Exploring open practice and digital wellbeing
In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, overnight Higher Education (HE) adopted online as its primary vehicle for delivering education. This seismic shift in our practice has presented challenges like never before and with them opportunities. Forced into new spaces, to think and work differently, our digital capability blueprints are changing. University staff are having to adapt not only to home workspaces and new technologies, but also to developing new skills to effectively deliver support and education digitally. One aspect of our digital capabilities we all need to be particularly mindful of at present is our digital wellbeing. Jisc’s definition of this, “Considers the impact of technologies and digital services on people’s mental, physical and emotional health.” I am particularly interested in understanding how students and staff can be supported around this. As an HE academic exploring open educational practice through this module, I am using this post to reflect on the relationship between digital and open practice, how this is changing for academic staff and the potential consequences for our digital wellbeing.
What is open practice?
Open practice allows and promotes the creation, sharing, reworking and re-sharing of resources to support education. David Wiley’s “5 Rs of Openness: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute” give us the different ways we can think about utilising open resources.
Digital can be an enabler of open, perhaps with the ever-expanding functionalities it affords, the ultimate enabler. It can also be an inhibitor, and this resonates with me in my role as an academic. As we have discussed in our module workshops, putting something “out there” requires a relinquishing of control over your carefully crafted content for your fully comprehended context. Of course, there are ways to address and move forward from this. Materials can be released with some restrictions on how they can be used by attaching e.g. Creative Commons licenses, allowing them to retain what you feel essential. When preparing open materials in the future, this is something I will contemplate to allay concerns and attempt to (appropriately) influence the onward journey of the content.
How is our practice changing in terms of digital and open?
In this time of rapidly adjusting to our new ways of living and working; using, building on and sharing resources openly can help us with these transitions.
While working from home, my colleagues and I have been having more conversations focused on sharing digital and pedagogical practice and debriefing lessons learned. I feel an unspoken unity in these discussions and developments. Driven and accelerated by circumstance and our desire to deliver, we are being more open in our ‘in-house’ practice. Facilitated by digital, these are the positives of our new connectivity and they are welcome and vital; enhancing our digital capabilities, promoting our open practice, strengthening our community.
Our dependence on digital is necessary, but it needs balance. Back-to-back video calls and “Zoom fatigue” can’t always be avoided, but we can take active steps to recognise what is affecting our digital wellbeing and what protective measures could help.
How can open support our digital wellbeing?
I recently participated in a Jisc online workshop focusing on digital identity and wellbeing which shared open resources to adapt to your settings and practice. A good starting point encouraged asking, “What kind of digital practitioner do you want to be?”
Below I have briefly shared further supportive activities with reflections on how they have helped me think about my digital practice and thereby wellbeing at this time.
Illustrating 4 aspects of digital wellbeing, this model is included in the Jisc Quick Guide to supporting student digital wellbeing. In the workshop, participants were asked to reflect on how we were managing the different areas and which were our priorities, useful exercises to think through personally and to start conversations with students and staff.
Priorities for me:
As the initial days of lockdown have turned to weeks, taking a conscious look at my digital practice and wellbeing has been invaluable in terms of the adaptations to my use of digital and all that encompasses moving forwards.
Screen-time
As mentioned, we are working more openly through digital. This is set to continue for now and we need to be aware of how this can influence our digital wellbeing. I am working on removing distractions and acknowledging and reducing my evening screen-time. I have decreased the numbers of messages from particular apps (down to notifications from one news app now — progress) and set a daily alert on my phone to prompt tearing myself away from the screens.
A further suggested exercise from the Jisc workshop for yourself / students / colleagues was to keep an ‘activity log’. I have so far resisted this, but have conceded to turn on the report function on my phone to get a measure of my consumption there. Further actions may follow, including turning it off again.
Physical workspace
Sitting for long periods still needs a check, where possible I try to move to a different area to eat lunch for a change of position and ‘scenery’. 9 weeks into lockdown, my laptop now rests on a box and folder bringing it to a better height and a dusted off old keyboard, mouse and cushion are making for a more ergonomic workspace.
Following some video conferencing training, as well as the Jisc workshop, I have moved where I sit so I can have a blank enough wall behind me, rather than the more personal contents of my home being broadcast during video calls.
Reusing my space
At the end of each day I am packing my work things away. Even though I would have previously said I was well acclimated to working at home, this is new and something I will continue moving forwards. I have found this practice particularly helpful, not only in terms of saving space clearing the table, but in clearing my head each evening too.
In conclusion
With no predictable outcomes or end to the present uncertainties, how we work now, more than ever, needs to be sustainable. Our digital work lives are more open and connected; we are seeing benefits with this, but need balance. Identifying and implementing measures to preserve and promote our digital wellbeing will continue to be essential. By sharing our findings within our communities and adapting the Jisc activities discussed to our workspaces and wider we can contribute to further conversations around supporting digital wellbeing through open practice.
