More than 120 Australian and international leaders in higher education will meet in Brisbane this week for a ground-breaking discussion about the relationship between university teaching spaces, technology and pedagogy.
The inaugural "Next Generation Learning Spaces Colloquium" will be held at The University of Queensland on Wednesday, July 4 and Thursday, July 5.
The colloquium has been facilitated by the Carrick funded UQ project team led by Professor David Radcliffe and is an integral part of a Carrick Priority Project entitled "Designing Next Generation Places of Learning".
Principal investigators Professor David Radcliffe, (Thiess Professor of Engineering Education and Professional Development); Mr Derek Powell, (UQ’s Manager, Teaching Technology Support) and Wilson Architects' Managing Director, Hamilton Wilson. are currently working together to research the nexus between space, technology and pedagogy.
Mr Wilson, Managing Director, Wilson Architects and one of the principal investigators said that this was the first time such a group of senior members of the international university community had met to discuss the future shaping of education spaces.
"We are delighted that 133 people from 25 universities in Australia, New Zealand, PNG and the United States will converge here in Brisbane to exchange ideas about the design of spaces in relation to technology and best practice pedagogy," he said.
Keynote speakers include Dr Phillip Long, Senior Strategist for Academic Computing and Director of Learning Outreach for iCampus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr Kenn Fisher, Director, Learning Futures, Rubida Research Pty Ltd; and Professor Peter Jamieson, Policy Adviser to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), University of Melbourne. These national and international perspectives on learning space design will set the scene for an innovative program of activities.
During the program, colloquium participants — including deputy vice chancellors, facility managers and directors, information technology directors and heads of libraries — will experience a range of learning activities and technologies in UQ’s state of the art learning spaces.
They will visit and hear about the University’s innovative next generation didactic spaces, new library spaces, experimental social learning spaces and reflective spaces, as well as the $4 million Collaborative Teaching and Learning Space (CTLC) and the recently refurbished Biological Sciences library designed by Wilson Architects.
Mr Powell will give participants an exclusive preview of the ideas behind the "lecture theatre of the future", the University’s Advanced Concept Teaching Space, while UQ University Librarian Keith Webster and Mr Wilson will combine to present a session tracing the development of Libraries as learning spaces.
The research project will attempt to develop ways to measure the success of new spaces designed in response to the extraordinary global shift in the patterns of student learning. A follow up colloquium where the results of the research are discussed will be held on the 7th and 8th July 2008.
Media contact: Celestine Doyle 0409 641 806
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