Digital Learning – Page 3 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Last week, at the EADTU-EU Summit 2015: Innovating Higher Education by New Modes of Teaching and Learning, Professor Mark Brown gave an invited presentation on the EMPOWER Project and then participated in a high-level panel discussion on the modernisation of European universities. Notably, Xavier Prats-Monne, Director-General of Education and Culture, was also a member of the panel where he shared his views on the future of higher education. Seamus Fox, Head of Open Education, also participated in the Summit.

The day beforehand Mark also attended a special forum in Brussels hosted by the European Commission to review a draft report on the Changing Pedagogical Landscape for European Higher Education. This is a major European funded project which has the objective of examining to what extent government strategies and higher education regulatory and accreditation, funding, quality assurance, assessment and certification frameworks support or hinder new modes of learning and, in particular, the increased use of technology in the teaching and learning process. The final report should be available in the next few months.

Empowering European Universities in their Transition to New Modes of Teaching and Learning from Mark Brown

In March DCU supported by the NIDL hosted Ireland’s first Google Education Summit. This two day event (19th & 20 March) attracted close to 100 participants from across Education sectors and although dedicated to the use of Google apps in education, the focus was very much on teaching and learning. The President of DCU, Professor Brian MacCraith, opened the Summit followed by a brief overview by of some of the opportunities available to digital age teachers and learners Professor Mark Brown. After the success of this year’s Summit we are already discussing with Google how we can support an even better and bigger event in 2016. Special thanks to Dr Mark Glynn, Alan Crean and our Information Systems Services (IIS) team for their leadership leading up to and over the two days of the Summit.