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.
What was your first experience of learning technology in a work setting?
How do you define learning technology? I used a laptop in 1992 to create learning materials using Aldus PageMaker. Does that count?
If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change in learning technology?
What has always frustrated me has been the focus on consumer technology fads or jumping on the latest bandwagon.
What’s been your biggest achievement in learning technology to date and why
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.
Which ‘next big thing’ that didn’t quite take off do you most remember?
I probably have a list….
What would be one piece of advice you’d give yourself in the past about learning technology?
It’s always about the people. Always.
Which talk, presentation, workshop or person do you remember from previous ALT Conferences and why?
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.
My top tweet this week was this one.
The talk by @daveowhite on eventedness in 2010 that followed the infamous @DonaldClark keynote.https://t.co/3qcToYaqqs
— James Clay (@jamesclay) August 31, 2023
