This presentation explores the emerging concept of ‘Big Data in Education’ and introduces
novel technologies and approaches for addressing inequalities in access to participation and
success in lifelong learning, to produce better life outcomes for urban citizens. It introduces
the work of the new Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) at the University of Glasgow, presenting
a case study of its first data product – the integrated Multimedia City Data (iMCD) project.
Educational engagement and predictive factors are presented for adult learners, and older
adult learners, in a representative survey of 1500 households. This was followed up with
mobility tracking data using GPS data and wearable camera images, as well as one year’s
worth of contextual data from over one hundred web sources (social media, news, weather).
The chapter introduces the complex dataset that can help stakeholders, academics, citizens
and other external users examine active aging and citizen learning engagement in the
modern urban city, and thus support the development of the learning city. It concludes with a call for a more three-dimensional view of citizen-learners’ daily activity and mobility, such
as satellite, mobile phone and active travel application data, alongside administrative data
linkage to further explore lifelong learning participation and success. Policy implications are
provided for addressing inequalities, and interventions proposed for how cities might
promote equal and inclusive adult learning engagement in the face of continued austerity
cuts and falling adult learner numbers