2024 In Review

Graphic from Co Author Studio

Strange year, 2024. While Scottish education wrestled with AI's implications, I shifted back to consultancy after 7 years leading digital transformation at City of Glasgow College. The timing proved interesting - just as assessment anxiety peaked and international interest in Scottish vocational education grew and with the funding model for Colleges pretty much in crisis.

Some key developments from 2024:

In College -

• Supported Turkish Vocational Authority's education reform programme with workshops in Ankara.
• Led AI policy development at City of Glasgow College and continued to share this work internationally.
• Presented at QAA Conference on assessment in an AI world and delivered series of workshops on Active, Blended, Collaborative Learning for Tertiary Sector in Scotland and garnered welcome support too from SQA.
• Pushed on continued development of Canvas platform and staff digital skills against some interesting internal headwinds.
•Hosted ALT Scottish SIG - this time on-line from COGC.

Post College -

• Participated in UNESCO's Future of Education bootcamp in Bilbao and now authoring bid with international partnership around adoption of open badge framework to support micro-credentials.
• Continued pushing for open educational resources despite system inertia
• Supported hashtag#Canvascon in Barcelona and facilitated a tertiary sector workshop back in Scotland.
• Ran series of workshops for HE and Colleges on blended learning for QAA including online workshops - deploying model developed @cityofglasgowcollege. Active, Blended and Connected.
• Supported an enjoyable workshop on Future of Learning with Prof Martin Bean.

These posts from LinkedIn capture pivotal moments:

"It's not the end of learning design and blended learning - it is just the beginning." Moving back to consultancy while reflecting on 7 years of institutional change.
https://lnkd.in/eb4anc2y

"It was an amazing privilege to be invited to make presentations and chair workshops in Ankara." Supporting vocational education reform internationally while Scottish reforms continue.
https://lnkd.in/em6K23C8

"Scotland is still not even partly on the bus despite best efforts of hashtag#openscot. Yet we are a country proud of education as a public good." The perpetual challenge of advancing open education.
https://lnkd.in/evGZVnrJ

" It was great to have opportunity to be part of cross sectoral expert team to develop this resource for QAA and associated workshops"
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joerwilson_planning-and-delivery-of-active-blended-learning-activity-7252070604621631488-6Uyb

Grateful to colleagues at City of Glasgow College and the team at Instructure Canvas who helped deliver real change, and to the broader Scottish education community still working to embrace open educational practices despite the obstacles.

Looking ahead to 2025: ready to help more institutions navigate AI integration thoughtfully while continuing to advocate for open education. The challenges around transferable skills and digital capabilities remain much the same as 20 years ago - but the positive relationships between learners and teachers still drive meaningful change.

Broadly I anticipate working with;

• UNESCO - Continue shaping bid for project around better understanding of the open source code available for creation and management of Open Badges in support of Micro credentials.
• Continue work with UK Digital Badging Commission
• Champion - Teachermatic and other AI platforms , Adaptive Comparative Judgement and Canvas by Instructure as means of changing the learning paradigm.
• Hopefully continue to support work of QAA around Scottish Tertiary Quality framework.
• Continue supporting sensible policy and practice around adoption of AI in vocational system.
• Following recent Dubai Summit working with Open Scotland to encourage more open educational practice in Scotland.
• Supporting institutions and staff who want to digitally transform their practice and their learners’ experience
• Continue as chair of ALT Scotland SIG and have a bit more time for community building - perhaps exploring new community platform.
• Where I can, offer informed input on shape of tertiary sector and future of vocational landscape including qualifications. 
• Continue having more me time - great trips since great escape to London, Berlin, Bologna, Viareggio, Lucca and France - along with business trips been a busy end of year.

To everyone working to make education more open and accessible: it is always the people who make the difference. Be as optimistic and cheerful as your learners.  

Here's to more progress in 2025.

Off the Fence: How Should Colleges in Scotland be Funded.

Perhaps fittingly, I'm authoring this as my ham cooks for New Year.

I count myself fortunate to have been one of the 700 staff who left the Scottish Further Education (FE) sector in recent years, following a fantastic 38-year career and better still, my skills are still in demand.

As I reflect on my time in this vital sector, it seems fitting to publish these thoughts at a time of hope and renewal. Ever the optimist, I believe in the potential for change.

Over the years, I’ve worked with national agencies responsible for awarding, funding, and staff development. I’ve collaborated with or worked for all the Glasgow colleges, including serving for 15 years on three college boards. Yet, I’ve never seen the sector in a more precarious position than it is today.

Scottish FE colleges are a cornerstone of the nation’s educational landscape. They provide vocational training, open pathways to higher education, and offer opportunities for lifelong learning. These institutions reflect Scotland’s historical commitment to accessible, practical education for all, evolving to meet the changing needs of society and the economy.

You won't find these stats in many places in terms of life long learning but most of the Scottish population are touched by a College at some point in their life. More so than say a university. 

They are a critical community resource. Vocational or leisure all of my family and friends have benefitted from a College course. It is the same across the country.

Having stepped away from the system, I feel compelled to highlight its challenges. These issues run deep, and it’s disheartening to see no sensible solutions on the near horizon. Agencies that once offered support and guidance are now in disarray.

Despite this, college boards, principals, teaching, and support staff continue to innovate and deliver exceptional results for their learners. However, the system they operate within is inherently unfair, inequitable, and in dire need of reform.

Staff are overwhelmed by the dual expectations placed on colleges: to close the attainment gap and drive social mobility, while also addressing skills shortages. These ambitious goals are undermined by ever-diminishing resources. Colleges, which could be a powerful engine for economic renewal both locally and nationally, are starved of the sustained support they need. In some cases, poor workplace relationships—driven largely by a lack of resources or a clearly articulated and funded national strategy, exacerbate these struggles.

It is rare to see college principals or even Colleges Scotland publicly addressing these issues. Given that college chairs are government appointed and principals are employed by college boards, it’s a testament to the severity of the crisis when these leaders dare to speak out. It is tough speaking truth to power and we need much more of this.

It's perhaps simply better that the public are aware of the manifest imbalance in the system.

The challenges, are undeniable. Audit Scotland has been flagging the sector’s fiscal issues for years. We are now past the critical point.

If there is less money in the system, a fresh approach is essential. The tertiary sector needs rebalancing, and there must be an acknowledgment that “free” higher education comes at a cost to the system as a whole.

Colleges operate differently from universities. I began my career as a local authority employee, transitioned to working for incorporated colleges, and ultimately worked for a regional college. Throughout this journey, colleges have always been directly reliant on public funding. Today, they are controlled and funded by the Scottish Government via the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Unlike universities, which enjoy greater fiscal freedom, colleges are almost entirely instruments of government policy.

When a College gets into really deep challenges, the leadership team and even the College Board can be replaced, this is not how a University senate operates.

Recent history—particularly regionalisation—demonstrates that the system can be radically reshaped through direct intervention. Yet, what is lacking today is a clear vision, a direct steer, and mostly, appropriate funding.

Addressing these issues requires fundamental changes to how the education budget is allocated across the tertiary sector. There may not be more money but the resource needs to be distributed in a more equitable and focused way across life long learning.

While universities are also facing financial pressures, they have much more autonomy in managing their resources and have been more effective in lobbying.

Their stronger connections to senior politicians across the political divide, many of whom find posts in the university sector after public service, may partly explain the lack of collective political will to address these imbalances.

It is not simply that old chestnut that the policy makers and journalists move from school to university and they don't understand what Colleges do. It is much more pernicious. I think it may be some time before for instance the esteemed educational departments within our University sector speak out and or offer any solutions to the current College crisis. Their output on vocational learning is still scant. 

The disparity is stark. Glasgow residents cannot fail to notice the large-scale campus developments across the university sector, as well as the booming private student accommodation market. While academics often face precarious short-term contracts, for some universities, this is a golden age of campus expansion. Others, however, face much bleaker prospects.

What Needs to Change

Within the current college policy framework, certain elements appear for the present to be immutable: regionalisation, national pay and conditions bargaining, lecturer membership of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), and “free” higher education.

Yet, there are areas ripe for reform. Here are some questions and suggestions—some more radical than others:

1. Regionalisation: What is the point of college regions if they aren’t connected to more regional funding?

2. Funding Integration: Break down siloed funding within the SFC for further and higher education. Include funding for work-based learning and ensure activities are funded at the same rate. This would mean reallocating some university funding to colleges and work-based learning. Yes, there are proposals here but things are simply moving far too slowly.

3. Differentiated University Funding: Recognize that universities are not all the same. Adjust funding formulas to reflect these differences and use public funding to shape what is available. Any course at a University should surely be based upon national occupational standards. This would support proper articulation links and save whole sector and learners a lot of money.

Some institutions may value global status over local delivery but let them make that strategic decision.

4. University Mergers: Encourage mergers within the university sector. 

Perhaps make the old guard of research led universities have much closer partnerships with teaching led institutions and/or make newer institutions merge. 

Any changes here are tough with current governance arrangements. For example, a merger between Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland could create efficiencies and similarly in Edinburgh and Dundee regions. 

UHI is a gordian knot - arguably Perth, Moray , Inverness and other partners need strong local College provision.

5. Inclusive Development: Ensure that any nationally funded development projects include colleges and work-based learning. How does the National Manufacting Institute for Scotland and Data Lab and other initiatives link deeply with Colleges, Training Providers and schools.

6. Open Education: Foster the adoption of UNESCO’s policies on open education across all sectors, including schools and local authorities. Let's make learning much more accessible to all.

Perhaps it’s even time to consider the unthinkable: university-college mergers. While this may seem radical, it could pave the way for a more integrated and equitable tertiary education system.

My caution against this would be that the very sector that that can be fleet of foot. That has short flexible courses and a vocational focus could easily be absolutely stifled by our slow ponderous and expensive higher education system. 

The simplest solution is an equalised funding formula for every candidate for public contribution to tertiary education in Scotland.

In College, in University in work based learning the disparity in funding needs to stop and focus needs to be on learning and skills.

I better go a check my ham - Happy New Year to one and all.

Shaping The Future of Education Session with Martin Bean

It was great to present alongside Professor Martin Bean To an audience of colleges and universities including some former colleagues. This was a busy session at City of Glasgow College around shaping the future of education. 

Thanks to the team at canvas by Instructure for facilitating this session. 

A summary below for folks who could not make it along.  

Martin laid out well the challenges facing global education. Generally we are far too slow to embrace innovation and deal with disruption. This has been familiar cry over the 38 years I have worked in the sector but more critical now than ever. 

We may not appreciate challenges like 

"Today is the slowest day of the rest of your working life"  But there is a truism here, change is becoming ever more rapid.

I summarise below some of Martin's gems but you really should get hold of his latest book ToolKit for Turbulance 

There is a re-skilling emergency across the world 

https://www.weforum.org/publications/putting-skills-first-a-framework-for-action/

While LinkedIn and others are busily mapping opportunities and candidates to skill descriptions and using AI to provide tailored learning solutions and microcredentials for learners. The established providers of learning are moving too slowly.

Knowledge and skills are a currency. The workforce need regular updates and current students need courses that are regularly reviewed, updated and delivered flexibly. Paper diplomas are old currency and current validation processes too slow.

Useful examples to have a look at 

Australia developing a digital skills passport to be used across life long learning.

https://www.education.gov.au/national-skills-passport-consultation

https://www.mypassglobal.com/

Even tied into migration policies 

https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/consultations/draft-core-skills-occupations-list

In Europe the Europass continues to be developed

https://europa.eu/europass/eportfolio/

These developments allow the true creation of learning pathways based on micro/meso and macro digital certifications than stack together. In Australia being built around digital competency national skills descriptors.  

Digitally native Learners are moving to online platforms - examples 8 million Google professional certificates through Coursera , Salesforce and their Trailhead Academy Futurelearn in UK with 14million users 

Institutions often spend to much time focusing on their physical estate and do not realise that investment in their digital estate can deliver real value to their learners. 

The final challenge - 

Surely, Scotland with a new tertiary system should be looking at a digitally enabled skills passport/digital wallet for learners in Colleges, Universities and work based learning.  It would support employers and life long learners and make candidate search and opportunity discovery easier for all.  ( I know a few Scottish innovators in this space who would agree) 

My own reflection too much time and energy has been spent in changing the policy landscape and not enough time has been spent on looking at some of these system level changes in Scotland. It's easier to shuffle around agencies and lines of responsibility than to deliver real change in system. 

I followed up with a session focussing on how these challenges could be picked up in Scotland and what solutions institutions should be putting in place.  On the day I focused on challenges and vanilla solutions for broad audience. The presentation also covers how we used Canvas by Instructure to future proof our delivery.  I've redacted delegates inputs on day - feedback was really positive. 

I look forward to supporting future sessions. 

Co-creating open solutions through interdisciplinary collaboration for the future of education

It was a pleasure to attend the Open Solutions Workshop in Bilbao as a guest of #UNESCO and the University of Monterrey.

The eProjects Bootcamp is an initiative that focused on equipping participants with the skills and knowledge needed to develop and implement innovative projects using technology. 

I am now working on a global education project around applications of the open badges framework. A number of the other projects have a focus on AI and teachers and learner skills and around Open Educational Resources. 

It was great to work with focused colleagues from around the world and have a little time to see around Bilbao and enjoy Spanish hospitality. 

In due course I will be in touch with relevant institutions and agencies in UK who will benefit from working with this collaborative. 

It was well run, very focused, and a challenging couple of days.  It was good to work with teams who were technically able and prepared to hit the ground running. We made full use of the tools that were available to us including https://grantedai.com/  

#CanvasCon24 Barcelona #canvascon

It was kind of the great folks at Instructure Canvas to invite me over to a very sunny Barcelona for their annual European conference and to enjoy their impeccable hospitality. I write this up with a certain sense of longing, as I have now left the College and won't be rolling out some of the great new developments. However, I will keep doing my bit to champion many of the themes and ideas that were discussed in the sessions.

I will also feed this back to my former colleagues at City of Glasgow College.  As ever with a large event, I could not be in all of the sessions, so apologies if I missed some other key nuggets.  The space themed conference hotel and venue very fitting for some really useful future gazing, though many of the issues are old and apparently intractable.

Moon Walk 

 Here is my quick review.  Excellent keynotes, well organised and chaired by Dan Hill, MD EMEA.  Preconference, I enjoyed getting my brain being picked on what Colleges need next from their VLE platforms. 

Anne Marie Imafidon was a super opening speaker,  her work with Women into STEM is superb and it was great to hear her speak about the need to educate for the future and not for now. How important too that we inspire the next generation - gravitas is one of my pet hates - that as a young bright black girl she could only see images of serious looking dead white men with beards who had apparently invented the future - could have been a block to her own aspirations.  She is truly a great role model. 

This fitted well with later speaker Jóhanna Birna Bjartmarsdóttir (johannabirnabjartmars.com) a now confident, high achieving, young women who was initially rejected by the education system. A truly humbling story.  Interesting how much AI and other tools like Speechify and Grammarly enabled Johanna to re-engage with learning. 

 Ishan Kolhatkar from Inspera challenged us around the future of assessment. Exams will still be a thing, but in increasingly in smaller and more personalised bursts, and an old acquaintance and well known leader of digital learning Martin Bean - chaired some excellent panel sessions over the day. 

More on that later but hoping to see him in Scotland in December.  

Main messages here is that Generative AI means the end of lots of things and beginning of lots of new things particularly for learners and learning.  In twenty years time learners will scoff at old means of delivery of learning , just as they will be puzzled by computer keyboards and or even that in olden times people touched screens - voice and face recognition is future.

Here are my takeaways 

1. What seemed to be fairly standard "what is AI session"  from AWS services suddenly became quite exciting when presenter demoed PartyRock. Worth a look.
2. Mary McCooey of Queens University - has created a Canvas course for academics to make the most of data available to them to them at course level. Many teachers don't know how and don't access all the data they already have access to.  They have also pushed on with Canvas Data2. The analytics has enabled useful learning that has impacted on practice.  It seems counter intuitive but learners like doing as much as possible on the small screen on their phone. Has done a lot to link range of data and reports on usage of LTIs etc.  Also on when and what learners access and that they prefer interactive content. As COGC about to do some more work here would be useful follow up, there is also scope to work with Corry at Glasgow School of Art on Canvas data 2 in navigating this as she has very small team and would benefit from nearby critical friend. 
3. Cidilabs  this platform blew me away perhaps worth having a look at but do that alongside the new page creation designer from Canvas . The UDoIT tool might be more useful than blackboard ally as more Canvas native . They even have a tool that takes a PDF and converts it into a Canvas page. City of Glasgow College does have a few courses where there are squinty old PDF images of text that would benefit from this converter. 
4. Similarly worth having a look at Feedback Fruits some of their work around collaborative assessment particularly interesting and offers possibility of much more authentic assessment of group work and contributions of learners to team based assessments.
5. From AI sessions - we have all policy etc in place at COGC what is needed next is a more technical road map around adoption across College operations. I think most institutions need that. 
6. I met with Rosie Loyd of Tutello a platform that turns lecture notes and more into AI enabled agents - which looks just what many centres now need. 
7. Ryan Lufkin ran a great session I will certainly start following his podcast  I wonder if COGC would be interested him as speaker for future Learning and Teaching Conference ? His vision around impactful eight is good and aligned to global change The Impactful Eight - Instructure Community - 599792 (canvaslms.com)
8. Most Colleges in Northern Ireland and Sweden all use Canvas opening up more opportunities for national cooperation around Canvas Commons.
9. Swedish institutional lead interested in how UHI manages online and blended learning will make relevant introductions to colleagues at UHI.
10. Met EDF a development organisation who supported and continue to support Oxford Universities Canvas journey. I still think its amazing that we give Glasgow College students the platform used by most of the top global universities. EDF useful to know about if you need Canvas support.
11. Encountered, a new to me, similarity detection engine and I will have a poke around and promote if it is as good as it looks.  Shame they have just missed the APUC framework window.
12. Portflow by Driem - another portfolio solution not sure I need a deeper look .. but if you already have Canvas folio ? 
13. Manchester University are where we were five years ago but giving themselves a very generous two year window to move across to Canvas.
14. Had a useful conversation with Wiris  block in past to adoption is that they were always looking for an institutional licence which was just prohibitively expensive - suggests they may now be able to do smaller departmental deals.  If contact comes back will pass on to college. 
15. Finally great overview of Canvas Product Road Map My favourites are the new block editor and ability to have differentiated content release along with in course smart search, the new AI discussion summary tool and for the teckie in me the new LTI management tools.

I hope this summary is useful I am now back in very cold Scotland.  Thanks again Instructure for a really useful conference. Thanks too to all the great folks I met at conference for making it rewarding and fun.  

Goodbye and Hello

 

I let folks know on LinkedIn that I was finishing up my shift at City of Glasgow College at the end of August and moving back into world of educational consultancy. My association with vocational education and educational technology is continuing into its 38th year. I was overwhelmed by all the good wishes from friends past and present and job offers.I am really going to pick and choose I already have some irons in the fire, but looking forward to some me time too.

I've had a busier than anticipated September, my first month on the loose. 

Happy to say I arrived and left smiling from COGC. I am grateful for the opportunity to ride off into the sunset. I don't intend to be competing in the full- time job market again and a mix of paid and pro bono work will see me into retirement comfortably. Special thanks to Joanna Campbell who hired me initially with a clear vision and to all the learning technologists, IT team members past and present and the team of the Learning and Teaching Academy who helped roll out Canvas and much more at City of Glasgow College over the last seven years. Thanks too to all of the staff and students who in this period had to engage with learning technology more than at any other time.

Reminder -
It's not the end of learning design and blended learning - it is just the beginning.

I think we've transformed a lot and I'm sure there is more change to come across the College and the tertiary sector. Thanks too to the commercial sponsors and funders that trusted us over the years with lots of money and kit to push on our digital projects and capabilities and to all our educational technology suppliers who smoothed the way.

I leave behind a great team and robust learning technology platform for someone to write the next chapter.

I'm now looking forward to pushing on some things that were simply not possible in an institutional setting. 

Turkish Vocational Qualifications Authority Exchange Ankara

It was an amazing privilege to be invited to make two presentations, chair and  participate in a series of workshops in Ankara following catching up with the Turkish delegation in Scotland some seven months ago.

I was on familiar ground around talking occupational standards, national awarding , accreditation, credit and levelling and quality control at national and centre level, but my talk was about how centres can use technology to support innovative delivery  and personalised assessments which is my current day job, reflecting the work of our team. 

I know we as a centre can support centres and training staff in Turkey to innovate their practice. I hope a partnership can grow around that. 

Interesting opportunities too with a large centre in France for learner and staff exchange and with a centre in Italy keen to figure out portfolios, microcredentials and digital badging with us. I'll take these back to our international team. 

It was great to hear the progress that has been made in Turkey where they have broadly adopted the Scottish Vocational system. Like many other countries. Unit based awards with clear approval criteria for centres and a sensible sampling quality assurance process is a sensible option. Well done SQA who were along to support event and great to catch up with Roderic Gillespie and Donald Paterson two former SQA colleagues supporting the developments in Turkey. Well done too to the SCQF partnership who were truly european trail blazers around setting up a national qualifications framework. 

We visited a really well equipped training centre and sampled their processes. These would be familiar to any training centre or College in Scotland. One thing stood out, when assessing candidates on solar panel installation or working at height on powerlines, all of the practical assessments are videoed as evidence and kept for later sampling. At moment evidence is required to be kept for 100 years. In Scotland we just need to hold evidence for around 12 months, though we do keep records of resulting for 3 - 5 years.

It was good to hear too the progress that has been made in France, Italy and Germany who made presentations on their own systems. 

All have clear employer levies that support employers and trainees. France and Italy have perhaps the most flexible system to support employers and employees upgrade their skills.  Germany is looking to modernise their established system - the delegates knew that many countries look at their system as leading.  It was interesting to hear them describe their own system as like Sputnik - a world first but now in need of upgrading. Their system is creaking a bit in terms of it ability to innovate and on the ground they are having challenges around recruiting and retaining assessors. 

My own reflections - 

• I think we need clearer line of sight in Scotland between the employer levy and where money is then committed to the vocational system. It is clear that is an essential element of a successful vocational system. 
• Ankara is a modern metropolis of 6 million people, it's very cold in winter - but with warm friendly people and amazing food. Turkey has a population of 84 million. 
• I've encountered the massive success of Scottish vocational system all around the world. It is easy to forget for a tiny country, we have always hit well above our weight on educational exporting, developing global thinking not at institutional but at national level, this around our vocational system - not school assessments nor the Scottish University system. I am still concerned this will be seriously disrupted or even lost when reforms come to SQA. 
• Other countries are making strong progress around digital certification. In Turkey you can request your certificate in any major language. 
• It was great to meet again colleagues from the European Training Foundation and from GOPA  and great to hear that expat Glaswegians in their ranks  follow my wee brother's Lost Glasgow Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Here in full flow speaking and chairing and  presentation linked to this blog post.  The work here is a reflection of work across the Learning and Teaching Academy at City of Glasgow College. I'm taking some Turkish delight back to my team. 

 

Year in Review 2023

A quick year in review - next post will be looking forward.

I managed to fit in a lot of personal and business travel in this year.  Thanks in the main to external organisations who are interested in what we are getting up to at City of Glasgow College. From Cupboard to Keynote - our work around AI has been picked up on a number of fronts. 

That combined with some of my friends' big birthdays and some major sporting events. It's  been quite a year.  Tinged with sadness as I lost one of my big cousins and just before Christmas my 88 year old uncle. 

Had lots' of nice nights out with old pals down the pub , combined with St Mirren and Scotland having great football seasons and caught a number of great gigs including Pulp. 

Venice was great fun for the Carnivali in February, Barcelona was great en famille as was short return to Ile De Re at the start of the summer. 

Our big escape was a tour of France for the Rugby World Cup. Which was just superb - Rheims, Lyons. Bandol , Marseille , Villefranche , Nice and repeat on homeward leg, just great. 

Made even better that our family came out for different legs of the tour and we had a lot of old rugby chums to meet up with along the way. 

That combined with speaking in London (BETT) , Amsterdam (Edutech) , Liverpool (Instructure/Canvas) and Inverness  (#OER23) among other places made for a busy year. 

Talking about how we use range of Jisc Survey Tools at Jisc Building Digital Capability and Digital Experiences Insights Conference

Great to have an opportunity to share way we use a range of Jisc survey tools to inform our approach to digital learning and bench mark our journey with institutions across the UK 

Great learning too to attend event and hear how other institutions use these tools.

You can get a glimpse here too of what we have learned and the tools we are using with staff and students to digitally transform. 

Talking about Artificial Intelligence @Edutech23 #Edutech23 Amsterdam

I was very fortunate to be a guest speaker at EduTech23 in Amsterdam earlier this month. Candidly without sponsorship I'd have been unable to attend.  Colleges in Scotland are in a precarious financial position currently and staff from vocational colleges don't normally have funding to engage in forums like this. But it is critical that we have a voice - so special thanks to the organisers. 

Artificial Intelligence is not as big a threat to vocational education as perhaps it is to the school and university system. 

Why ?  because in the main we offer authentic assessments.  Learners have to demonstrate they can do something not simply write an essay about how they might do it. That is not to downplay any ethical or other issues.

I really enjoyed #Edutech23 and my session attracted a standing room only audience and some very positive feedback on the day and online following the conference. Links to the session slides and what we are actually doing at the College are below.  I was suited a booted most of time but kilt and creative commons t-shirt on for day of session. 

I plugged too all the good work that is happening across the sector in Scotland and from UK in the AI space. 

The conference was well organised and well curated with an excellent set of sessions and was at a scale that encouraged attendees , exhibitors and presenters to engage.  I made some really good new contacts and reconnected with some colleagues from other roles I have held.  

I am just about to follow up with the useful contacts I made over the two days on the conference. Having returned to busy day job. 

Just to reiterate and before my new contacts flood my inbox with requests for sales meetings  at the moment I am always open to ideas and partnerships but we don't have resources to buy new services now or into the near future. I lead a resourceful team and there is a lot we can achieve without hard cash. We are well equipped for blended learning. Probably worth resharing how to work with Colleges in Scotland too,

We have suite that we are content with comprising at it's heart the tools listed below. These provide a sound platform for staff and students to enjoy a blended learning experience. 

• Canvas by Instructure , Canvas Credentials and Canvas Folio
• Microsoft Teams etc
• Click-View
• Panopto
• Turnitin
• Blackboard Ally 
• Padlet 
• Thinglink 
• OneFile portfolio for apprenticeships

1. Most immediately I am interested in any European College interested in working around with  Canvas Commons sharing vocational learning materials. 
2. Projects around staff and student digital teaching skills and digital literacy.
3. Policy around open educational resources at College level and the use of Artificial Intelligence in learning, teaching and assessment.

I'll follow up with post on some of the great folks I met and what we will follow up on. 

AI in world of presentations Try out Gamma App

 

This not my presentation for Edutech 2023 - rather me testing out some of the tools I will include in my session.

If  you haven't discovered https://gamma.app/ you should have a look a serviceable and downloadable presentation in under 5 minutes . Quicker than building a Sandcastle - unless of course you use Bing Image Creator 

Talking about digital learning with QAA Scotland

Here is video and  summary transcript of video I was asked to share with QAA Scotland for recent conference. 

What is your role at City of Glasgow College?

I am head of digital skills - but what it means is that I look after College learning technology and push out models for blended learning. 

Biggest task in the last 2 years has been taking College from self hosted Moodle on to Canvas by Instructure. 

We do everything in the open - so most of this is reflected in learning and teaching academy website - along with staff and student support materials. 

What is some recent work that you have been working on regarding blended?

Simply encouraging staff to use full range of tools available to them appropriately. 

Using Jisc survey feedback from staff and students to shape our offer.

Learners want a more standard blended learning experience. 

Staff want more training and support - and time. We can offer the first two.

How does City of Glasgow College approach blended?

We work from a model based on UCL ABC model at City of Glasgow College we call this Active, Blended and Connected. 

Boring but necessary things like consulting on , creating and promoting a standard Canvas template. Students want basic elements in any online course. 

What course is about , a sensible order of course materials , a introduction to teaching staff and  information on how to contact them.

On course materials been encouraging more use of quizzes and different forms of assessment and more use of pre-recorded video ( short 8 minutes) 

Post pandemic courses are delivered in mixed mode some on site and some online.

We have some rooms set up for hybrid teaching - but most staff simply cannot cope with this - it is very difficult to give face to face and online learners a positive experience synchronously. 

What are you hoping for in the future?

My hopes haven't really changed since late 1990's when as a lecturer all my materials were on the internet and available for all my students and for any colleagues that wanted to augment these or adopt them. I think we still have a long way to go before staff and students are confident open practitioners and collaborators around learning and assessment. 

We can see AI arriving and we have a policy in place - but the next thing is really training AI on our own data sets. 

I can see role too for more intermediate tools like Teachermatic .

VR/AR still had enormous potential but challenge is using these tools in a cost effective and sustainable way - tools like ThingLink will open door here.

The CDN/GTCS digital standard for lecturers will become a great driver in terms of professional review. I don't think staff are really aware that they now have a benchmark to meet. 

We are working to a set of College attributes for all learners - remember core skills and meta skills are a thing in College landscape - these attributes will help us move on digital skills. 

We work within a lifelong learning - national system - Colleges can play their part - it would be good to see more examples of resource sharing both across the College landscape and between University system and College system. Colleges should be doing a lot more for schools too. 

We will do more with Canvas commons, Canvas credentials, Canvas Folio  - Commons to share whole courses with other Colleges and internationally. Credentials to support initially our College attributes and then to offer certification for some open less formal provision - open to all.  Canvas Folio to give learners a folio of their own work to take with them when they leave college. 

I'd still like to see more lecturers and managers across Colleges in Scotland maintain reflective blogs or journals. Social media and networking is driven by activities like this - too much practice is siloed across the school , college and university system. 

#Canvas by #Instructure at City of Glasgow College

Yes, it's a promotional video but it really does capture staff and student engagement in our continued Canvas journey!

It's a great advert for the teams across City of Glasgow College that made it happen, the teachers and our students. 

Testament too to the great support we continue to enjoy from Instructure.  Always happy to talk about our Canvas journey.

City of Glasgow College: Improved reliability and user experience with Canvas | Instructure

That Digital Presence and Social Media Question

We have become enthralled by the ceaseless hum of our electronic companions, those pocket-sized devices that have ensnared our attention and stolen our souls. We wander through life like sleepwalkers, heads bowed in reverence to the glowing altar of our screens, checking our social media, oblivious to the richness of the world that unfurls before us. 

Our digital avatars proliferate, each one a carefully constructed facade, a desperate attempt to assert our relevance in an increasingly disconnected world, and/or how you manage your digital presence actually matters. 

So, should you use; Twitter, Threads, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat , TikTok or Tumblr, or just walk away, or be simply terrified by social media.

And what about good old-fashioned blogging?

I've been using social media since it arrived. In the last century incidentally - though none of the platforms that existed then were actually called social media and they don't exist anymore. (ICQ, MySpace, Vine and many more etc)

I once set out what I use and why and I think given the recent proliferation of platforms perhaps time to do that again. Amusement too by overhearing a teaching colleague on the importance of online networking for learners, but not them ;-) 

Some past observations 

• On Blogging and using Social Media from 2013
• Why I use Twitter 2009

You do need to manage your online presence; it is a good thing to do. You can see 30 years of avatars on some of these sites.

1. I am old and uncool, I use facebook with friends and family and try to keep it that way. If I don't know you really well, we won't be friends on facebook, sorry and no link with this item.
2. LinkedIn for professional stuff - no chit chat or jokes - some links that reflect interesting things I am doing professionally, and I link with like-minded professionals. Always useful, I have had some very genuine job opportunities come along through LinkedIn. Be over familiar and or unbusinesslike and you're off my contact list. I only accept contact requests from folks that look relevant. So sorry not looking for a new life partner. Strangely now 6500 followers and over taking ..
3. Twitter - controversial perhaps - but with #hashtags for topic searching and an established network 4500 followers approx. I post things that matter to me and use it as source of information and for networking. If you want to get the news first twitter is still best. Still a really useful tool. Anyone can follow me on twitter, and I think with one exception, a supporter of Russia's war in Ukraine, I've never blocked anyone. You may have concerns about new platform owner, but system still works well.
4. Mastodon - I like the idea but seems to be lots of islands and I've had very few meaningful exchanges - has potential but not enough yet to get me to switch off my Twitter account. Usual suspects educational technologists seem to be first of my extended community here. It's too early as some have publicly done to ditch twitter account in favour of Mastodon. Academic posturing? is that a positive or a derogatory term?
5. Threads even more esoteric. As it brought across everyone that I am linked to on Instagram looks like it may useful and I'm very popular - but the jury's out. No tag searching etc - I am just not sure.
6. Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Tumblr - I'm there - dig around and you will find me, but they are just not my thing. They are on my phone as my children wanted a look at these at some point. I can see appeal, but I am not making short video clips etc.
7. Blogger and Blogging - Yes, I have my own domain and I can run instances of WordPress, but I stick to Blogger, it's simple and I've been posting since almost last century.  If you want to develop an idea and share it publicly, get a blog, would be my advice. You can do things just like this.

If you are a student or a teacher you really should have an awareness of how useful social media is - but it can make you or break you.  

What is your social media strategy ? Only you can figure this out but if done correctly it will help you personally and professionally.

And same sentiments mixed by Chat GPT 

Oh, the tangled web of social media! We've become prisoners of these pocket-sized devices that demand our constant attention, stealing our souls as we bow before their glowing altars. Life's a stroll in Slumberland, with our heads buried in screens, checking social media like clockwork, all while the world around us goes unnoticed.

Our digital avatars are multiplying like rabbits, each one carefully constructed to show off how relevant we are in this disconnected universe. Do we stay in this wild virtual dance, juggling Twitter, Threads, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, and Tumblr? Or do we pull the plug and walk away?

Good old blogging! I've been at it since before the dinosaurs roamed the web. Back in the day, we didn't call it social media, and now those platforms are as extinct as the dodo. Time to lay out my online empire.

First up, Facebook – that's where I hang with friends and family, no room for strangers on my digital porch. LinkedIn's my playground for the business world, strictly no chit chat or jokes here. It's all about connections with like-minded professionals, and maybe, just maybe, some job opportunities, if you're lucky. No unprofessional shenanigans allowed, folks!

Twitter, the land of hashtags and 4500 followers. Here, I post what matters to me, find all the juicy info, and hobnob with other birds of a feather. I'm not one to block, but if you're a fan of Russia's Ukrainian war, sorry, but we're not on tweeting terms.

Now, let's talk Mastodon – an intriguing concept, but feels like a bunch of little islands. I've had a few exchanges here, so it hasn't wooed me away from Twitter's snazzy nest just yet.

Threads? Oh, that's an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Since it imported all my Instagram friends, it appears I'm a superstar over there, but I'm not entirely sold on the whole shebang. Jury's still out on this one.

As for Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, and Tumblr, they're just not my cup of tea. My kids dragged me into these realms, but I'm more of a bystander, not a performer in the short video circus.

Ah, Blogger, my trusty sidekick. It's simple, it's reliable, and I've been rambling on here since the digital dark ages. If you wanna share your thoughts with the world, get a blog – it's just like this ramble you're reading!

For students and teachers, social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy, so plan your strategy wisely. It can catapult you to greatness or crash your dreams like a runaway train. So, what's your social media game plan, folks? It's a wild digital ride out there!

ALT Scottish SIG Agenda and Sign-Up Wed 21st 10am - 2.30pm

 

Looking forward to seeing some familiar and some new faces from across the sector.

Learning Technology is really under the spotlight. A range of agenda items relevant for Schools, Colleges, University and work-based learning. 

Click here to view the accessible version of this interactive content

ELESIG Evaluating Learners Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group Conference Input

 I was scheduled to deliver a short presentation for ELESIG  but was at short notice invited for a long weekend in Barcelona.  So input was pre-recorded and shared here. 

Slides and recording for ELESIG 

and back-channel Joe Wilson (@joecar) / Twitter

#ELESIG 

Turkish Delegation

Nice to meet and give Turkish Govt vocational delegation tour of City of Glasgow College and chat about the technologies we use to support learners. Technical chat too about SCQF and Articulation routes and what works and what still does not work in Scotland.

Turkey has just created a national qualifications and credit framework and now trying to get all institutions to implement this. 

Well done SQA for supporting this critical international work. I'm sure rest of programme will go well.

Among other things we visited College TV studio -  no sound ;-)