Keynote lecture, Heriot Watt University, 8 January 2020

2. How to Make (and Keep) Our
Digital Education Resolutions in
2020
Sheila MacNeill, 8 January 2020, Heriot Watt University
#LTAResolutions
#LTAResolutions

3. Titles and narrative
common
language
stories we
create and
share.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

4. New Year Resolutions

5. Image:https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/370079666

6. Balancing small changes with big ideas/strategies
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

7. Titles and narrative
common
language
stories we
create and
share.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

8. The
“digital”

9. Digital first?
www.menti.com
code: 80-15-18

11. “we believe that digital should be seen less as a thing and more a
way of doing things. To help make this definition more concrete,
we’ve broken it down into three attributes: creating value at the new
frontiers of the business world, creating value in the processes that
execute a vision of customer experiences, and building foundational
capabilities that support the entire structure.”
What ‘Digital’ Really Means. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-
telecommunications/our-insights/what-digital-really-means, 2019

12. Context

14. Inspiring Learning: vision, focus, priorities
• Vision - designed to encapsulate the University’s aspiration that its
strategic developments will provide a stimulating, enriching learning
experience and will develop critical learning to learn capabilities
• Focus – the Heriot-Watt Graduate will be the focal and end point of
the Learning and Teaching Strategy, and at the centre of developing
and delivering the Strategy
• Priorities - a series of institution-wide initiatives and developments,
encapsulated as Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment, the three key
elements essential to delivering the Inspiring Learning strategic vision

15. Themes:
Global
will be recognised as an inherent feature of learning and teaching
at HWU;
Students will recognise themselves as part of a vibrant local and
global learning community, in which their learning is developed
and facilitated by a global teaching team informed by academic
and industrial perspectives from Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia;
Students will have choices in how they acquire their education,
including opportunities to combine modes and locations of study;
academic staff will have a full and equal part in a global teaching
team, enabling teaching and collaboration across campuses to be
seamless and integrated;

16. Student wellbeing
Staff wellbeing and care
Digital wellbeing

17. Digital
Wellbeing
“the impact of technologies and digital services
on people’s mental, physical, social and emotional
health. It is a complex concept that can be
viewed from a variety of perspectives and across
different contexts and situations” Jisc , 2019
(https://digitalcapability.jisc.ac.uk/what-is-digital-
capability/digital-wellbeing/)

19. Themes: Time
Student wellbeing
Technology, space and
facilities
Institutional culture

20. Themes: Time
Inspiring Learning is designed to
encapsulate the University’s aspiration
that its strategic developments will
provide a stimulating, enriching learning
experience and will develop critical
learning to learn capabilities
designed to emphasise the criticality of
developing the learning capabilities of
students through the curriculum,
teaching and assessment.

21. Re-centering “the digital”
Conceptualising the Digital University: the intersection of policy, pedagogy and practice,
(Johnson, MacNeill, Smyth, 2019)

22. Digital Participation Information Literacy
 Glocalization
 Widening Access
 Civic role and responsibilities
 Networks (human and digital)
 Technological Affordances
 High Level concepts and perceptions
influencing practice
 Staff and student
engagement/development
 Effective development and use of
infrastructure
Curriculum and Course Design Learning Environments
 Constructive alignment
 Curriculum representations, course,
management, pedagogical innovation
 Recruitment and marketing
 Reporting, data, analytics
 Physical and Digital
 Pedagogical and social
 Research and enquiry
 Staff and resources
Conceptual Matrix for the Digital University, MacNeill & Johnston, 2012

23. Academic development and
open education at the heart
of organisational
development
• Revised conceptual
matrix,, MacNeill, Johntson,
Smyth, (2019 )

24. Critically
engaged
academic
development
as a key part of
digital
transformation
Academic development as critical
practice – central to digital
transformation
Utilise porosity between academic
developers, educational
developers, learning technologists
Challenge structures current
CPD/professional
recognition/metrics are modelling

25. The curriculum
as an open and
negotiated space

26. Porosity (2)
Open scholarship (2)
Co-location(2)
Co-production(2)
Participation Public pedagogy
Praxis
(1)
(3)
Designed physical and
digital learning spaces
Self-selected digital
learning spaces
Formal and informal
learning communities
Public third spaces
Digital third spaces
(3)
Negotiation and agency
Difference and diversity
Curation and creation
Vertical and horizontal
learning engagement
Sustainable pedagogies
Reflexive dialogue
The Digitally Distributed Curriculum
(1) Values (2) Enabling dimensions (3) Instantiation and enactment of DDC
(3) Digital artefacts
Collaborative public projects
Student digital scholarship Digital knowledge domains
(3) Open textbooks and resources Open online engagement
Open campus engagement Open in the community
Fluid curriculum

27. Curriculum as
unbounded
open
equitable
critically informed

28. What next?
how to create
a shared
digital first
reality?
Time Care
Criticality Context

29. Share just one
thing . . .
http://bit.ly/2Zsnu5a

30. Thank you
sheilamacneill@me.com
@sheilmcn
https://howsheilaseesit.net/
#LTAResolutions

31. References
• Collini, S. (2017). Speaking of Universities. London/New York: Verso.
• Freire, P. (1974). Education for critical consciousness. London: Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc.
• Giroux, H. A. (2000). Public Pedagogy and the Responsibility of Intellectuals: Youth, Littleton, and the Loss of Innocence.
JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, 20(1), 9–42.
• Hall, R. and Smyth, K. (2016). Dismantling the Curriculum in Higher Education. Open Library of Humanities, 2(1).
https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.66.
• Jones, C., & Goodfellow, R. (2012). The “digital university”: Discourse, Theory, and Evidence. International Journal of
Learning and Media, 4(3–4), 59–63.
• Johnston, B., MacNeill, S., & Smyth, K. (2018). Conceptualising the digital university: the intersection of policy, pedagogy
and practice. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Oldenburg, R. (1989). The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the
Heart of a Community. New York: Marlowe and Company.
• Vermunt, J. D. (2007). The Power of Teaching-Learning Environments to Influence Student Learning. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, Monograph Series II, 4, 73–90.

32. Questions and discussion
#LTAResolutions

33. Forthcoming events
Tech for Teaching Workshop:
21st January, 2.15-4.15pm, GRID, Edinburgh Campus
E-Assessment Masterclass:
26th February, Online
Open Educational Practices Masterclass:
3rd March, Online and Edinburgh Campus
Digital Education School-based Workshops:
March / April
HWU Learning and Teaching Week
w/c 8th June, all campuses
Find out more at www.lta.hw.ac.uk/events #LTAResolutions