#BlendCafe25 more fiction as current facts unknown

Just notes on thinking as I go along.  There are large changes in education and media. Not sure of the scale or timing though. Very strange not being ab;e to go out / talk directly with others. Exeter has some feedback on news but maybe just being online has a wider scope. Not sure.

So thinking about the drama ideas, mostly the Blended Cafe near a campus in 2025, most courses a blend of distance online / short phases on campus. Thinking about imaginaries, commons and market as in UnBundled MOOC. So could be two cafes, one on campus for market discussion, one off campus for creative commons etc. ( even on Futurelearn MOOC paywall surfaces )

#BlendCafe25 is suitable tag, needs the 25 to be unique as of now. Suggestions welcome , script is open source or whatever way to describe it. Not much there at the moment, see previous posts, keeps changing.

Meanwhile many situations are tending towards online studio of some kind. Video broadcast / conference as streaming / recording . Works as sound also. Still a problem how to recreate a studio for radio but many clips will be available in the new normal. I may get confusing trying to connect around this.

Time Travel , studio sound for #UnbundledHE #IsFMDead already uploaded.

After a tweet packing in too much unexplained and a search on tags, the good news is that studio sound already exists to prompt questions about open resources, social media, comparing FM and print / campus.

I have started again on the Futurelearn MOOC - Unbundled HE - and also uploaded clips from an online conversation about FM radio, is it dead? Wild Show / @wenoto , that is Chris, JD, Jon and myself continue something but not in studio quality. We have talked about the possible end of FM in a world of streaming and social media but somehow strange it has come about for us. We may get back in the studio sometime.

This from March last year. Sounds about right for this year also. #IsFMDead finds other clips, more recent. The stats on the MOOC might have been updated but the issues stay the same. We do not know how things are changing around music. Lots more streaming but FM part of the mix.

Martin Weller ( From the clip above ) has written a blog post more recently. More reasons for time travel.

What has surprised me about the pivot online is the way we have found ourselves revisiting the same sort of questions we thought we answered in 1999. Can you teach effectively online? (yes). Is it good quality? (yes). Is it cheaper? (no). Can we do widening participation this way? (yes). Is it easy? (no), etc, et bloody cetera.

This is partly because large numbers of people have suddenly been forced to engage with distance/online ed who didn’t have to previously, and the same presumptions exist. It’s like a mass emergency migration. But it’s a migration to a neighbouring country and if your current country hadn’t been denying the existence of the neighbour for so long, then it’d be an easier shift.

By the way, the #IsFMDead tag is based on the #IsPrintDead tag, obviously suggesting that print continues. Just like radio and some form of library / campus . "Blending" is the word. The future scifi romcom ( see previous posts ) has the #BlendCafe tag.  Links welcome to new bits of sound comment. Creative Commons please for remix. there may be an edit for Phonic FM if we get to an hour or two. But probably waits on return to live studio and an end of repeats.

Unbundled HE , time remix

The Futurelearn MOOC on Unbundled HE is officially open again. The content unchanged since last year but comments will update. The main research is into how HE is unbundled, outsourced or otherwise rearranged. There is also an aspect of comment on policy options. So I have skipped to the end this time around for the video on Commons. I think the video was hosted at Leeds but now on Vimeo so you may find it even if you do not sign up for the course. I show the links though joining the MOOC would allow you to contribute. So far I watched complete Susan Robertson and started on Robin Mansell . Still have a fortnight to think about the Commons. Vimeo shows Creative Commons by the way, ok for remix.

Meanwhile I am in lockdown out of radio studio , Phonic FM in Exeter. But thinking about social media options to FM. Home recording? Edit previous shows? Various methods are on trial. There are implications for copyright / content marketing . Radio on payment of PRS has been allowed to reuse and remix. Promotion is welcome. Social media / web streaming less obvious. I find now that music from previous century can be recycled on YouTube with very few countries blocked, though may include USA.

So radio show could include Grateful Dead , both live concerts recorded by fans and stored on Internet Archive with Creative Commons licence and studio production from Warner Brothers. How to compare with imaginaries for market and commons?

I think this Unbundled HE course first appeared in March 2019 and the content was unchanged in September. So no reference to Seek investment in April both Futurelearn and Coursera, My take is that this changed the confidence levels or should have done if better reported. I read the print Guardian and also tweets. Following a lecture on the Fortress University by Peter Horrocks at Durham there was much critique then an interview by Peter Wilby in Guardian , Jan 2018.

This Sunday the Observer carried a report about moving UK HE online. I do not remember anything like this previously in print. There may be a rethink, will there be space in Guardian for more from Peter Wilby?

The UCU / London Economics report last week seemed to me to concentrate too much on the UK. Futurelearn has presented predictions of demand for HE on a global basis. This might be updated. Hard to tell what the new normal will be, some students in UK from outside, but many new or expanded sites also in other places.

There was to have been a conference at Lancaster on the Platform University , seen as something from commercial interests. What to think about MOOC platforms though? Seek is obviously for profit, but why do other unis not invest? Is this still possible? The MOOC is a way to offer adult education, continuing pro development. Otherwise discontinued in some cases. Also I am not sure jobs are more secure at Durham for example if moving online is off the agenda. Plans not public in much detail at this time, but something to come back to.

So now for me back to start the course in the right order.

UnBundled HE Mooc on Futurelearn again, book quick, starts on Monday

Not sure why I missed it, think the revision to material has been quick. Updated MOOC starts on Monday. It will be very interesting to see what the changes are. The UnBundled University is a set of research from Leeds and Cape Town. Imaginary to include the market and the commons so a mix of reporting on recent changes and a take on proposals. ( just my quick notes for now, more over next two weeks ) .

Meanwhile the Observer shows a big leap compared to Today and Guardian last week. The online options are included in a print report about UK HE. (Page 12 )

Prof Sir Tim O'Shea offers estimates on costs for unis to create online degrees before September, at least £10m each for 5 or 6. Also claims that Oxford and Cambridge have the capacity but not the will. Check the link for more.

What strikes me is the lack of a mention for Futurelearn. There is reporting on companies but no distinction between platform management in general and the Mooc as a particular choice. "Content marketing" is one way to describe things, keeping a free option while promoting degree courses or modules / certificates. Check Class Central for more on how platforms have changed.

Coursera has received 29,000 inquiries from 6,000 unis since the pandemic began. Also reported, Cambridge partnership with EdX. But nothing on UK based Futurelearn. Class Central tables show that Futurelearn is in the mix somewhere.

The UnBundled MOOC is a both an intro to current HE situation and an update on policy options. Through the magic of Twitter links to Coursera and EdX also possible.

Also possible, #BBC reporting HE with online part of the scope , @bbcr4today last week missed it

( this one Newsnight 2014 )

Media Blind Spots for Online Learning #BBCR4Today #Guardian #Expose

Report out today from UCU / London Economics on financial danger for UK universities. I have read the Guardian in print and online and listened to Today on Radio 4. What strikes me is the complete lack of any questions or statements around the online options long term, or the emergency measures happening now. I have uploaded the complete Today clip.

Meanwhile Durham seems to have dropped the idea of a formal shift online later this year. See BBC report . There has been a tweet from Donald Clark which at first seemed to me to be speculation, but perhaps reasonable given the lack of information around online policy.

Has UCU got a policy around online? How to relate to the claim "academics stuck in a fossilised view of teaching" . From a recent UCU Left Zoom event I gathered that there could be support for online adult / continuing learning , an area otherwise discontinued. Not sure I heard this right but so far cannot find a public source or document.

In 2017 Peter Horrocks presented a lecture in Durham as part of an IAS series on the university. "Fortress University" could get more search interest but the title is clear enough.

Later the response was critical , including staff at OU , there was an interview with Peter Wilby in the Guardian and Peter Horrocks resigned. Clearly the policy to close regional support buildings in UK was a concern for UCU but the strategy reasons for investing in Futurelearn were explained. Is there too much "managerialese" ? What is intended can be understood. Links welcome to any comments on this video / event.

My guess based on tweets was that after Peter Horrocks resigned the OU academics assumed that everything would "go back to normal". I may be wrong about this. Could it happen that at Durham people will now assume that online is not an option? Job losses are associated with online, investing in more buildings could be seen as stable.

Meanwhile in Exeter where I live I have no idea what is happening outside my house except for a weekly trip to Waitrose. But the view from Lord Willis is very alarming. If Exeter is allowed to recruit enough UK students to make up for the missing ones from outside UK it will be a larger number given he difference in fees. Where to put them? The expansion of student accommodation might appear sensible for a while but could the construction debts be sustained?

A recent FT article included a quote from Steve Smith

“We are teaching and working in different ways,” says Steve Smith, vice-chancellor at Exeter University in the UK. “It has forced us to think more quickly and rigorously about [the value of] face to face [teaching] versus online.” 

What is this about in dtail? As vague as anything from Durham. Perhaps Expose ( student newspaper) will investigate. Previous interview suggested that student accommodation was a sound investment and that Exeter could adjust entry requirements to result in any number of students. By the way Expose also has a website , as do BBC and Guardian. But I am not sure they report on the implications of online for education.

Or newspapers. Or radio.

Update on Durham and UCU Left

I am still trying to check information about possible job cuts at Durham. I have had a look at the official texts which only refer to a cut in the number of courses. Email has not yet shown me a source that can be quoted in public. But it is reasonable to say that UCU and others have a concern about the consequence for jobs of the new proposals. That is why I am postponing my rave around the Fortress University and the case for another look at the lecture by Peter Horrocks.

From a media statement last Friday -

It has been reported that Durham University wishes to reduce face-to-face teaching by as much as 25%. We have suggested a reduction in modules for the 2020/21 academic year with the aim of reducing the workload on academic staff, allowing them to plan, adapt and develop a really outstanding online educational offer but these are proposals for discussion.
The proposals are part of the Unbound Education: Creating a Sustainable Future for Durham University paper, which is due to be considered by the University’s Senate shortly. It has been shared with Heads of Departments in advance to encourage consideration by staff and feedback will be considered as part of the process and the proposals have been discussed with the recognised Trade Unions.
The University has been working on a programme of Curriculum Reform for over two years, such that many of the proposals have already been explored with staff.

So there may be more detail sometime soon. The Unbound Education paper may be different on jobs to previous ideas. Without detail on jobs there will be more speculation.

Guardian has published an article by Jo Grady that shows the background of concern. A news report on 2nd April showed job loss at that time.

Update on UCU Left

I have now found out a bit more about UCU Left , the Zoom session this evening, and the situation at Durham.

I had not gathered from press reports that the new approach involves 25% redundancy for lecturers. I had just seen a report about 25% reduction in courses. Also the notice for the recent switch to online was a limited number of days. So there are concerns about a hurried plan.

I still think the lecture about the Fortress University by Peter Horrocks was a sign of things to come and should be looked at in detail again. But maybe not soon. I realise some of this is off topic.

Here is a link to a recent talk found via Donald Clark on Twitter. He is keen on a move online may surprise some with views on what has happened recently.

I still think there could be a model of online learning that academics could support. There was to have been a conference in Lancaster about the "Platform University" but it was cancelled. Seems to have had a fairly negative take on Platforms as they are seen as coming from a commercial direction. Could this change as more originated from the campus end? There is a new series of podcast from Lancaster so maybe new ideas in future episodes. Is there a Creative Commons approach to all this? Can it be edited together for review and comment?

Question for UCU Left - is there an alternative model for online HE ?

Tomorrow there is an online discussion - "Homeworking & Managerialism: Beyond the Exam Factory". 

Exams have been cancelled. Teachers will be asked to rank all their students from top to bottom. Rather than award grades based on what students have learnt, they will be asked to predict ‘how they would have done if they sat an exam.’ Many have of us have questioned a logic that puts exam performance above students' real abilities. Why were we not consulted? What are the implications for our students? Isn't this policy discriminatory, unfair and divisive? If exams can be cancelled, is now the time to move beyond the exam factory and introduce less competitive forms of education?
Many employers have recognised the fact that during the lockdown they are completely dependent on staff goodwill rather than contractual obligation for our efforts to support students from home. UCU members are demonstrating that they are the guardians of education. They are doing everything they can to continue to teach our students.
However, some employers are trying to impose ‘business as usual’ regimes without any regard for mental or physical health or equality. Some see this crisis as a golden opportunity to implement a new model of online learning. How we can we collectively resist attempts to monitor and manage us in our own homes? Is the demand to keep classes going during the crisis just adding to stress and anxiety for students and staff?

It is the last para about online learning I would like to question. I realise the move to teach online has come all of a sudden without much resource. There are examples of things that have gone wrong. But it seems to me that often online is seen by academics as coming from a commercial direction and it would be better if the campus continued as normal or previously.

Recent news item is the decision at Durham to have more online degrees and /or blended courses. Guardian reported that "Lecturers condemn ...plan to shift degrees online" . 

Durham UCU branch held a virtual emergency general meeting this week where members “voted to firmly oppose rushed long-term changes taken without proper consultation”.

The plan may be a rush but the issues have been discussed previously. This is from November 2017

I have not found any published conclusions from the series of lectures. But at the time there was much negative comment about the policy of closing regional support at OU and putting money into Futurelearn . @oubucu Open University UCU very strong on Twitter. The Guardian had an interview from Peter Wilby strongly briefed with critical views that Peter Horrocks considered. Later he resigned, it became clear no further resources would be available for Futurelearn and 50% of Futurelearn went to Seek, a jobs site in Australia. So was it ever possible that another UK university would invest in Futurelearn? Seek sum was $92 million Australian. Durham estates plan was over £200m . 

Is the opposition to online also ready to accept the continued investment in the campus? The MOOC scene has changed into more certificates and degrees but the free options are still available. These platforms may tend more towards commerce if there is less interest from legit HE. Some similar or revised model might be proposed. But so far it is hard to locate as part of this discussion.

Meanwhile , back to Guardian Media Group. The Observer has a magazine article about how to acquire new skills in the lockdown. Mention of Futurelearn, EdX and Coursera. But the degrees aspect is almost at the end-

What do I do after completing the course?For some, this may be just the start of the journey – furnishing you with a greater confidence to learn and the motivation to take it further. If you find that you’re hooked, many of the platforms also provide accredited bachelors and master’s degrees from selected universities, though this will be more expensive.

I think journalists could make more of this. Guardian has not really reported the growth of MOOC scene. Critique continues but this may not reflect the scale or timing of developments. Class Central has more focus on this. 

Anyway in form of a question, main point is that given what is happening is there some model of online / blended that could be supported?

@classcentral

Citizen Journalism notes

Yesterday mentioned Citizen Journalism in tweet and got a comment about a citizen dentist. Very true that a dentist should be trained. But the case for the news audience also contributing continues I think. Comment got several likes from journalists so I intend to continue.

Found this from 2010.

Oh Yeon-ho, CEO and founder of the citizen journalism website OhmyNews, will be the second Innovator in Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He will visit Oct. 12 to 14.

Operating under the motto "Every citizen is a reporter," OhmyNews receives between 200 and 250 stories each day from 100 countries worldwide. Launched in 2000 in Seoul, South Korea, OhmyNews began by working with 727 citizen journalists. Today, it is an international media outlet with nearly 62,000 citizen reporters and 70 full-time editors and reporters.

I contributed to the English language version of OhmyNews. At the time there was some conversation around ideas about journalism. Recently social media is seen quite often in mainstream media as a site for misinformation and hate speech, but also many proper journalists also tweet etc. Another thing I remember from that time is Guardian Unlimited Talk. This was a sort of message board where anyone could start a topic. Journalists never joined in though. One Friday lunchtime it was trashed without warning. No backup offer for the readers / writers.

Alan Rusbridger recently wrote in the Observer about trust, including changes in how the internet is regarded or reported

Think of all the other utopian words that were associated with this new form of self-organisation barely a decade ago. Here are some: generosity, community, participation, sharing, openness, cooperation, sociability, learning, assembling, imagination, creativity, innovation, experimentation, fairness, equality, publicness, citizenship, mutuality, combinability, common resource, information, respect, discourse, conversation, contribution.

All these things seemed within our grasp. And then a kind of darkness stole over that shared space and we gradually began to give up on what, we soon convinced ourselves, had only ever been a lovely dream.

During the lockdown I may go back to some old copies of the Guardian and fins when they changed to mostly negative views about online. Was there a time when they decided perhaps that print  journalism could not actually make the transition? When Jack Schofield died there was a timeline on how the Guardian stopped reporting so much about computers. Not sure I can track all of this but there may be some clues.

More later on how this might continue. Print now demanding a windfall tax on the tech giants given the mixed fortunes of the lockdown. This may help them to survive a while but some issues will continue over another decade or so.

draft bits of radio possibly

Trying out hyperlocal as in my attic, now hashtag #atticarchive . First DVD found has photos from a while ago walking canal from Olympic Park to King's Cross. Will fit with more recent trips to ExCel and King's Cross. But needs time to explain to others on weNotNo and Wild Show. blog will need edit,

Next some bits for future shows, stock of clips or may work as social media.

JD now more active, was quite ill. So back to Yacht Disco. Previously Chris was away so JD and me filled in but only one show was supposed to be two.

So clips ready for another one. Using YouTube as a way to play in studio.

Claims Toto and Human Nature as Yacht Rock, but what about other MJ tracks or earlier with Jacksons? Case for Yacht Disco.

Claims George Benson as continuation of Yacht Rock

But Quincy Jones had earlier style , such as Brothers Johnson

Yacht Rock ended, just a collection of beats. But this is more like disco? Yacht Disco as a way to continue, also easier for the robots. AI can understand yacht disco and create endless playlists.

RomCom plot, back to Cinderella

This post mostly intended for Standup Philosopher so assumes background of previous posts.

The scifi future set in ruins of fortress university is not needed to provoke discussion. Reality of HE finances getting worse and more obvious. Online definitely a possibility.

So romcom option has more priority at this time. I find though that the issues keep coming back. Cinderella remains a good plot. Could be a "learning technologist" as I guess the people who make the tech work are not a priority in an academic context. Learning design or something else would be the main focus. I am looking for clues in job descriptions, other stuff online.

The fairy godmother could be from a local tech company, but with secret contacts at a uni somewhere else.

Not fitting a slipper could be a lost ID, maybe stolen in a fraud?

Meanwhile back to reality

Inside Higher Education has an update and a link to "hyflex"

"hyflex" turns out to be consistent with a campus base for blended learning. Students are not there all the year. Much happens somewhere else. So fits with previous guess. Follow this link for reasonably probable graphic on future phases. ( Research for fiction seems to loop back to blog level of journalism or something )

Meanwhile I still get to Waitrose, opposite St Lukes . Producer JD would probably not get out of central Exeter past the cafe opposite swimming bath. So could try things out at any cafe thought to be near a campus.

Now education noshow for print Guardian

Continues from ReadG blog, see previous post. For a while I am trying to fit everything in this one blog.

Print version of Guardian arrives with the milk. But no education pages. It is Tuesday, not lost track of days yet. So the print world is missing out on education as on media yesterday.

Twitter via Neil Mosley finds an article on Wonkhe explains the extent of UK universities finance problems. The Guardian did have a news story on Saturday but my guess is that the news this week is looking worse. In Wonke  Debbie McVitty  quotes Steve Smith from Exeter as telling UUKi that the HE sector is “looking over the edge into a very significant financial abyss” .

In Exeter the student accommodation boom has taken over much of the city centre. This boom could be coming to an end. But very little reporting of this, just clues here and there. I cannot believe that bridge loans will be available while "everything is back to normal". Surely a different model is needed, much more online, a form of blending. My impression has been that the business school end of unis has been the keenest on the campus. Possible to charge high fees so not so much energy for cheaper online options. So not much business theory debating the sense of investing in buildings. See previous posts but mostly now will work on fiction.

I am stuck inside for a few months so know little about what happens in Exeter for example. Could be an interesting location. But I will be working on romcom future scifi drama set in cafes / blended learning campus. More in future posts.

Couple of bits I forgot to mention, Business Matters comment last night on radio from Hong Kong, the students are though not going back to UK. Confidence in local health offer. ( I am half asleep / going back to sleep so might have missed something on this) . UK security concern in print Guardian, proposal to block Chinese students from tech research. Who thought that one up?

Meanwhile in print Guardian, back page advert from Google, online resources for teaching at home. G2 has story about how to get attention on TikTok for example with fish recipes. Is this a form of learning? How to relate to user experience? Previously at Class Central, website for MOOC info, a story about the origins of TikTok as a learning app that only went so far. 

ReadG blog updated re newspapers and Roy Greenslade

Usually I am concentrating on this blog but have updated the ReadG one as Roy Greenslade has made a significant statement about print and newspapers.

I did start the day with print version of Guardian but the Media page has been discontinued.  I guess it would have been mostly Roy Greenslade blog anyway.

Will there be an education page tomorrow? I can find online mention of learning moving online, but the print version seems less likely to notice.

Meanwhile I wonder when radio and telly will review the press as such? They just read out the news and opinions at the moment. As if they matter. As circulation in print falls the influence is mostly through the broadcast attention. When will there be an analysis / overview? Guesswork continues on social media. All very well for @bbcr4today to question the accuracy of Twitter as a source. But presumably they could report what was happening with newspapers if they wanted to.

HE take on Platforms

This is an expanded tweet or retake. I tried to find out policy on MOOC platforms, if most academics will support them. No response so far so here is another go.

I found tweet links to a blog by George Veletsianos ( @veletsianos ) . Laura Czerniewicz ( @czernie ) commented "Build internal capacity , collaborate regionally , don’t hand over to external vendors - wise advice" . Here is an extract from the blog

I’ll end this with a bit of a warning because I am beginning to worry about something else entirely. You may hear similar-sounding arguments from MOOC providers and the like. They’ll say: Hey, we have this course, and you don’t need to pay us that much or waste so much time. Send your faculty to us and we’ll even give you a discount or offer it for free. That strategy – the capitalize-on-a-disaster strategy – is how these providers will seep into your institution, embed themselves in your practices for now and for good. In politely Canadian terms, I’d advice against it.

Interesting that the MOOC providers are seen as any other commercial operation. True that they have changed since the early days. They typically charge for certificates and offer degrees. They work with large companies both for content and packages of courses.

But there is a difference to other options. The marketing is closer to content marketing as much content is still free. This supports the original aims of the MOOC approach.

The conference in Lancaster about the "Platform University" has been postponed but I think it would have suggested that any form of "Platform"  is bad and HE should continue as previously. My guess is that some form of platform is very probable. Low level of research based on the music scene. The labels ignored streaming for a long time. Now they have a stake in some platforms. Another guess, Seek in Australia ended up with 50% of Futurelearn because no UK university was interested and OU very reluctant to invest more. ( based on tweet comments over recent years ) ( Is £50m a lot compared to several buildings? clues welcome on what has been spent non platform on UK campus in five or ten years however long you think online has been an option )

Suggest Class Central for more info on where MOOC platforms are headed. Needs more study, some would say. Not sure if this Futurelearn blog is about a past or future event.

Fortress Ruins HE on hold

News now so bad it seems too rude to emphasise the scifi future fiction around the ruins of a fortress university. Guardian today in print has news item similar to this from Alistair Jarvis from Universities UK. I am still interested in the previous boom for student accommodation as in Exeter and the business school take on spectacular buildings as in Lancaster but this could be looked at as reality whenever moving around returns.

Next post about Futurelearn and MOOC platforms. I still think the "Fortress" idea from Peter Horrocks is worth checking out again. The Guardian reporting from Peter Wilby is also due for a review. But the situation of newspapers is under reported as Roy Greenslade is self isolated in Brighton away from the London information. Reporting education online will follow a move into journalism online.

Later project to go back to Fortress Journalism, mentioned in the Durham lecture and started when Peter Horrocks at BBC World Service. There was a phase when proper journalists met with bloggers etc as if there was some general theory to cover news. I will try to find some audio but any links welcome.

The other project, for a romcom based in cafe, will continue. This is more positive fiction assuming blended learning and a campus mostly made up of cafe , merging into the city. Starts with Exeter location Waitrose cafe opposite St Lukes . Shut at the moment but I go there for food shopping so easy enough to imagine as open.