The Conference & Twitter

Yesterday I presented the Sticky Content 'point of view' along with the first airing of the preliminary research results. I went up the day before and went to a few breakout sessions.

The delegates were primarily learning technologists from Universities around the UK and Europe, and hoard of Blackboard employees who flew in from the US.

I have to say, we pretty much nailed it! We were in the main theatre right after a keynote session which had all the delegates in it. Although there were 4 competing breakout sessions when ours was on, the room was half full which means we got the lion's share of the delegates - about 100 I'd say. Rob did a good job of promoting it - Tweeting them all in the break!

Everyone had used the Powerpoint template for their sessions - we had a sneaky Prezi - the first view looked like the title slide of the standard deck, and then we whizzed off. Rob did the intro and then I took over, spoke for around 20 minutes.

A new experience for me - the delgates were Tweeting about what I was saying while I was still presenting. The benefit of there being two of us was that Rob was monitoring the Tweets, and responded to them at the end of the presentation and before we went on to questions.

We got lots of very positive feedback, requests to see my research paper (better write one then), requests to get access to the sticky sites.

I was impressed by seeing Twitter in action - hadn't really seen the point before. Seriously considering setting up a #tag for my modules next year.... brave step to let them Tweet. Should I fight the tide or embrace the students' mobile technology & use it to my advantage instead?

So all in all, a very positive experience. We did a good job I think, and it reinforced the value of the research project which is exciting. Tweets below:

A Sticky day...

Staff training session

This morning I delivered my first staff training session together with Rob Howe on creating more engaging NILE sites. Attendance was very low but the reaction was positive.

We're going to change the running order next time - the IT skills were lower than I expected, as the tutors found even simple Powerpoint design tasks quite challenging and new. I'm starting to realise how much IT skill know how I take for granted. Consequently the task we started with (creating a site banner) was a bit daunting as a first activity.

This will be repeated and rolled out - now I understand that Caroline Stainton (Director of DeltaE - the department in charge of institutional learning & teaching) has taken an interest in the research project and our training initiative. This is likely to become more high profile as time goes on due to the 'Raising the Bar' strategy.

Also, I have been given 50 hours' remission next academic year to pursue/advocate/train this subject to staff in NBS which I'm really pleased about.

Conference Prep

I have just put the finishing touches to my prezi for conference next week. The early results of my research are so exciting we decided to add them in.

Meeting with Nada

Earlier in the week I asked Nada for a meeting to discuss the staff phd option. This was the first time I had met her properly and she was delightful.

I told her a bit about my URB@N project and she was very encouraging and felt it would merit a paper. She gave advice about how to set about getting papers published, suggested possible co-authors to get me started. She's going to send me a list of journals for consideration.

Having spoken to her, I'm pleased that actually the direction I've started on is not incompatible with the marketing field so I don't have to start over. This is good because I can already clearly see the next steps - I can see how this could gain momentum giving me both an area of specialism and, if it proves of any interest and can be published, the basis for my phd by publication. Failing that, it would be nice to get something published anyway.

Mentor observation - update

I sat down with Kathy and went through her peer observation yesterday.

I had been a little apprehensive as I know her lecture style to be so different to mine. Actually she was very supportive and complimentary. The areas for improvement were minor but helpful - things like noting that sometimes I was referring to the screens so had my head turned away which made it difficult to hear me. Also that the transition from the theory to the practical was a bit abrupt. All stuff I can work on.

Interestingly, Amanda has reviewed the same session, but by watching on Panopto rather than in person. Haven't had the chance to discuss it with her yet but got her written feedback through. Amanda's observations give a different perspective - more along the lines of how the learning objectives are expressed before and after the session.