About

Thanks for taking time to look at my site. I am an ESRC-funded PhD student in the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. My research and teaching interests are concerned with multimodality, assessment, digital cultures and learning spaces. You can contact me at  j.i.lamb@sms.ed.ac.uk and follow me on Twitter at @james858499.

This is a summary of my Doctoral Research:

‘A sonic ethnography of the digital shift across disciplines’
This thesis is concerned with the ways that the pedagogic and societal shift to the digital is affecting the nature of education. Taking the examples of undergraduate courses in American History and Architectural Design at a research-intensive university, I am investigating how the proliferation of digital technologies and networked content is influencing teaching and assessment, as well as the environments where learning takes place. I am using a broadly ethnographic and qualitative approach, with a particular emphasis on sonic materials and practices as a method of social inquiry. This approach, which is influenced by contemporary work in speculative research and the concept of the methods assemblage, is supported by interviews, observation and a digital journaling exercise.
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Beyond my research I teach on the Education and Digital Cultures and Assessment, Learning and Digital Education courses, both within the MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, as was a teaching assistant on the recent edX Social Research Methods MOOC. I am also a co-author of the Manifesto for Teaching Online.

Other areas of current research include the learning spaces of online distance students, urban walking ethnography and sound within qualitative social research. 

I also look after the Elektronisches Lernen Muzik and Composition: Conversations about Content and Form project. 

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