Transforming distance learning

In addition to the keynote sessions, I also attended workshops on the BDRA’s Leicester-based Adelie, Adder & Cheetah projects. Cheetah is a development project that aims to transfer models and know-how from the other two research projects in partnership with six institutions, including Bath. Development work will consist of Carpe Diem workshops with programme teams to [...]

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The implications of Web 2.0 for teaching and learning in a knowledge-based society.
Dr Tony Bates joined us by video link from Vancouver. He talked about the rapid expansion of the knowledge economy and the requirement for employees to have a new bank of transferable skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, computing, independent learnership, entrepreneurship, initiative, flexibility, [...]

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Student expectations of E-Learning; Aaron Porter and Linda Creanor
A recent graduate from the University of Leicester, Aaron Porter presented a student perspective of e-learning. He spoke about student expectations of e-learning, which he suggested are becoming more defined with every year’s new intake. He reported that today’s students don’t see e-leaning as being discrete from [...]

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Phil Candy (NHS)
Phil Candy chucked some interesting references at us, including the following:
Eilif Trondsen (2006), Virtual Worlds for Learning & Training
The Long Now Foundation – about thinking for the future
Seeley-Brown & Duguid: Universities in the Digital Age (John Seeley Brown also has a wide range of relevant speeches and papers on his website)
Phil’s key themes [...]

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Although Gilly Salmon’s opening keynote speech didn’t tell me anything new, it did effectively summarise both the widely-used and the emerging technologies of the moment. She identified two key challenges, introducing the term ‘Macromyopia’ – (which she described as a condition prevalent in higher education where the short-term is given disproportionate emphasis over the long-term, [...]

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