Festival of Design & Innovation: Design Engineering

Matt Grover

Having worked as a window fitter at the weekends during his placement year, Matt Grover discovered that the man-handling of double glazing units was inefficient and possibly unsafe. He therefore developed the idea for a Window Fitter Assistant to aid the easy transport and orientation of windows during installation.
Mattgrover@hotmail.com

Matt Nugent

The “kill switch” that forms part of the design for a wake boarding winch from Matt Nugent has attracted a lot of interest from several companies as it offers the potential to be used in many extreme sports and activities.  The winch itself, RipLine 270, has the advantage of wireless controls, an extended cable length, and speeds up to 24mph.
m.nugent636@gmail.com

Festival of Learning: Geophysics

Paul Cheetham explains earth resistivity

Digging Deeper in Dorset: Introduction to geophysics

Ten visitors including Learning Support Assistants Derek and Kathy, and Administrator Sally from ALS attended a day at the Bournemouth University dig site in Dorset to learn all about the various equipment used to help archaeologists to see beneath the soil.

Paul Cheetham was ably assisted by 3rd year student Dominique Hopton.

Sue Brown former member of staff receives instruction from student Dominique Hopton.

Kathy wants one of these for Christmas!

Sally takes the radar for a walk.

Derek Roberts has a go at resistivity

Paul explains Topsoil Magnetic Susceptibility

Derek supervises.

Disabled learners celebrate changes to copyright law

News release
02 June 2014

Today Jisc welcomed reforms to copyright law that expand the ability of ‘authorised bodies’, including colleges and universities, to copy work and make it more accessible for disabled people. It does this by removing previous legal restrictions on what can be copied and by whom.

All disabled people, regardless of impairment, are now covered by the legislation where their impairment affects their ability to access work on an equal basis to someone without the impairment. The previous law restricted the exception to visually impaired persons only. This brings the law more in line with the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability and means, for example, that students with dyslexia, are now covered by the exception. All copyright work is now covered, including recordings of performances and broadcasts, film and video clips.

Betty Willder, legal information specialist, Jisc Legal said: “Universities and colleges, as authorised bodies under the reforms, can now make more materials than ever accessible to disabled students. They can for example now subtitle a lawful broadcast or a video clip for disabled learners, where there is no commercial alternative available, without risk of infringing copyright. These changes are a positive step forward in bringing copyright law up-to-date with the digital learning environment and accessibility needs.”

Alistair McNaught, senior adviser, Jisc TechDis said: “These changes are of great significance to library and disability staff in higher and further education. They can now support learners more quickly and confidently because the law is more inclusive and much clearer. The challenge now is to encourage more disabled learners to take advantage of the opportunities presented by alternative formats. Increasing demand will create the incentive for suppliers to make their mainstream products more accessible at source.”

Jisc is providing support and guidance for UK colleges and universities on the changes.

With thanks to our colleagues in Bournemouth University Library.

Festival of Learning

Additional Learning Support are running an event as part of the Festival of Learning:

Sneak a peek into life in the fast lane … Take a journey and check out the challenges of living with impairments, Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs), Asperger’s Syndrome Condition (ASC), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD(H)D).

Hear, see and take part in our world through interactive activities, presentations and student self-advocacy stories.

Wednesday 11th June 2014 from 5:00-7:00pm

Room K103, Kimmeridge House, Talbot Campus.

Follow the link to book your place, or to view other events: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/festival-of-learning/

Deaf Awareness Week 2014

This is Deaf Awareness Week. The theme this year is “Equality In Communication For All”.

If you have any stories to tell, or you would like to share your experiences, then we would love to hear from you at: alsblog@bournemouth.ac.uk

Follow the link to find out more: http://www.deafcouncil.org.uk/deaf-awareness-week.html

 

 

 

Time to Talk

Today is Time to Talk day. This is a campaign organised by Time to Change – a national charitable organisation that aims to end mental health discrimination through advice, support and resources.

Time to Talk (TTT) aims to raise awareness of mental health by encouraging people across the country to talk on one specific day with the objective of achieving 1 million registered conversations- the idea illustrating that it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to discuss mental health issues over a cup of tea. 

ALS held their Time to Talk event yesterday, Wednesday afternoon being the time when the team gathers for training. Over thirty members of staff supported our ‘chatette’ and many brought along cakes or healthy eating options to accompany the tea bags that the TTT folk had donated.

Prosopagnosia: Face Blindness

ALS and other University staff had the opportunity to attend a very informative and interesting session to learn more about face blindness or prosopagnosia.

It was reassuring to hear that people are already benefiting from the research being carried out at Bournemouth University on this subject.

Attendees had this to say about the event:

An excellent training session from Sara and her team informing us about a condition that clearly needs to have its profile raised not only amongst the professionals but society as a whole!

…really well organised and delivered and was extremely interesting. I’ve told lots of people outside the university about it – surely a sign of its effectiveness in raising awareness.

…enlightening …heart warming… fascinating

If you were unable to attend or would like to learn more about this condition, and possibly volunteer to help with the research please visit the link below or contact Dr Sara Bate directly.

http://prosopagnosiaresearch.org/

Scholarship for Students with a Disability *APPLY NOW*

CRCC Asia have alerted Bournemouth University to the launch of the British Council Scholarship for a Student with a Disability which took place on January 6th 2014. They explained:

We established this fully funded scheme to offer a student with a disability the opportunity to participate in one of our programs in China. We are pleased to announce we are offering 2 fully funded scholarships for our 2014 programs.

Our Award-Winning China Internship Program places students and recent graduates in an international or leading Chinese company in their chosen field in Beijing and Shanghai, China. The interns live in the centre of each city and they work for one month with their company, whilst gaining transferable skills and hands-on experience working in an international setting. They also get a full social program with cultural outings, Chinese Language classes, and professional networking events. Upon completion of the program, students are able to boost their CVs with their international internship experience, stand out from the crowd and prepare for their career ahead.

An Alternative Twelve Days

On the first day of Christmas a student sent to me:
An essay full of oddly written prose.

On the second day of Christmas a student sent to me:
Two doctors’ notes and an essay full of oddly written prose.

On the third day of Christmas a student sent to me:
Three exam questions, two doctors’ notes
And an essay full of oddly written prose.

Scientific Santa

Greetings! Here’s a thought to ponder on whilst having a drink and a mince pie…

No known species of reindeer can fly but it is estimated that there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and whilst most of these are insects and germs, this doesn’t completely rule out flying reindeer.  A clever person once said that you shouldn’t dismiss a thing just because you don’t know how it works – yet.  So let’s look at some statistics to see if at least this proposition is possible…