Beyond the Technology

In this podcast we hear from members sharing their journeys to realising Education 4.0. This week we chat to Daniel Dybowski Bryant, an English language and Virtual Reality Lecturer (and all-round ideas person) from Coleg Menai. Daniel uses virtual reality (VR) to create immersive and engaging learning environments for his English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students. He explains how the technology can be used to support student and staff wellbeing, and why it's such a good fit for the current national climate, as well as sharing numerous interesting and practical examples of how to use VR in the classroom. Daniel even shares some words of wisdom from a good friend who just happens to be the creator of virtual reality.

This week we chat to Luke Rudderham-Cozier, a learning technologist from Barnet and Southgate College, all about online assessment. During lockdown, Luke worked closely with his team to successfully coordinate 17 A level exams over Microsoft Teams. We cover plagiarism, preparing students and staff for online assessment, the human side of implementing technology, and how assessment might change in the future (and much more). Luke also shares a helpful list about where to start when considering online assessment.

This week, we chat with Professor Helen James, deputy vice chancellor at Canterbury Christ Church University, about her work around inclusivity, in particular for women in STEM. We also talk about how the university has coped with the pandemic during lockdown, Helen also shares her perspective on how education may change post-covid.

This week we are joined by Dr Chris Headleand who is director of teaching and learning for the school of computer science at The University of Lincoln. We chat with Chris about the power of games to engage with and teach students, looking into the digital skills and soft skills that games can help to develop. We also talk to Chris about his pirate-themed tour game of the University of Lincoln, which is allowing prospective students to experience the campus digitally.

This week we are joined by Seima Mahmood who is an ESOL Lecturer at Bradford College. Over the course of lockdown Seima and her ESOL students have built an online portal which showcases their experience during lockdown, providing a space for them to share pictures, blogs, recipes and more. The result is a fantastic online space for students, providing them with an engaging social space during lockdown and encouraging them to use and develop their digital skills. Alongside this, Seima covers what tools have helped her and her students most during this time, how they have overcome hurdles during the transition to digital learning, and how to cope as a teacher during 'the new normal'.

In this episode we chatted with Keith Smyth, professor of pedagogy at University of the Highlands and Islands, about how the pandemic has raised awareness about the importance of accessibility, how it has shown more is possible with offering a flexible learning experience and the future of teaching post-lockdown.

We chatted with Anthony Sinnott, Access and procurement development manager at the University of York, about the logistics of libraries in lockdown, providing access to information during this time, and the positive qualities that have come from the situation.

This week we get a student's view on the response to COVID-19, we were joined by Owen Barlow, final year student and student fellow specialising in wellbeing and the curriculum at the University of Bristol. We chat with Owen about how universities can help support students during this time, the importance of interactivity when teaching online to keep students engaged and how he is handling studying from home.

This week Christian Celecia, Director of Information and Communication Technologies at the University of Gibraltar, shares how they responded to COVID-19 including how they trained and supported the staff to use technology for online teaching and how they have helped play a part in Gibraltar's fight against the virus.

In this podcast we'll hear from members about how they are implementing Education 4.0 technologies including their challenges, successes, and where they had to re-assess. For the first few weeks we will be focusing on the impact of coronavirus, sharing how further and higher education institutions have responded to the crises and asking how this pandemic could impact learning in the future. In this week's episode we were joined by Scott Hayden, digital innovation specialist at Basingstoke College of Technology, who shared insight into how they are supporting staff to continue their teaching online and how they have embedded digital learning during this time.