Opening Digital Doors - Jisc's new Chair sets agenda for the future
Over 800 education and research professionals at Jisc’s annual conference in Edinburgh will discuss how opening up resources, adopting a greener approach to IT and how small changes can have a large impact in making teaching, learning and research accessible to all.
In his first speaking opportunity as Jisc Chair, Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, will be putting forward his vision of how Jisc can help colleges and universities achieve their missions, achieve value for money and support their research base.
He said: “Jisc looks to drive innovation across colleges and universities through technology. Today’s conference will see some interesting debate in this respect. The education community faces a number of challenges - both currently in the form of the global economic downturn as well as the constant and fast growth of the virtual arena.
“Today’s workshops and keynote speeches reflect how technology is enhancing our students’ learning experience and contributing to the UK’s research environment. I’m particularly pleased that we’ll be exploring colleges’ and universities’ use of avatars and virtual learning to equip learners with skills for when they leave higher education. These initiatives, along with the range of important other work being discussed today, make a direct contribution to maintaining the UK’s world-class reputation for higher education.”
Opening digital doors and giving accessibility to teaching and learning materials is one aspect Jisc will be showcasing. One of its funded-services the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) will be launching BoB – Box of Broadcast. Similar to the BBC’s iPlayer, it will make broadcast and video content available indefinitely to thousands of students and researchers for the first time. It allows users to record forthcoming programmes or missed programmes in the last week. However, unlike iPlayer, these programmes do not expire and are available indefinitely, making it invaluable for lecturers and students requiring constant access.
The conference’s opening keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Lizbeth Goodman, Chair of Creative Technology Innovation at the University of East London, where she also directs the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and the MAGIC Multimedia and Games Innovation Centre and Gamelab. Lizbeth is a renowned expert in learning models for communities at risk and is perhaps best known as an advocate of community-based ethical learning and teaching models using interactive tools and games to inspire and engage learners of all ages.
The closing keynote speech will be delivered by Ewan McIntosh, Scotland and Ireland Digital Commissioner for 4iP, Channel 4’s Innovation for the Public Fund which helps people understand how emerging technologies such as social media, mobile ubiquitous computers and gaming can help them learn better, work better and live better For those delegates not able to attend the conference in person, it will be live streamed and session blogs will be posted throughout the day at
Follow the conference online throughout the day
Conference Tag
Jisc09