I stopped using the Twitter in September. Though I still yet to delete my account, partly as I think one day, it might go back to what it was. Well one can dream. If I do look at the service, I come away disappointed and saddened.
The last conference I really used Twitter was ALT-C 2023.
I have been using Twitter at the ALT conferences since I joined Twitter in 2007. In 2010 I had said about the Twitter
Overall from my experience, Twitter has really added value to conferences I have attended and made them more joined up and much more a social affair. It has helped to build a real community, especially at ALT-C.
This year, not so much.
There hadn’t been a huge amount of engagement on Twitter at ALT-C 2022 so I didn’t have huge expectations.
Much of the online discussion that took place at ALT-C 2023 this year was on a Discord server, but it still wasn’t at the levels that I have seen in previous years.
I have seen a continual decline in the engagement with conference backchannels. I do wonder why this is?
I was mainly in London this week trying to avoid the rain.
I was attending the WonkHE Festival of Higher Education, this is the conference previously known as WonkFest. The name change was more about the challenge in delegates getting funding to come to the event… so you want to go to a conference, that should be fine, what’s it called. Seriously?
It was a rather good conference, some really good sessions, too much choice sometimes. Only downside was, one of the rooms for the parallel sessions, was too small, so as a result lots of people who wanted to attend the session were turned away (including me).
I enjoyed the session, “in conversation with David Aaronovitch“ I did have a question about the Remembrance of the Daleks… but a quick check of Wikipedia and I realise that Ben Aaronovitch wrote the Daleks and is David’s brother… So won’t be asking that question then!
I had to spend some time reviewing and collating materials, and writing briefing note and bullet points for a panel session at HEAnet on Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of the Modern Campus. As the considered expert on the intelligent campus, I often get asked to provide a perspective on the future of the university campus.
It is the intelligent campus that I will be speaking about, next week at Learning Places Scotland 2023 in Glasgow. I am doing a presentation on building the intelligent campus.
Universities and colleges spend billions on their campuses, yet they are frequently underutilised and are often a frustrating experience for students. In this session, James Clay will describe the campus of the future. How does a traditional campus become a smart campus? What are the steps to make a smart campus, an intelligent campus? The intelligent campus builds on the smart campus concept and aims to find effective ways to use data gathered from the physical estate and combine it with learning and student data from student records, library systems, the virtual learning environment (VLE) and other digital systems. This session will describe what data can be gathered, how it can be measured and explore the potential for enhancing the student experience, achieving net zero, improve efficiency, and space utilisation. It will demonstrate and explain to the delegates what the exciting future of the intelligent campus. James will also ask delegates to consider the ethical issues when implementing an intelligent campus as well as the legal requirements.
I had to plan in a call to discuss the presentation.
On Monday before heading off to London, I had a great discussion with colleagues in the office about broadcast and recording capabilities within our Bristol office. The reality is that though I would love to have a proper TV studio in the office I really need to plan and deliver some initial content first, to provide some foundations to a proof of concept.
There was a discussion on the possible future of the office, as in redesigning the space to reflect the current (hybrid) working practices. So more collaborative spaces, more occasional spaces, more spaces for online conversations and meetings, and so on…
Continued doing more work on the planning, reflection, and researching concept of optimisation of operations and data.
I had a great meeting with Josie Fraser discussing digital skills and digitisation.
Had a pre-meeting for Jisc OfS meeting next week. As a result I have some preparation to do.
I did miss using the Twitter at the conference this week, though I did post to Bluesky and Threads, it wasn’t quite the same, and very little engagement. I did look at the Twitter and there were some posts, so I do think even if I had engaged, there wouldn’t have been a serious amount of traction and discussion.
I was in our Bristol office for an in-person workshop. I was attending a community manager training understanding behaviours workshop in Bristol. The workshop was led by Dave White. The focus was on digital practice and involved looking at visitors and residents and mapping your online activities.
I have done this workshop before quite a few times, and have even delivered a version of it as part of the Digital Leaders Programme and at the ALT Conference. So it was very familiar territory for me.
Despite having participated before in these kinds of workshops, I still threw myself into the process.
It was interesting to map my internet activity, as my online behaviours have changed quite a bit over the last few years (and even over the last few months).
One of the interesting observations as I reflect on the map, is what is missing. I use Google to search everyday, and I think that has become so normalised in my behaviour that I didn’t even consider putting it in. Having said that I am using search in Google Maps a lot more these days and that is something I didn’t use to to (and it is on the map).
I also reflected that Wikipedia is not there either, and this is a site I use on a regular basis for both finding out stuff and checking information, but I also use it to read about stuff that I find interesting, sometimes going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of articles.
WordPress, a tool I use all the time for blogging was also missing in action.
On previous maps I did, Twitter was huge bubble or square on the map, today X is over on the left side of the map. Whereas before I would consider my behaviour to be resident in Twitter, these days it is a place I visit rarely and stopped engaging with the site last month. My replacements of Bluesky and Threads are there, but from a personal social perspective Facebook has become more dominant.
After using Flickr album at ALT-C in September, I have been thinking about re-engaging with the service and paying the subscription. ALT-C was also where Discord became my conference tool of choice, I think though that my use of that will decline over the next few months.
Another service, which I use to use a lot, Google Docs, is now a much smaller part of my digital footprint. I certainly don’t use it like I did a few years ago. Maybe that is the nature of the work I am doing, but I think also the use of Office 365 at work has changed how I collaborate on shared documents.
The work stuff is there, Outlook, Teams, (what was Yammer) and Dovetail. Though I personally use JIRA and Confluence, the rest of the people I work with don’t. I think what is interesting for me is how Outlook is a place I visit, but don’t necessarily use as a key communication or engagement tool, that’s where Teams comes into play.
Overall I did enjoy doing the mapping exercise and then reflecting on my practice.
I managed to snag an invite code for Bluesky, which I am now using alongside Threads as a micro-blogging platform instead of X (what as the Twitter).
I haven’t quite engaged with my community on Bluesky, still more lurking (listening) than participating and engaging.
As with Threads, I will give Bluesky for time and engagement as experience tells me it takes time for a social media platform time to bed in and become part of people’s lives. I worry though as it is in beta, will it scale, but more importantly as it isn’t that easy and simple to sign up to (you need an invite code) will that mean people won’t join and seek a home elsewhere. Without a community, then there is a chance that people will stop visiting and not engage.
I went to the office quite a bit this week, travelling to Bristol. Our offices are busy, not packed, but busy.
Most of the week was continuing the planning, reflection, and researching concept of optimisation of operations and data. I was also researching and analysing the background, exemplars, benefits, issues, challenges, and barriers to shared services across higher education. I then started planning a potential report structure.
We had our monthly HEIRLT Leadership Meeting, and I also had my monthly one to one.
I did some planning and preparation for presentation for Learning Places Scotland 2023. I am doing a presentation on building the intelligent campus.
Universities and colleges spend billions on their campuses, yet they are frequently underutilised and are often a frustrating experience for students. In this session, James Clay will describe the campus of the future. How does a traditional campus become a smart campus? What are the steps to make a smart campus, an intelligent campus? The intelligent campus builds on the smart campus concept and aims to find effective ways to use data gathered from the physical estate and combine it with learning and student data from student records, library systems, the virtual learning environment (VLE) and other digital systems. This session will describe what data can be gathered, how it can be measured and explore the potential for enhancing the student experience, achieving net zero, improve efficiency, and space utilisation. It will demonstrate and explain to the delegates what the exciting future of the intelligent campus. James will also ask delegates to consider the ethical issues when implementing an intelligent campus as well as the legal requirements.
I was asked to conduct an initial ‘triage’ review of Jisc online advice and guidance that I am responsible for. There isn’t a huge amount on the Jisc website, so didn’t take long.
Did some preparation for Investigative study of higher education delivery in Wales session I am attending next week.
Starting to realise how over the last few years (but not really over the last few months) how much stuff I would get and learn from what was the Twitter. I made the decision to disengage from the Twitter and though not gone so far to delete my account, I haven’t posted there since September, I haven’t really got the same engagement and traction with Bluesky and Threads. I also realised that by tweeting out links and news, I would have a mechanism for remembering these stories and websites. Currently I don’t think the answer is Threads or Bluesky, but it might be in the future. I think I will need to rethink my workflows for news and content. I have done this before when Google Reader stopped working.
This week, due to engineering work, there were no trains between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol. I also took a day’s leave bizarrely enough to travel on a steam train.
Quite a few meetings were cancelled this week, which I find frustrating.
I spent time this week on preparing a session and designing a presentation for a Leadership Masterclass, entitled Operationalising your Strategic Vision. This is an internal ninety minute online session about strategy and operationalisation of that strategy. Some of that masterclass will be based on this blog post on breakfast.
I also made the decision, rather than record the masterclass, it will be a rather interactive session, which a recording won’t capture.
Instead I will create a new and “proper” recorded video of the session that can then be used.
Attended a pipeline call with a team about their current future work.
I went back through and reviewed sessions I attended at ALT-C. This year they recorded all the sessions, so there is an opportunity to go and watch sessions I missed.
Had a call about a proposed session idea at Digifest 24.
I had to undertake various software and security updates. Took the opportunity to update the iPhone to iOS 17.
Had a short meeting on software licensing.
I have been working on some objectives for the next twelve months.
I have been reflecting on what good is, what it looks like, how would we know, what do we mean by good, how would we define good. How do we know something is good. What are the criteria we are using to base that judgement on?
I have decided to call it a day with what was the Twitter. So no more top tweets of the week. There’s a blog post there. Maybe.
A shorter week this week as there was a Bank Holiday (in England).
I had planned to be in our Bristol office and even visit our London office this week, however due to some mechanical issues with my car, I spent the week working from home.
I had my Q4 review for 2022-2023, I do find that these weeknotes are useful in preparing for those kinds of meetings. I did reflect that I haven’t been doing much writing in the learning technology space, so for next year I am planning to do some more researching, thinking, and importantly, more writing.
I spent time preparing for ALT-C next week, my presentation is on Wednesday and I am chairing a session on Thursday. Due to a variety of reasons and compounded by the car problems, I am having to sort out some logistical issues.
I also attended an internal Jisc briefing on ALT-C, there are quite a few Jisc sessions at the conference, as well as two stands and some afternoon tea.
On Wednesday 30th August there was an #LTHEChat hosted by the ALT-C 2023 co-chairs, Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. I had initially planned to participate, but in the end, I went to the cinema instead. So the following morning I did some responses to the prompts from the chat. I thought though I would expand on some of my answers to the different questions in a blog post to go beyond the character limit on the Twitter.
I still think what I did at Gloucestershire College in changing the culture and approach to the use of technology in the organisation. Approaching it from a holistic whole college approach. Lots of small steps from everyone. Anchoring the change.
There is one talk though that has stuck in my mind and even many years later was from ALT-C 2020 and was given by Dave White.
I did think that this process was useful in preparing for ALT-C next week.
I have been looking at learning spaces, so spent some time reflecting on ideas for learning spaces thought leadership and content. The focus on interdependencies and the compromises that flexible learning spaces bring to the student experience. I made some notes and planning for a blog post on the flexible learning space compromise.
I have been planning a Leadership Masterclass – Operationalising your Strategic Vision session that I am delivering later in September.
On Wednesday 30th August there was an #LTHEChat hosted by the ALT-C 2023 co-chairs, Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps.
LTHEchat will host a summer special chat led by #altc23 Conference Chairs Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. Dual hashtags will be used #altc23 and #LTHEchat. This special summer special takes a look back at 30 years of educational technology as the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrates 30 years, as do Jisc, and the Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA). Educational or Learning Technologies have shaped higher education, especially in recent years during the pandemic, but the history of educational technology goes way back. In this LTHEchat, we ask you to remember your first experiences of learning technology in a work setting, what learning technology might be, if we had unlimited financial resources, what new ‘next big things’ didn’t take off and what do you remember from previous ALT Conferences?
I had initially planned to participate, but in the end, I went to the cinema instead.
So the following morning I did some responses to the prompts from the chat. I thought though I would expand on some of my answers to the different questions in a blog post to go beyond the character limit on the Twitter.
As a result I have written six different blog posts.
Q6 Which talk, presentation, workshop or person do you remember from previous ALT Conferences and why?
There are quite a few keynotes, presentations and workshops across the twenty odd years I have been attending the ALT Conference that stick in my mind. Some that I participated in probably stick in my mind the most.
There is one talk though that has stuck in my mind and even many years later was from ALT-C 2020 and was given by Dave White.
“Sailing against the trade winds? How online distance learning could help maintain the character of higher education in stormy seas.” Invited speaker session by David White, Senior Manager: Development with Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL) at the University of Oxford
The talk by Dave followed the infamous keynote from Donald Clark about HE lectures. Donald Clark had opened the conference with his keynote, and riled people and annoyed them with a blanket attack on the lecture. What Donald Clark did was to challenge our perception of the lecture, and it appeared to me that the over-whelming consensus of the audience was that the lecture still had some place in the delivery of education.
Dave with his extensive experience with TALL at the University of Oxford certainly well qualified to understand the benefits and limitations of online delivery. However he discussed during his talk the importance of the social benefit that physical lectures provide for a community of learners. The phrase he used, which I have borrowed numerous times, was eventedness. The synergy and social impact that happens when a group of people come together physically for an in-person experience This is though not impossible to recreate online, is very challenging.
This was something that came up again and again in our research during the covid pandemic, talking to students about their digital and online experiences. The students often spoke about how they missed the lecture, digging deeper it was apparent that what they were missed was the eventedness of that in-person lecture, and this wasn’t being recreated online in the Zoom and Teams calls they were attending. As Dave said in 2010, recreating that eventedness online isn’t impossible, but it is very challenging, and it isn’t about creating a digital copy of the analogue physical experience. You have to do different things to build that community taking advantage of the affordances that online and digital can bring, making the most of asynchronous discussion for example.
The presentation from Dave is the talk that I remember most from the ALT Conference. I should add that the Web 2.0 Slam sessions from 2007 and beyond were a very close second.
On Wednesday 30th August there was an #LTHEChat hosted by the ALT-C 2023 co-chairs, Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps.
LTHEchat will host a summer special chat led by #altc23 Conference Chairs Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. Dual hashtags will be used #altc23 and #LTHEchat. This special summer special takes a look back at 30 years of educational technology as the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrates 30 years, as do Jisc, and the Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA). Educational or Learning Technologies have shaped higher education, especially in recent years during the pandemic, but the history of educational technology goes way back. In this LTHEchat, we ask you to remember your first experiences of learning technology in a work setting, what learning technology might be, if we had unlimited financial resources, what new ‘next big things’ didn’t take off and what do you remember from previous ALT Conferences?
I had initially planned to participate, but in the end, I went to the cinema instead.
So the following morning I did some responses to the prompts from the chat. I thought though I would expand on some of my answers to the different questions in a blog post to go beyond the character limit on the Twitter.
As a result I have written six different blog posts.
Q5 What would be one piece of advice you’d give yourself in the past about learning technology?
It’s always about the people. Always.
With technology it is easy to focus sometimes on the hardware, the software, the shiny.
When discussing learning technology about their experiences with technology, I often found that whilst my peers were messing about with computers in the 1980s, I ignored the Commodore VIC-20 we got as a family Christmas present and was more interested in other stuff. Really didn’t see the point of computers, apart from playing the occasional game.
For me technology was a solution to a different problem.
Being able to create edit a document, rather than using a typewriter, well WordPerfect was perfect for that. The problem was that I wanted to create something, and WordPerfect allowed me to do that. Looking at cashflow forecasts, Lotus 1-2-3 meant that I could make quick changes to the forecast and the spreadsheet would automatically recalculate the cashflow forecast. If I wanted to add graphics and pictures to a document, something like PagePlus would allow me to do that so much more easily.
One thing I did discover as I started to use technology more and more, was that there were people who were interested in the technology and what it could do. However, there were a lot more people who were not interested in the technology, but were interested in something else, and once they recognised how technology could enhance what they were doing, or make it easier, or make it faster.
That really became my focus, working with people on their challenges, problems, and issues; then seeing if technology could make a difference.
On Wednesday 30th August there was an #LTHEChat hosted by the ALT-C 2023 co-chairs, Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps.
LTHEchat will host a summer special chat led by #altc23 Conference Chairs Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. Dual hashtags will be used #altc23 and #LTHEchat. This special summer special takes a look back at 30 years of educational technology as the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrates 30 years, as do Jisc, and the Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA). Educational or Learning Technologies have shaped higher education, especially in recent years during the pandemic, but the history of educational technology goes way back. In this LTHEchat, we ask you to remember your first experiences of learning technology in a work setting, what learning technology might be, if we had unlimited financial resources, what new ‘next big things’ didn’t take off and what do you remember from previous ALT Conferences?
I had initially planned to participate, but in the end, I went to the cinema instead.
So the following morning I did some responses to the prompts from the chat. I thought though I would expand on some of my answers to the different questions in a blog post to go beyond the character limit on the Twitter.
As a result I have written six different blog posts.
Q4 Which ‘next big thing’ that didn’t quite take off do you most remember?
I probably have a list….
PLEs
MOOCs
OER
Second Life
There was often a lot of excitement about these technologies, but they never had that big impact that people thought they would.
For those of us involved in extreme e-learning or technology enhanced learning, we sometimes focus on the innovative, the exciting, the new, the shiny stuff. Well it’s where we want to be isn’t it, cutting edge and all that? We want to be using iPads, Android Tablets, the latest and best Web 2.0 tools and services. We get so excited at times that we even do projects and research on them, before writing it up, putting the stuff on a shelf and moving to the next new shiny thing.
So thinking about this tweet I was trying to think of something that did take off….
Probably PowerPoint. The use of email is another thing that did take off.
The main reason why these technologies are important is that the majority of practitioners within an institution will not be at the cutting edge, will not be using all technologies innovatively. This means when planning training and staff development it is vital that dull technologies are included and allowed for. Just because we are bored with something doesn’t mean that someone else in your organisation will find it exciting and just the thing to solve the particular problem they are facing.
Dull as in not shiny rather than, dull as in boring.
news and views on e-learning, TEL and learning stuff in general…
