Awards winner trophies at the ceremony. Photo credit: Greg Macvean.
Congratulations to Toni Scullion, Computing Science teacher and co-lead of Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS). Toni was recognised as an Edinburgh Napier University Alumni Excellence Award winner at a ceremony at the University’s Craiglockhart campus last Thursday 6th November. Continue reading
Dr Bruce Ryan
After 13 years at Edinburgh Napier University, Dr Bruce Ryan’s role as Senior Research Fellow has come to an end. Last Friday, I joined Bruce for a special meal to mark his last day in paid employment at the University. Amongst the other guests were our (former) colleagues Dr Peter Cruickshank, Dr David Haynes, and Dr Rachel Salzano.
I worked closely with Bruce for over a decade when we were colleagues in the Centre for Social Informatics. Of the many projects on which we collaborated, three stand out: Continue reading
Dr Rachel Salzano
Congratulations to Dr Rachel Salzano, who starts the new academic year 2024/5 with a permanent contract as a lecturer in the Applied Informatics subject group of the School of Computing, Engineering, and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University.
Rachel initially took up a fixed-term post within the Group soon after completing her PhD on public libraries, forced migrants, and culture, which I supervised from 2019 within the Centre for Social Informatics alongside Dr David Brazier and Dr Gemma Webster (now a lecturer at Dundee University). It is great news that Rachel‘s contract is now open-ended. Continue reading
There is still time to submit contributions to the next iSchools iConference. However, if you are working on a research paper (full or short), or a poster, next week’s Monday deadline is fast approaching. Continue reading
Dr Iris Buunk
All the best to Edinburgh Napier University PhD graduate Dr Iris Buunk, who has recently taken up a new position at the Service écoles-médias (SEM), DIP Etat de Genève. Iris’ new job title is Scientific Assistant and Project Manager. In her new role as a member of staff of the Département de l’instruction publique, de la formation de la jeunesse, Iris contributes to the development of digital technology, audiovisual, and documentation services for teaching staff working in primary and secondary schools in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Iris’ new job also includes project management, research, and event organisation, as well as managing a team of around ten colleagues. Continue reading
‘Podcasting the archive: An evaluation of audience engagement with a narrative non-fiction podcast series’ is now available in issue 2 of volume 28 of Archives, published last month. I am a co-author of the article alongside Dr Bruce Ryan, Marianne Wilson, and Dr Iain McGregor.
In this work we compare audience engagement with a Second World War archive presented digitally in two formats as: (1) images and text in a Blipfoto journal, and (2) sound in an eight-episode podcast series (which starts with episode 1 here). The main findings reveal differences in levels of engagement for each presentation in respect of entertainment value, learning opportunities, and emotional response. Flexibility of access and authenticity of the archived material were also found to be important to audience engagement, with the nature of contextual information provided alongside the core archive key to the latter. Here we further understanding of facets of audience engagement with digitised archives while opening up new thinking on means of encouraging the general public to interact in more meaningful ways with historical records. Continue reading
Congratulations to Dr Bruce Ryan, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Computing Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, on securing funding for a new research project.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Scotland (CILIPS) has funded Bruce to undertake research into the ways that school librarians can help pupils understand the implications of misinformation (i.e. incorrect information that has been created and disseminated by mistake) and disinformation (i.e. false information that has been deliberately created and disseminated with intent to mislead).
Bruce will collect qualitative and quantitative data from school librarians by focus group and in interviews on their: (1) efforts to help pupils in navigating challenging information landscapes and handling misinformation and disinformation; (2) training needs in fulfilling this role; and (3) collaborative work with teachers to address pupils’ understanding of misinformation and disinformation. Continue reading
Dr Marina Milosheva’s full PhD thesis Career information literacy and the decision-making behaviours of young people is now available from the Edinburgh Napier repository.
On the basis of the ESRC/SDS-funded empirical work reported in the thesis, Marina presents three main contributions to theory:
‘Podcasting the archive: an evaluation of audience engagement with a narrative non-fiction podcast series’ has been accepted for publication by Archives journal in October 2024. This contribution is the main output of the AHRC-Creative Informatics funded Platform to platform project. It is co-authored by Dr Bruce Ryan, Professor Hazel Hall, Marianne Wilson, and Dr Iain McGregor. Continue reading
Shakespeare’s pub on Lothian Road was transformed into the Napier Graduate last week
Congratulations to Dr Marina Milosheva, whose doctoral degree was conferred in absentia at the Edinburgh Napier graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh last Friday 5th July. Although Marina did not attend the ceremony in person, this day was a significant milestone in her PhD journey. This is because it is only from the date of the graduation ceremony that new PhD graduates are permitted to place the term ‘Dr’ before their names. Continue reading
Hazel Hall 