During a visit to the Open University in Heerlen, the Netherlands which was aimed at discussing the preparation of Master’s programmes within the MODERN-@ project (Modernisation in partnership through digitisation of the academic ecosystem) funded by the Bulgarian national operational programme Science and intelligent growth.
The visit to the campus of the Open University in Heerlen included a sequence of informative transfer of knowledge sessions and activities which helped to compare the practices in curriculum design, technology-enhanced learning, design thinking in education, seamless learning, experience-based learning and other domains on the crosssection of education, technologies and modern curriculum design practices. The Bulgarian academics included faculty members from Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, South-West University Neofit Rilski in Blagoevgrad and Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen.
I presented to the Seamless Learning Design group a talk, which explored the use of digital cultural heritage materials in teaching history. I have explored earlier this topic discussing why digital libraries which offer valuable potential primary as well as secondary sources which could complement the materials used in teaching history are not fully integrated within the technological tools used by the majority of history teachers. If such sources are used in the classroom this will also support the development of some useful information literacy skills. For example these days we are all quite overwhelmed with the misinformation levels and there are plenty of historical examples which can be used to develop critical thinking while also improving the skills on using primary and secondary source material in history.
I share here this event because it is related to my work on DISTILL project. I hope to be able to explore more of this topic in the next months – also through our soon commencing Erasmus project Recovery of cultural heritage through higher education-driven open innovation (eCHOIng) coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
While this talk was on a topic not directly within the remit of the new Masters’ programmes being developed, the exploration of underused opportunities for expanding the teaching practice and experience is very relevant both to MODERN-@ and DISTILL.
I am sharing my slides from the talk.
DISTILL 