As manager of the University of Edinburgh’s OER Service it is important that I ensure that the service continues to support the institution’s vision and values; to discover knowledge and make the world a better place, while ensuring our teaching and research is accessible, inclusive, and relevant to society. Over the coming year I will be overseeing the transition of the service’s Open.Ed website to the University’s new web publishing platform. This will involve rethinking how we position the service strategically, to align more closely with the university’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. I also plan to continue exploring the affordances of open textbooks and to build on the experiences we gained from the Open eTextbooks for Access to Music Education project. In addition, I intend to collate case studies of open practice across the institution to make them available to colleagues in an easily accessible format.
As a Learning Technology Team Manager within Education Design and Engagement (EDE), I will continue to work closely with other learning technology services, including the Online Course Production Service and the Academic Blogging Service. I will also provide input on copyright and open licensing to learning technology enhancement initiatives including the upgrade of the university’s virtual learning environment. In addition, I will seek to provide input, where possible, to key strategic initiatives such as the Curriculum Transformation Programme and the Social and Civic Responsibility Plan. Together with colleagues in EDE, I also plan to explore issues relating to ethics and learning technology, using the ALT Framework for Ethical Learning Technology as a set of guiding principles.
I will continue to line manage our Learning Technology Policy Officer, and work closely with him to maintain and streamline the institution’s learning technology policies, to ensure they are up to date and fit for purpose.
As an open education practitioner, I remain committed to open education, open knowledge and knowledge equity. I will continue to develop my own open practice, by engaging with, and learning from, my wide network of peers, and sharing my own practice through conferences, events and my Open World blog. I hope to find opportunities to collaborate with my peers and to re-engage with global open education policy networks and initiatives. I look forward to having more time to devote to editing Wikipedia, and to play a small part in improving the gender balance of the encyclopedia and ensuring marginalized communities and histories are represented. The femedtech network continues to inspire me and I am committed to maintaining and developing the femedtech Open Space to ensure it remains a radical open space for diverse voices and projects in the education technology domain. On a personal level, I also hope to continue exploring the complex entanglement of knowledge equity and digital labour.
My term as a Trustee of both ALT and Wikimedia UK will come to a close this year, and I will step down from both Boards, after serving the maximum two terms. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to serve both ALT and Wikmedia UK, and I hope to continue contributing to both organisations as an active community member, through special interest groups, committees, annual conferences, and other events. I also hope that this will give me an opportunity to use the senior leadership skills I have developed with ALT and Wikimedia UK to explore new avenues to engage with other organisations that support equality, diversity and social inclusion through equitable access to knowledge and education.
As a member of the ALT community, ALT’s core values of openness, independence, participation and collaboration will continue to guide my career as a learning technologist and my practice as a knowledge activist, open practitioner, and advocate for open education.
The ALT community. CB_ALT_040919_0050, by Chris Bull for Association for Learning Technology, CC BY-NC 2.0 on flickr.
