cearta.ie – Page 42 – the Irish for rights

In the photo montage on the left (by Catherine Cronin on flickr), pictured speaking at last week’s symposium in Trinity College Dublin on Disrupting Higher Education were, (from the left) Audrey Watters, Sian Bayne and Diana Laurillard. I have already blogged about the introduction to the symposium here, and about the first speakers here, including Laurillard’s contribution. Watters and Bayne spoke in the afternoon session, which was opened by Dr Rob Robinson (Solutions Director at Blackboard; President of the US Distance Learning Association) on the institutional components for quality online delivery.

He began by observing that online delivering is currently at the edge of higher education institutions, but that the existence and evolution of MOOCs is increasingly pushing online teaching and learning to heart of those institutions. They are looking at online delivery for three reasons, to increase access, to meet social objectives, and to increase revenue. But if they are to be successful, they must get the quality right. “Quality”, he said repeatedly, “is an institutional commitment”. This requires that online delivery must align with the core mission of the institution, that online courses must have sound pedagogical design, that the technical infrastructure must be sufficient, and that there must be appropriate technical and academic support.…

Disrupting Higher Education – II – remodelling higher education to harness technology

26 February, 20133 March, 2013

| 3 Comments

| Universities

Last week, Trinity College Dublin hosted an international symposium on Online Higher Education – Disrupting Higher Education to stimulate discussion about technology-enhanced learning, the opportunities and challenges associated with offering free online courses, and meeting the educational needs of online learners (hashtags #OpenHE #DHE #disruptinghighered on twitter; storified here and here). Pictured left are the Provost of TCD, Dr Patrick Prendergast, the Dean of Graduate Studies, TCD, Prof Veronica Campbell, and CEO of the Higher Education Authority, Tom Boland; and I blogged about their speeches here. The presentations will be soon podcast, and the slides will also be available, and the full text of the Provost’s speech is now available here. Meantime, here are some more of my thoughts from the day.

Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies in the London Knowledge Lab of the Institute of Education, University of London, spoke about “remodelling higher education to harness technology”. Her ultimate point is that the innovation here is by the teachers and lecturers using the technology. She began by pointing to the massively increasing global demand for higher education: the draft UNESCO goals for education after 2015 will see a great expansion of education to meet the increasing needs for knowledge and skills worldwide; this implies teacher training needs in higher education; and this in turn raises questions as to the purposes of higher education.…

Disrupting Higher Education – I – changing universities

19 February, 20133 March, 2013

| 3 Comments

| Universities

Trinity College Dublin today hosted a symposium in the Science Gallery on Online Higher Education – Disrupting Higher Education – to stimulate discussion about technology-enhanced learning, the opportunities and challenges associated with offering free online courses, and meeting the educational needs of online learners (hashtags #OpenHE #DHE #disruptinghighered on twitter; storified here). Here are some of my thoughts on the day. The presentations will be podcast, and the slides will be available, so you can go right to the source in due course, but this summary can serve in the meantime.

Prof Veronica Campbell (Dean of Graduates Studies, TCD) welcomed us to the symposium. She was too modest to say so, but the symposium was her brainchild. She said that the symposium will allow us to learn from those at the vanguard of online higher education, not least massive open online courses (MOOCs). They raise fundamental questions about optimum business models, especially where universities aim to stimulate critical thinking rather than merely transfer information. She left us with the thoughts of David Puttnam, recently–minted Digital Champion for Ireland, who warns that the digital world has destroyed distance. So, the question for the day is, if distance is not longer an issue in higher education, where does it go from here?…

B&Q Ireland will honour vouchers during Examinership – updated

31 January, 201320 August, 2018

| No Comments

| Consumer

The High Court has today approved a petition for the appointment of an interim Examiner to B&Q Ireland, a home improvement and garden centre retailer. A statement on the B&Q website explains:

During the examinership processs, it is anticipated that B&Q Ireland Ltd will continue to trade at all nine stores; all employees will be paid, and all pre-paid goods and services, including kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms and their installation, together with Gift Vouchers and Credit Notes will be honoured. Suppliers will be paid for goods and services supplied during the process. …

What about my credit note or gift voucher?
We are still honouring credit notes and gift vouchers throughout this process. We don’t want our customers to lose out.

Update (12 Feb 2013): the High Court has today confirmed the appointment; and it was confirmed to the court that all vouchers, credit notes and deposits will be honoured by the company throughout the examinership period.

This is a far more satisfactory approach than that taken in the context of HMV (see here, here and here). And the fact that B&Q can take this approach demonstrates that the Examinership process (or Administration, its UK equivalent) does not automatically preclude the company under the protection of the court from honouring vouchers.…

Privacy from Birth to Death and Beyond

30 January, 201331 January, 2013

| No Comments

| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Cyberlaw, Privacy

The image on the left is a detail from a poster advertising a symposium on Friday 8 March 2013 in NUI Galway on:

Privacy from Birth to Death and Beyond: European and American Perspectives

The exciting line-up of speakers includes:

José Maria Baño (José María Baño León Abogados, Madrid) “Case C-131/12 Google Spain, SL, and Google Inc v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos and The Right to be Forgotten”

Prof Joshua Fairfield (Washington and Lee University School of Law) “Do-Not-Track as Default: Transaction Costs in US Consumer Privacy”

Damien McCallig (NUI Galway School of Law) “Privacy on and after death”

Dr Sharon McLaughlin (Letterkenny Institute of Technology) “Children & Privacy: Protection v Participation – A Tangled Web”

Paul Lambert (Merrion Legal Solicitors) “Privacy issues in practice: A Litigation Light on Norwich, Abuse, Cyberbullying, Defamation, Privacy and Data Protection Concerns”

Dr Ciara Hackett (Queens University Belfast) Rapporteur’s Report

The symposium is organised by the LLM in Public Law and the LLM in Law, Technology and Governance at the School of Law, National University of Ireland Galway. You can register online. CPD certificates (4 hours) can be provided.…

I will always know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen

28 January, 20133 February, 2013

| 1 Comment

| Press Council, Privacy

The image is a thumbnail of an apology printed in yesterday’s Irish Mail on Sunday; click through for a full-size twitpic by David Cochrane. It is headed “Brian Cowen”, and it consists of four paragraph. The first paragraph (which consists of a single sentence) begins by referring to their story (update: which is no longer available at this link) of Cowen’s attendance at the Executive Education Programme at Stanford University which has been the subject of two earlier posts (here and here) on this blog, speculating as to the strength of Cowen’s possible complaint to the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman that article invaded his privacy. The Sunday Independent yesterday reported that Cowen’s complaint had indeed been submitted, that it had drawn a robust response from the Irish Mail on Sunday, and that it was being considered by the Press Ombudsman. Where appropriate, the Ombudsman seeks to mediate a resolution to a complaint, and, if the Sunday Independent is right that the matter was before the Ombudsman last week, then this apology may very well be the product of such a mediation process.

The second paragraph in the apology (which also consists of a single sentence) says that Cowen has made it clear that he paid for the course entirely out of his own resources.…

I still know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen

23 January, 20133 February, 2013

| 2 Comments

| Press Council, Privacy

This image, by Corey Seeman on Flickr, is the Monument to your Future Collaborators, on the pavement outside the Knight Management Center in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where Brian Cowen attended the Executive Education Programme last Summer. Cowen probably walked past it, if not over it, several times. But he now says that his attendance at that course was a private matter, and it seems he intends to complain to the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman that newspaper articles about it invaded his privacy. In my earlier post, I know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen (also here), I was not very sanguine about his chances. However, on his recently-started media law blog, MediaBelf, Jonathan McCully has taken me to task on this. In his post The Prime Minister who went to America to learn how to be a leader (also here) he makes a compelling case the other way.

One of his key points is that Cowen is no longer a public figure: “It is difficult to connect information relating to Mr. Cowen’s college activities, such as eating lunch and attending lectures, with the validity of what he had done in public office”.…

HMV will Honour My Vouchers after all, at least in the UK

22 January, 201324 January, 2013

| 1 Comment

| Consumer

According to TheJournal.ie, HMV stores in the UK are to start accepting vouchers again. Meanwhile, a sit-in by staff at some of HMV’s Irish stores came to an end over the weekend, as the Receiver confirmed that they would receive pay due to them; and, in a separate development, the Receiver also confirmed that the proceeds of a charity single would be paid. However, for so long as the Irish operation remains in an increasingly complex receivership and the shops are closed, there is no practical means by which to redeem vouchers, gift cards, and the like. But the UK operation is merely in Administration (equivalent to Examinership), and Sky News is reporting that the Administrators have bowed to public pressure, and have announced that gift cards and vouchers can be redeemed in stores from today (Tuesday). Update: calls from the Taoiseach on HMV to give their Irish customers the same rights as those in Britain to redeem vouchers seem to have fallen on deaf ears (in much the same way as calls to him to change the law in this regard have equally fallen on deaf ears, though some legislative changes might be afoot in the UK).…