The Kellogg College Centre for Research into Assistive Learning Technologies
The Centre will focus on new developments in the application of digital technologies to support the learning and educational achievement of young people in school and higher education with a range of specific learning difficulties, both cognitive and physiological. The aim of this centre will be to establish a high profile reputation for conducting cutting edge research in the field of assistive technologies (AT), with a view to placing Kellogg College, and the wider University, at the forefront of research in this varied and expanding field in the long term. The centre will be directed by Dr Chris Davies, Vice President of Kellogg, and will be run in collaboration with the University’s Department of Education, where Dr Davies runs the Learning and New Technologies Research Group.
The work that will form the core activity of the new centre is already underway, following the generous gift from an anonymous donor. We are of course keen to establish the Kellogg Centre as soon as possible, in order to provide a high profile location for the work, and in order to embed this work fully in the life of the college. A research officer, Dr Lorna McKnight, has now been appointed and has started working on the activities that will occupy the first two years of the Centre’s life:
1. carrying out a substantial research review of current and recent initiatives and achievements in the field of assistive learning technologies, with an aim to publishing and disseminating this during the first two years of the Centre’s life;
2. carrying out an in-depth study of current initiatives in a number of settings, including a specialist independent secondary school that specialises in the education of young people with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and mild Asperger’s syndrome. The school has initiated a three-year trial of implementing assistive technologies aimed at supporting the development of independent learning skills in senior students, in order especially to prepare them for the challenges of moving on to university;
3. working with the Disabilities Office of this University to monitor new arrangements being put into place for Oxford students with a range of specific learning difficulties;
4. in year two, identifying further specialist schools engaged in cutting-edge uses of assistive technologies, in order to carry out comparative investigations of initiatives in a wider range of settings;
5. in year two, to host a major one-day conference, bringing together experts in the field in order to launch and explore the findings of the proposed research review;
6. during year two, to develop and submit research proposals to key funding bodies for further research projects.
In addition, the Centre will serve as a means of bringing together experts in the field of assistive learning technologies in the longer term for seminars and workshops, in order to build a strong reputation during its first two years upon which further research funds will be sought through a range of funding sources. We will also establish an advisory group, to guide us in decisions about focusing the work of the centre in productive and appropriate ways.
The area of assistive learning technologies is currently undergoing considerable development and expansion, both in the UK and globally, and promises to be one the most significant ways in which digital technologies will impact on educational practices. Dr Davies has been involved in this area of education, as a key element in his previous funded research (funded by Becta for £1.1 million in 2008). This is also an area of considerable relevance within the College. The application and development of new technologies reflects the central interests of several Kellogg Fellows, including (me) Melissa Highton from the Learning Technologies Group of OUCS, as well as Fellows involved closely both in software engineering research, and other areas of educational research. The College also has a number of students, past and present, who have studied for the MSc in Learning and Technology (previously eLearning), some of whom have gone on to read for DPhils in this area.
The Centre will focus on new developments in the application of digital technologies to support the learning and educational achievement of young people in school and higher education with a range of specific learning difficulties, both cognitive and physiological. The aim of this centre will be to establish a high profile reputation for conducting cutting edge research in the field of assistive technologies (AT), with a view to placing Kellogg College, and the wider University, at the forefront of research in this varied and expanding field in the long term. The centre will be directed by Dr Chris Davies, Vice President of Kellogg, and will be run in collaboration with the University’s Department of Education, where Dr Davies runs the Learning and New Technologies Research Group.