Well, I have just had a fab week rock climbing and I come back to a conf and list of task...I am now wondering, did I miss the first email about activity 7? My team is a globally dispersed one - UK, Aus, NZ, and soon to add Singapore so real-time conferences at short notice are not easy for us.
So what we planned to do was:
Bring together the existing world leaders in online and distance Problem-based Learning, with key promoters of the use of Second Life. The idea was to facilitate the development of effective and innovative PBL in Second Life. This will involve not only the creation of specfic PBL environments with Second Life but also the appropriate PBL scenarios, facilitation strategies and guidance materials to ensure success.
So as a community we are:
Project Leader: Prof Maggi Savin-Baden, Coventry University, leading author, researcher and innovator in the field of problem-based learning, and is now exploring the use of Web 2.0 technologies with problem-based learning and diverse forms of enquiry-based learning.Partners:
Dr Peter Albion, The University of Southern Queensland has been recognised with national and international awards for his achievements in distance and online education.
Dr Siân Bayne is based in the Department of Higher and Community Education at the University of Edinburgh, where she is Lecturer in Learning and Teaching in Digital Environments. Her particular research interests focus on digital pedagogies, online identity and the cultural impact of the digital on learning and teaching.Dr Chris Beaumont, Liverpool Hope University, was UK leader of a British Council funded project evaluating online problem-based learning tools in collaboration with Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. He has been awarded two research grants to evaluate a blended learning model for widening participation and co-authored a book entitled Technology and Problem-based Learning. Carolyn Gibbon Formerly project manager for the FDTL4 Students Online in Nursing Integrated Curricula project and was instrumental in developing and implementing problem-based learning at Liverpool John Moores University and at University of Central Lancashire. Professor Geoff Norton, University of Brisbane, Director of the Centre for Biological Information Technology develops, distributes and supports commercial quality software for application in higher education. A major research theme of the Centre is the development of software tools to rapidly develop identification and diagnostic keys for the Internet. He has also developed a new interactive PBL website for building online scenariosProfessor Ray Land Universityof Strathclyde, Glasgow is Director of the University's Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement. His current research interests include the theory and practice of educational development, threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, and theoretical aspects of education in cyberspace.Professor Sally Sandover, University of Western Australia. The field of medicine has used problem-based learning since the 1960s, but with the expansion of medical schools to include outer metropolitan and rural sites, face to face teaching is less feasible. Sally has been using problem-based learning for 8 years and been developing PBLonline at a distance.Professor LorraineStefani, University of Auckland, is Director for the Centre for Academic Development. Lorraine is an expert in curriculum development, assessment of students, reflective learning and in flexible and distance learning frameworks. Her interests in these areas will support the community’s exploration of curriculum design in innovative spaces.
The project partners all have extensive experience in PBL and in developing learning technologies and offer a unique combination. They also represent diversity in the mode of delivery to students and in the disciplines involved.However I don't know about anyone else on this bigger community but our community seems to have grown via Emerge but also through other projects, so trying to provide a directory entry for something that now looks a different shape and size, and includes other Emerge communities as well feels slightly (very?) off kilter
For example:
Next week we hope to be joined by Republic Polytechnic, Singapore and we are working with the St George's community too
In terms of courses at Coventry Uni we have designed 4 modules, a degree and a Foundation degree that are PBL and will use SL extensively
I (Maggi) have presented my own student experience of learning in SL at the ICE3 conference (with Chritsine Sinclair) and a group of us from this ICE/Edinburgh community plan to present our research into SL as a symposium at the SRHE conf in December
So lots of activities but across multiple communities, including this one
As for next week - well I am off to do some speeches on SL/PBL so can't be at the conference
