eLearning Community Event - Inquiry to Innovation: Approaches to Teaching STEM Practice at a Distance

Dates: 

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 11:00 to 13:30

Location

Library Seminar Rooms 1 & 2, Walton Hall

Contact

Sarah Davies

Within many areas of society, we are in middle of a change in the norms of professional practice – it is increasingly common for colleagues to collaborate and to practice online. They are no longer as strictly bound by the need for co-location with equipment or data. Conversations and other activities are supported electronically. This shift in normal professional practice offers opportunity to provide a richer, more authentic learning experience to our students. Scientific inquiry can be facilitated by remote facilities or data streams from central facilities. Crowd sourcing can be used in some scientific areas. Within engineering, similar arguments apply, and there is growing interest in collaborative online design and innovation. Within this eLC meeting we will argue that we are now in a position to move towards being a university of both learning and practice. The talks will include a presentation from Dr Ronaldo Mota, who is the Brazilian National Secretary for Science, Technology and Innovation and who is visiting the Institute of Education for a year.

10:00  Introduction

10:10  Steve Swithenby 'The Wolfson Open Science Laboratory' will offer online access to authentic science practice.

10:30  Anne Adams 'Out There - In Here – field science inquiry carried out by separated collaborating groups.' 

10:50  Mark Endean  'The engineering project module - managing student collaboration in an online environment.'

11:10  Derek Jones 'Seeding and maintaining an online design community.'

Short break

11:40  Ronaldo Mota 'Independent Learning: An educational strategy to prepare STEM students for Innovation in Brazil Scenario.'

ABSTRACT

Remarks will be presented about Brazilian educational scenario with emphasis on the formation of future professionals able to face the challenges associated with a world where innovation is a central priority for a sustainable social and economical development. A knowledge management schema is presented and the traditional straight line connecting science, technology and innovation is proposed to be replaced by a circle, where innovation is simultaneously the end and the beginning of the creation process. A discussion will be presented concerning the concept of innovation and its role in Brazilian contemporary society and also about student motivation and the false dichotomy between content and method. Independent learning methodology is here presented as an appropriate strategy to prepare STEM students and to contribute to the formation of professionals able to face the challenges associated with a new Brazilian scenario where innovation and entrepreneurship are central priorities.

12:30 Close

You can find more information about this and other eLC events in Knowledge Network and Cloudworks.

If you are planning to attend in person: please email iet-elc-admin@open.ac.uk.