Learning in an Open World online only conference

Monday, June 14th, 2010
As knowing where we are going, or might go, can help provide a new perspective on where we’ve come from, this conference, 22nd to 23rd June 2010 could help. It is 9am to 5pm and online http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2012

There is a blog by organiser Matin Weller here and the programme is here

The OU has a conference every year to share practice and research around learning and technology. This year the event is completely online and open to all. The event will take place across 2 days (22nd and 23rd June), with the synchronous presentations being held in Elluminate and asynchronous discussion held in Cloudworks.

The theme of the conference is ‘Openness in education’ and in keeping with that theme it is open to everyone, not just OU staff. It is an opportunity to engage in dialogue around the four main themes of open content, teaching, learning and access.

If you are interested in ‘attending’ some or all of the conference, please go to the Cloudworks site http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2012 and also check there for up to date information about the programme, practice sessions and call for contributions. You will need to register on Cloudworks to add any content and to indicate you are attending.

Contributions will be in a web format, such as YouTube, Slideshare, Animoto, which might result in a broader audience, able to engage with the projects and ideas within the Open University, and a discussion which will aid the University in its exploration of the theme of open education.

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Foregrounding the curriculum

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Educational technology has moved on from the reel-to-reel but has the OU struck a duff note for those left stranded by the digital divide?

Alan Tait, as well as being Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Curriculum and Awards) at the OU  is also president of EDEN – the European Distance and E-Learning Network.

Here he notes that that ‘very few universities have a Pro-Vice Chancellor for Curriculum; in fact it is accurate to say that I have never come across another one! In fact the term curriculum in the sense of an overall view of what subjects a university teaches only came into common parlance in the UK perhaps 10 years ago (and was recognized in a book by David Watson and Jean Bocock ‘Managing the University Curriculum: Making Common Cause’). Up till then what universities taught was taken more as an unexamined issue: it was what academics wanted to teach and what the university agreed they could. The Open University however, as a mission-led university with a strong research identity has had a PVC Curriculum for some 20 years. This indicates the ways in which we have tried to deconstruct the curriculum from being a natural phenomenon to one that is constructed to meet audience needs, aligned of course with the University’s teaching priorities, external regulation from professional and other bodies, and the views of the academic community.’

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Allegations of Marxist bias in the 1970s and 1980s

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Disputes about the content of a number of courses raged during the 1970s and 1980s. (more…)

Posted in Complaints and concerns, Politics | No Comments »