Birkenhead Sixth Form College: Opening up remote access to the college network brings wider benefits to all

Birkenhead Sixth Form College implemented a virtual network to open up remote access to the college network for its students, staff and governors. In particular, for childcare students on work placements, this has meant 24/7 secure access to their work and resources, and the ability to make timely updates to their work evidence logs. The impact is better continuity of learning and a dramatic increase in the hand-in rate for work. For the staff, governors and college as a whole, the benefits of anytime-access to the network are more than were envisaged at the outset; not only is it saving them valuable time and eliminating the need for large print runs, it is expected to bring cost-savings to the College in the long term.

Warrington Collegiate: LRC pop-up training area to enhance staff training and development

Warrington Collegiate wanted to locate an area of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) and equip it with a smart board and ten laptops primarily for staff development. Since the pop-up seminar area has been created it has been used for Vado, Moodle, Quizdom and e-book training plus much more. From an empty corner in the LRC the addition of this technology has created a welcoming comfortable learning space. It has encouraged staff across all the curriculum areas to come into the LRC and extended their role in a place for high quality staff development.

Tees Valley VLE Partnership: Collaboration success story

The Adult Education Services from six local authorities in the North East joined forces to set-up a shared virtual learning environment (VLE) called TeesLearn. It provides their learners with new and inspiring learning opportunities and supports them across a rural and wide geographical area.

Facing up to Facebook: A guide for FE and HE

In this guide, you’ll find summaries of the key legal considerations of using Facebook in an FE and HE context. Details on how to access further guidance can be found at the end.

Case study: Opening up opportunities for learning with digital technologies

Case study on Lewisham Southwark College and how they are encouraging students and staff to engage with a wide range of technologies to develop their digital confidence and capability.

Rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine mammals: An analysis of current views and practices.

Stranded marine mammals have long attracted public attention. Those that wash up dead are, for all their value to science, seldom seen by the public as more than curiosities. Animals that are sick, injured, orphaned or abandoned ignite a different response. Generally, public sentiment supports any effort to rescue, treat and return them to sea. Institutions displaying marine mammals showed an early interest in live-stranded animals as a source of specimens -- in 1948, Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Florida, rescued a young short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), the first ever in captivity (Kritzler 1952). Eventually, the public as well as government agencies looked to these institutions for their recognized expertise in marine mammal care and medicine. More recently, facilities have been established for the sole purpose of rehabilitating marine mammals and preparing them for return to the wild. Four such institutions are the Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito, CA), the Research Institute for Nature Management (Pieterburen, The Netherlands), the RSPCA, Norfolk Wildlife Hospital (Norfolk, United Kingdom) and the Institute for Wildlife Biology of Christian-Albrects University (Kiel, Germany).(PDF contains 68 pages.)

Final report of the Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management (STREAM): a NACA networking initiative

The governing council of Naca has resolved to effect a shift in emphasis from aquaculture development to aquaculture for development. This will require engaging partners from a broad spectrum of government and development agencies, the nature of the information that will need to be gathered and the strategies used for disseminating information and initiating action. The vehicle for operationalising this shift is STREAM - Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management. This report outlines the nature of the STREAM network, its relationship to NACA's vision, mission, objectives and operating principles, and how STREAM differs from previous NACA's networks. Because STREAM is different, a theoretical basis for network communication is presented along with an outline of the preliminary steps in getting the network up and running. (Pdf contains 33 pages).

The Zanzibar Workshop Proceedings: Asserting Rights, Defining Responsibilities:Perspectives from Small-scale Fishing Communities on Coastal and Fisheries Management in Eastern and Southern Africa

The Zanzibar Workshop Proceedings consists of the report and the Statement of the Workshop and provides a rich understanding of the dynamics of traditional, indigenous, small-scale and artisanal fisheries and fishing communities in the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) context. The issues covered include: the saga of rights denied to coastal lands, fishing, and threats to livelihood arising from lack of recognition of traditional rights and the livelihood needs of people in the region; the aspirations of coastal and inland communities to maintain or improve their livelihoods; and a bottom-up perspective on access rights to fishing, post-harvest rights and economic and social rights. This report will be a valuable source of information for community organizers, trade union leaders, government officials and the donor community, including multilateral organizations, researchers and for all those who are interested in the well-being of ESA fishing communities.

An investigation of the organization of canoe fisheries in Nigeria: A case study of Ilaje/Esedo local government area of Ondo State

The effects of some socio-economic variables on the performance of artisanal fishermen were investigated. The variables include the age-structure of the fishermen, level of investment, educational background, membership of co-operative societies and marketing arrangements. All these variables were found to be crucial to productivity in the artisanal fishing sector

Artisanal canoe fishing industry of the Rivers State: its economic viability and investment potentials

Consequent upon the present national call in Nigeria for all to go back to agriculture including fishing, most retrenched workers and unemployed youths from the riverine areas are taking up fishing as a legitimate and gainful livelihood. To sustain this tempo and attract more investment, the economic viability of such projects must be known. This study is an attempt to document the profitability and investment potential of artisanal canoe fishing. Socio-economic information including catches, operational cost and returns were obtained through a personal interview questionnaire survey of 240 randomly selected artisanal canoe fishermen from Bonny, Brass and Degema Local Government Areas (LGA) of the State and analyzed. With an investment cost of about 8,135, 8,490 and 6,571 and operation cost of 750, 776 and 627, the analysis showed an average monthly gross income of 1,869, 3,221 and 1,775 for the three local government areas respectively. A benefit-cost-ratio of 1:8, net present value of 400, 603 and internal rate of return greater than 50% were obtained. Since capital invested in fisheries is not tied up for long before benefits start flowing, coupled with the high IRR, it is concluded that artisanal canoe fishing would be an economically viable venture if well managed

Investment prospects of fish farming in the Jos-Plateau, Nigeria

The investment prospects of fish farming in the Jos-Plateau, Nigeria, strategically located in about the centre of the country are discussed with special reference to its numerous abandoned mine lakes and the tripartite role of government, universities and individuals. In the Jos-Plateau, about 17.0 km super(2) is covered by these disused mine lakes, making up about 20-30% of the area covered. In such enterprise, problems commonly encountered, like population growth and government planning policies, fish demand and supply, manpower, feed and seed availability, preservation, processing and marketing are discussed. Inspite of these, prospects still abound with regards to land-use of these numerous disused mine lakes and feed availability based on the principles of using both industrial and farm by-products for fish culture, processing and marketing. These potentials, if properly harnessed, will help to supplement the protein insufficiency in the diet of the populace. In this regard, proposals on the economics of production and sales, strategies for achieving these development goals, cost-benefit analysis and their implications in further development of fish culture are discussed