Promoting the Effective Digital Education Organisation

The Promoting Effective Digital-Age Learning report from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission gives a competence framework for digitally competent educations organisations. The report positions digital education as an important component of European economic competitiveness by boosting digital skills and promoting online and distance education and training to improve regional human capital and innovation … 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

IT Futures at Edinburgh

I’m attending the IT Futures conference at Edinburgh today. These notes are not intended to be a comprehensive record of the conference but to highlight points of interest to me and so will be subjective and partial. A full recoding of the conference will be available at the IT Futures website The conference opens with … Read more

Distributed curriculum

This Tweet caught my eye today by triggering a train of thoughts on what a ‘distributed curriculum’ might involve. This idea appears to position the curriculum as an outcome of interacting within networks of people, resources and technologies. I wonder if this curriculum is a restating for a formal education context, of the sort of … Read more

eLearning@ Edinburgh

Creative Commons logo in lego

I’m attending the eLearning@Ed 2015 conference and will be attempting to live blog throughout the day. Melissa Highton, Director of Learning Teaching and Web Services here at Edinburgh is starting the conference and the theme of Designing for 21st Century Learning. Wanted to ask what 21st century learning might be and how it might be different from 20th century. … Read more

MOOCs automation, artificial intelligence and educational agents

Geoge Veletsianos is speaking at a seminar hosted by DiCE research group at University of Edinburgh. The hastag for the event is #edindice and the subject is MOOCs, automation and artificial intelligence. [These notes were taken live and I’ve retained the typos, poor syntax and grammer etc… some may call that ‘authentic’!]   George began … Read more

Perspectives on identity within network learning

Well my notes on Neil Selwyn’s keynote got lost but am back for as session on identity issues in network learning with @janedavis13, @catherinecronin and @catspyjamasanz collaborating together on identity research. See #nlcID Jane Davis on the conceptualisation of identity linked to roles in networked learning. Identities as Jane as me/ myself; as a student; … Read more

Satisfaction with digital education

I came across this survey from Gallup on student satisfaction with digital higher education. The findings make interesting reading from a number of perspectives. While the value-for-money and breadth of curriculum of online learning is clearly acknowledged as key strengths by students. More important are the perceived weaknesses in terms of the quality of teaching, rigour … Read more

Connected & networked higher education

I was interested to read the Connected Learning Environments paper over at Educause. The briefing looks at connected learning environments in higher education and states that: While e-learning often connotes delivery of information in a sequential, linear fashion, the connected learning environment is integrative, personalized, interconnected, and authentic. Across higher education, leaders and learners are taking … Read more