Dear All

To follow from Ray- a second conference was held in September 2005 and
the book came out December 2006:
Exploring good leadership and management practice in higher education:
issues of engagement. L.Elvidge (ed). The final chapter contains more
reflections on the process.

I would be happy to talk to anyone about my experiences- both
conferences were very good- and challenging

Liz


====================================
Dr Liz Elvidge
Director
Tel: 023 80595328
====================================
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit
B25/3061Highfield Campus
University of Southampton
SO17 1BJ

-----Original Message-----
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ray Land
Sent: 25 February 2007 15:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session

Dear Colleagues
 
We found that open space technology works well for conferences too. In
the autumn of 2003 a small group of us organised a week-long
international conference at Clare College, Cambridge using a variant of
open space technology. The main theme of the conference was how to get
academic colleagues engaged in academic development. A group of 51
academic developers from around the world (including many SEDA members)
were invited to participate in the full understanding that the topics
and the content of the conference would be generated by the group
itself, and furthermore, that they would undertake to write up the the
conclusions of their self-selected sub-groups for inclusion in a
published book. It turned out to be a highly successful week, though
very intense, and not without its 'moments' and 'wobbles', mainly around
the Wednesday evening when we were all getting stuck, confused and/or
knackered (in retrospect, probably an essential part of the process!).
During the week people worked in groups all over the place: in college
rooms, in gardens, in pubs, on the river in punts, on the internet, and
just came together as needed. However the structure and main ideas for
the the book were identified by the end of the week, and
responsibilities for writing and sub-editing clarified and signed-up to,
and the book itself did appear, with 11 interesting chapters (and 51
authors!) within the year, being completed by email discussion groups.
The first and last chapters (by Liz Elvidge and Bob Matthews) contain
accounts of how the event was organised (or not organised, depending on
how you look at it) and reflections on lessons learned. The feedback
from the event was very positive, though I think to work well it
obviously requires organisers and participants who are comfortable with
a degree of risk. Maybe the fact that all the participants were
academic developers helped in this regard!
The book is available as:
 
"Exploring academic development in higher education: issues of
engagement" (2004) (Ed. L.Elvidge)
and published by Jill Rogers Associates Ltd, 6 The Maltings, Millfield,
Cottenham, Cambridge CB4 8RE.
 
Regards
 
Ray Land
 
 
************************************************************************
*****
Professor Ray Land
Director, Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement
University of Strathclyde
Graham Hills Building
50 George Street
Glasgow G1 1QE
 
t: 0141 548 2636
f: 0141 553 2053
e: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
w: http://personal.strath.ac.uk/ray.land
<http://personal.strath.ac.uk/ray.land>
 
ICE3 Symposium: 'Digital difference'. Loch Lomond, Scotland 21-23 March
2007
http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/ice3 <http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/ice3>
 
Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and
Troublesome Knowledge
http://www.routledge.com <http://www.routledge.com/>
 

________________________________

From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association on behalf of David Jaques
Sent: Sun 25/02/2007 12:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session


Well, how about a one- or two-day SEDA meeting/conference using Open
Space Technology or even a half-day session at the annual conference?
SEDA should surely be seen to be ready for change and experiment.

I experienced OST way back in the mid-90s and found it fascinating and
challenging especially in the way it brought into question some of our
tacit dependency assumptions about structure and change. If it means
geeing up SEDA to take a few more risks, then I for one would welcome
that.

David Jaques FSEDA ILTM
7 Stanley Road
Oxford OX4 1QY

++44(0)1865 203255
Mobile: 07778 646728

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and
leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson


On 23 Feb 2007, at 21:48, Heather Sears wrote:


I feel genuinely inspired by this afternoon's discussions and
will be ordering ': A User's Guide' on Monday morning

How can we encourage SEDA to help those who are interested find
out more about Open Space Technology and/or explore different
facilitation techniques??

Heather

Dr Heather Sears
Postgraduate Training and Development Officer
Staff and Departmental Development Unit
Graduate Training and Support Centre
1.38 Parkinson Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT

0113 343 7479
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sddu/
<https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.leeds.
ac.uk/sddu/>

________________________________

From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association on behalf of Macdonald, Ranald F
Sent: Fri 2/23/2007 3:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session



Thanks for the interest. Firstly, I'd say that this is another
technique to add to our repertoire of approaches, not to be used at
every chance as participants can get as bored with this as anything. And
there will still be those who say "Just tell us what to do!" I'm sure
we're all used to resisting that temptation ...

Anyway:

A good place to start is:

http://ho-image.com/Brief%20User's%20Guide.htm
<http://ho-image.com/Brief%20User's%20Guide.htm>

or his book Open Space Technology: A User's Guide (easily
available from Amazon)

There are plenty of other sites and writers with suggested ways
of working, examples of its power, etc (just try Google) - mainly from
the US.

The four principles (which are more fully explained in the
article) are:

* Whoever comes is the right people
* Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
* Whenever it starts is the right time
* When it's over, it's over

and the one 'law' is:

"The Law of two feet" - if you don't feel that you are
contributing to a group or getting anything more out of it, it's ok to
walk away - not in a negative way but as a positive response.

The four principles and the law were posted on the wall and
participants were reminded of them at the start of the second day.

The theme we worked with was:

How can we be more effective in leading and supporting change in
LTA?

This was posted on a blank wall - you will need plenty of space.

We sat in an open circle (not behind tables - the circle is an
important symbol to Owen) with some sheets of paper and pens on the
floor. Participants came up as they wanted and wrote an idea on a piece
of paper, held it up and read it out. They then stuck it on the blank
wall, which gradually filled up with issues that they wanted to discuss.

When proposing issues to discuss it's important that people
chose ones that they are passionate about and are prepared to take
responsibility for and not just that they are vaguely interested in
talking about, though the others who chose that group may feel like
that. People then sign up for the topics they are interested in and
there is a process of negotiating times, perhaps combining topics and,
in effect, putting the timetable together for you. Over the 24 hours we
had 4 timed sessions with three groups in each, as well as before and
after dinner, and discussed 12 issues in some detail. Each group,
without prompting from me got a laptop and I produced a template for
them to write up their discussion and, perhaps mroe importantly, what
action was going to be taken, by whom and by when. (I might resist the
temptation to do that in future as it might constrain more imaginative
approaches to presenting) By the end of the retreat we had 12 pages of
closely typed discussion and actions! For once I didn't have to take
lots of posters and postits away and get them typed up!

There were two things going on at this event - social networking
by a group who knew each other to varying degrees and being very focused
on a theme which was of particular importance to them. Harrison Owen
writes of organising a 3-day conference for 250-300 people using this
process. No papers, pre-submited workshop topics, or keynotes (though
you could top and tail an event with something) - just a general theme
which intrigued that many people to turn up and work in a more
democratic way. Some of the people at one of my sessions commented that,
even with quite senior people there, there was no sense of hierarchy and
everyone's ideas were equal and valid, which was quite liberating for
some.

But it won't work in every situation - read the literature to
find out when and why!

Hope this is helpful - though it's given away the technique
which some readers will be experiencing with me in a forthcoming event
in New Zealand!

Ranald

ps. at the first event I had just got back from Hong Kong and,
as well as still feeling jetlagged, was suffering from an upset stomach
- I'll spare you the details. As I walked in the door I told the Head of
LTA how I was feeling and he said "you should try Open Space technology.
I've been involved a couple of times recently and it's really good." I
could have hugged him! Suddenly I felt much more relaxed, though still
somewhat apprehensive. The event the following week was surrounded by a
whole series of other agendas which changed the dynamic completely. But,
hey, that's what we academic developers are all about ...



________________________________

From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association on behalf of HEALEY, Mick
Sent: Fri 23/02/2007 14:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session



As I think would many of us. Perhaps Ranald you would post your
further
reflections to the list?

Best

Mick

-----Original Message-----
From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development
Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ] On Behalf Of S.A.Fincher
Sent: 23 February 2007 14:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Delivery of Staff Development Session

Ranald -


The important feature is that a strong theme is agreed
in advance but

=

the participants decide the specific issues to be
explored further. =
There are a few simple principles and groundrules but
I'd certainly =
recommend it - a colleague used it for a 3-hour workshop
with similar

=

success.

I'm happy to give further reflections if they would be
useful.


I'd certainly be interested in hearing more. As you say
agenda-driven
formats get quickly stale, but genuine alternatives are hard to
come
by.

- Sally


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sally Fincher, Computing Laboratory, University of Kent,
Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF, UK

http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/index.html
<http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/index.html>

'phone: +44 1227 764000 ext.4061 fax: +44 1227 762811
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