Category: People, Place and Work

September 17, 2015

Ada Lovelace Day, Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh will be hosting Ada Lovelace Day on Tuesday 13th October 2015 – an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). You are all welcome, please join us.

Our provisional schedule includes:

composing music with algorithms
building Raspberry Pi enclosures with LEGO
metadata games in University of Edinburgh’s Library and University Collections
Wikipedia training session and edit-a-thon
Ada buns
guest speakers
and much more!

Book now.

Schedule:
Morning (booking link)
11:00-11:30 Introduction to the day with speakers on Lovelace, research using LEGO, programming and games (Melissa Highton, Katya Krasnopeeva & Judy Robertson)

11:30 – 14:00 Fun with data, algorithms, and Pi: hands-on sessions (drop-in)
•        compose your own music with algorithms – sessions running at these times: 11:30 – 12:15; 12:15 – 13:00; 13:00 – 14:00
•        build your own Raspberry Pi enclosures with LEGO – sessions running at these times: 11:30 – 13:00; 13:00 – 14:00
•        play and compete in metadata games (University of Edinburgh’s Library and University Collections division) – sessions running at these times: 11:30 – 13:00; 13:00 – 14:00

Afternoon (booking link)
14:00 – 17:00 Wikipedia Editathon
Join us to raise profile of women in computer science & inspire a new generation! Receive expert advice and training so that you can, edit and publish articles for Wikipedia. Then publish new articles or improve existing articles about prominent Edinburgh University women, past and present, who are under-represented within Wikipedia.
·         14:00-15:00 Wikipedia training
·         15:00 Afternoon tea (catering provided)
·         15:15-17:00 Wikipedia Editing and Publishing: Edinburgh’s women in Computer Science

*You are welcome to bring your own topics of interest to write Wikipedia articles about too.

#ALD15 #ALD15Eduni

September 13, 2015

set in stone

Two weeks ago I presented the story of our Women in Science and Scottish History editathon at the Wikipedia Science conference in London at the Wellcome Trust*.

This week Surgeon’s Hall unveiled a plaque to commemorate the Edinburgh Seven and the Surgeon’s Hall riot. I am very pleased to be able to draw a direct line from the fun we had on the web at our wikipedia editahon to the fixing of a permanent plaque. it’s nice when the physical and the virtual keep up with each other.

The Wikipedia Science conference was a good place to discuss the contribution of women to the telling of science stories and disseminating research. Peter Murray-Rust described Wikipedia as our greatest achievement in the 21st Century. I reminded the audience that less that 15% of the people who edit Wikipedia are women and we discussed whether or not this was a problem. One delegate suggested that women aren’t interested in facts and another that women have ‘other’ things to do. We wondered how Wikipedia would be different, and Wikipedia science would be different, if more women contributed. We wondered what might be done to find out.

The Edinburgh Seven had a tough time when they tried to break into the male world of university medicine, but they were working within historical, established structures. Surely Wikipedia is designed from the start to be more open, more democratic, more participatory? Wikipedia is only 15 years old. It seems like it is work worth doing to try to recruit more editors and a good place to start would be amongst information professionals and women in tech.

It seems to me that the kinds of initiative we may need to get more women using wikipedia for science, are very much in the same vein as those more generally for women in STEM workplaces. We need women to want to join, and want to stay.

The presentation I gave described the research I am involved in with the Open University to identify the workplace learning outcomes for university staff and students in developing digital skills, information literacy skills and understanding of copyright in an open knowledge environment. The research team have surveyed and interviewed. Interviewees describe rich learning experiences, learning a range of skills and knowledge, for example:

technical knowledge (how to create a Wikipedia page, how to edit, how to cite other sources etc),
factual knowledge around the topic (names, dates, locations of historical events),
relational knowledge (how to interact with archivists and materials, how and where to source information, how to plan work with others),
socio-cultural knowledge (how to operate within a network of people with a common purpose).

Which all seem like good skills worth investing in. I am particularly interested in how editathons, if run well, can develop not just tech knowledge but also workplace cultural capital and networks. These are the things women need in STEM workplaces.

Watch this space for further research results, and for the next Edinburgh editathon.

The hashtag for the conference was #wikisci . I recommend the conference as a top value for money event. Less than 30 quid for access to the most up to date thinking in wikiscience.

*great venue

August 19, 2015

PlayFair Steps for equality action

The Playfair Steps, Edinburgh. By claireknights [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Information Services has more than 600 staff. Earlier this year more than 300 of them replied to a gender equality survey. The results of this survey are providing a starting place for the IS senior management to promote equality in the workplace and implement proactive plans for change. We are recruiting an intern to help us. This internship coincides with an exciting time for Information Services as we make plans to move to a new building and find new ways of working.

Opportunity and strategic alignment

Following our gender equality survey, within the context of the University’s commitment to Athena Swan, and in line with a broader approach to change management in IS, we have an opportunity now to make some innovative moves to address equality and diversity issues for our staff.

Key messages

One of the key messages arising from our staff survey was that ‘equality involves everyone’. This indicates that our success will depend on ensuring that our plans target all groups and include a range of positive actions, in addition to those specifically designed for women.

Proposal

Alongside the work we must do in HR and with directors and managers around policies and process, we will establish an innovative programme of staff workplace activities * and L&D opportunities focused on a general concept of ‘fair play’ called ‘The PlayFair Steps’**.

Next Steps

To begin making our planned equality action areas into a SMART plan for 3 years.
To recruit (using CIO innovation funds) a Phd intern to work with us for the first year to monitor progress against targets in these change areas.
To establish a staff group to lead, shape and bring new ideas.

Proposed Equality Actions Areas for next 3years

Communications

Deliver a communications plan to advertise, update and raise awareness of relevant university HR policies where they exist.
Deliver a communications plan of concerted positive comms around ADR, L&D, mentoring, professional networks for career development.
Dispel myths of inequality of access to opportunity by making visible stats which reflect the real uptake of staff development, training, conference attendance and rewards and recognition payments across ISG.
Offer staff development sessions on ‘how to get promoted’.
Review how ‘good citizen’ activities contribute to promotion criteria, reward and recognition.
Do follow up surveys (from the University) on race, faith and disability.

Recruitment

Ensure fair and transparent recruitment, promotion and policy-making processes.
Ensure everyone involved in recruitment (JD, panels etc) has been on diversity and bias training. Showcase and share examples of JDs with gender-neutral language and positive action.
More visible positive action to recruit to under-represented groups/areas including use of social media to advertise opportunities using appropriate hashtags and fora. e.g #womenintech.

Work –life balance

Enhancement of family-friendly policies and improved communication of these.
Ensure colleagues have an equal chance of a healthy work-life balance by not holding meetings outside core hours.
Encourage work/social activities which are family friendly.
Ensure colleagues have an equal chance of a healthy work-life balance by reducing management email sent outside core hours except re tier1 service incidents.
Designate a separate (bookable) quiet room with a nice view for prayer, meditation, escape from sensory overload, breastfeeding and expressing.

Supporting gender equality more broadly

Offer visible equality role models of both genders by ensuring that invited speakers, presentations, vendor presentations reflect a gender mix.
Offer visible equality role models of both genders by working with conference organisers to reduce the number of single sex panels at conferences or events.
Ensure that we have diversity in our decision-making groups.
Provide opportunities for career development and networking through visible support/involvement/hosting of organisation events e.g Ada Lovelace Day.
Offer visible equality role models by naming computer systems, servers, rooms etc after relevant famous women.
Display more art by diverse (and women) artists.
Ensure that systems which hold personal data offer a choice of gender neutral honorifics e.g Mx
Build systems and applications which pass the Bechdel test for software.
Promote to staff and students digital initiatives for gender equality in tech areas e.g coding and gaming.
Engage with research in emerging areas around gender and the internet to inform the development of services to support staff and students’ safety online

* Similar to our ‘healthy working lives’ initiatives.

** As well as including the word ‘fair’ and ‘play’, the Playfair Steps are a well-known set of steps in Edinburgh which take you easily from the old (town) to the new (town) . Additionally, the engineer William Playfair invented infographics- bar charts and pie charts -and much of our gender equality business is done using these.

August 18, 2015

phd internship placements

Picture taken by me in the street. No rights reserved by me.

If you are doing a Phd at University of Edinburgh and you need a job, please feel free to apply to these two splendid vacancies. Work based learning guaranteed. Applications by 31 August.

Digital Skills for Research Intern (Employ.ed for PhDs)

The work of this internship will be to review research skills frameworks, map digital skills to the research life cycle, identify existing training resources locally and in other universities, identify good practice for researcher training programmes, highlight any differences in digital skills needs in specific discipline areas and make recommendations to Information Services senior management to shape their plans going forward.

Equality, Gender and Change PhD Intern (Employ.ed for PhDs)
Information Services has more than 600 staff. Earlier this year more than 300 of them replied to a gender equality survey. The results of this survey are providing a starting place for the IS senior management to promote equality in the workplace and implement proactive plans for change. This internship coincides with an exciting time for Information Services as we make plans to move to a new building and find new ways of working.

August 6, 2015

teachers do nothing in August

Picture taken by me in the street in Mons, Belgium. No rights reserved by me.

If you are an experienced teaching or training manager, and you do one thing this August, please make it looking at this job advert. We need you.

Head of Digital Skills & Training
University of Edinburgh £48,743 to £54,841 per annum (pay award pending)

Which digital skills do you think teachers, learners, researchers and managers need? What staff and student development programmes will give our organisation an edge?

We are looking for an experienced training or teaching manager to lead our Digital Skills Training Service. The University of Edinburgh is a centre of academic excellence, committed to the development of digital skills throughout the organisation. You will lead the service, directing and developing its team, strategy and contribution to the University’s digital skills and IT training offering. You will strive to promote best practice in the delivery of training services and meeting of user expectations.

With proven experience of running IT training services in a large and complex organisation, you will have a talent for designing engaging training programmes, and the management experience to deliver high quality services with planned budgets and resources.

This is a full time open ended position.

July 15, 2015

time for a change?

Rachel Clark. 2013 Untitled. (c) University of Edinburgh http://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/s/sgmas4

You don’t want to go back to your same boring job after the summer. You want to come to work in LTW.

Luckily for you we have three vacancies to attract the funnest people who know that life is too short to do it the way it’s always been done before.

Head of Learning Spaces Technology Salary: £48,743 to £54,841 per annum

Web Interfaces Team Manager Salary: £38,511 to £45,954 per annum

Media Team Manager Salary: £38,511 to £45,954 per annum

June 30, 2015

gown but not forgotten

Photo taken by me of books I own. No rights reserved by me.

Time to dust off my sub-fusc and don my gown once more. I’ll be on stage at the Usher Hall on Friday and my appearance will be live streamed.

Due to the McEwan Hall refurbishments, graduations are being held in the Usher Hall this year. There is no suitable networking infrastructure in place for web casting the graduations, so our media teams in IS have had to source and install a satellite unit on the roof of the Usher Hall. Finding 21st Century tech that will fit through a 19th Century access hatch has been a significant challenge!

I’m going to attend the Education graduation, which I think is the one I actually attended as a graduand. I don’t remember much about it other than being rather surprised to realise that my high school Modern Studies teacher was University Rector.

You can watch the live stream of the graduations.

At the ceremony on 4th July a posthumous degree will be given to Stephanie McGregor.

June 11, 2015

we hold these truths

Lincoln data. Picture taken by me, 3d printed mask of young president Lincoln from SmithsonianX. No rights reserved by me.

Four score and seven hours ago I arrived at the NMC conference. I am learning a lot about maker spaces and how they are used by libraries and universities to support the development of digital skills.

The University of Edinburgh is committed to people development and digital skills. With apologies to Thomas Jefferson:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all members of the University are created equal, that the University is endowed by our benefactors to deliver certain unalienable acts, that among these are teaching, learning and the pursuit of research.–That to secure these activities, IT Services are instituted among (mostly)men, deriving their just powers from the consent of PSG –That whenever any form of IT services becomes disconnected from these ends, it is the Right of the directors to alter and restructure it, and to institute new IT/digital skills training laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect your Safety and Happiness online.

Actually, what our University’s people strategy 2012-16 says in relation to new technology is:

“The rapid technological developments in the modern world demonstrate the need to be able to review our approaches to teaching and research on an ongoing basis…… The challenge is not only to be able to invest in the continual costs and development of our technology, but to be aware of the potential of new and emerging technologies, so that we can exploit them effectively. Ensuring that staff know as much about these technologies and their capabilities as our students is vital.

We require the skills to use these technologies in new and differing ways, in order to maximise their benefits across our varied areas of work, significantly enhancing our efficiency. To this end, we need to embed digital literacy and digital wisdom across our workforce, to cover the breadth of our activities and functions.

The role of technology in undertaking research and delivering teaching will continue to change and may transform the manner in which teaching will be delivered in the future.

……. By increasing the skills of our workforce in the use of digital technologies, we will also embed good practice by ensuring good health and welfare is an essential consideration, in moving to new ways of working and learning”

Information Services currently has an IT skills training team of about 6 people, but the manager post is vacant. The plan for this summer is that that team will join LTW services division and we will begin the search for a new head.

May 29, 2015

the O’Hare test

Picture taken by me in the street . No rights reserved.

You may have heard of the O’Hare test. It’s a recruitment test supposedly used by some american companies to select between candidates at interview. I learned about it in the context of young tech companies, but it may be more widespread.

The premise is that you choose the candidate who you could most imagine being able to stand if you happened to be stuck at an airport with them for several hours before a long transfer flight.

Earlier this week I was stuck at an airport in Brussels for 9 hours.

“Due to the power outage at the Belgian Air Traffic Control (Belgocontrol) on 27th of May, our flight operations were heavily disturbed. Even though we have done our utmost to limit the effect on your travel plans, we deeply regret the fact a lot of our guests were stranded.”

Luckily the University applies the O’Hare test to the recruitment of our digital education chairs. Sian, Dragan and I were in Brussels for an evening seminar promoting the University of Edinburgh in Europe and engaging with discussions about how universities will use technology to meet the challenges of 2025. After 9 hours in the airport we had a plan.

May 19, 2015

Events, dear boy, events

The advance of allied forces sorry, MOOCs across Europe.

This week I am mostly at EMOOCs conference in Mons. Although I’m supposed to be talking about MOOCs I keep getting slightly sidetracked into history conversations.

I’m thinking of The Europeana project 1914-18: untold stories & official histories of WW1. Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe’s galleries, museums, libraries, archives and audiovisual collections. With such a resource at our fingertips (much of it OER) it is very tempting to keep mentioning the War.