How do we become a digitally sustainable SIG? Here is a Call to Action – please contribute
Kathleen Calder, Paul Astles, Maeve Malone, Louise Walters, Catriona Matthews, Joanna Brown, Geraldine Foley, Edzia Carvalho, Irina Niculescu
Meet the SIG
The Association for Learning Technology’s, Digital Sustainability SIG is an innovative new practice sharing group which is in the initial stages of planning for the sharing of initiatives, guidance, good practice and knowledge with the digital learning community. The SIG Officers have been meeting regularly to plan and discuss how to support sharing knowledge across our environmentally conscious community.
We represent academics and researchers, learning designers and technologists, reflecting different disciplines including medicine and health, law, politics, technology and digital skills. We are on an educational, practical and information-gathering journey looking at how to frame, harness and share knowledge on what ‘digital sustainability’ means, and lead by example.
Progress so far
In the group we have been reflecting on our own practices and exploring how we can connect with and support others in the sector. We have grand ambitions and have already made some progress. Here are some examples of what we have been working on:
- Developing a digital sustainability toolkit
- Feeding into the review of JISC’s Introduction to Digital Sustainability learning module
- Feeding into ALT’s Framework for Ethical Learning Technology update
We have also been planning:
- a social media strategy which focuses on sharing insights and resources via ALT blogs and our LinkedIn channel
- our first online webinar, which will explore the meaning of digital sustainability, why it matters, and showcase related projects and examples of work in this area including responsible uses of GenAI
Topics of interest and challenges we have identified:
In our monthly meetings we have discussed many different topics including challenges and areas of interest relating to digital sustainability such as the sustainability of AI tools.
One of the main areas that we have been pondering is how we can model digital sustainability as a SIG, for example through our choice of digital platforms. We are still in the process of untangling this knotty problem and will be sharing our progress through our blogs and social media. If you have any suggestions of how to approach this, or have experience you can share we would love to hear from you!
Call to action
You may have seen that our SIG has been spotlighted in the September Digital Sustainability newsletter published by JISC. We included as part of that piece a ‘Call to Action’ which we are ending this blog with also. We know there is already plenty of good practice out there and so we are asking those of you who are interested and want to collaborate on future blogs, webinars or resources to get in touch with us. If you aren’t quite ready to collaborate then please still get in touch. We would like to hear what you as the “Digital Sustainability” community are looking for.
To join the group and be kept up to date with the news and events, subscribe to the ALT-DigitalSustainabilitySIG mailing list.
Finally, those of you who wish to lead by example on ‘Digital Sustainability’, please share your voice.
Blog post (Kathleen Calder and Paul Astles and Officers): https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/category/digital-sustainability-sig/#gref
Social Media Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digital-sustainability-sig-association-for-learning-technology-alt/
We hope to publish a series of Blogs, based on our journey to share our experience with those interested in deepening their knowledge on “digital sustainability” and applying good practice to their professional pathways.
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