DCAF anyone?

DCAF Handbook ImageEarlier this century I contributed to the design and delivery of several business advice and mentoring projects – primarily focused on new creative businesses, digital businesses – and businesses combining both. I was privileged to work with a large number of startups and small businesses; manage an advice team in London and help recruit and grow a second team in Liverpool.  I presented occasionally at conferences and got ‘hands-on’ with the planning and development of some significant online initiatives. Much of my time was spent with a fascinating mix of inspiring creative entrepreneurs.

One of the themes we encountered a lot was that recent graduates of Art and Design Establishments were very eager to access advice and support and often commented on the lack of ‘enterprise’ advice / expertise available to them during their time in education.

Things have improved a fair bit since then, with opportunities such as ‘live projects’ and ‘placements’ embedded within many courses. At University of the Arts London (UAL) the ‘Creative Attributes Framework’ (CAF) identifies a number ‘attributes’.  These, according to research, are behaviours and skills essential, or extremely useful, to creative practitioners throughout their careers.  The ‘CAF’ is now also used by course teams when planning courses and learning activities – truly embedding ‘enterprise’ skills at the heart of the curriculum.

The Digital ‘CAF’ (‘DCAF’) is essentially a variant of the ‘CAF’ and takes as its starting point the same nine attributes.

These fall within three families:

  • Making Things Happen
  • Showcasing Abilities
  • Navigating Change

The ‘practices’ explored within the DCAF relate to Digital behaviours and skills – and they avoid falling into the trap of being prescriptive (the ‘scenarios’ column is left deliberately blank for those engaging with the DCAF to make it relevant for their own contexts).

There is a splendid blog dedicated to the DCAF which you can access at https://dcaf.myblog.arts.ac.uk

The superbly designed accompanying booklet was designed by Conor Rigby, whose abilities are showcased at http://conorrigby.com.

UAL Learning and Teaching Conference 2019

Learning and Teaching Day 2019I attended and presented at the UAL Learning and Teaching Conference 2019.  It was held at London College of Communication on 21 March 2019. The theme which ran throughout the conference was  ‘Wellbeing’.

My session (a “provocation”) explored potential tensions between Open Education / Practice and individual privacy and “wellbeing” in various forms – especially digital.  The short description on the conference website has additional details and links to  materials used.

#conference, #conferences, #lcc, #open-education, #open-practice, #presentations, #wellbeing

UAL’s Learning and Teaching Day

UAL Learning and Teaching Day 2017UAL’s Annual Learning and Teaching Day 2017 was held at CSM.

The link to the slides I used for my ‘Lightning Talk’ about a series of interviews / podcasts I have recorded with UAL colleagues, exploring how teaching and learning is developing and residing within digital spaces and practice is evolving further into ‘the digital’ is here: https://goo.gl/a5P9H0

Solstice Conference 2016, Edge Hill University

Edge Hill UniversityI had the great pleasure this year (2016) of again attending and presenting at the friendly and fascinating Solstice / CLT Conference at Edge Hill University – full details on the conference website.

As part of this I presented on two subjects:

  • Exploring Online Teaching Spaces in an Art and Design Environment
  • Digital Feedback in an Art and Design University

This was the first time that I had chosen the ‘Pecha Kucha’ format – talking to 20 slides which are each visible for 20 seconds. It is a format which forces you to really hone your content and only leave in what is necessary – which I found strangely liberating.

The links to the slides I used are:

For the full ‘Pecha Kucha’ experience, click on the ‘PK’ link in the 2nd slide in each to access the start of the timed presentation – then click on the ‘play’ icon (bottom left) to start the slides rolling.

Digital Learning Spaces

TEL at UALInterested in Digital Learning Spaces?

You can now listen to UAL academics talking about how they and their students are using digital spaces for reflective practice, research, collaboration, showcasing work and more – @ Discussing Digital Pedagogies.

This is the start of an ongoing audio enquiry I am conducting into digital teaching and learning spaces within the art and design Higher Education context.

#digital-learning, #digital-literacy, #elearning-2, #learning, #mahara, #technology-enhanced-learning, #tel, #ual, #workflow

Evaluating Student Experience in Industry Projects

UAL LCC LogoCara Lee Roth and I have been invited to deliver another ‘Evaluating Student Experience in Industry Projects’ workshop at the LCC Learning and Teaching Day – which will take place at LCC next week – 6 May 2015.

SEE and CLTAD have developed a teaching tool for evaluating students’ engagement in industry projects. This tool can help course teams to evaluate the impact of industry projects, enhance enterprise and employability and also inform curriculum design and learning and teaching strategies on how to measure student experience. Continue reading Evaluating Student Experience in Industry Projects

UAL Learning and Teaching Day 2015

UAL Learning and Teaching Day 2015I’m looking forward to taking part in UAL’s Learning and Teaching Day at LCC on 14th January 2015. This year not just attending, enjoying and being inspired by the sessions on the day, I will also be co-presenting a session with Cara Lee Roth – Evaluating Student Experience in Industry Projects.