JISC

The 2008 conference and the papers in this collection reflect JISC’s commitment, in partnership with the HE sector, to make best use of new and emergent technologies, including ‘Web 2.0’ social software, and to explore the implications and potential of such technologies in easing the administrative and management overheads of practitioners in learning, teaching and research.

Next Generation Environments: Understanding Needs, Unravelling Complexities and Applying Practice 

Welcome from the Conference Chairman

Professor Mark Schofield, Dean of Teaching and Learning Development, Edge Hill University Academic Director, SOLSTICE CETL

The Users and Innovation programme model is situated in the notion of a creative community of practice focused on dialogue, exploration and sharing, and facilitated by JISC to analyse user needs, generate ideas, determine gaps in technology provision, support rapid and agile development, and undertake piloting and testing. Stakeholder Analysis also has a key role in considering external pressures through scenario planning, identifying future issues and potential extensions to user needs.

The programme is inherently one of systematic enhancement, aiming not only to do things better but also to do better things. The ‘U & I’ projects, currently in the implementation phase and mostly due to complete in March 2009, focus on bespoke solutions, and are creative in essence. A logical imperative is to ask what has been learned so far in analysis, conceptual development and early usage, and how we may ensure learning is captured for sharing at the notional end points of funded projects – hence the selection of projects and related services invited to present at the 2008 conference and featured in the following pages.

Future gazing is traditionally a difficult activity; Hamilton offers a framework of lenses through which we may consider current technologies but also conceive the potential of those which are emerging. His aspiration to better connect learners, teachers, pedagogies and technologies clearly chimes with the Users and Innovation Community’s ongoing analyses of user and stakeholder contexts and pursuit of enhancement.

‘Impact’ and ‘Effect’, the core themes of next year’s conference, are essential components of the JISC research and evaluation agenda. The papers in this publication are a first stage process. They sit alongside a commitment to a discourse of enquiry and measurement of ‘what works’ as the Users and Innovation Programme progresses and matures to influence the next decade of development. This publication sets the scene, and reinforces a challenge to the Users and Innovation Community to combine the creative essence of the programme with further evaluation and research activity in 2009 -10 and beyond.

Dates for next year’s Next Generation Environments Conference: Evaluation, Impact and Effect
10-11 March 2009

You can download the full proceedings below or order a hard copy by sending your name, job title and full postal address to publications@jisc.ac.uk

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