<p>ALT North West England Members Group Networking meeting hosted by the University of Liverpool Centre for Innovation in Education.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://www.alt.ac.uk/sites/alt.ac.uk/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/i... style="width: 700px; height: 87px;" /></p>

<p>We are excited to be an event partner of this year&#39;s THE Digital Universities UK at the University of Leeds. ALT Members are eligible to register for the event at a discounted rate.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong><big>Co-creation and engagement: How can we make the learning experience more open, inclusive and equitable?</big></strong></p>

<p>Join Professor Helen O&#39;Sullivan,&nbsp;Tharindu Liyanagunawardena, Scott Farrow and&nbsp;Margaret Korosec&nbsp;to discover effective strategies to promote a more open, inclusive and equitable learning environment with students as co-creators.<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>Learn new methods for co-creating curricula and activities with students</li>
<li>Create a safe, inclusive space for communities to collaborate</li>
<li>Ensure your tools and technologies are accessible and compliant&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Find out more about the speakers and our session <a href="https://www.timeshighered-events.com/digital-universities-uk-2023/agenda... target="_blank" title="Link to THE event website">on the conference website</a>.</strong></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://www.alt.ac.uk/sites/alt.ac.uk/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/i... style="width: 500px; height: 157px;" /></p>

<p>Digital Universities UK will be hosted in partnership with the University of Leeds on 17-20 April<br />
2023, will bring together higher education, industry and policy leaders working at the intersection of academic innovation and technology under one roof.</p>

<p>The event will present the latest challenges and opportunities of digital-first higher education along<br />
with cutting-edge start-ups and ideas that will reshape the future, forever.</p>

<p>Attendees can expect keynotes, interactive panels, live demonstrations, intimate discussions,<br />
practical workshops, unparalleled networking and much more.</p>

<p><br />
<strong>Themes:</strong><br />
- Accelerating the digital campus<br />
- Human-centred student experience<br />
- Digitally transforming the research experience<br />
- Teaching, learning and assessment innovations</p>

<p><br />
<strong>What to expect:</strong><br />
40+ sessions, 100+ speakers and 500+ attendees</p>

<p>This will be an opportunity for POC colleagues to voice out ideas on sponsorship and visibility ( e.g. in activities, events, committees, etc) and also for line managers to reflect on practices in place in their department and institution.</p>

<p>Small group discussion</p>

<ul>
<li>Why is the representation of POC colleagues who work in junior roles important?</li>
<li>Whose responsibility is it to sponsor and create visibility for these colleagues?</li>
<li>Why are POC colleagues more likely to stay in junior roles/not be promoted?</li>
<li>How to increase visibility in your department? What tips can you share? How to overcome challenges you (may) face?</li>
<li>How to increase visibility in your institution? What tips can you share? How to overcome challenges you (may) face?</li>
<li>How to increase visibility outside your institution (e.g. ALT conferences, etc)?&nbsp;What tips can you share? How to overcome challenges you (may) face?</li>
<li>Participants are encouraged to think about these answers prior to the event so that tips can be shared with cross-institutional colleagues on the day.</li>
<li>This event will not be recorded and participants will be expected to abide by ALT&#39;s values along with the (revised) principles of ARLT SIG.</li>
</ul>

<p><img alt="" src="https://www.alt.ac.uk/sites/alt.ac.uk/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/i... style="width: 400px; height: 31px;" /></p>

<p>Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join our Mastodon server and have some fun! As always, should you or any member misbehave, the Server will disavow any knowledge of your actions (and ban you). Good luck.</p>

<p>ALT and Reclaim EdTech are a group of rogue nerds who have stolen a Mastodon server and are opening it up to other interested folks. They will be running live online sessions which you are tasked to intercept. The sessions are open to all and free to attend so you will have no issues accessing them. The sessions will offer others interested in Mastodon with an introduction to joining a Mastodon server, help them find their way around and also take a peek behind the scenes of the moderating and hosting process. We need you to intercept the sessions, participate and report back.</p>

<ul>
<li>Session 1: Mission briefing: 19 January 2023 at 16:00 GMT</li>
<li>Session 2: Verifying your progress: 23 February 2023 at 16:00 GMT</li>
<li>Session 3: 30 days until self-destruct: 23 March 2023 at 16:00 GMT</li>
</ul>

<p>The server may self-destruct once the mission is over but that will depend on its success.</p>

<h2>Mission briefing - 19 January 2023 at 16:00 GMT</h2>

<p>In this session we will show you:</p>

<ul>
<li>How to sign up to the server</li>
<li>How to find other people (talk about federation)</li>
<li>How to post (who sees it?)</li>
<li>How to manage your profile</li>
<li>How to report content</li>
<li>How to become a moderator</li>
</ul>

<h2>Why are we doing this?</h2>

<p>ALT and Reclaim EdTech are partnering to offer our communities the opportunity to explore Mastodon starting in January 2023. The server we set up will act as a platform for our communities to explore and get to know Mastodon. The server will be temporary, but depending on what we learn along the way, we will decide how to proceed. So, whether you are completely new to the fediverse, or looking for other edtech folk to connect with, join us to explore and learn together.</p>

<p>ALT and Reclaim EdTech are already active on Mastodon, and many in our communities are, too. We are looking to learn more about how we can support folk in this space, how community servers might function, how they could be moderated and what the costs involved might be, too.</p>

<p>This is an opportunity to learn more about being active on Mastodon as well as learning about setting up, hosting and moderating servers for communities like ours and complement what we can learn from already established communities and servers with hands-on experience.&nbsp;</p>