Guest post – DigiLearn: The creation of a Microsoft Teams staff room and peer support sessions

Author: Sabina Gerrard – Senior Lecturer (School of Nursing)

After taking a year out from the teaching and learning environment, I returned to an overwhelming sense of change in digital technology. In just a year, I was hearing new terms like Microsoft Teams and Relay and was not sure what they involved.

The introduction of the Surface Pro technology paved the way to a different way of working but with it came the need to try and stay up to date with the changes and new technology. I spoke to other colleagues in my team to ask what they were using and how they were using it. I soon learnt that they were many colleagues feeling the same as I was, and many were finding it hard to engage with the changes. I therefore teamed up with a likeminded colleague who seemed to be in the know, and together we set up our team staff room in Teams. Initially we invited colleagues within our team to join but then added everyone in Adult Nursing.

As with everything, some colleagues could see the benefits while others needed more time to engage with the changes. To support the Teams staff space, we realised there was still a need for some face to face sessions where we could come together and learn with and from each other.

During our first peer group digital session we soon learned that we all used the technology in different ways and many of us knew lots of little bits that we could share. This led to a better understanding and as the peer group sessions were voluntary and presented as a safe place to learn together, lots of fun was had too, although the chocolate may possibly have had a large role to play!