Tag: playful

edtech haikus

We have some fun, creative programme managers around here. One has the crazy idea that we should get project boards and teams to reflect on the lessons learned from a project via the medium of reflective haikus.   This is what you get when you ask your Lecture Recording Programme Board to draft reflective haikus from their experiences of participating in the programme.

Students love it.
Powerful technology.
Accessible for all.

Scared at the start point.
Found our feet and so much more.
Brimming confidence.

Policy delays.
Sometimes arise the temperature.
All’s well that ends well.

Student employment.
Sound, but high administration.
Make it easier.

People have made it.
Together across the campus.
Very sound service.

The structure worked well.
Project team could make progress.
Good decisions made.

Colleagues are afraid.
What would be the best practice?
Get out to the schools.

Working it out together.
Breaking down barriers.
Business as usual.

Working together.
One big team.
Making a difference.

The retention period.
Navigating treacherous waters together.
To be revisited.

Knowhow captured.
Knowledge exchanged.
Change happens.

Emotion is motion.
Sharing the shifting.
Noticing the change.

We win over Hearts and Minds
Inclusion throughout our teaching
Must keep the ball rolling

Broken Moments of Learning
Resolved and repaired
Independence gained

Silent recording.
Disabled students can’t hear.
Wear the microphone.

A barrier or enabler.
The research reveals many facets.
The community comes together.

Pedagogy meets ethics.
Anxiety and confusion meet innovation.
All ending in positivity.

Give us every view.
We do intend to listen.
A project for all.

 

Playful and PlayFair

Lovely illustrations for our playful engagement website by the LTW Interactive Content Team

 

One of our innovation projects over several years was to develop a Playful Engagement Strategy for ISG and to test some playful approaches. We know our Information Services Group (ISG) staff are innovative and creative, and they have developed a variety of fun, creative, and engaging ways to provide and deliver our technologies and services.

We want to ensure that this continues and that ISG fosters an environment, and culture, where innovation, playful learning, and creative engagement are embedded in our practices. This is in line with the University’s aim to offer an educational experience that is inspiring, challenging, and transformational.

To this end, we have established playful engagement themes, strategy and goals.

Our goals are to:

  • Facilitate the development of playful innovators, researchers, and creators
  • Promote creative, playful, and innovative use of technologies and tools in ISG services
  • Utilise our world-class libraries and collections in innovative and engaging ways to enrich our services
  • Support a healthy work life balance, and a positive, engaging and inclusive work environment
Lovely illustrations for our playful engagement website by the LTW Interactive Content Team

Our 6 themes are:

  1. Digital technologies
  2. Libraries museums, galleries and collections
  3. Communities of practice
  4. Reflection, development and innovation
  5. Exploration and innovation
  6. Work–life balance

I am very pleased that Charlie has been able to spend the time to really think about what playful engagement could mean for a large IT and libraries service.  Her work draws upon a whole raft of  team, game, maker, challenge and enjoyment activities which all combine to make working here much more fun than it might otherwise be.

She and I will be presenting about this at the UCISA leadership conference in Edinburgh.

Read more about it: https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/playful-engagement/

International Women’s Day 2019

We are taking the opportunity of International Women’s Day to rename our Boardroom in Argyle House after Brenda Moon, the first woman to head up a research university library when she was Librarian here at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s and 90s.

Brenda played a major role in bringing the University into the digital age, as Edinburgh became the first major university library in the UK to tackle and deliver a computer-based service.

In addition to Brenda Moon, we will also be renaming three of our IT training rooms after notable Edinburgh women – Irene J Young, Marjorie Rackstraw and Annie Hutton Numbers. These are women who have been celebrated in our university archives and showcased by our Equality and Diversity Images Intern, Francesca.

Also on the day we will be hosting an ‘Edit-a-thon’  for staff, students and friends of the University to create Wikipedia entries for notable women currently missing from the encyclopaedia site, and  a ‘Sketch-a-thon’ using images from the Centre for Research Collections’ Special Collections. All artistic abilities welcome!

There will also be copious badgemaking.

 

Wikipedia Editathon – Women of Edinburgh:

This event is open to staff, students and friends of the University and is an opportunity to help add more notable women associated with Edinburgh.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh/International_Women%27s_Day_2019

Sketch-a-thon:

Learn about the lives of some of the incredible women in the archives of the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh, while putting your creative side to use in a relaxed learning environment!

This event will enable you to portray the work of pioneering women through a series of fun, fast-paced challenges that will help you flex your sketching muscles and experiment with daring colour-combinations, silly caricatures and speedy doodles. No drawing experience is necessary to join us, and all students and staff are welcome. Materials will be provided, but please do feel free to bring your own coloured pencils or felt-tip pens if you wish. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-womens-day-sketchathon-tickets-55208621473?fbclid=IwAR2krJRic9Q0qPV3GUtDni2Qr4fNXW0ww5yvhmhawQvPIKNyqqC1QESBEuA

ready to play

Playful cover of BITS magazine Spring 2017 http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/about/edinburgh-bits

Playful learning is all the rage amongst the ladies of my acquaintance. How playful can you be today?  this week?  Is it time for a wee sit down now? Yes. You deserve it. (1)

The upcoming (28th June, Edinburgh) elearning@ed confernce believes the play’s the thing.

The theme for this year is “Playful Learning” and the programme is looking great, including a whole bunch of playful breakouts and interactive sessions.

‘The conference has a fantastic line-up, including a number of talks and presentations from educators across the University who are incorporating playfulness into practice; from teaching with Dungeons and Dragons, digital game based learning in China, virtual reality in education, to playful approaches to learning to code.

Breakout sessions will also be happening throughout the day. We’ll have some of the tools and technologies from the UCreate Studio available for you play with and try out on the day, plus some of the great DIY Film School gear from LTW.  There’ll be Minecraft in Education, Gamifying Wikipedia, and an opportunity to try out some of the award winning 23 Things for Digital Knowledge.’

The ( July 12)  Playful Learning Conference in Manchester 2 weeks later does too.

‘Playful Learning is pitched at the intersection of learning and play for adults. Playful in approach and outlook, yet underpinned by robust research and working practices, we provided a space where teachers, researchers and students could play, learn and think together. A space to meet other playful people and be inspired by talks, workshops, activities and events. Based in the heart of Manchester, we also explore some of the city’s playful spaces with evening activities continuing the fun and conversations after the formal programme ends.’

My contribution to all this is to encourage playful and gaming aproaches to as much of our enagagement activity as we can. Partly because of all this good learning  theory. Partly because it makes it all much more fun to do. Partly because after 20 years of explaining this stuff it stops me from sticking my head in the oven.

The Playful learning Conference includes a presentation from the iSG teams on our playful approaches:

‘The University of Edinburgh’s(UoE) Information Services Group (ISG) has developed a Playful Engagement strategy, utilising playfulness to create interest, boost attendance, and encourage interaction with its services and activities. We target appropriate workplace learning opportunities which support our strategic priorities in developing digital skills, engaging with open educational practices, promoting diverse role models and using our collections in innovative way.’

If only you knew how much fun it is working in central IT at a university, you’d all be doing it.