The midden

This presentation from Lawrie Phipps was the keynote for the University of Bradford’s Learning, teaching and assessment conference.

He opened his talk by describing how technology had changed his life - online banking, Flickr, blogging, online collaboration, online research, webcast presentation to 15 countries, online teaching.

Universities have a social space (Facebook), formal space (WebCT) and private space (pebble pad e-portfolio).

New technologies have been described as disruptive, subversive and pervasive. They disrupt students’ learning and staff time.

They could also be described as engaging, innovative and inclusive - providing new ways of engaging in discourse between peers, offering new opportunities to find knowledge and exercise creativity.

Students don’t do technology but ……….are communicating using Flickr, blogger, skype, writeboard, del.icio.us, itunes, nuvvo (brokering site for online courses).

Other students …… check emails, use facebook and MSN, don’t necessarily want podcasts sent to their ipods. They run all this behind the university VLE.

So students are linking their own social space with their formal spaces and private spaces.

These students will come to the university - what would their curriculum look like if they could use this technology?

This was an excellent keynote - setting the scene , raising issues and looking ahead.