How Technology and Sustainability Can Work Hand-in-Hand (Guest contributor)

Emergent Thinkers.com welcomes guest blogger, Alyssa Jane Clarkson With climate change concerns becoming increasingly alarming each day, more and more organisations, communities, and households have become more conscious about sustainability. In response, different technologies have also started to cater more to this need. And while technological waste is often seen as part of the problem, …

Re-imagining university futures: building upon Professor Allan Gibb’s legacy

Reporting on the first 'Reimagining Our Futures' webinars organised by the Societal Innovation and Enterprise Forum (SIEF) - Friday 4th September 2020. Reimaging futures amidst and beyond Covid-19 At the start of the webinar, a collection of photos of the late Professor Allan Gibb curated by Marju Unt (Founder and CEO, Estonian Euromanagement Institute) and …

I spy with my little eye…something to do with ‘being’

Image: Sarah Trummer I'm used to falling down rabbit holes in my doctoral research, and do so quite deliberately, enjoying and valuing the adventure. The process satisfies 'wonder' through access to the new, the forgotten, the unnoticed or uncharted. Challenging thinking and cultivating insight, it can produce or trigger deliciously rich memorabilia [data] and new …

Philosophical unbundling

I am experiencing data overload. The constant state of being plugged in, tuned in, updated. There is a heavily disorientating aspect to the Age of Distraction, as penned by Richard Wurman in ‘Information Anxiety’ and revisited in Nicholas Carr’s ‘cri de couer’ ‘The Shallows’. My tension, fully embodied (Francis, 2018), requiring unbundling beyond this blog-space. …

The mind behind pragmatic and innovative entrepreneurship

An interview with Dr Simon Brown. From security hologram innovation, pioneering education research and practice, to high impact roles shaping the academic, graduate and business enterprise landscape, Dr Simon Brown is a leading figure in enterprise and entrepreneurship business incubation and education in the UK. You have a multi-sector background Simon, which includes the study …

A Dahlesque COVID-19 state of mind

On being, and managing change while working from home (WFH) To share one experience of a working mum’s ‘COVID-19 state of mind’, I turn to Roald Dahl’s lesser-known sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1962). Charlie’s Great Glass Elevator adventure (Dahl, 1972) starts with Charlie Bucket and chocolatier Willy Wonka squeezing Charlie’s entire …

My 12 ’emergent’ themes for yuletide

Beginning with the Winter Solstice celebration this Sunday, then enveloping Christmas, Yuletide starts with a celebration of the lengthening amount of light we experience in the day. This provides a welcome moment to reflect on the first four seasons of ‘Emergent Thinkers.com’. A chance to illuminate the themes that have emerged over the year. Rebellion …

WCOL2019: new pathways to hope and light in a digital world

My 'lived experience reflections' of the ICDE's 28th World Conference on Online Learning, Dublin, 2019 (4-7 November), hosted by Dublin City University (DCU). Sense of place WCOL2019 was well situated in the unique glass-fronted futuristic Conference Centre Dublin. Interaction, innovation and inspiration were first impressions as I rose the heights of its atrium of crisscrossing …

WCOL2019: the power of voice and story unveiled [repost]

An abridged re-post from earlier in the summer when I marked one year to the day I last held my father’s [an Irish-man] hand. Reflections on loss that triggered a deeper reflexive insight, on being, life perspective, and identity, including that of a ‘researcher’. Feelings resurfaced, as I make an emotional return journey to Ireland. …

The mind behind harnessing technology for learning

Steve Wheeler is a Learning Innovations Consultant and former Associate Professor of Learning Technologies at the Plymouth Institute of Education. Here I interview the global educator, author, edublogger, and disrupter activist whose work on technology-enabled learning attracts millions of followers. You have a rich career path Steve, from artist and musician, psychologist and lecturer, to …

Taking on the machines: the rise of the Educator

Yes, I am picking a fight with robots and the organ-grinders! Automation is not the end of the road for Educators Yes, you know too, ‘the robots are coming for our jobs’! Cue to some collective eye-rolling, this statement has fast morphed into a ‘future of work’ cliché. Arguably, there’s little to prevent automation’s continued …