Key themes from the symposium
Grainne Conole had the unenviable task (which she did very ably!) of
summarising the key themes from the symposium and linking these to
what's going on in current research and policy areas. She
identified six themes:
1. The good and bad of ICT
2. The Speed of Change, the Web in 2010
3. Supporting new collaborations and discourses
4. Harnessing needs, understanding end users
5. Changing practice
6. The wider impact
Delegates were asked to identify things that had particularly struck
them about the issues under discussion over the past two days:
- Maybe we've missed the 'survival of the fittest?' element of the title
- Maybe we're missing the point: scale of teaching (student numbers) and assessment so much greater
- Maybe we need to focus more on the skills we're engendering
through the curriculum from school through to HE: critical thinking not
specific technologies
Grainne didn't have time to talk through the detail of all the themes, but her full slides will be on the Colston2004 Web site.
She concluded by identifying the impact the issues we've been
discussing have in current research areas, including e-pedagogy;
eSocial Science (ESRC); eScience; HEFCE/DfES eLearning strategies and
the many established research centres around the UK. Also key at
international levels.
Final thoughts from the delegates (you can add more here!):
- Narratives very exciting, but need to explain new contexts as well as new resources, new concepts in learning design
- Need to educate people at policy level about this (Diana Laurillard can't do it all on her own!)
- Trying to pull together many different communities:
technologists, learning technologists, teachers, learners - haven't had
enough research into the learner's experience
Posted by ilrt101v at March 23, 2004 12:50 PM