Date: 25-26 February 2020
Country: Romania
Venue: University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work
Short description:
International Conference – Interdisciplinary perspectives on culture, society and arts. Mapping future research directions
Lead UK MeLDE researcher Dr Bianca Fox attended a 2 day international Conference of scholars, secondary school educators and master students with an audience of around 60 people from Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, UK, Germany, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Dr Fox also gave a Conference presentation, Digital Literacy for the 21st Century: Designing a Framework for Teacher Digital Preparation. In this she presented an overview of the MeLDE project including the results of the research resulting in the MeLDE IO1 Comparative Report, the gaps in digital skills revealed by the research which resulted in the selection of topics for the MeLDE ePlatform for teachers.
Feedback to the Melde project from participants included statements such as ‘I was really impressed by this framework and I believe that any educational institution should use this framework to help teachers or lecturers who struggle to keep up to date with and use digital technologies in meaningful ways in the classroom’.
‘I find the framework extremely useful in the digital tech era we are living in. Teachers and lecturers definitely need help and more time to master and make sense of new technologies’
This conference took place just before the worldwide effects of the Covid pandemic were realised. It is sobering to reflect on how much more true those statements are today.
Date:30 June 2020
Country: UK
Venue:University of Wolverhampton (Tuesday Tutorial – online)
Short description:
Boosting online student collaboration and participation. Dr Bianca Fox hosted a Tuesday tutorial for University of Wolverhampton academics, staff and students looking at a range of easy to use open access digital tools to enhance student collaboration and participation in online classes and lectures. Studies show that it is more challenging to keep students engaged and make sure they contribute to group work during online lectures. Dr Fox explored ways to get students engaged and make sure they actively participate in online lectures and classes and signposted the free online teacher resources available from the MeLDE project.
Date: 30 April 2021
Country: UK
Venue: Online International Conference hosted by the Arts Learning and Teaching Research (ALTR) Group, University of Wolverhampton
Short description:
having to move to online and adopting hybrid models of teaching and learning in a very short period of time. This seismic shift to online delivery has particularly impacted Arts subjects, keeping both lecturers and students away from studios. This highly successful one-day conference explored the challenges faced by Arts and related subjects during the COVID-19 pandemic, asking questions such as: Where do we go from here in terms of teaching and learning? Will the changes triggered by the pandemic have a long-lasting impact on the way HE institutions deliver teaching and learning? How do we support the continuation of high-quality teaching and learning in the Arts in the ‘new normal’? What emerging practices are likely to survive beyond the pandemic and what will not? What lessons have we learnt? MeLDE lead UK researcher Dr Bianca Fox and Professor Ross Prior from the University of Wolverhampton gave an overview of the research and resources produced by the MeLDE project, which were particularly pertinent to the subject matter discussed.