This week I was working from home. Politically it was a chaotic week, as from Tuesday evening, there were multiple resignations across the government, which culminated with Boris Johnson standing down as leader on Thursday morning. We had three Education Secretaries of State in three days, and at one point there were no ministers in the Department for Education.
I took some leave this week, and spent much of the rest of the week planning for next week, next month and the next year.
I published a more detailed blog post about the Learning at City conference I attended last week.
Overall I had a really good day and enjoyed all the sessions I attended.
I have been reviewing the drafts of the revised Intelligent Campus guide, which was originally published in 2017. This revised version is updated and sets the scene, potentially, for future guides and reports in this space. The first of these will be likely a guide to the Intelligent Library. We have also been revising the many use cases we published for the Intelligent Campus.
Going forward there are lots of opportunities, and this will be led by sector need after scoping and researching the space. I am planning a series of community events and workshops across this space for next year.
One area I think has potential is the intelligent learning space. I did write about this two years ago, in a blog post.
An intelligent learning space could take data from a range of sources, not just the physical aspects of the space and how it is being used, but also the data from digital systems such as attendance records, the virtual learning environment, the library, student records, electronic point-of-sale and online services. This joined-up approach can provide insights into the student experience that we would otherwise miss. These insights can inform and support decision-making by individuals across the campus, including students, academic and professional service staff. By using live and dynamic data, decisions can be made that are based on the current state of the different learning spaces across the campus.
Is this something we need? Would it be useful, or would it only result in marginal benefits to the overall student experience?
Had a scoping call about a possible presentation to HEAnet in Dublin in September, which will be good.
My top tweet this week was this one.
I am losing count of how many resignations we have had, and I suspect by the time I have finished typing out this tweet, we might have had a few more….
— James Clay (@jamesclay) July 6, 2022