Storify – Crossing Boundaries #Twalk with #LSSIG

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Twitter

Here is the Storify from Andrew Middleton’s Twalk last week:

//storify.com/andrewmid/crossing-boundaries-with-lssig/embed[View the story “Crossing Boundaries #Twalk with #LSSIG” on Storify]

‘Walk this way…reflections on a #Twalk’ #SocMedHE17

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Our joint proposal (Alex Spiers, Andrew Middleton, Claire Moscrop, Santanu Vasant and Jeff Walcock) for a conference workshop entitled ‘Walk this way…reflections on a #Twalk’ has been accepted at the 2017 Social Media for Learning in HE Conference at Sheffield Hallum University on 19th December. Here is the outline of the session we submitted:

By the end of the session workshop participants will,

• Understand the benefits of using a #twalk as a learning space
• Know how to design their own #twalk
• Understand how social media can integrate seamlessly with face-to-face activities to create a place for rich experiential learning
• Know how to engage others after the #twalk through the ongoing use of social media
• Reflect on how different spaces support a diverse preferences for learning engagement
• Identify and use at least one principle of good learning space design
• Be able to recommend qualities informing the future learning spaces

The impact of the workshop will be increased participant awareness of the application of social media in a blended learning strategy and the implications of this for learning space and curriculum design.

The workshop will begin with a round of structured stories from some of the universities who participated in the global #Twalk event on 31st May 2017.

A set of activities will show the potential of the #Twalk as a method for enhancing a higher education learning experience:

Activity 1: Using metaphor and motion– walking changes the learning dynamic and the readiness of a learning network to engage. We will explore the transferability of the #Twalk model and how spatial landmarks can be used to structure discussions by considering how a walk and its ‘pause point’s can stimulate engagement in face-to-face and tweetchat learning conversations in any disciplinary area.

Activity 2 –  Participants will do a micro-Twalk, with a Christmas theme, to try the method and explore different types of learning spaces (formal/informal, ‘real’/’virtual’) by taking a 10 minute route through one floor of the conference building.

Activity 3– Using our #Twalk planning template, participants will draft a ‘Twalk’ for their own institution and discipline with the support of peers in the room.

Concluding discussion and whiteboard activity

Participants will select from the following topics to generate ideas and guidance:

• Connected future space #1 – learning space beyond the binaries of informal-formal, digital-physical, study-work
• Connected future space #2 – learning to be agile, networked and nomadic using social media for uncertain futures
• Reasons to twalk – exploring the benefits of #twalking

Pre and post activities

The organisers will be ‘flipping the twalk’ by running a pre-conference virtual twalk in which ‘walkers’ will follow an online route, interacting with, grabbing, making, photographing and sharing what they find using social media.

Participants will feedback on their activities using social media and will be encouraged to join a collaborative online space to record their future Twalks.

References

Ellis, R.A. & Goodyear, P. (2016). Models of learning space: Integrating research on space, place and learning in higher education. Review of Education, 4(2), June 2016.

Long, P.D. (2005). Learning space design in action. EDUCAUSE Review, July/Aug., p.60.

Megele, C. (2014). Theorising Twitter chat. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 2(2), 46-51.

Mulcahy, D.. (2015). Re/Assembling Spaces of Learning in Victorian Government Schools: Policy Enactments, Pedagogic Encounters and Micropolitics. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(4), 500-514.

Setting up a Digital Champions scheme

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Digital Champions

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on a new pilot project setting up a staff Digital Champions scheme for academics working at Regent’s University London. The scheme is to help Digital Champions share good practice across the university on a wide variety of learning technologies from Powerpoint, social media, blogging to email and Blackboard content. The Digital Champions will be allocated a Learning Technology who will work alongside the lecturer to support their project over the course of the academic year.

I started out by trying to clarify what the project was actually trying to do – here is my first attempt at outlining the aims of the scheme:

Aims.

The aims for the Digital Champion Scheme:

• Help our Digital Champions share good practice across the university.
• Improve lecturers digital literacy and thus improve the quality of the learning materials the students receive.
• Make workflows more efficient for lecturers.
• Strengthen communication and relationships between the Learning Technology Team, Academic Developers and the academic staff.

Next I went on to outline what the scheme will actually provide for the Digital Champions:

What Digital Champions scheme provides.

• 15 hours of dedicated support from a Learning Technologist from the LT team to support your Digital Champions project.
• The facility for each Digital Champion to record their project using different types of media.
• Help to evaluate your Digital Champions project.
• Verification of each Digital Champion’s personal and professional achievements through Digital Champions Certificates.
• The opportunity to present the findings of their project to the end of year Digital Champions exhibition.
• A customised and branded landing page that all of your Digital Champions will see as soon as they log onto Blackboard. You can amend this page as it suits to provide relevant, up-to-date information to your Digital Champion project.
• Enrolment for all Digital Champions on the full collection of our Learning Technology Workshops to increase your knowledge and develop essential digital teaching techniques.
• A Digital champions page on the Regent’s University London website (regents.ac.uk/digitalchampions) providing details of the Digital Champions projects and information about publications based on these projects.

Next I plan to sort out the time scale of when things need to be done by – First I’m planning to get the scheme up and running, posters up, website with application form etc. Hopefully this will involve getting staff to apply at the start of the academic year in Sept/October and then appointing the Digital Champions and moving forward with their projects from mid October onwards.

It would be great to hear from anyone else who has set up a similar scheme in their college or university. What have been the pros and cons? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How best to publicise it? Please leave a comment!

 

Regent’s #Twalk worksheet

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*Video* Reflections on Regent’s University London #Twalk – Part 2

https://helixmedia.regents.ac.uk/Play/5974

22.26

 

*Video* Reflections on the Regent’s University London #Twalk with @lesliemv

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https://helixmedia.regents.ac.uk/Play/5972

Draft Digital Champions posters…#regentsDC

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Digital Champions

Managing a project

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#12AoC

 

‘Experiences of developing institutional digital capabilities’

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digital literacy

Slides from my keynote presentation at Bishop Grosseteste University’s Teaching and Learning conference:

Social Media and Online Identity workshop – brief notes

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Social media

I did an interesting workshop on social media and digital identity for our staff Learning and teaching conference here at Regent’s University this afternoon. I started off with a brief introduction explaining why I think the issues of online identity are becoming more relevant to academics. It’s not just one reason but several; they want to make their research more visible, some are using social media in their teaching and classroom activities, lecturers themselves want to increase their personal profile (and brand), and even those who don’t want to participate get ‘dragged’ into other people’s social media whether they like it or not!

The first activity was to look at their digital footprint so I asked them to search for themselves on Google using first just their name, then their name and home town and finally their name and ‘Regent’s University London’. We repeated the exercise using DuckDuckGo (another search engine that doesn’t  keep your search data). We then had a short discussion on the results and any surprising findings that we found.

The second task was based around a ‘typical’ lecturer at Regent’s called Dr. Jane Doe. I had a bit of fun with this. I got my colleague Steve Dawes to create a photofit picture in Photoshop, based on some of the participants who I knew were attending the workshop. Here is the finished version:

Here is Jane’s Facebook profile:

“Jane primarily uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family. Jane has a lot of Facebook ‘friends’ from school and her days as a university student, many of whom are people that would still be considered ‘real friends’. However, some of her ‘friends’ she no longer has regular communication with and  does not share any life/interests with them. In the past Jane has accepted friend requests from people, some of whom she has not met in person. She has a great profile picture from her pre-wedding celebrations in Paris but she has made her privacy settings on Facebook so that only her ‘friends’ can see the photos that she shares.”

We spent a little time looking at this facebook profile and discussing if there was anything we would change.  We then looked at the other social media sites Jane is using, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Academia.

Finally I went through some general points about maintaining an effective online presence base on advise from The Institute of Academic Development at Edinburgh University:

Thanks to Zubin in particular for his comments about his own experiences of using these sites:)