Research and Development

Current Activity

(Updated 19th January, 2009)

Portland College is keen to ensure that all its learners, and the disabled community as a whole, have access to appropriate learning materials and enabling technology.

Below are details relating to current R&D developments at Portland.  For further information regarding these projects, and to discuss potential future collaborations, please contact Matt Harrison, Research and Technology Development Manager.

Click the following link to email Matt Harrison:  Email Matt

At present, Portland has four projects underway.  Scroll down to read about each individual project.

Mobile Learning:

The college is keen to support its learners in many different ways, and sees mobile learning (or m-learning) as one way of doing so.

Staff have recently been trained in how to produce text or image-based prompts that run on the majority of mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).  As these prompts are delivered using common forms of technology, learning can be done in a discreet manner, often without other people knowing that it is taking place at all.  Likewise, by using mobile phones to deliver small learning objects and/or prompts means that learning can take pace anywhere and at any time.

Work is also underway to support the College's learners with acquired brain injuries.  Mobile prompts are being used in conjunction with PDAs and digital keyrings in areas such as memory aids and travel training.

e-Portfolio Project:

 Portland remains involved in the JISC/TechDis-funded e-Folio project.  The project involves several Specialist Colleges and also the Rix Centre, and aims to produce an online, accessible e-portfolio system.  It is hoped that this system could be used to create digital transition plans, online diaries or to store and view digital media such as photographs, videos or audio files.  The e-Portfolio will hopefully draw on the popularity of other Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook and MySpace yet incorporate a greater level of accessibility and also be pitched at a level which best meets our users' needs..

European Collaboration:

 The College was represented at the 2008 ICALT Conference in Santander, Spain, and outputs from the Portland Partnership (see Previous Projects page) were presented.  Following on from this, discussions took place with the German multimedia research centre KMRC about potential collaborations.  The two organisations have since met again in Tubingen (Germany) and also recently at the BETT exhibition in London.  Discussions regarding joint work are ongoing, but Portland hopes to be able to trial some new software (produced by KMRC in Tubingen) in Spring 2009.

Coding For Assistive Technology Solutions (C4ATS) Project:

The C4ATS Project was inspired by an event in Southern California called SS12: Code For  A Cause.  The concept of C4ATS is to pair up Specialist Colleges such as Portland with university programming students to produce small examples of open source software that meet an individual's/group of individuals' needs.

We envisage the pairs identifying particular accessing difficulties, or short-comings in existing software, and then working towards a solution by creating a small piece of software.  The software will be available to all, free of charge, as open source.  This would allow others to develop each programme further and potentially expand its audience.

This project is in its infancy, and is looking for interested parties to participate.  Initially we would like to hear from FE colleges and Specialist Colleges within the East Midlands, however should the regional project prove to be a success, we would perhaps like to take things onto a national level.  We would therefore like to hear from other Specialist Colleges and also programming students.

The JISC East Midlands Regional Support Centre is also supporting the C4ATS Project, for which we are very grateful.