Blankets, Art and Spies - Final day in Tampere

The final day began with a visit to Tampere University library. This is the nearest University to town, with 25,000 students, it is the oldest. All University libraries in Finland are freely open to the public, this includes borrowing and walk-in access to some of the electronic resources. The colleagues showing us around today were proud of their openness, Finnish are big library users. The library conveyed an observance of the needs of students who prefer the more traditional aspects of a library services, such as quiet study, and desk space for printed books, as well as those with progressive tastes, large armchairs with window views, networked online bookable group study rooms and areas punctuated with gym balls, quite common in libraries here. 

The library regularly canvasses online and printed feedback, via the still popular post-its on library services. This has resulted in providing blankets in the cooler parts of the library and larger separate silent study areas for those with laptops from those that find the sound of typing distracting. Signage around the library clearly articulates noise levels. Like Staffordshire, TUT is moving towards more electronic access to resources. They also use the libguides software to deliver online resources and Summon for discovery, and like ourselves are trying to address the challenge of the increasing demand for textbooks by students.

 

During the afternoon there was another opportunity to see more of Tampere's cultural highlights. This included a visit to the Art Museum which currently has an exhibition celebrating Finnish women artists in early twentieth century modernism. The  Here We Come!  exhibition asks why we know only a few Finnish women artists of the early 20th century, such as Helene Schjerfbeck, Ellen Thesleff, Ester Helenius and Sigrid Schauman, when the majority of art students, were women, many of them becoming professionals in the arts. 

This was followed by a trip up Näsinneula observation the tower. Overseeing Lake Näsijärvi. It was built in 1970–1971 and was designed by Pekka Ilveskoski. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries at a height of 168 metres (551 ft). It provides excellent panoramic views of Tampere and its two lakes, and as far as the infamous town of Nokia. 

The afternoon concluded with a visit to the Spy museum the world's first public museum of international espionage. Although fascinating with some real curiosities. it appears slightly culturally disconnected from Tampere and it was refreshing to leave this basement museum to take a walk along Tampere's rapids and look out on the industrial highlights of the Manchester of Finland.

Plans are underway to join Tampere University,  Tampere University of Applied Sciences, and Tampere University of Technology the project is called T3, although the 3 Universities are still working out the details of the merger. Details can be found at
https://www.tampere3.fi/en/.  I wish the colleagues at all 3 Universities that have given us such a warm welcome on our Erasmus exchange trip the very best with their future plans.

Closer to Home Day 3 Visit to Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Today the focus of our visit was on the Student Counselling, Open Science and Research and Information Literacy and eResources.  Many aspects of these services closely relate to the services provided by Staffordshire University.

Library and Information Services and Student Counselling Services are based in Higher Education Services, along with International Services, Study Services, Communication Services, Administration and Event Services and Sports Services.  Digitisation of Education, the Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences and Vocational Training are based in Development and Quality Management.

The first service we met in our schedule was Student Counselling.  Student Counselling provides signposting to online and face-to-face resources and support for students for the duration of their studies,  rather than the provision of academic skills, which we thought was initially the purpose of this service. Students' relationship with counselling begins before they start their course, where they are directed to online information providing overviews of course content and how they will study. Student engagement with the service carries on through induction to the completion of the course, and links with student and teacher tutors. Academic skills development is integrated in the curriculum in the first year. Students with disabilities have learning plans similar to Staffordshire's Learning Support Agreements, these plans provide up to 20 hrs of extra help during every academic year.

The second half of the day focused Library and Information Services. Firstly Open Science and Research , where we were given an overview of Finland's strategic approach to encouraging open access publishing. Finland is endeavouring to articulate the benefits of engaging in an Open Culture and each year a questionnaire is circulate to institutions to feedback on their open access activities. The responses are used to situate Universities on the nation's open access hierarchy. The framework and open science activities can be found on Finland's Open Science and Research web site http://openscience.fi. This useful overview of Finland's approach to open access and the challenges of engagement reflects much of the work being undertaken internationally including that at Staffordshire, I said I would send our workflows and links to the guidance and support we are developing.

In the afternoon we met with TAMK Information Specialists responsible for information literacy and electronic resource access and discovery. Again the similarities between services provided at Staffordshire and those at TAMK were apparent, there is definitely a common professional practice language. The University offers up to 6hrs of information literacy workshops a year, for each level, for which uptake varies from subject to subject, nursing courses make the most use of this, which includes development in systematic review skills. The library is working towards improving electronic access to resources, although there are fewer ebooks in Finnish TAMK provides English ebooks and also makes use of open access publications.  Details of their services can be found at http://www.tamk.fi/en/web/lib/home. Colleagues at TAMK were particularly interested in our Assigment Survival Kit and our online guides.

The day was concluded with a visit to the Amuri Museum of Workers Houses in Tampere. Blocks of wooden houses which, like the terraced house in Stoke-on-Trent, were built for factory workers. Eventually, again like many of our terraced houses, theser were replaced by newer homes, in Tampere these new homes were low rise apartment buildings. An apt conclusion to a day of sharing more common experiences with our colleagues at TAMK.

Sun Sport and Lenin Day 2 in Tampere

It has been another glorious sunny day in Tampere and today we were also honoured with an increase in temperature. The weather was fully embraced by the Tampere residents evidenced by the busy streets tonight as they basked outside the bars and cafes.

Day 2 of Erasmus began with a tour on TAMK's new sports facilities. Sport is very much integrated into student wellbeing at the University, students can choose from a range of activities, from, wall climbing to spinning, and can also get taster sessions of sports they have not tried before. TAMK is now also looking into why some students are not engaged in sports and incentives to improve their participation.

During the latter half of the morning we were given an overview on TAMK's digital strategy. With a focus on, flexible learning, research and development, analytics and skills development, I could see commonalities with the digital transformation work currently being undertaken at Staffordshire. A progressive strategic initiative is students working on authentic digital projects for the University. One of the projects is the development of the Smart Campus, using data and narratives illustrating how students expect the campus to develop in the future. All student project outputs become an integrated part of the University infrastructure and students receive accreditation for this. The intention of these projects is not only to develop students' creative skills but to also enable students to become change agents. The University also has a network of staff digital mentors who have volunteered to work with other staff to develop their digital skills, similar to the digital champions network that is about to be established at Staffordshire.

In the afternoon we visited Tamper University of Technology, known as TUT and their new library. TUT is Finland's second-largest university in engineering sciences. The sleek light rearrangeable furniture was similar to that in TAMK's library, together with the glass engraved door panels.  The descent to the library from the refectory is a Lloyd Wright-esque nod to MOMA. With open learning spaces, bean bagged group study rooms, mobile phone booths, 3 D printers and a virtual reality suite, the library is a combination of practical facilities to suit student needs and innovative experimentation, evidencing its ambition to make the library an adaptable space to enhance the student learning experience.

We concluded the afternoon with a visit to a museum dedicated to someone who some may argue was a contributing architect of modern politics, Lenin, although the museum provides a lot to reflect upon regarding this.  Established in 1946 by the Finland–Soviet Union Society, today it is run by the The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, it was the first museum dedicated to Lenin outside the Soviet Union. Located in the Tampere Workers' Hall. Built in 1900, the building hosted underground meetings of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905 and 1906. At the 1906 meeting, Lenin met Josef Stalin in person for the first time. It has a permanent exhibition with material related to Lenin's life and the history of the Soviet Union.  A highly recommended cultural stop for anybody visiting the city and a satisfying conclusion to our 2nd day, in the city where the sun is still setting at 11pm.

Attractive Simplicity that's TAMK

This week I am on an Erasmus exchange trip with a colleague, to TAMK, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, the sun has just set and its 11 o'clock at night, that's Finland. Colleagues from TAMK visited Staffordshire University last year to share experiences, and it is great to have the opportunity to do likewise. TAMK is a multidisciplinary university focusing on promoting wellbeing and health,  business and production, together with learning and creativity, so to some extent there are some similarities with Staffordshire. Like Stoke-on-Trent, Tampere is also redefining itself culturally after overcoming the decline of a heavy industrial past. The University's mission, like Staffordshire, is working for the best of their student and for their working life. With such common ground pooling experiences and sharing challenges has been both reassuring and rewarding.

For somebody like myself, who loves modernist architecture and design, visiting Finland and TAMK is a wonderful experience. From the Marimekko napkins on Finnair to the mesmerising low hanging lampshades, it is difficult to resist taking photographs at every opportunity. As expected TAMK is the picture of elegant modern simplicity, complete with innovative design features. Clean straight corridors, furniture that is more than a nod to Alvar Aalto's timeless creativity and room purposes engraved in the glass panels of the doors.  Well thought out details such as table hooks to hang chairs on in the refectory to make cleaning easier, height adjustable desks for staff and students and Service Street, an internal walkway that is home to all student services, including an IT fix shop,  campus shop, admissions, library and study skills.

As the amber glow continues in the sky at 11.30 and I look out at the double decker resting train from Helsinki, I am very much looking forward to day 2, I am just hoping my phone can cope with my weighty album of modernist fascination.

Be bold for change in elearning: being culturally innovative

Emptech TV.McK cc by: nc-a-sa

Hopefully you will know that last Wednesday, 8th March was International Women's Day, the theme for this year is be bold for change. I am a member of the Stoke and North Staffs Women Network, and last weekend I was involved in the running of a celebratory event to mark International Women's Day. The event included workshops, lightning talks and a chaired session on local women inspired by education. As I write this post the Million Rise March is taking place in London, to end male violence against women. With the women's march in January, which I referred to in my blog, Digital Communication Contemporaneity and the Women's March, it has been a great start of the year for feeling solidarity with my active sisters across the globe. However, sadly it is not all good. Last week I attended an event focusing on digital transformation in HE, it was a very good programme on digital paper. Sadly when I arrived I was dismayed to see the dominance of older white male attendees. Increasingly as the day progressed I realised that this was also a feature of the programme speakers and the panel discussion. It is nearly 4 years since I left elearning management, although I have an active role in promoting digital and supporting staff development in this area within my current post, but it seemed as if little progress has been made to address the balance.  After the event I raised my concerns with female colleagues involved in elearning,  and it appears despite active female involvement in the management and leadership of elearning,  white male governance is still a dominant feature.

My dad was in the audience at the education discussion I chaired last week, and he said that this was the first time he had seen an all woman chaired panel. The panel composition was deliberate given we were celebrating IWD but my dad said how refreshing it was to see this, and questioned why you do not see this more in the media. It should be acknowledged, Channel 4 news had a mostly all female programme last Wednesday, with journalists, politicians, interviewees, I say mostly as Jon Snow was still the main anchor, so they lose a point on that detail and I fear it may be an annual one off.

I know there are excellent organisations supporting women in STEM such as:

• Women in STEM: UK
• STEM women net
• WISE campaign

The eLearning Guild has just produced a White Paper "Women in eLearning: Continuing the Conversation". This is sadly behind a pay wall (I could rant about open access but I'll save that for another time), however this article in the Learning Solutions magazine, Research Spotlight: Women in eLearning: Continuing the Conversation, gives a good overview, with some useful embedded links. With respect to organisations, it emphasises the importance of having diversity on your board, developing an inclusive culture, making gender equality a priority and building up a critical mass. I would also add that women should also have the opportunity to make a major contribution at large elearning public events, such as, conferences and symposiums, as presenters and panellists. Furthermore, this movement from exclusivity to inclusivity goes beyond gender, it also includes ethnicity, age, disability and social class, The activities identified in the eLearning Guild's paper, with respect to gender equality, can also be applied to these group too, and its not proverbial rocket science.  

So come on people, I know what a challenge it is arranging events and setting up committees for organisations, but rather than focusing purely on the task at hand, devote some of your time to diversity and inclusivity. I know you can do better, innovation is at the heart of what you do, if you can be technologically innovative, being culturally innovative is surely not too much of a stretch.

Still MOOC-ing around with MOOCs: too much or not enough

Too Much or Not Enough? TV.McKin cc: a-nc-sa

A couple of years ago I did a post on MOOCs Seeing the wood for the trees - eLearning Design can we learn from MOOCS? - my highest viewing blog post to date. (By the way this is not an attempt to get another high viewing blog post in case you were wondering) I am still MOOCing around although my completion rate has been low my information acquisition rate I think has been high. The last MOOC I completed was Research Data Management and Sharing on Coursera. It was jointly ran by the University of North Carolina and the University of Edinburgh, and I actually paid for the certificate to get it on to my Linked-in profile. I am currently dabbling into neuroscience, courtesy of the University of Chicago, with a bit of international leadership from the University of Bocconi in Milan, also both via Coursera.

MOOCs have not only entered into my own personal development world but they are having an influence on my thoughts and practice with respect to online learning. At the moment I am writing an online course for librarians on "Digital Leadership and Collection Management" which I want to turn into a MOOC, I am also designing a course on digital leadership skills for students, which I also want to MOOCise. This has entailed me not only pulling out my eLearning design skills out their digital box, but also reflecting on the things I like about MOOCs and what puts me off. So here we go.

What I like

• Simplicity of the MOOC platforms, they tend to clearly designed with clear about learning expectations
• Courses are free and open access
• There is the possibility to link up with people all over the world (even if you do not always do this)
• You can do as much and as little as you want 
• The combination of text and video material 
• Notifications of what I need to do

What I don't like

• They are addictive, so many to do so little time 
• Overly long videos, 20 minute videos, overly short videos, 2 minute videos
• Completion rate very low 
• Too long 10 weeks, overly short 2 weeks 
• Not enough written material to consolidate the video material
• Notifications they make me feel guilty  

In my previous professional life, when I was involved in eLearning design, I regularly said to academic colleagues if you are putting together an online course you need to have a go at being an online student yourself. Before MOOCs this was a bit of a challenge now there is no excuse. As a result of me being MOOCer all my above observations can be added to my eLearning design toolkit.

The difference between the MOOC and the traditional online course according to Jeff Hayward (2016), at the University Edinburgh, whose research has focused on MOOC engagement, is the scale. On a medium sized MOOC there are about 30,000 students. There are not the norms of having to complete the course, and participate in all the activities and assessments, as learners can start and leave whenever. Research has also found that individuals enroll onto MOOCs not only to learn new things but also to experience what it is like to be an online learner. For those involved in teaching, Haywood claims that MOOCs "offer a testbed for experiments in teaching at large scale through technology", discovering, for example, that video is an efficient teaching tool and there are opportunities for peer review assessment, rather than just reverting to multiple choice tests.

Furthermore, the University of Edinburgh's involvement in MOOCs has influenced their mainstream education provision and they have extended their ambitions with respect to student engagement with online learning. Their aim, now, is to provide all their students with one fully online course to choose in their degree by 2025. This will give students the graduate skills for the future, as the University has observed that once students have completed their degree they often return to learning in an online format.  

Haywood, J., 2016. Learning from MOOCs: Lessons for the future. Engwall, L., Corte E. D., & Teichler U.(dir.), From books to MOOCs? Emerging models of learning and teaching in higher education, pp.69-79.

Digital Communication Contemporaneity and the Women's March

P-Hat TV.McKin cc-a-sa

A week has gone by since the #TheWomensMarch. I spent last Saturday watching the live stream from DC, first via Periscope then Buzzfeed. This was accompanied by me tweeting my observations and staying in touch with my sister who was marching with my niece in Asheville NC.

That night I went to see the the excellent film Arrival. The plot of the film is the attempt by Dr Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the US military, to try and communicate with an alien landing and find out their purpose for landing on earth.  One of the theme's of the film is non-linear communication,  specifically the Hetapod's (alien) gift of a language that affects the perception of time, allowing Dr Banks to see into the future.

This got me thinking about contemporaneity and digital communication. Horologically, the rally in DC took place 5 hours behind my time but the ability to access a live stream meant that I could see all of the speakers in the present. Despite it being daylight on the broadcast and dark outside here in the UK it still felt like I was watching the present not the past. Pretty much the same sensation I have when I Skype my sister. In this context, time may be inconsequential, those of us, who wanted to, were able to participate in some way in an activity that was taking place in a different time and thousands of miles away. Of course since the invention of telecommunications that can stretch long distances, like the telegraph, we have been able to communicate with people in different time zones, but does the medium or communication tools have an impact on our perception of the present. Did the combination of the real time broadcast and the synchronous communication, with my fellow women marching activists, as I stood cooking in my P-Hat in the kitchen, have an impact of my perception of the present.

I have recently become interested in Neuroscience, as a way of trying to explain some of my perceptions of the world that cannot be explained sociologically. Closely linked to this are philosophical studies of temporality.  For example, I cannot seem explain sociolgically. my feelings of being in the present with my fellow women marching across the world last Saturday.

Tim Barker's paper Media In and Out of Time: Multi-temporality and the Technical Conditions of Comeporaneity (what an excellent title!) - investigates how contemporary media culture creates a "phenomological experience of being in multiple times, in the present but also in the past and future". Barker goes on to say that "media technologies put their users in contact with events of the world, allowing us to engage in events closer to real time, but drawing us out of this time into other technically produced times". Referring to the aftermath of current events such as September 11, and this could possibly be applied to the in Women's March, he introduces the condition of living in a repeatable present, with contemporary culture no longer living within history but in the aftermath of repeatable large scale events.

Yvonne Förster-Beuthan's paper Conscious experience of time: its significance and interpretation in
neuroscience and philosophy.  investigates the body's role in the perception of time, in the same way it does with colour. She refers to by A.D. (Bud) Craig's article  Emotional moments across time: a possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula. Craig's explanation is that time gains its unity by proprioception.

"The insular cortex which is involved in motor control, perception, emotion, self awareness and other important cognitive processes seems to be connected to the unity of time perception. Proprioception, the constant and unthematic awareness of ones own body posture and state seems to facilitate the integration of time perception, of the flux of time. The constant feeling of being alive and being in situations." (Förster-Beuthan referring to Craig)

So simply, and I say simply as this is not a research article, just me trying to find some reason for my perception of the present last Saturday, which I could not explain by observing human behaviour. It could possibly have been the combination of the media technologies delivery of the event and my insular cortex that were influential in my feeling of being in the present with 1000s of women marching all over the globe.

Post-truth society: Librarians now is your time! The citizen librarian

When the text ends TV.McKin cc-nc-sa

My first post of 2017. We all probably know that 2016 was the year of post-truth. Indeed my brother William Watkin has an article in this year's first issue of the Big Issue on that very subject - "The Truth About Post-truth"  The Oxford Dictionary's word of the year post-truth “is an adjective relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” William being a philosopher goes on to discuss what truth is and not wanting to reproduce my brother's article in my own blog, (the words familial, ethics and limelight come to mind), I recommend you read the article yourself.

Despite some common assumptions of what a librarian is, from book shelver to book stamper, librarians in all settings have a role and responsibility for helping individuals to find, evaluate and validate information - what we commonly call information literacy. Even the Wikipedia entry includes this in its opening paragraph:

"A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library, providing access to information and sometimes social or technical programming. In addition, librarians provide instruction on information literacy"

(I will not go into discussions about Wikipedia and truth or professionalism and librarianship I'll save these issues for another time)

When the Oxford dictionary announced its word of the year in November last year, it was like a call to arms for librarians and many of my colleagues got out their digital pens and blogged about the importance of the role of the librarian in a post-truth society. The blogs ranged from the importance of integrating information literacy in education from an early age, as in Joyce Valenza's Truth, Truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world, through to the responsibility of librarians teaching and leading by example as outlined in Georgina's "Being a librarian in a post-truth society"

And here are some more:
Post-truth and Information Literacy Lane Wilson
Post-truth and a New Disruptive Phenomenon Geoff Walton
Information Literacy Lesson Crucial in a Post-truth World Sara Stevenson
The Library's Role in a Post-truth Fake News Era - Proquest
Bursting the Filter Bubble: Pro-truth Librarians in a Pro-truth World Claire McGuiness 
When Information Professions Collide: Applying the ACRL’s Framework to News Media Consumption Kristina Williams

I would go a step further from encouraging individuals to be information and digital literate to encouraging individuals to be citizen librarians, information advocates, sharing their information literacy skills and encouraging others to develop theirs. So maybe an extension of information literacy teaching should be techniques for sharing your skills with colleagues, friends and family, together with engaging in respectful but challenging discussions about information evaluation. This would involve the integration of ethical communication skills in information literacy teaching, or even the development of programmes dedicated to becoming a citizen librarian, focusing on information skills advocacy and as well as responsibility. This could be something aligned or integrated into the global citizen cause championed by Hugh Evans.  Along with the fight against global poverty, climate change and gender equality we should fight for the right for all citizens to have the information literacy skills to be global citizen librarians.

Staying afloat on the digital fall, resilience and new library and information professionals

Pisgah Falls TV. McKin BY: NC-SA

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of teaching one of the sessions on the Information Organisations and Their Management modules on Manchester Met’s Masters in Library and Information Management course. The module develops students’ understanding of the information organisation landscape. It encourages them to take a wide perspective on contexts in which their skills might be relevant, giving them the opportunity to develop their management knowledge and skills, including people skills such as leadership and teamworking.

I called the session “Libraries and Their Digital Offerings, Disruption and Resilience”.  I began by reflecting on my career development over the last 20 years in the context of a digitally disruptive society. I punctuated my career timeline with significant digital happenings that had taken place along the way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         For example in the library I worked in as pre-professional trainee the Times Newspaper was on CD-Rom on the floor above, which could only be networked when somebody physically put the disc in. Now look where we are today in a world of mobile devices and media saturation.





I then followed with a series of group activities based on my own case studies which mapped to the Digital U values of the University project I am currently involved in:

• Communication, Collaborator & Participator:  using technology to network and develop working relationships and effectively communicating online - Case study: reading list upgrade communicating with suppliers at a distance using conferencing software
• Information & Data Handler: managing and interpreting data, as well as keeping it secure - Case study: collection management review, understanding data and communicating this to academics
• Creator and innovator: using a range of technologies for different activities - Case study: identifying technological solutions with limited resources, cloud solutions and open source
• Leaner and self developer: utilising different digital learning opportunities and using a range of online tools to participate in this - Case study: constructively developing knowledge in an new area using MOOCs and joining professional networks
• Digital ambassador: developing a positive digital profile and looking after personal health and safety in digital settings - Case study: how to select an area of expertise and building your professional profile    

The aim of the case studies was to help the students to identify the digital skills they had and would need acquire to make them resilient in the future digital library world. This was a collaborative digital exploration, I was really impressed by the innovative contributions of the cohort. As I have illustrated above the profession has changed considerably over the last 20 years in the public and private sectors, mainly due to digital disruption. New professionals have to be resilient with respect to addressing unexpected challenges, challenges that some had predicted but possibly not so soon and not so impactful. The group’s engagement revealed a prepared awareness and enthusiasm to promote their existing skills and to find ways to develop these. This showed a real commitment to the profession making the whole experience for me extremely rewarding, I felt an optimism for the profession knowing it will be in such good hands.  

Technically tetchy, hoping for more women digital leaders is it hopeless?

V McGarvey 2 Tetchy Pumpkins
CC-NC-SA

I know it's not Halloween but it was the best tetchy image I could find in my collection. I am a feminist, I follow loads of hashtag discussions @ women in tech. However, it is still really frustrating to see air punching moments when one more woman gets a CEO tech job, or a one-off award for a innovative enterprise when it should be the norm. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work in and manage 2 progressive areas in HE, elearning and librarianship, the former male dominated the latter female, both areas have demonstrated great creativity in their use of technology. Even so I have observed across the sector that males still have a strong presence in the management of the digital and technical domains and this has made me tetchy but despite my tetchiness or should that be "techiness" I have hope.

With the swell of organisations supporting women's progression in the tech world and pressures within education to adopt more inclusive approaches to teaching technology, I think things may gradually change. This is also supported by the growth in the number of female led technology focused SMEs, particularly in the wearable market. These companies have been established by women too impatient to wait for the trickle of change.  Brighton based Brighton Digital Women founded in mid 2015 brings together women with a shared passion for digital. Eloise McInerney's  March 2016 blog post on digital leaders reducing the gender gap, referred to last year's government press release which reported that the proportion of women in the digital and creative industries falling  Despite this she injects some hope into the debate stating that "there are a growing number of dynamic, forward-thinking women in the UK digital sector who are not only successful in their own fields, but who are also leading and designing initiatives to get women and young people more excited about digital" She then goes on to profile 5 female leaders who are making an impact with innovative enterprises. A complimentary report is Elearnor Burn's article in the Computer Business Review which listed10 of the most successful women in UK technology. Burns says that although there are "a number of high profile tech leaders Gender equality is a fantasy in the business technology world - men outnumber women and it is apparently going to take around 100 odd years to reach gender parity".  This sounds pretty hopeless however Burns concludes that when we have women in positions of digital leadership, we have role models and role models with a voice. So am I still tetchy? When I see articles that surprisingly exude the isolated success of another female digital leader then yes, but if the article exemplifies hopeful illustrations of leading female role models in the disparate tech world, then I have hope, hope that we are moving closer to the norm.

Acknowledgements

5 Female Digital Leaders Working to Reduce the Gender Gap
29/03/2016 Eloise McInerney

10 of the most successful women in UK technology on influence, leadership, equality and being digital role models Eleanor Burns April 26 2016

This is a modern world: a framework for developing students' digital leadership skills

Bijmer Centrum Amsterdam V McGarvey BY-NC-SA

In June I was awarded a University Teaching Excellent Fellowship. This is a 2 year fellowship and my focus will be on the development of a digital leadership skills via an online multidisciplinary module for final year and postgraduate students, that can be repurposed for different subject areas, using badging for competency acquisition. The focus will be leadership behaviour rather than role. I will be using Staffordshire University's Digital U digital capability values, based on the JISC digital capability framework, which are:

• Communicator, collaborator and participator: using technology to network and develop working relationships and effectively communicating online 
• Information and data handler: managing and interpreting data, as well as keeping it secure
• Creator and innovator: using a range of technologies for different activities and creating digital artefacts and materials  
• Learner and self developer: utilising different digital learning opportunities and using a range of online tools to participate in this
• Ambassador: developing a positive digital profile and looking after personal health and safety in digital settings

Proof of concept will be demonstrated via a mini MOOC for academic staff, which will develop their digital leadership skills and will enable them to be involved in the development of the module so that it is of a quality to deliver to students.

Wan NG at the Sydney University of Technology, has undertaken extensive work on digital literacies, saying that leaders in today’s world need to be digital literate, this means the ability to adapt to new and emerging technologies quickly and being able to engage with the new methods of communication that arise. This literacy includes an intersection of technical (online interfaces, applications), cognitive (critically thinking), and social– emotional (netiquette, safety) dimensions in digital literacy

Edinburgh University Business School's Dr Jim Hamill has stated that transforming digitally is the number one business challenge facing organisations today. Staying relevant in a digital world is the number one personal challenge we all face. We need leaders who possess both the confidence and personal skills to drive digital-led organisational change

Josie Ahlquist's 2014 article, Trending Now: Digital Leadership Education Using Social Media and Journal of Leadership, affirms that leadership educators are charged with preparing students to be relevant and productive citizens; capable of taking on the challenges our society has in store. Technology is a particular challenge that students have to deal with as it is all pervasive, can be disruptive and ever changing,which requires flexibility and being able to adapt. Ahlquist has developed a digital leadership framework, which has 10 competencies that equip students for digital disruptive world, which I will also look at integrating.    

    

1. Awareness of emerging technologies 

2. Digital content analysis and evaluation 

3. Online self awareness 

4. Establishing personal values, privacy, time management 

5. Cultivating professional strategic career online branding 

6. Building personal learning network 

7. Cyber conflict resolution and mediation – identification of negative behaviour 

8. Digital decision making strategies based on positive authentic constructive activity 

9. Integration of digital technologies into leadership presence – common activities encouraging other leaders leading by example 

10. Using social media for the social good 

The aim will be to engage students with the concept that leadership is not only role driven but about showing leadership within a given role. Developing a core set of competencies which they could possibly illustrate in a portfolio of evidence and also applying social change model which integrates reflection. This will develop resilient individuals that are prepared to enter digital world they are about to enter, that can show digital leadership in their given role.

Ahlquist, J., 2014. Trending now: Digital leadership education using social media and the social change model. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(2), pp.57-60.

  

JISC Digifest 16 Blog (better late than never)

My JISC Digifest blog is available on the Staffordshire University Digital U project blog.  Together with recent blogs I have written for the project.

Wonderful Smart Copenhagen

Now I'll Have Nyhavn TV.McKin cc by: NC-SA

Last weekend I had the pleasure of making my first visit to the aptly described wonderful Copenhagen. Truly the smartest city I have ever visited and one of the politest. A place that is so obviously networked both virtually and geographically, with just a 20 minute metro ride from the airport to the city centre, as well as technologically driven but not technologically determined or is it?. I observed that the use of cash is a rarity, financial exchange for goods is often via a card or quite commonly via a smart app. Cyclists have safe parallel carved highways through the city, eradicating competition with motorists.  The WiFi in our apartment was superfast, and ubiquitous, on coaches, in shops and bars. I even saw a Bluetooth  app driven coffee machine in one of the bars, the barman was under-impressed by my over-impressed comments, "it's just a box, bluetooth and an app, it's not that difficult" he said.  Even the commentary on our pleasure boat cruise around the city was GPS driven. (By the way did you know that Bluetooth invented by Ericsson was named after the tenth-century Danish king Harald Bluetooth).

Needless to say when I got back to the UK I did a little bit of research on Copenhagen's Smart City credentials. In 2014 Copenhagen won the world's smart city award for its Connecting Plan, using of wireless data from cell phones, GPS’s in busses and sensors in sewers and in rubbish bins to reduce, congestion, air pollution and CO2-emissions. There is also the ambition that by 2018 travel time on buses and by cycling will be reduced by 10%, where as car travel will remain the same. (Smart Circle Becoming a Smart City is not a goal in itself)

However, the fear associated with this, is the challenge to individual privacy. Liv Holm Carlsen's 2014 article Copenhagen's Smart City Plans Pressure Citizen's Privacy in http://www.kommunikationsforening.dk/ argues that Copenhagen's strategic implementation requires a "substantial surveillance infrastructure diminishing the sphere of privacy" for the citizens.  She states that the objects that we carry are plugged into this infrastructure with every transaction logged therefore citizens should have an opportunity to debate how this data is being used.  Carlsen contends that the Copenhagen's Smart City pre-feasibility report focused on the economic and social benefits but "did not did not particularly shed light on the political, human and psychological parameters that will be affected by a smart initiative."

Another 2014 article in the Guardian "The truth about smart cities: ‘In the end, they will destroy democracy"   reporting on the Future Cities summit also commented on the challenge of Smart Cities to individual privacy. Referring to Jonathan Rez of the University of New South Wales, who suggested "that a smarter way to build cities might be for architects and urban planners to have psychologists and ethnographers on the team.” so that technologists can get a better understanding of citizens.  Last week Max Opry's article "Adelaide to become Australia's first smart city but could lose out on privacy" again in the Guardian also outlined the fears of the misuse of data.

For many this may seem far away from home but already MOOCs are awash with references to Smart Cities, IOT and Big Data. Last year the Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey's oppening address to The Telegraph's Smart Cities Conference 2015 referred to a range of Smart City initiatives throughout the UK. The Nesta Report Rethinking Smart Cities From the Groundup  proposes that the smart city vision often fails to recognise the role that behaviour and culture play in the way cities work (p.14). However, the word privacy only appears once in the description of D–CENT a Europe–wide, EU–funded project creating decentralised and privacy–aware applications for direct democracy and economic empowerment.

The smart city is an extremely challenging digital paradigm for our time. It is evident how accessing data can improve the environment making it greener and leading the way to more sustainable urban initiatives. However, the privacy debate adds even more challenges identifying a need for more public consultation.

So next time you switch location on, on your mobile device, think about how your data is adding to the big data pool, what do you think about this, does it matter, do you care? For me I am now slightly ambivalent reflecting on how my short visit to to the fabulous city of Copenhagen has contributed to its smart analytics via my digital footprint and whether this really matters to me if the result is an improved city experience.

Looking into the sun, effective learning

Sun Set in December Zandvoort Beach The Netherlands
Vicki McGarvey BY-NC-SA

When you look directly into the sun, first you see the beauty and then your eyes start to hurt. This is how I feel sometimes when I try to examine learning processes. Learning can be a wonderful experience however studying effective learning can metaphorically cause you eye strain. Trying to unravel what is effective learning is a complex business, however, this what the University College of London's Coursera delivered MOOC, What Future for Education, is trying to undertake.

This is a self paced MOOC. Given that my completion rate for MOOCs is low compared to my enrolment rate, I am dipping into this, taking the pressure of myself by not completing all the assessed pieces and just engaging with the content. Reflection is an integral part of the course and in the first week, which concentrated on how we learn, we were asked to reflect on successful and unsuccessful learning experiences, as well as our preferred way of learning.

From the age of 7, when I entered a streamed middle school, I stopped enjoying school.  Even though I was in the top stream, I spent most of the years up until high school on the bottom table because academically I found school a challenge. The bottom table was also the naughty table, where the misbehaved were demoted to.  This experience for a long time had an impact on how I saw myself academically and to a certain extent has created a small lifelong dent in my educational confidence. In the 1970s, I saw my inability to keep up with two thirds of my classmates as my fault, now with hindsight and having more knowledge of the learning process, I realise that education was to blame. I am a constructivist leaner and I like to interact whilst learning, I have a good cultural memory, I am not great at remembering details, tests at school were a nightmare for me. My parents said they found it frustrating at the time, they could not understand how I could be so verbally articulate outside of school, but still continue to struggle academically.  My mum even asked if I could be put in a lower stream so that I could be nearer the top of the class, which the teacher reassuringly said was not a good idea.

I continued to be streamed right through high school, and still thought myself academically average, Admittedly I do not have a packed case of O'levels and A'levels, but I got a good degree, an MED and have done well in my professional life, mainly because I think work suits my learning style. Despite this I often say I am academically average, which annoys my husband and quite rightly so. For me, my successes are a result of effective learning, so unsurprisingly I was better at sociology than physics. My husband's education journey was far more challenging, working class Irish parents, failed eleven plus and employment on building sites until his late twenties. This was followed by an educational flourish. Thanks to a funded education access scheme and a free degree, education changed his life. He and many of his peers went on to get good degrees, followed by postgraduate qualifications, in my husband's case two masters. They have continued to make major contributions to society in various professions. This is all because education helped them to escape the predestined career that selective education had planned for them. From labourer to social changer, now that is a wonderful sight for sore eyes.


For more on the horrors of streaming please see:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/25/school-streaming-pupils-english-primaries

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!