Dublin City University and Arizona State University to be lead academic partners in major global education initiative with world’s oldest publisher
Dublin City University and Arizona State University have been appointed as the lead academic partners in the Global Grid for Learning, a concept developed by Dr Theo Lynn, from DCU’s Business School. The project is a global online education initiative to connect a billion digital content resources to education worldwide. Dr. Theo Lynn (DCU) and Dr. Sam DiGangi (ASU) will act as Principal Investigators for Global Grid for Learning.
‘Global Grid for Learning’ will enable teachers move beyond the confines of a text book and overhead projectors and delve deep into the world of digital learning, providing engaging lessons and enabling the classroom to come alive with knowledge.
It will mean teachers in primary, secondary and third level colleges will have access to one of the largest digital learning repositories in the world. They will have access to new teaching resources from thousands of sources, both professional and peer-generated, at their fingertips.
Global Grid for Learning comprises two services, one free and one commercial, the former, www.globalgridforlearning.org, being operated by the lead academic partners and the latter, www.globalgridforlearning.com, by Cambridge University Press. All academic research for both services will be coordinated by Arizona State University and Dublin City University.
Some of the world’s leading content providers and technology companies have already committed to the initiative including Encyclopaedia Britannica, Reuters, Corbis, Bridgeman Education, Intel® Skoool, Microsoft, SMART Technologies, Scran, The Learning Federation and many others. All of the content is copyright cleared, making it legal to use. For the first time teachers and lecturers will not be isolated when it comes to preparing material for their lessons. Global Grid for Learning is also a collaborative project with contributions by teachers for teachers.
“Our participation in Global Grid for Learning represents the type of collaboration envisaged by the transatlantic strategic alliance already existing between ASU and DCU,” says Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University. “This agreement with Cambridge University Press reflects the global intent of the Dublin City University and incorporates industry engagement, research projects, academic exchanges, and new approaches to education.”
“As a department of the University of Cambridge, our purpose at the Press is to further the University’s objective of advancing learning knowledge and research worldwide,” says John Tuttle, Managing Director, New Directions Group. “ASU and DCU share our commitment to this purpose, the wider global education community and the role technology can play in bridging the digital divide”.
Dr. Sam DiGangi, Associate Vice President and director of ASU’s Applied Learning Technologies Institute (alt^I ) said: “Global Grid for Learning brings virtually over a billion educational resources to educators and students. Through the collaboration among ASU, DCU, and Cambridge, these resources will be made readily accessible, easily consumable, and directly relevant. This cross-disciplinary partnership moves beyond associating resources with standards and objectives to developing new ways in which users can assemble resources, create knowledge, share and refine instructional approaches.”
Dr. Theo Lynn, Deputy Director of DCU’s Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre said: “Global Grid for Learning provides a platform for bringing the open content movement and the commercial publishing industry together to provide universal, affordable and equitable access to education content. Furthermore, it provides researchers, initially in Ireland and Arizona, with the opportunity to work with large source of global primary data to inform education, ICT and business research.”
For Further Information:
Dr Theo Lynn (01-7006873) theo.lynn@dcu.ie
Dr Samuel DiGangi (1-480-965-2047) sam@asu.edu
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