May 2012
- 1. Headlines LIN 2012 Call for abstracts Update on LIN funded projects Feature article on teaching and learning in DIT LIN 2012 Call for Abstracts The 5th Learning Innova- themes of the conference mitted online here: http:// In this issue: tion Network (LIN) Annual for either oral presenta- lin2012.exordo.com Conference takes place on tions or posters. We are Headlines 1 11th October 2012 in the particularly interested in The closing date for re- Ashling Hotel, Dublin, Ire- papers that reflect prac- ceipt of abstracts is June land. LIN, a sectoral pro- tice and issues of interest 22nd 2012. Abstracts will ject, is the network of ac- to lecturers. be peer-reviewed and you LIN 2012 Call for 1 ademic professionals will know by 6th Septem- Abstracts from higher education The opening session of ber if your presentation that support academic the conference will be has been accepted. Keynote Speaker 2 professional development presented by Ewan McIn- (APD) for staff in the Insti- tosh, (http:// If your abstract is accept- tutes of Technology and www.notosh.com/about/) ed LIN retains the right to DIT. The LIN conference who will consider innova- make final minor edits. LIN Fund Project 2 provides a forum to dis- tions that are occurring in update cuss practice and theory education currently and We look forward to re- in higher education. how these could be uti- ceiving the abstracts and Eye on DIT 3 lised in higher education to an interesting and stim- The conference theme is in Ireland. ulating conference. Inspiring Creativity, Inno- vation and Change in The keynote speaker is Important dates: Events 11 Higher Educa- Lord David Puttnam. 22nd June 2012: Deadline tion. Abstracts are now for the Submission of Ab- being accepted for post- Abstract Submission stracts ers and oral presentations Abstracts being submitted 6th September 2012: No- for each of the three sub- for consideration to this tification of acceptance of themes: conference must be sub- presentation Creativity mitted on the abstract 5th October 2012: Sub- Innovation template (http:// mission of Presentations Change lin2012.exordo.com/data/ 11th October 2012: Con- We are seeking abstracts message_attachments/3/ ference (300 words maximum) on Abstract_Template.docx). each on the three sub- All abstracts must be sub-
- 2. LIN 2012 Keynote Speaker—Lord David Puttnam (Queensgate) C.B.E. David Puttnam spent thirty years 2002. From July 2002 to July organisations. as an independent producer of 2009 he was president of UNICEF award-winning films including The UK, playing a key role in pro- In 2007 he served as Chairman of Mission, The Killing Fields, Local moting UNICEF’s key advocacy and the Joint Parliamentary Committee Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight awareness objectives. on the Draft Climate Change Bill, Express, Bugsy Malone and Mem- having performed the same role on phis Belle. His films have won ten David is the present Chancellor of the 2002 Communications Bill. He Oscars, 25 Baftas and the Palme the Open University, following ten has also been Chairman of two Han- D'Or at Cannes. years as Chancellor of The Univer- sard Society Commission Reports on sity of Sunderland. He is Presi- the relationship between Parliament From 1994 to 2004 he was Vice dent of the Film Distributors’ Asso- and the Public; he serves as Senior President and Chair of Trustees at ciation, Chairman of North Music Non-Executive Director on two pub- the British Academy of Film & Tel- Trust (The Sage Gateshead), Depu- lic companies. evision Arts (BAFTA) and was ty Chairman of Profero and a trus- awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in tee of the Eden Project. David was awarded a CBE in 1982, a 2006. knighthood in 1995 and was ap- He was Deputy Chairman of Chan- pointed to the House of Lords in He retired from film production in nel 4 Television from 2006 until 1997. In France he was made a 1998 to focus on his work in public January 2012. He was founding Chevalier of the Order of Arts and policy as it relates to education, Chair of the National Endowment Letters in 1985, becoming an Officer the environment, and the 'creative for Science, Technology and the in 1992, and a Commander in and communications' indus- Arts (NESTA) and for ten years 2006. He has been the recipient of tries. In 1998 he founded the Na- chaired the National Museum of more than 40 honorary degrees tional Teaching Awards, which he Photography, Film and Televi- from Universities in the UK and chaired until 2008, also serving as sion. He has also served as a trus- overseas. the first Chair of the General tee of the Tate Gallery, the Sci- Teaching Council from 2000 to ence Museum and many other Update on LIN funded projects In January of this year the Learning and reusable learning re- sources. Innovation Network (LIN) provided sources on criteria based as- The 5th annual LIN confer- funds for 9 projects that focussed sessment, generic skills in ence, which will host a key- on teaching and learning and which higher education and aca- note address from Lord David reflected the LIN values. These pro- demic professional develop- Puttnam and will be used to jects are now underway and are ment. For upcoming webi- showcase the outputs from progressing well. The expected nars please visit http:// the LIN project since it began. outputs from these projects are: www.linireland.com/events/ The development of two new moodle-webinars.html. We are also planning to carry out LIN modules; one online/ Presentations from leading an external evaluation of the LIN blended module on research- educational experts such as project. ing educational practice and Ron Barnett, Stella Cottrell, one focussing on teaching Mick Healey and Jude Carroll Strong collaboration has been cen- students with special educa- to stimulate discussion tral to the success of the LIN project tional needs. Both of these around some of the challeng- since 2007 and this work continues modules will be incorporated es that face higher educa- and enhances that collaborative intof the existing LIN frame- tional practitioners today ethos. work. such as enhancing the learner The production of a number experience and teaching a of case studies, teaching ma- more diverse group of stu- terials, exemplars, webinars dents with restricted re- Page 2 May 2012
- 3. on Background The DIT Learning, Teaching & Tech- Technology Team (LTT) in 2002, teaching and learning in DIT. Work- nology Centre (LTTC) was estab- various SIF funded posts, an NDLR ing with new academic staff, as well lished in 1999 as the Learning, institutional coordinator and ILTA as established staff who wish to Teaching Centre (LTC) at 14 Upper operations Officer. In 2009 the LTT develop their careers, deepen their Mount Street. The original aim of merged with the LTC to become the teaching abilities and improve their the LTC was to develop, support Learning Teaching & Technology students’ learning experiences, the and facilitate good teaching and Centre. Centre provides a rich seam of ex- learning practices across the six fac- Over the past ten+ years, the Cen- pertise, resources and information ulties of DIT. Since then, staff num- tre has aimed to raise the profes- about higher education, learning bers have increased and decreased sionalism, visibility, and status of and teaching, eLearning and aca- as we have welcomed the Learning demic professional development. In the last 12 months, we have won 3 awards! In March 2011 we were September saw us come The Dublin eLearning presented with an award joint second place for the Summer School won by the Irish Institute of 2011 ALT Learning Tech- first prize at the UCISA Training & Development nologist of the Year awards in December, (IITD) for our MA pro- Award. as the best practice case study in gramme co-designed with the Law engaging with academics in the use Society. of technology enhanced learning. Learning & Teaching Events One of the first events we organ- “Broadening the Curriculum” and, meant to them sparked a valuable ised in May following a wide discussion on how DIT might ap- 2000 was the variety of presen- proach this challenge. DIT Showcase of tations, work- The keynote presentation was given Learning and shops, and mod- by Dr. Kelly Coate from NUI Gal- Teaching inno- erated poster ses- way. Her presentation was entitled vations. This sions detailing a “The Curriculum and the Limits of one-day event, wealth of innova- Imagination” and challenged now held annu- tive projects hap- attendees to consider what the con- ally in January, highlights inno- cept of ‘curriculum’ actually vative practices means, what its purpose is, in teaching and and how it should be learning across shaped (and by whom) be- the DIT. It also provides an oppor- pening around fore deciding whether it is tunity for staff from across the insti- the institute, a ‘fit-for-purpose’ in the 21st tute’s several sites to meet and ex- 15 minute Century. http://www.dit.ie/ change ideas in an informal and voxpop clip of lttc/events/ informative manner. DIT colleagues giving their thoughts ditannualshowcase/ This year, the central theme was on what broadening the curriculum Page 3 May 2012
- 4. eLearning at DIT It’s now ten years since DIT estab- the digital age. The use of infor- providing both telephone support lished its elearning mation and support online. Now, over 90% initiative in earnest, and com- of programmes have an online com- rolling out WebCT as ponent, with almost 2,000 modules its Virtual Learning active in Blackboard CE8™being Environment of accessed by over 800 staff and choice and setting 17,600 students, transferring an itself the goal of hav- average of 17.92 GB of data a day. ing a virtual presence This high level of activity generated for 50% of its under- 3,700 elearning-related queries graduate programmes by 2005. The munication technologies to support from staff in the academic year mainstreaming of that three-year and enhance interactions for learn- 2010/11, a level of demand exceed- project and the subsequent estab- ing is now firmly established, and ed in the following academic year lishment of the Learning, Teaching the LTTC is recognised for the quali- with 3,975 support calls being dealt and Technology Centre (LTTC) indi- ty of its workshops (http:// with already by the end of March cated DIT’s wholehearted commit- www.dit.ie/lttc/ ), seminars, webi- 2012! September and October are ment to supporting staff in develop- nars, one-to-one and one-to-many the busiest months followed by ing their knowledge and skills for consultation sessions, and for February, reflecting the modular- 10 years of the eLearning Summer School! This week was were streamed and archived online. year, a resound- Feedback showed that the week the ing success had exceeded expectations for 65% UCISA award win- and since of the participants, that 100% of ning 10th eLearning then has them found the elearning summer Summer School will become a school a worthwhile experience, a run from June 18-22. permanent good use of their time, and they DIT have been feature in would recommend it to a colleague. hosting the week DIT’s aca- Participants now have the option of long eLearning Sum- demic cal- earning 5 ECTS credits through an mer School since endar. To associated DIT module. It is envis- 2003. Initially, it was conceived as a date it has been attended by almost aged that this course will provide way to provide WebCT training for 500 academic staff from across the the participants with the time and DIT staff who had missed work- Dublin region and beyond. space in which to immerse them- shops during the academic year but selves completely in both existing it quickly morphed into more of an 2010 saw the eLearning Summer and emerging learning technolo- ‘event’. That 1st summer school School expand to become the first gies. The finalised programme will ever Dublin eLearning Summer soon be available from: School under the auspices of the http://www.dit.ie/lttc/ Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA). Approximately 50 staff representing the eight Higher Education Institutes in the wider Dublin area worked together that year forging links, fostering collabo- ration across the institutes, and stimulating thought towards a vi- sion for elearning in the Dublin re- gion. Twitter was introduced for the first time and the main sessions Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 4
- 5. LTTC PG programmes, APDs and workshops We aim to offer ‘leading-edge post- grammes. Essential to this is the graduate programmes relevant to high-quality experience for partici- learning, teaching and eLearning’. pants, which requires an environ- We believe we have begun the jour- ment that fosters critical inquiry as ney of providing a tradition of well as innovation and creativity, scholarly, diverse, exciting and re- and we believe we deliver on this warding learning environments score. Our current suite of pro- across our postgraduate pro- grammes includes the Postgraduate Diploma in Third Level Learning and Teaching, the MA in Higher Educa- tion, and MSc in Applied eLearning. There are limited spaces left for September 2012 http://www.dit.ie/ lttc/programmes/ PG Diploma in Third-Level Learning and Teaching Our Diploma aims to enable teach- ways been the practitioner focus. sess a teaching qualification, or ers to be effective, competent prac- Since its inception as a Postgradu- equivalent, are required to under- titioners by providing them with a ate Certificate in 2000, 224 partici- take the programme. As part of our range of skills and knowledge to pants have successfully completed Centre review process, we asked design, deliver and evaluate educa- the Programme. Currently we have graduates to indicate whether the tion programmes that can meet the 32 participants enrolled on this pro- programme had impacted upon needs of an increasing diverse stu- gramme. Effective from 1 March their teaching practice: dent population. One of the 2006, all new academic staff ap- strengths of this Diploma has al- pointed to the DIT who do not pos- My teaching style has altered dramatically after completing Since completing the course I have found that my teach- the PG Dip. I have become more reflective; taking time to ac- ing has become more student centred. Class time is tively note down my feelings on a class, what went well (or spent less on traditional lecturing, and more on student badly!) and what actions I need to take to improve in the fu- activities, allowing students to work together to solve ture. I now include as much group work and student-based problems, construct knowledge and teach each other. I active learning in my classes as possible. These new methods have integrated more technology into my teaching, in- from the course were very helpful; not only to me, but also my cluding ‘Clickers’, blogs, and wikis. I have a better ap- students became more engaged and attentive in lectures and preciation of the importance of feedback, and of good labs. Following the Diploma course has forced me to view my alignment of assessment to learning activities and teaching from a different angle and, as such, I believe it has learning outcomes. As an educator, I have become more improved my teaching. reflective. Barry Ryan Graduate 2011 Julie Dunne Graduate 2011 As part of the building capacity phase of from IT Sligo and IT Tralee travelling to these the development of the LIN PG Diploma, Centres to attend. We are currently offering the LTTC delivered an off-campus blocked 2 PDP 5 ECTS short modules as part of LIN version of the DIT PG Cert in Athlone and AIT award. Carlow Institutes of Technology with staff Page 5 May 2012
- 6. Masters in Applied eLearning The programme was developed in gained in modules taken, and gives 2007 as a response to the perceived them the opportunity to develop need within Ireland for an accredit- and research their own ideas and ed professional development pro- has received approval from both interests and leave the institution gramme for academic staff involved external examiners and partici- with a show piece of work for po- in eLearning design and develop- pants. The applied nature of the tential employers. For more infor- ment. The curriculum, which re- programme is crucial to its success: mation and comments about this flects the strong focus on the appli- the Applied eLearning project com- programme and to see examples of cation of theory to professional bines the participants’ knowledge participants’ work please see: practice as well as rigorous training and understanding of theoretical http://www.dit.ie/lttc/programmes/ in educational research methods, and practical aspects of eLearning mscinappliedelearning/ Launch of a new online Journal for Irish Higher Education: Journal of Irish Academic Practice (IJAP) This coming June, the LTTC will be ers can subscribe to IJAP via RSS brary Archives Context’; ‘An exami- introducing IJAP, a new online Jour- feed and have the latest articles nation of the experience of a group nal at http://arrow.dit.ie/ijap/, delivered directly to their news of Women returners to education’; which is free, unconstrained by feed reader of choice. If subscribers ‘The effectiveness of active learning space and accessible to all. The prefer to receive email updates, techniques in legal professional journal has a fresh, contemporary they click on the "RSS feeds" link. training lectures from the trainees’ look, a user-friendly navigation sys- Volume 1 includes a wide range of perspective’; and ‘Using Gardner’s tem, and a ‘most popular papers’ articles including: ‘Irish Students Theories of Intelligence in the feature based on the average num- and Facebook - Informal Learning teaching of early childhood educa- ber of full-text downloads per day Choices in a Web 2.0 world’; tion’. The editorial staff welcome since the paper is posted. Initially, ‘Nurturing and Developing Creativi- articles from all disciplines and on a the journal will publish manuscripts ty in First Year Design Students’; range of topics from curriculum on a rolling basis rather than in dis- ‘The role of Flickr in a National Li- development, learning technolo- tinct issues, and authors will gies/media to educational reflect a range of experience leadership, teacher education as well as different approaches and educational research and to the study and practice of policy. For further details learning and teaching, with email the editors at: specific topics focusing on is- Roisin.Donnelly@dit.ie sues that academic staff tend Martina.Crehan@dit.ie to face in their practice. Read- Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 6
- 7. MA in Higher Education This programme is an ideal develop- about this programme please see work conducted as part of our post- mental route for staff in higher and http://www.dit.ie/lttc/ graduate programmes – In 2010 further education wishing to deep- programmes/mainhighereducation/ Michael Seery and his colleagues en their knowledge of the third lev- won a NAIRTL award for Excellence el sector and to develop their pro- in Teaching and in 2011 he won the fessional role. The first participants Jennifer Burke award for Innovation on the MA in Third Level Learning in teaching and learning. and Teaching were registered in http://www.jenniferburkeaward.ie/ September 2002. The MA in Higher Education is structured around key areas in higher education, and ena- bles participants to deepen their MA Higher Education, Professional knowledge, develop their research Legal Education and Skills: Some skills and apply these skills to their years ago, building on the success educational interests and special- of our partnership with the Law isms. Through the completion of a Society to design and offer our thesis they learn to develop and 5ECTS course in Learning and teach- carry out educational research us- ing collaboratively, we obtained ing traditional and emerging re- funding to develop the MA pro- search designs informed by a criti- gramme in Legal Professional Edu- cal awareness of developments at cation and Skills. The negotiated Here Michael describes the experi- the forefront of policy and practice programme won an Irish Institute of ence of applying and then in higher education. For more infor- Training & Development award in winning the award: mation and student comments 2011. http://youtu.be/_6bW66RLW28 Many of our To find out more about our pro- graduates grammes and /or APDs Contact Lin- have gone da Boyd (Linda.Boyd@dit.ie) on to win awards with LTTC Accredited professional Development short courses Our 5 ECTS Accredited Professional offerings by designing 3 new short sessment (18 June) and Supervising Development Short Course on courses and making some of our Undergraduate dissertations & the- Teaching Learning and Assessment existing Masters modules available ses (1Oct). Credits from these mod- has always been popular externally. as stand-alone courses. These APDs ules can also contribute towards We have offered the programme in include Teaching in Virtual worlds our other postgraduate qualifica- ITB and 3 times in collaboration (starting 17May), Technology- tions http://www.dit.ie/lttc/ with the Law Society. In 2011, we enhanced Learning Teaching & As- programmes/shortcoursesapd/ decided to expand our repertoire of Page 7 May 2012
- 8. Snapshot of other support for learning, teaching and assessment we provide across the DIT DIT Staff have been successful DIT has supported an internal com- in obtaining national NAIRTL quiry & petition for Learning Teaching and funding awards. Since 2009, fund- Problem Assessment project funding for ed DIT projects have included Based over 15 years. Themes for the an- ‘Untying the Accountancy Knot: Learning (EPBL)’. nually awarded projects are agreed design, development and imple- DIT staff have also been actively by the Learning Teaching & Assess- mentation of interactive anima- involved in the design of the NDLR ment Strategy Committee. In 2008, tions and simulations to support Learning Innovation Projects Dissemination awards for staff who underperforming 1st year ac- (LIPs) and LINCS projects over the have had a paper accepted for an countancy students, including last 3 years. This year 10 LIPS are education conference were intro- those with dyslexia’ and being supported and the Institute duced. In 2011/12, we funded 6 ‘Facilitate: Irish network for En- is involved in 3 national collabora- projects and 3 dissemination pa- pers. http://www.dit.ie/lttc/ tive LINCs projects with other in- projects/ stitutions http://www.dit.ie/lttc/ DRHEA funding was also used to purchase sets of classroom re- sponse systems or DIT initiated Teaching excellence ‘Clickers’. Through an awards in 2003. Since then, the annual competitive funding pro- awards process has evolved. In College Teaching Fellowships cess, staff have been awarded a 2009, we were established in the DIT in set of clickers and provided with intro- 2009 under the auspices of the training as appropriate. A blog is duced DRHEA SIF 2 project. In DIT, an used to share experience. http:// and inte- annual research Fellowship is ditclickers.wordpress.com/ grated a awarded to an individual or a student team in support of their work de- nomina- veloping and evaluating a specific tion process through use of an project that supports the en- online survey. In 2011, the institu- hancement of learning and/or cur- tional Presidents Award for Excel- riculum development at a pro- lence in Teaching was replaced by gramme, school or College level. 4 College Teaching awards. These One of our teaching Fellows Dr awards now involve two Michael Carr Dept of Engineering ‘nomination paths’ – students Science & General Studies, was In 2011, DIT established the Lead, nominating staff and staff nomi- selected as one of the five DRHEA Engage, Achieve, Develop (LEAD) nating peers. College Teaching Teaching Fellows to work on an Award. The module is designed to Awards are made at the relevant integrated group project on the conferring ceremony http:// encourage, promote and support first-year experience as part of a www.dit.ie/lttc/awards/ collaborative Fellowship award to student development of a range of be conducted April -October 2012 employability skills through taking a http://www.dit.ie/lttc/projects/ leadership role within extra- institutionalprojects/ curricular and co-curricular activi- ties. The module is assessed through the completion of a reflec- tive portfolio containing evidence of their personal skills development during the module http:// www.dit.ie/lead/ Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 8
- 9. Academic Development Workshops Part of the LTTC’s remit is to sup- feedback can be awkward! port academic development and It’s not unusual for partici- innovation in teaching practice. One pants in the same workshop of the main ways we support this is to give completely contra- through the provision of regular dictory feedback, with one workshops. Workshops are run on a person saying “too slow!” weekly basis throughout the aca- and another “too fast!”. demic year, usually three to four Also, staff can sometimes be per week, encompassing short one- a little aspirational in their hour lunchtime sessions to formal feedback - Friday afternoon three-hour lab sessions, with a is often named by them as small number of workshops running the time of week most suitable for workshop is run: because DIT is up to six hours (usually over two workshops. But, perhaps unsurpris- such a diverse campus with over 30 days). We try to be as responsive as ingly, Friday afternoon workshops different locations, we try to move possible to staff needs when de- tend not to have a great uptake! the workshops around each of the signing the workshop schedule. Ex- Quirks aside, getting feedback on six main campuses, sometimes run- amples of recently developed work- workshops is an essential part of ning the same session on both the shops include: ‘Lecture capture the process, and something we rely north and south side of the city in with Echo360: What it is and how upon to keep workshops up to date quick succession. Days and times to do it’ and ‘Using social media in and relevant. are varied continually also in order education’. While aware of the to offer as much choice as possible, need to continually review and up- Participation rates for staff across a common response to workshop date our workshop offerings, we’re the DIT are generally good: since feedback being the difficulty of har- also conscious that some work- September 2008, we have run al- monising workshop attendance shops and skills are required by most three hundred workshops, with timetabled teaching hours. staff on an ongoing basis. Therefore with approximately 2,500 attend- sessions such as ‘How to help your ances. Almost 900 individual DIT Our most popular workshops are students think: An introduction to staff have engaged with the LTTC listed below –the left shows all PBL’, ‘Supervising Dissertations’ and through workshops*, with many attendances since 2008 while the ‘Introduction to webcourses’ re- staff attending five or more work- list on the right shows the current main on the schedule from year to shops over the period – for exam- academic year only, to reflect more year. ple, twenty one DIT colleagues have recently developed and newly pop- attended more than 10 workshops! ular workshops. For more infor- We also survey staff after all work- Interestingly, the DIT lecturer with mation on our workshops please shops to ensure that the content the single highest participation rate email lttc@dit.ie or see our website met their expectations. Again, this has been recognised for innovation at http://lttc.dit.ie. All DIT LTTC information is used to update both in teaching practice both within DIT workshops are open to staff from the training schedule and the con- and nationally. An important factor all Dublin Region HE Alliance institu- tent of individual workshops. But in participation rates is where the tions (http://www.drhea.ie/ ) * the annual showcase of learning and teaching innovations attracts well over 100 academic staff each year Volume 2 Issue 3 Page 9
- 10. Annual Graduate Student Conference in the LTTC We are looking forward to our third practice associated with academic DIT annual Graduate Student Con- disciplines and professions. This For our very first conference (in ference on 12 June. The purpose of conference focuses attention on 2010), Professor Gráinne Conole this graduate conference is to dis- how learning and academic writing delivered a keynote on How to seminate educational research from happens within the ‘Writing and begin educational research. Last across our two programmes – the Disseminating Research’ Module as year, Professor Jon Nixon chal- MA in Higher Education and the well as how it is experienced in lenged us about Seeing what is MSc Applied eLearning (involving different subject contexts; specifi- both present and past graduates), cally it encourages participants to which is relevant and interesting to critically reflect on their thinking all DIT academic staff. and learning about educational re- The theme of this year’s conference search in which they are currently is Getting your Research Published: engaged, and to share these reflec- From Student to Scholar, and the tions with others by involving them- keynote speaker is Dr Rhona Sharpe selves in this student-led confer- from Oxford Brookes University. ence and resulting subsequent na- tional and international publica- tions. questionable. As well as colleagues from within DIT, delegates presenting as part of the conference have come from other institutions in Dublin and Background to the Conference: across Ireland: IADT, Dublin Busi- One of the aims of the graduate ness School, the Liberties College, student conference is to build a the Law Society of Ireland, IT network of research-informed par- Blanchardstown, DCU, IT Carlow ticipants across our LTTC pro- and Waterford IT. grammes. By encouraging such net- working, it is anticipated that this event will also reinforce partici- pants' understanding of the value of involvement in communities of Student Transition: Expectations, Engagement, Retention The STEER (Student Transition: of Ulster STAR Project) and Dr Expectations, Engagement, Re- Amanda Gibney, UCD Teaching tention) initiative focuses on the Fellow. These all combined with ‘DIT student experience’ with par- recommendations emanating ticular reference to students in from the work of Campus Life to their first year of study. As well as inform the creation of FYI DIT a number of STEER workshops and 10STEPS to engage our first year presentations through this year, students – designed by Martina the team coordinated a ‘10steps Crehan from the LTTC. to engage your first year students’ event on 30March. This event http://www.dit.ie/lttc/events/spe incorporated Keynote presenta- cialevents/fyi-firstyearexperience/ tions by Dr Tony Cook (University Page 10 May 2012
- 11. EVENTS Students as Producers and as Change Agents Athlone Institute of Technology June 12th 2012 from 2.00pm to 5.00pm Mick Healey HE Consultant and Researcher mhealey@glos.ac.uk; www.mickhealey.co.uk This talk will explore the theoretical basis for this approach and illustrate, with reference to many examples from different disciplines and countries, how students can be engaged throughout their undergraduate courses in pro- ducing knowledge, not just consuming it. By involving students in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), stu- dents may act as change agents to enhance the quality of teaching and learning practices and policies in their uni- versities. Too often students are simply the subjects of our SoTL research; by engaging them as co-researchers and independent researchers we can give them a more empowering and transformative educational experience as pro- ducers and as change agents. Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/org/2195583247 Facilitate Enquiry/Problem Based Learning Summer School Registration for the Facilitate Enquiry/Problem Based Learning Summer School 2012 (24th and 25th May), which is now open, will close on 21st May. This year the summer school will incorporate the 'PBL.doc Symposium' Problem -based learning approaches to teaching academic writing. Day 1 of the summer school is ideal of anyone starting out with PBL or interested in refreshing their skills. On this day questions such as 'What is PBL?', 'How do I set up a PBL tutorial?' and 'How do I design problems?' will be addressed. If you would like to register for this event please click http://facilitatesummerschool.eventbrite.ie/ The Programme for the two days is also available from http://facilitate.ie/ If you have any queries about this event please email info@facilitate.ie LIN 2012 – Call for abstracts open http://lin2012.exordo.com www.lin.ie October 11th 2012 Ashling Hotel, Dublin Keynote speaker: Lord David Puttnam Page 11 May 2012