Filed Under (General) by elearning4bradford on 29-09-2009
It was a historic moment when the Memorandum Of Understanding between the University of Belgrade and Bradford College was signed at the end of the two day conference on “Ethics in Science and Culture” in Belgrade on September 26th 2009.
Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Vranes who visited Bradford College in March 2008 is pleased to formalise the collaboration that has so far been developed between both institutions. It really is something to get excited about with the revamped research agenda at Bradford College the 200 year old University of Belgrade is keen to develop further our approach to ethical research activity. Looking at the opportunities for the future we are hoping to carry out joint activities around the ethics of bibliographic control, citation and metadata – something of huge interest in the wake of the RAE and the introduction of a research evaluation based on citation metrics. Prof. Dr. Markovic vice-dean of the Faculty of Philology, herself no stranger to the UK having studied economics at Cambridge University, offered her support with the programme of co-operation. We are also looking at developing some common approach to the development of moodle within the programme.
My hosts in Belgrade have been wonderful, more photos will follow, for the moment goodbeye from the charming city of Belgrade.
Dovijendja !
Filed Under (General) by elearning4bradford on 28-09-2009
It was a great honour to return to Belgrade and attend this important conference on ethical aspects of research. I was warmly welcomed by my colleague Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Vranes organiser of the conference and also by Prof. Dr. Ljiljana Markovic vice-dean of the Faculty of Philology. I was honoured to be asked to chair the Friday afternoon session, having only just arrived from the airport minutes before, this was rather challenging but thanks to the excelent translation skills of the conference team and the wonders of technology, I think I did a good job. The session had its focus on intellectual property rights and copyright generally. Of particular interest was the discussion of Google’s role in the digitisation of materials. The venue – the Hall of Heroes – being a large-scale auditorium made an excellent space for discussion.
On the following day I presented my own paper on the Ethical issues associated with the development of the Bradford College virtual research environment. It was well received and there was a lot of interest in the technology and in the organisation of the research process. A fuller version will be published in the conference proceedings.
Prof. Markovic’s presentation raised some important issues concerning the ethics of recording cultural heritage. The conference was closed by Prof. Vranes who provided an excellent interpretation of the wider ethical implications of increased use of technology, the rising force of globalisation and the perceived diminishing importance of local heritage, she did this through the lens of information literacy and librarianship and received much support from the audience and the closing plenary.
I have learned a lot and there is much to consider from the papers presented.
Filed Under (General, Research) by elearning4bradford on 28-09-2009
Wednesday saw our colleagues Saluka and Manisha delivering an excellent presentation to a small group about the direction of the Academy of Design. Noting their focus on ethical manufacturing processes within the textile industry I asked Dr Khosro Jahdi from our Masters in International Marketing team to join us for the morning session. There was much discussion about the event in Colombo the big Fashion Show planned for the last week in November. Dr Jahdi was keen to be involved and, from his perspective of an expert in corporate social responsibility, felt that there was a common interest amongst all parties. Colleagues from our art and design school provided further support. This looks like an exciting strand to the future work.
On Tuesday I spent time hosting two visitors from the Academy of Design in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Saluka Kotagama Principal and Manisha Gunawardane – Head of the Centre for Creative Enterprise. I gave a brief outline of my role and that of learning resources before we made our way to visit the VLE team in their office at Grove Library’s Victory room, for a demonstration of our Second Life and OpenSim activity. The project that is being set up has a focus on fashion design a real strength of the Academy of Design. We were particularly interested in merging the fashion design aspects with the use of live avatars in the virtual world. We were also intersted in how Moodle might be used to support collaborative learning between our two institutions. To set the ball rolling Tim gave a wonderful account of the history of Second Life, tracing the context and explaining some of the important detail. He then demonstrated an animated cat-walk along with lighting and effects. This served to ignite the discussion and a number of ideas were identified as possible ways forward. Richard took us through the latest developments with Moodle and there were some areas where collaboration with Srinreth the moodle support person at the AoD could be taken further. This work promises much for the future. Many thanks to Tim for the work he put in to making his get off to a great start.
Filed Under (Events, General, Research) by elearning4bradford on 16-09-2009
Today is a big day in the organising of the Bradford Action Research conference – we have got to the stage of publishing the publicity and making the announcement – here it is!
A two day conference at Bradford College on 19th and 20th November 2009 on aspects of teaching, learning and assessment.
Join academic colleagues for this event to be held at The Henry Mitchell Hall and The Yorkshire Craft Centre, Bradford College.
Conference Fee of £45, includes a conference dinner on the evening of the 19th November at the National Media Museum.
Presentations from academic staff at Bradford College include:
- Distance Learning: developing and improving practice
- Cognitive and academic linguistic proficiency
- Using critical incident analysis in peer review
- Assignment feedback: formative or futile?
- Addressing the needs of under-represented HE learners
- Working towards a model for inclusive education in Initial Teacher Training
- Improving progression potential
- Space-fd Project
- UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
- Supporting mentors of Fdsc students in the workplace
- Assessment strategies that benefit all learners
Additional benefits include:
Lunch on both days will be held in the college’s art gallery, The Bradford Gallery, where delegates will have the opportunity to view our current exhibitions: Darren Baker celebrating the work of our former student,recently commissioned to paint a portrait of HRH The Queen, and our Christmas gift selling show Bedazzled. Delegates will receive a 10% discount on any purchases made.
Dinner at the National Media Museum, Bradford will feature a pre-dinner networking opportunity with entertainment provided by students studying Performing Arts at Bradford College. Dinner and drinks are included in the Conference fee.
Registration opens on 21st September and closes on 9th November. Final confirmation and directions sent to delegates on 13th November. Following the event, conference highlights and papers will be available online on 30th November.
Register here
