Keynote and Invited speakers

Keynote speakers

Barbara Wasson

University of Bergen, Norway

Design and Use of Technology Enhanced Learning Environments

A fundamental challenge for Technology Enhanced Learning is how to design technology enhanced learning environments sensitive to the complex interconnections between pedagogical, technological and organisational issues and how to understand their use. Using examples from my own research I will focus on my understanding of the intricate relationship between design and use. In the Norwegian DoCTA projects we aimed to bring a theoretical perspective to the design of ICT-mediated learning environments that support the sociocultural aspects of human interaction and to evaluate their use. By taking a sociocultural perspective on learning activity focussing on the interpersonal social interaction in collaborative learning settings we contribute to knowledge about the pedagogical design of network based learning scenarios, the technological design of the learning environment to support these learning scenarios, and the organisational design for management of such learning environments. Through various empirical studies we improved our understanding of the pedagogy and technology of networked learners, and increased our understanding of learner activity. In this talk I will focus on the VisArt artefact design scenario and the gen-etikk collaborative knowledge building scenario both of which supported co-located and distributed students collaborating over the Internet during a 3-4 week period.

Keynote Session - Thursday 9 September.

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Sugata Mitra

Newcastle University, UK

The Hole In The Wall: Self Organising Systems in Education

• The quality of traditional primary education declines with 'remoteness'
• Groups of children, given the appropriate resources, can
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  a. Learn to use computers and the Internet on their own.
  b. Achieve many objectives of schooling on their own.
  c. Attain levels of achievement close to traditional schooling with the help of a friendly, but not knowledgeable, mediator.

• Learning is a self organising system.

These premises are proposed based on experimental results, often referred to as 'the hole in the wall' experiments, as well as more recent experiments that will be discussed. The talk then moves on to the design of facilities and technology for areas where good schools cannot exist and good teachers do not want to go.

Keynote Session - Wednesday 8 September.

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Donald Clark

Board Member of Ufi, and former CEO of Epic Group plc

Don't lecture me

As student numbers increase and cuts are implemented the HE sector has to do more for less. This means less low occupancy building, cutbacks in second and third rate research, cutting low student number courses and a rethink of how we are to deliver higher education. The sector has largely ignored the most important event in 20th century HE, the creation of the OU, and therefore the opportunity to increase student numbers. However, there's a dark secret at the heart of HE that really holds it back - the lecture. Apart from being pedagogically suspect, many are badly delivered and few are recorded. Donald will do some deconstruction of the lecture in terms of its history, lack of relevance in the terms of the psychology of learning and serious limitations for students. He will use the teaching of science, physics in particular, to show the shortcomings of courses anchored in lectures.
And before you ask, yes he is aware of the contradiction.

Keynote Session - Tuesday 7 September.

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Saul Tendler

University of Nottingham, UK

Saul Tendler, who will welcome delegates to the conference on behalf of the Univerisity of Nottingham, is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning and is a Professor of Biophysical Chemistry. Previously he was Head of the University's School of Pharmacy and the Dean of the Graduate School. Saul's research is directed towards the biophysical investigation of molecular systems and their interactions. In 2007 Saul was awarded his DSc by the University of Nottingham. He was a founding director of Molecular Profiles Ltd and is currently a Director of Nottingham University Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Ltd, and BioCity Ltd. Previously Saul was a member of the HEFCE Strategic Committee for Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was designated a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 2000.

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Invited speakers

Hans-Peter Baumeister

Reutlingen University, Germany

The Future of Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge society, knowledge economy, knowledge management - knowledge everywhere. What does it mean for our approach to education?
The Internet has a major impact on the culture of the acquisition of knowledge, but educational institutions, both for children and for adults, are still based on a model stemming from the area of enlightenment combined with the emergence of the nation state: Open access to new information, but keep it under institutional control, represented by the teacher. On the other hand we know that already the current workforce needs skills and qualifications to deal with the so-called knowledge economy. But what are those skills? And are our institutions and the people working within them prepared to analyse the required skills and to act accordingly or are we still following a model of top-down teaching? Or more to the point: Do our students know better how to deal with new forms of knowledge acquisition than the teachers and lecturers?

Invited Session - Wednesday 8 September.

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Heather Fry

Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE), UK

How national funding and policy supports learning and teaching in higher education

Heather will briefly consider some of the challenges for learning technology in meeting the needs and demands of the diversity of students and provision in higher education. She will also touch on current and past HEFCE funding and policy initiatives in this area, in particular on institutional learning and teaching strategies, on how HEFCE continues to work with the JISC and the Higher Education Academy to support teaching enhancement and learning technology, and the open educational resources programme, the latter now being in its second phase. She will also make reference to the Online Learning Task Force and share some early insights about its work, prior to the publication of its recommendations in October / November 2010.

Invited Session - Wednesday 8 September.

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Sudhir Giri

Google, UK

Sudhir Giri is Head of Google Learning Labs having joined to help establish an operational infrastructure for learning. Additionally, he is experimenting on how we can innovate corporate learning especially using Google technologies. Prior to working for Google, Sudhir managed learning programs for Accenture and Deloitte Consulting for nine years. His work included delivering an e-learning program to Kenyan nurses to increase school capacity to meet health care demands. With a biomedical engineering background, he spent four years at NASA developing and testing biomedical flight hardware for the Space Shuttle program which included astronaut training. Sudhir holds an MBA from the University of Texas and a bachelor's degree in bioengineering from Texas A&M University.

Developing a learning ecosystem

In this session Sudhir will outline how Google uses and plans to use learning technology to support the learning and development of its own 20,000 workforce.

Invited Session - Tuesday 7 September (changed from Thursday 9 September on 26/8/2010).

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Martin Hall

University of Salford, UK

When worlds collide - revisiting experiential learning

How can universities incorporate the collision between informal education and social networking, and the formal curriculum and accreditation?
What happens when the worlds of formal university education and social networking collide? The imminence of this collision is now widely accepted. But what happens when open, byte-sized bits of knowledge come up against the need for sequence and structure, for curricula that build systematically on prior understanding and insight, and formal accreditation? This is not primarily a technological issue - it is more a question about the nature of knowledge itself. Social networking is transforming the nature of "tacit knowledge". By revisiting formative concepts of experiential learning, leading-edge experimentation with new technologies can themselves be codified and theorized, and translated into organizational change within the universities.

Invited Session - Tuesday 7 September.

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Frank McLoughlin

City and Islington College, London, UK

One college's journey - a view from the bridge

City and Islington College, where Frank McLoughlin has been principal for many years, has long been committed to the systematic use of ICT. In this session Frank will reflect on the college's overall journey in its use of ICT to support learning, focusing on the impact of the college's web-based services on learners' relationship with the college, and on the changing nature of the college's learners and their use of ICT in learning. Frank, who is also Chair of the 157 Group, a membership organisation representing an influential group of large, successful and regionally influential Further Education colleges in England, will also provide a 'forward look' covering how, in the new political and economic climate, publicly funded education can continue to innovate in learning technology.

Invited Session - Tuesday 7 September.

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Aaron Porter

National Union of Students, UK

A student perspective on the use of technology in 21st century higher education

My session will focus in on the expectations and perceptions of students on the use of technology in higher education. Taking forward the work of the HEFCE Online Task Force, and giving my perspective on what the sector should take forward to meet the needs of students in the 21st century.

Invited Session - Thursday 9 September.

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Josie Taylor

Open University, UK

Literacies, learning and people's lives: where practice and real life collide...

Digital literacy is much debated at present, and there is no one clear definition. However, such a literacy is a vital 21st century skill without which people will not be able to operate effectively and safely in the digital environment. It is central to enabling people to be lifelong learners. It is also a key employability skill. The Digital Britain report (2009) highlights the economic necessity of people possessing these skills.
Digital literacy not only needs to be taught and learned in its own right, but it is also increasingly part of learning and teaching in a disciplinary context. Being digitally literate enables students to shape their own learning and to effectively manage the ever-increasing amounts of information they are exposed to. They also need to be able to share what they find, in new ways. Trust and sense-making are essential if this is to happen.
But do we know what we are all talking about? In this session, I will outline some of the major issues being raised in debate at the moment, and stimulate conversation around them.

Invited Session - Wednesday 8 September.

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David White

University of Oxford, UK

Sailing against the trade winds? How online distance learning could help to maintain the character of higher education in stormy seas

Earlier this year my group at the University of Oxford were commissioned to undertake a study of online learning for the HEFCE Online Learning Task Force. Our research showed that the vast majority of online distance learning provided at higher education level is in postgraduate 'professional' courses which in these Return-On-Investment times offer an attractive income stream from employers and employees alike. Increasing activity in this area could lead us to believe that we are in danger of generating a parallel 'training 2.0' HE sector but the reality is far more complex.
Using evidence published in the study, this presentation will explore how the emergent culture of the web is encouraging online students to expect a form of engagement that many in the HE sector have been advocating for years. It will discuss how this is challenging the role of the academic and what strategies institutions are taking to meet the demand for discursive, activity based pedagogies. The presentation will also discuss the need for non STEM disciplines to move online to maintain a balanced representation of the character of our university system in the mjlie of course offerings from around the globe.

Invited Session - Wednesday 8 September.

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