Urban Learning Space Seminars

Part six is a discussion between Robert Winston and Keir Bloomer.

Part five is the first of two lectures by Sir Robert Winston. Lord Winston is Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College and Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. His research, which has produced over 300 publications, is known worldwide. Robert Winston is committed to scientific education and his many TV series on different aspects of science have been shown in many countries overseas. Perhaps the best known is ‘The Human Body, which won 3 BAFTAs, an Emmy nomination and a Peabody award. He has published 12 books for lay readership. His activities in the House of Lords include speaking regularly on education, science, medicine, and the arts. He was Chairman of the Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology 1999-2002, initiating enquiries into Antibiotic Resistance, Non-Food Crops, Nuclear Waste, Science and Society, Genetic Databases, Aircraft Passenger Environment and Science in Schools. Finally, Lord Winston is a board member and Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Sc

Part two of the What Makes Me Me? event. An address by Scottish minister for Education, Fiona Hyslop.

Part three is a presentation by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow's Operations Director Stuart Patrick.

Part four is presented by Michael O’Neill. A graduate of Glasgow University (Economics/History) he began as an Economist/Town Planner before switching to teaching. He spent 15 years at the chalkface as a teacher, principal teacher and assistant head, followed by posts of adviser in social subjects, senior adviser and education officer in 2 divisions of the former Strathclyde Region. In August 1995, he took up the post of Director of Education in North Lanarkshire from which he retired in March 2007. In 2000, following the SQA exams problem, he was on of the 4 directors asked to investigate the causes on behalf of the Education Minister. He is currently Chair of the National Review Group of the Chartered Teacher Scheme. In 2004 he was awarded an OBE for services to education in Scotland.

This National Conference was hosted by the Tapestry Partnership and supported by Urban Learning Space. The event is framed in the context of education in Scotland in its widest sense. It had as its focus the importance of the brain in learning for young people and adults. Lord Winston requires no introduction; he is a world renowned scientist who is committed to scientific education and regularly writes or hosts popular science programmes for TV.

This is the second part of the recording from the Creative Collaboration seminar by Andy Polaine. In this part he hosts a question and answer session with the audience.

The past few years have been a buzz with terms such as the Creative Economy, social networks and Web 2.0. Yet many industries and institutions are struggling to adapt to this rapidly changing landscape, often mistakenly focus on the technological rather than the cultural shifts that make this change so fundamental. Collaboration and creativity have been part of designers' processes for years as well as being the foundations of the Web and there is much to learn from this rich history.

We all have many stories to tell. Stories represent who we are, portray our life experiences and when presented to others, help connect us to others through common shared experience. By starting to tell these stories and hearing those of others, we can start to shift our perspective on who we are, explore the ways in which we are attached to the communities we belong to and develop new insights into people whose stories we may never have had the opportunity to hear before. This recording begins with an introduction and poem by Liz Lochhead, Glasgow's poet laureate.

In part two of the recording from Digital Media - Jobs for the Boys?, Jemima hosts a question and answer session with the audience.

Since 2005, Jemima has run Women in Film and Television’s Technical Change mentoring scheme, backed by ESF EQUAL and UIP, which provides mentors for women in technical areas. This seminar, based around the findings/conclusions from Technical Change, proposed what might be holding women back in technical areas and asked how we can encourage more women and girls to pursue leading roles in digital technology. The two-year programme came to an end in June 07 so now is the ideal time to explore and disseminate Jemima's findings. Biography

Sean referenced schools located in the middle of shopping centres, robotics, interactive fountains, new ways of learning and different approaches to risk management. He argued that other countries have made a crucial distinction between places of learning and ways of learning. He believed that there is a fantastic opportunity to develop, in the UK, new learning and ways of learning that engage stakeholders of all ages, respond to their needs and change with the times.

The seminar opened our minds to the disjointedness of the physical space where children currently learn versus the content of what they are actually learning. Sean looked at how other countries are approaching the renewal (and, in some case, replacement) of their educational models in preparation for the challenges posed by globalization and the emergence of a knowledge economy.

The Workplace Forum lecture, by Andrew Harrison, explored the impact of educational transformation on the university and school estate, the workplace and the community. A response was given by Gordon Davies. Education at every level in the UK is undergoing radical transformation. Universities are responding to changing demographics and economic pressures and the impact of technology on learning and teaching, further education’s role in skills development and preparing young people for the workplace is expanding through the widening participation agenda and schools are being radically transformed through the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ and the Scottish Schools PPP programmes.

Glasgow 2020 has been a two year project of events facilitated by the UK think tank Demos. It has looked at how people in the city of Glasgow look at the future, using a variety of creative and imaginative processes in a mass imagination exercise. Just before Glasgow 2020 unveils its findings and resulting publication, join Gerry Hassan (who created and headed up the project) to examine some of the fascinating points that it uncovered. These range across a variety of areas covering specific Glasgow issues, wider factors about cities and the future, and such specifics as public engagement, public space and how government, public agencies and institutions think and act. Biography Gerry Hassan, Head of Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020: Co-author, The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020 and the Power of Mass Imagination (Demos forthcoming); Co-editor, Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation (Demos 2005).

Professor O'Connor presented a case for the role of creative industries in the future of towns and cities, operating in a complex ecosystem that involves not only artists and business people, but people from every area of urban life. Taking Manchester as a prime example, he looked at the relationship between the cultural economy and the wider image and profile of Cities. He concluded by looking at some of the abuses as well as the uses of the cultural and creative industries.

Online tools such as Blogs, Wikis, email, Instant chat and First Class communities can all be used to enhance the learning experience. This seminar included examples from some of Ultralab’s recent projects such as: (1) Ultraversity: a content-free on-line degree for full time workers. (2) Heads Together: how groups of professionals (in this case Head teachers in Scotland) can benefit from online community. (3) eViva use of mobile technology for assessment. (4) mLearning: use of mobile technology for learning with disaffected youngsters.

This presentation looked at general trends in the use of technologies in learning environments and showed how collaboration in learning is key. It focused on how on-line learning is changing to become more participative than receptive - collaborative rather than content-based - and how the Internet can maximize opportunities for education to groups previously excluded.

Joanne Jacobs demonstrated exemplary projects in mobile and social learning undertaken by the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) and provided useful guidelines on how we can potentially implement these concepts within a Scottish context.

This workshop focused on the importance of interaction design in the creation of effective mobile and social learning experiences. Such experiences help to create a "social identity". Additionally, central to a successful learning experience using emerging technologies is the need to involve the end user at every stage.