Introduction from Jen
Hi all, I'm Jen Ross, and I'm an associate lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. My research and teaching is in the field of e-learning, and I am part of the programme team on the MSc in E-learning programme (http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/e-learning/), which is a fully-online, distance programme in the University's School of Education. I teach on the programme, and I'm also the technical co-ordinator, which means that (among other things) I get to think creatively about new technical directions for the programme, and often get to try things out as well!
My particular interest in this open course is that I am developing and teaching a course on "digital futures for learning" in the autumn. This is going to be a 'seminar course', in the sense that much of the content will be developed by course participants as part of their assessed work. The first block of the course will involve reading around and discussing what I see as the three key themes in thinking about the future of education: ubiquity, personalisation and collaboration. Of course they are extremely broad, but that's the point for me - to leave course participants lots and lots of space to go in productive directions with their own seminar topics.
"why it is (or is it?) important that we study, through rigorous methods, futures in education?"
Mainly, for me, because the future is not only a place we are going, but also a place we are making. I want to think critically and creatively about important ideas in education, and to be part of understanding and questioning stuff, and making stuff happen. I'm not sure the 'rigorous methods' bit is so important to me - I value predictions mostly as expressions of ourselves and our current preoccupations. In as much as the 'rigour' gives us some common foundation from which to have conversations, I'm on board with it, though. And I do think it's really important that our futures thinking is strongly theorised.
Anyway, I'm glad to be here and to make some connections with teachers and researchers who are interested in this area. I look forward to the discussions to come.
