ORBEE Bridges the Digital Divide at ECE 2011

Date: 08 August 2011

It was an international event at the University of Salford this July when delegates from 31 countries across all five continents attended Salford's 6th biennial international Education in a Changing Environment (ECE) confernce, focusing on 'Creativity and Engagement in Higher Education'.

This hugely successful conference, which took place from 6-8 July in the Mary Seacole Building, explored international best practice in teaching and educational research in Higher Education through themes of Social Media; Learning, Teaching and Assessment; Networking and Partnerships using a mixture of using a mixture of pecha kucha and research presentations, workshops, demonstrations and posters.

This conference provided the perfect platform for ORBEE to demonstrate the benefits of open educational resources and to use social media as a positive technology enhancement in bridging the digital divide in higher education. Social media can be used as a beneficial dissemination identity online tool increasing the content visibility and reputations of institutions thus transforming teaching, learning and research service responsibilities. ORBEE plans to maximise impact and engagement by tackling this challenge through OER.

On opening the event Vice-Chancellor, Professor Martin Hall, spoke about the importance of engaging students in new and innovative ways, especially at a time when Higher Education is undergoing great change.