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- DIVERSE community
- Sist oppdatert av: claus knudsen 21/02/2007
February 2007
DIVERSE began life as a Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) Phase 3 project, funded by the UK government through HEFCE, the Higher Educational Funding Council for England. The DIVERSE project ran from 1998 to 2001 and involved four institutions, the Bolton Institute, the University of Derby. the University of Wolverhampton and the Cheltenham and Gloucester Institute of Higher Education (now the University of Gloucestershire). At the end of the DIVERSE project, a dissemination event was planned to take place at the University of Derby. However, Professor Chris O'Hagan (the leader of the Derby group) took the opportunity to create a much larger event, bringing in international practitioners in both video production and videoconferencing.
The response to that initial conference in Derby in 2001 was highly enthusiastic. It had revealed that there were a number of practitioners, both teachers and technologists, who felt that the application of video and videoconferencing was being largely overlooked by the educational community.
Since 2001, five additional conferences have taken place and the DIVERSE community has continually expanded. These conferences have been organized respectively by:
- Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada (2002)
- Derby University, UK (2003)
- InHolland University, Netherlands (2004)
- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA (2005)
- The University of Glasgow, UK (2006)
The DIVERSE community continues to share experience, insights and innovation through its annual conference, its website (http://www.diverse-video.net/) and its conference proceedings. It is now forging new collaborative relationships with other national and international bodies such as ALT and JISC in the UK and SURF in the Netherlands. Since 2001, the technologies considered at DIVERSE conferences have expanded to include other synchronous communication technologies, such as text- and audio-conferencing, and other image-based technologies such as virtual reality. This year the DIVERSE conference is also incorporating the topic of using ICT for sustainability and development, an area that many educationalists are becoming increasingly aware of having much in common with their field.
The focus, however, is still on developing alternative modes of learning and teaching to complement the asynchronous text-based formats that predominate within e-learning. The DIVERSE aim is, more than ever, to act as a means for academics, schoolteachers, technologists and students to get together and share experience in an informal and open setting. The experience of people who have attended DIVERSE conferences is that everyone is welcome, and everyone has something to contribute.
We look forward to seeing you in Lillehammer this summer.
Mark Childs
Centre for Academic and Professional Development
University of Warwick
University House
Kirby Corner Road
Coventry
CV4 8UW
Tel.: 024 765 74057
Fax: 024 754 72736
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/cap/about/staff/childs/
Diverse 2007 • 7th International Conference, June 27. - 29 Lillehammer, Norway
Lillehammer University College - conference.hil.no/diverse2007
