Abstract

In 2013 the authors participated in a collaborative teaching and learning project Media Culture 2020, with four European partner universities. The first object of the Media Culture 2020 project was to demonstrate what 21st century converged and interactive European Media Culture could be in comparison to the broadcasting based one-way 20th century European Media Culture. The second objective of this project was to break classroom and campus walls by creating open virtual learning environments where students from different countries and fields could explore and learn together. This project was also about developing flexible curricula that can quickly respond to a rapidly changing world. The ability of lifelong learning and working in multidisciplinary teams were the keys to professionalism we hoped to enhance with this project.
After the successful Media Culture 2020 project last year they explored opportunities to implement and embed some of the best practices of the project at the University of Lincoln. They developed a collaborative interdisciplinary teaching and learning project ‘co_LAB’ involving students and staff from the School of Media and School of Art & Design. co_LAB is an interdisciplinary, educational project which houses intensive teaching programmes, the first of which is took place between 12-16 May, 2014. co_LAB was designed to explore and develop new approaches to collaborative teaching and learning through the use of networked digital tools, and through the transferral of knowledge, skillsets and teaching styles. co_LAB aims to overcome the traditional barriers between individual course specialisms by bringing together students and colleagues from across academic disciplines to collaborate on transmedia design projects.
Building on their experiences with social media and collaborative learning, the authors have proposed the development of an Integrated Learning Ecosytem called Scholr. Scholr is a comprehensive, integrated software environment that supports the development, delivery, assessment, and administration of educational courses, in addition to providing a modifiable toolset that can be used to foster collaborative forms of blended learning within the classroom and online delivery of course content. Scholr allows technology to play a more active role in supporting learning, both inside and outside of the classroom. This paper discusses the collaborative learning projects that inspired the proposal, setting the context for and outlining the key features. This paper will present and discuss these projects and moves towards a collaborative and open vision for education in the 21st century.