Networked scholars: reflections on light and dark

This is the last week of George Veletsianos’ open course – Networked Scholars. I have not been as engaged as I had hoped, mainly because my offline or backchannel/closed, more personal networks, have been more important to me over the past few weeks than interacting openly online.

I have also been increasingly aware this year and particularly over the past few weeks of ‘the dark’ side of working openly online, to the extent that I am now reflecting on how much I want to work openly online. It did seem that the Networked Scholars course focused quite a bit on the negatives of working openly online. We started off positively with Michael Barbour sharing his practice on visibility, presence and branding in the first week, but in the second week the focus was on Challenges and Tensions, with some troubling case studies to consider, although the expert chat with Royce Kimmons was excellent. In week three the focus was on caring and vulnerability and Bonnie Stewart shared her perspectives in the Google Hangout session. A need to consider vulnerability indicates the challenges that some academics may have working openly online. This week we have been asked to reflect on our experience and draw a concept map, but me and concept maps don’t go together, so I am going to tackle it from a more personal viewpoint.

I can’t be objective because I haven’t read all the readings, or even followed all the discussion, but subjectively the course has compounded my feelings that there is a ‘dark side’ to all this online sharing and interaction, in the name of being a networked scholar, which currently I don’t feel comfortable with. Of course I know it is the accumulation of a whole range of life and work experiences and not down to the course itself.

But this week I noticed this wonderful image on a Twitter post and felt compelled to follow it up.

This was shown in lighting architect Rogier van der Heide’s Ted Talk  about ‘Why light needs darkness’. There are a number of beautiful images in this talk, all of which illustrate how we can get a new perspective on the world by appreciating the role of darkness in revealing the light.

So it occurred to me that perhaps the ‘dark side’ of the internet allows us to more clearly see the light and the light paths that we would like to follow. Both light and dark define the space.

In the introduction to the Networked Scholars course, George wrote:

By the end of the course I hope that you will be better informed about the role of social media in the lives of knowledge workers and academics, be able to have an informed conversation about this topic with your colleagues, and decide whether and to what extent you personally might use social media for academic purposes.

I think I could answer ‘Yes’ to all three points, but mostly I think I am clearer about what I am not prepared to do in the name of open networked scholarship; I am clearer about the light and dark spaces.

Anticipating new open courses and conferences

Next week sees the official end of the summer break for many people, particularly those working in education. The days are getting shorter, the nights are drawing in, but the autumn fruits are still ripening (here in the UK).

In my career in education, these coming months up until the December break have always been very busy. The renewed energy and enthusiasm that emanates from people as they start again after the summer break is almost palpable and, I find, motivating.

There seem, at this time, to be many open courses on offer and conferences of interest. It’s impossible to follow them all, but those that I will be keeping an eye on are:

ALTC 2015: 1^st to 3^rd September. Riding Giants: How to innovate and educate ahead of the wave #altc

I cannot attend this in person, but there are a number of live streamed presentations which I am hoping to listen to. ALTC is usually a stimulating conference.

Connected Courses. Active Co-Learning in Higher Ed. Sept 2^nd to Dec 14^th 

This has caught my attention because of the number of well-known names involved in the course design.

Modern and Contemporary American Poetry Coursera MOOC. Sept 6^th to Nov 15^th.

I completed this course last year, but there is plenty more to learn and it was so good last year that I am looking forward to joining it again. I know very little about poetry, but this does not seem to be a barrier to enjoyment. Last year I didn’t join the discussion forums. They are somewhat overwhelming and move too fast for me. I might give them a try this year, but I think I am once again more likely to watch the videos and do the close readings. Also, having already completed the course once, I will be selective, this year, about the parts of the course that I follow.

Networked Scholars Oct 20^th – Nov 16^th.

An open, free course being offered by George Veletsianos. I think/hope this course will be relevant to my own research. If it is then I hope to be fully engaged.

8^th Eden Research Workshop. Challenges for Research into Open and Distance Learning; Doing Things Better – Doing Better Thing

I would like to go to this conference. I particularly like the look of the programme structure which seems to focus on discussion rather than presentations.

I think this is the limit of what I could possibly hope to keep up with. Usually I only manage to focus on one course at a time.

It’ll be interesting to see whether I manage all this in the coming months, on top of other commitments, and if not, then which topics/courses will claim most of my time!