Author Felicity Healey-Benson

#hNL21 Phenomenology of Practice Workshop success

Felicity Healey-Benson 2 Comments

It’s a wrap: you know it was good when people don’t want to leave 🙂 just a small capture of a very full conference but a tardy group pic in the final seconds..

Less than 24 hours ago, we closed down our screens on the successful finale of the hanfod.NL inaugural 2x half day conference. Mike and I would therefore like to take the opportunity to officially thank Professor Cathy Adams for the generous investment of time and energy in the planning and delivery of her outstanding ‘Phenomenology of Practice’ workshop, which is in addition to the contributions as hanfod.NL’s ‘Ffenomenolegydd Preswyl’/’Phenomenologist in Residence‘. The bar has been set high for future events. Thanks also go to Professor Nina Bonderup Dohn, for the lead on our research plans and the wealth of advice on the day-to-day running of hanfod.NL. We must also credit our expert workshop facilitation support, Dr Joni Turville, Dr Begoña Errasti, Dr Iris Yin, and doctoral students, Janine Chesworth and Gillian Lemermeyer.

A big thank you to the Networked Learning Conference Consortium, its co-chairs, Professor Thomas Ryberg and Professor Maarten de Laat, who sponsored and supported our event. The very valuable inputs of NLC’s Stine Randrup Nielsen and Morten Kattenhøj must also be recognised.

We were so grateful to have such a wonderful delegate community drawn from many countries, and look forward to continuing to nourish the new relationships forged. 

A quote from one of the participants:

It was a pleasure and a privilege to attend the workshop. I enjoyed the clear explanations making such a complex field as phenomenology and the equally complex theoretical constructs it sets forth “easy” to follow. Awesome phenomenological dive. So thought-provoking and evoking! 

Thank you, Diolch.

Felicity and Mike

The phenomenology trail – hNL21 to NLC22 Sweden

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In less than a week we look forward to #hNL21. Here, Professor Nina Bonderup Dohn, University of Southern Denmark, takes us through the research links between hanfod.NL and our event sponsor, the Networked Learning Conference Consortium. Timelines, short & longer term plans, and research & book ambitions.

Exciting times.

Looking forward to seeing all our registered participants next week – those registered already can make use of our communication channels and files access.

In the words of Nina ‘Phenomenology is here to stay in Networked Learning’.

Looking forward – the trail from #hNL21 online to NLC22 in Sweden

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

#hNL21 Merleau-Pontian lens vlog

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Just 3 weeks until #hNL21 and we share a new vlog contribution, this time from Professor Nina Bonderup Dohn, University of Southern Denmark. Nina’s shares a brief introduction to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and discusses focus points in a Merleau-Pontian investigation of networked learning.

It is through our bodies that we are “at grips with the world” (Merleau-Ponty [1945] 1962, 353)

All our vlog contributors are ‘Voices from the River’ – ‘Lleisiau o’r Afon’.

We continue to wish to hear and learn from those who have already taken to phenomenology’s ‘waters’, who can draw us in and along with as we learn with them.

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

#hNL vlog suite spoilers

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Another week passes, just a month until #hNL21, so we tantalisingly dangle some of the VLOGs housed inside our #hNL21 MS Teams Event Vlog Suite – an opportunity to explore, showcase and celebrate what a phenomenological lens can bring to Networked Learning.

We tease with two vlogs:
Associate Professor Jesper Aagaard of Aarhus University, Denmark shares how phenomenology can help us ‘open up’ established research fields and
Dr. Joni Turville, University of Alberta, Canada, provides an overview of a phenomenological/post-phenomenological doctoral research project.

We are super excited by the growing VLOG Suite inspired by Heidegger’s analogy – We shall never learn what “is called” swimming … or what it “calls for,” by reading a treatise on swimming. Only the leap into the river tells us what is called swimming’ (Heidegger, 1968:21).

All our vlog contributors are ‘Voices from the River’ – ‘Lleisiau o’r Afon’.

We continue to wish to hear and learn from those who have already taken to phenomenology’s ‘waters’, who can draw us in and along with as we learn with them.

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

Co-chair of the Network Learning Conference Consortium embraces summer of ’21 node events

Felicity Healey-Benson 1 Comment

Only 5 weeks to hNL21 online (10-11 June) and this week Mike and I met with Professor Thomas Ryberg, of Aalborg University, Denmark.

Thomas shares his journey in ‘Networked Learning’, and the origins and special energy of the Networked Learning Conference community, of which he is co-Chair. With him, we discuss aspirations for the interim node events and the joy of embracing the opportunity to ‘geek out’ with the #hNL21 on phenomenology this summer. As Thomas wisely summarises, in the context of the NLC encouraging new research endeavours, “let your children run wild and free, because as the old saying goes, let your children run wild and free.”

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

hNL21 Vlog: In conversation with Assoc. Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård

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Week 3 of our countdown to hNL21 online (10-11 June) and this week, Mike and I have the joy of sharing our mesmerising conversation with Rikke Toft Nørgård, Associate Professor in Educational Design & Technology, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Rikke enthusiastically shares her personal and researcher journey with phenomenology, which began with her doctoral study on gameplay corporeality, discovering bodies in games. Influenced by the work of Merleau-Ponty, and our very own Professor Nina Bonderup Dohn, a beautiful edition, we think, to our ‘Voices from the River/Lleisiau o’r Afon’ hNL21 conference VLOG suite.

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

Preview of hNL21 Phenomenology of Practice workshop

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Week 2 of our countdown to hNL21 online (10-11 June), and we are thrilled to share a preview of our Phenomenology of Practice workshop led by Professor Cathy Adams of the University of Alberta. Cathy employs Max van Manen’s ‘Phenomenology of Practice’, post-phenomenology, media ecology and related socio-material approaches in her qualitative inquiries of technologies in teaching and learning.

Cathy has made a remarkable contribution to the field, and to hanfod.NL in particular and we are proud, as our Ffenomenolegydd Preswyl/Phenomenologist in Residence’, Cathy kicks stars our very first conference gathering, and sharing an example of one practice example of swimming in phenomenology’s ‘waters’.

Thanks to the generous support of the Networked Learning Conference Consortium and the online nature of the event, the event is free, but pre-registration is mandatory.  See  our Event Registration page for details.

Countdown to hNL21 begins

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We shall never learn what “is called” swimming … or what it “calls for,” by reading a treatise on swimming. Only the leap into the river tells us what is called swimming’ (Heidegger, 1968:21).

It is with much excitement Mike and I kickstart the countdown to the Networked Learning Consortium sponsored node event – hNL21. We have just 8 weeks to go before we join Professor Catherine Adams and Professor Nina Bonderup Dohn for a two-session ‘Max van Manen Phenomenology of Practice’ online workshop.

Over the oncoming weeks we will be sharing some of our video logs (VLOGs) covering our broad theme drawn from Heidegger’s analogy, ‘Voices from the River’ – ‘Lleisiau o’r Afon’ – short captures from people who have already taken to phenomenology’s ‘waters’, who can draw us in and along, as we learn with them. The VLOG suite amounts to our invitation to explore, showcase, and celebrate, what a phenomenological lens can bring to Networked Learning.

Our first VLOG share comes directly from Mike and me, an introduction and discussion on some of the influences and events that led to the birth of hanfod.NL.

Felicity.

Titles and posts

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Chair Change

hanfod.NL was generously supported by our Chair, Morten Kure Kattenhøj, as we came into being last year. Sadly for us all, he had to step back due to a departmental reorganisation. We want to thank Morten for his vital initial support in the early days, including in the run-up to the last conference.

We are delighted to announce his successor: Professor Nina Bonderup-Dohn. With Nina as Chair, hanfod.NL has a vital umbilical connection with the Networked Learning Conference Consortium. Nina has already gifted her wealth of advice but the day-to-day running of hanfod.NL is still being handled by Mike and Felicity.

‘hanfod.NL Ffenomenolegydd Preswyl’ – Phenomenologist in Residence

Along with appointing a new Chair, we acknowledge the contribution of Professor Cathy Adams. It’s thus both fitting and exciting that Cathy has agreed to take up the position of ‘hanfod.NL Ffenomenolegydd Preswyl*’- Phenomenologist in Residence’, a nominal post for two years initially. This is probably the first-ever time that this phrase has been coined. We recognise the remarkable contribution that Cathy has made to the field, and to hanfod.NL in particular. When we started hanfod.NL we could not have imagined that someone as prominent and prestigious as Cathy would give so generously and patiently of her time to run several many hours-long meetings with us, helping us develop our phenomenological practice. We thank Cathy for her work, support and openness to work with scholars of different hues.

*Ffenomenolegydd Preswyl – for our non-Welsh speakers

/fɛnɒmɛnoˈlɛgɨð ˈprɛswɪl/ (IPA version – international phonetic alphabet)

fen-om-en-ol-egi-the prez-wil (COG version – common or garden – note that the underlines indicate an emphasis on the penultimate syllable and that the ‘the’ is trying to get you to pronounce the Welsh letter ‘dd’, so, a bit like ‘th’ as in ‘the’ (i.e. try saying ‘them’ without the ’em’).

Hanfod: Networked Learning & Phenomenology

Felicity Healey-Benson

10-11 June CARDIFF 2021

Supported by the ‘NETWORKED LEARNING CONFERENCE CONSORTIUM‘, we are proud to announce that the 1st Networked Learning & Phenomenology Event (HanfodNL&P2021) will take place in Cardiff in Wales.

Hosted by Dr Mike Johnson & Felicity Healey-Benson, we look forward to welcoming you in 2021.

Join us to help define and shape phenomenology’s place and contribution to networked learning. At Hanfod, (the welsh word for ‘essence’) we hope to seed a vibrant community of phenomenological enquiry within this context.

“Neither phenomenology nor swimming can be learnt in a purely vicarious way. ‘We
shall never learn what “is called” swimming … or what it “calls for,” by reading a
treatise on swimming. Only the leap into the river tells us what is called swimming’
(Heidegger, 1968, p. 21″. (Quay, 2016, p486).

Event Preview:

Day 1: Thursday 10th June 2021

8.30am (GMT+1): Registration/Welcome

9.15am-4.15pm (GMT+1): Max Van Manen’s ‘Phenomenology of Practice’ Workshop led by Professor Catherine Adams

As one example of phenomenological research, Professor Adams interactive phenomenological research and writing workshop.

7pm (GMT+1) Delegates are invited to join us for a Welsh Banquet at Cardiff Castle. £54 (3-course meal, half a bottle of wine per person (or soft drinks) and traditional and contemporary songs in both English and Welsh).

Day 2: Friday 11th June 2021

9am-10.45am (GMT+1) ‘Voices from the River’ Pecha Kutcha (open to all phenomenological approaches)

Details on how to ‘submit a Petcha Kutcha’

11am-4pm (GMT+1): Writing workshop

In writing groups, delegates will prepare potential contribution to a ‘phenomenology symposium’ at the Thirteenth International Conference on Networked Learning (NLC2022), Sundsvall, Sweden

There are no fees for event attendance but pre-registration to this limited capacity event is required. Day 1 attendance is a prerequisite of day 2.

FURTHER DETAILS & EVENT REGISTRATION TO FOLLOW