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More conference, more favourite colleague
Jun. 13th, 2024 10:40 pmBumped into favourite colleague a couple of times today, apart from attending their session this afternoon. Part of the work they talked about was asking final year students what they would like to tell their first year selves. I rolled my eyes mentally because my position is, if I hadn't done everything just the way I did it, I wouldn't be here at this point with THIS advice - and if younger me took the advice, I wouldn't go through all the things. But these comments were a mix of practical advice about being a student and encouragement to keep going. One of the questions at the end was something along the lines of, 'could you share these comments with this year's first years?', to which, of course, the answer was 'yes!'.
A lot of the sessions I attended, including the key notes, were about fostering a sense of belonging for students. There's a lot of evidence of students feeling lonely and isolated, even post-pandemic, and even when they live in shared accommodation. I just had a vision of kids like grandson #1 hiding in their rooms all day, too nervous to even say hello to people they shared living space with - who were probably feeling just the same!
There were also quite a few sessions on AI. Last year, I went to a presentation where the speaker - a lecturer for the School of Computing and Maths - said as a computer scientist they found AI fascinating, as a lecturer they found it terrifying. The conversation was about how to stop students using it and how to detect it. This year, the world has done a 180. Now the conversations are about how to use it responsibly, and how it can be incorporated into the curriculum, because a) we know we can't stop students using it and b) employers want people with those skills.
I got another hour of Tunic in - taking me up to about 7 hours. I'm about 3/4 of the way through, I think...? Maybe 3/5... Anyway, I've come to a bit of a dead end. I've been to everywhere there is to go... Well, except for the big locked gate...? OK, that's something to look at tomorrow.
Because tomorrow I have a day off work!!! *dances* I am sooo looking forward to just lazing around, doing nothing.
And grandson #2 is a bit better, by the look of it.
A lot of the sessions I attended, including the key notes, were about fostering a sense of belonging for students. There's a lot of evidence of students feeling lonely and isolated, even post-pandemic, and even when they live in shared accommodation. I just had a vision of kids like grandson #1 hiding in their rooms all day, too nervous to even say hello to people they shared living space with - who were probably feeling just the same!
There were also quite a few sessions on AI. Last year, I went to a presentation where the speaker - a lecturer for the School of Computing and Maths - said as a computer scientist they found AI fascinating, as a lecturer they found it terrifying. The conversation was about how to stop students using it and how to detect it. This year, the world has done a 180. Now the conversations are about how to use it responsibly, and how it can be incorporated into the curriculum, because a) we know we can't stop students using it and b) employers want people with those skills.
I got another hour of Tunic in - taking me up to about 7 hours. I'm about 3/4 of the way through, I think...? Maybe 3/5... Anyway, I've come to a bit of a dead end. I've been to everywhere there is to go... Well, except for the big locked gate...? OK, that's something to look at tomorrow.
Because tomorrow I have a day off work!!! *dances* I am sooo looking forward to just lazing around, doing nothing.
And grandson #2 is a bit better, by the look of it.
