UCL have just announced the launch of their iTunes U service, a way to access free material from the university via iTunes. At the moment however, the material on the service seems to be trying to stress UCL's commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching, as well as to publicise the university, instead of providing useful material for students.
Having said that the material there is interesting. In the introducing UCL section Malcolm Grant talks about the university's commitment to working across disciplinary boundaries: UCL is attempting to move from a subject focused strategy to one focused on solving important (global) problems, using the expertise of whichever disciplines may be relevant. If this is really happening, it should be an effective way to avoid narrow academic ruts, and to raise UCL's game.
Looking in the research section of UCL iTunes U, Jo Woolf's talk on Research Challenges (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/research-challenges/ )
gives some examples of how this aim has been attempted. Last year UCL granted £50,000 for interdisciplinary research in 5 areas, these were:
Sustainability: The workability of zero-carbon homes. This draws on research from the departments of the built environment, economics, psychology, and public policy.
New medical technologies: Mitochondria as targets in the treatment of cancer, from UCL clinical neurosciences and surgery.
Infection: Building an infection resistant hospital, from UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, the Department of Infection at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and the construction firm Laing O'Rourke.
London: a London portal to bring together academic research about the city, from the Bartlett, the UCL Centre for Transport Studies, UCL Geography, UCL Geomatic Engineering, UCL Computer Science and UCL Archaeology.
Communication and Access to Culture: a 'video data archive for human communication', from the UCL Centre for Applied Interaction Research (CAIR), the UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), and the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Although I'm not too sure about the last one, at least in health and the environment effective interdisciplinary work does seem to be a reality, the progress reports on the UCL Research Challenges website look promising. I'd like to know about some more examples if anyone can give me any. (On the 15th June the 2008 competition will close, with a new set of proposals being considered.)
But I don't believe this this interdisciplinary approach has affected undergraduate teaching as far as it could have. There are good examples of effective interdisciplinary courses at UCL, but they are a minority.
The ideas behind iTunes U could be used to help those who want a broader course of study than is currently available to them. For Peter Mobbs (in the teaching and learning section of the UCL iTunes U service), it could make it easier for UCL students to learn from a distance. An online university infrastructure, powered by iTunes U, especially to bring lectures and course materials online coherently, would make it easier to get the material to study what you wanted without the restrictions/timetable clashes that cause problems in the real world. Online communities are especially useful when the physical community finds it difficult to communicate, and this is especially relevant to UCL.
It's pretty obvious how ghettoized and divided the UCL community is. As Malcolm Grant says in his talk, this is because of the internationality of its student body, and because of the large and dispersed nature of London. I think a further development oif UCL iTunes U for the students could make learning more efficient, and even perhaps help in any attempt to foster community, that seems to be lacking at the moment.
You can access iTunes U by going to the iTunes store, then clicking on the iTunes U link, then searching for UCL.
Having said that the material there is interesting. In the introducing UCL section Malcolm Grant talks about the university's commitment to working across disciplinary boundaries: UCL is attempting to move from a subject focused strategy to one focused on solving important (global) problems, using the expertise of whichever disciplines may be relevant. If this is really happening, it should be an effective way to avoid narrow academic ruts, and to raise UCL's game.
Looking in the research section of UCL iTunes U, Jo Woolf's talk on Research Challenges (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/resea
gives some examples of how this aim has been attempted. Last year UCL granted £50,000 for interdisciplinary research in 5 areas, these were:
Sustainability: The workability of zero-carbon homes. This draws on research from the departments of the built environment, economics, psychology, and public policy.
New medical technologies: Mitochondria as targets in the treatment of cancer, from UCL clinical neurosciences and surgery.
Infection: Building an infection resistant hospital, from UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, the Department of Infection at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and the construction firm Laing O'Rourke.
London: a London portal to bring together academic research about the city, from the Bartlett, the UCL Centre for Transport Studies, UCL Geography, UCL Geomatic Engineering, UCL Computer Science and UCL Archaeology.
Communication and Access to Culture: a 'video data archive for human communication', from the UCL Centre for Applied Interaction Research (CAIR), the UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), and the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Although I'm not too sure about the last one, at least in health and the environment effective interdisciplinary work does seem to be a reality, the progress reports on the UCL Research Challenges website look promising. I'd like to know about some more examples if anyone can give me any. (On the 15th June the 2008 competition will close, with a new set of proposals being considered.)
But I don't believe this this interdisciplinary approach has affected undergraduate teaching as far as it could have. There are good examples of effective interdisciplinary courses at UCL, but they are a minority.
The ideas behind iTunes U could be used to help those who want a broader course of study than is currently available to them. For Peter Mobbs (in the teaching and learning section of the UCL iTunes U service), it could make it easier for UCL students to learn from a distance. An online university infrastructure, powered by iTunes U, especially to bring lectures and course materials online coherently, would make it easier to get the material to study what you wanted without the restrictions/timetable clashes that cause problems in the real world. Online communities are especially useful when the physical community finds it difficult to communicate, and this is especially relevant to UCL.
It's pretty obvious how ghettoized and divided the UCL community is. As Malcolm Grant says in his talk, this is because of the internationality of its student body, and because of the large and dispersed nature of London. I think a further development oif UCL iTunes U for the students could make learning more efficient, and even perhaps help in any attempt to foster community, that seems to be lacking at the moment.
You can access iTunes U by going to the iTunes store, then clicking on the iTunes U link, then searching for UCL.
-William Beaufoy-
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