Last week I was lucky enough to attend and present at the annual ALT-C conference. I was only there for a day but, as always, it was such a tonic to catch up with lots of colleagues from across the sector. Thanks to everyone who came to our session on the Jisc Beyond Blended Resources.
The ALT-C conferences always do seem like the start of a new term (that’ll be the timing I hear you say), and have always provided that, imho, really important opportunity to catch up with people.
As ever, ALT did an amazing job of streaming sessions for those who couldn’t make it in person. Sadly, due to the current financial situation most universities are in just now, there seems to be more of those. Cutting staff and staff development are always the easy targets for cut backs . . .
However, one positive that I did take away was another re-connection. This time with social media. Like so many others, I left Twitter as it transitioned into X. There was a void for sure, sort of filled by Mastadon, not so much Threads (still can’t figure out the why of it!), and a lot more LinkedIn. The latter more for its focus and improved app experience – tho finding anything again is still a bit of “a mare”.
I have adjusted to less instant social media contact, but had joined Bluesky, oh quite a while ago. TBH I had kind of forgotten about it. But the week before ALT-C I did get a raft of new (legit and interesting) followers. Turns out I was part of a list circulating of people to follow. At the conference it really did seem to fill that Twitter void.
It kind of reminded me of when Twitter started. I couldn’t really see the point of it. I mean why would you want to tell everyone what you were doing? Why would anyone be interested? Wasn’t that a bit creepy ? But then I went to a conference and experienced a (small)conference back channel for the the fist time and realised how useful it could be. I saw the conversational aspect to it all, and was hooked. Lucky me to have been there when at the start – before all the adverts, influencers, haters . . . And being able to share my work on Twitter really did help with my professional development and expansion of my PLN.
It feels a bit more like those early days in Bluesky just now. A place for connecting and sharing without adverts, or (at this point) too much hate speak. So I will be there a bit more often now, you can find me there @sheilmcn.bsky.social.
This image was created with the Word press AI generator
