Current events
Interviews
[13/05/2013]
Interview with Débora Chomski
«We need to help children become critical and creative consumers of
the media and ICTs»
Born in Buenos Aires, Débora Chomski is an expert in teacher training and teaching assessment. Based on her experience as a lecturer and education project developer in languages, media and cultural diversity, Chomski has written the book entitled "El uso didáctico de los medios de comunicación y las TIC en la Educación infantil", published by Editorial UOC.
[30/04/2013]
Interview with Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius
"We have to reintroduce creativity to education because we need new projects and businesses"
Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius (Aarhus, 1973) is a passionate man who describes himself as a revolutionary. He is the principal and a co-founder of the renowned KaosPilot business school in Denmark, with which the UOC is currently finalizing a cooperation agreement. A far cry from a conventional business school, KaosPilot has over 20 years' experience of training entrepreneurs, and its 'learning by doing' methodology has made it an example to follow. The school's goals include training students by fostering personal development, collaboration and creative leadership.
Christer WindelØv-Lidzélius recently gave a lecture on entrepreneurship at the Coperfield Centre in Barcelona.
[30/04/2013]
Interview with Manoop Bhutani
"Telemedicine would be a good method to teach EUS"
Manoop Bhutani, professor of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Texas, is one of the visiting professors at the UOC. In this interview, the expert spoke to us of the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers of the oesophagus, stomach and pancreas and about the future of echoendoscopy, a test that allows the inside of the oesophagus, stomach and colon to be seen.
[15/03/2013]
Interview with Daniel Méndez
"Most people in China are in favour of censorship"
On 18 February, the journalist Daniel Méndez gave a talk, sponsored by the UOC's East Asian Studies programme, on the current state of the media and the Internet in China. Méndez works for the Spanish-language service of the Chinese national broadcasting company and writes a Spanish-language blog from China on Chinese affairs called ZaiChina. In this interview, he speaks about the current state of censorship in the country and how it is viewed by the Chinese themselves. While there is increasingly more room for a loyal opposition, direct opposition continues to be marginalized and expunged from the system.
[08/03/2013]
Interview with Rose Amazan
"African women who succeed abroad want to give back what they've received"
Rose C. Amazan, born in New York to Caribbean parents, holds a PhD in education and new technology from the University of Sidney. Her research focuses on skilled women as an engine of change in developing countries. For two years (2003-2005), she worked as a volunteer teacher in Ethiopia, for which she earned the Teacher for Africa Award (2005). Recently, Amazan participated in the conference "The International Mobility of Highly Skilled Women: Women in Movement" organized by the IN3's Gender and ICT programme of the UOC.
[07/03/2013]
Interview with Louise Ackers
"You can be mobile and a good mother at the same time"
The Challenges of the International Mobility of the Highly Skilled in the 21st Century, Women in Movement conference, held in early February at the IN3, underscored the hardships faced by women academics and scientists. The academic job market requires that these professionals -and their male counterparts- take international mobility into account to advance their careers or, simply, keep their jobs.
To understand the challenges posed by this situation and to learn about the proposed alternatives to the current model of scientific excellence, we interviewed Professor Louise Ackers, one of the conference's keynote speakers and the Chair in European Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Liverpool School of Law and Social Justice.
[03/01/2013]
Interview with Jonathan Reynolds
"Companies are making the same mistakes they made before the emergence of the Internet"
Jonathan Reynolds, Associate Dean of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, was one of the participants in the international workshop Champion strategies on the e-retail landscape, organised by the UOC's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute and held on 15 November at the Media-TIC building. Reynolds, author of the book E-Business: A Management Perspective (UOP Oxford, 2009), is one of the foremost specialists in a field undergoing a technological revolution of unprecedented proportions.
[03/01/2013]
Interview with Dhruv Grewal
"E-retailing cannot be a stand-alone channel - it must be integrated with the rest of the business"
On 15 November the Media-TIC building hosted the international workshop Champion strategies on the e-retail landscape, organised by the UOC's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute. Dhruv Grewal, one of the foremost marketing experts in the world, was among the speakers. In this interview Grewal explains the role of on-line retailing in current business practices.
[21/12/2012]
Interview with Eugènia Serra
Eugènia Serra had always been drawn to science. However, at the end of her first year as an undergraduate studying chemistry, she was ready to reconsider her future: she was looking for something else. She decided to pursue her greatest passion ever since she was a child: books. She has never regretted that choice. She enrolled on a programme in library science, a relatively unknown field at the time that lacked university-level status, because it would allow her to work with books. She went on to become a member of the first class to graduate from the undergraduate programme in documentation (1999) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). Today, she is the director of the Catalan National Library, where she completed her work placement in the early 1980s. Her eyes still light up when she remembers how, at the start of her career, she would help the library's patrons: "They would ask me for something, and I felt like a private detective. I would track it down, hunt for it, find it. As I always say: libraries are absolutely brimming with adventure."
[30/11/2012]
Interview with Ramon Rovira
"Universities in the future will be more like the UOC"
The journalist and broadcaster Ramon Rovira, one of the most familiar faces on TV3 for many years, explains in this interview how he has responded to the challenge of taking over as Director of Communications at Banc de Sabadell against the backdrop of the economic crisis, as well as explaining why the UOC is a good example of how ICTs can be put to good use. Rovira took part in the conference Talent, an Engine of Growth, organised by the UOC's International Graduate Institute (IGI) and held on 2 October.
[30/11/2012]
Interview with Marià Marín and Teresa Iribarren
"Bookshops will become social places with online extensions"
On 17 October, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the Guild of Booksellers of Catalonia organised an event at the Documenta bookshop. There, Marià Marín, the guild's technical secretary, and Teresa Iribarren, academic director of the UOC-Grup 62 Books and Reading in the Information Society postgraduate degree programme, engaged in a dialogue on bookshops and digital strategy. In this interview, the two experts analyse the current situation of bookshops and their redefinition in an increasingly digitised world.
[19/11/2012]
Interview with Jordi Serrallonga
"I have yet to find a single thing that sets humans apart from other species"
Jordi Serrallonga is a tutor in humanities and lecturer in prehistory at the UOC. On 23 October, he gave the talk «Els orígens de la humanitat» (The Origins of Humankind) in the first session of a lecture series organized by the UOC's Arts and Humanities Department. An enthusiastic explorer and naturalist, he devotes a significant part of his time to fieldwork in Africa, the Americas and Australia, where he also leads tour groups on guided expeditions. He shares the knowledge he accumulates through his research in talks, exhibitions, seminars and the media. To date, he has published four books.
[16/11/2012]
Interview with Robert Kozma
"Transforming education is one of the key challenges of our time"
Dr. Robert Kozma was the guest at the latest Debates on Education event organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the Jaume Bofill Foundation. An independent consultant and director of the Center for Technology in Learning in California, he has worked with technology multinationals and advised the ministries of education of Egypt, Thailand, Singapore, Norway and Chile. His work has a sole purpose, that of adapting education systems all over the planet to the new information society.
[22/10/2012]
Interview with Pere Joan Cardona
"99% of those infected with tuberculosis are unaware of their condition"
Microbiologist Pere-Joan Cardona is responsible for the UOC's new international course Clinical TB Management. Cardona, who studied at Colorado State University, among other international schools, is the founder in Catalonia of the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit, dedicated to the study of clinical problems related to the disease. His research led to the development of the therapeutic vaccine RUTI. He is also a member of several international organisations focused on this field of specialisation and the author of dozens of articles on the subject. On September 27, the UOC organised under the leadership of Cardona the first TB Watch, Can We Eradicate TB? international symposium, which aims to become an annual meeting point for the world's leading experts on tuberculosis.
[14/09/2012]
Interview with Salvador Cardús
"Politicians must make an effort to accommodate the needs of the country"
Salvador Cardús gave a lecture entitled 'More uncertainty, more humanities' on 12 September during the presentation of the UOC's new Humanities Master's Degree in Contemporary Culture, Art and Literatures and Humanities Degree. Cardús, a sociologist and until recently dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, reflects in this interview on the value of humanities and the key issue on the political agenda at the moment: the debate on Catalan independence.
[01/08/2012]
Interview with Christy Dena
"Transmedia content will transform industry and the creation of independent art"
Christy Dena, director of Universe Creation 101 (Australia), a company providing consultancy services for transmedia projects and developing entertainment projects, with such clients as Nokia, took part in the second BCN MEETING international conference, organised in July by the UOC Information and Communication Sciences Department around the central theme of "Social e-xperiences". The get-together featured the attendance of a number of international experts who analysed and discussed the impact that information technologies and the web 2.0 have had and are having on communication, e-learning and public relations. At the heart of this debate, Dena explained why companies and artists cannot ignore the trend of creating products and stories on different supports and platforms.
[01/08/2012]
Interview with Hidehiro Tsubaki, Consul General of Japan in Barcelona
"Catalans and Japanese have the same feelings"
We interviewed the Consul General of Japan in Barcelona, Hidehiro Tsubaki, on the occasion of his visit to the UOC at the end of June. He was responsible for opening a get-together of Japanese teachers from the whole of Spain with the aim of analysing the potential of ICT in teaching this language.
[01/08/2012]
Interview with Fernando Álvarez and Dolors Plana
"Andorra is suffering from the crisis but it will come through it with imagination and innovation"
At the end of May, the Andorran Economics Circle presented a report on the evolution of the financial activity of the Andorran Communes, the local public bodies that govern in each of the seven regions into which the Principality is divided. Drafted by Fernando Álvarez, lecturer in the tax regulation area of the UOC Economics and Business Studies Department, and Dolors Plana, lecturer in the accountancy area of the same department, the study concluded that the administrative apparatus has tended to work above its possibilities and that the situation now needs to be reversed.
[01/08/2012]
Interview with Greg Lastowka
"Intellectual property law must make sense to individual users"
Greg Lastowka, Professor of Law at Rutgers University (USA), is one of the foremost experts on intellectual property, in particular the relationship between authors' rights and new technologies. He recently gave the opening address at the 8th Internet, Law and Politics Conference (ILP), Online Entertainment Challenges and Opportunities, organised by the UOC Law and Political Science Department under the framework of the IN3 (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute) with the support of Francis Lefebvre Publications.
[13/07/2012]
Interview with David Istance
"Technology transforms learning roles"
David Istance is an expert in learning innovation and a researcher at the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). Following his recent talk as part of the Debates on Education organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the Jaume Bofill Foundation, we sat down to discuss what the learning environments of the 21st century.
[10/07/2012]
Interview with Pere Guirao
"Custo Barcelona cannot be understood in a strictly local market"
Pere Guirao, operations director at Custo Barcelona, participated in a discussion on internationalisation organised by the UOC Alumni community on 21 June. The Custo Barcelona brand is an excellent example of internationalisation and transformation in the textile industry. The orientation and, above all, the personality of Custo Dalmau are keys to the transformation and international expansion of one of the best known brands in the world.
[19/06/2012]
Interview with Josep Maria Canyelles and Albert Riera
"Corporate responsibility is a way of being, not a collateral value"
On 17 May the graduate community UOC Alumni organised a talk on Corporate Social Responsibility. The dairy company La Fageda serves as an example of a socially responsible company, and key participants at this event were Albert Riera, director of communication of this cooperative, and Josep Maria Canyelles, an expert on corporate social responsibility, who provided a more theoretical perspective on the general corporate framework. The talk focused on La Fageda, an organisation that was born of respect towards and commitment to society.
[04/06/2012]
Interview with Eric Debarbieux
"In some neighbourhoods, the schools and teachers are also seen as the enemy"
Eric Debarbieux, lecturer at Bordeaux University II and Director of the International Observatory on Violence in School, took part in the most recent session of Education Debates organised by the Jaume Bofill Foundation and the UOC. Debarbieux, who defines himself as a non-political researcher, chooses his words carefully when speaking, aware that his subject, school violence, arouses a great deal of fear among the public. He is prudent: extreme attacks have decreased, but there is still friction and verbal violence. Today, a group will attack a single student or, increasingly, the teacher or the school. His plan for combating these situations includes items such as working on attitudes and behaviour and increasing parent involvement. Punishment is banished. Proaction not reaction.
[07/05/2012]
Interview with Alex Lopez Borrull
"Online surveillance is set to overtake online censorship"
To mark this year's World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) published a report entitled Internet Enemies, which includes a list of countries that, through censorship or other forms of repression, violate the right to freedom of information online. Additionally, it mentions countries suspected of using mechanisms for controlling the free circulation of information on the internet. We discussed new trends in online information control with Àlex López Borrull, a lecturer in the Information and Communication Sciences Department of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC).
[13/03/2012]
Interview with José Antonio Marina
"Schools don't just have to teach, they're society's awareness of education"
Nurturing both individual and social talent is the key to a better society. Based on the notion that a solid level of education is necessary for economic development, more talent and more education would have made the impact of the current economic crisis much less severe. Those are the views of the philosopher, essayist and educator José Antonio Marina. Director of the Universidad de Padres, a pedagogical project geared to cooperation with parents in their children's education process, he believes that the role of schools extends beyond teaching to acting as society's awareness of education. In that light, schools ought to work alongside parents to meet the challenge of educating their children. In a lecture at a Debates on Education event at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) on 15 February, Marina talked about "the education of talent: the role of schools and families".
[06/02/2012]
Interview with Terhi Rantanen
"Everyone wants news but no one wants to pay for it"
In mid-December, Terhi Rantanen took part as visiting lecturer in two IN3 seminars, where she spoke of communicative modernity and global risks on the one hand, and on globalisation and the media on the other. In this interview, Rantanen seeks to look back to understand that what is often presented as new is simply a reinvention of the past and she admits that certain journalism companies, such as newspapers and news agencies, are coming to the end of an era.
[16/01/2012]
Interview with Isabel Solé
"You learn to be a good reader over time and through different reading situations"
Some view reading as schoolwork, an obligation or a necessity. Isabel Solé, on the other hand, considers it "a discreet, silent companion, always close by", among other things. A companion who helps you find your way into fascinating worlds and opens the doors to knowledge and thought. Solé, a professor at the University of Barcelona's Education and Evolutionary Psychology Department, has devoted 30 years to reflection on reading and is just as enthusiastic now as when she began. On 14 December 2011, she shared her passion for and knowledge of the topic with attendees at a Debates on Education event, an initiative of the Jaume Bofill Foundation and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC).
[02/01/2012]
Interview with Insung Jung
"In South Korea, over 50% of courses use ICT"
Between 21 and 25 November, the South Korean e-learning expert Dr Insung Jung visited the UOC to hold meetings and seminars with faculty members and researchers. During her stay in Barcelona, Jung also gave the talk 'Quality Assurance in E-Learning: Contributions from Asia' at the headquarters of the Catalan Association of Journalists. The talk was funded under the "la Caixa" Foundation's Internationalisation at Home programme.
[28/12/2011]
Interview with Terry Anderson
'Content is everywhere, so we have to think about what we can add as institutions or teachers'
On 9 November, Dr Terry Anderson, professor at Athabasca University (Canada), gave the talk 'Connectivism: Perfect Pedagogy for the Networked Era?'. The aim of the talk, which took place at Barcelona?s CaixaForum, was to analyse certain new pedagogical trends in the digital era. During his stay in the Catalan capital, Dr Anderson also held interviews and meetings with UOC faculty and researchers. All these activities were funded under the Internationalisation at Home programme, a collaborative agreement between the UOC and "la Caixa" to promote exchanges with prestigious international experts in e-learning and new technologies.
[02/12/2011]
Interview with Peter Baptist
"A mathematician is like an artist"
Information and communication technology, ICT, has radically changed our lives, the way we communicate and how we learn. However, neither the way we teach nor the contents of the academic curricula have changed, becoming obsolete in a completely new setting. This is one of the conclusions reached by a group of 80 experts in Barcelona at the Eighth International Seminar of the UOC UNESCO E-Learning Chair, Teacher Training: Reconsidering Teachers' Roles.
[25/11/2011]
Interview with John Perry Barlow
"The internet allows for liberation like no other technology before it"
John Perry Barlow (Wyoming, 1947) can certainly be described as prolific. A poet, essayist, retired cattle rancher and former Grateful Dead lyricist, he is also deputy chairman and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. A pioneer in championing neutrality on the Web, he published 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' in 1996, a text that has only grown in relevance in the light of events such as those surrounding WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring uprisings.
Barlow participated in the first session of the Communication and Civil Society Seminar, organised by the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC), and in the Free Culture Forum 2011, both of which took place in Barcelona in late October.
[10/11/2011]
Interview with Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí
"If you can't talk about it, don't do it!"
It's that simple. This is the phrase with which Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí summarizes the new challenges posed by the world we live in to politics. Internet and the new technologies mean that all of us increasingly have more information at our disposal. And, moreover, we can express our opinions on it. Thus, we can listen and read but also speak. This, in a way, makes us "watchmen". Consequently, politics no longer has absolute power; it can no longer do whatever it wants to. It is now being scrutinized. This is the thesis of Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí in his new book published by the Editorial UOC: La política vigilada, la comunicación política en la era de Wikileaks [Scrutinized Politics, political communication in the Wikileaks era]. He is a communications advisor and political consultant, professor in master's programs in communication at several universities, and writes regularly for newspapers such as El Pais or El Periódico.
[11/10/2011]
Interview with Pere Mayans
"Immersion has to be done using second language teaching-learning strategies"
The rulings that threaten the preferential use of Catalan in the education system have to spur on universities to improve initial teacher training. So believes Pere Mayans, head of the Language Immersion and Reception Service at the Department of Education of the Catalan government. He claims that teachers should use second language teaching-learning strategies. As a student in the first intake of the UOC's language and cultural diversity management postgraduate course, Mayans has presented the final project, which will be taught as a course aimed at teaching staff, on how to manage language diversity in an educational institution.
[30/09/2011]
Interview with Fanxi Meng and Bei-Zhong Han
"In five or ten years, we could be completely agriculturally self-sufficient"
On 8 and 12 September, a Chinese delegation attended two round tables - organised by the East Asia Studies and Health Science Studies - at the UOC's Madrid and Barcelona centres about opportunities and trends in agriculture in China. In this interview, two members of this delegation (Fanxi Meng, President of the Beijing International College and Bei-Zhong Han, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, both colleges of the China Agricultural University) analyse the agricultural situation in world's most densely populated country. The conference, which paves the way for future collaborations with this hundred-year-old Chinese university, is part of the At Home programme, a collaboration agreement between the UOC and la Caixa.
[15/09/2011]
Interview with Donald Hanna
"A learning culture includes not only what happens in the classroom, but in the entire university"
Thanks to the At Home programme -a collaborative agreement between the UOC and "la Caixa"-, the eLC is hosting a wide range of foreign experts on different fields linked to e-learning and new technologies. Until 30 April, one of its Research Fellows was Dr. Donald Hanna, professor of Educational Communications at University of Wisconsin-Extension. On 4 April, he took part as a lecturer in the 6th CIDUI-CESE (Congrés Internacional de Docència Universitària i Innovació-Comparative Education Society in Europe) Symposium, focusing his speech on the most effective keys to reach excellence in higher education.
[09/09/2011]
Interview with Alberto Arce
"The fall of a dictator does not constitute regime change on its own"
Alberto Arce (Gijón, 1976) is one of the leading Spanish reporters of his generation. A specialist in conflicts, in recent years he has documented some of the world's most mediatised and paradoxically unknown crises in situ and from a human point of view, which include the Iraq and Afghanistan post-war periods, the Gaza Strip blockage and Israel's "cast lead" operation in southern Lebanon. Since mid-2008, he has combined his work as a journalist with teaching work on the UOC Masters in Conflictology. Now, just back from Libya, he discusses his experience at the heart of one of today's most controversial and silenced conflicts.
[05/09/2011]
Interview with Blanca Busquets
"My book cries out against the silence surrounding abuse"
For Blanca Busquets i Oliu (Barcelona, 1961), language and communication are not so much the tools of her trade as a religion. A writer, scriptwriter, radio producer and journalist, she is currently enjoying one of the highest points of her career as a result of her novel La nevada del cucut (Rosa dels Vents, 2010), which recently won the 12th Premi Llibreter award. At present, she combines her writing with a show called El visitant on the Catalunya Ràdio network, and has been a regular on the airwaves for the last 24 years. Nonetheless, she still manages to find time to study for a degree in Catalan language and literature at the UOC.
[22/08/2011]
Interview with Christopher T. Marsden
"Nobody with money wants to see net neutrality enforced"
Christopher T. Marsden lectures in communication law at the University of Essex (UK) and is the author of a number of books, notably including Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-regulatory Solution. Net neutrality and other challenges for the future of the internet were the focus of the 7th International Conference on Internet, Law and Politics (IDP 2011). Marsden inaugurated the event, which took place between 11-12 July and was organised, as ever, by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC), under the auspices of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), this year, with the support of El Derecho Editores.
[05/08/2011]
Interview with David McKie
"It is impossible to control the image a nation projects"
On 28 and 29 June, the MediaTIC hosted the Barcelona Meeting COM: 2011 International Public Relations Conference. Organised in conjunction with the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the University of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand), it brought together a hundred experts from some twenty countries, including academics of renowned prestige, such as Scot David McKie, Professor of Communication Management at Waikato and author of several books on public relations. These include Reconfiguring Public Relations: Ecology, Equity and Enterprise (2007), co-written with Debashish Munshi. President of the Conference's Science Committee, McKie combines his academic work with that of advisor at the highest level in areas of strategic communication and leadership.
[02/08/2011]
Interview with Jane C. Ginsburg
Google's book-scanning is unlikely to qualify for an EU copyright exception
On June 20, the InterDret research group and the Department of Law and Political Sciences at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) organized in Barcelona the seminar "Google and Fair Use". This rendezvous, devoted to intellectual property and Internet, featured Dr. Jane C. Ginsburg, professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School (New York). Her attendance was supported by the At Home program, a collaborative agreement between the UOC and "la Caixa".
[26/07/2011]
Interview with Daniel Miller
"Facebook gives us what we lack in real life"
Anthropologist Daniel Miller (University College London) is fascinated with Facebook, which he says is changing people's lives, mostly for the better, and will be, within a few decades, one of the main allies of elderly people in the fight against loneliness. A large part of his work is devoted to criticising materialism and the relationship that we have with things, which, according to him, robs us of time for interacting with others. In his last book, "Tales of Facebook", he relates seven true stories of people whose lives were changed by this social network. Miller was in Barcelona at the end of May to take part in an IN3 seminar.
[18/07/2011]
Interview with Fabrice Hénard and Fernando León
"The UOC is a good educational model for similar institutions"
On 27 and 28 June, the UOC hosted a meeting of a group of ten experts for the second phase of the Quality of Teaching in Higher Education Project of the Programme on Institutional Management of Higher Education (IMHE) of the OECD, of which the UOC is an institutional member and in which it has participated as a case study. The aim of the programme is to ascertain how universities guarantee and develop their quality processes in the teaching and content of their learning offer. OECD analyst, Fabrice Hénard, was in charge of reviewing the project. Fernando León García, President of CETYS University, Baja California, Mexico, managed the UOC case study.
[13/07/2011]
Interview with Cristóbal Cobo
We were already familiar with face-to-face learning, distance learning and e-learning. In Barcelona last week, though, we were introduced to a new concept, invisible learning, which takes place 24/7, in 3D and through 360°, by Cristóbal Cobo, researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and expert on digital skills. Co-author of Aprendizaje Invisible: Hacia una nueva ecología de la educación ['Invisible Learning: Toward a new ecology of education'], Cobo took part in the most recent Debates on Education event, where he advocated a rethink on educational institutions and spoke of the need to ensure the recognition and assessment of knowledge acquired in non-formal settings.
[10/06/2011]
Interview with Enrico Spolaore
"An independent Catalonia could be as economically viable as any other country"
Enrico Spolaore is Professor of Economics at Tufts University (Massachusetts, United States). An Economics graduate from the Sapienza University of Rome and with doctorates from the universities of Siena and Harvard, he is a specialist in political economy, international economy and economic growth. His research includes the relationship between the size of states and their economic development. The conclusions of his work, alongside Alberto Alesina, were published in The Size of Nations (2003) / La mida les nacions (2008). He recently took part in the international seminar entitled 'Small nations at a time of crisis. Seeking the way out', co-organised by the UOC and the CatDem Foundation.
[31/05/2011]
Interview with Hunter Hoffman
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) co-organised the 1st International Forum on Health Care and Information and Communication Technology between 8 and 10 March. The event also involved the IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Canada; the University of Valencia, and Jaume I University. Thanks to the At Home programme run by the UOC, with the support of "la Caixa", the meeting was attended by several international experts on psychology and health care. One of them was Dr Hunter Hoffman (University of Washington in Seattle), a pioneer in using virtual reality (VR) to reduce fear and pain, who presented the paper entitled An ICT Solution to Pain. Virtual Reality Pain Distraction for Burn Patients and VR Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. During his lecture in Barcelona, Dr Hoffman presented a therapy based on VR pain distraction that reduces the pain intensity reported by severe burn patients during wound care by 25-50%.
[13/05/2011]
Interview with Isaac Mao, director of the Social Brain Foundation
The renowned Chinese blogger Isaac Mao was the focus of attention at the recent UOC Associate Companies and Institutions Meeting. The director of the Social Brain Foundation defended his theory of Sharism as a new paradigm in business culture and the information and communication society whereby organisations can benefit from sharing networked knowledge.
[26/04/2011]
Interview with Patrick J. McGrath
The Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) hosted the 1st International Forum on Health Care and Information and Communication Technology (HICT 2011) from 8 to 10 of March. The event was co-organised by this institution, the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Canada; the University of Valencia, and Jaume I University. Thanks to the At Home programme – a collaborative agreement between the UOC and "la Caixa" – the conference involved prestigious international experts in the field. One the lecturers was Dr Patrick J. McGrath, Vice President of Research at the IWK Health Centre and Canada Research Chair and Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, who talked about family centred health care through technology. During HICT, Dr McGrath presented the Strongest Families programme, an innovative distance treatment aimed at children with behaviour and anxiety problems based on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
[08/04/2011]
Interview with Jaume Curbet
"We live in a country that readily buys into the myth of regulations"
Un mundo inseguro. La seguridad en la sociedad del riesgo ['An insecure world. Security in the risk society'] (Editorial UOC) is the title of the latest book by Jaume Curbet, director of the public safety policies programme at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and research associate in security at the Barcelona Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies, a research group of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The publication was presented during the week in which Curbet gave a seminar at the UOC on security in the risk society. His experience as an advisor on security policies, both nationally and internationally, makes him a leading authority on the subject. It has also led him to conclude that we often take the same approaches to different problems and that we ought to seek universal security rather than that of individuals and specific groups.
[17/03/2011]
Interview with Irving Waxman and Marc Giovannini
"The internet has changed patients' attitude"
Marc Giovannini, oncologist and head of the endoscopy service at the Institut Paoli-Calmettes in Marseille, and Irving Waxman, director of the Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics at the University of Chicago, took part in the closing ceremony of the UOC's endoscopic ultrasonography specialisation course, held jointly with the Centre Mèdic Teknon and the Hospital de Bellvitge in February. In this interview, not only do these two doctors review the progress made in their field of specialisation, but they also reflect on how new technology affects current medical care.
[28/02/2011]
Interview with Fiona Ellis-Chadwick
"The Internet may be a different medium, but the rules of business are the same"
On 10 January, the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) of the University of Oxford co-sponsored 'Consumers and Internet Studies: a Workshop'. The event brought together experts from around the world to discuss and debate growing consumer power on the Internet. In this interview, Fiona Ellis-Chadwick, Senior Lecturer in Retail Management at the Open University (OU) Business School and a bona fide expert in the development and applications of e-marketing and online retailing, reflects on the present and future of a business model that only continues to grow.
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