Listening to the You Aren’t So Smart podcast recently – we all need to be reminded of that, every now and then – I was introduced to the concept of triggers for either a growth mindset or a fixed one. In essence, we can all get into the mood for entrenching our thoughts, feelings and beliefs, seeking to justify our current position by selecting our bias over counter-indicators. The guest speaker, psychologist Mary C. Murphy, author of “Cultures of Growth”, extended the concept to whole organisations as well as individuals. The alternative, she believes, is to recognise those negative associations and to try to redirect triggers into cultures of growth that can better support collaboration, innovation, performance, and wellbeing.

I sat in the pub last night after (possibly) my last ever day of teaching – it’s a long story – with a small (select?) group of my students. They are a special bunch. Second years on a closed course, BSc Computer Games Development, wondering what will come in next year’s final run out, given talks of redundancy. They aren’t alone in facing a vague future; several other courses are closing, and this is common across the UK sector.

It is not my first time having to see out a course – actually it is my third (or fourth?) – but what makes these students special (and they really are!) is that they help each other. They understand and recognise that they are their own best asset on the course; hopefully us tutors come a close second, but in any course with a sense of community there should be graceful collaboration. Not the corrosive, collusive kind. The ‘knowing what is appropriate to help learning’ sort. Lecturers can feel it when they walk into a classroom. Even when it’s not their class. If you’ve never experienced it, I pity you.

How do I describe it? It’s like the change in hum when a beekeeper opens up a hive. Or the ready thrum of a well tuned engine idling before a race. There’s an anticipatory intensity that washes over you. They become aware of your presence when you walk in, and are comfortable to gently acknowledge it before carrying on. I’ve had colleagues enter a room to catch me for a quick conference and the first thing they remark on is a feeling that important things are happening that they are sorry to be interrupting. Every time I smile. It isn’t me, or anything I’ve done really, other than, perhaps, encourage, foster and grow that communal spirit as best I can as the metaphorical beekeeper. I wish I could take the credit for more than polite intervention, when there are the few inevitable clashes.

Because of course there are clashes. Individual personalities can end with solitary students being isolated from that peer support. Then it gets tricky, and one or more shut down into a fixed mindset: why should I/we help THEM? However, thankfully, these situations have been few and far between. Students who think (or have constantly been told) they are “smart” are often those who feel unable to experiment, to fail, to leave their comfort zones for fear of being “found out” or otherwise judged if something goes wrong. If they don’t get that ‘A’ in class.

Encouraging students to see assessment (and learning in general, but this is what many are motivated by) as a process rather than a product is nothing new. If they can feel reassured the journey is more important than the destination, that failing and carrying on or knowing when to quit, students can feel more able to collaborate and, more importantly, ask for help.

It is the same for university leaders and lecturers – Leaders and Lecturers sounds like a terrible Role Playing Game – in that a fixed mindset reinforces the status quo, prevents innovation and change, and ultimately alienates everyone across the whole spectrum of Higher Education. I wish we could all be more like those students

Two recent worrying reports about USW, but not worrying for the obvious reasons:

https://www.business-live.co.uk/opinion-analysis/university-south-wales-seen-alarming-31300796
AND
https://nation.cymru/news/staff-unhappy-with-leadership-of-the-university-of-south-wales/

The latter of which involved a leaked document related to the results of a recent staff survey. I’d actually asked myself if this raw data was public, as the document itself was marked by Office365 as “Public”; documents can be marked Confidential, which restricts access through encryption, and this option has certainly been used recently in relation to redundancies.

The answer I was given was that it was on a USW SharePoint site, so only for USW staff. However, as a Government funded body, USW like all universities in the UK, is subject to freedom of information legislation. There should be no confidentiality unless for a valid reason; FoI has exceptions in law, which is right and proper. While I acquiesced to the implicit “don’t share” reply I received, someone took the “public” tag on the document at face value, it seems.

What is weird about the Nation Cymru article is, firstly, their use of the term “leaked”, because it was a “public” document; the distribution of publicly funded information isn’t leaking. It is dissemination, which academics should thrive on.

The second concern is the “lecturer at the university who didn’t wish to be named” being quoted. I’m guessing here that it was this person who ‘leaked’ the document. The problem (and it can be seen two ways) is the ‘not wanting to be named’ bit, either because of the fear of reprisals – if they are found out this would compound matters – or the lack of taking responsibility. This is, of course, assuming that the sharing of public information is in fact misconduct?

I think, this unnamed lecturer should be able to make such comments freely, openly, and not be afraid of the consequences. The raw data is pretty damning, but the Nation Cymru coverage goes little further than the highlights disseminated in the official summary infographic distributed to staff on the USW Intranet, which gives the most positive spin on the better sides of the survey. This isn’t misrepresentation. There ARE some positives in staff attitudes captured by the survey. It just disappears when the questions relate to the leadership.

For me, the most important elements are very high levels of harassment being reported. For example, and this is eye opening, 80% of Executive responded to the survey – generally it was two thirds of workers in different categories – but 100% of them reported experiencing harassment. All of them.

There were other less than ideal nuggets, but (and this is the point of a staff satisfaction survey) we shouldn’t be afraid of the negatives. They allow us to address the problems, when often they are hidden otherwise; such as in an environment of fear, where people feel unable to speak out for fear of reprisals.

ENDS

* “The construction not only….but (also) is called a correlative conjunction. It is used to present two related pieces of information. Both pieces of information are being presented by the writer as surprising or unexpected, with the second one being even more surprising than the first.”

— https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/not-only-but-also

In my post “You may have noticed” (written, I see, nearly four years ago 🙁 which comes something of a shock!) I recount the loss and costly retrieval of the domain name and rebirth of the site. While I intimated that I was rather bad at updating things I did assume having to pay my own way could be a personal call to action; sadly those four years (without going into unnecessary details) was my almost biblical ‘time in the wilderness’ with many great changes of circumstance. I won’t dwell…

Suffice it to say: I’ve moved house three times; had my main area of teaching, the computer games degree, culled (for the second time!); survived the experience of toxic union action, losing over £8000 in lost wages (thanks to my benmalevalent employer), but worse, seeing the corruption of democratic process within my own branch. I have now joined another trade union.

Ok, maybe I’ve dwelt a bit, but there are other things I can’t/won’t talk about. So, onto the positive 🙂

I started reading this article on The Conversation:

https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-with-hoarding-disorder-hoard-and-how-can-we-help-208102

And it hit me. I am a hoarder 🙁

All the bad things listed applied:

“But hoarding situations where people are unable to cook in their kitchen, wash in their bathroom, entertain friends or even live in their living room, do not happen overnight. Hoarding behaviour starts long before someone’s possessions take over their home. The longer it goes on for, the harder it is for the person to address it.”

(Link above)

I think being unhappy in my marriage (even though I may not have realised it) may have broken me a long time ago…

…but we’re being positive here! What is good about self-diagnosing my status as a hoarder? Well, they say admitting it to yourself is the first step. What could be more positive than the first step‽

Ok, how did to get to living in just the smallest bedroom of a 3 bedroom house – actually 2.5! It’s that small! – with occasional trips to the even smaller bathroom and, smallest of all, the kitchen, while the rest of the house is full (and I mean FULL) of boxes and piles of things? And that’s not counting the five storage units that are costing me £200/month; please don’t judge. Well, it’s because I get wild ideas. Super secret projects. Crazy schemes to do/make cool and creative things. So, I acquire all the components – electronics, cameras, exciting and interesting stuff – then it lies there unfinished. And because it was started each project is in limbo. And so am I!

Well, my second step is to start documenting the projects. Making them real by being out there. So, hopefully, I will see progress. It might not work, and I may not make the project pages visible/public, but it’s worth a try. Wish me luck!

I am doing a CPD course on the revised way of working post-Covid-19 for next academic year, called USW DEAL (Digitally Enabled Active Learning). Our first task was to reflect upon the following article: “Let’s lose the deficit language about online education” by Tansy Jessop from the University of Bristol

I’m a big fan of WonkHE, especially the podcast, which provides an interesting and diverse take on the issues facing HE every week; I definitely recommend it, as a good way to scope all the blogs, etc, that get produced on their site, which can be overwhelming to keep up with otherwise. Guest posts range from very practical to highly abstract, but all useful. However, apart from disliking the term “pivot to” as it implies a degree of choice and control that might be lacking – swerve madly to take the right fork in the road” might be more accurate – anything that gets us realistically talking about effective pedagogies is a good thing, in my book.

Reading the critique of the Media handling of this sudden change of delivery in (or rather outside) universities, but also schools and colleges, of course, begs the question why a revolution in Education is being debated in the Press. My own take was that it was more speculative, rather than prophetic in nature. Calling it naive is dismissive though. There is a lot of rhetorical language in the piece – a LOT! Such as “within an inch of” – that undermines the argument; it is almost an ad hominem attack on all journalists.

Furthermore, the apparently obvious decline in lecture attendance, presented as fact. While there is some evidence for lack of attendance and corresponding poor attainment, the literature also presents a weak positive correlation, to positive effects of access to archived lectures, which the author of this piece neatly forgets. Recordings are not a good substitute for lectures, online or otherwise, so long as they are interactive. However, while non-attendance at a lecture is a common reason given for accessing recordings, it is balanced by educationally beneficial reasons, such as note taking, reviewing learning, and assessment preparation. It must be remembered that there is a significant cost associated with coming on campus – for USW students it can be £6-£9 or even more, on public transport – and this highlights the need for effective timetabling. Ultimately, accessibility to learning materials is vastly improved for students with special educational needs, but the “kerb cut effect” will help those on the continuum between those with and without stated needs. One study in 2018 found “no evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related” (Nordmann et al 2018) and, more importantly,  found that lecture capture was “most beneficial for first year undergraduates, particularly non native speakers. The four year study identified strong students as able to substitute attendance with recordings, while weaker students benefited from using it as a supplement to attending lectures. Of course, there are many papers citing small, local examples of attendance equating to better performance, but these don’t span the time that Nordmann’s study examined. However, when we are forced to deliver lectures online, and recording is effectively mandatory, as a result of it already being digital, and not wanting to negatively impact students, the most important question is to ask why a live lecture is more effective than a passive recording? And what, if anything, we need to do to reduce the potential negative effects of students only being able to access recordings.

Jessop seems to have a low impression of students as well, implying a conscious and informed choice in skimming lecture materials; there are many and varied reasons why students may find it difficult to attend at a particular time, and a particular place (or technology). Her assertion that only the OU were involved in effective online delivery is outdated. Several universities have been engaging in distance courses, at all levels, quite successfully, using a range of techniques and technologies, and not all adhering to the Open University model, even if it is an effective and adaptive approach, evolved over decades. She is right, though, that it is the ‘more traditional’ institutions that have adhered to the ‘chalk and talk’ habit. But the “new normal” (whatever that is!) is an opportunity Jessop identifies as (in my words) the ill wind; a disruptive act that allows us to consider change.

Jessop’s shopping list of opportunities is “a bit utopian” she recognises, but we finally get to her concerns over “deficit language”, by which I believe she means avoiding the “negative waves”; either the naysayers saying “Tried that… didn’t work…”

or the “We have no choice but to…” grudging adopters.

1. 
   Thread: What’s wrong with "Deficit Language" anyway?

USW DEAL: Principles into Practice (6 July – Group 1) (USW_DEAL_06071)

• About this Course
• Welcome and introduction
• Introducing the learning environment
• General resources
• Your learning
• Themes
• Reading list
• Interaction
• Discussion Board
• Personal journal
• Group Wiki
• Blackboard Collaborate
• Vevox
• Staying in touch
• Announcements
• Key contacts
• E-mail

Thread: What’s wrong with “Deficit Language” anyway?

• Refresh
• ShowSearch

  Thread 2 of 22 Posts in this Thread 0 Unread 0 Unread Replies to Me 1 hour agoMike Reddy What’s wrong with “Deficit Language” anyway? COLLAPSE

I’m a big fan of WonkHE, especially the podcast, which provides an interesting and diverse take on the issues facing HE every week; I definitely recommend it, as a good way to scope all the blogs, etc, that get produced on their site, which can be overwhelming to keep up with otherwise. Guest posts range from very practical to highly abstract, but all useful. However, apart from disliking the term “pivot to” as it implies a degree of choice and control that might be lacking – swerve madly to take the right fork in the road” might be more accurate – anything that gets us realistically talking about effective pedagogies is a good thing, in my book.

Reading the critique of the Media handling of this sudden change of delivery in (or rather outside) universities, but also schools and colleges, of course, begs the question why a revolution in Education is being debated in the Press. My own take was that it was more speculative, rather than prophetic in nature. Calling it naive is dismissive though. There is a lot of rhetorical language in the piece – a LOT! Such as “within an inch of” – that undermines the argument; it is almost an ad hominem attack on all journalists.

Furthermore, the apparently obvious decline in lecture attendance, presented as fact. While there is some evidence for lack of attendance and corresponding poor attainment, the literature also presents a weak positive correlation, to positive effects of access to archived lectures, which the author of this piece neatly forgets. Recordings are not a good substitute for lectures, online or otherwise, so long as they are interactive. However, while non-attendance at a lecture is a common reason given for accessing recordings, it is balanced by educationally beneficial reasons, such as note taking, reviewing learning, and assessment preparation. It must be remembered that there is a significant cost associated with coming on campus – for USW students it can be £6-£9 or even more, on public transport – and this highlights the need for effective timetabling. Ultimately, accessibility to learning materials is vastly improved for students with special educational needs, but the “kerb cut effect” will help those on the continuum between those with and without stated needs. One study in 2018 found “no evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related” (Nordmann et al 2018) and, more importantly,  found that lecture capture was “most beneficial for first year undergraduates, particularly non native speakers. The four year study identified strong students as able to substitute attendance with recordings, while weaker students benefited from using it as a supplement to attending lectures. Of course, there are many papers citing small, local examples of attendance equating to better performance, but these don’t span the time that Nordmann’s study examined. However, when we are forced to deliver lectures online, and recording is effectively mandatory, as a result of it already being digital, and not wanting to negatively impact students, the most important question is to ask why a live lecture is more effective than a passive recording? And what, if anything, we need to do to reduce the potential negative effects of students only being able to access recordings.

Jessop seems to have a low impression of students as well, implying a conscious and informed choice in skimming lecture materials; there are many and varied reasons why students may find it difficult to attend at a particular time, and a particular place (or technology). Her assertion that only the OU were involved in effective online delivery is outdated. Several universities have been engaging in distance courses, at all levels, quite successfully, using a range of techniques and technologies, and not all adhering to the Open University model, even if it is an effective and adaptive approach, evolved over decades. She is right, though, that it is the ‘more traditional’ institutions that have adhered to the ‘chalk and talk’ habit. But the “new normal” (whatever that is!) is an opportunity Jessop identifies as (in my words) the ill wind; a disruptive act that allows us to consider change.

Jessop’s shopping list of opportunities is “a bit utopian” she recognises, but we finally get to her concerns over “deficit language”, by which I believe she means avoiding the “negative waves”; either the naysayers saying “Tried that… didn’t work…”

or the “We have no choice but to…” grudging adopters.

1. 
   Thread: What’s wrong with "Deficit Language" anyway?

USW DEAL: Principles into Practice (6 July – Group 1) (USW_DEAL_06071)

• About this Course
• Welcome and introduction
• Introducing the learning environment
• General resources
• Your learning
• Themes
• Reading list
• Interaction
• Discussion Board
• Personal journal
• Group Wiki
• Blackboard Collaborate
• Vevox
• Staying in touch
• Announcements
• Key contacts
• E-mail

Thread: What’s wrong with “Deficit Language” anyway?

• Refresh
• ShowSearch

  Thread 2 of 22 Posts in this Thread 0 Unread 0 Unread Replies to Me 1 hour agoMike Reddy What’s wrong with “Deficit Language” anyway? COLLAPSE

I’m a big fan of WonkHE, especially the podcast, which provides an interesting and diverse take on the issues facing HE every week; I definitely recommend it, as a good way to scope all the blogs, etc, that get produced on their site, which can be overwhelming to keep up with otherwise. Guest posts range from very practical to highly abstract, but all useful. However, apart from disliking the term “pivot to” as it implies a degree of choice and control that might be lacking – swerve madly to take the right fork in the road” might be more accurate – anything that gets us realistically talking about effective pedagogies is a good thing, in my book.

Reading the critique of the Media handling of this sudden change of delivery in (or rather outside) universities, but also schools and colleges, of course, begs the question why a revolution in Education is being debated in the Press. My own take was that it was more speculative, rather than prophetic in nature. Calling it naive is dismissive though. There is a lot of rhetorical language in the piece – a LOT! Such as “within an inch of” – that undermines the argument; it is almost an ad hominem attack on all journalists.

Furthermore, the apparently obvious decline in lecture attendance, presented as fact. While there is some evidence for lack of attendance and corresponding poor attainment, the literature also presents a weak positive correlation, to positive effects of access to archived lectures, which the author of this piece neatly forgets. Recordings are not a good substitute for lectures, online or otherwise, so long as they are interactive. However, while non-attendance at a lecture is a common reason given for accessing recordings, it is balanced by educationally beneficial reasons, such as note taking, reviewing learning, and assessment preparation. It must be remembered that there is a significant cost associated with coming on campus – for USW students it can be £6-£9 or even more, on public transport – and this highlights the need for effective timetabling. Ultimately, accessibility to learning materials is vastly improved for students with special educational needs, but the “kerb cut effect” will help those on the continuum between those with and without stated needs. One study in 2018 found “no evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related” (Nordmann et al 2018) and, more importantly,  found that lecture capture was “most beneficial for first year undergraduates, particularly non native speakers. The four year study identified strong students as able to substitute attendance with recordings, while weaker students benefited from using it as a supplement to attending lectures. Of course, there are many papers citing small, local examples of attendance equating to better performance, but these don’t span the time that Nordmann’s study examined. However, when we are forced to deliver lectures online, and recording is effectively mandatory, as a result of it already being digital, and not wanting to negatively impact students, the most important question is to ask why a live lecture is more effective than a passive recording? And what, if anything, we need to do to reduce the potential negative effects of students only being able to access recordings.

Jessop seems to have a low impression of students as well, implying a conscious and informed choice in skimming lecture materials; there are many and varied reasons why students may find it difficult to attend at a particular time, and a particular place (or technology). Her assertion that only the OU were involved in effective online delivery is outdated. Several universities have been engaging in distance courses, at all levels, quite successfully, using a range of techniques and technologies, and not all adhering to the Open University model, even if it is an effective and adaptive approach, evolved over decades. She is right, though, that it is the ‘more traditional’ institutions that have adhered to the ‘chalk and talk’ habit. But the “new normal” (whatever that is!) is an opportunity Jessop identifies as (in my words) the ill wind; a disruptive act that allows us to consider change.

Jessop’s shopping list of opportunities is “a bit utopian” she recognises, but we finally get to her concerns over “deficit language”, by which I believe she means avoiding the “negative waves”; either the naysayers saying “Tried that… didn’t work…”

or the “We have no choice but to…” grudging adopters.

So, let us look at the list:

• personalise learning – just in time learning is just training without the thoughtful review, and the time management requirement might be difficult in any event, let alone during lockdown
• a shift from content-driven curricular – almost impossible for vocational courses, where a good deal of content, as well as technique is required. Furthermore, students have (in direct surveys, etc) expressed a desire not to have education delivered in small chunks; for that they can go to Coursera, edX and Youtube. They want/need a uniquely HE experience, which for them involves hour long lectures! Of course, we don’t talk at students for an hour solid – do we? I hope not!!! – but that hour is a planned series of experiences that are not neat little 5-7 minute video montages, surrounded with “interactive quizzes” that are as disruptive to learning as they can be helpful.
• getting to grips with – no evidence that online material does this more effectively
• drawing out different voices – I am a fan of Lave and Wenger’s “legitimate peripheral participation” so am never worried by the student who sits quietly at the back. An asynchronous, text based interaction does allow different voices, and levels access UNLESS SOMEONE USES ALL CAPS, OF COURSE. but it can be just as inhibiting as asking for contributions from the lecture hall, if not necessarily in the same way, or for the same people. A dyslexic student, who is quite eloquent, when speaking directly, might be discouraged from typing in a forum.
• more inclusive – no evidence that online material does this more effectively (to plagiarise my earlier comment)
• prompt all sorts of good things (hopefully) – see above
• fixing “assignmentitis” – see above, but also why couldn’t these carefully designed tasks have happened before Covid-19?
• promote all sorts of more good things – like many of the above, we need the “when done well” suffix, which applied (and still applies) to learning design generally, not just a “new normal” situation.

The major problem with all this is the one simple truth of educational reform: it will always mean more work, and more resources, to improve educational attainment; and here I mean for students AND staff. The second truth is that change always makes things worse (particularly technological change) before it (hopefully, but not always) makes things better. This also requires a level of good will on the part of everyone involved, and the best way to have this is to engage in participatory design, rather than a “if it does not kill them it cures them” experiment. All this is an unasked for, major change to their experience and expectations, and (as if we could ever forget) they are our employers as well as our customers. Mitigating the risks, and the negatives, is IMHO as important, right now, as trying to gain a few benefits.

We need to ask, and then to listen, and then to act, WITH students.

From a personal perspective, as Course Leader as well as just a lecturer, the three months of lockdown have fallen into three chunks: dealing with the immediate support of learning and assessment for students scattered to the four winds; supporting an overwhelmed admin team trying to create a no detriment system on the fly; and COBR style speculation as to the best course of action for a lockdowned Autumn Term; I’m of the opinion that it is better to expect the worst and assume fully online delivery next term (at least), and hope for the best, where we have some face2face activities.

I’m not holding my breath for f2f, and am trying to imagine what a computer lab session could be, without any computers; as we cannot assume that our students (particularly new students) will have a decent enough PC to do the work. Computer Games Development, my course, has a heavy tech requirement, in its traditional delivery. We have two of the best equiped labs in the whole university, but these won’t be much use if we cannot access them at all, or at reduced capacity, which would quadruple class contact times; neither does this account for the self-study time we schedule for students to guarantee access to this necessary kit, which usually means the labs are in continuous and heavy use during office hours, every week day.

Most of my teaching consists of professional skills and application of knowledge from other, more traditional content-oriented modules. Students engage in large group activities for six, twelve and twenty four week projects, and have been “forced” into using CSCW tools widely used in the Games Industry. so, fortunately, in my case, the shift to online was about as painless as it could have been. The only obstacle was the one of access to technology and the Internet, which some students struggled with. This, however, is an ongoing and perennial problem.

My course team has been excellent BTW and we are exploring the idea of sending the computer labs to the students, using raspberry PI 4s as development platforms, computer substitutes, and VPN terminals to access on campus resources, as a means of delivering our teaching for at least the first term, should we be as locked down as we were in the Spring. Colleagues have been willing to explore adapting, and even developing new materials, that could be delivered on a sub £100 device, which could be loaned (or even gifted!) to students. All they would need would be an HDMI capable TV (and no televisions in recent production do not have these) and a USB keyboard and mouse, which can be picked up for £5 in most supermarkets. For students without any computer access, these could act as standalone PCs – the latest model PIs are more than capable desktop substitutes – and would be more cost effective than trying to purchase or lease laptops for everyone. They would also be amazing freebies for students 🙂 which might allay any frustrations if f2f classes prove to be impossible. Although we are lucking in Computer Science to have such an option, I’d imagine that creative thinking by a course team, especially if they involve the students – the raspberry PI idea came from a recent graduate to give full credit! – could overcome many potential issues that a return to full lockdown might otherwise cause.

Whatever we do, we need to talk to the students, and involve them as much as we can!

References

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09639284.2015.1043563?needAccess=true&journalCode=raed20

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/07/05/study-lecture-capture-reduces-attendance-students-value-it#:~:text=The%20paper%2C%20published%20in%20Computers,lecture%20capture%20encouraged%20poor%20attendance.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-018-0275-9

https://psyarxiv.com/fd3yj