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Friday 8 June 2012

FROM THE ARCHIVE - Communication and media studies: curricula responding to a changing world

Communication and media studies: curricula responding to a changing world
Arran Stibbe, University of Gloucestershire
Communication and media studies curricula have always prepared students to be responsive to the changing world around them through critical, systemic and creative thinking. This article considers some of the global challenges that students are likely to face as they lead their lives in the twenty-first century (peak oil, climate instability, food insecurity, etc.) and questions whether curricula will need to become more grounded in the ecological embedding of human minds, individuals and societies within the larger systems that support life.

Published in Spring 2009: Networks, Issue 6, pp. 14 - 17.

To access the article

This article, although now 3 years old, is still very relevant today. For example, there is reference to Education for Sustainable development (ESD) in the draft Learning and Teaching Chapter of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education which is currently out for consultation and accessible from QAA's website until 25 July (see our 'GENERAL NEWS - from HE' post dated 8 June)

GENERAL NEWS - from HE

EVENT - Supporting Student Learning Conference 2012
11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference
University of Worcester
19 June 2012

The themes for this year’s conference are supporting and enhancing student learning through shared reflection and research.  The keynote speakers this year are: George McDonald Ross , University of Leeds:
What is a Lecture For? and Paul Ashwin, Lancaster University:
 Researching Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
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EVENT - HEFCE Project Conference
“Quality Assurance, Enhancement and Education for Sustainable Development: Creating a Framework for Dialogue” 
Aston University
2nd July 2012

This national conference is geared to a new area of educational practice and quality enhancement. The conference creates a framework for dialogue, between those involved in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), who wish to develop strategic enhancement approaches, and those working in quality assurance and enhancement, with an interest in the ways that contemporary educational agendas can inform quality systems. 
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EVENT - Improving Student Learning symposium 2012
Improving student learning through research and scholarship: 
20 years of ISL
Lund University, Sweden
29 - 31 August 2012
The major aim of the Symposium is to provide a forum which brings together those who are primarily researchers into learning in higher education and those who are primarily practitioners concerned more pragmatically with improving their practice, and encourages the sharing of scholarly work and collaborative discussion.
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CALL – for papers to Mobile Learning and Creativity Workshop
Part of the EC-TEL Conference 2012
19 September 2012

Deadline for submissions: 18 June 2012

This is a full-day workshop devoted to sharing and designing innovative approaches and solutions aimed fostering creative learning with mobile technologies such as iPads, smartphones or other online surf plates". They invite students, educators, instructional designers, teachers, researchers, practitioners and developers to share and create innovative, creative mobile learning scenarios and applications utilizing multiple perspectives and collective intelligence of the participants.
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CALL – for papers to PESTLEHE Journal

Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2012

Papers now being accepted for the October 2012 issue of Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. This journal offers an opportunity for those involved in University learning and teaching to disseminate their practice. It aims to publish accounts of scholarly practice that report on small-scale practitioner research and case studies of practice that involve reflection, critique, implications for future practice and are informed by relevant literature, with a focus on enhancement of student learning. This publication thus offers a forum to develop and share scholarly informed practice in Higher Education through either works in progress or more detailed accounts of scholarly practice. There will be opportunities for discussions/comments regarding works in progress to be shared with journal readers on the journal site. The journal is published twice a year (April and October).
For more information
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CALL – for comments on UK Quality Code for Higher education, Chapter B3: Learning and teaching

Deadline for responses: 25 July 2012

Effective learning and teaching requires a partnership between learner and teacher. The focus of this Chapter of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education is on the design and delivery of learning and teaching activities in all their forms, which enable students to become active and independent learners, and the role of staff who teach or otherwise support learning, whether on a higher education provider's campus or elsewhere. The Chapter is concerned with the provision of learning opportunities for all students irrespective of the level or discipline of study, the mode of study, the location of study and the means of delivery.

The QAA hope that this consultation process will generate lively debate and discussions about the key principles of engaging students in their learning across the diverse contexts in which UK higher education takes place. They are keen to receive diverse and varied feedback, which can be used to produce a final publication that is of value and relevance to all potential users.

They welcome contributions to this consultation from anyone with an interest in learning and teaching in higher education in the UK - including representatives from all four countries; prospective, current and past students; and staff from the full range of higher education providers, including both staff who teach and those who support learning and teaching.

Thursday 7 June 2012

EVENT - Independent learning in Media and Communications disciplines: taking the stabilisers off

Teesside University, Middlesborough
27 June 2012
   
Given the nature of Media and Communications disciplines, and of the industries in which many students hope to make their careers, attributes such as initiative, self-confidence, self-motivation, time-management and the capacity you take responsibility for one’s own learning and development are absolutely key to success. However, a considerable number of Teesside's students, when they first start their studies, need high levels of structure and support, due to weaknesses in precisely these areas.

As a result Teesside's staff have spent a great deal of time developing a very nurturing, supportive first year experience across their three programme areas (media production, media studies and journalism). This has enabled them to make great strides forward over recent years in areas of retention and progression and also in many aspects of academic attainment. The challenge before them now is how to move these students, over the latter part of year one, and, critically, over the course of year two, to a point where they are able to make the most of the many opportunities available to them, both within and outside the University, and to develop the independent study skills, as well as the personal skills they need to take responsibility for their own development.

This workshop, one of the Higher Education Academy Discipline Workshop and Seminar Series, aims to bring colleagues from similar institutions together to address these issues, with some expert facilitation, and with the objective of identifying some practical strategies, both long and short term, that we can put in place.

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/seminars/disciplines/DW253

CALL – for papers MeCCSA 2013

Spaces and Places of Culture
MeCCSA Annual Conference 2013
University of Ulster, Magee campus in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland
9 – 11 January 2013

Deadline for abstracts: 10 September 2012

The 2013 conference is being organized by the Centre for Media Research, in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at the University of Ulster.

MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. The field encompasses the study of audiovisual and print media including film and TV; journalism; radio; photography; creative writing; publishing; interactive media and the web. The field also includes media practice and practice research – film and TV production, journalism practice, and the use of new, digital information technologies in the arts, entertainment, social media and gaming.

They welcome presentations on the broad theme of ‘spaces and places of culture’. And, as always, they welcome scholarly papers, presentations of practice, posters and panels across the full range of interests represented by MeCCSA and its networks, including:
  • Film and television studies and practice;
  • Radio studies and practice;
  • Cultural and media policy;
  • Representation, identity, ideology;
  • Creativity and digital spaces;
  • The value and future of journalism;
  • Media Studies as a discipline;
  • Approaches to media pedagogy
Presentations are also invited for a special strand on children, young people and media, in conjunction with Cinemagic.

Prizes
  • The Higher Education Academy are offering a £500 prize and publication for the best paper analysing key issues impacting on media, communications and cultural studies in higher education. 
  • The academic poster is highly valued by MeCCSA as an indicator of current research and there will be an open space set aside for poster display. A prize of £100 will be awarded to the best poster judged the MeCCSA Executive Committee.
http://www.arts.ulster.ac.uk/meccsa2013/papers.php

Wednesday 6 June 2012

EVENT - Translating - Pairing Practices

Translating  - Pairing Practices: Exploring the relation of writing to art and design practices at research level
Centre for Creative Collaboration (C4CC), 16, Acton Street, London
23 June 2012

As part of the seminar series celebrating Writing PAD's ten years they are putting on a day of informal workshops and discussion.

The organisers are especially inviting research students in art and design and have an upper limit of 36 so it is advisable to book soon in order to secure a place.

NEWS and CALL - work placement experiences in the media industries

The Creative Contexts website was developed by Dr Dan Ashton during 2011-12 through Higher Education Academy funding as a resource for students to share their experiences from work placements in the media industries.

The website hosts short films (3 minutes) created by students using varying styles, approaches and content, and these will be supplemented with contributions from employers / placement hosts, HE tutors, and Careers Advisors.

Films can cover:
  • Identifying and securing work placements
  • Insights into working with others; activities undertaken; use of equipment
  • How work placement experiences connect together and can be applied across different settings
  • Challenges encountered and responses
  • Feelings and experiences of ‘fitting in’ 
There is short overview film on the homepage and a collection of student produced films under the ‘students’ tab.

You are invited to use the site as a resource, encourage students to contribute, and make your own films. The project is also in evaluation stages and your valuable comments and suggestions for helping taking the site forward would be greatly appreciated. See the ‘about’ page for ‘guidelines on contributing’ and a questionnaire for ‘evaluating the project’ (responses by the end of June would be a huge help).

CALL - for abstracts for Thinking Through Drawing 2012

Thinking through Drawing 2012: Drawing in STEAM
Wimbledon College of Arts, London
13-14 September 2012

Deadline for abstracts: 20 June 2012

This International Drawing and Cognition Research event follows on from last year’s interdisciplinary symposium, Thinking through Drawing Symposium: Practice into Knowledge. It will bring together artists, educators, scientists, medical practitioners, philosophers, engineers, computer scientists, and more, to examine the uses of drawing across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.

How is drawing used within and between these disciplines? What is the relationship between drawing in the Arts and STEM subjects? What is our current understanding of drawing, cognition and learning, and how is it contributing to curriculum development and instructional design in these areas?

Thinking through Drawing 2012 will address these issues, exploring learning and teaching practices and new research directions. The symposium will be an active discursive platform in which we consider the place of drawing across disciplines and professions.

This international event will bring together colleagues from around the world in order to share practice and discussion across countries as well as disciplines. 

Abstracts can be submitted for papers, workshops or drawn pieces. Work may be selected for inclusion on the online platform, and/or presentation at the event.

CALL – for papers to DRS // CUMULUS Oslo 2013

Design Learning for Tomorrow 
- Design Education from Kindergarten to PhD
The 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers 
Oslo, Norway
14 - 17 May 2013

Deadline for intention to submit a paper: 24 July 2012
Deadline for workshop and symposia proposals: 2 October 2012
Deadline for full papers: 30 October 2012

This international conference, organised by 
 the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, 
DRS (Design Research Society) and CUMULUS (the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media) is a springboard for sharing ideas and concepts about contemporary design education research. Contributors are invited to submit research that deals with different facets of contemporary approaches to design education research. All papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed. This conference is open to research in any aspect and discipline of design education.

Designed artefacts and solutions influence our lives and values, both from a personal and societal perspective. Designers, decision makers, investors and consumers hold different positions in the design process, but they all make choices that will influence our future visual and material culture. To promote sustainability and meet global challenges for the future, professional designers are dependent on critical consumers and a design literate general public.  For this purpose design education is important for all. The organisers propose that design education in general education represents both a foundation for professional design education and a vital requirement for developing the general public’s competence for informed decision making.

Submissions are invited along the following themes:
  • Philosophy of design education
  • Design curriculum
  • Design knowledge
  • Design education for non-designers
  • Research informed designed education – Design education informing research
  • Multidisciplinary design education
  • Challenges in design education methods
  • Assessment
  • eLearning
  • Internationalisation of design education
The organisers are also seeking expression of interest to conduct workshops and symposia.

They especially welcome submissions from early career researchers, PhD candidates and Master students with work in progress.