During this Twixmas period I find myself humming the words of the late John Lennon: “…and what have you done, another year over, a new one just begun….’ These few days offer an opportunity to reflect on the year that has gone and to give some thought as to what the year ahead might bring. A similar reflection in 2023 included the quote below, not yet knowing how busy the latter part of 2024 would be.
As I look ahead to 2024, I expect the year to be less busy on a professional level but time will tell whether or not this turns out to be the case.
Flynn, 2023
January and February are always busy teaching months with my online part-time MSc class. Working with this cohort in 2024 was particularly enjoyable since it was smaller in number and I had more opportunity to engage with the students. I look forward to joining their platform party at the Kemmy Business School conferring ceremony on 20 January 2025 (instead of watching the livestream but more on that later). It was also a time to prepare for upcoming conference presentations, OER24 at the end of March and NLC2024 in May. The challenge in January was that I had not yet collected the data from my pilot project, Digital Drop-In: An informal community of learners to help bridge the age-based digital divide, and relied on preliminary observations to submit the required paper for NLC and abstract for OER. In February I collected data from participants in two small focus groups, one each for the younger generation of participants and one for the older generation. This research has not yet been developed for publication and is something I hope to attend to in the not too distant future. Part of the reason for my procrastination was it seemed to me, that regardless of my research findings, in Ireland the ‘powers-that-be’ consider that non-formal learning approaches (usually in classroom environments) is the only key to older adults developing their digital skills. Informal learning, whether peer or intergenerational, is not an approach that public agencies are willing to fund. In the private sector, a pilot programme, instigated by one of my PhD interview participants, between the Irish Girl Guides and Vodafone is the only example of informal learning in practice that I am aware of.
Leap Year Day, 2024: It never rains but it pours as they say, and on 29 February I was notified of publication of two papers – certainly a leap year day to remember. The paper based on RQ2 presented the serendipitous findngs from my PhD thesis about informal peer learning amongst older adults to develop their digital skills (available with open access through this link). The second paper was a result of my learnings about digital accessibility along my PhD pathway and published in the AHEAD journal, an organisation with the goal of ‘creating inclusive environments in education and employment for people with disabilities‘ (available with open access through this link).
In March I was privileged to be able to attend OER24 since it was hosted locally in Cork, and to present my pilot project (rehearsal slideshow may be viewed through this link). As my first in-person conference since 2019 it was lovely to reconnect with acquaintances from that time, and to make new ones. In parallel, I was marking my module papers, providing feedback to students, and supporting research students as they embarked on their research papers to be produced over the summer months. By April, I was coming to the conclusion that despite a successful pilot, my social enterprise, Learning Digital Together, would need a rethink in order to grow. However, before I had time to put my thinking cap on, a fortuitous conversation later that month changed my path for the latter half of the year.
Ahead of the early May deadline I submitted my application for the role of Teaching Fellow in Project Management role at the University of Limerick. Later in May I attended the NLC2024 conference in Malta where I presented findings from my Digital Drop-In pilot. The format was Pecha Kucha, something I had not experienced previously and I survived it! It was wonderful to meet with colleagues from Lancaster University and to enjoy this wonderful island. My short paper is included in the conference proceedings (link to full set here), containing my initial observations from the study.
For my UL interview I had to create a 10-minute presentation with the topic title of The Art & Science of Teaching Project Management: Best Practice and Insights from My Teaching Experience.
I drew on my new learning of the Ikigai framework (Barrett, 2024) to underpin my presentation and concluded with the words: As a lifelong learner, a module does not go by without me learning something from the module process and from my students. In this sense for me, teaching and learning go hand in hand, my profession, my passion.
June and July were busy at a personal level, however, I accepted an invitation by the Older Researchers in Ageing (ORA) special interest group (SIG) to present remotely at the British Society of Gerontology (BSG2024) conference on my experience of being an older researcher (note to self: publish the slides somewhere on my blog: Straddling the research/practice fence: The experience of one older, early career, open researcher). Also (I almost forgot), my presentation at one of the two symposiums (symposia? I can never tell!) hosted by Technology and Ageing SIG on my published RQ2 paper (Keeping up with the times in Ireland: Older adults bridging the age-based digital divide together?) at BSG2024. I also shared my model of Faciliated Informal Learning (FILm), a delayed output from my PhD research, as I dusted off my process flowcharting skills from previous lives! So much for a restful summer!
In August, I marked 20 years of teaching project management to MSc students and settled into my full-time role for the academic year ahead. September to December were taken up with teaching, and learning as much as I can about the world of GenAI. Here is my reflection from teaching my first class this academic year. My learning portfolio has now developed to include a teaching portfolio, albeit a work-in-progress, an example of lifelong learning.
Finally, I could not close this reflection without acknowledging two groups of individuals whose regular peer support sustained me through the years of my PhD and now post-PhD life. First, our Eggheads group who diligently met every Tuesday morning and peers have all now been conferred with our PhDs and attended our respective ceremonies. Second, the alternate Saturday PhD study days with Ann-Marie are now my research and writing days and I value the regular interactions with a variety of colleagues all of whom are journeying or have journeyed along the pathway to PhD. Thank you all.
While the first half of 2025 is mapped out with my full-time teaching responsibilities taking up most of it, for the second half of 2025, well, who knows?
Until next year, Sandra
Featured image courtesy of Bitmoji
References:
Barrett, P. (2024, 11 May 2024). How To Spend Your Days. A Japanese framework for finding meaningful work. Dr Paddy Barrett, Preventive Cardiologist writing on how to prevent heart disease and live longer. https://paddybarrett.substack.com/p/how-to-find-work-that-is-meaningful
Flynn, S. (2024). Keeping up with the times in Ireland: Older adults bridging the age-based digital divide together?, Studies in the Education of Adults. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.2023.2298388
Flynn, S. (2024). Towards a digitally accessible thesis: the experience of a PhD researcher. The AHEAD Journal(17). Retrieved from https://www.ahead.ie/journal/Towards-a-digitally-accessible-thesis-the-experience-of-a-PhD-researcher
Flynn, S. (2024). Intergenerational and informal learning in communities: Building a bridge across the age-based digital divide. Networked Learning Conference, 14(1). Retrieved from https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/nlc/article/view/8053
Sandra Flynn 