As we stumble blinking into a landscape that is both utterly familiar but also forever changed as a consequence of the pandemic, we find that discussions about teaching modalities, pedagogic practices and assessment design – and the role that tech has to play in all of those – can be polarising and fractious. So much has changed in terms of what we understand about modalities and digital education and we are keen to capture and share colleagues’ thoughts, ideas and innovations in a range of ways. In addition to the more formal channels (such as conferences and publications) the Digital Education and Arena teams propose a regular series of informal sharing and discussion events. These will be mix of themed in-person, online and hybrid events where the emphasis is not on presentation but talking, sharing or brainstorming ideas. Sessions may be experimental, speculative, discursive and/ or evaluative. Above all, we want to create synchronous spaces (supported by a growing online resource bank) where we can subvert the usual CPD formats. Whether colleagues are experienced or complete novices, it is the coming together that is important. Whether you tend towards the sceptical or the evangelical or (more likely) sit somewhere between you will be welcome.
We really wanted the first of these sessions to be in-person but, I suppose inevitably in some ways, Covid made doubly sure it needed to be postponed by firstly quarantining me and then coinciding the Government’s latest ‘work from home if you can’ announcement for the day it was supposed to happen. Undaunted, though, we have a new date for the first session where the focus will be on mobile phones