The Window on Teaching series at Warwick is run by the Library’s Teaching Grid. Speakers are invited from the teaching community to discuss and share information on current teaching practice and innovation.

I try to attend as many as possible that are of interest and relevance. Most recently I attended a session run by Emma King from the Learning Development Centre on game-based learning, and specifically the potential for the use of controller free technology (e.g. Microsoft Kinnect) in learning.

One of the best things about the series is that all sessions are recorded and the videos made available online. An email from the Teaching Grid team yesterday is what has prompted this post as it reminded me the videos from the latest events are now available.

Of particular interest to me is the session run by Nick Wake from the business school who gave a demonstration of a smartphone app he has developed to support student learning. Recently I’ve been working on a variety of online tutorials to deliver information skills to undergraduates and I can really see the potential of developing an app like this to support the tutorial and allow students to engage with it in different ways.

At the beginning of this month D’Arcy Norman posted this question on his blog:

“How do you connect to people online?”

His intention is to collect responses to this question which will then be published in a narrative on the project website on November 30th.

I happened upon this project through Martin Weller’s response which he posted on his blog last week.

Obviously this has prompted me to think about how I connect to people online. My first thought was about the tools I use; Twitter, Facebook, blogs (WordPress and Tumblr), delicious and Flickr to name but a few. Each of these tools I use in a slightly different way and as such make slightly different connections through them.

• There are those I keep strictly personal, such as Facebook, where I only make connections with people I know in person. Whenever I talk to Facebook sceptics about why I need to use an online tool to keep in touch with my friends I say this; it’s to keep up with the day to day activities in the lives of those people who I don’t see regularly. I find it helps me maintain a stronger connection to people I have been close to at different stages of my life and I know without it I probably wouldn’t have been able to connect with in such a way.
• Then there are those which I use for a more professional purpose, such as Twitter, where I would say 90% of the people I connect with I have never met. The majority of my network are librarians and I use it as a place to learn and share ideas. This is not to say that part of the conversation is not personal. Making professional connections through a tool like Twitter I believe allows you greater opportunity to show your character and share personal experiences. It allows you to create new layers of connection with people who you may work or collaborate with in the future.

When I think on it I have been making connections in this way for nearly ten years. I started out in 2000 with an MSN group that I created for my friends at school as a place to talk about film. Around this time I also had a blog on diary-x and have maintained one ever since. Through both of these tools I formed stronger connections to people I knew in person but also with friends I met online, a couple of whom I am still in touch with today via Facebook. The point I am trying to make with this trip down memory lane is this: although the tools change, the types of connection remain the same.

I’ve yet to watch all of the responses currently posted on the website but from those I’ve seen so far this response from AJ Williams is my favourite:

Here’s an interesting market research report from TNS I came across at work this week:

Digital World, Digital Life

The data on methods of communication (pages 12-13) interests me most. Do you think we’ll ever get to a point where digital communication overtakes face-to-face? This report suggests that when communicating with our friends face-to-face communication is only just beating out email. However with our partners, parents and family it’s much further off.

When distance is an issue there’s obviously a benefit to digital communication. I know email and Facebook are my preferred methods of communication with friends who live in different cities. But I really can’t see me getting to a point where I’d rather have an email conversation with a friend from round the corner rather than meet them for a pint. And although my partner, Laura, and I have been known to use Google Chat to converse even when we’re in the same house, it is on very rare occasions and usually in jest so I can’t see digital communication ever winning out there. At least for us.

Every Christmas the Royal Institution of Great Britain presents a series of scientific lectures for young people. The series has been running since 1825 with topics ranging from astronomy to zoology.

This year the title of the series is “Hi-tech Trek”. The five episodes presented by Prof. Chris Bishop explore the science behind the digital revolution and the birth of the super computer. All episodes are being shown on Channel 5 at 19:15.

• Episode 1 (29/12/08) – Breaking the speed limit
• Episode 2 (30/12/08) – Chips with everything
• Episode 3 (31/12/08) – The ghost in the machine
• Episode 4 (01/01/09) – Untangling the web
• Episode 5 (02/01/09) – Digital intelligence

So far I’ve only seen the third episode (and learned to count in binary) but will be catching up with the rest on Demand Five where they’re available for 30 days after broadcast.