Tag Archives: communication

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Communicating with impact – Weeknote #71 – 10th July 2020

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Early in the week I was preparing for my presentation on Friday, as well as working on some more future vignettes.

I spent two days this week doing CPD on “communicating with impact”. Though I have spent over twenty five years presenting, I still think there are things you can learn and unlearn as well.

conference
Image by Florian Pircher from Pixabay

Jisc made the news having helped UK universities comply with China internet limits for their international students who are unable or unwilling to travel to the UK.

UK universities are testing a new online teaching link for students in China – which will require course materials to comply with Chinese restrictions on the internet.

The pilot project involves four Russell Group universities – King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, York and Southampton – and is run by JISC, formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee, which provides digital services for UK universities.

BBC hasn’t quite caught up that JISC is now Jisc.

Despite hearing some anecdotal evidence to the contrary, it was interesting to read in the Guardian that  UK universities receive record number of applications in lockdown.

A record 40.5% of all 18-year-olds in the UK have applied to go to university, with numbers rising significantly during lockdown, according to the university admissions service UCAS.

We are seeing a political shift in how central Government view the university sector.

Government to scrap 50% of young to university target

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is to scrap a commitment to get 50% of England’s young people into university, which was reached for the first time last year.

He is also promising a German-style further education system with a focus on higher technical qualifications.

Tony Blair set the target over 20 years ago to boost social mobility.

University campus
Image by Quinn Kampschroer from Pixabay

Friday I delivered a presentation at the University of Hertfordshire Teaching & Learning Conference. Originally when planned I would have travelled over to Hatfield to deliver the conference in person. With everything that has happened since March, I did my presentation via Teams. My presentation was on learning analytics and ethics.

My top tweet this week was this one.

m-learning, mobile, news

Using more comms stuff

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Ofcom have published a report, according to a BBC article, on the use of communication in the UK.

Britons are spending more time using communications services but paying less for them, says an Ofcom report.

Every day in 2007, the average consumer spent 7 hours and 9 minutes watching TV, on the phone, using the internet or using other services, it says.

Since 2002, mobile use has doubled and PC and laptop use has grown fourfold, says the watchdog’s annual review.

Though with falling costs of internet and mobile phones, though the UK is using more comms stuff, it is in fact spending less…

But the average UK household spend on communications in 2007 was £93.63 a month – a fall of £1.53 on 2006.

This certainly reiterates that our learners are well versed in the use of digital communication tools and therefore would probably be quite at home using them for learning.

Using more comms stuff

Photo source.

altc2007, blog, blogging

Caught in the act…

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It seems I am not the only one who was entertained by David Bryson’s piece on A blog about bloggers blogging others also enjoyed it, including Steve and Haydn.

I was caught on camera, and yes I was blogging (and eating at the same time).

Blogging and eating

I did also talk to the person sitting next to me…

One thing that I have found blogging about stuff at ALT-C is how it can be used to create and stimulate verbal communication. I doubt I would have spoken to Steve Wheeler if he hadn’t blogged about a session we both attended and on his blog he mentioned my blog.

Other delegates have come up to me and mentiond my blog. Others have mentioned the photographs I have uploaded to Flickr.

Yes everyone  focusing on their computers can be seen to be rude (here I am typing this during a session), but I know I have talked and discussed more during this conference as a result of blogging then I have at previous ALT conferences.

I reflected during the refreshment break this morning that though there were some people using laptops, many, many more were talking.

Personally I think blogging has improved the verbal discussion not replaced it.