First keynote - HE in UK - time for change

Professor Colin Sterling - Vice President (Teaching & Learning), U of Manchester

History of UK HE - hmm we seem to be meandering through the 60s (with the odd Leitch reference along the way) - pondering this, everyone in the room from UK probably knows this already, anyone from anywhere else probably doesn't care.

OK 25 minutes in and we're up to - students are changing and we need to change to meet their needs - students getting older, more local, more diverse, more vocationally motivated - now wondering whether this is really just intended to be a briefing session for Bb Inc staff.

Half way through - we're now at Dearing - no, my mistake, we're back in 1960 again, no sorry, back in the industrial revolution - spinning jenny, luddites. OK gonna stop blogging now cos I'm starting to lose the will to type....


OK had to come back for a moment just to share the fact that we are now exploring Byron, Shelley, Frankenstein (aka the lesson we should all learn about the dangers of the manmade machine...pondering the "as opposed to.." question), Lovelace, Babbage - not sure now whether the keynote is really a brain download - "look at the wide range of stuff I know"

Last 5 minute summary finally says the interesting stuff - UoManchester currently undertaking a root and branch review of its undergraduate teaching activity based on three key elements:
Curriculum design, personalised learning, learning technology

...and taking account of the future needs of employers, varying student needs and the opportunities to transform not simply transplant old teaching styles into new technologies - more visionary exploitation of new and emerging technologies to drive innovation and change