Nearly over

What a strange time - looking forward to Vancouver and seeing Katrina, sad at saying goodbye to my new found friends in Windsor, trying to write a comprehensive list of my activities since I have been here and trying to capture my learning. I am devising a standard answer to the frequent question "So what have you learnt?" or "Has it been worthwhile". The standard answer (which comes without difficulty) is "Yes", but what have I learnt?

Well lots and lots, specifics and generalities, about the job: how to do it and how not; about specific activities of educational developers: through the extensive preparation for workshops on PhD supervision, constructive alignment, learning spaces (preparation that expanded to fill the time in good Parkinson's Law fashion); about myself and how I deal with situations and react to others (useful for retirement planning and as a manager); how to blog (and use it as a reminder of some of the things I have already forgotten about). But for me the best is the personal connections that have been made and the knowledge that ideas, findings, thoughts that I will have in the future will have been prompted by my experience here at Windsor. So thank you Alan for your farsigthedness of having this Visiting Educational Developer Programme to put Windsor on the map, locally, nationally and internationally. You have certainly established a southern hemisphere connection and I look forward to the reciprocal visits.

I will write another post tomorrow - after the farewell event and before Canada Day and will probably try to keep going in Vancouver - but the first challenge will be to see if I can change the name of the blog without upsetting Moira, who has an RSS feed to it (what's that?!!)

Photo of last night's BBQ after all the rain had finished falling for the day - but it did start fairly soon thereafter. Michael, Diane and Nick. Note the remains of the pavlova made by Nick (yet another hidden talent!)

Thursday already!

I'm not very good at doing this blogging on a regular basis. Time goes by too fast with not enough to show for it. I think I am infected by the post-conference crash i.e. maxi-anti-climax and I am finding myself easily distracted.

languages? Is this once more a However I have had one fun activity this week - I've been reading my friend's report following her National Teaching Fellowship experience and what she had done with her money, what her research findings have been and all the serendipitous learning that has come out of the experience. To see one's friend blossom over a two year period is wonderful, and I hope her boss allows that blossom to contribute in appropriate ways to her workplace and beyond. But one of the things that I have read into her research is that it seems that in some contexts neither school teachers not university lecturers are stretching their students (in her research in the field of information literacy). The students at both levels seem to act very strategic, "yes they could do more, but there is no reward". How do we balance that with what many lecturers say about the quality of students today and their ability (or willingness) to work? Based on an exceedingly small sample, are we doing our students a disservice by not challenging them?Most people rise to a challenge, are students so different? Or is it a case of an easy life? I have no answers and wonder if the research that is being done by two of the other visitors to the University of Windsor Centre for Teaching and Learning might help up to address this issue in a roundabout way. Today Francois from Liege in Belgium, with his co-director Marianne, gave us a brief insight into the research they are doing into trying to understand how teachers address complex problems and do those methods lead to increased professionalism of teachers. I hope Francois and Marianne will forgive me if this is not a true representation of the topic as my French was not up to the quality of the presentation and trying to convert fundamental pedagogic terms in the French language into English was no easy feat. But it did lead to further discussion over a wine or two about how difficult it should be (or not) to translate those fundamental terms from one language to another? Are we studying different things because we are working in differentquestion of the lenses through which we look at the issue we are considering? I leave it to you to ponder and post some comments. The basic question is though - sd we challenge our students enough?

One of the other highlights were the fireworks on Wednesday evening. Nick and I shared a ringside seat at Pat's river front flat, toghether with a number of others from the Faculty of Edcuation. we had a lovely supper and a deadon view of the fireworks which lasted for around 30 minutes. A small sample of them below although there is a video on utube. They arise from 3 barges moored in the centre of the river. The polloution is extnesive. http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=sCs8beVZa1g

STLHE again

One of the events that I failed to mention on my last post about the conference was the excellent opening plenary. We were entertained by a the University of Michigan Centre for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) Players performing the premiere of "The First Lecture". Through the use of music, lights, multi-media and high energy performance, the audience was engaged in questions related to student diversity and leaning as well as pedagogical innovation (Mostly copied from the publicity in the conference handbook which you can find on line at http://web2.uwindsor.ca/stlhe/downloads/stlhe-program.pdf P 37).
We were given the opportunity to reflect on the student anticipation and concern about that first lecture and to think about what they were bringing with them to the class, as well as the planning and ideas of the lecturing staff. Really did make us think. There was a second part to the production which depicted a Teaching Assistant taking a tutorial on statistics. Knowledge of statistics was the least of his worries - what about the social implication of the statistics he was using to demonstrate correlation (regression was for next week, so the student who had done that "would be ahead for next week but behind for this week"), classroom management; student interactions with each other and the tutor and so on. In true interactive style the audience was both asked to discuss issues with colleagues sitting close by, but also got to feedback both to the tutor and the students in role. That was just a most wonderful enlargement on the excellent performances. If anyone would like to club together to bring them to the southern hemishpere I will be int he ring with you.

The final plenary was somewhat different, but again was a wonderful example of what can be achieved when there are like minds addressing and issue and when the university administration is will to be accommodating. The Alan Blizzard Award is given jointly by STLHE and McGraw Hill Ryerson on an annual basis "Recognizing Collaboration in University Teaching and Learning". The winners this year are a group of 14 from University of British Columbia who together deliver Mech2. "Mech 2 is a complete, integrated, second year mechanical engineering undergraduate programme that aims to develop the analytical, practical and design skills of students." They have combined 15 previously disparate courses into 4 main courses taken in series. Lots of ideas for me to take back to Canterbury, but the thing that struck me most was the development of the student collegiality which will no doubt support these students as they develop and progress through their careers. This is a similar message to the one Nick Baker was conveying in his session. (Nick is the next visiting educational developer fellow at Windsor and will take over in the flat when I leave). He and his colleagues have been running an international experience course for 7 years now, and their data shows that this is a transformative experience for most students, but that a parallel experience in Australia (Nick is from U Queensland) does not have the same transformative effect. So building connections at overseas conferences should be really encouraged and see where they lead!

In order to avoid the end of conference anti-climax for those of us not absolutely on the point of exhaustion (or beyond) (and I think most of the conference committee is in that bracket) a multi-national (Oz, NZ, UK, Canada) party set off for the highlights of Detroit. We had a good time in the Renaissance Centre, Greektown and generally wandering around downtown once the rain had stopped. We all agreed that we would not have liked to be there on our own. Photo below to show a part of the Detroit River Days fun. And it is off to the Windsor Art Gallery this afternoon - time is running out to do the local highlights.

Nick (Oz), Bob (UK), Brad(Canada), Rachel (NZ) at the bottom of the GM tower, world headquarters of said organsiation. There were some older cars too, one included for Rowena

STLHE

It is the evening off in a week of events, conversations, presentations, workshops, banquets, dinners, round tables and so on. I have traded yet another evening's quality conversation about education, location, students, ideas, family, friends, second life, Downpatrick etc with new and established friends for an hour with my feet up watching a programme about Bamburgh Castle and Northumberland. Makes me feel homesick - Bamburgh Castle is such a wonderful spot and I will post a photo of my daughter and cousin on the beach at Bamburgh to give you a sense of the North Sea beaches.

So far the conference has been excellent - a wonderful range of workshops, concurrent sessions and round tables. As I was busy doing my own workshops on Wednesday I didn't have the opportunity to attend others, but the reports were good. As a conference volunteer, I have been assigned to a mind a room (or more precisely the presenters in that room) for the concurrent sessions. This may sound like a sentence, but in fact it has been really good as I have not had to make any choices among the sessions on offer. I have been even more fortunate, as I have learnt about building a community of TA workshop providers to improve the integration and engagement of the faculty with the programme; ongoing research into the teaching research nexus and the way in which Inquiry learning can contribute; some really good ideas about getting a large first year cultural studies class to engage in their learning through mini-journal writing and receiving feedback; the longlasting benefits of an international field study visit on the participants; and the benefits of blogging. A wide range of topics and there were others too. One of the tips about blogging was to have at least 4 posts in the bank to cover when it is holiday time, people don't feel inclined etc. (I'm afraid I can't write about the future before it becomes the present so I can't benefit from the advice at this point in tiem.) I really enjoyed linking narrative to Gardner's multiple intelligences. MI seems to be a them for conferences in this neck of the woods. But I was amazed at the inventive things which people do int heir classrooms to help their students learn. Singing the periodic table!!? Tonight's poster competition was excellent. The quality of the posters was great and so were many of the explanations shared by the poster owners. The information that can be covered in a poster is amazing - research questions and theories; responses findings analysis etc. I know who won, but you will have to wait till tomorrow for that news.

My head needs some space and time to make sense of many of the things I have heard about and talked aobut during the two conferences. Biut I have also met people from Vancouver who have invited me to visit them when i get there in afortnight. Aren't I lucky!

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.

ICED Salt Lake City

How lovely it is to be among hills, in clear air with bright blue skies and meeting up with friends and acquaintances from around the globe. The ICED conference (International Consortium for Educational Development) is held every two years, and this year is hosted by Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. It is actually being held at the University of Utah and we are all staying in and around the Olympic Village of the 2002 winter Olympics. What a location!

The conference as ever produces a mix of the interesting, the very interesting and the not so interesting, with the conversations on the side about all manner of things educational development and otherwise. My theme for this conference is international so I am seeking out presentations and workshops from places other than UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. So far I have been to presentations from people from Estonia, Germany, China, Turkey, also supported Billy in his workshop with a US colleague and done my own workshop with Ranald. The audience for our workshop was 16 strong, there were two or three people from the USA, then UK, NZ, Spain, Estonia, Australia, Denmark, Canada, and other places that I don’t remember.

Ranald and I are perplexed at the end of our workshop as it seemed to cause the participants angst “I don’t know what he wants”, “please can you explain again?”. A detailed debrief with one of the participants said “I’m not sure what it was really about but I enjoyed it” – what does that mean? In discussing the workshop with some other friends over dinner and wine, we noted that when the educational developers (or any one else for that matter) come to a session where they are required to sit in rows and someone stands at the front they revert to student mode and adopt the characteristics of students. Perhaps the discomfort we had created with some of our participants resembles the feelings that our students often have in class and that we may not give them the opportunity or the safe environment in which to explore those concerns. Or perhaps we were too ambitious in what we were trying to achieve in 45 minutes and did not give the participants time to get the background for the exercise and therefore really understand what we were hoping for. Or perhaps we had just created an exercise that was too simple and then I confused them inadequate instructions. But who says all workshops have to be comfortable and have a clear answer to their activities.

I have also made connections with people who are coming to Windsor for the STLHE conference so some more familiar faces.

Some photos today to demonstrate Billy in action and a wonderful learning space at the Red Butte Gardens which I visited yesterday.

Another week gone

That was how I entitled a post I started last Friday but was so tired I didn't write anything intelligent, so have just deleted it. So I'll try again. I seem to have settled into a routine which involves going to the office, working on the next workshop (which involves reading, searching the Web, talking to people etc.), coming home and catching up on a personal life through the computer and spending lots of time exploring the internet. One of the things that is of benefit to me from this time, is the better understanding of the lure of the internet and how it can take a lot of time, and produce a lot of good stuff but a lot that is not so good.

The weekend brought an opportunity to be a sightseer with my next door neighbour, Marie. We went in search of the beach on the shores of Lake Erie. We found a lovely spot, but my Canadian colleagues discussed the merits of Lake Erie beaches compared to Bermuda and Hawaii, and decided there was no competition. However it was a very pleasant spot in the 33 degree heat which has left me melting. On Sunday Marilyn, the CTL administrator, and I went and explored Fort Malden in Amherstburg and learnt about the wars, battles and skirmishes between the Americans, British and the Native people. The original fort was built in 1796 by the British who then destroyed it in 1813 as they retreated. It was subsequently rebuilt by the Americans and the British is varying stages, but not much remains today. But what there is is interesting. I have never seek a musket loaded and fired before in genuine 19th century style.

Monday brought Nick, the next of Alan's visitors, from the University of Queensland. So my seat won't have time to get cold. Despite a limited amount of conversation with Nick so far, we have smiled ruefully at the characteristics of the academics with whom we work - in UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Again another bit of serendipity. I have been working hard on a workshop on learning spaces and why it is important to have a mixed team int he decision making process for redesign and redevelopment. One of the buildings that I have heard about for some time in the Engineering building at the University of Queensland. Then Nick turns up and says he has lots more photographs of other interesting spaces which are being developed in Brisbane. So he has got his first workshop to organise!

The thunderstorms we have been having for the past few days are amazing - the whole sky lights up, and boy can the rain fall hard. But no tornados yet thank goodness.

Marie at the beach at Cedar Creek

Being a student

Bev has said that I have the air of a student with a deadline very close by as I am surrounded by books and articles and am peering closely at the computer screen through my new glasses. Suddenly the imperative has arrived to get things done - making promises to give resources to others is quite a driver. So this is short and sweet tonight, as I return to the work required to achieve the self-imposed deadline. Is this what I have finally achieved?

Reading

I am fortunate to have been excused a lot of the conference preparation that is going on apace at Windsor, so have been able to read widely around the broad topic of educational development. I am constantly amazed (or is it reassuring and to be anticipated) that articles that are ostensibly about one topic contain ideas, references or methods which are or could be relevant in other places. To give you an example, I have three workshops in preparation at the moment - one on the institutional helps and hindrances to Inquiry based learning, another on evaluation, scholarship and research in the contest of educational development and a third on the changing roles and rewards for faculty (in the North American sense). As I browse the journals I find articles by Angela Brew that give me definitions or descriptions of IBL at the same time as giving me ideas about the scholarship of teaching and learning. An article entitled "Changes in Higher Education and valuing the job:the views of accounting academics in Australia" gives me ideas for why IBL might be hard to implement across a discipline, let alone a University. I think the concept of transferability must come in here somewhere.

The greatest pleasure I get from this observation for myself, is that the benefits of this sabbatical are likely to pop up in different ways once I am back at Canterbury because the reading I have done has covered such a diverse range of topics, and the biggest headache it is creating is how to file all these references. Endnote is not available at Windsor and I haven't done the training at Canterbury, so feel a bit overwhelmed by that software, and Refworks does not seem to provide sufficient detail for what I want, so I have an spidery systems of folders and sub-folders on the hard drive and hope that the contents will be able to be easily downloaded to a new USB stick! So some technology gains, but not yet enough.

Photo today takes us to yet another country - County Down in Northern Ireland. I just love the lighting in this picture (and the memories of my youth that it conjures up!).

General goings on

Life is fairly humdrum at the moment, except that some more New Zealand folk are passing through Windsor at the moment. Neil and Faye from Christchurch are here. Neil is the former head of educational development at Lincoln University and he is trying very hard to work out how to retire but has failed so far. He is here en route from India and the UK, and France and Germany but mainly from doing workshops across India on his learning preferences tool VARK. His experiences there have prompted some interesting discussion about the nature of giving workshops in a foreign country and should we conform top their requirements or work in our normal way and help them understand that. It is a hard compromise sometimes, but given that VARK is sensitising people to how they and others have a preference for giving and receiving information, there must be some validity in sticking to the regular way of presenting the workshop.

It is bizarre walking through the sculpture park in Windsor with someone who fits into my life in Christchurch - but it does highlight the smallness of the world of academic development as I have been getting reports of other colleagues whom we all know. Looking forward to meeting some of them at ICED in Salt Lake City soon. The little planes were practising as we walked so a picture of the event before the event, followed by two action shots!

Maybe life isn't so humdrum after all. I spent this glorious sunny afternoon on the roof of a 28 storey building watching little planes fly between and round large inflated towers. It was very impressive - the Red Bull Air Races, but no-one knew what was going on, who was winning, or who won, but as this event only happens 10 times per annum, I felt very privileged to have such a bird's eye view of the proceedings. I will put up a photo as proof, but doubt you will get a sense of the excitement. About 50000 people on the Detroit side of the river and 40000 on the Windsor side had bought tickets - not to mention the flotilla of boats on the river and people in similar locations to me and others who were just on the riverbank outside the paying area. Quite a spectacle which I enjoyed just for the moment. For those who would like more details try this website http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2008/01/c6976.html

Also another point of cultural difference - today is the Queen's Birthday holiday in New Zealand so colleagues there are not at work. It has been Whit Bank holiday in UK recently I do believe! How bizarre!