Creativity and Innovation

I’m following the Design Thinking and Creativity for Innovation course on EdX. The initial video with Tim Kastelle [http://timkastelle.org/] draws together creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation in improving ideas to create value whether for individuals or organisations. He quotes a definition of creativity as creating something that is both novel and ‘useful’ which seems to me to … Read more

Patterns, approaches and systems to support teachers in designing for technology-enhanced collaborative learning

These are a few notes and reflections on a research seminar hosted by the Research Centre in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh with Prof Yannis Dimitriadis from the University of Valladolid, Spain. This seminar discussed approaches to design for collaborative learning using digital technologies – either in a blended classroom or wholly online. His  research … Read more

Near Future Teaching Collider

I attended a Collider event as part of the Near Future Teaching project at the University of Edinburgh. The project is about addressing questions on what should the future of teaching look like in both universities in general, and University of Edinburgh specifically. What social, cultural and technological trends will come together to drive new … Read more

UFHRD 2014: 5 June, key note on HRD research and design science, Prof Eugene Sadler-Smith

Back at the UFHRD conference and the post-lunch key note address. Change dthe title to “(Quite) grupy old men, mars bars and epistemology”. Noted a slide from a talk yesterday as a list of critics of HRD: the grumpy old men including “Sadler-Smith 2014”! Looked at the issue of relevance and rigour in HRD and … Read more

Learning innovations and digital education

An interesting report on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) from Open University based academics. The report discusses: 1. what is TEL but in terms of technologies “add value to” (enhancing) teaching and learning rather than being indivisible from or enmeshed in teaching and learning. Can you imagine teaching and learning without any technologies (digital of otherwise)? … Read more

Design Thinking and the Learning & Development function

There is a wide-spread sense that learning and development functions have not responded at all well to changes in organisations, the work place and the wider environment. As Charles Jennings has identified here, these changes include: the development of the web; organisations increasingly operating on network principles as well as the recognition of the importance … Read more