Working together for change: Digital education meets the climate and nature emergencies

In light of the climate and nature crises, Neil Selwyn (2021) issued a call to ‘reimagine educational technology as a focus for collective action rather than individual gain’. In this session, we aim to start a discussion on what resources could help us to take climate positive actions within our roles as digital education professionals. We will seek to crowdsource examples of what is already happening across the sector and start thinking about how we can work together to effect positive change to address the climate and nature crises within a digital education context.

Facilitators

Geraldine Foley, MA, joined University College London (UCL) in 2023 as a Senior Learning Technologist focusing on UCL East. She has worked in higher education for over eighteen years, with central and faculty-based learning technology roles at City University of London and London School of Economics. She has a PGCert, Senior CMALT, is a Fellow of the HEA, and a Senior CMALT assessor. She has an interest in learning design, game-based learning, active learning, peer learning, students as producers and students as partners projects.

Irina Niculescu, MA, joined UCL in 2023 as a Senior Learning Technologist. Empowering others to take advantage of the transformative potential of digital educational practices is central to her work. Prior to this, she worked at the University of Surrey as a learning designer, learning technologist, and digital education manager. She has led various university-wide staff development programmes and projects and taught on an MA in higher education and PG Cert teaching programmes. She is particularly interested in learning design, student-staff partnerships, and in the human and social aspects of digital practices. She is currently exploring approaches to developmental and systems change.

Dominic Pates, MA, is a Senior Educational Technologist in the Department of Learning Enhancement and Development (LEaD) at City St George’s, University of London, which he joined in 2014. He is the Relationship Lead between LEaD's Digital Education service and three of City's schools - Bayes Business School, the City Law School and the School of Science and Technology. Dominic's professional experience includes blended learning and learning design, educational multimedia, learning spaces, mobile learning and hybrid teaching.

Roger Rees, MA, is the Design and Development Manager, University of Surrey. He has worked in a number of roles including previously as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Learning Enhancement when he also led successful JISC funded projects in relation to student digital literacies. He joined the University of Surrey in 2009 and manages development and design work within the Digital Learning Team. This includes leading academic and professional development of staff digital capabilities and fluency. He has a particular interest in ecological and systemic approaches to the adoption of new and emerging technology to enhance learning and collaboration.

APODE Week

This event is organised as part of the Asia-Pacific Online and Distance Education Week (APODE) by Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ). Globally, we partner with EDEN Digital Learning Europe who will be holding the European Open and Digital Learning Week. For this event, we also partner with the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL).

This event takes place on 13 November 2024, 9-10am NZDT.

Banner image: People putting their hands on top of each other to indicate they are all in. Photo by Hannah Busing, shared on Unsplash