Digital University

Convenors:

Dr Lesley Gourlay UCL Institute of Education, London

Dr Ibrar Bhatt Queen's University Belfast

Dr Jeremy Knox University of Edinburgh

Network Convenors:

Dr Lesley Gourlay, Reader in Education and Technology (Department of Culture, Communication & Media) and Director (Academic Writing Centre), UCL Institute of Education, University College London. Email: l.gourlay@ioe.ac.uk

Dr Ibrar Bhatt, Lecturer (School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work), Queen's University Belfast Email: I.Bhatt@qub.ac.uk

Dr Jeremy Knox, Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, and a core member of the Centre for Research in Digital Education (www.de.ed.ac.uk). Email: jeremy.knox@ed.ac.uk

Lesley, Ibrar and Jeremy are active researchers in this area with extensive networks.

Lesley is currently leading a JISC-funded project at the IOE (100K) on Digital Literacies. The Irish Learning Technologies Association (ILTA) has already established links with us. Ibrar is working on the ESRC funded Academics’ Writing project, which explores the dynamic practices of knowledge creation in the contemporary University and how digital media shape and give life to outputs of academic work. Jeremy is principal investigator on two projects: the ‘Learning Analytics Report Card’ (or LARC) exploring critical approaches to participatory and student-led analytics in education (http://larc-project.com); and a project entitled ‘Pulse’ which is developing ‘Internet of Things’ devices that connect campus-based and distances students (http://data-pulse.net)

Network Outline

The purpose of this network is to bring together researchers and practitioners who are leading the debates about the impact of technologies on academic work. The intention is not to focus on 'elearning' as such but to explore a range of issues (both theoretical and practical) that arise through the impact of technological processes on social networks, research methodologies, identity formations, publications and theoretical developments.

At the SRHE 2012 conference we asked potential members of the Network to express an interest and suggest topics. These included:

methodologies for online research
digital literacies
virtuality and education
social networking for learning
staff development needs
e-citizenship
managing change around technologies

The Network is likely to appeal to members of the Association of Learning Technologists (ALT) with an interest in research and theory; members of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) which recently held a conference on technologies; members of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) interested in digital literacies, the JISC community, academics and research students interested in educational technologies; and academics and researchers interested in sociomaterial approaches to education.

We would also like to video and broadcast our events, in order that they can be available to our international and geographically distributed members.