James Wisdom- HE Overview

Eye opening stats about higher education in the arts and how success is measured by different bodies. Possibly naively did not realise the bigger picture of HE in general and quite how much politics and government funding are so intrinsically linked. A lot of food for thought- how is the pandemic going to affect HE institutions in the future? Is the current 3 year semester format really that accessible? Should the system be so focused on school leavers? Will HE become more Vocational/Academic or a mixture of both?

Victoria Odeniyi – Reimagining conversations with Multi-Lingual Students

Very interesting insight into the research Victoria is doing on the use of language and its affect/effect in the online learning environment. Very insightful and highlighted the need to reflect on own language use in the classroom environment as well as students. How is tech changing conversations with multi-lingual international students? Many things hard to interpret online- especially ‘silence’ and ‘pause vs silence’ and its functions online.

The idea of being a student again is quite daunting, but on reflection it brings so much insight with it to my own teaching practice – so that in itself is comforting. I realised that the online experiences both as a staff member presenting online and as a student participant have many similar obstacles- its hard to balance it all! From the amount of information given/received, to the ability to present or listen and keep track of the chat and people wishing to speak, the pauses or silences and how to handle them and monitoring engagement whether that is as a student finding the space and voice to participate or as the teacher keeping the students interested, included and active in the session. Setting boundaries and expectations was also a key issue e.g. how much chat in the chat is acceptable? When does it become distracting and off-topic? Should there always be a moderator when teaching online where possible?