Beyond the Technology: The education 4.0 podcast

There are more than 30,000 researchers in the UK from doctoral students, research fellows and research staff within universities. Research carried out by Jisc infoNet suggests that only twenty-two percent of institutions have an end-to-end ICT system covering the research life cycle and where systems do exist; the integration between them is very often weak or non-existent. Steve Bailey, senior advisor at Jisc infoNet, and Josh Brown, digital infrastructure programme manager at Jisc, join Rebecca O'Brien to explain the benefits of adopting a research information management system, and how a new Jisc/Jisc infoNet infoKit will help with the decision making process.

Jisc is delighted to announce that this year's live-streaming partner Sonic Foundry will make Jisc11 its most interactive conference to date. With over 600 delegates expected to attend Jisc11 on 14 and 15 March in Liverpool, those unable to attend will still have the opportunity to participate in the conference thanks to a new online experience through Sonic Foundry's Medasite. Sean Brown, Vice-President of Education, Sonic Foundry says, "Mediasite is the first of its kind to bring real-time picture capture. We take video, audio and visual and join all of that data together to bring it to your browser in real-time."

What does internationalisation mean for universities now and how should they respond? Ahead of the Leadership Foundation summit on 11 February 2011, Jisc spoke to their chief executive Ewart Wooldridge to find out why the global perspective is so important for institutions and where their senior managers can look for inspiration and guidance.

Licensing and rights have become a key issue for the creation of open content. Maike Bohn speaks to IPR expert Naomi Korn via Skype about how to make the right decisions when creating open content.

In this podcast Jisc's Maike Bohn talks to Anne Miller, an authority on creativity, one of the world's most prolific female inventors and Director of The Creativity Partnership, and also one of the keynote speakers at this week's Jisc e-Learning online conference, about how to sustain innovation in times of economic uncertainty.

The theme of Jisc's 2010 e-Learning Online Conference will be 'Bringing innovation to life: From adversity comes opportunity'. In this podcast, Maike Bohn talks to the opening keynote speaker, Professor Keri Facer, about the future role of educational institutions and what it means to live in 'interesting times'.

Jisc has teamed up with Taylor and Francis to produce the first Open Access issue of the 'New Review of Academic Librarianship'. We spoke to the editor, Graham Walton, about new thinking on open access, academic publishing and scholarly communication.

At the Future of Research event this week we will explore taking risks with research. Professor Mike Brady and Professor Alan Bowman are two eminent researchers, one from the sciences and the other from the humanities, who came together to explore how techniques from medical imaging could support the analysis of ancient documents. Nicola Yeeles spoke to Professor Mike Brady about how his own research in hospitals had impacted on the study of manuscripts and what the implications are for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Research ratings and the calibre of academic staff are crucial to the public face of a university, but how can institutions maintain their reputation in the current economic climate? Ahead of the Browne review Sarah Mowl spoke to the Research Conference keynote speaker, Professor Julia Goodfellow, vice chancellor of the University of Kent, to discuss those challenges and what she planned to gain from next Tuesday's conference.

Professor Paul Webley is director and principal of the School of Oriental and African Sciences at the University of London and we are pleased to welcome him to chair the debate at Jisc's Future of Research conference. As research funding hits the headlines, Maike Bohn spoke to Professor Webley about the priorities for universities and how technology can support the UK's researchers.

Ahead of Jisc's research conference, Nicola Yeeles spoke to Professor David Robey about how technology can support researchers working in the arts and humanities - and where the funding for that support should come from. Professor David Robey is currently arts and humanities consultant at the Oxford e-Research Centre. Until recently he was director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's ICT in arts and humanities research programme.

Assessment is one of the most important parts of learning and teaching and whether institutions get this right or wrong has a huge impact on students' lives and careers. Ros Smith, the author of Jisc's new guide, Effective Assessment in a Digital Age, explains to Maike Bohn how technology can significantly improve the experience of assessment and feedback.

The controversial Digital Economy Act 2010 has generated much public debate, and the implications for colleges and universities remain unclear. The Act aims to tackle online copyright infringement by giving Ofcom, the communication industry regulator, new powers to deal with it. Jisc is advising all institutions to consult the Ofcom codes by 31 July 2010 and to start preparing now to understand the implications of the law. Nicola Yeeles from Jisc spoke to Kirsty McLaughlin, legal information specialist at Jisc Legal, to find out what the new Act could mean for those who work and learn in universities and colleges.

New research from Jisc suggests that the way people look for information in libraries and online is changing. Jisc recently commissioned a report from the OCLC to bring together a number of different studies in the area. Senior research scientist Dr Lynn Silipigni Connaway at OCLC Research in the US talks to Nicola Yeeles about how researchers 'bounce' and 'whirl' and what that means for the library of the future.

Jisc held a reception at the recent British Academy workshop on the arts and humanities, where researchers studying documents and manuscripts explored how virtual research is transforming the way they work and the discoveries they make. Nicola Yeeles spoke to Frederique van Till, Jisc programme manager, and Alan Bowman, Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, about the benefits for researchers in using virtual research environments (VREs) and what Jisc is doing to innovate in the area.