Tag Archives: data protection

Down Solent Way – Weeknote #284 – 9th August 2024

August is a quiet time in higher education. University campuses, usually bustling with staff and students, become a calm oasis of peace. As with many organisations associated with education, Jisc is less busy and quieter.

I have been working on a report, which has required, interviews with key stakeholders across higher education, and so it has been somewhat of a relief that people have been around for those conversations.

On Tuesday I headed down the Solent way to Southampton by train for a lunch meeting with some senior colleagues from Solent University. It was a really useful meeting to discuss their challenges and how Jisc could help and support them. I also took the opportunity to test the waters of the report we’re producing on collaboration.

It’s the time of year where I get told to refresh my mandatory training, this time it was Data Protection and Information Security. I generally try and get these done, as soon as I am notified it is needed. In the past (in previous jobs) I would de-prioritise this kind of activity, as I would be busy doing other things. Then it would either be at or pass the deadline. The training would then be rushed, and a manager would be chasing me. Now I just get it done, it gets prioritised, so that it’s less of a worry and an annoyance.

In a similar vein, I did my end of year review paperwork as well. This is relatively easy to do as I record weekly activities, and these feed into both the review paperwork and these weeknotes.

Going local – Weeknote #70 – 3rd July 2020

A shorter week for me, as I took some time off for family business, well a birthday.

The Guardian reported on the Universities Minister, lambasting English universities for letting down students.

The 20-year crusade to get more young people into higher education appears at an end, after the universities minister accused England’s universities of “taking advantage” of students with dumbed-down courses that left them saddled with debt.

In a significant shift in policy, Michelle Donelan declared it was time to “think again” about the government’s use of higher education to boost social mobility.

Though wasn’t her government in charge for half of that time? What it appears this will mean is that courses which result in high paying jobs will take priority over those that don’t.

I have always felt that education was so much more than getting qualifications and as a result getting highly paid jobs. Some courses are useful to society, but not from a financial perspective. The question is though who pays for those courses, is it government or someone else?

I have been working on some vignettes about the future. They provide ideas, concept and inspiration on the future of higher education. They are not detailed plans of what is going to happen, but will stimulate discussion amongst leaders, managers and staff in universities on what might happen and what could happen.

Here is an early example:

The localised university

We have become so accustomed to young people leaving home to go off to university that the concept of not leaving home to participate in higher education, though common to many, was seen as a somewhat alien concept.

However with the cost of travel and housing rising, as well as concerns about climate change and the impact of travel and commuting on the environment. Many universities decided to take the university to the community.

Some of the delivery would be done individually online, it was also apparent that the connectedness and social aspects of learning would require students coming together.

In small towns across the country, groups of students would come together to learn. Even though the teaching was delivered remotely, the learning was done together. Core aspects of the course would be delivered to larger groups, whilst more specialised teaching would be delivered to smaller cohorts or in some cases individually. The university would either build, convert or hire spaces for teaching and would use the internet to deliver live high quality video to groups of students from subject experts from across the country and in some cases globally.

The students would be supported in person and locally, by skilled facilitators who would ensure that the students would get the appropriate help as and when required.

Content would be delivered digitally, using online resources as required, or even 3D printing of physical objects in the home.

Specialist and practical subjects would be delivered at regional hubs that could be used by students from any university. This would mitigate the need to travel regularly or commute to a campus everyday.

It became apparent early on that much of student support could be delivered remotely, however local specialist support providers working for multiple universities could easily work with students in their catchment area.

Some bemoaned the decline of the “student experience” on campus, but what was discovered early on, in the same way has had happened on physical university campuses in the past, students would, using social networking, create their own local groups and societies, and then would arrange their own social and networking events. Some of these would be online, by many would happen at local social spaces.

I have been on different vignettes in order to make people think, inspire and stimulate discussion. Continue reading Going local – Weeknote #70 – 3rd July 2020

Live at the MoLeNET 2008 Conference

Decided to broadcast my question to the MoLeNET 2008 Question Time panel live over Qik. I was asking the question how should colleges address services such as Qik, Flickr and YouTube in regard to privacy, data protection and copyright. All views expressed are those of the individuals only.

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Doesn’t surprise me…

What with HMRC losing personal data, along with others, it doesn’t surprise me that next to be looked at is education.

Doesn’t surprise me…

The BBC is reporting how an IT firm believes that:

Sensitive information on school pupils is being put at risk by staff who take it home with them.

How often are teaching staff in your institution given proper training on how to deal with sensitive data?

This is an issue which doesn’t just affect schools, colleges and universities also have data protection policies, though a policy is only a statement, practice is another matter entirely.

If you take a computer from work home, you have to ask yourself is the data secure?