Digital teaching project has future focus

Staff and students are shaping the future of teaching at Edinburgh by taking part in a new digital education project.

The initiative – called Near Future Teaching – brings together members of the University community to help design how digital technology should influence education at Edinburgh.

Through a series of activities – including workshops and talks – staff and students will explore the capabilities of new technologies.

They will consider how these should be used to build teaching approaches for the coming decades.

Education events

The Near Future Teaching project has been launched in response the increasing demand for higher education and advances in technology.

It will encourage debate on key issues in higher education, including distance learning, automation, virtual reality and new forms of assessment.

Staff and students can get involved by attending or proposing events, volunteering for interviews and contributing to comments online.

Creative writing

Among the events taking place is a creative writing workshop on the theme of future teaching, led by the poet JL Williams.

Participants will write about their visions for the University in prose or poetry.

Virtual reality

Elsewhere, there will be an introductory session on virtual reality.

This will highlight the potential benefits of using the technology in education, both to support students and as a tool for planning teaching spaces.

Connected technologies

Another event will explore how the Internet of Things – in which everyday devices can send and receive information – has the potential to shape future teaching in creative ways.

The workshop will encourage participants to design innovative ways of using connected technologies to improve teaching in higher education.

Events programme

The full programme of events is available on the Near Future Teaching webpage.

The project will run throughout the 2017/18 academic year.

It’s important that we take a creative and long term view of digital higher education which moves beyond thinking about technology as simply driving change, to considering what kind of future we as an institution want for our teaching, and what values should shape it.
Professor Sian Bayne
Personal Chair of Digital Education