.g Hair Council, ABTA, Institution of Civil Engineers. It is probably best to concentrate on those based in the UK as legislation and practice may be different in other countries such as the US.

Websites of professional journals (see above) – these will give a summary even if you don’t subscribe. Building magazine is already discussing the construction materials used in Grenfell Tower as is Fire magazine.

Social media accounts – e.g, the nursing and midwifery council has a twitter account@nmcnews, the Royal Navy has a Facebook account. You need to make sure you have the official accounts (look for the tick) and that new content is being regularly added. Well known professionals in your field may also write a blog eg Sarah Jagger (Make up artist).

Email lists and RSS feeds. You can subscribe to news feeds so new information about subjects in which you have an interest are sent to your email account. You can often choose to get a weekly digest so that you don't get too many emails.

Library Closure

Library Closure

Earlier this week, we moved out and all the books were packed up and put into storage because the library is having a refit! We have moved to a new temporary location and there will be limited space and computers for you to do your work.

Where will we be? 

Room 75 for book returns, 4 student PCs & study tables, library/book enquiries. Opening hours remain unchanged.

Room 121 - this will be the PC Centre from 8.45-4.30pm everyday until the end of term.

Both rooms will be manned by library staff and are for students to complete their work only as space is limited. 

What about the books?

These are in storage and are not readily available. However, if you need a book for your work, take a look on the library catalogue (via the library 24/7 page on Moodle) and if it says it is available, come and speak to us and we will let you know if we can get it for you. If we can we will need 48 hours. Remember you have access to e-books and other electronic information resources - also from our Moodle pages. If you need specific information, please come and speak to us as we may be able to find what you are looking for somewhere else.

Public domain photo by Hermann Traub
https://pixabay.com/en/books-education-school-literature-441866/

Can I use a computer?

There will be 4 PCs and some laptops available in Room 75. Room 121 has 20 computers. There may be some time slots when it will not be possible to open Room 121.

Can I still buy stationery?

 No, sorry. We will not be selling stationery during this time.

Can I ring the library and renew my books or speak to a member of staff?

Yes, we are still contactable using the same telephone number and email address.

When are you moving back in to the library?

Hopefully by the end of August, ready for the beginning of the academic year.