Editorial for volume 22, number 1

Abstract

Whether in the workplace or anywhere else, the use of technologies of one kind or other impacts what we do, within it. A university is a workplace for us, academics and administrators, and it is in some ways a workplace for our students, who also need to take note of its norms and practices, and to adhere to whatever rules and regulations apply within it. A workplace, whether a university or any other, requires us to communicate with each other in a more formal way than is the case in our personal lives, whether this is using the medium of writing or instead via speaking to each other. Whilst speaking to each other was once confined to only either on the telephone or face to face in an office or some other on campus space, such is the technology these days that face to face now includes speaking to each other via technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and similar. Indeed, at the time of writing this editorial, whilst we are all still being affected in one way or another by the global pandemic, many of the formal meetings that, prior to this, were conducted on campus are now being conducted in the online environment, only. For many academics, this is very unfamiliar territory indeed, and it is not without its considerable challenges, particularly for those of us who are not used to either attending or running meetings online but, more importantly, have had little or no experience of running our lectures and seminars online, too, whilst sitting at home. As with everything in any workplace, had the transition been carefully planned, and had we had a satisfactorily long period of time for the necessary training and development needed to make the considerable changes needed, this may perhaps have been less of a culture shock for many of us. And, certainly, it would have meant less work to do in such an incredibly short timescale; making fundamental changes of the type required is hugely time and effort intensive, naturally enough.