Finding my joys

Now I have the full-time role and career is at a comfortable and stable place, I am now able to give focus and divide my time to other priorities of my life that are not just full-time work-related.  Something I previously and deeply shared at the bottom of a blog post back in November 2021 - it's took a while but I am now at that place.  Further reinforced by what I said in my blog post 'Triggered values' and 'What working class means to me':

"I know I still need to set some boundaries and learn to say no to things, in the effort to avoid burnout...It will come when I am ready to quieten/narrow down and when I let my full-time job just be - but I want to enjoy that too...To help minimise burnout, I have finally took the decision to step down from some volunteering opportunities...I've finally let go of doing those additional side things."

"I am wrestling with the thought of setting boundaries and learning to say no work-related things.  To avoid burnout and give space for other personal interests and developments to flourish.  Which gives me a sense of relief that I can just be, and have any nagging goals and chasing capitalistic tendencies.  I need to remember that I am rich with my life and experience - it's not always about financial and ego status."

I am now pondering what actually brings me joy.  As I feel sometimes don't know what that means to me anymore.  Things that just make me happy and blissful.  I have a professional purpose, but when that's over I find myself a bit lost.  I don't seem to have much personal purpose - which I know I do but full-time work consumes me.  However I've always struggled with a hobby or the ability to commit to one.  As I feel it needs to have meaning and long-term use - has to be related to a career or earning money, or having the feeling that I have to lead (just because I can/people please, might be no real need) which ends up making it a work-like endeavour.  It doesn't and shouldn't have to be about   The sense of commitment feels like it may add additional pressure (I must do...) when I want to feel more free and spontaneous.  But that could be a negative view from me.  I usually am self motivated, especially throughout my career but when it comes to things outside my comfort zone like practical creativity things.  I need to be with other like minded interested people to work and share experience with, and be led my someone, for motivation.  There's lots out there to Do It Yourself but again self motivated and can do with a break from leading myself.  I like having plans and going out to see people.  But on most Saturdays I spend most of the day working out what I want to do with my day or doing nothing - which is equally great as I feel I take a lot longer to decompress from a busy week and work mindset.  Which is why a four day week might be beneficial.  The weekends are usually over very quickly.  I wondered when I'd get these feelings as I have lots of good experiences and achievements.  But sometimes I feel somewhat depressed.

I think a lot of this anxiety is a result of me stepping back from extra work stuff (beyond my full-time job), that I mentioned way back here, and now that space is becoming more available.  I am feeling a bit like a fish out of water.  Most of my life I have been career and professional development driven.  Now that focus has changed and now going back into a state of self-discovery and playfulness in a sense.  Doings for me not to excel my career, but I have conflict over the balance of that as I want both.  My career has been a goal and passion which is deep rooted in my being.  So reducing this will take time and come with the anxiety and withdrawals.  I often have to say to myself this is best day ever, last day that I'm alive, a gift to be alive here today, bringing myself to the now etc to jolt myself into a state of energetic appreciation and motivation.  There is a consideration for burnout and digital overload that might make me feel like this too.

So in an effort to rediscover some basic joys in my life, and do more for me, inspired by a external colleague Sarah Copeland's 50 by 50 structure in PebblePad.  I wanted to start thinking about some goals and challenges myself in general.  But could see them as early development for my own 50 by 50 by way of stimulating personal hobbies which I have listed below - which is an active developing list.  As a grounding starter, I have come to realisation that I don't need a lot to make me happy (I don't live beyond my means anyway).  My cats, garden, friends and family, all regular stuff.  All small things, which is good I think.  As I often ponder if my happiness should be bigger, if that at all makes sense.

Wellbeing and health

• Continue my local ad hoc 5k runs
• Develop a daily/weekly routine for Movement Medicine and yoga

Family and friends

• Train or coach journey with mum/dad somewhere

Culture

• A focus on more wilderness travels than cities and towns.

Passions

• Animal related - volunteer at a cats protection/adoption
• Garden related - visit national gardens
• Natural history:
• I really liked taking the photos of squirrels and birds today.  Maybe revisiting my Neighbourhood Nature course material and recording sightings on iSpot again

Ambitions/challenges

• Sunrise and stargazing on a mountain in Peak District
• Wild swimming, day and night
• Tough mudder and support a charity
• Off-roading
• Long bike ride

PebblePad university-wide implementation

As mentioned at the end of Achieving SFHEA and SCMALT, I am now very much in the refinement stage of developing my Principal Fellowship material.  With the aim of submitting for February 2025.  I've a lot of strategic examples to use, which was a challenge to narrow these down.  In that process I had realised I have never documented my strategic work on implementing the university-wide application of PebblePad.  However, as I have already selected my three examples for my case studies, I thought I'd write the draft piece below to recall my role and contribution in this and publish here along with my previous PebblePad work.  Therefore this will remain an outtake, unless I change my view and use it as a base should I want to replace one of my current case studies.

Case study: Supporting the strategic implementation of PebblePad for university-wide application

When I commenced my previous role as a Digital Practice Adviser in Organisational Development from 2017-2021.  I was immediately involved in the piloting of PebblePad to support the strategic response, of the remit to explore a new digital technology that would enable wider opportunities to support formative, summative and synoptic assessment as well as continuing CPD and Degree Apprenticeships.  I assisted in the institutional implementation of PebblePad and lead on staff pedagogical support (Scott, 2020).  The aim was for to scope purchasing the system and having the appropriate infrastructure in place.  From October 2017 and throughout 2018 I assisted a one-year university-wide pilot to full scale implementation of PebblePad.  With the overall aim to ensure that the system is understood, used effectively with staff and students for the intended purpose and has ongoing effective pedagogical and technical support.  Agreed at a senior level, this involved working with pilot academic staff groups such as Nottingham Business School (NBS) and Art and Design.  I later conducted stakeholder analysis of current/previous and super PebblePad users, to bring people together to share practice as part of a steering group.  It was at this point I earned membership to the PebblePad Operations Group that consisted of membership of business owner colleagues (Library) and product owner (Digital Technologies).  I went onto reviewing and commenting on key documentation such as '18-19 Service Overview', 'Benefits for Academic Staff ' and 'Business Continuity Plan December 2019', I specifically contributed and was acknowledged to 'Summative Assessment Guidelines using PebblePad (July 2018)'.  Providing further direction on the utility of PebblePad from my own knowledge and insights.  As with H5P, I remain a key advisor of our PebblePad business account through my long-term advocacy of the system.

I predominantly led on the design of staff pedagogical support utilising evidence-based frameworks such as 'Introducing PebblePad to students with the 5 Stage Model - December 2017' and 'Pedagogical support for PebblePad: a map of learning and teaching approaches in using PebblePad - April 2019' (Scott, 2019c).  Both used and well-evaluated by academic staff.  I was later asked to do a ad hoc presentation on both of these at the PebblePad Super User Academy in May 2019 (Scott, 2019d).

Sarah Chesney - "I recommend following @_Daniel_Scott - he shared his version of Salmon's 5 stage model applied to #eportfolio & #pebblepad @PebblePad super user academy today - really useful & I'll reshare when he publishes a copy for wider distribution. Big Thx"

The Library are the business owner, and agreed to pick up technical issues and provide student support.  Myself and my colleague picked up staff development and pedagogical support.  I designed and delivered a range of introductory and advanced PebblePad workshops on the system, learning design, assessment and CPD, including a self-service central pedagogical and technical guidance repository NOW learning room.  My colleague and I also designed and delivered a bespoke workshop for the East Midlands Ambulance Service partnership in August 2018.  Later offering a PebblePad breakfast 28th March 2019 with my colleague, a librarian and a technician.  A main output from the activity was to collate ideas and good practice and to help us inform future staff development opportunities, the direction and structure these could take.  There were four tables with four individual themes, each facilitated by one of us.

Throughout this process, the NTU PebblePad user community was largely built by myself and my then colleague.  This was supported by a community of practice through the online group Yammer.  Later evolving to a Teams group in 2021.  A TILT group was also formed as a way to share practice and inform future initiatives and direction.  Around the pandemic time this fell quiet, however in 2022 I initiated discussion to reboot this.  To be recognised and invited to chair it via Rachel Challen (Learning and Teaching Manager) and Sanjay Gupta (Product Owner).  However, I had to decline to my own TILT group previously mentioned.

By April 2018, it was clear that PebblePad was the preferred tool to support NTU’s innovative learning and teaching ambitions and it was announced that NTU would move from pilot to service.  From September 2018 onwards, PebblePad has been rolled out institution-wide, offering a self-service option for all NTU staff and students to access via the Virtual Learning Environment.

On the 12 December 2018, me and my colleague delivered the following webinar for the Association for Learning Technology Winter Conference 2018; ‘PebblePad - pedagogy, positives and pitfalls: A DIY approach to creating Workbooks’ (Scott, 2018).  We shared our journey and included an overview of three case studies focusing on NTU colleagues who created three very different PebblePad Workbooks for their students.  We explained what worked well, what didn’t and what could be improved as a result of positive experimentation.

Overall, I made a positive strategic contribution and influence to ensuring effective system integration and developing appropriate pedagogical, technical and community infrastructure and support.  To support and enhance the experience of ePortfolio-using students. PebblePad was implemented to support and improve the student experience.  I have remained a key practitioner, advisor and stakeholder in PebblePad, up to my present role.  Therefore, adhering and fulfilling strategic objectives.

Following my promotion to the role of Digital Curriculum Support and Developer in IHAP (2021), I took initiative and created a IHAP Region to own and better manage and support our specific digital curriculum.  Supported through the creation of a digital curriculum design and quality assurance process (Scott, 2022a) for PebblePad workbook design and design of VLE online learning materials in the VLE.  That promotes effective digital, academic and learning design practices.  The student comment below reflects my strategic approach of this.

Learning Disabilities Nurse Apprentice - "I have to say you’ve got a glowing reputation amongst my nursing colleagues for your prompt attention to our issues and the positive way you resolve them. We can’t believe somebody working with PP could be this happy!!"

At the end of 2020 my colleague who supported PebblePad with me left.  I invited my then team to support PebblePad with me.  I didn't received any uptake which was disappointing as this is important to the success of the system and is at least a two person job to adequately cover.  Further to this, changing priorities in Organisational Development were evolving to a traditional Learning and Development department.  Therefore it was decided to discontinue our support for PebblePad and pushed back to the business owner, the Library.  I progressed on from my central role in August 2021 and into my current department.

It became clear that PebblePad had no central staff support other than the self-service central learning room, and limited one to one support from a key Learning and Teaching librarian.  Therefore, staff development, pedagogical support and community building has not been maintained.  This notable absence has negatively impacted on the system's organisational maturity implementation and the start of a critical decline in staff support and eventually contributed to downscale the system.  At present, this is still the case resulting in little or no staff support infrastructure - a fragmented experience to say the least, however it highlights the my significant role and contribution in the implementation and shows that this is still required.  I know this to be true from our Operational Group discussions and I am still identified as a key advisor and receive occasional emails from staff across the university asking for support.  In Summer 2021 I agreed to collaborate with a key Learning and Teaching librarian to co-deliver two recorded sessions on introducing PebblePad and ATLAS.

I remain a member of the PebblePad Operations Group and a key advisor and stakeholder on decisions related to the success and licence maintenance of the system, as well as contributing to the overall roadmap led by the Product Manager.  To help mitigate exceeding our license users, which I suggested, circa 2022/2023 that PebblePad now needs to become curriculum specialist, and not widely accessible to all, and wider considerations of the systems maturity in the university.  Eventually this led to a PebblePad renewal review, which was initially due to commence in 2022, then gained traction in 2024.  In October 2024, I was contacted by a Digital Technologies Business Analyst for two meetings 1) provide an introductory overview session of the system or how it works and its uses. 2) me and my Head to discuss our department uses and requirements to help build understanding of  the School’s perspective.

[Quotes to be used]

Adrian Clark, Learning and Teaching Librarian – "I had the pleasure of working with Dan Scott for several years at Nottingham Trent University.  Dan and I principally worked together on the implementation and roll out of an eportfolio solution that the university procured to support degree apprenticeships.  Dan is a natural collaborator and worked with me on a staff training program.  Dan’s initiative and sensitivity to the needs of the teaching community was evident in his setting up and curation of a staff training and communication channel: designing and delivering bespoke training to faculty both online and in person, as well as being instrumental in a launch and feedback event for the eportfolio system.  Throughout, Dan was not only an incredible colleague to work with but a consummate professional.

Teaching colleagues at NTU mentioned how informative and insightful they found the sessions.  In terms of Dan’s contribution, many attendees cited how he made the new system feel like something that was already a part of what they do rather than another thing they had to think about.  In terms of uptake we saw up to 500 new accounts created in the platform with little impact on support.  Dan went in to consult with various academic departments around the specific e-pedagogies related to their curricula, and Dan played a crucial role in not only the delivery of apprenticeships at NTU; but, digital transformation as a whole."

Sarah Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Continuous Professional Development Course Lead - "Delivering the student inductions together with the digital curriculum team works very well in supporting students on the CPD course."

Paula Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Student Nursing Associates Course Lead - "The use of PebblePad and support offered at the institute (IHAP) is more advanced than what is obtainable in contemporary institutions."

Reference List

Scott, D (2018) PebblePad - pedagogy, positives and pitfalls: A DIY approach to creating Workbooks [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2018/12/pebblepad-pedagogy-positives-and-pitfalls.html [Accessed 18 February 2024].

Scott, D (2019c) A quartette of PebblePad conceptual developments [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-quartette-of-pebblepad-conceptual-developments.html [Accessed 18 February 2024].

Scott, D (2019d) PebblePad Super User Academy May 2019 [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2019/05/pebblepad-super-user-academy-may-2019.html [Accessed 18 February 2024].

Scott, D (2020) PebblePad Review [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2020/06/pebblepad-review.html [Accessed 18 February 2024].

Scott, D (2022a) Digital curriculum - engaging colleagues in the process [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2022/08/digital-curriculum-engaging-colleagues-in-the-process.html [Accessed 18 February 2024].