I was rather pleased to be the keynote speaker at Newcastle University’s Learning Technology event last week. I was asked to present City’s Learning Spaces project, and it was a great opportunity to promote the work we are doing, and share our experiences with the wider academic community. The event was attended by academics, Learning…Continue Reading Learning Spaces, the new frontier…
Three years ago in July 2010 shortly after the worldwide launch of the iPad1 the University of Minnesota hit the press for announcing that they would be providing all 450 first year students in their school of education with iPads. This quickly made national and then international news. Three years on they are still providing…Continue Reading Giving iPads to students: crazy, genius or both? A three year retrospective
I attended an interesting session at the ELI conference last week, by Penn State University in the US about the ways in which they had been using digital badges with students and staff. Digital badges are a way of awarding a digital certificate in the form of a badge to a student or member of…Continue Reading Digital Badges: Why ?
I spent last week at ELI in New Orleans, the US eLearning Conference run by Educause. My main purpose for attending was to find out more about what US institutions are doing with Learning Spaces, but as always with ELI I learned so much more, everything was interesting from Robot participants to Neurology lectures. While…Continue Reading Robots Invaded my Conference!
I spent yesterday at BETT (the British Educational Training and Technology Show). BETT is a giant exhibition for vendors of Educational Technologies. I went along with colleagues from IS and PAF to investigate classroom technologies. This year I found some really innovative solutions to provide power in flexible spaces, and for capturing whiteboards, however the most…Continue Reading BETT 2014
In my new role of Learning Spaces lead for the LDC, my first task was to join members of the properties and facilities department on a visit last week to Loughborough University to take a look first hand at their innovative lecture spaces. The estates department is currently redeveloping the City University campus, and a…Continue Reading Sofas in Lecture Theatres, a good idea???
Change? Change is difficult. Change is messy. Change, it can seem, never lasts. If you are enmeshed in trying to bring about change, it can feel like a constant challenge to unpick the Gordian Knot. There are innumerable methods to manage change, but even when following those formulae it’s often that it feels like the…Continue Reading Unpicking the Gordian Knot of Change
An enormous number of projects have been completed during the academic year 2012-13. Strategic Learning Environment projects and work have been underpinned by the Educational Technology Community, a network of educational technology and other professional services staff and academics from the centre and all schools, using a system of meetings and working groups. This method…Continue Reading SLE Achievements 2012-13
Moving the furniture has traditionally been a source of frustration for users of our learning spaces in terms of needing more flexible spaces, having time in sessions to move furniture and leaving rooms in a state fit for the next occupants. A number of rooms have been equipped with node chairs. However, in response to very positive…Continue Reading Please move the furniture
BLG07 is the first lecture theatre at City that contains swivel seating. This space enables students to participate in interactive lectures including bringing their own devices to work on, moving between activities and working in groups within the space. Seating in this lecture theatre is alternately fixed and swivelling with two rows of seats…Continue Reading Swivel Seating in New Lecture Theatre