This week, ScotHELD opened its Summer Conference and plenary session to learning advisors throughout the ICALLD network, and many of us took up the opportunity to attend (albeit some of us in our pyjamas).
During my “visit to Scotland”, as I have affectionately come to refer to these sessions, I was particularly struck by Andrew Struan’s (University of Glasgow) suggestion that as a profession we should perhaps focus a little less on “the problems that we still need to solve” and a little more on the excellent work that we are all doing, and the very real difference this makes for our students and our colleagues.
On a day when New Zealanders were deeply concerned about a single community case of Covid-19 in the Wellington region, I was also acutely aware that the impacts of Covid-19, which have ravaged other parts of the world, have had a lot less impact and required a lot less adaptation from us here in New Zealand. Whether this is due to good fortune, good management or a combination of the two, the fact remains that we have been very lucky that our elimination strategy as a nation has been largely successful. Although, as Spitting Image reminds us, perhaps the ability to “quarantine two small islands with low population and a wealth of natural resources” in the South Pacific has given us somewhat of an advantage in this respect.
There is no doubt that Covid-19 has changed our professional practice and has hastened the introduction of new (and not so new) online learning and teaching approaches and more flexible work arrangements. While the transition was abrupt and has not always been smooth, many of these adjustments have been beneficial for both learning advisors and our students. And it is clear that in a post-Covid world, we will continue to use and refine the often hastily developed, and now much more embedded, technologies, pedagogies and resources that were adopted in response to this unprecedented global pandemic.
And so, Andrew, here is something that is going well and something we should celebrate… We are now much better at opening up our professional practice to connect with colleagues worldwide. The increasing ease with which we are now able to share our professional development opportunities and our knowledge, both within our own countries and around the world, is the silver lining of the great, grey cloud that is Covid.
Last night and today, I have been contacted by several learning advisors from small institutions in rural New Zealand who work on their own or in very small teams, and we are all very grateful to have had the opportunity to network with you. Pre-Covid, professional development for learning advisors in these institutions would involve shutting up shop for the day and travelling to a main centre, leaving a lingering sense of guilt about abandoning students. Getting on a plane and travelling to Scotland (as wonderful as that would be) would never be possible within our professional development budgets, and even travelling to conferences around New Zealand or Australia is often an unattainable dream. Now, thanks to the technological and cultural shift necessitated by Covid, we can take an hour or two out of our day and travel to Scotland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or around our own country to connect with like minds (and still stay in our pyjamas).
It is always fascinating to hear that we have so many shared experiences and so much in common, but also to be inspired by new ideas and new ways of thinking and working. So thank you Andrew for encouraging us to look for what is going well, thank you ScotHELD for your generosity, hospitality and leadership, and thank you to everyone who makes these events possible, and who contributes to our fabulous and diverse international learning development community by taking part.
And, on behalf of ATLAANZ, I would like to invite you all to join us again for our final Symposium-Over-Time event tomorrow. I hope you enjoy “visiting New Zealand” as much as I enjoyed “visiting Scotland”, and that you too will be inspired to find new ways to recognise and celebrate the difference that we make every day in our profession.
Dawn Marsh
Secretary, ATLAANZ
