Eli – Eli Appleby-Donald

Author: Eli

someone using laptop image by University of Edinburgh

Using my blog as a medium for some self development: a project on digital skills

May 17, 2019 by Eli 2 comments

Reading Time: 2 minutes Today I start something which will give my blog a bit of direction for a while, but which I am really hoping will help me push the boundaries of my digital skills. Digital skills is quite a focus at work just now, the Scottish Government published it’s learning and teaching strategy, which basically aims to make it possible to allow all of Scotland’s educators, learners and parents to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technology in order to raise attainment, ambition and opportunities for all.

planning a blog theme image by Eli Appleby-Donald 2019

Digital academia

How do you get your blog to look like that?

May 16, 2019 by Eli 0 comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes I use blogging as a way of gaining thinking space, so having my own hosting means I can make and delete blogs as need be. It also means I can use some pretty cool themes which is probably the most asked question I get. How do you make your blog look like that?

studio taught class at Edinburgh College of Art

Research

A place where learning happens, a pedagogy and a construct: studio

May 11, 2019 by Eli 0 comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes When you work in learning and teaching, it’s bread and butter to discuss pedagogy over coffee at least once a week (maybe that should be scone and butter then), but when you work in learning and teaching in an art college, that conversation usually confuses the hell out of people. […]

about me

Life list, bucket list, it doesn’t matter so much what you call it, more that it motivates you.

April 28, 2019 by Eli 0 comments

Reading Time: 2 minutes How many times have you said, “Oh I’d love to try…” or “I’d love to visit…” or “I wish I could learn…”? Well a life list is a nudge in the direction of achieving these things. A life list or some people say bucket list) or wish list is simply […]

pile of papers by Eli Appleby-Donald 2019

Research, Student life

It’s just a jump to the left…..a quick introduction to my current research project

April 23, 2019 by Eli 0 comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m taking a bit of a detour today to talk about some research I’m currently wrestling with. It seems to constantly be at the front of my thoughts and I see it rear its head at every opportunity so seems fitting that I share it here too. The short blurb […]

sage in the greenhouse by Eli Appleby-Donald 2019

Digital academia

Sage advice in a blogging chat – and it didn’t come from the garden blogger

April 5, 2019 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 2 minutes I am very happy to say the crisis is over. Although lets be honest, the shape of the world right now means I have no right to use the word crisis when I talk about something as trivial as not writing a blog post. Sheesh! Perspective, right? Let’s instead refer […]

teaching with tech

Formative assessments are pointless

March 30, 2019 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 3 minutes I work in a school (in a university) which uses formative assessment, a lot. Almost every course we run has an assessment part of the way through the year where students receive feedback but no grade, but I am fully aware that to others this seems crazy and I’ve even […]

Digital academia

Why do I blog? Time for some reflection.

March 20, 2019 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 5 minutes I have been asked to take part in a podcast about blogging and normally I’d be very up for this and could, to be honest, chat the legs of a donkey. However, I’m being asked to chat about my professional blogging practice, namely this blog. This puts me in a […]

Digital academia

Not sure if blogging is your thing? Here’s why it should be…

December 18, 2018 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 3 minutes Blogging seems to have reared its head at work again, with a new centrally supported platform being launched, but it’s one of those weird things that I take for granted and yet I’m amazed at how many folk who surround me can’t imagine why they would or even how they […]

Students in Classroom in Keene New Hampshire – Creator unknowm – Copyright public domain

teaching with tech

Multimodal assignments – you are probably doing this already

October 26, 2018 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 7 minutes This semester has been an exciting one with the launch of some new teaching and learning tools, new curriculum designs and new courses. This seems to have brought a real buzz about, especially to the fancy new cafe where we’ve had many, many a chat about digital multimodal tools to […]

Photo by: Paul Dodds 2016 https://www.pauldodds.com/

teaching with tech

Standardisation, safe and comforting or driving out creativity in teaching?

September 26, 2018 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 8 minutes The higher education sector is vast and in many instances the institutions themselves are trying to find the best ways to cope with extraordinarily large class sizes and student volumes, but obviously without wishing to recruit vast numbers of staff or create an endless loop of administrative burden onto those […]

Digital academia, teaching with tech

A day in the life of a learning technologist

August 8, 2018 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 3 minutes I have procrastinated far too long about what my first post on my new blog should be and decided why not just introduce me and what I do with a bit of a “day in the life of…”. This may prove more difficult than I first imagined though as to […]

Digital academia, teaching with tech

Thank you for taking the time to say thank you: EUSA Teaching Award

February 22, 2018 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 1 minute It has been a very, very long time since I blogged here and I am royally ashamed of this. I just let things get in the way and stopped taking time to sit down and actively share. Today, however, something happened which gave me a bit of a jolt and […]

Digital academia

Accessible documentation: why and how

July 18, 2016 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s that time of year where those of us working in education are preparing for the coming academic year and one of these jobs is creating the new administration and learning material needed. This is a good time to have a review of the materials you have and update or […]

Shared under Creative Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_mini_globe_handheld.jpg

teaching with tech

Wikipedia – for teaching and learning

July 9, 2016 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 2 minutes Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That’s our commitment. That is the vision statement of the world’s largest open educational resource Wikipedia. Just in case there is anyone out there who hasn’t heard of Wikipedia, it’s a massive free online […]

Title:Young girl reading a book, Central Circulating Library at College and St. George Streets, Toronto, Ontario Creator(s) : Unknown Date(s) : 1930-1960 Reference No: MIKAN 4369745, 4369827

teaching with tech

Open Education and my adventure with learning

June 20, 2016 by Eli Comments are Disabled

Reading Time: 3 minutes In the blog post where I introduced myself I spoke about my childhood obsession with information, or more precisely my obsession with gaining information. In my childhood, this meant hours spent in local libraries pouring through encyclopedias. This was so much a part of who I was, that almost every […]