RESEARCH PROJECTS > Open ICT Tools

Project Description Conference

The Global Studio is a part of the Open ICT Tools project, which aimed to trial and explore ICT tools that have the potential to facilitate a global collaborative engagement with business and community partners. The challenge was to facilitate a communication and multimedia data exchange between Northumbria University and participating external educational and business organisations without compromising the security of either Northumbria University IT infrastructure or that of the partner organisations. This was one of eight projects across the UK that were funded by JISC infoNet through the ‘Trialling of Online Collaborative Tools for Business and Community Engagement’ programme.

The Global Studio projects On the Move 2 and Entertainment Now have been developed and delivered through Open ICT Tools.

  • Cultural awareness
  • Improved writing skills
  • Communicating design strategy to a client
  • Providing and responding to peer feedback
  • Using technical drawings as a means of distance communication
  • Virtual teamwork skills
  • Distance communication skills

RESEARCH VALUES

The international collaborative research undertaken in the development of The Global Studio led to a number of research outputs - such as a book exploring the linking of research, teaching and learning, and high quality papers delivered at leading international conferences and articles appearing in international journals.

This research also contributed to the securing of internal and external research funding such as the 'Open ICT Tools: Collaborative Tools to Support BCE' project funded by JISC infoNet. This project explores the use of ICT tools to facilitate global collaborative and secured engagement with external business and community partners, and involves a team comprising members from across Northumbria University including LTech, IT Services, and CETL: AfL

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