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DIVERSE began life as a
Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) Phase 3 project,
funded by the UK government through HEFCE, the Higher Educational
Funding Council for England. The DIVERSE project ran from 1998 to 2001
and involved four institutions, the Bolton Institute, the University of
Derby. the University of Wolverhampton and the Cheltenham and
Gloucester Institute of Higher Education (now the University of
Gloucestershire). At the end of the DIVERSE project, a dissemination
event was planned to take place at the University of Derby. However,
Professor Chris O'Hagan (the leader of the Derby group) took the
opportunity to create a much larger event, bringing in international
practitioners in both video production and videoconferencing.
The response to that initial conference in Derby in 2001 was highly
enthusiastic. It had revealed that there were a number of
practitioners, both teachers and technologists, who felt that the
application of video and videoconferencing was being largely overlooked
by the educational community.
Since 2001, five additional conferences
have taken place and the DIVERSE community has continually expanded.
These conferences have been organised respectively by:
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- Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada (2002)
- Derby University, UK (2003)
- InHolland University, Netherlands (2004)
- Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA (2005)
- The University of Glasgow, UK (2006)
The DIVERSE community continues to share experience, insights and
innovation through its annual conference, this website and its
conference proceedings. It is now forging new collaborative
relationships with other national and international bodies such as ALT
and JISC in the UK and SURF in the Netherlands. Since 2001, the
technologies considered at DIVERSE conferences have expanded to include
other synchronous communication technologies, such as text- and
audio-conferencing, and other image-based technologies such as virtual
reality. This year the DIVERSE conference is also incorporating the
topic of using ICT for sustainability and development, an area that
many educationalists are becoming increasingly aware of having much in
common with their field.
The focus, however, is still on developing alternative modes of
learning and teaching to complement the asynchronous text-based formats
that predominate within e-learning. The DIVERSE aim is, more than ever,
to act as a means for academics, schoolteachers, technologists and
students to get together and share experience in an informal and open
setting. The experience of people who have attended DIVERSE conferences
is that everyone is welcome, and everyone has something to contribute.
We look forward to seeing you in Lillehammer this summer.
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