We are Virtually Connecting from the Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship conference, taking place at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland on Friday 19th July 2019. This year’s conference theme is active and playful learning for all and we have two exciting keynotes who will be sharing their thoughts with us.

We will be virtually connecting directly from a ‘fish bowl’ session during the conference, which demonstrates to conference attendees how Virtually Connecting hallway conversations work. Participants in the session will be able to observe a live Virtually Connecting session and the ‘inner circle’ of the fish bowl will consist of those participating via YouTube Live Google Hangout. The workshop audience and those watching the live stream will be the ‘outer circle’.

You can find information about the keynote speakers and the programme on the conference website. Follow the conference tweets at #ESLTIS19.

If you’re interested in joining the conversation online, tweet us @vconnecting or leave a comment below. We’ll ask for your email address so we can send you a link to the session just before it goes live. The session time is local to the conference site in Edinburgh, but our timebuddy widget shows you the time adjusted to your timezone. See the YouTube live event embedded below to watch the session live or recorded if you can’t make it into the session itself.

Friday 19 July, 10am-11am GMT +1 (UK time)

Our onsite guests for the fishbowl session will be the keynotes Stephanie (Charlie) Farley from University of Edinburgh and Julie Rattray, Associate Professor in Higher Education at Durham University. Louise Drumm from Edinburgh Napier University will also be onsite, and Virtual Buddy Maha Bali, Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC) will be online.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBBv8vy30S0&w=560&h=315]

 

How to Participate

If you’re new to Virtually Connecting, read more about us.

You can participate virtually in any of the following ways:

1. Active session participation: be a participant in these sessions and talk to the guests and other participants. To do so, you need to register by tweeting to us @VConnecting or leaving a comment below. One of us will contact you to get your email address, and then you will get a confirmation email a day or so before the event, and a link to participate in the Google hangout around half an hour before the event. All you need in order to do this is to have working audio on your computer (update your hangouts plugin) or phone/tablet (update your Hangouts app). You can also participate in the session and communicate with other session guests via text chat (this will be seen by people inside the session but not those outside the session; but the virtual buddy will occasionally read out what you wrote or invite you to say it out loud).
2. Watch and tweet: watch the session live (see the embedded videos above or go to our YouTube channel). If you choose to Tweet along, please tag @VConnecting and add the conference hashtag. One of our buddies is likely to pick up on your questions on Twitter and relay them to the participants in the live session.
3. Watch the recording later: watch the session recorded (again, same embedded videos above, or our YouTube channel).
4. Become a buddy: If after you’ve participated you’d like to join our team and help organize future events, become a “buddy” by joining Virtually Connecting. We’ll add you to our Slack team which we use for this purpose.

Are you physically at the conference?

If you are attending the conference and wondering what’s for me, stop by the session during the conference at 10am on Friday July 19, or connect with onsite buddy Louise Drumm. We would love to have you join the fish bowl!

You don’t have to appear on camera. We would love for you to come by, listen to the conversation, take pictures, and tweet about the experience (don’t forget to tag us @VConnecting and use the conference hashtag).