The Centre for Music Studies’ Dr Christopher Wiley presented a lunchtime webinar hosted by ELESIG (Evaluation of Learners’ Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group) on 24 April 2013. Entitled ‘BYOD, mobile technologies, and social media for learning’, the event was the first in the ELESIG Webinar Series 2013.

In the course of the webinar, Dr Wiley discussed various ways in which he had sought to respond to students’ use of social media (including Facebook and Twitter) and their own mobile technologies in his teaching at City, in order to engage the students in e-learning and to enable them to contribute online as well as in person.

Drawing on evidence received from both students and staff in recent years, Dr Wiley discussed the merits and shortcomings of using these innovative technologies to facilitate learning at the tertiary educational level, as well as its value in educating students in contemporary issues such as media literacy and management of their online identities.

Introducing Dr Wiley, webinar moderator Helen Whitehead (University of Nottingham) said that ‘I discovered him about a year ago when I was looking for somebody in music who was doing something interesting […] with learning, different ways of learning […] Chris was by far the most inspirational music lecturer that I could find’. In closing, she thanked him for ‘being a wonderful guest and such an interactive one’ during ‘one of [the] most successful and interesting webinars we’ve ever had’.

With over 50 members of the ELESIG community attending online from across the nation, much lively and productive discussion was prompted throughout the one-hour webinar. A webcast recording of the event may be accessed here: http://uni-of-nottingham.adobeconnect.com/p739d8j3xiw/