Category Archives: Events

Open & Inclusive SIG: 24th March

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Open & Inclusive Special Interest Group
Wednesday 24th March 2021
10:00 – 12:00
ONLINE: MS Teams

Join us online for the next Open and Inclusive Special Interest Group, with presentations from Sumeya Loonat and Dan Holloway. Please contact openTEL for joining instructions or for more information about this event.

Presentation 1:
Language and Learning: Breaking Barriers to Success
Sumeya Loonat, De Montfort University

Abstract: This session explores the intersectionality of race and language within a teaching and learning context. There are significant barriers faced by students of colour in higher education and the impact of Covid-19 has contributed to further disparities. Students of colour make up approximately 54% of the student body at DMU; while this current framing of students is homogenous under the contested term ‘BAME’ (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) there are similar connections between domestic students of colour and international students of colour who use English as an additional language. The mainstream framing of these students is usually viewed through a deficit model which is harmful as it perpetuates negative stereotypes. This session considers alternative approaches which enhance the student sense of belonging.  Continue reading →

Summary of Student Voice Event

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Open & Inclusive SIG- Student Voice Event Summary Report
By Emily Coughlan

As part of the Open and Inclusive Special Interest Group, the team coordinated and delivered the first online student voice event on the 20th January2021. The event was intended to give students the opportunity to speak freely and openly about different topics, as put forward by both staff and students, and stimulate discussion around current and emerging issues regarding accessibility at the OU.

The event was attended by over 40 participants which included staff and students from different disciplines and areas within the OU. The event included three interactive workshops where students and staff were able to share their own experiences, discussing challenges they face and areas of concern as well as positive experiences.

The three workshops focussed on the following areas of interest: Continue reading →

openTEL Seminar: Martin Glynn

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Wednesday 24th February 2021 (14:30 – 15:30)
ONLINE: MS Teams (please email openTEL to be sent an invitation)

Abstract
Data Verbalization is about ‘communicating’ & ‘disseminating’ research data using performance approaches & techniques (Glynn, 2019)

Within academia, the corporate sector, and many areas of public and social policy, contemporary research has to now demonstrate its wider impact/s. Research impact centres on the understanding that generating knowledge by conducting research should contribute, benefit, influence and transform the environment, culture, as well as the wider society. So how relevant are traditional approaches when disseminating research data in today’s mediatized world? Furthermore, how do sociologists and criminologists move beyond the confines of traditional approaches to sharing their research? It is my contention that ‘data verbalization’ can give researchers a unique and distinct voice, beyond the academy, conference, and peer review journal.

Bio
Dr Martin Glynn is a criminologist and Winston Churchill Fellow with over 35 years’ experience of working in criminal justice, public health, and educational settings.  Dr Glynn is currently a lecturer in criminology at Birmingham City University.

 

Please note this session will be recorded. To find out more about this event or to be added to the openTEL mailing list please email openTEL@open.ac.uk

Link to Recording
Write up of this event

Open & Inclusive SIG: Student Voice Event

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Student Voice Event
Wednesday 20th January 2021 (14:00 – 16:00)
ONLINE: MS Teams (please email openTEL to be sent an invitation)

Join us online, as part of the Open & Inclusive Special Interest Group, for our annual student voice event. Every year we host a get-together where OU staff and students can share ideas, concerns, and explore ways to make the OU a more inclusive place for students with disabilities or study needs.

This event will involve a series of short facilitated discussions with a small mixed group of staff and students. We’ll contact you in advance for suggestions of themes you’d like to talk about, so we can create groups of students and staff with similar interests.

This event will be very casual; you should get the chance to meet interesting people, have good discussions and find out more about how the OU works.

To find out more about this event you can contact openTEL, Kate Lister, Francisco Iniesto, or Emily Coughlan

openAIED Presentations in December 2020

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Presentations from Andrew Gargett, Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, and Alison Fox, Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning (The Open University).

Wednesday 2nd December, 14:00 – 15:30
ONLINE: Adobe Connect
Adobe Connect Link for OU Staff
Link for external participants

Presentation 1: Topics in Social AI
Dr Andrew Gargett

Abstract:
While AI research and technology is becoming established in almost every sector of many national economies, from education and healthcare, to retail, transport, agriculture, automotive and professional services, it is far less clear how AI is impacting on other domains of our lives, including the social, psychological & cultural. My work in AI has taken me from more research-focused areas of modelling social and cultural features of communication and action between agents (natural and/or artificial), to more industry facing roles applying AI techniques, often at scale, to address business challenges across a range of industry sectors. This talk will attempt a kind of synthesis of these experiences. I will also report on an initiative within the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics around “social AI”. In order to bring these threads together, I will devote some time to considering the impact of the increasing push from within research and industry toward more socially responsible AI.

Bio:
Andrew Gargett recently joined The Open University’s School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, as a Lecturer in AI (July 2020). From February 2016, he led the AI team at the Hartree Centre, within the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Prior to this, he completed a Marie Curie Research Fellowship (2013-2015), at the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, on the Gen-Meta project (automatically understanding and generating metaphor in natural language).

Presentation 2: Keeping humanity in AI in Education research
Dr Alison Fox

Abstract:
This presentation is based on a chapter drafted for a book under contract to Routledge entitled The Ethics of AI in Education: Who Cares? Data, algorithms, equity and biases, in educational contexts, edited by Wayne Holmes and Duygu Bektik. This was the result of an invitation to apply an ethical framework developed over the last 10 years, drawing together four ethical traditions, to the field of AI in Education research. This presentation will cover this analysis to identify a range of dimensions to keep in mind to ensure that humanity is retained within the field of AI in Education research.

Bio:
Alison is a Senior Lecturer in Learning and Teaching in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport in WELS. She has developed interests in research ethics, including acting as part of the working group revising the British Educational Research Association ethical guidelines launched in 2018, as Ethics Advisor to a Horizon2020 project led by Cambridge University and is currently Deputy Chair of the OU HREC. She has led the design and running of two open courses about research ethics: A University of Leicester/FutureLearn MOOC People Studying People: Research Ethics in Society and is hosted at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ethical-research and an OpenLearn Badged course, here at the Open University, launched in October 2020 called Becoming an Ethical Researcher can be found at: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education-development/becoming-ethical-researcher/content-section-overview-0?active-tab=description-tab