A new ‘Ensemble’ at LJMU
07 December 2009
The Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure is now playing host to a new kind of ensemble, one of the largest Technology Enhanced Learning projects ever funded by the UK research councils.
‘Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based Learning’ is a three-year research and development project which aims to explore how the next generation of web technologies can support innovative approaches to teaching and learning in higher education.
Led by newly-appointed Professor of Educational Research, Patrick Carmichael, the project (which also includes researchers at Cambridge, Stirling, East Anglia, Essex and City University, London) is exploring how ‘Web 3.0’ – the ‘Semantic Web’ can support teaching and learning in area where complexity and rapid change make some kind of case based learning the pedagogy of choice. The interests of the project team align well with LJMU’s interest in supporting innovative, interactive teaching and learning, and its aim of preparing students to contribute to rapidly changing and unpredictable work environments.
Before joining the University, Patrick, like the Ensemble Project, was based at the Centre for Applied Research into Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge, where he led a series of projects which explored how teacher and student participation could contribute to better understandings of learning in specialised disciplinary settings – and how learning technology could support innovation in teaching practice.
Patrick commented: “Since arriving at Liverpool John Moores University I’ve been struck not only by the diverse range of research interests amongst staff, but also by their commitment to provide the best learning experiences for their students. This makes this a great place to explore how innovative technologies be used to make the best use of teachers’ expertise and students’ enthusiasm.”
The Ensemble project, like others in the ESRC and EPSRC funded ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’ programme, is explicitly interdisciplinary - bringing together researchers with backgrounds in education as well as cognitive, social and computer sciences. LJMU’s support for work across disciplinary boundaries, and new forms of collaboration and knowledge transfer, makes it an ideal home for the project over the next two years.
The Ensemble Project website is at http://www.ensemble.ac.uk/ - here you can learn more about the work of the project and try out some of the project technologies for yourself. The TEL Programme website is part of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme: http://www.tlrp.org/tel
