Picture taken by me in the room. No rights reserved.
Did I mention that one of the best things about working in a research university is that you get to hang out near elegantly curated collections of beautiful old things?
Last night I was introduced by Jacky to St Cecilia’s Hall: the only place in the world where it is possible to hear 18th century music in an 18th century concert hall played on 18th century instruments.
St Cecilia’s is one of those buildings in the Cowgate that you walk straight past, never realising that inside is a trove of treasure. And a stunning collection of shiny bagpipes. The University has a plan to renovate the building and make it a lovely venue again. It’s the second oldest music venue in the UK (the oldest being the Holywell rooms in Oxford).
In case you are wondering, St Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians ( feast day: 22nd November). She is also the subject of Chaucer’s Second Nun’s Tale. She was sentenced to be boiled alive, but miraculously, the cauldron of boiling water did her no harm, and she sat quite comfortably in it, singing for an entire day, after which they had to try to chop her head off to shut her up. This makes St Cecilia the perfect illustration of Eleanor Roosevelt’s assertion that ‘“A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.”
Picture taken by me in the street. No rights reserved.
I have spent a couple of days this week at the ALT ( Association of Learning Technologists) Conference at Warwick. There were three keynote presentations. Each really interesting in its own way and each building upon the other. The assembled delegates were very well served (as were those tuning in online)
The first keynote was by Jeff Haywood, VP and leader of IS (University of Edinburgh). I would not ever want to give the impression that one has to go away to conferences to hear what is going on in your home institution, but it was fun to see it all up on the big screen and to tune in to the twitter comments from our peer community.
Jeff was followed by a keynote from Catherine Cronin (National University of Ireland). Her presentation covered the importance of values in open practice, how her values have been shaped by experience, the importance of voting and a very clear representation for women in this workplace/space. Her presentation was clearly inspirational for many, as reflected in the tweets from audience members and the high turn out at the Open Education SIG a couple of hours later. She signalled that education is a political space and that openness must be informed by what we know about gender, race and class.
Audrey Watters’ ( no institution) keynote also drew upon history and literature. I begin to suspect that a good grounding in the liberal arts is a useful background for educational technologists. She talked about man-made monsters and drew inspiration from previous writers and actors (including the luddites)*.
As I listened to the presentations and audience questions there was much to reflect upon, a couple things are high in my mind though. I have been thinking about the politics of code, the values upon which it is based and in-built assumptions it can embody. I mentioned Bodington in a previous post. That was a VLE designed on the assumption that all the same tools which were available to teachers would also be available to students. It was in there in the architecture, it did not privilege the teacher’s voice, it was a tool to democratise the classroom. I like technology which is based on those kind of values.
I was surprised at the conference to hear several people refer to Facebook as ‘open’ and as a space where great things can be done, a place that students have as a ‘good place’ and that educators should use. While I use facebook personally as much as the next woman, I have no illusions as to its origins and the values of its creators. Facebook was born out of misogyny in elite univerisities and continues to be a place where peer pressure and shaming are rife. I like those values less.
I agree with Jeff, Catherine and Audrey: it is important that we understand our history and learn from our experiences.
There were many mentions of MOOCing cash cows and very few of cultural imperialism or sustainability. In general, the ALT conference made little mention of FOSS or CC although WordPress, Moodle and open badges did get multiple mentions and showcases. A strong representation from the Scottish institutions and Open Scotland, but no discussion of what we’ll do when they cut us off from JANET.**
I could happily go a long time without hearing the phrase ‘herding cats’ again.
You are wondering if I actually attended any sessions about technology. I can assure you that many salespersons showed me theirs.
*I had a heated dinner table discussion with someone at the conference who believed that luddites lived in caves. I suspect he meant troglodytes.
** and despite several mentions of Luddites and laggards, no reference, even in the OER sessions, to Levellers.
Picture taken by me in the street . No rights reserved.
Edinburgh is one of 100 universities and research institutes which are members of the SWAN Charter. The Charter is open to any university or research institute which is committed to the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) in higher education and research.
Athena -SWAN accrediation is only available to academic departments, and now that the University is doing so well the focus has begun to turn to the support units. This week some of the University of Edinburgh IT Directors began early thinking about the swan-like positions we might assume in the future.
The challenge of course is that ( possibly) unlike other central support departments, the feeder disciplines for working in IT are STEM; so we recruit from the same pool, and there are many more attractive opportunities in industry on offer to the few female technology graduates coming out of our universities.
Another challenge is the focus on advancement and promotion. The structures for this are very different in the academic departments to those in the support units. I read in the THE this week that most dons ‘haven’t the slightest idea’ to whom they report, whereas we spend hours, days and weeks ensuring that line management lines are clear. There are no chances of promotion if your organigram is out of date.
The horizon ( as seen from the rooftop terrace of Evolution House) looks bright, and near, and enlightened. What a privilege to spend a beautiful morning in a stunning venue brainstorming creative ideas with clever and motivated colleagues. I enjoyed reflecting on the last 15 years which have brought me back to this place and on how much easier life is now that the we have a licensing framework that the creators of works can understand, their users can understand, and even the Web itself can understand.
Two of the things I like about Creative Commons are the mission and the vision. These seem to me like values a university’s learning, teaching and web service should embrace.
Our mission
Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
Our vision
Our vision is nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.
Picture taken by me in my house . No rights reserved.
Before I left Oxford I was given an unusual gift of some skeleton tableware. Due to a clerical error only 5 plates rather than 6 arrived. Amusing questions to the supplier followed: Had they put the right leg in, or was the right leg left out? In, out, in, out, that is what it was all about.
This week I was intrigued to try out the Anatomage table in Edinburgh University’s Dept of Anatomy. It’s the only one of its kind in Scotland and I think , one of only two in Britain. It’s a technologically advanced anatomy visualization system for anatomy education, it works with big data sets from CT scans and is used a bit like a big, table-sized i-pad. An i-bed perhaps.
It cost an arm and a leg, you use your finger to slice through bones and skin.
The anatomage table is table-like presumably to help human practitioners cope with the transition from the physical ( one dead body lying down) to the virtual ( multiple bodies spinning around). It was interesting that the discussion amongst my academic and learning spaces technology colleagues in the group quickly moved to the ways in which we could release/move the image from the table on to a standing screen, projector screen or interactive whiteboard.
Dissected virtual cadavers* are going to be a bit spooky at the best of times. The fact that these are located in the famous medical school skull room makes it even more stark. A contrast of shiny new cutting-edge virtual digital cutting technology in amongst some of the University’s earliest teaching objects.
The colleagues who generously showed us around are looking forward to new software updates and new body scans. As we stood, a small group around the table we did note however, that while the current male cadaver was wearing a modesty loin cloth, the female cadaver was afforded no such covering.
* is it still a cadaver if it is virtual? perhaps it is just a virtual body. Once it is digital the ‘dead’ aspect seems less relevant given we are training doctors who will operate on mostly alive people.
University of Edinburgh Digital Image Collections CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
One of the best things about working in a research university is that you get to hang out near elegantly curated collections of beautiful old things. I am beginning to explore the University of Edinburgh libraries and research collections. Starting of course, with the collections of digital images online; so many wonderful things to find.
Today I am extra-excited to receive, courtesy of my colleagues in UL&C, my very cool new IS business cards, each with a selected beautiful image from our collections on the back. Thank you to Jo and Anne-Marie for knowing I’d enjoy them.
Picture taken by me in the street . No rights reserved.
Thanks to the University of Edinburgh Cycle to Work Scheme I am now equipped with a new bicycle, access to a bike shed and an exciting trip across the cobbles every morning.
The Edinburgh wind has been blowing a gale this week but thanks to Johanna Holtan of (Eusa/Cyclehack) who I saw speak at the Falling Walls Lab event, I am also armed with a new strategy for cycling in the wind: ‘A penny in your pants’. I haven’t tried it with a penny farthing.
The Falling Walls Conference is held in Berlin. Individuals, who are about to tear down walls in their studies or in their professions, are invited to apply. With current global challenges ranging from climate change to civil war, the scholarship program aims to encourage young people to think of innovative ideas that will have a direct impact on our societies and the environment. The programme is open to professionals, entrepreneurs or students enrolled in a Master’s, PhD or Post-Doctoral Programme.
When the wind blows some walls fall, others are merely hidden. My ride to work is enhanced by a series of billboard murals (by Astrid Jaekel, ECA) which have appeared to hide the electricity substation. From these I am learning how to avoid the skateboarding hares and dancing bears who frequent the Meadows during the festival.
University of Edinburgh Digital Image Collections CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
During my first week in my new post I gathered together all of the staff on the new LTW division. They look much nicer in person than in the card-database-rogues-gallery I have on my wall. For my presentation I used images from the splendid SCRAN collection to which Edinburgh University has a subscription. The collection includes some cracking images of computers and computer users in the university dating back to the 60’s and 70’s. With all the fashions of geek-style throughout the decades. I’d show you some, but for some reason the license under which SCRAN grants use are a bit confusing as regards internet, blogging, sharing, publishing and educational use. Nevermind, here is a picture of some more recent computer users in one of our learning spaces.
Edinburgh has a great reputation for digital innovation, it’s an exciting place to be at an exciting time. There’s a lot of talent here, and an appetite to take risks and innovate with bold moves.
It is important that the institution gets good support from central services. Learning, Teaching and Web Services (LTW) is bringing together the services in Information Services that directly support learning and teaching. This gives us the opportunity to innovate, enhance or expand services to support an improved digital student experience and public engagement. The academic technologies such as Learn and MyEd are absolutely key to the experience of our students, as are digital education, distance learning courses, online media, the university website and the technology which enhances our teaching spaces. We work closely with colleagues in the IS Skills teams and support for research data management to ensure that academic colleagues and students have the skills they need to make the most of the technologies on offer.
