Eduserv Foundation Symposium 2008

Inside Out: What do current Web trends tell us about the future of ICT provision for learners and researchers?

The British Library, London, Thursday 8th May 2008, 10:00am - 4:30pm

News: all presentation slides and streaming media from the event are now available.

Note that video streaming and live chat were available for this event, allowing people to watch all the talks remotely. Approximately 60 people watched the event live on the Web. All streamed media will be available as vodcasts of the event in the near future. Keep an eye on this page for announcements.

In addition there was an event social network. Please sign up if you came to the event in person or if you watched any of the talks on the video stream. The social network is intended to give people a feel for who was in the audience, both physically in the room and virtually on the Web.

Introduction

The changing expectations of institutional ICT provision by both students and staff coupled with the explosive growth of external social applications (blogs, wikis, social networking sites and so on) leaves institutions with a significant dilemma. Do they encourage sensible use of external services, mitigating the risks associated with their use as far as possible, or do they create such services in-house on the basis that doing so is the only way to retain control over institutionally significant resources? Both approaches have associated benefits and risks and there is no clear choice about the best way forward. Whatever path is chosen, it looks likely that institutional ICT service provision to support learning and research, and possibly even the nature of the institution itself, will be disrupted to some extent by changes happening outside the confines of the academic community.

The Eduserv Foundation Symposium 2008 provided a forum in which we could begin to examine areas such as:

the types of services that students, lecturers and researchers are using and are likely to be using in the future,
their impact on learning and scholarly communication,
the longer term strategic implications for educational institutions,
the institutional policy issues associated with their use.

Event Details

Details about the event can be accessed below:

Registration

Registration for this event is now closed - the event has happened!

This event was free for all attendees and was followed by a drinks reception which was also open to all. However we had a no-show fee of £30 for those who registered for the event but did not attend. Note that about 25 delegates were not able to attend on the day - though some sent replacements in their place. Given the delegate day rate we were paying to the venue that probably represents something like £2000 wasted investment on the day.

If you have any questions about the Symposium, please contact us at symposium@eduserv.org.uk or phone 01225 474 328.

Evaluation

Please help us to make next year's event even better. If you attended on the day, please complete and return your paper evaluation form. Alternatively, use this online version of the form. Thanks!

Tagging

The tag efsym2008 is being used to tag resources related to the 2008 Symposium via social software services such as del.icio.us, Technorati, Flickr and Slideshare. Please make use of efsym2008 when tagging your own bookmarks, blog entries, images, etc. related to the Symposium.