Digital Capabilities and the state of the nation

My University has just initiated a Digital Capabilities Project which I am jointly managing. Our work is being influenced and to some extent shaped by the work JISC is undertaking (see https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability) and also activities by complimentary organisations such as UCISA (see their Digital Capabilities Survey). In an e-nutshell, digital capabilities focuses on the specific digital knowledge and skills individuals should have to capably interact with their social, work and learning environments. This is needs driven and bespoke, unlike digital literacies which focuses more on general IT skills. For example somebody may have a general knowledge of MS Word but they may need to know more about how to efficiently produce long documents. So instead of taking an advanced Word course they may just undertake some self development, such as watching an online tutorial on YouTube to acquire this specific skill.

JISC's project started 2 years ago although they have been involved in research in this area for many years. However, I was undertaking a little bit of surf researching on gender and capabilities and was interested to find that the BBC were early promoters of the term "digital literacies". This is evident in one of their archived web sites About BBC Learning,  where there is a link was to an IPSOS MORI report commissioned in 2012 Understanding Media Literacy: Digital Capabilities (unfortunately it does not link to whole report). Much of the research on digital capabilities has focused on staff and student skills in the education sector but this report looks at the state of the nation.

The study found that although there was a desire by individuals to learn about new technologies increasing the confidence of those with low literacy was a considerable challenge. The research also identified barriers such as fears about security, cost, speed and even screen size. Mostly those that used the internet were content with what they knew seeing little need to know more but paradoxically the study found that users also felt they needed upskilling, because they were concerned with being left behind.   For women and older people an obstacle was worrying about losing their work on their own devices, this may have changed over the last couple of years with increased ownership of tablets (see my previous blog My hair is silver and I surf but don't call me a silver surfer). For those with low level digital literacy skills learning from others was really important, for those with higher literacy skills a range of methods was used to develop their knowledge, such as YouTube and Google.

Despite this report being a couple of years old and even taking into account the developing mobile market I think some the observations are still relevant and could inform some of the approaches we are using to develop digital capabilities. Not only should we think about the context and the digital need, we should also focus on learning styles. The reports identifies 7 internet population segments, from "hi-techtrend setter" to  "concerned resistor", a framework that could still be relevant in the in particular when identifying approaches to developing skills.

RAM

Ram, no not the Paul McCartney album but Random Access Memory.  We have recently purchased a new PC tower, the one we had was 10 years old, its operating system was Vista, remember Vista the sandwich filling between XP and 7. We decided not to upload XP at the time (as recommended by my colleagues) partly because of the hassle and partly because we were a bit fearful. It was not long after this that my boss at my appraisal took me by surprise by saying you seem to be a bit fearful of technology.   It was the early days of my elearning development career, I recall feeling a little bit embarrassed by her remark like I had been found out.  Ironically, in my pre-elearning librarianship days colleagues had thought I was a bit of techie, it's interesting how that perception can change by just side-stepping into another professional group/silo, what had changed?.

Going back to my old PC it had served us well, despite occasional hiccups, where we had to rollback, come up with techniques to stop it hanging and replace the fan.  The PC got slower and slower as we continued to fill its 1 GB RAM and 300 GB memory with the useful and not so useful stuff, so hence the necessity to go for a newer model with more RAM, this time 8 GB RAM  and memory, 1 TB. Over the 10 years I would say my technical knowledge has upgraded I know that RAM is really important for resource hungry applications and that a faster processor and a larger hard drive can also help, but I think I knew that 10 years ago.  I do think the memory of my boss commenting about my fear of technology has distorted my memory of what I did actually know about technology at the time. I do remember that we when we purchased the PC in 2005 we did not do it buy it blindly. We did our research and we did not buy the cheapest model on the block, even back then RAM and the processor were major considerations.

Looking at this from a feminist perspective when I moved into eLearning development I did feel a little undermined by the technical knowledge of my male counterparts, you definitely notice the skewed gender representation of elearning compared with librarianship is you attend any of their conferences. My boss's comment may have been illustrative of  how I was feeling within this context, although I never explored it with her, she may have also had an ulterior motive to make me face up to my fear and have confidence in my own abilities, after all she was a female boss.   According to Hirsch and Smith (2002) memories are bound up with issues of power and hegemony and gender. So why does the memory stay with me? Feminist and memory studies argue Hirsch and Smith presuppose that the present is defined by a past that is constructed and contested, that we study the past to meet the needs of the present.  I possibly hold onto this memory partly because I can use it as a narrative that I can recall to reassure others who also feel like imposters that they are not alone with their fear. It also acts a reflexive anchor to see where I am now in comparison to where I was then with respect to my relationship with technology.

Memory is not as a store, but a plurality of interrelated functions, a complex network of activities and the past is constantly selected, filtered and restructured in terms set by the questions and necessities of the present, at both the individual and the social levels (Jedlowski 2001, p.30) . So maybe a computer's RAM is not so different to our own random access memory.

References
Hirsch, Marianne, et al. "GENDER AND CULTURAL MEMORY SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS." Signs 28.1 (2002).
Article DOI: 10.1086/340890 Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/340890

Jedlowski, Paolo. "Memory and Sociology Themes and Issues." Time & Society 10, no. 1 (2001): 29-44.https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2006/SOC406/um/Memory_and_sociology.pdf

Seeing the wood for the trees - eLearning Design can we learn from MOOCS?

So far I have completed 3 MOOCS, 2 via Coursera, "E-learning and Digital Cultures" (University of Edinburgh) and "Surviving Disruptive Technologies" (University of Maryland) and 1 via Futurelearn, "Climate Change" (University of Exeter).  I have also dipped into quite a few other courses on both platforms and have had more than a passing glance at Udacity and the Saylor Academy.

Putting the content to one side and focusing on the design I have been impressed by the clear simplicity of both Futurelearn and Coursera. Futurelearn's Why it Works section very clearly explains its teaching strategy, it says that every course has been designed using the principles of effective learning design "through storytelling, discussion, visible learning, and using community support to celebrate progress."  Given that the partners include universities with considerable experience of online learning one being the UK's Open University you would certainly expect collaboratively they could produce a sound product. Coursera also has a very similar About section which gives an overview of Bloom's mastery learning, courses are also delivered by some very experienced institutions, However, history has shown that experienced elearning partner collaborations do not always guarantee success, look at the failure of the UK e.University in the early 00s - for more about this I recommend The Real Story Behind the Failure of the UK e.University.

Donald Clarke in his blog  Futurelearn 4 pluses and 4 minuses , argues that Futurelearn's strengths are its constructivist learning and peer review.  However the minuses for him are, the lack of openness about finances, the unnecessary and expensive resource of the BBC and the infrequency of the courses. This post was written in 2014, his final criticism was the the dullness of Futurelearn's design, but I think that this may have improved over the last year, although there is always room for improvement.

Possibly focusing less on the learning platform and more on the elearning design has resulted in Futurelearn and Coursera, succeeding where the UKeU failed (although neither learning platform is a budget option see another blog by Clark MOOCs Platforms: a primer). Both platforms deliver very similar approaches to course design, videos, supporting material, integrated discussions, small scale assessment. In both cases I would argue their simplicity is their strength  however, if a linear approach to learning is not your thing a MOOC may not be for you . Personally I think VLEs are somewhat expensive overly engineered tools that contain too many features but they do provide a safe learning and teaching assessment environment for students. Chris Havergal's THES article Lacklustre Virtual Learning Environments Need a 21st Century Boost on a recent technology themed Westminster Higher Education forum reported on the criticisms by some attendees of poor institutional use of the VLE, Nevertheless I would argue that best practice elearning is not always evidenced by those teachers who use every tool in the box, as this can be extremely confusing to students, it always was and always is evidenced by good clear coherent design.  To learn how to deliver a sound learning experience teaching staff may find dipping into a MOOC a useful experience as most elements of a MOOC course can be replicated in a VLE and the content does not always need to be created from scratch as there is excellent content available that can be curated, as Edinburgh's E-learning and Digital Culture's MOOC has evidenced.

UKSG Webinar UKSG Webinar Getting the rights right – or when policies collide

For my blog on the recent UKSG Webinar "Getting the rights right – or when policies collide" visit Staffordshire University's ASK Blog https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/askteam/2015/05/27/uksg-webinar-getting-the-rights-right-or-when-policies-collide/. The webinar took placeon 19th May and the presenter was by Bill Hubbard and focused on Open Access polices. The slides can be found at http://www.uksg.org/webinars/oapolicies

My hair is silver and I surf but don't call me a silver surfer

I thought I would write a post on technology and older people. The driver for this was a small row between my mum and dad after Christmas this year. For Christmas me an my siblings bought a tablet for my mum and dad, they were already a one laptop couple but it was mainly used by my dad as it was his retirement present.  We wanted to encourage my mum to use the internet more, in particular Facebook, as she has family and friends far and wide in this country and beyond, and Facebook has become the communication tool of choice. However, things did not quite turn out as we planned. Both of my parents are big readers but unfortunately or fortunately the kindle app was loaded onto the tablet and my dad found out how to use it first, creating a bespoke library dad appropriated the tablet much to the annoyance of my mother. The outcome of their run-in was that my dad was forced to by his own tablet and my mum took possession of the Christmas present go mum! - At this point I should add that they will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next year, as a two tablet couple.

This is where it really turns into mum's story and mum's relationship with Facebook. My mum likes to see what is going on and in particular the pictures people post but she does not like the dross that interlaces these. Attempting to explain how to post as well as like, how to block the unnecessary dreg posts still remains quite complicated for everyone not just my mum.  Making it more straightforward for us all lies in the hands of Facebook developers and they never quite get there. My mum is a little bit timid about internet technology in general but I am convinced she will become more confident with use, already she is posting compelling responses and I think having her own device will make a difference.

As for my dad, well he was already digitally more advanced,  he is a voracious writer and has had a computer since the late 90s. He carried all his favourite music on his laptop when he first visited my sister in the states. He loves the fact he can order rare theology books from obscure bookshops in New York. And has started to get interested in MOOCs, a yeh there for my dad!

So could my dad or even my mum be described as a silver surfer. I did a bit of a search for literature on digital literacy, technology and older/elderly people - those actual keywords and in the end got some of the most relevant results by using the phrase "silver surfer". One of the articles I found was Choudrie and Vyas's interesting study  "Silver surfers adopting and using Facebook? A quantitative study of Hertfordshire  applied to organizational and social change". This research found that older people adopt technologies when when there is a fast and reliable internet connection and when support is available, from experience I would also add having your own device makes a difference. Additionally they observed that older users had concerns about privacy, and this is certainly the case with my parents who have often queried who can see the information posted on Facebook.  The study also discovered that men were more motivated to use Online Social Networking, however this does not seem to reflect what I have seen with my family and friends where the women are more active on Facebook than the men, although I am well aware these are only observations and this is a small insignificant sample.

Choudrie and Vyas do not go into a great deal of depth with respect to defining silver surfers. They refer to NetLingo (2012) (that provides a definition that is also upheld by Wikipedia), as net users who are 50 years plus which according to Choudrie and Vyas relates to geriatric research where 50 is the cut off point where the decline in performance begins (Albert and Heaton 1988).  Although the etymology of silver surfer is positive, the increased use of the internet by older people, I take issue with the creation and use of the phrase to define the digital capabilities of a particular age group and like the phrase digital natives it is not helpful. I think the term silver surfer is a far too convenient and easy way to categorise. For example, in two years time I will be a silver surfer but I don't predict that my internet usage will miraculously change when I turn 50, it is already an integral part of my work and life. I would argue that its not about age its about emersion, access to technology has major impact on your digital capability regardless of age, case in point my mum and dad. As over population of overs 50s increases, and technology becomes more pervasive in people's lives, I think research should focus on social and cultural aspects as well as gerontology.

Choudrie, Jyoti, and Amit Vyas. "Silver surfers adopting and using Facebook? A quantitative study of Hertfordshire, UK applied to organizational and social change." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 89 (2014): 293-305.

Meeting the Reading List Challenge

My blog about Meeting the Reading List Challenge event at Loughborough University can be found at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/askteam/2015/04/29/meeting-the-reading-list-challenge/ Better late than never!

Teachmeet Resource Discovery: Enhancing the User Experience Staffordshire University

On the 19th March Staffordshire University's Academic Skills Know-how Team hosted a CILIP sponsored Teachmeet Event. The focus of the event was on resource discovery and the user experience and the presentations and the activities addressed this theme.. My blog on the event can be found at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/askteam/2015/04/01/teachmeet-resource-discovery-enhancing-the-user-experience/

Women social networking #IWD15

At the beginning of March I attended an event to celebrate International Women's Day at the Mitchell Memorial in Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent . The event hosted a range of activities, the day was top and tailed by 6 minute lightening talks. These were a very similar format to pechkuchas  I have seen at some of the Higher Education conferences I have attended, in particular eLearning - which is a presentation style in where 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each - only these presentations were minus the slides, which was not necessarily a bad thing. The talks, which were thought provoking and at times moving, were devoted to a wide range of topics, community breadmaking; encouraging women to vote; encouraging people to claim their entitled benefits; coping with aging; promoting community activities such as street festivals, farmers markets and community radio and promoting health products such as Aloe Vera. The event was punctuated with workshops that gave the attendees the opportunity to have a go at something new - such as belly dancing and singing - not at the same time! there were also musical performances in the cafe through the day by women musicians.

One of the outstanding successes of the day was "Going Through the Change" Anne Marie Sweeney's film made about the National Women Against Pit Closures. As well as reflecting on the events of the miners' strike it also shows the continued work of the NWAPC supporting women standing-up for their rights, not only in this country but across the world in places like Chile.

The organisers of the day had not only used face-to-face meetings to arrange the event but also taken advantage of free technology:

• Eventbrite for attendees to register for the film;
• A facebook group, Women Together in North Staffordshire, to keep organisers and interested parties up-to-date on how the event was shaping, this will continue as social space for women in the local area;
• Google calendar was used to not only publicise the event itself but to also publicise other activities that were take place to celebrate International Women's Day. 

The world of technology was a very different place in the 1980s when the miners' strike took place. Not only was connectivity limited, no internet! but also it was very expensive. Individuals had to rely on generous birthday and christmas presents, for some with a more limited budget technology was completely out of reach. For the miners that spent weeks and months without wages relying on the support of the community, family and friends to provide just the basics they had to be creative with their networking. Communication, was via, newsletters; eye catching placards on picket lines; organised support via political groups; the sympathetic press - think Michael Kerstgens Guardian photos and ads at the back of activist magazines. As we are about to vote in another election the phrase "political complacency" seems to appear regularly in critiques and commentaries, some may say that this is a consequence of the technologically networked world we live in. However, if we reflect on the event hosted on 7th March at the Mitchell Memorial, the use of technology definitely generated interested and impacted on attendance for this event. The footfall for day was about 300. Women from varying cultural backgrounds and ages attended (although it would have been nice to shave some younger women attending) and the technological infrastructure that was created can definitely be repurposed for next year, and as this blog evidences, our technologically networked world has enabled people like me to report on the successful achievements of women in North Staffordshire.  

Climate Change Final 2 Weeks - What can we do?

I have just completed the final 2 weeks of the University of Exeter's Climate change on Futurelearn. The first part of this MOOC was a bit of challenge with quite a considerable amount of technical and scientific information and lots of re-reading on my part. Surprisingly I did not do too badly with the online tests but I'm still a bit uncertain how much of the fine detail I have retained. However, I can honestly say my knowledge of climate change is far more informed than it was at the beginning of January.

The last part of the course reverted to more practical considerations on how we can act now to deal with climate change, by looking at the design of our cities and buildings, engaging communities in renewable sources of energy rather than taking a pedantic top down approach. Working in HE, as I do, you notice smaller incremental but important changes to address climate change. These range from well organised groups, promoting green working and sustainability that carry out work place audits, to recycle bins, motion sensor lights, green roofs and transport schemes encouraging, cycling and car sharing as well as less paper handouts in meetings.

For my part in the last 2 years I have exchanged a 100 mile circular work commute for a half an hour walk to my place of work and I follow #walktowork on Twitter where you can see tweets and pictures from around the world of other doing the same. Having a tablet has considerably cut down my paper consumption - possibly at the detriment of my handwriting some may say, so I still like to scribble the occasional note. I am also a fan of sustainable fashion and thrift purchasing. I also live near to town so do not have to travel miles to shop. Personally, one of my main challenges is cutting my air miles, I don't travel excessively but I do fly about 4 times a year because I like travel and I also have family that lives in States. I know my regular use of public transport does not offset this.

So what I have taken away from this MOOC, I think NIMBY lecture made a very provoking point, that the whole of the world is our back garden, so we all have collaborative responsibility to take care of it. We know that weather is unpredictable but climate models do show and can predict that climate has changed and will continue to change because of the anthroprogenic impact, on the atmopshere, the lithosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere. And without sounding cliched we need to act now. It will be interesting to see what place the environment has on the political agenda in this economically challenged, fast food, fast fashion, next tech. devise upgrade culture we live in with the UK elections looming.

JIBS Event 26th February Technology Will Not Defeat Us

I attended this event at the Chambers of Commerce which was hosted by JIBS, which is an organisation that serves the interests of e-resource users in Research, Higher and Further Education Libraries. My blog on the event can be found at blogs.staffs.ac.uk/askteam.

Week 6 Climate Change MOOC Food and Heat Islands

Just a quick reflection on week 6, which focused on the impact on human systems, Dr Tristan Kershaw presented on Health and the Built Environment and Professor Sarah Gurr on Climate Change and Food Security.

With respect to health and the built environment it was disconcerting to find out that in Europe in 2003 70,000 people died as a result of the hot weather, most were victims in high rise buildings at night, and died as a result of hyperthermia (elevated body heat), dehydration and stroke. Why was this? It appears that apart from an unwillingness to open windows and heat being absorbed because of flat roofs, heat islands exacerbate this situation. So what is a heat island? An urban heat island, is when the urban area is hotter than the surrounding rural area, caused by the size and closeness of the buildings. Buildings in urban areas are efficient at absorbing and reflecting heat, the larger and taller the building, the more heat traps at street level, which bounces between buildings.    Air conditioning can help but this has a big impact on CO2 emissions, so there is a vicious circle. So how can we address this Tristan Kershaw says more green spaces, painting buildings white and green roofs, even less flat roofs, which is rather thought provoking as we see cities expanding both upwards and outwards.

With a predicted global population increase from the present 7 billion to 9.2 million in 2050 Sarah Gurr says that 86% could be living less economically and the majority will be in developing countries. Presently 40% of the global agriculture is 3 types of essential crops, wheat, rice and maize. Rice is the most crucial crop as it is responsible for the main calorie intake of 50% of the world's population, although potatoes are growing in popularity, making this a 4th crop. The food supply chain needs to double in the next 50 years but it is under threat from climate change in particular the threat to water supply and also the threat of disease, pests and pathogens e.g. ash dieback disease and fungi, as a result of mooculture. In an attempt to deal with this scientists are looking at how to boost the immune system of plants to defend themselves against pathogens, for example bioprotection.

 So the challenge is what can we do to address this increasing challenge, apart from possibly, use less water, waste less food, eat seasonally and move away from monoculture. The Global Food Security web site argues that to protect against catastrophic events the UK should produce over half of its own feed and import the rest, which also maintains the trade balance sheet because we export food. The web site also states possibly somewhat controversially that climate change may be good in some ways for food production as extra CO2 in the atmosphere will lead to plants fixing more carbon, resulting in increased yield. However, the increase in the amount of desert and drought may cause further problems in places like Austria and in particular Africa, which already faces major challenges with

respect to food supply. Sarah Gurr in the feedback video for this week also suggested that we just grow wheat for food, rather than using it for biofuel and feeding animals, which means we need to eat less meat. She also suggested that more research needs to go into GM.

Food security is a complex area with conflicting pulls of producing more food and protecting the environment. Within the UK 18% of UK greenhouse gas emissions are related to food production, half from farms, mostly methane from livestock and nitrous oxide from fertilisers, in addition to this 60% of nitrates, 25% of phosphorous and 70% of sediments polluting water bodies come from farms. Now that's food for climatic thought!

Encouraging Women in Music

On Friday 20th February I went to see an an excellent show at the Band on the Wall in Manchester. As part of Brighter Sounds' Wall of Sounds Artistic Director Series Beth Orton had mentored a group of 14 women musicians and song writers during the week long residency. The event was an extremely impressive showcase of their accomplished work. The performances ranged from acoustic to electro loop interventions. According to the BBC the event was inspired by a shocking statistic from the Performing Rights Society that only 14% of their members are female. Women musicians are often defined by their gender e.g. female drummer, female guitarist, Sleater Kinney the infamous Riot Grrrl Group, who have just released a well received new album No Cities of Love after 10 years, have remarked that they think it is odd that they are still defined as a female band when paradoxically a band of all males is not called a male band. What appears to be lacking for female musicians is encouragement and mentoring, which the Brighter Sound series appears to have been addressing. and hopefully aspiring female musicians in the audience on Friday night, or even more experience musicians, will have been inspired by what they saw. Along with the incredible range of songs and the abilities of the women performing another pleasing aspect was how well they worked together both in their collaborative song writing and performing.

Details of the musicians and links to their soundcloud sites can be found on the the Brighter Sounds web site  being particularly interested in electronic music and how technology can transform the human voice I found the work of Elizabeth Vince and Fiona Soa Paing compelling specifically Fiona's looping vocals which were quite hypnotic

I am little surprised that I have yet to see a review of the event in the local or national press, although there was a good overview in the Huffington Press. At the excellent 6 music hosted annual festival at Teeside last weekend I was a little bit disappointed that the top slots seem to have gone to male performers/bands, despite Kate Tempest, Sleater Kinney and Neneh Cherry being on the bill, although it was excellent to see female drummers supporting Hot Chip and Jamie T. The Independent last week ran article Reading and Leeds 2015 line-up: Festival accused of ignoring female artists  where 9 out of 100 acts feature female artists so obviously there is a long way to go in the mainstream music world.

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Slipping on the Ice week 5 Climate Change MOOC

After the first video for week 5 of Exeter University's Futurelearn MOOC on climate change I knew I was going to find the week a little bit slippery. This week for me was a MOOC with 2 halves the first half impacts on Cryosphere I must admit has been the most complicated part of the course since week 1. I had to read a couple of simpler articles to get the gist of it and my understanding now is more a precis understanding rather than an technical understanding. This was probably reflected in my mark for this week's test where I got 9 out of 15 not reaching the recommended 10 - the last question being my nemesis

Which of the following factors control ice flow - ice geometry, properties, terminal environment and mass balance - all are correct!

On my third attempt I got 3 out of the 4 which was a failure. The good thing about the tests in this MOOC is that you can see the correct answer and can also go back to the test.

I did, however, get a basic understanding that about how climate change has impacted on Greenland Over the last 2 decades as a result of global

warming there has been an increase in ice loss, an increase in glacial flow speed, and a thinning of ice, on Greenland. Half of the total mass loss is surface melt the rest is due to blocks of ice breaking off from ice shelves to form a icebergs this is called calving. An Ice shelf is a thick floating platform formed where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to the coastline and onto the ocean's surface.  Collapsing ice shelves do not directly contribute to the sea rise but do buttress tributary glaciers regulating flow. According to Antartic Glaciers.org  as a result of glaciers thinning, accelerating and receding in response to ice shelf collapse more ice is going into the oceans making the sea level rise (I just about got the last sentence!).

The second half of the week was about ocean acidification I did understand a little bit more, possibly because it is a process with less dependencies than the impact on cryosphere, or maybe understood the correlations a little bit more.

According Ceri Lewis in her excellent video presentation oceans make-up 70% of the planet's surface and acidification is the greatest threat to biodiversity. Oceans absorb a third of atmospheric CO2. When CO2 dissolves into the sea water it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. The carbonic acid dissociates into 2 irons bicarbonate and hydrogen, the hydrogen concentration determines the PH which is presently 8.1.  If  CO2 levels increase hydrogen and bicarbonate increase in seawater. The ocean has a natural buffering system the carbonate buffer. Carbonate ions soak up hydrogen ions keeping the PH system stable. Carbonate ions enter sea water through natural weathering and shells from dead marine life. Carbonate ions are the building blocks of carbonate skeletons and shells. The danger is when the amount of CO2 exceeds the amount of carbonate ions in the sea water, which will lead to a fall in PH. Ocean acidification can impact on calcification of organisms water as the under saturated in calcium carbonate leaves shells vulnerable to dissolution. Increased acidity can alter the physiology of mature organisms impacting on the development of carbonate skeletons and fertilisation. This is turn has an impact on the whole food chain.

I have just passed the mid-point of the MOOC and the first one I have stuck with on Futurelearn, I have done a couple on Coursera. The user interface is very simple, it is helpful that you can track your progress as well as easily review content from previous weeks, as well as test results. The learning and teaching style with a combination of video, articles, discussion and reflection has helped to consolidated my learning. Much of what I am learning is extremely new to me and as I said at the beginning my background is in the social sciences not sciences so getting a grasp of some of the technical aspects has been challenging but I think I am learning and yes it is interesting. My pace has probably been pedestrian because of previous limited knowledge and I have had to seek out simpler explanations for some things and yes Wikipedia is still one of my go to sites. I think there was too much content in the first couple weeks despite me being a novice I have experience of elearning delivery and I think there was an underestimation of how much time it would take to review all the content to complete the test at the end, although this appears to have eased a little. I must admit my contribution to the discussions has been scant but as you can see I have reflected every week and this has assisted in my review process. Another useful aspect is being be able to see the PDF transcript of the videos which has helped to fill in anything that I missed in my watching. I also haven't completely abandoned analogue and using a notebook to write notes.

Models & Geogengineering - yes believe the hype Week 4 Climate Change MOOC

It appears that the future is a little bit foggy with respect to predicting the impact of human activity on climate change. However, it looks like we are gradually getting there and the science is helping to lift the fog.

Week 4 University of Exeter's Climate Change MOOC began with an overview of climate modelling. There has been a lot controversy within the press with respect to accuracy of climate modelling including accusations of fiddling data, for example climate change sceptic Christopher Brooker's article Fiddling with Temperature Data is the Biggest Science Scandal Ever published in the Telegraph. However there have been counter arguments like this article in the Washington Post article No Climate Models Aren't exaggerating Global Warming . It is very challenging for the person in the street to know what believe is right.  Scientist are the first to admit that predicting climate change is a complex business. If I have learnt one thing from this MOOC, is that data from a vast amount of sources e.g from proxy data to mathematical modelling is used to help with the predictions. If journalists had a greater understanding of the processes (for example taking a MOOC like this) rather than cherry picking their information they may form a less sceptic opinion.

Peter Cox says in first video for week 4 climate projection is a huge computational model. The accuracy of these models is tested by seeing if they can reproduce aspects of the past, by including factors that affected the climate including natural things, e.g. sun output volcanoes and by adding human factors such as the increase in carbon dioxide as a result of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. As a result scientists have found they can construct models that can reproduce aspects of the climate until about 1970, after that model simulations diverge, predicting a cooling climate rather than warming. However, if human factors such as the increase in carbon dioxide are put in warming is reproduced. This would seem to imply modelling helps with predictions, also how much natural phenomena has an impact of warming and how much human activity. Peter Cox says predicting what will happen in the next 100 years is the challenge, this is where there is uncertainty e.g. how much carbon dioxide will be produced by human activity? how will population change impact on this and will the way we generate energy change. Also we do not know what percentage of carbon dioxide emissions will be absorbed by oceans, trees and soil. The IPCC have used scenarios to help with these predictions e.g. differing amounts of carbon dioxide emissions and the impact on global warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that since the 1950s the ocean and atmosphere have warmed and there has been a reduction in snow and ice and over the last 3 decades the earth's surface has warmed. One of the drivers they have identified for climate change, is the total positive radioactive forcing leading to an uptake of energy in the climate system, caused by an increase in CO2 since 1750. It is extremely like that human activity has caused this. The IPCC says that there needs to be a reduction in the Green House Gases to counteract this. On top of this it is predicted that the complex area of climate feedbacks could more than double the amount of warming, due to the melting of snow and ice, water vapour, clouds and the carbon cycle.

So what can be done to combat the increase in global warming other than reducing the amount of anthropogenic CO2. This part requires a shift in the imagination. Mathew Watson in his article Why We'd Be Mad to Rule out climate engineering 

We are better off knowing everything we can about all our options, however unpalatable, while being mindful of undermining efforts on greening our energy sector and, more than that, our own lives. Deployment of technologies at global-scale with trans-boundary effects must be a last resort.

So what is the last resort? Geoengineering - the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climatic system with the aim of reducing global warming  There are 2 categories of geoengineering. Carbon dioxide removal e.g. creation of biochar; bioenergy with carbon capture and storage; carbon air capture to remove carbon dioxide; planting trees to offset and ocean fertilisation. The second is surface radiation management, reducing sunlight absorbed, This would be by deflecting sunlight away from the Earth, or by increasing the reflectivity (albedo) of the atmosphere or the Earth's surface, which would reduce GHGs and would address ocean acidification created by CO2.

Geoengineering requires considerable consistent investment. Also radiation management can change the mean temperature but according to Jim Haywood we would not be able to control regional and trasnational temperatures and precipitation patterns, so there would sill be warming in the polar region and a cooling around the equator. And with geoengineering some parts of the planets will be winners whilst others will be losers, this is my concern will the societies of have nots lose out to the geoengineering societies of the the haves. There is also the issue that geoengineering solutions could give a false sense of security and could lead to greater anthropogenic carbon emissions as individuals think that these solutions are equivalent offsets. In addition to this there is the moral dilemma should we be messing around with the earth's climate but can we afford not too.  The IPCC says we need to act now despite the opposition, even if we do not look at SRM we need to look at carbon capture.

Week 3 Climate Change MOOC stats, variability and sinks

This week in Exeter's climate change MOOC there was lots of comparative data to wade through, but its graphical presentation made it even more fascinating for a librarian like me.

The met office's global surface map which illustrates temperature anomalies clearly illustrates which parts of the world were colder or warmer in the recent month. The met office also allows people in the UK to dig deeper presenting a wealth of information including case studies of past weather events together with extremes. This data is an excellent springboard into investigating whether an extreme weather event is the result of climate change or just merely an extreme weather event.

For example, in 2013 the UK experienced the coldest March and May since 1962 and 1966. Investigating this I found out about the Arctic Oscillation which is an index of the dominant pattern of non-seasonal sea level pressures and that March 2013 was most negative since records began, When the AO is negative there tends to be high pressure in the polar region causing greater movement to middle latitudes. Associating this with climate change appears to be quite a complex activity although the climate anomaly maps are compelling.

I, also learned more about the impact of the jet stream. In 2012 the UK was the wettest on record according to the met office the jet stream was persistent remaining in the South of the UK therefore it did not drag the weather system away. As I mentioned in week 1 after undertaking some initial research on the UK climate some scientists have predicted more extremes in wet and dry weather in the UK because of there is a 4-5 percent increase in atmospheric moisture, as a result of changes in sea temperature and reductions in the amount of ice.  Again it appears to be a challenge to look at rainfall patterns and to associate them with climate change because of natural variability.

I also found that ice is not just ice!  According The National Snow and Data Centre the Antarctica and the Arctic are reacting differently to climate change partly because of their geographic differences, Antarctica is a continent surrounded by water and wind and ocean currents appear to isolate the continent from global weather patterns, keeping it cold. The Arctic, however, is an ocean surrounded by land, linked to the climate systems around it making it more sensitive to climate change.

I was surprised to see that the US still has the highest carbon emissions per capita, after looking at some of the climate maps, as I thought this may have changed because of the increase in industrial production in places like China, as 90% of carbon emission comes from burning fossil fuel.

The most difficult aspect of the course for me to understand this week was that the majority of CO2 is being absorbed by land and the ocean not the atmosphere. They act as a carbon sinks, draining CO2 back out of the atmosphere, absorbing and storing it away, the deep ocean being largest reservoir.   About 80 percent of CO2 in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels, a reduction in the burning would help to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions, however carbon sinks can also help to address the balance. Deforestation and the warming of oceans (consequence of global warming) could change the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed and sinks may not be able to keep pace with the amount of global carbon emissions. The carbon brief sates that researchers have found that less organic carbon sinks to the deep ocean  in warmer water, leaving more carbon dissolved in the surface ocean, which can then return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, However ,there is still considerable debate on best way to manage forests see this article in Nature Carbon Sequestration managing forests in uncertain times.

So I suppose the take away message this week is that although we can see that the climate is changing it is more difficult to predict whether extreme weather patterns are a result of climate change, although there is much research into this and the data sets can assist with this. Also, we should not underestimate the importance of nature in helping to control CO2, in particular carbon sinks, although it will be challenging for these sinks to keep a natural balance if the amount of CO2 increases - especially if oceans warm decreasing the amount of CO2 oceans can hold, which will release more CO2 into atomosphere, which will raise global temperatures - a positive feedback loop.

Useful references
Forests as a Carbon Sink  
What are Climate Change Feedback Loops

Snowball earth, proxy data and aerosols

I went for a local Sunday walk with my husband yesterday. We don't live in the country although the country is not far away.  We, do live pretty close to 2 major industrial canals, the Caldon and the Trent and Mersey, the picture here is of Westport man made lake and nature reserve, which was the turning point of our 9 mile circular walk. The route is punctuated with decaying delights from Stoke-on-Trent's Pottery Industry, including an infamous bottle oven.

I have just finished week 2 of Exeter's Future Learn's climate change MOOC. I am still fascinated by what I am learning although  I am finding it a bit of a challenge assimilate all the new information. My first output of the week was a tweet conceptualising Snowball earth - when the earth 2.2 billion and 700 million years ago turned into a giant snowball. In an attempt to retain my new knowledge I explained the process to my husband on our walk, how weathering reduced the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which cooled the planet, which led to an increase in ice cover, reducing absorption and increasing reflectivity (albedo) and how when the ice reached 30 degrees, the tropics, amplification ran away, resulting snowball earth.  Although he he was slightly unimpressed it did not explain why certain parts of the canal were thick with ice despite the weather being milder, I did find this article though ice in lakes and rivers .Walking past industrial relics prompted me to give an overview of how paleoclimatologists use proxy data, tree rings, pollen, coral, ice cores, historical data and ocean and lake sediment to reconstruct past climate conditions, much in the same the way the decaying buildings give us insights into past industrial society.

Today I learned more about aerosols, a topic that is both complex and compelling. 90% of aerosols are produced naturally, different aerosols scatter incoming sunlight, 25% of which is reflected back to space. Bright coloured aerosols reflect e.g. sulphates and dark absorb e.g. black carbon. Most clouds existence is due to aerosols, polluted clouds are darker, pristine clouds are lighter they block the sunlight and have a cooling effect. 5% increased cloud reflectivity could compensate for greenhouse gases but aerosol distribution is different to greenhouse gases so they could not cancel effects as cooling is less than half the effect of greenhouse gases, the impact is therefore regional.  The satellite images on the NASA site http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Aerosols/ which show the density of greenhouse gases across the planet clearly illustrate the impact of shifting industrialisation on the planet, the heavy blankets across Asia, in comparison to those in North America and Europe where aerosols have declined with the movement of factories and the adoption of clean air strategies. It led me to reflect on how the picture would have looked 50 years ago before this global shift and in the UK before 1956 clean air act began to have an impact. In a way the picture has possibly not changed but just mirrored on the opposite side of the world.  In addition, to this the current debating about discussion about the expansion of fracking in the UK has led me to look into this more particularly its impact on the climate. Despite natural gas producing less carbon dioxide it is possible that cheap fuel will increase carbon emissions and there is also a predicted impact on the increase in methane. I found these sites particular helpful.

Climate Coalition 
Fracking boom will not tackle global warming - The Guardian Newspaper

Climate...Change Change Change

I have just started a MOOC being running by the University of Exeter via FutureLearn. I have decided this year I want to know more about what is going on with our environment in more detail, specifically our climate. I have always been fascinated by weather, possibly because I live in the UK, also because I live in a Northern part of the midlands, where we get a lot of rain and the temperature is slightly lower to our neighbours as it is relatively elevated, although on cold clear nights temperature inversion takes place because of clear air drainage. Additionally, I am concerned about the amount of old tech we are all stock piling and our need to change our tech on a regular basis, which adds to the stock pile and in turn has an adverse effect on the environment.  

I have just finished the test for the first week and I was a little bit shocked on my first attempt when I got zero, surely I must have learned something. On my 2nd attempt I realised that I had not submitted my answers for each question, reassuringly my mark was infinitely improved on the 2nd. attempt.  I have had to adopt a slower learning process as there is a considerable factual detail that needs to be understood, unlike social theory which I am more familiar with which requires more interpretation. The following is an overview of what I learned in the first week.

Principles that explain climate change
It appears the greenhouse metaphor is not the best metaphor for explaining climate change, for example, what really heats a greenhouse up is the prevention of air flow stopping the loss of heat by convection. What keeps the earth warm is the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that absorb heat radiation and re-remits some back to the surface, although is commonly known as the greenhouse effect the gases are more like a blanket, trapping heat and radiating some back. Majority of short wave radiation from the sun reaches the earth's surface and is called albedo. Ice and snow have a high albedo because they reflect a lot of radiation other surfaces e.g. ocean absorbs a lot of radiation and have a low albedo. The earth reflects 30% of sunlight from space the blanket of gases keeps the earth warm. Although Carbon Dioxide is identified as the most important green house gas water vapour is responsible for keeping the planet warm. Other greenhouse gases are methane, ozone and nitrus oxide.

Climate
Weather is the elements we see daily. Climate is change over time usually around 30 years.  A climate system is created by different interactions how the atmosphere interacts with ocean, ice sheets, land mass and vegetation. Sun also drives climate the atmosphere stops heat escaping. Climate is a system with 5 key components, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and lithosphere. There are a series of cycles interactions between the cycle that powers the climate.  For example the water cycle

1. solar radiates cause water to evaporate from hydrosphere and biosphere e.g. plants
2. water vapour condenses in the atmosphere to form clouds
3. water returns to the earth through precipitation snow
4. Water returns to hydrosphere or cryosphere if frozen as snow
5. sunlight on cryosphere and melt snow or transform directly into vapour process called sublimination from ice sheets, glaciers etc.

Cycles that connect components create feedback loops - closed loops of cause and effect. There are 3 feedback loops determine state of climate
1. water vapour:
Evaporation occurs when solar radiation heats the surface of bodies of water. Water evaporated transformed from liquid to a gas stored in the atmosphere. Molecules of water vapour absorb heat radiation from earth causes to vibrate. These re-emit heat radiation some of which comes to the earth's surface causing further warming. This increases amount of evaporation in an amplifying process causing positive feedback.
2. ice albedo
Where there is a lot of sea ice e.g. arctic much of the solar radiation reflected back into the atmosphere, the ocean reflects but tends to absorb more, where open water is exposed there is more absorption of sunlight as heat going into the ocean which will melt more ice
3. radiation
Important for regulating climate. Example of negative feedback. As body warms it gives off radiation and cools down. Stefan Boltzmann/Planck effect.

Climate is a systems that self-regulates as a result of positive and negative feedback, linking together different components. 

The above the illustrates what I have learned in the first week. For me the most important themes were the blanket effect, the difference between climate and weather and the feedback loops in particular ice albedo and the fact that sea absorbs more solar radiation and ice reflects back. I did find understanding the detail for each of the aspects challenging in particular the feedback loops, I have a sociological background not a technical background although some parts of my work are technical. I have almost had to change my approach to learning understanding factual information rather interpreting. As a result of what I learnt about climate change I did look at how the UK's climate is changing, that there will be more extremes of weather in our changeable climate e.g. wetter milder winters hot drier summers in the long run. The met office was quite helpful http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide. Having a combination of videos, articles and activities to reflect I think has helped develop my understanding of what sometimes I have found quite complex.