Childhood in a digital age: creative challenges for educational futures

The early 21st century is characterised by rapid change. Commentators note how permeating digital technologies engage increasing numbers of children, young people and adults as consumers and also producers. In the shifting technological landscape, childhood and youth are changing. Connectivity around the clock, with a parallel existence in virtual space, is seamlessly integrated with actual lives. Young people are skilful collaborators, navigating digital gaming and social networking with ease, capably generating and manipulating content, experimenting virtually with versions of their ‘social face’. They are implicit, inherent and immersed consumers. They are digital possibility thinkers posing ‘what if?’ questions and engaging in ‘as if’ activity. This paper seeks to theorise such possibility thinking in a digital, marketized age, using two competing discourses: young people as vulnerable and at risk; or alternatively as capable and potent. The former perspective imbues anxiety about the digital revolution; the latter embraces it as exciting and enabling. As education providers seek to re-imagine themselves, neither is sufficient. Local and global challenge and change urgently demand our creative potential and wisdom, recognising three further key characteristics of changing childhood and youth: pluralities, playfulness, and participation. Drawing from work with schools, the paper argues for co-creating with students, education futures through dialogue to nurture the 4 p’s: plurality, playfulness, participation and possibilities

Trusteeship, wisdom and the creative future of education?

What role does, and should, creativity play in education? What role can and should creativity play in designing the school of the future? This article explores the ascendance of creativity in education in the late 20th and early 21st century, exploring tensions in policy developments which both ‘universalise’ creativity and yet appear also to ‘particularise’ it within a specific set of social, economic and cultural arrangements and values. Arguing that the marketisation of creativity in particular is ultimately disastrous at personal, local, national and international levels, the case is advanced for an umbilical connection between creativity and education futures, in ways that highlight the role of wisdom, and creative trusteeship

Libraries and Open Journal Systems: hosting and facilitating the creation of Open Access scholarship

There is a growing availability of free tools and software for academic publishing. How might libraries leverage existing platforms? Anna R. Craft describes one experience of an academic library hosting locally-produced open access journals through Open Journals Systems (OJS). But even “free” software is not without costs in relation to time and expertise. Care should be taken in facilitating a supportive environment to meet an institution’s journal-hosting needs

Scholarly Communications for Librarians: Developing a Mentoring Program to Support Tenure-Track Library Faculty

Many academic libraries are increasingly called upon to support and provide training and instruction to graduate students on scholarly communications issues such as open access, copyright, research data, identifying legitimate versus predatory publishing opportunities, and related topics. Many of these areas align with needs librarians face in their own work, especially for those whose jobs offer opportunities (or requirements) to participate in tenure and promotion processes. In order to meet their own professional development and career needs while also preparing to support the specialized needs of graduate students, librarians must keep abreast of the changing scholarly communications landscape and seek training and education opportunities where needed. To help retain and support their personnel, libraries should be prepared to support them in developing these important skills. This presentation will discuss the professional development component of a mentoring program for tenure-track faculty librarians at UNC Greensboro (UNCG). Initiated in 2008, this mentoring program transitioned to a rotating coordinator model in 2016; programming for the current cohort has focused heavily on scholarly communication areas, many of which align with content that is being offered to graduate students in separate sessions. This intersection between content for librarians and graduate students was not initially planned, but developed based on needs and direct requests from both constituencies. In this session, the presenter will discuss this library-based mentoring program’s inception, development, lessons learned, areas of challenge, impacts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of collaboration in identifying, creating, and delivering needed content to support scholarly communications and promotion and tenure. The session will also address associated opportunities to develop and provide further education on these topics to graduate students. The speaker will encourage conversation about scholarly communications training needs, challenges, and lessons learned among attendees

Open Access/Closed Coffers: Repositioning an Institutional Repository to Reflect Reality

During 2011, a combination of budgetary and staffing factors led the NC DOCKS institutional repository system at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) to restructure its staffing, policies, and procedures, particularly with relation to the handling of faculty publications. A task force convened to study the issues, and its research and recommendations led to a focus on born-digital files and the scaling back of solicitation and staff support for faculty publications. As expected, the changes have led to a decline in the number of faculty publication added to the database, but student works are set to continue to provide a steady stream of additions to the IR. NC DOCKS has also embarked on a new track through a partnership with the Odum Institute at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is in the process of adding support for management of faculty research data sets. This move helps better align the Libraries with the needs of the university’s faculty members. Through the changes outlined in this paper, NC DOCKS will continue to grow and to showcase faculty and student scholarship from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

“Help, We Started a Journal!”: Adventures in Supporting Open Access Publishing Using Open Journal Systems

The University Libraries at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) have an active and growing implementation of Open Journal Systems (OJS), a free, open source scholarly publishing platform. But even a free software system is not without its costs, both to the hosting institution and to the creators and staff of individual journals. Institutions that wish to host OJS must be able to install, maintain, and support the product. And while faculty members and other academics are often experts in their content areas, not all of them are prepared to handle other needs associated with creating and publishing an online journal—including decisions that might involve article layout, copyright policies, graphic design, web design, and other technical issues. This article provides an overview of UNCG’s support for OJS, as well as challenges, lessons learned, and future directions related to this service

Possibility thinking and social change in primary schools

This paper reviews the nature of possibility thinking (PT) (transformation from what is to what might be, in everyday contexts for children and teachers) and reports on how PT manifested in two English primary schools engaged in social change. It identifies shared characteristics across the schools as well as unique ways in which PT manifested. With a focus on uniquely positioned professional wisdom, each school was engaged in change which rejected some assumptions while integrating new ideas relevant to their community, leading to quiet revolutions. Implications for primary schools that generate their own practices and narratives regarding educational futures are discussed

Passion: Engine of Creative Teaching in an English University?

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleLiterature suggests that whilst creativity is frequently seen as ubiquitous and taken for granted (Dawson, Tan, & McWilliam, 2011; Livingston, 2010) there is evidence that creative approaches in higher education can be seen as unnecessary work (Chao, 2009; Clouder et al., 2008; Gibson, 2010; McWilliam et al., 2008), and creative teaching is not always recognised or valued (Clouder et al., 2008; Dawson et al., 2011; Gibson, 2010). Forming part of a cross-cultural study of creative teaching (although reporting on only one part of it), the research explored student and lecturer perspectives in four universities in England, Malaysia and Thailand, using mixed methods within an interpretive frame. This paper reports on findings from the English University site. Key elements of creative teaching in this site were having a passion for the subject and for using sensitised pedagogical strategies, driven by an awareness of student perspective and relationship. Crucial goals were fostering independent thinking; striving for equality through conversation and collaboration; and orchestrating for knowledge-building. The lecturers’ passion for the subject was a powerful engine for creative teaching across all academic disciplines spanning the arts, the humanities, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects

C2Learn Learning Design for CER: C2Learn project deliverable no. D2.2.2

Deliverable 2.2.2 is the second of the two public versions of the document; the first was delivered in Month 9 and this one in Month 18 of the three-year project. Similarly to D2.2.1, and D2.1.1 Interim, this document explicates the key concepts and principles relating to C2 Learn’s Learning Design. Developed by the OU team working closely with feedback from other consortium members, it sets out the over-arching theoretical frame of the project which encompasses Creative Emotional Reasoning (Deliverable 2.1.2) and its practical application in relation to the project's learning approach. Deliverable 2.2.2 is structured in three parts. The first considers the overall goals of the C2Learn gameful design encompassing a 'playful' digital gaming and social networking environment or "Co-creativity space" (C2Space). The C2Space exemplifies students' and teachers 'playful' experiences or what they do: - free exploration of ideas, concepts, and 'shared' knowledge - opportunities to engage in creative problem-finding and problem-solving - opportunities to be assisted by the system (Creativity Assistants) The second part addresses what the C2Space looks like in practice utilising the affordances of currently available examples of game prototypes and digital tools. The third part documents what will occur next in how the consortium is progressing in designing the C2Space encompassing a digital gaming and social networking environment, with the learning goals in mind. Inevitably as the parts of C2Learn are developing in planned parallel development, the Learning Design will in reality remain a living document throughout the second half of the project, with terminology and processes being refined. This official version though sets down markers as to our expectation of the direction of such evolution

C2Learn Learning Design for CER: C2Learn project deliverable no. D2.2.2

Deliverable 2.2.2 is the second of the two public versions of the document; the first was delivered in Month 9 and this one in Month 18 of the three-year project. Similarly to D2.2.1, and D2.1.1 Interim, this document explicates the key concepts and principles relating to C2 Learn’s Learning Design. Developed by the OU team working closely with feedback from other consortium members, it sets out the over-arching theoretical frame of the project which encompasses Creative Emotional Reasoning (Deliverable 2.1.2) and its practical application in relation to the project's learning approach. Deliverable 2.2.2 is structured in three parts. The first considers the overall goals of the C2Learn gameful design encompassing a 'playful' digital gaming and social networking environment or "Co-creativity space" (C2Space). The C2Space exemplifies students' and teachers 'playful' experiences or what they do: - free exploration of ideas, concepts, and 'shared' knowledge - opportunities to engage in creative problem-finding and problem-solving - opportunities to be assisted by the system (Creativity Assistants) The second part addresses what the C2Space looks like in practice utilising the affordances of currently available examples of game prototypes and digital tools. The third part documents what will occur next in how the consortium is progressing in designing the C2Space encompassing a digital gaming and social networking environment, with the learning goals in mind. Inevitably as the parts of C2Learn are developing in planned parallel development, the Learning Design will in reality remain a living document throughout the second half of the project, with terminology and processes being refined. This official version though sets down markers as to our expectation of the direction of such evolution