 What those impacts are like and I'm really looking forward to this talk. So I'm going to turn on the The recordings on that's good. So without further ado, this is Irina Nikolescu from UCL and Yes You okay to take us forward with us. Yes. Yes, of course. Hi. Hi everyone. Welcome. Thank you so much for Joining us today. I am going to share my screen So we can we can start the session Okay And I load the slides. Can you see my slides in full screen? Yeah, that's okay. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So yeah Thank you so much, Jim again for inviting me today. This is really exciting and I'm really glad that we have this hour to talk about Digital education and systems thinking. I'm a senior learning technologist at UCL I previously worked at the University of Surrey as a learning designer and manager and the outline for today's session is Is We're gonna start with like a short overview of systems thinking Also look at the high level definition Then we're gonna move on to an individual activity. So we get to know each other better and see who joins today's session and why After that I'm gonna Present a little bit about why I think Systems thinking is very relevant to digital education And then my favorite part will be a group activity. Hopefully it will be your favorite part as well We're gonna get a chance to actually practice using a systems thinking model and look at some Challenges that we're having in education Then when I wrap up with a group discussion and talk about potential next steps So what I am really hoping from today's session For those of you who are completely new or fairly new to systems thinking Is for this session to act as a taster to give you a really a short introduction to this For the more experienced colleagues I hope you get a chance to collaborate and share some of your insights and experiences with systems thinking and Lastly for us in the wired a wild Wider digital education field. Did I just say wild digital education field? Yeah, probably that's that's also that's applicable Discuss whether systems thinking is an approach that could help us and see whether anyone else wants to explore this more But before I say systems thinking one more time I just want to make sure we have a working definition for today because there are so many ways of defining systems thinking But I chose this one today. It's very popular one in the field by Peter Senga And this is the systems thinking is a discipline for seeing holes And it is a framework for seeing Interrelationships rather than things and also for seeing patterns of change Rather than static step shots And again adding to that definition a way of understanding systems thinking is also by looking at a different type of thinking such as linear thinking or analytic thinking And I just want to make a disclaimer that I think that linear analytic thinking and systems thinking are equally valuable However, a lot of things in our culture and working environments tend to promote and reward linear thinking a bit more So this is why we have to be more intentional with developing a systems thinking approach So for example when we're working or we are in a meeting try to focus not just on the elements But maybe on the relationship between these elements as well So this is a snapshot of a screenshot from the session that Jim mentioned at the start of the of the talk This is where we first met as part of this GIST digital community of practice event I proposed looking at the GIST digital capabilities framework through a systems lens by suggesting some questions that can help us think about the relationships between parts of the framework and Afterwards Jim reached out and invited me to collaborate. So I just want to say a quick. Thank you For this again, Jim. It's much appreciated and Thank you again everyone who joined today. Let's let's see Before we move on to the Mentimeter, we find out more about each other. I'm going to tell you a bit about my journey with systems thinking so even without realizing My journey with this started as part of my undergrad in sociology and film Because the theories that I was really interested in Took a systems lens approach such as intersectionality Then in my master's in higher education and learning design through learning about educational theories and also Having a lot of practice with learning design patterns and workshops and frameworks I got to see the relevance and importance of of systems thinking a lot more and then by working in higher education for nearly 10 years and having Different roles and learning designer technologies manager also doing teaching and research And especially by working on university-wide projects. I often found myself benefiting from pausing and stepping back and seeing what I can use and abstract from Different approaches that look at the relationship between things so Lastly throughout my journey and this will be the case. I think I Don't know even after I retired because I am a lifelong learning nerd and I will continue Getting involved in projects even outside of work such as the design justice network or You know, just two courses that are related to systems thinking Okay, so now I'm gonna stop sharing screen After Actually, if I stop sharing screen, you might not be able to get a QR code So Jimmy if you could put the link to the Mentimeter activity in the chat, please So people who want to Join via the link can do that. Otherwise, please feel free to get your device your phone and I'm on it. I'm on your code Okay, there we go. Perfect Stop sharing Here we go. I can see people are joining and voting excellent Okay So yeah, the first question is really to see How long have you personally known about systems thinking? I will give this Few more seconds I can see results are still coming through That's quite a few people who have known about it for more than 10 years It's fairly exciting and equally exciting Many people who are learning about it today I'm somewhere in between five to ten years currently Okay, let's move on to the next question Just really curious in what context you Discovered systems thinking and was it as part of a course or some CPD from a colleague or in a in a work context outside of work By working on different projects or maybe in different fields, which aren't related to education Or was it just like randomly on Twitter or Through an article or a book. I if I remember well I think the first time I heard about systems thinking as a field as a theory. It was through a work context through colleagues at theory So I can see that actually from a colleague and through a work context is Most popular option Okay Great. Let's move on to the next question Really curious to to hear why did you join today's session Want to learn about systems thinking? Do you want to connect with other people who are interested in This approach Could be more than one reason as well or not as I can see someone said in the chat. Okay Fantastic, I think there's one more question that I prepared. So just select all that applied to you This is again just to understand a bit more about who do we have today Joining us. Is it them people who are new to systems thinking? Do we have anyone who's teaching and or researching systems thinking or something related and How many of you regularly attend events related to this? Or have done projects where taking a systems lens approach was helpful. Okay, so got most people Who joined today because you want to learn about systems thinking and I think eight people said they've done projects We're taking a systems lens was helpful. So I'm just going to Stop sharing screen because I think now it'd be really lovely if those of you who have experienced using systems thinking at work or Outside of work could share a bit more about the context and was it helpful in what way Did it bring any challenges? So maybe we can start with one volunteer the end and systems thinking and education when it comes to to gen AI and That carbon footprint of that again That is another example of why systems thinking is useful because we're looking at this technology in relation to the wider context Education and beyond so thank you so much. Lorena. Hopefully I will keep in touch Anyone else wants to unmute and she going back to what you also said Jim at the start of the session. I think it's been related to what Roger said. I Can't remember how you phrase it exactly if you if you want to unmute but just a because I don't think everyone joined by that stage but you have the sense that maybe we are lacking approaches in digital education or or a common language or Toolkit or I don't know how we wish we could refer about it, but is this am I paraphrasing it right Jim? Yeah, perfect. Yeah, just It's all thinking tools isn't it? It's ways of looking at problems and we've I think we the Vocabulary and the different methodologies that we can use the the better So yeah Okay, amazing. I think we have time for one more person if there's I see people have been sharing by the chat as well, which is fabulous So Emma came in across came across this via masters and information systems. Yes, that's it's actually really established there and Okay, I'm just reading what Martha was saying about How it's interesting it helps us review ways of applying systems thinking in education Would you Emma or Martha would you want to add something? Or with anyone else want to share about their experience with systems thinking Okay, I think the fact that no one else is unmuting or putting their camera on it's a sign of It's okay No more sharing, but thank you so much everyone who has volunteered so far We go back to Sharing my screen. Okay. Can you see my PowerPoint again? Let's put someone unmute and confirm if I Thank you perfect Okay, so I Think I'm the blurb of the event I Mentioned there's a hyper on systems thinking but how someone mentioned in the chat actually systems thinking is Extremely established as a theory and also as a practice in so many disciplines and fields Yeah, some very popular examples are cybernetics engineering ecology biology Sociology, but the list goes on There's so many fields that use a systems thinking approach or something related such as I don't know complexity theory So we've got I think someone was also sharing about their experience with health care sustainability Got climate work and also many organizations nowadays are starting to highlight the importance of systems thinking and almost framing it as the skills that it Individuals would benefit from developing. So there's many articles from yeah Places like the UN or the World Economic Forum and a lot more design and research agencies that are actually even building roles around systems thinking so roles such as system innovation managers or system Changers so it's it's actually also becoming like a Role that you could have So this visual that I selected is overwhelming and has a lot of information on it But that's okay. The purpose of it is just to show you that it's a really complex field It's involved in the West from the 1940s Obviously the picture in the map would be even more exciting and complex if we took a non-western approach Which is something that I really want to focus on in the next years really understand a bit more Systems thinking through a non-western lens as well and get some references that aren't from the West So if anyone has any examples, please put them in the chat or share them by email later And I have included this resource and everything that I'm showing today in the slides that will be disseminated along with the recording So this is the part where I might come across a bit preachy. That's not my intention I'm just really passionate and have benefited from They taking a systems thinking approach while working in digital education Because I really think it can help us navigate complex problems Transitions through this postcode with fatigue that we are in the middle of and help us distinguish between urgency and a sense of urgency because I think especially with AI there is There is a lot that I think Sometimes can feel very urgent but in if you step back you could realize that actually maybe in some cases It's just a sense of urgency And I think because we have so many different roles in digital education, which is which is great However, sometimes we can work a bit more in silos If we were to use some of these frameworks from systems thinking we could collaborate more and maybe challenge some of these silos So maybe this could be a way forward for professional development for some people Who work in digital education and in higher education I Prepared this slide As a trigger warning because if you do end up Reading more about systems thinking after today's session you might come across a lot of jargon a lot of abstract theories and like You know with learning anything new there might be some discomfort and some difficult conversations But I think as as a community we can definitely learn and there's a lot that we can gain from from systems thinking so There's one last thing I prepared for us today before we move on to the group activity Which is some common distinctions that are used in systems thinking Across many fields so for example thinking about Holes as opposed to parts or relationships and Interconnectedness as opposed to looking at things in isolation or in a way. That's disconnected and I just want to say that Using and shifting towards using this systems lens can help us Navigate some some challenges But that doesn't mean to say again just going back to the disclaimer. I made that linear thinking is wrong or limited actually By focusing on something and sometimes even creating a silo it might be the best thing that we can do in that context The purpose of today's talk and the purpose of us upskilling ourselves in systems thinking is to offer another Perspective and another way of working with our challenges and being able to to shift between Working more in a linear and isolated in focused way and a more interconnected way I think can really help us with the and more increasingly more complex challenges We have in education and I'm sure that many of us Most of us on this call have used some of these distinctions maybe without realizing So I actually took two approaches from this visual Parts in isolation and holes in relationships And I prepared an example That hopefully is relevant to many of us on this call. So creating guidance for educational technology or digital tool If we look at that tool in isolation, we might end up providing only Detailed and linear written guidance that focuses mainly on the tool and on the technical aspects However, if we look at that tool in relationship with other tools and The learning and teaching context in which it exists We might end up using different delivery modes because we are acknowledging the workload and schedule of academics And we might also consider whether this tool overlaps with other tools and then maybe we need to acknowledge this in our guidance and Even create as a result of this acknowledgement a new set of resources Okay, so now Getting close to the group activity. I'm just gonna explain what we will be doing in breakout rooms So I prepared to this model which is used in a lot of systems thinking groups It's the iceberg model so It's encouraging us to acknowledge what's seen from the outside what's visible the tip of the iceberg so the event That's like an action something that happens and everyone can see and go a bit Underneath the surface and see what Was happening that led to that Event taking place. Were there any patterns like repeated behaviors any structures? formal or informal or mental models so by that we mean maybe values personal values or Beliefs that people have that led to that thing happening And this is a worked example with the iceberg model looking at a cold Which is what I'm pretty sure everyone on this on this cold caught a cold at some point and Using a systems lens to look at the cold in some situations maybe for some people They've been catching more colds when they've been sleeping less. So that's the pattern They sleep less they catch more colds, but then if we go Look at them in a bit more detail. What are some of the structures related to this? Maybe there's more stress at work. Maybe Some people aren't eating well or they have difficulty accessing healthy food and Then again, what could be a mental model that could lead to to these structures and patterns Happening maybe some people think that career is the most important piece of their identity or that the healthy food Is too expensive or that rest is for the unmotivated? So again, this is an example of taking something as common as a cold and applying the iceberg model For the group activity that we're gonna do in breakout rooms for five minutes Because the purpose isn't to get all the right answers but just to have a go at using this model and the systems lens to look at an educational challenge, so If you could please choose your own educational challenge in your group the more specific the better for this activity and then use the iceberg model and think about examples for each level you could maybe take notes or Maybe someone could just keep track of the examples you're Sharing in the group if you have any questions when you're in the breakout room if you're really stuck with the activity Please use the main chat and ask me a question. I'll get back to you via the chat And before we start the breakout rooms, I just want to say that I've prepared Some considerations some prompts for you to help you when you're in the breakout room So some questions that can help you analyze your educational challenge Through the level of patterns the level of structures and mental models and If you can decide what educational challenge you want to focus on There are some examples on this slide of Some yeah pre-prepared educational challenges that I'm sure Many of us have encountered or have yeah had experience tackling. So I'm going to Add this text to the chat So you can access it When you are in the breakout room Here we go. So now hopefully you can see the prompts for each level and Educational challenge examples. So you can access this chat from your breakout room at any point Jim whenever you're ready to start the breakout rooms for five minutes So we'll we'll come back at there's So for those who are new to systems thinking obviously maybe there's design thinking because that's also Commonly used in many fields. Maybe I learning design in our field It's also like futures thinking and I think combining Futures thinking that maybe is something that we would find helpful Jed like looking at different scenarios and then if the system is working well, how could we then Think about the future and what to introduce in the system so that we Increase the chances of that system developing into something that can match this future that we want to live in Don't know if that's too abstract, but I guess it's it's that sort of this sort of conversations that I think are so helpful for us to have in our field so Thank you. We have time for One more person Maybe just unmute don't look for the hand I know there's things in the chat as well. Sorry. I haven't been able to to follow that at the same time. So Thank you so much for this question. I'm I'm I think I'm going to Give a an example of just something also a bit like professional and personal. So I recently joined a new workplace a new University UCL and I Think it was really important to try to understand that this workplace is a system It's it's like a living organism and try to out to look beyond The people's job titles or or just like static strategy documents and try to identify a Bit more. What are some of yeah, the maybe values that my colleagues have and their mental models Some of their interest some of the actions that they're taking is outside of work or as part of work what? What meetings Occur very often or they're just trying to connect with with people and with the team at like different levels and for example let's say More of a strictly educational related Example would be with staff student partnership work. So for example If you want to work with a student to help you with I don't know to Review a course maybe that's a that's a common example If you are to use a systems lens you could then Think about maybe try to anticipate. Well, what? Maybe what could the student bring to this conversation? In terms of what what's happening now even thinking about the time of the year and the timetable how busy are they or Acknowledging that in higher education Students are not that often seen as experts when it comes to their own learning So maybe the student might feel a bit uncomfortable to share and be honest Because they might think they don't know enough and they don't want to you know for you to feel bad So then if you think about These may be patterns in our institutions and and mental models you could then Make sure you put in place some things so that the student feels more comfortable to share So I don't know if these examples are helpful Thank you very much. Thank you Okay so We have four minutes left, but I imagine people might have meetings at three o'clock and as much as I'd love to Continue the conversation today, thank you be good to to wrap up and just to have like Like a holiday in the spirit of the holiday I Prepared a gift for you. So this is going to be shared Via the slides. It's like a curated list of books and articles and Resources related to systems thinking and I've arranged them with like food in mind So if you're if you're looking for starters, maybe some videos or some more light touch articles about this if you're looking for more like yeah solid names or desserts are more hmm I think they're more complex and maybe a bit more detail So I don't know if I framed the desserts very well, but I was thinking you're already full, but you want to Learn more. That's how I thought about the desserts So if you want to continue a conversation informally we could just put your email in the chat Yes, we'll share the menu with you Like Jim said, we will circulate the recording and the slides And the menu via blog and we'll we will be emailing you So if you want to join like an informal Reading and practice group Put your email in the chat. We will save these emails and We can then See maybe I don't know if a couple of months we could meet for one hour online and Share if we came across any articles that were helpful or Bring a challenge and as a group see how how could we Apply systems thinking to that and if you don't feel like sharing your email today But at some point you feel like oh, yeah, maybe it'll be nice to join this this group get in touch with Lsig and then we'll we'll be able to Yeah, share details with you Thank you ever so much for Attending and I wonder if a little little sort of virtual round of applause might be good with people