Teaching Here and There

This is episode 18 of our podcast series which has been running for two years. Our summer special features four esteemed guests from the Edinburgh Futures Institute, as they talk about their particular approach to hybrid teaching and learning. The aim of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. EFI’s distinctiveness stems from their approach to research, education and engagement, a method that combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production.

Dom, Ivan and James are joined by Professor Sian Bayne, Director, Centre for Research in Digital Education and Director of Education, Edinburgh Futures Institute. Alongside her is Emma McAllister, EFI Learning Technology & Design Lead, The University of Edinburgh, Dr James Lamb, the Joint programme director of the MSc in Education Futures also at Edinburgh University and Martin Hawksey, who previously worked at the EFI and now Creator, Content Producer and Community Advocate.

Welcome to this special extended episode of the podcast series, 'Teaching Here and There'

Presented by Dom Pates, James Rutherford & Dr Ivan Sikora, this episode features crowd-sourced content, with the hosts introducing the contributions of 12 guests from across the globe, each of whom has sent in their answers to 3 questions that were posed in the last episode. Their responses are enlightening, affirming, questioning, challenging, but also cautiously hopeful for the future of hybrid teaching. This feature length episode does have some handy pause points if you need to take a break or two while listening.

The hosts would like to extend their sincere gratitude to the following contributors; Sian Bayne, Scott Doyle, Jorge Freire, Sonia Hetzner, Ori Igwe, Banan Al Kafri, John Lee, Lawal Muhammad, Tim Neumann, Santanu Vasant, Puiyin Wong and Zac Woolfit.

Welcome to this retrospective episode of the podcast series, 'Teaching Here and There'

Presented by Dom Pates, James Rutherford & Dr Ivan Sikora, this podcast was recorded in a hybrid space at City, University of London.

Sitting around a table again, Dom, James and Ivan take a look back over the past 18 months of Teaching Here and There episodes. They pick out some key highlights from conversations with their guests and we get to hear from those who people who joined the podcast, since the series began in July 2021. This episode also features the voices of two callers who sent in a voice message, here on Anchor FM.

This is episode 11, with Dr. Sarah Montano from the University of Birmingham and Dr. Steve Rowett from UCL. This is also the anniversary of our podcast series, launched at the APT Conference in 2021. This annual conference, co-hosted by UCL, LSE and Imperial College London, will return to ‘in person’ mode on July 1st 2022, but with online elements. The THAT crew will present 'A Return to Teaching Here And There: Discussions on Hybrid Teaching' a presentation to complement this new episode.

In an fascinating discussion, Dom Pates, James Rutherford and Dr. Ivan Sikora, invite their guests Sarah and Steve, to talk about their different experiences, reflections and thoughts on the future of hybrid teaching at their respective and large scale institutions.

Our guests talked about their early forays into this simultaneous multi-modal delivery, how they support colleagues and provide informed advice on best practice, along with key reflections about what works and what doesn't. 

We hope you enjoy listening to this last episode of the current season.

This is episode 10, featuring university technology and learning enhancement managers from Essex and Dublin. Tessa Rogowski is the Director of IT Customer Experience at the University of Essex and Mark Glynn is the Head of Teaching Enhancement Unit at Dublin City University.

In an absorbing and insightful discussion, Dom Pates, James Rutherford and Dr. Ivan Sikora, invited their guests to talk about their experiences, reflections and plans for the design and development of technologies and support for hybrid teaching at their respective institutions.

Our guests give a comprehensive and intriguing insight into how their respective institutions coped with a pivot to online learning and in particular how they supported the live multi-modal practice as known at DCU as Hyflex and at Essex as hybrid teaching. They said that the hybrid classroom is not the end of the classroom from an HE perspective, but it's perhaps an evolution of it. As it has been reinforced before in our podcasts, it's so much more than just the technology that enables hybrid to be effective. Both Mark and Tessa agreed how we really need to be listening more to the students' voice and hear what their experiences are, ultimately, this is all for their benefit and their learning.

We hope you enjoy listening to this latest episode.

Welcome to this special episode all about 'TEALfest' hosted by Warwick University in March 2022, part of podcast series 'Teaching Here and There'

Welcome to this special hybrid episode of a podcast series called 'Teaching Here and There'

Presented by Dom Pates, James Rutherford & Dr Ivan Sikora, this podcast was recorded in a hybrid teaching space at City, University of London.

This is episode 8, featuring three university technology managers from the United States. Julie Johnston, Director of Learning Spaces at Indiana University, Don Merritt, PhD, who is the Director of Instructional Resources at the University of Central Florida and Mark McCallister, Director of Academic Technology at the University of Florida.

In an absorbing and insightful discussion, Dom Pates, James Rutherford and Dr. Ivan Sikora, invited their guests to talk about their experiences, reflections and plans for the design and development of technologies and support for hybrid teaching at their respective institutions. 

Some key quotes to listen out for:

"I believe that when people come together, they can accomplish just about anything...the collaboration across all the groups was so strong during this crisis where we all had the same goals"

"You could think of it as a re-privileging of the classroom, as the space where learning happens, and more that teaching and learning is really becoming ubiquitous to all of our technologies across the board"

"In order for this to be successful, it has to be learner centred...we can't let the technology to drive some of our decisions, we need to let our needs drive the technology decisions"

We hope you enjoy listening to this latest episode.

This is episode 6, featuring two fascinating speakers, Dr Cecilia Goria, Associate Professor and Digital Learning Director, Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham and Rachelle O'Brien, Senior Digital Learning Designer at the University of Durham's Centre for Academic Development.

In a wide ranging conversation, Dom Pates, James Rutherford and Dr. Ivan Sikora, asked their guests to talk about their experiences and reflections of establishing communities of practice and supporting hybrid and dual mode delivery. Cecilia and Rachelle were genuinely and refreshingly positive about hybrid teaching. They talked about the need for adaptability, resilience, getting the technology right, as well as sharing their thoughts on what is important in different contexts, allowing for pedagogic experimentation and sharing the live multi-modal teaching experience and development with colleagues, but especially with students.

We hope you enjoy listening to this latest episode.

In episode 1, Dom Pates, James Rutherford & Dr. Ivan Sikora are in conversation with two academics from City, University of London. Both are practising lecturers and have been using digital technology in a variety of online delivery modes.

Dr. Rebecca Wells has experience of teaching on a live multi modal course on Food Policy with 6 other UK universities, before the term hybrid was widely adopted. Dr. Jane Secker teaches on Masters course for academics and has adopted virtual classroom tools for online blended delivery.

Our conversation covered their research into hybrid teaching and in particular, their insights from a recent literature review and first hand experience as lecturers. What seems to be key is the need for group work and interaction amongst all participants as well as the need for academics to embrace new technology and carry that extra load in making the hybrid sessions effective for students.