Tweet from Donald Clark doubts value of "storytelling", may be a waste of time.
Meanwhile I have been thinking of a version of a walk on Lancaster Spine around time of Ben Williamson talk next week about Platforms and HE. Actually on Zoom or similar. But imagine Lancaster campus somewhere near what was the Making Time Garden. My drama is scifi future to avoid current pressures. Just concentrate on longterm issues. Can include memory, stored clips.
Later walk towards central square, learning zone, big screen - story so far. Is there an alternative sort of MOOC platform that might be supported? Can the current ones be modified?
Then Management School to consider learning organizations. Should HE invest in Platforms rather than new buildings for Management School, demolishing the Making Time Garden, redesign of Spine etc. Seek Group invested appx £50m to get 50% of Futurelearn. How to compare with UK Business School buildings?
Walk continues to InfoLab21 for tech briefing on options. Donald Clark waiting patiently to talk about AI. ( Alternative version he speaks at the beginning with robust take on the concerns about Platforms shared by academics )
So will try to edit this as tweets. Will I end up with permission to use some sound in a future radio show?
Video / sound for radio next week / Spine Walk in Lancaster / chat around Ben Williamson talk
I did a voice clip yesterday, not sure how much sense it is making.
Previously making a case for MOOC platforms / online learning. Radio format around drama, conversations in the future. #CDWalk set in Exeter looking at where the CD shops used to be and wondering how much space needed for education. Now I am thinking again about a walk on the spine of Lancaster campus. This time from the education / arts end towards the management school and the InfoLab 21 building.
Sorry if this is too much of a ramble. Fiction set in near future may be an easier way to discuss things. Ben Williamson talk includes critiques of MOOC scene and platforms as too commercial, external to existing university. The campus can have spots with symbolic meaning so a walk links bits of video conversation together. Previously I did the walk from a tech vision at the InfoLab towards the social science at the other end. Now the situation has changed enough to get some sort of spec from the education end , then work back through management towards whatever tech is required.
I have tried this sort of approach with avatars in an online world - Twinity in King's Cross. Lancaster not covered but I did imagine some rooms. I have found this post from long ago. Linda Shelton worked on conferences then retired to Morecambe. Couple of photos on walls from campus-
Anyway, more versions of this later. It may make sense before the weekend. Any sound clip suggestions are welcome.
Hello Guardian / news interest balance / Manchester offer to allow students to cancel contracts
This could be in ReadG blog but fits more with this sequence on student accommodation and Manchester. Through Twitter I found out yesterday that Manchester University has responded to the occupation with a pledge about a rent reduction and also allowing contract to end.
More flexible accommodation agreements
You can break your accommodation agreement, clear your room and hand back your keys once during term time in the 2020/21 academic year without financial penalty.
If you want to return later in the academic year, we'll do our best to find you a place.
Today in Guardian print Josh Halliday and Amy Walker report concerns about a black student mistaken as a drugs dealer. The accommodation pledge is towards the end, mentioning a 20% reduction in rents but not the possibility of breaking agreements.
I think this could be just as significant. Assume most learning stays online. If students get away for Christmas why would they go back? Will other universities follow the Manchester example ? There is no announced plan for next year from Universities UK. things could just workout in a jumble of individual decisions.
I am copying this to Josh Halliday and Amy Walker. Also Mahel Khan who explains on YouTube why he left Nottingham ahead of the current lockdown. ( Latest video on postgrad options, another post for me later )
I still think there are two bits of hard news - students leave campus for home, Then some return or maybe not. HE management eventually decide on what hybrid means. But only after something emerges in a muddle.
Time will tell, continues on Twitter with links to newspapers probably. @will789gb
In August I tried out ways to track social media promotion as if it was a system. In the gap between lockdowns it looked as if the Exeter Street Arts Festival would happen. It was cancelled at the last moment but there was a lot of publicity on social media in the weeks before. I have no real grasp of how to compare stats for different aspects. How many tweets to promote a video? how to compare numbers of views of tweet with tag and video views some period of time later? Or is the video seen anyway and the consequence is to gain more followers for the Twitter account?
I am not sure if the analytics compares with quality stats known in production situations. I think this may be so but the words used are different, maybe two sorts of convention that are independent of each other. So I am trying to interest people who know about stats for production and see if there is a fit. I will try tweeting about @MidiTvUK - YouTube channel should have been launched during the festival. They are more active now but not sure when the launch is. 30 followers on Twitter as of today.
Missing from Guardian Print / update for new readers
Guardian has more on website than in print. See below for more on this.
Relates to situation on campus. Owen Jones has written around events in Manchester - the protests, the fence , the occupation.
“The union fears that the migration of over a million student risks doing untold damage to people’s health, and exacerbating the worst health crisis of our lifetimes,” it warned. This was ignored. When, three weeks later, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) recommended a shift to online learning “unless face-to-face teaching is absolutely essential”, it was ignored, too. The result? The mass internal migration of young people to and from every corner of Britain, which helped fuel a second wave, and their near imprisonment in overcrowded accommodation.
and also
The tone-deaf response of university authorities aside, a rational government would have learned from its disastrous mistakes, but we are ruled by no such thing. “We said in August that if you encourage over a million students to travel across the country without test and trace, you’ll create a second wave and that’s exactly what happened,” says the UCU general secretary, Jo Grady. But extraordinarily, she points out that the authorities are now planning a special week-long window for students in England to travel back home “like cattle” on limited public transport, and then repeat the farce of sending them back to university.
I quote at length to show the views in radio clips are not coming out of nowhere. The Drama Show for Thursday has edits from the Zoom call from Manchester occupation including Jo Grady. Also Mahel Khan on leaving Nottingham ahead of lockdown.
Also online only "fears on restructuring" Anna Fazackerley . Cannot find it in paper. Apparently government is ready to rearrange the lower orders of HE. One consequence of A level changes has been that more students have been accepted for popular courses so some others are under pressure. There is no reporting in detail about finance higher up the scale. Student accommodation for example may have problems but this is just a guess.
There seems to be no government policy on what moving online means in future. "Back to normal" is the guide with online as a last resort, emergency style. Not surprising lots of stress for people trying to make this work.
Guardian has problems in itself. Moving news online could happen soon but they hang on to print. I think this limits what they are prepared to include in the print version about what is happening with online education. time will tell, possibly starting with the return or not after Christmas. There may be enough on social media to make an impression on print news.
I am trying to catch up on last week. Several tweets about MOOC platforms and how some claim they represent the EdTech alternative to HE as we know it. I should do some more study on references but this is a quick update on what I am concerned about. Donald Clark has supported one of my tweets with "false binary" as a way to describe this placing of online as commercial and outside the campus in origin. So more around this later.
I have found a blog post by Ben Williamson- education platforms in the "dataist state". I don't think the description of MOOC platforms is fair to the range of subjects they offer.
Powered by AWS, Coursera offered Coursera for Campus free degree content during the pandemic. Institutions could sign up for ‘bundles’ of ‘job-relevant’ degree content in the absence of existing institutional online learning arrangements.
Coursera are only promoting free offers that exist anyway. Certificates are monetised but with options. The vocational courses are popular but the range of MOOC topics continues. I have just finished a module on writing for performance from EdX / Cambridge. I think EdX is organised now some distance from Harvard / MIT but the code is public so any number of academics could set up an alternative if that was something they wanted to do. There is concern at current direction, as shown in this remark about government policy towards the end of the blog post-
They are ceding the authority of higher education institutions and the state to ‘learn’ about students, institutions and the sector to global private platform and infrastructure providers that currently only see them in economic and job-relevant terms.
See previous post for comment on "Manifesto For Teaching Online" page 100. Simon Nelson quoted as "returning value to partners" as if this was not the sort of thing HE usually endorses. January 2018 Peter Horrocks interview in Guardian with case against from academic sources. He had to resign for diverting funds to build Futurelearn platform. Why not go back and look at his Durham lecture on Platform University?
But rather than repeat this another time, just to say it may be too late. If Salesforce is up to speed on an offer that may be hard to catch up with.
More later but I need to sort out radio show. I have done a pre-record for Thursday but need to clear where I have borrowed bits of mp3. Is the edit ok and what about next week? Any suitable links / offers welcome.
Clip taken with permission from this , my guess he needs to pay to be in Nottingham about 10 weeks of the year. Is HE "returning value to partners" as in accommodation buildings? Journal publishing another time.
I must get back to my MOOC - finding a voice. But meanwhile an update on bits of writing. Journalism needs headlines, as explained in previous posts there needs to be an event in first paragraph. Then waffle / opinion can follow. So lots to say about learning online but the events are a) students depart campus b) some may return. BBC has just done a story, I copied out two bits to Twitter-
University leaders have previously raised concerns about why this guidance has been left so close to the end of term - and there will be questions about the capacity of universities to be ready in time for the mass testing.
There have also been questions about whether students will return as usual in January or whether there will be a staggered start and more testing, or whether more courses will switch online with some students initially studying from home.
Will this become clear, how much online intended for January? there have been reports students gone home already. What to expect re fees , accommodation?
More later.
I have done a set of photos based on a walk after last Wild Show. JD has approved this as a record but not sure what to add as an edit. It may take time. People in lockdown have to adjust to not being in a studio.
Even just as social media though there is suspense. The Standup Philosopher will appear at some time, may offer an opinion. Filling time / buildup meanhile. Not much of a structure but could be edited later.
I still may do a script based on a scifi future. Comparing retail space for music and space needed for student accommodation while walking in Exeter is not too much or a resource challenge.
I am about two weeks behind on the MOOC. So need to catch up on psychology and characters, and working with a director. I may have to ask JD to be a director though he is known as a producer. more later.
I will rest on the later modules, sign on but not pay the fee for full access. I want to go back to Performance theory. Lots packed in there. In March digital platforms, April recovering space, installation. May comedy standup. This all seems more like my activity. Also Standup Philosopher may have returned.
I have got a bit behind, with the start of the lockdown and the USA election. CNN has wrecked my sleep pattern. So need to catch up on the MOOC about finding a voice. But also start to study books and follow up previous tweets.
The books are Donald Clark on AI and The Edinburgh Manifesto for Teaching Online. Both relate to the tweets. I am still in flip and scan mode. So here are some quick comments.
More overlap than you might expect. "Automation need not impoverish education : we welcome our new robot colleagues " - part of the manifesto on cover. But working back you get to some reservations about how code restructures the campus, and remarks about how MOOC scene has tended towards business / tech for monetisation. Simon Nelson of Futurelearn is quoted ( page 100 ) on "returning value to partners" but no mention of Peter Horrocks. The first wave of critique for the MOOC was the lack of a credible business model. So at least that has gone. Still worth a look at the Fortress University lecture in Durham. Seek Group invested at a time when UK HE would not. Just my guess.
"So who are these learner-consumers?" ...page 99 . People like me probably. More later.
Through the Post Pandemic University on Twitter I have found a blog - Academic Irregularities. ( @PostPandemicUni on Twitter )
Still reading this but two things strike me-
Clear statement about the risks of opening UK campus in October-
In mid October 2020, Nottingham had the highest rate of spread in the UK. Sadly, the spike in figures coincided with the arrival in the city of 60,00 or so students. Let me say first I am not blaming students for this state of affairs. But I am hoping that an eventual public enquiry will hold the government and university management teams to account for this failure of policy. Opening campuses and residences proceeded against the advice of the government’s scientific advisory committee (SAGE), the trade unions and public health academics. Nevertheless, the mass migration of students across the country went ahead. It was always going to be a disaster to encourage the relocation of over a million students to new cities and residences that demanded close sharing of quarters.
and also comparison of music scene with current HE. Quotes Nick Petford - -"While other industries, such as retail and music have already embraced a move online, HE has pursued this more slowly."
This supports my idea of looking at space in central Exeter needed for music retail while talking about student accommodation some time in the future. See next post.
The Manifesto for Teaching Online MIT Press
Artificial Intelligence for Learning Donald Clark Kogan Page
More speculation, newspaper sales will trend to zero in UK, quite soon. Fiction say 2 years.
Follow up to previous post about speculation and fiction. Just a way to clarify things.
Newspapers are about to vanish in print. Look at any chart. They are moving online and/or radio or TV. Apparently Express has a poll that shows Trump winning and gets lots of hits in USA. This is fine but will it help credibility as print news used to be in UK?
So future plays will assume print has gone. Even in two years or whenever the pandemic is over as a lockdown threat. Guardian online might be more open on MOOC / online learning. They still promote celeb lectures rather like star opinion writers. When online they might get more into forms of social media. Anyway, this will be assumed in future fiction.
More speculation, newspaper sales will trend to zero in UK, quite soon. Fiction say 2 years.
More happening on this. Post from Zelo Street on charges during previous lockdown. There may be similar cases more recently. Also Guardian report on Manchester students pulling down fence. Apparently some students have already started to go home.
I am still thinking about scifi drama set in future but news is getting closer to link to discussion of long term trends. If education moves online how much space is needed for the campus? Hard news items expected soon are a) how students get home for holidays b) how or if they return. Question of why they would do so emerges. Can HE return fees / charges for rent?
I think there could be some sharing of copy. I will link to what i can find. also speculate based on what i can remember. I am locked down in Exeter for this month. I try to follow Exeter news, also Durham where Peter Horrocks spoke of the Fortress University. I still think this is something to return to.
The sound is from @wenotno show last year, video a walk in space intended as student accommodation unless Exeter University have changed plan. any info welcome.
I am still doing the course on writing plays but tending back towards some form of journalism. There may be management somewhere in HE where online trend is understood. Links turn up on Twitter. When I used to write for OhmyNews there would be various bits of text in blogs etc but to be a news story there has to be an event upfront. I think it could be both that most of the students now on campus will be somewhere else on December 25th. then later they may return, but why? This is two events so could be several stories.
The walk round Exeter - #CDWalk - still a project but I am now in lockdown so no studio access. Not sure how to connect with Jon, Chris, JD so shows will be a bit of a mix via pre record drama show. The Standup Philosopher seems to be staying in France so there may not be a finale presentation for #RuinsHE any time soon.
#CDWalk set in time when less pressure, maybe three years in future. I will assume newspapers have moved online. HMV mostly merchandise upstairs, short run digital machines upstairs so very personalised media available. Waitrose offers free newspapers on similar basis. John Lewis tech basement has print and binding equipment for magazines , paperbacks. I am still wary of writing dialogue but can work on description of how the set has changed.
Meanwhile I have taken photos of walk with JD last Thursday. Could continue as imagined or actual for those moving about. More on Twitter - @will789gb
Radio also as @wenotno
Also thinking about a walk set in King's Cross , towards Google entrance. Eventually YouTube studio but this is hard to get into. Start with "text" , whatever found on Google search rather than YouTube. "Text has been troubled" claims manifesto for teaching online, now arrived as a book. Get to "sound has been troubled" later.
Info request, students, travel, Hoopern Fields, Fortress reaction video
Today report in Guardian that UK students have started to go home before the lockdown starts. This is not a surprise. No announced policy on Christmas. Previously press speculation of a two week quarantine before travel. But it turned out Oxbridge term ended sooner. So a plan announcement could be quite soon if to make much sense or help anybody.
My main concern is about the lack of any online strategy. Seems to be seen as a default emergency, last resort in a situation assumed as normal as possible. From Will Hutton in Observer seems there was a week or so mid summer when a move online may have been considered but no government decision in the drift.
If students get away from campus over holidays, why will they return?
While asking for info, couple of specifics for Exeter and Durham. There seems to be a cashflow issue around student accommodation. But longer term have any decisions been made to alter the scale of investment in yet more buildings? Hoopern Fields in Exeter has value as an open space. Just a local concern. But could be a case study. Has there been any look back at the Durham lecture by Peter Horrocks ? The Fortress University could gain by open online approach, as in Futurelearn. Critiqued at first by Peter Wilby in Guardian but what to think now? The video could be edited into smaller clips but also response / reaction video is possible. Links please if you upload something.
