VIDEOCONFERENCES

In order to further disseminate eCompetence related subjects, NUI Galway will be producing a series of guest videoconferencing seminars.  From September 2005 until March 2006, these videoconferencing seminars will encompass an array of issues and will be informative and enlightening in the area of e-learning, exploring issues around (higher education) academic staff development needs in the elearning era.  We look forward to each of these seminars and hope that you will be able to join us.

Note: Please be aware, links are not active until the start of the seminar.  Before this, the link will not work.

If technical difficulties arise with streaming, we will have a link posted on this website for all viewers to see after the seminar.

Thomas Pfeffer from the Department for Higher Education Research at the IFF Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities hosted our most recent videoconference on Wednesday 22nd February at 12.00pm (European time).  This innovative talk was titled "Open Knowledge Resources for Higher Education: Scholarly Publications, Learning Materials, Academic Software." 

The webcast focused on the impact of ICTs on the economy of academic knowledge resources and suggested that universities should take an open access approach in dealing with their own products.

Thomas Pfeffer, M.A., has a background in Sociology and Theory of Science and recived a research grant at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (UC Berkeley). As a member of the IFF Department for Higher Education Research at the University of Klagenfurt, a research unit focusing on the organisation of Higher Education institutions and Higher Education systems, he has gained experiences in many international and EU research projects. Research fields include internationalisation of higher education, organisational development of academic institutions and the virtualisation of research universities.

Pfeffer, Thomas (2006) Virtualization of Research Universities: Raising the Right Questions to Adress Key Functions of the Institution. In: Carayannis, Elias / Campbell, David (eds.) (2006) Knowledge creation, diffusion, and use in innovation networks and knowledge clusters. A comparative systems approach across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Westport, London: Praeger, p. 307-330.  Further information about Thomas' work can be viewed at www.iff.ac.at/hofo/pfeffer

Archived Copy

(For those within NUI Galway, please go here.)

To view the accompanying powerpoint slides, please click here.

Professor Gilly Salmon, from the University of Lecester in the UK gave a seminar in January for the eCompetence Initiative.  A successful and interesting talk, this videoconference brought in over 20 people to our local audience at NUI Galway, with many more streaming and viewing the talk live.

Professor Salmon's talk gave us a handle on what it might be like to take a journey into some new learning planets.  To prepare, to launch, to influence, to exploit new learning technologies, we need to look at what is up and coming, rather than what has happened in the past. 

Professor Salmon is well known for her research and practice in the development of elearning and learning technologies, her research spanning the role of ICT in enabling change in Higher Education to pedagogical innovation in a wide variety of forms.  Perhaps most notedly, she is known for her books on teaching online; one called 'Emoderating,' a 2nd edition, and one called 'E-tivities,' a book about designing low cost collaboration in online learning situations.

Archived Copy

(For those within NUI Galway, please see the recorded version here.) 

To see the powerpoint slides that accompanied Professor Salmon's videoconference, please go here www.nuigalway.ie/celt/salmon.ppt.

Please view the below sites for more information on Professor Gilly Salmon's books about the field of e-learning.

www.e-moderating.com
www.e-tivities.com
www.atimod.com

JOHANNES WILDT & DIRK SCHNECKENBERG

Johannes Wildt, a professor at the University of Dortmund, and Dirk Schneckenberg, Project Coordinator for the eCompetence Initiative, gave a videoconference seminar in January 2006.  This webcast debated the role of eCompetence in the process of technology-driven innovation in society and its impact on the higher education sector, as well as discussed how we must go one step further and provide teachers with not only the qualifications but the competence for teaching with technology.

"Competence relates very closely to performance because only if you have performed specific tasks can you start to be competent," Dirk Schneckenberg said during the videoconference.

Prof. Johannes Wildt and Dirk Schneckenberg, M.A.  refered in the webcast to research activities that are carried out in the context of the European eCompetence Initiative, an EU project which involves 23 European and International higher education institutions and research institutes.

Archived copy - audio and video

Archived copy - audio only

To see the accompanying pdf's, please click here.

Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Johannes Wildt has more than 25 years of expertise in the management of scientific research projects in different areas of academic development.  The research fields include academic staff development, teaching and learning processes in higher Education, institutional research, research in education, innovation and the use of eLearning in Higher Education.

Dirk Schneckenberg, M.A. is the Project Coordinator for the eCompetence Initiative, where he designs and develops the web portal, is in charge of public relations, finance management and other organisational aspects of the project.  He has an MA in media Studies and an MA in Political Sciences and History, as well as has been involved with numerous international conferences and publications.

CHARLES DUNCAN

Dr. Charles Duncan of 'Intrallect' was our first videolecturer on Wednesday 5th October.  Speaking by videoconference from Edinburgh University, Dr. Duncan talked about 'What's so Special about Learning Objects?'  Additionally he spoke about learning object economies and how they work.

Dr. Duncan was previously the Head of the Department of Meteorology at Edinburgh University, where he was a Specialist in E-learning, and has experience in European funded projects, including EuroMET, which won a European Software Award. Currently he is the CEO of Intrallect, Ltd, a company that he created himself to develop Digital Repositories across the UK, Ireland, and elsewhere.

If you missed this seminar please go to our link videostream.nuigalway.ie/ecomp3 to view a recorded version.  Screen shots from Intra Library are available from this seminar if you click here.  For more information on Intrallect and Learning Objects, please  email Dr. Charles Duncan.