Hi all,

Following Alison's encouragement;

>to  the many list members who haven't
> introduced themselves to send a short introduction and suggest some topics
> for debate. 

I'm a lecturer in Nursing at Sheffield University teaching
undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development
courses, modules and study days as part of a team focusing on nursing
informatics.

We have students from a very wide range of backgrounds and with widely
varying qualifications and experience ( and also very large numbers of
students). I have been using a variety of on-line teaching methods, and
software tools, both for face to face full time courses, and various
open and distance learning initiatives.

Since August 50% of my time has been working on a HEFCE funded project
as part of the Resources Discovery Network (RDN) http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
developing a gateway to high quality internet resources for Nurses,
Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHP). This will form part of
the BIOME hub http://biome.ac.uk/ and specifically integrate with OMNI
http://omni.ac.uk/ "Your guide to quality Internet resources in health
and medicine".

Further info, CV etc. available from http://www.rodspace.co.uk

In today's Guardian there is a feature on current initiatives towards a
British e-university which discusses both pedagogical and organisational
issues. Particular challenges are highlighted to current university's
assessment models and range of tools to truly encompass technology based
courses. I do not feel enough emphasis is given in the piece to changes
in staff roles, as online navigator and counselor, as well as course
developer, for electronic learning. 

The full text of the article is at:
http://www.educationunlimited.co.uk/higher/story/0,5500,379675,00.html

It is written by Tim O'Shea, Provost of Gresham College and trails his
inaugural lecture "New Technologies for the New Learning" at 6pm
tomorrow (Weds Oct. 11) http://www.gresham.ac.uk - it would be nice if
this lecture were available as some sort of webcast - to use the
technology rather than just talking about using it !

There are complimentary articles by Donald MacLeod  pointing out the
reluctance of leading universities to participate at:
http://www.educationunlimited.co.uk/news/story/0,5500,379950,00.html
and an idea of how it might work & the sorts of courses and students at:
http://www.educationunlimited.co.uk/higher/story/0,5500,380138,00.html

The HEFCE press release is at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/default.asp?Page=HEFCE/2000/euniv2
and from there the 2 reports being announced today can be downloaded

Further information about the e-University is available at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Partners/euniv/

I would be interested to know the thoughts of list members on the
implications for these proposals for learning & teaching in the UK and
anything about the progress of the ILT in preparing & supporting it's
members through this transition.


 

-- 
Cheers
Rod
[log in to unmask]
Lecturer, School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Sheffield
http://www.rodspace.co.uk



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