It’s the Support Northumbria Conference today. As JISC infoNet is hosted by Northumbria University (we’re ‘based’ in Academic Services) we presented there together as a team.
I haven’t asked my colleagues if I can use the slides from their part of the presentation and, indeed, some of it was video – so I’ve only included my small section below:
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What I was trying to get across was the following:
- Most people assume that people see the world in the same way as them – and that applies to others in their department/school/institution. Newsflash: they don’t.
- We need to be able to define our role in the simplest terms possible and then understand how it fits in with the rest of the team/institution.
- Feedback is crucial to improvement. Top sportsmen and women get constant feedback (and have done since they were very small). We get it once a year in a performance review if we leave it up to others.
- Mapping workflows seems like a thing that leaders and line managers do, but why wait for them? It’s core to your role, your department’s role and your institution’s role. Do it. Be empowered!
This week I have been mostly…
Sorting out my workflows
It really doesn’t seem like a year ago that I posted My digital reading workflow but the time had nevertheless come to sort out new workflows in a new environment. When you’re working online all day, every day, things work a little differently.
Regular readers will know how much of an influence Joss Winn’s post Working on the web had on me recently. It certainly motivated me into action regarding ‘clipping’ (and adding my thoughts) to stuff I come across. I’m now using Amplify for that. What I still need to sort out, however, are ways to ensure I own my own data – either via backing-up Delicious and the like or some other method.
I’ve added a Lifestream to this blog at dougbelshaw.com/blog/stream
Struggling with SAD
I was in the shower yesterday when it struck me how the lowest points of my life have occurred during, or as a result of actions during, the months of November and December. I’m fine really, and it’s not in my best interests to go into details here, but suffice to say that whilst everything is OK on the family and work fronts, I really struggle internally at this time of the year. I’m convinced it’s got something to do with the lack of light – something that Josh Rouse sings of in Come Back (Light Therapy).
Presenting and organising presentations
I presented virtually at TeachMeet Oxfordshire this week on Models of Learning which went down well. I’ve submitted my session proposals for the Northern Grid Conference 2011 and bMoble Conference 2011 at which I’ve been asked to speak. I’ll be presenting and leading discussion on The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies, weaving in (of course) all kinds of other things.
The Learning Without Frontiers Conference (London) in January is the only event I’m planning to attend between January and March, given the imminent arrival of Belshaw Junior #2. Even after that, given the huge disappointment of Online Educa Berlin (and general conference fatigue) I may cut things back to just those at which I’m presenting/facilitating/organising.
