Whilst I have been focusing on editing the book on Leading Virtual Teams, I have blogged a little less about what we have actually been up to as a Virtual Team… So this is a post about a great activity we have recently done: Team chat & bake.
A mail box from Positive Bakes, including all the ingredients for the team bake.
We chose a mail order baking kit for vegan & gluten free lemon cakes, which should be made easily and quickly within an hour which we set aside.
As a team we considered whether we wanted to have video chat whilst baking or use text chat, and we all voted to use text chat only, so we posted messages and shared pictures as we went along.
Photo of baking in progress… just mixing the dough for the lemon cakes.
One of the things we really enjoyed about the activity was to spend some time together as a team without having to focus on a particular deliverable. It felt more like a social activity and we also enjoyed sharing jokes about how we were getting on with the recipe. It worked great to all make the same recipe as we could compare our experiences and tastes.
Picture of baking in progress… lemon cakes fresh out of the oven.
The cost of the activity for us as a team was around £20 a person, and it took around an hour for us to bake the cakes… and start eating them. We scheduled the activity to take place before lunch, enabling us to move from the baking activity to lunch which worked well.
Photo of the final baked product – lemon cakes decorated with raspberry sprinkles.
What worked especially well for this activity was the chat element, which allowed us all to engage as much or as little as we felt comfortable with. Combining hanging out virtually with making (and eating) some practically is a great combination to engage Virtual Teams – bringing a more tangible dimension to a distributed activity.
Preparations are in full swing for ALT’s Annual Conference this September, and we are working hard to design a hybrid conference programme that reflects our values and the needs of our Members.
In the past we have openly shared ALT’s expertise designing and delivering innovative online events, and during the early days of the pandemic we published resources about running events online. This blog post continues this practice, sharing our thinking for hybrid conferences.
Our approach to hybrid
The question we started with was what a ‘hybrid conference’ means for us. We have over a decade of experience running wholly online conferences as well as in person conferences with an online element, such as live streaming keynotes for example.
For our approach to hybrid conferences, we wanted to ensure that we make the most of a return to in person session formats, enabling participants to engage in discussion and collaboration without the constraints of being live streamed or having to interact with participants online in every session.
At the same time, we want to continue to offer Members the opportunity to participate and contribute online, and to connect with everyone who is at the event.
Whilst the majority of events we run are openly accessible as a membership service, our two large conferences a year have to cover their costs and contribute to our income as an independent charity. Fees for this year may be the lowest in five years for our Annual Conference, but we are well aware of the squeeze on budgets and inequalities in income. Alongside our scholarship programme, online participation offers a lower financial barrier to participate.
We work also within the operational constraints of what we can make possible in the venue we work with, with the limited financial resources we have and also what expertise we have to deliver the event.
It’s important to us that the way the event is run and organised reflects the Association and its values, and that makes us reluctant to give external organisations control over how the event is delivered or indeed who keynotes. Whilst we value the support from our sponsors and partners enormously, we have also set clear limits of what we offer in return for that support and that, too, shapes how we organise events.
Earlier this year, we had a fantastic opportunity to run our first hybrid conference, OER22, and learn from that experience. Building on the lesson learnt, we designed our conference programme to:
Start and finish online, bringing everyone participating together;
Deliver all keynote sessions online and in person, with in person speakers where possible;
Design the programme to accommodate most UK travel to and from the event on conference days;
Find a balance between online and in person programming that is reflected in the fee structure;
Account for staffing for simultaneous online and in person delivery.
An unknown quantity: Submissions and Peer Review
Our Conference Call for Proposals opened for submissions after we had to start designing the programme, and the largest unknown quantity was that we had no sense of how many submissions we would get, how many would be for online and how many for in person, and what percentage would make it through the Peer Review process.
With OER22 we started to ask participants to choose a format (including whether they wanted to present in person and online) at the time of submission, and this worked well, with only 1% of authors requested to change this subsequently.
We thus used the same approach for submissions for the Annual Conference, asking authors to choose what format they wanted to present in from the outset.
The Call for Proposals opened on 6 May and we sent out the initial decisions to authors on 23 June. Those weeks can feel like a long time in which to wait to see the shape of your conference programme. Here is what we hoped for an what happened:
No of submissions: We aimed for receiving 100 – 150 submissions. We received 132!
Online/in person split: We planned for 35% online / 65% in person. We received 29% submission for online, 71% for in person sessions.
Acceptance rate: the initial acceptance rate is ~70% after round 1 of the review process. Depending on how many authors submit revisions and how many of those are accepted, this may increase. Overall these rates are in line with previous years.
We won’t know all papers that will feature in the programme, until all accepted authors have registered and all outstanding revisions have been submitted later this month.
(Incidentally, if you are an author in need of help or you have questions, contact helpdesk@alt.ac.uk ).
Programme design
Work in progress: Screenshot of the draft programme for the conference.
Now that we have a better idea of the submissions for the conference, we can start to work on the actual programme, scheduling sessions and working out conflicts in scheduling.
Pre-Conference activities
We will run pre-conference activities 31st August to 5th September and these will be open to all and free to attend. This is an important point, as these activities include sessions run by our Special Interest Groups and Members Groups. During this time we also run participant orientation sessions online, helping to onboard everyone on the conference platform and starting the conversation in our social space.
Twice daily speaker orientation sessions will help prepare speakers to present either online or in person and pick up logistical questions about session formats and session chairing.
6th September – Conference Day 1
The morning of day 1 will be online with an online welcome and live sessions including video posters. In the afternoon, the programme will be in-person. Keynotes will be live-streamed to online participants. In the evening, we will hold the 2022 Learning Technologist of the Year Awards.
7th September – Conference Day 2
Day 2 will be in-person and in parallel we will stream pre-recorded sessions with live online discussion. Keynotes will be live-streamed to online participants as well. In the evening, we will celebrate the launch of Digital Transformation, our collaboration with ITN Productions as part of our conference gala.
8th September – Conference Day 3
The morning of day 1 will be in-person, again with sessions online as well. In the afternoon, the programme will move to online only. Keynotes will be live-streamed to online participants. In the evening, the conference after party will be online and hopefully see the return of #altc radio on the airwaves.
What’s next…?
Designing the hybrid events programme is only one of many steps on the road to #altc22, and we’ll continue to share our practice as we go along. We hope you will join us in September!
As we head into summer, I have been taking a break from work and headed to the Welsh coast for a well earned break. I am continuing my work with a number of clients over the summer, but having just completed my current coach training I will also have time to focus on other aspects of my practice including catching up on a whole host of books I am hoping to read.
Whatever your plans for the coming months, I hope you find some rest ahead of the new academic year and enjoy the warmer weather.
Blog posts and resources
This month I am sharing a blog post reflecting on different frameworks to think with. Not necessarily to adopt them whole, but because they usually offer me small nuggets of inspiration. It’s helped me find new ways to explore traits, motivations or fears and also where to turn if you can’t find a framework that feels right for you: Read Nuggets of inspiration: how we work and what works for us .You can find free coaching resources via my website and this time I have two new posts to share: try out a resource to help you reflect on different modes of working, whether from home, hybrid or in the office and exploring Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies and find out about what type of accountability works best for you:
For existing clients who feel like you are just getting started or want to continue our work together I offer a discounted package of six sessions for £210 which includes six one hour sessions, a coaching plan, resources and accountability check-ins. Although I currently have no slots for new pro-bono clients, I do have a wait-list for new pro-bono clients looking to start coaching with me in autumn.
Over the past year I have started to enter awards, and I realised that it can be a helpful process to get a new perspective on one’s progress and gain some much needed professional recognition along the way.
This post is all about ALT’s Awards, which I can’t enter, but I hope that you will. The Awards celebrate achievement in the field of Learning Technology and are peer-reviewed by a panel of ALT Members from across sectors, chaired by the President of ALT.
Now, if you are someone who is ready to put your name forward, move right along and complete the entry form.
There are five categories to choose from, so hopefully you’ll find one that fits:
ALT Award for Individuals
ALT Award for Institutions and Teams
ALT Award for Leadership in Digital Education
ALT Award for Digital Transformation in partnership with Jisc
ALT Award for Case Studies of Ethical EdTech
The awards are open to all and free to enter and you don’t have to be a Member of ALT to be eligible. The Awards Ceremony is free to attend for all Finalists.
The Awards page has the full particulars of the criteria for each award, and the judging criteria are informed by the CMALT principles: A commitment to exploring and understanding the interplay between technology and learning; a commitment to keep up to date with new technologies; a commitment to communicate and disseminate effective practice and empathy with and willingness to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds and specialism. All entries should demonstrate alignment with the Framework for Ethical Learning Technology (FELT) and specifically FELT four core principles: Awareness, Professionalism, Care & Community and Values.
The entry form requires you to complete one main field:
Describe your entry, including why you should win this year, the impact of your work within or beyond your institution, how it was developed and what others could learn from your work.
and there is an option to include links to supporting evidence, resources or similar.
Why not enter?
Plenty of people I meet wouldn’t consider putting themselves, their project or their team forward for an Award. My question to you is: Why not?
If you don’t win or get short-listed, no-one will know. You will still have a useful summary that highlights what you have achieved that you can use for appraisals or dissemination, and you might have an opportunity to see your own achievements in a new light.
What you do is probably more worth sharing than you think. Plus, after two years of fire fighting and crisis support, I bet there is a LOT you will have achieved for your learners, your academics, your colleagues, your institutions, the wider community and the sector you work in.
And… there is always the option of nominating someone else. An unsung hero or a overlooked innovator.
Tips for entering
I have previously shared tips for entering, and these are some of the most popular ones:
What I/we do isn’t special…
Quite a few winners of the Awards over the years have either been nominated by someone else or started their opening sentence along these lines. Most of the time individuals or teams who do exceptional things don’t take the time to reflect or celebrate. They move on to the next thing quickly and modestly. This is one of the things the Awards are useful for – to reflect and acknowledge your achievements and those of others. If you aren’t sure whether what you do is ‘special’ enough to enter ask a colleague for their views. And if you know someone who should be recognised – nominate them.
Show what impact you’ve made
Quite often entries don’t include a lot of detail of what difference the work has made – how you have changed things. If you find it hard to find good ways of showing that maybe ask colleagues, learners or peers for comments or feedback. You could also include metrics of social media or open online interactions, such as how many readers a blog has.
What are the judges looking for?
Each year the judging panel includes at least two previous winners of the Awards. That means entries will be reviewed by at least individuals who have been in your position before. Other members of the panel come from across sectors including HE, FE, work-based learning and industry. So no matter where you work or what you do, there should always be someone on the panel who understands your perspective.
Interviews make me nervous…
Part of the selection process is that all short-listed entries are invited to a virtual interview. This is a friendly and collegiate day. If you are invited for an interview, you will be able to prepare in advance and the interview itself usually quite informal and about half an hour long.
So give it a thought and before 4 July 2022, complete the entry form.
Today I was delighted to take part in the launch of a new book:
Book cover image
Digital Learning in Higher Education
COVID-19 and Beyond
Edited by Matt Smith, Interim Head of Primary Education,University of Wolverhampton and John Traxler, Professor of Digital Learning, Education Observatory, University of Wolverhampton, UK and UNESCO Chair
Mapping the uncertain landscape of education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Learning in Higher Education examines how Higher Education (HE) institutions have moved to widespread digital learning in an effort to maintain the educational experience. The book navigates the possibilities that lie ahead, using reflections from HE practitioners and other academic professionals to explore the beginnings of a new and brighter future for HE.
My contribution
I worked with Rachel Crookes and Matt Smith to co-author the chapter on Further non-teaching perspectives on aspects of the higher education sector impacted by COVID-19, based in findings from the ALT Annual Survey:
“ALT’s Annual Survey has run each year since 2014, with a number of the core questions remaining unchanged. We think it provides a unique insight into how learning technology is used across sectors as well as identifying emerging trends in current and future practice. Explore key findings from this year’s survey:
Trends in Learning Technology
This report focuses on how the Learning Technology landscape is changing through a focus on tools and technologies and also professional practice. Our findings provide insight into how blended and hybrid models are becoming the main mode of learning, for 66% of our Members and that student engagement continues to be the number one drive behind the adoption of learning technology.
This report explores one of the key questions we ask in the survey: how are institutions investing in Technology-Enhanced Learning? We continue to see an increase in investment of over 30% overall, although smaller than the previous year, when 45% of Members reported an increase in their budgets. From 2020 to 2021, investment in permanent posts has increased from 32% to 54%, and for fixed term posts from 34% to 50%, emphasizing the continued and growing demands for Learning Technology professionals in the long term.”
After a decade in which we survived cancer, Brexit and a global pandemic, my family is preparing for a seismic shift: my parents are returning to the shores of Europe to be near my sister, and I will remain in the UK, where my home has been since I immigrated in 1997.
The demands of age, which increase year on year, will be more easily met in their new home on the banks of the Rhein, and as a family we are all relieved to have found a strategy that removes at least some of the risks we have struggled with in recent years.
The endless stream of paperwork required for this move across Brexit borders is a stark reminder that even in this digital age bureaucracy requires original signatures, contracts completed in triplicate and proof upon proof of a life lived regardless of years lost to cancer and COVID. Good luck to those who have to obtain written proof of regular hygienist visits at the dentist for the past ten years.
When I separated from my ex husband and moved to Cardiff in 2020, my possessions were stuck in lockdown limbo for months, and I spent a lot of time missing small objects I hadn’t deemed important enough to pack into the first car load. Now, my parents are likewise trying to decide what to take, what to leave behind and what they can’t do without whilst their household is shipped across borders (where import duty will need to be paid).
My parents are both creative, and that creativity and desire to make things, fix thing and improve things is something we share as a family. In my dad’s case it is rooted deeply being an engineer, a life working with tools. My mother’s creativity is in working with numbers and also in paper crafts. My sister’s creative genius extends to whole houses, interior design and fabrics. My own shows up in all aspects of my life, as I have inherited something from each of them.
Something my dad gave to me during this move is a kind of mechanical leaver which comes with a key that enables you to shift weights up to ten tonnes. It’s an incredible bit of engineering, and a beautiful material metaphor.
It’s no longer an object of use for my dad, whose engineering projects are now smaller and lighter, but it is an object that represents his quiet strength and determination perfectly. Just as the homemade Christmas cards, and lovingly made gifts that my mum gave me represent her generosity of spirit and desire to do good for others.
This move marks a new chapter for our family, a new beginning in what will be a post-Brexit, post-pandemic world, and sometimes it feels like we need to shift a small mountain in order to get there. So it is a good thing indeed that we have this powerful reminder, that you can move great things, if only you apply your strength in the right way.
I have translated this post into German below, for my mother, and avid reader of my blog. “Hallo, Mami!”.
Ein Werkzeug des Lebens
Nach einem Jahrzehnt in dem wir Krebs, Brexit und eine globale Epidemie überlebt haben, bereitet sich unsere Family auf den nächsten, großen Schritt vor: meine Eltern übersiedeln wieder in Europäischen Gefilde, um näher bei meiner Schwester zu sein, und ich bleibe weiterhin in Großbritannien, wo ich seit 1997 zu Hause bin.
Den Ansprüchen des Älterwerden’s werden wir in ihrem neuen Heim am Ufer von Rhein’s eher gerecht werden können, und unsere Familie ist erleichtert, zumindest manche der Risiken, mit denen wir in den letzten Jahren gehadert haben, hinter uns zu lassen.
Der endlose Papierkram den man braucht um einen Umzug über Brexit Grenzen hinweg zu vollbringen, ist enorm. Es ist auch ein Zeichen, wie viel Wert Behörden, selbst in diesem digitalen Alter, darauf legen, alles im Original zu erhalten. Unterschriften bruacht man auf dreifach ausgeführten Verträgen zusammen mit vielfachen Belegen, die man trotz all den Unterbrechungen wegen Krebs und Coronavirus erbringen muss. Viel Glück an alle, die von einem englischen Zahnarzt einen schriftlichen Beweis dafür brauchen, dass sie alle sechs Monate beim Zahnarzt waren.
Als ich mich Anfang des Jahres 2020 von meinem Ex-Ehemann getrennt hab, und nach Cardiff gezogen bin, sind viele meiner persönlichen Dinge monatelang während des Lockdowns stecken geblieben. Und ich habe sehnsüchtig auf Dinge gewartet, die mir nicht wichtig genug erschienen um sie auf der ersten Fahrt nach Cardiff mit ins Auto zu packen. Diesen Sommer sortieren nun meine Eltern ihren Hausrat danach, was sofort mit muss, und was per Spedition geliefert werden kann (inklusive Zoll und Importsteuer) und auch, was man nicht mehr braucht.
Meine Eltern sind beide kreativ, und Kreativität und eine Gabe Dinge zu verbessern und neu zu gestalten ist etwas, was wir alle, als Familie, gemeinsam haben. Für meinen Vater diese Kapazität hängt mit Jahrzehnten als Ingenieur zusammen, eine erfolgreiche Karriere mit Werkzeug in der Hand. Bei meiner Mutter kommt die Kreativität von ihrer Arbeit mit Nummern und Zahlen, und auch mit Papier und beim Basteln. Das kreative Genie meiner Schwester kann sich auf ganze Häuser beziehen, durch Innenarchitektur und Design. Als jüngste habe ich etwas von allen geerbt, und meine Kreativität prägt alle Bereiche meines Lebens.
Ein Werkzeug das mein Vater mir während dieses Umzugs gegeben hat, ist dieses Objekt: es ist ein Mechanismus der sehr schwere Gewichte, bis zu zehn Tonnen, anheben kann. Es ist eine unglaubliche Ingenieur-Maschine und auch eine materielle Metapher.
Obwohl dieses Objekt an sich für meinen Vater nicht mehr nützlich ist, da seine Ingenieur Projekte in Zukunft etwas kleiner und leichter ausfallen werden, ist es weiterhin ein Symbol seiner ruhigen Kraft und Zuverlässigkeit. In einem ähnlichen Sinne sind die handgemachten Weihnachtskarten und liebevoll verpackten Geschenke die meine Mutter mir gegeben hat, Symbole Ihrer Großzügigkeit und ihrer Gabe, anderen eine Freude zu machen.
Mit dem bevorstehenden Umzug fangen wir, als Familie, ein neues Kapitel an. Ein Kapitel das sich hoffentlich ohne Brexit und weitere Epidemien überstehen lässt; und manchmal fühlen wir uns, als müssten wir einen riesigen Berg vor uns her Schieben, um dort hin zu kommen. Und deshalb ist es gut, dass wir dieses Werkzeug haben, dass uns daran erinnert, das man sehr viel erreichen kann, so lange man seine Kraft auch richtig einsetzt.
