Old Dogs

It is said that you cannot teach old dogs new tricks.  Take Missy (1998 - 2012) for example.  She hated "shower time", unlike her twin brother Boy (1998 - 2009) who drank more of the water than he accepted outside his body!

YOU CERTAINLY COULD NOT TEACH MISSY ANYTHING SHE DID NOT WANT TO LEARN!

Sometimes, however, after a particularly hot day or a muddy walk "shower time" was needed.  Missy tried to escape but could not get out of the garden.  She tried to curl up in a ball but was coaxed out of the foetal position by the warm water and soft lather.  She didn't like being wet and so, as soon as she was released she shook herself exuberantly, water flying everywhere.  We often thought that she was secretly pleased to be clean but she would never show it.
Missy was an intelligent dog, putting up with us - after all we fed her, took her for walks and provided a warm and comfortable home but she did learn to accept the conditions she needed to survive in our house:

• No loud barking,
• No fighting over food,
• Frequent exercise,
• No pooping indoors,
• Learning to fetch, drop, sit and lie down, to order,
• NEVER to go beyond the kitchen threshold to explore the house,
• To maintain a certain level of hygiene...

If only all old dogs were as easy to train.

The demise of Coal Mining in the UK

For generations, the stalwart miners of the UK literally "kept the home-fires burning" and kept the wheels of industry turning through wars and recessions.

However, we cannot, today, rely on a steady supply of UK coal to fuel our insatiable appetite for digital communication, online shopping, online everything during the COVID19 pandemic - why not?

ARTHUR SCARGILL DOING AN IMPRESSION OF KING CANUTE.

Was it all the fault of "Milk snatcher Thatcher?"  I hear you ask.

NO

It was a combination of many factors in the 1980s (in no particular order of importance):

1. The growing power of the Mining Unions that threatened the more flexibile labour market hopes of the Conservative Government.
2. The far-sighted (at that time) thinking that we needed to use a cleaner source of energy in the future.
3. The demand from households for gas, electric and oil fired heating, rather than for inconvenient and dirty coal.
4. Health and Safety concerns that would make traditional coal mining uneconomic.
5. The huge supplies of coal available from other parts of the world.

The list could go on.

Now, how many of my three readers think that I'm really talking about online learning in Higher Education?

Answers addressed to your own VC please.

Preparing students for SAFE Online Learning

I have written about this subject before in The Farmers Breakfast and I'm Engaged but when's the Wedding? but not, as I recall, in respect of ONLINE learning.

The COVID-19 inspired rush to go online for many Universities risks forgetting some of the basics as online TEACHING is delivered, rather than online LEARNING.

Picture courtesy of bruno cervera azsk at unsplash

In a traditional classroom or lecture hall students feel relatively safe.  They know from many years at primary and secondary school that they can be:

• Confident that they know what is going to happen,
• Familiar with the environment and the peer group,
• Sure that they will not be picked out in front of their peers and have their lack of preparation exposed,
• Assured that whatever content is delivered, it can be revised before the exam .

NONE OF THIS FAMILIARITY AND REASSURANCE CAN BE ASSUMED ONLINE

So, online learning needs students to be SAFE - yes, another mnemonic is brewing.  Students need to feel:

• Secure - in the environment and the technology,
• Acknowledged - where peers and the session facilitator (teacher) note their presence,
• Forewarned -  clear about what the session will deliver and what is expected of them,
• Engaged - by the subject matter, the interaction, the response opportunities - basically by anything that keeps them focused.

Future blogs will expand on the practicalities of this necessary part of planning for online learning.

Digital thinking: This week I have been self-isolating but still delivering lectures!

Many HE institutions pride themselves on the power and prestige of that tried and tested delivery mechanism of the face to face lecture.  They then compound the idiosyncrasies of this system by "capturing" these episodes with Lecture Capture (see my blog "Watching Paint Dry").

But what if the lecturer cannot be in the lecture hall because of illness, self-isolation or other reasons?

My answer - prepare PODCASTS.

Photos from Kisspng and Unknown Author, licensed under CC BY-SA

Microsoft Powerpoint (other presentation software is available) provides some excellent help in recording a slideshow and then exporting it as an MP4. (Just go to "Record a slide show" on the Powerpoint HELP tab).  What the lecturer needs to do is to split the 2 hour lecture into a series of 10 minute podcasts - it is surprising how few you actually need to span a 2 hour "lecture" and then record the podcasts, save them as MP4 files and upload them to the VLE (or directly to the Lecture Capture space).

Put this together with the 5 Rs of Pedagogic thinking in a previous blog and you may even end up with blended learning!

Have you repaid your student debt?

The UK General Election in 2019 showed that the biggest divide between voters was not political party, nor was it North vs. South.  It was age.

Courtesy of https://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/Generations.cfm

There was much hype about the power of the student vote - would term have ended?  where would the young people vote - at home or at University?  In the end it made little difference to the national picture as the privileged Baby Boomers (and wanabee Boomers from Gen. X) outnumbered the later generations in the appropriate places.

But, student debt and the promise to end it, remove loans for fees and return to the "Good old days" of Higher Education that Boomers enjoyed was offered to tempt voters, however infeasible the plan.

Central to this discussion is, of course, the creeping sense that everything is able to be reduced to a monetary amount.  That "the graduate premium" is a realistic aim or even an expectation once the degree has been paid for.

Let me offer a Baby Boomer view:

Yes, we got our Higher Education for no direct cost to ourselves.
Yes, we even got maintenance grants that did not need to be repaid
Yes, we were refused these boons if we did not achieve very good A level grades
Yes, we still held onto the understanding that our "graduate premium" jobs would offer more tax back to the government than we had cost it.
Yes, we were aware that opportunities to offer intangible benefits to society, through using our graduate skills in voluntary posts throughout our lives.

So, I have repaid my student fees many times over - in cash and in kind and will continue to contribute as my generous pension is taxed as I receive it.

Mission to Mongolia

I'm not sure that I could think of a more inhospitable place in which to develop online learning than Mongolia.  Its not the ultra low winter temperatures, the tiny and scattered population but a mixture of poor funding, slow internet and a legacy of soviet style bureaucracy that combine to make Mongolia an unlikely digital star.

And yet the enthusiasm and drive is there amongst academics and technicians to learn all they can about good quality online education - which is what too me to this frozen place last year.

IN THIS WEATHER I'D RATHER BE ON THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT...

If enthusiasm is enough then Mongolia will succeed but in terms of development of technological infrastructure and pedagogic know-how there is a long road ahead.

My advice is for Mongolian academics, administrators and technologists to stay inside, in the warm, in partnership with external universities and learn from others until the skills and confidence grow to step out.

SHARE or SHAFT?

Avid daytime TV viewers will recall a fleetingly popular show hosted by political lightweight Robert Kilroy-Silk.  It was called SHARE or SHAFT and gave contestants a choice of sharing and keeping prizes or risking them to get a bigger prize by "shafting" co-contestants.

CC by NC

Informed readers will realise that this is a transparent use of the Game theory "Prisoners Dilemma" where the best outcome is co-operation, rather than competition.  It is a game repeated and lost by so many who believe that they must compete to be successful.

Any economist will tell you, however, that competition is risky.  It can be an "all or nothing" game - all in the pursuit of profit and wealth.

Co-operation, however, can create even more wealth, shared wealth...and a wealth of benefits that money cannot buy.

So, next time you feel like you are in competition with someone or something - ask yourself - "Am I really?"

But, we've always done it that way...

As a graduate entrant to a major bank, many, many years ago I was told by my first Manager not to ask "why?" but to just get things done quickly.

Was I always disobedient?  My Mum says not, but I failed, magnificently, to follow the Manager's orders on this occasion.

£1,000 IN 1984 WOULD BE WORTH £2,715 IN 2019 - BETTER THAN A POKE IN THE EYE WITH A SHARP STICK!

Asking why we did things in a particular way often generated the response:

"But, we have always done it like that..."

Today, that phrase is still a provocation.

Everything can be done differently - and some of those different ways can be:

•  More Efficient
• Cheaper
• Quicker
• or simply better for achieving our goals.
  (but not always)

The £1,000 prize was awarded for an innovative submission to the Staff suggestion scheme.  It changed bank practice in taking second mortgages over domestic property in a small way and saved annual fees of up to £20,000 p.a. (est.) but after about 15 - 20 years was redundant as technology, outsourcing, business models and centralisation had found even better solutions.

So, ask yourself - why are you still doing things the way you do?