ICED over and on to STLHE

My first time at ICED has been a very positive experience. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the assembly of a group of professionals who may be at different ages and stages and have varied ways of looking at issues and challenges, but we all seem to have compatible overarching objectives. But we are a whingey lot according to my colleague's husband who went to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and wandered round down town Salt Lake City whilst his wife worked as a member of the ICED council. But having said that, I reflected on a remark made by Kathryn about how much more at home she felt in the ICED, than at HERDSA or other HE conferences. Is that perhaps because many academic developers have moved on from what happens in the classroom, to look at issues more widely. That is not to say that what happens in the classroom is not important but that scholarship by the academics is a really good indication of some impact of the work of academic developers.

I have been to a fascinating session on 'SCOTs' (Students Consulting on Teaching) http://ctl.byu.edu/?page_id=50 which has been running for 15 years at Brigham Young University and has this year been piloted by Missouri Sate Uni. Whilst the BYU scheme has about 15 SCOTs a year each doing between 2 and 4 consultations a semester, it seems like it is addressing the needs of a very small group of staff, but over time the numbers mount up and the change or existence of the service is promoted widely. Is it sustainable in a world where departments and faculties are being closed. But remember it is a situation in which both student and faculty member gain - partly helping the student better to understand about learning for their own context as well as helping the faculty to improve.

We had a wonderful conference dinner in the mountains above Salt lake City in Park City (the less said about getting there the better!). The views were magnificent and the food was excellent. Ranald Sarah and I were discussing the "Open Space (Technology)" technique and the scope it offers for creative thinking and generating ideas in a new context, but also considering the challenges it presents about control of sessions or the need for an agenda. Would people come to a conference which was run along these principles? I remember a boss of mine in a previous existence declined to let a colleague go to a networking day for quality assurance personnel because there was no agenda. She said the participant would be unlikely to gain much from such an unstructured day. I wonder how she would manage in the Maori world?Can I balance the craning and reflecting I have done in formal sessions at this conference compared with the learning gained over the meal breaks, walking breaks and casual encounters. For me it is the informal learning that happens in the informal spaces that is generally the most productive, as through those discussions the new ideas are consolidated and confirmed or explored and subsequently discarded or amended. In the sessions there is often not enough time to reflect and explore the new ideas that are being presented.

The University of Utah's Pharmacy building has some wonderful formal and informal learning spaces which were used to good effect throughout the conference. We also did some of our learning outdoors.