There is so much brilliant practice going on around the UK. It was great to hear from the FE and skills sectors as they are often neglected. This was my first Jisc Connect More event and I hope it won’t be the last.
Connect More was opened by John Potter, head of Jisc south and east. John was followed by a rousing presentation from Rachel Challen, e-learning manager, Loughborough College. A part of Rachel’s presentation is the featured image for this post. It will all become clear I promise.
Welcome Plenary
In essence Rachel talked about our approach to learning technology. That we shouldn’t focus on the “shiny shiny”. That our strategies, infrastructure and systems need to be aligned for technology to be fully adopted in education. In particular, systems that are unable to talk to one another were highlighted as a barrier.
Strategies, process, infrastructure and systems need to be aligned for successful adoption of technology in HE #connectmore16
— Kerry Pinny (@KerryPinny) July 12, 2016
Rachel talked about the importance of ‘digital’ in our students lives. Consider how much technology permeates their lives. How integral ‘the digital’ will be for them in finding their voice, building relationships and employability.
“Need to use digital to connect with employers, build relationships and help students find their voice” #connectmore16
— Gemma Ellis (@auroraboreellis) July 12, 2016
She reiterated the importance of support and reward in encouraging staff to take risks and innovate. I wrote a post on this very topic Stop moaning, start doing.
Importance of supporting staff to be creative take risks with innovating with tech @RKChallen #Connectmore16
— sarahknight (@sarahknight) July 12, 2016
Rachel used the Wizard of Oz as an analogy for teamwork. Each character was used to represent a point. The monkey in the featured image was something Rachel launched at the audience. It certainly woke me up. “Fly my pretties…”.
What I found most pertinent was how Rachel suggests we encourage staff to involve themeselves with technology. It’s so fundamental yet so neglected. Get to know them. Talk to them. Find out what they are trying to do. Then show them a technology that will work for them. That’ll do what they need. Sometimes we neglect that human element of our work. Cake, she mentioned, can also help.
Leveraging change through digital capability
My colleague, Marcus Elliott, and I presented on the work we have been doing at Lincoln to improve staff digital capabilities. I’ve written a couple of posts on digital capability on this blog Should we employ staff who don’t have digital skills? and But what about staff that won’t or don’t want to engage in CPD?. We talked about our journey, how we gained ‘buy-in’, our pilot of the Jisc Digital Capability Discovery Tool and our future plans. You can hear a little from me on the Jisc Podcast here. We had a lot of questions in particular, and not surprisingly, about getting to the disengaged. I don’ have a short answer for you. All I can suggest is going and talking to them. I did that today and I think I’ll be seeing a lot more from that group of ‘disengaged’ staff. Give them a reason, show them a solution but most importantly make it relevant to their context.
As a result of presenting we couldn’t see the other presentations which is always a shame. There looked like there were some really interesting topics covered.
Plenary – connect more with peers and practice
We were treated to some Pecha Kucha style presentations which were a nice interjection to the day.
Delon Commosioung, innovation in learning adviser, Easton and Otley College
Delon has revamped the IT strategy and develop a vision for the college in line with their strategy. He describes his task: connect, work and share to prepare learners for the 21st century.
Watch Delon’s presentation on Periscope here.
Jeremy Scorer, managing partner, Charnwood Training (North Nottinghamshire College)
Jeremy shared the issues Charnwood Training faced with disconnected learners. He showed the development of an app that they feel will help to bring students closer together.
Watch Jeremy’s presentation on Periscope here.
Kirstie Coolin, e-learning and media manager, Nottingham University
Kirstie shares how they disseminated their “participatory” ethos.
Watch Kirstie’s presentation on Periscope here.
Andy Wright, instructional designer and Andy Madin, team manager – University of Birmingham
The two Andy’s shared their virtual reality application called ALiS. Take a look at ALiS on their website here. They showed examples of how VR is being used in education.
Watch the two Andy’s presentation on Periscope here.
Sarah Deery, apprentice e-learning design, Sparsholt College
Sarah shares her experience of the Jisc Summer of Student Innovation competition and what she has done since.
Watch Sarah’s presentation on Periscope here.
Session five: Making a difference with technology-enhanced learning
Led by Sarah Knight, senior co-design manager Jisc, and Sarabjit Borrill, lead tutor (English), Leicestershire Adult Learning.
I always enjoy hearing Sarah speak. She speaks my language. She started by talking about what students want. Do we know what they want? How can we know? She shared the findings of the research she undertook with over 10k students. The full report is available here. In short, to support our students we need first to understand them.
Sarah highlighted a worrying trend. Students are not being supported or provided with guidance in the use of devices, their online presence and the development of their digital skills.
Around 7 in every 10 students say that when technology is used by teaching staff it enhances their learning experience – Sarah Knight
Clearly students are open to the use of technology but I would urge caution. Not all students are digitally capable. As Sarabjit goes on to demonstrate.
Srabjit teaches English for adult learners. She gets 2 hours of classroom time with her students and has developed online activities for students to do in between sessions. To demonstrate her challenge she told us about a 70+ year old man who attended her classes who couldn’t read or write. So how can she develop online participatory activities when her students are so ‘digitally incapable’?
She began by encouraging her learners to create a short bio of themselves. She gave basic instructions and let them do whatever they want. She found that they exceeded her expectations. Adding images to their bios without being prompted. She provides screen-cast video feedback which has gone down very well. Students are asked to do group work by contributing to Wikis. She hasn’t always succeeded and not all the students have liked her activities. Isn’t that just education?
I remember her saying that hits on her Moodle page were less than 100 last year but over 6000 this year. Clearly she has been successful in getting her students on board.
Plenary – connect more with the future
Andy McGregor, Jisc deputy chief innovation officer. Sarah Speight, academic director of the transforming teaching programme, Nottingham University.
Andy detailed Jisc’s visions for its work across the education and research sectors. Explaining their future approach to projects and priorities.
He shared what he foresees as the next big things. Artificial intelligence and automation. Though he sees no need to fear the machines taking over. He also disagrees with the digital native analogy that permeates any conversation about technology. There’s no such thing. Stop taking an analogy and purporting it as fact.
Andy was followed by Sarah. Sarah encouraged us to rethink education. She talked about the governments green and white paper. The current focus on monetising education.
Focus on innovation is a focus on the wrong thing. Students want consistency, contact and good teaching @SpeightSarah #connectmore16
— Kerry Pinny (@KerryPinny) July 12, 2016
Sarah suggests that social, informal, peer and collaborative learning are the key to building a culture of learning in an institution.
What did I learn? If we want to change education we have to start by changing people. We need to engender a culture of learning, innovation and experimentation. Social interactions are our most powerful tool.