In this podcast from the BSA Digital Sociology Group's July 16 seminar  Ben Baumberg (University of Kent) talks about his Inequalities blog. 

Ben Baumberg on Blogging

An Introvert's Guide to Post-Pandemic Networking

During the pandemic platforms like Zoom and Teams became central to the core operations of the university, enabling teaching and research to continue in the absence of face-to-face interaction. The radical change involved in what has been called the online pivot built upon a much longer term process of growing reliance upon digital infrastructure across higher education. Each operation of the university has been changed through cloud based services to the extent the university itself could be argued to increasingly resemble a platform, enabling individuals to work together at a distance while the system itself quietly shapes their interaction.

The online pivot wouldn’t have been possible without these platforms but there are crucial questions we must begin to ask as we move into a new phase of this crisis. How are decisions about them being made? How are they changing working life within universities? What influence do the firms operating them have over what we do? What does our institutional dependence on them mean for the future of the university?

Dr Janja Komljenovic, Professor Susan Robertson and Dr Ben Williamson will reflect on these questions in conversation with DTCE’s Dr Mark Carrigan, with plenty of opportunity for audience participation.

Does Big Tech have too much power in the post-pandemic university?

A brief introduction to the MA Digital Technologies, Communication & Education

By Milan Stürmer and Mark Carrigan 

It has been widely observed that the pandemic led to an enforced digitalisation in higher education. Familiar modes of interaction like meetings, seminars and conferences came to feel strange to most as mediation through video conferencing platforms like Zoom became the norm. Reflection on this phenomenon tends to imply a uniform experience which fails to recognise the range of experiences amongst academic staff during the pandemic. Through an experiment with glitching and medium specific noise we explore the role of audio in the unfolding of these developments. How much does the audio quality actually matter in our capacity and willingness to listen? And is it just a question of technical expertise or are formal considerations — a dialogue or a monologue, short form or long exposé — equally important? Through two monologues and a dialogue this contribution explores how our expectations of digital content are shaped along generational lines and across the digital divide.

Disrupting the post-pandemic university: an audio experiment

In an infamous article from 2008 the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine argued that ‘big data’ made the scientific method obsolete. While hype about the data deluge has become more nuanced since then, it is undeniable that digital data has led to profound transformations in social scientific methodology. Disciplines and fields such as Data Science, Computational Social Science, Critical Data Studies and Web Science have transformed the landscape of the social sciences. What do these changes mean for educational research and educational practice?

The field of Educational Data Science has grown rapidly in recent years but there are still large pockets of educational research in which qualitative, ethnographic and theoretical approaches predominate. What role can computational methods play within traditions of inquiry which have tended to forego quantification? What are the strengths and limitations of computational approaches? How do they differ from traditional quantitative methods? What should the methodological toolkit of the educational researcher look like in an era of abundant digital data?

In the first DTCE Digital Dialogue we’re pleased to welcome three leading experts in the field for a debate about computational methods and the future of educational research. Michele Martini (University of Lugano), Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra (University of California San Diego) and Genevieve Smith-Nunes (University of Cambridge) will reflect on these questions in conversation with DTCE’s Dr Mark Carrigan, with plenty of opportunity for audience participation.

Why do computational methods matter for education?

Changes in publishing, funding and expectations about academic career paths are converging with the expansion of digital technologies. Whereas traditionally trained sociologists and other academics may have once had the luxury of speaking to small audiences of specialized experts, the digital era, changing economic models and pressing social problems are creating a new set of expectations. From blogging to Twitter, academics are increasingly engaged in dialogue with wider publics that include public officials, the media, and society.     

Deborah Lupton on Sociological Sensibility & The Politics Of Digital Engagement

How To Keep Your Sociological Imagination Alive

The end is where we start from

In this podcast interview, we sit down with Ollie Brook, Curriculum Head for Business and Social Sciences at City of Glasgow College and Associate Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, to discuss his journey as a distance learning student on the MA in Digital Technologies, Communication and Education (MA DTCE) at the University of Manchester.

Ollie shares his motivations for pursuing the programme, highlighting how his passion for staying relevant in the rapidly evolving digital landscape and his desire to enhance his teaching practices led him to the MA DTCE. He discusses the practical benefits of the distance learning format, which allowed him to balance his studies with his professional responsibilities and family life.

Throughout the conversation, Ollie provides a candid look at the challenges and rewards of being a distance learner. He emphasises the engaging online lectures, collaborative discussions with diverse peers, and supportive guidance from dedicated tutors as key factors in his positive experience. Ollie also shares specific examples of how he has applied the knowledge and skills gained from the programme in his own curriculum development and course management roles.

Find out more about studying with us here: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/masters/courses/list/06954/ma-digital-technologies-communication-and-education/

What is it like to be a DTCE distance learner?

In this episode, we explore the innovative Sustainable EdTech Design unit offered within the MA in Digital Technologies, Communication and Education (MA DTCE) at the University of Manchester. Programme Director Mark Carrigan sits down with Susan Brown, Programme Director of the MA in Education for a Sustainable Environment, and Mandy Banks Gatenby, Lecturer on the MA DTCE, to discuss their groundbreaking approach to integrating sustainability perspectives into the design and development of educational technologies.

Susan and Mandy share insights into the unique structure of the unit, which brings together their diverse expertise to foster a dialogue between the often-conflicting worlds of agile technology development and sustainability education. They highlight the importance of creating a space for students to grapple with uncertainty, challenge assumptions, and develop the critical thinking skills needed to create educational technologies that prioritize both human and environmental well-being.

Throughout the conversation, Susan and Mandy emphasize the transformative potential of this unit, which equips students with the mindset and practical skills to become leaders in the field of sustainable edtech design. They also discuss the wider implications of this approach, arguing for the need to embed sustainability considerations across all aspects of digital education.
Whether you're an educator, learning technologist, or simply passionate about the future of education and sustainability, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into the cutting-edge of sustainable edtech design and the innovative teaching practices that are shaping the next generation of educational leaders.

Pioneering Sustainable EdTech Design: Insights from the MA DTCE 🌿💻

An introduction to social ontology given by Margaret Archer at a Centre for Social Ontology event in June 2014

What is social ontology? An introduction in 13 minutes by Margaret Archer

A recent talk about themes from my forthcoming monograph:

https://markcarrigan.net/2024/05/08/%f0%9f%93%a3-generative-ai-for-academics-coming-from-sage-later-this-year/

An introduction to GenAI for Academics in 15 Minutes

In this podcast recorded for the International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Deborah Lupton talks about her current work on sociological crowd sourcing and citizen ethnography. You can find out more about Deborah's work at https://simplysociology.wordpress.com/

Deborah Lupton on Sociological Crowd Sourcing and Citizen Ethnography

Carol Rivas, Daria Tkacz, Don Cruickshank

Large-scale surveys of patient experience typically include free-text responses. An example is the national Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES), which produces over 70,000 freetext comments from patients annually. Such data provide significant insights beyond those produced through survey closed questions yet are under-utilised, due to the resource-heavy processes involved in analysing them. CPES freetext for example is provided in unstructured form to service providers who then structure it in ad hoc and inconsistent ways that take so long that feedback to staff often occurs when the data are out of date. There has been discussion about the utility of these comments in the absence of an effective system to analyse them within a useful timeframe for service improvements. Text mining, a possible solution, which we have tried, still has many limitations. 

We have therefore developed an artificial intelligence type approach to automated analyses of survey freetext comments, using ‘text engineering’, that addresses the main issues involved in processing freetext Big Data. Our process provides literal themes that are suitable for service improvement and could also be used by researchers to develop more conceptual themes. 

Automation brings its own issues, and we have worked with the different stakeholders - patients, commissioners, managers and clinicians – to ensure that our analyses remain sensitive to the patient voice and retain a human ‘touch’. This paper will discuss the ways we have attempted to bridge the human-automaton divide to move beyond a Big Data-Small Data polarisation and develop a system for the future that can be transferred beyond the patient experience survey, using CPES as our first case. Our approach can encompass divergent epistemologies and is designed to cope with the rapid pace of change in textual content. 

PRESENT is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Delivery Research Programme (project number 14/156/15). The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the HS&DR, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health.

Automated ‘real time’ thematic analysis of large volume survey freetext responses

In this podcast I talk to Peter Walsh, who identified plagiarism (self and otherwise) in Zygmunt Bauman's work and made his findings public. Apologies for the poor sound, I hadn't expected that a light wind on a warm summer's day would have quite this effect on the audio quality.

A Conversation With Peter Walsh About Academic Celebrity

In this podcast I talk to Daniel Chernilo about philosophical sociology. This is a subject that has long fascinated me as someone who moved from philosophy to sociology as a postgraduate. Find out more in his new book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/debating-humanity/FFC72D8410704B44DFE5810B44778EC0

A conversation with Daniel Chernilo about Philosophical Sociology

In this podcast from the Centre for Social Ontology book launch in May 2017, Margaret Archer gives a comprehensive overview of the five year Morphogenic Society project.

Social Morphogenesis: Margaret Archer

In this podcast from the Centre for Social Ontology book launch in May 2017, Mark Carrigan reflects on his two contributions to the project.

Social Morphogenesis: Mark Carrigan

In this fireside chat from the Australian National University's Get #SoMe course, Mark Carrigan and Inger Mewburn discuss social media for academics, the challenges of digital scholarship and their significance when daily life is being transformed by Covid-19.

Social Media for Academics and Covid-19

In this podcast, we talk to Phillip Brooker about Programming as Social Science. This approach to social inquiry involves using programming as a toolkit for social research, facilitating a style of inquiry above and beyond particular research methods. At a time when we're dependent upon digital platforms for the core operations of the university, with face-to-face fieldwork being profoundly disrupted, this approach helps us move beyond treating platforms as blackboxes. It's a really innovative approach to methodology for digital social research which can help us get beyond the tendency to see digital methods as second best alternatives for disrupted fieldwork, inviting creative and expansive approaches to the challenges which we're currently faced with. If you're interested in finding out more, Phillip has written an accessible and engaging book and we jointly run the Programming as Social Science network: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/programming-with-python-for-social-scientists/book259581#description

Mark Carrigan interviews Phil Brooker about "Programming with Python for Social Scientists"

In this podcast recorded for @CamEdFac's Digital Learning Working Group, Mark Carrigan and Tyler Shores discuss digital wellbeing during the pandemic. What are the challenges we face? What tips and techniques can we use to address them in everyday life?

Mark Carrigan

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