Jumping off in a different direction today. Clinical and digital education.

Dr Tim Fawns was flagged up by one of his students, Katie Cullum, as one of the most engaging people she had come across.

Tim was the lecturer when she did a postgraduate certificate in clinical education online at the University of Edinburgh. This program is run for medics, dentists, nurses etc and apparently this module generally can be seen by students as a ’needs must’ to get into education, whereas Katie found Tim’s collaborative approach to learning was inspirational and I needed to speak to him!

I was particularly interested to talk to Tim as this felt like a similar approach to that used by Professor Becky Malby, with whom I work closely, using Whose Shoes with each cohort of Darzi fellows as part of their coproduction module. I thought it would lead to interesting connections, and this is starting to happen!

Some more lemon lightbulbs! 🍋💡🍋:

(take a look at me chapter headings and transcript for more detail)

• The power of networking - let’s link to the Darzi Fellows!
• The importance of collaborative learning, trusting people, and helping them navigate the system
• Being flexible in order to ensure equality, inclusivity and diversity, especially when there is a pandemic!
• Teamwork. Not ‘us and them’ #NoHierarchyJustPeople
• Collaborative learning; looking beyond the obvious, challenging the ’way we do things around here‘
• Special people. Administrators! Navigating systems. Breaking down silos!
• Nobody is ‘just’ a… mum, parent, receptionist, porter …
• The importance of bringing your whole self to work, and overcoming the barriers
• Perfection, imperfection … and mess: we all learn so much more when there is honesty, openness and vulnerability
• Valuing education - and indeed lifelong education!
• Threading Q & A between different participants and encouraging #IntentionalCoffee ☕️☕️

Hot off the press:
Online Postgraduate Education in a Postdigital World Beyond Technology
Tim Fawns (editor), Gill Aitken (editor), Derek Jones (editor)
1st Edition 2021

There is an eBook version arriving soon, and Tim very kindly said that anyone who can't get it through an institutional library should get in touch (which you can do via Twitter @timbocop - https://twitter.com/timbocop), and there are some free pre-print versions of some of the chapters available via ResearchGate, Acaedmia.edu and authors’ personal web pages.