Reading Time: 3 minutes I’m 45 and yesterday, for the first time in my life I stood on a picket line as part of the strike action by university staff happening at the moment. I have to be honest, it doesn’t sit easily with me, I feel very uncomfortable not being available to my […]
Author: Eli
Variety, apparently it’s the spice of life
Reading Time: 6 minutes For all the folk out there in the blogosphere who also work in higher education, let me just say, we made it! It’s Friday of week 1 and all that work over the summer months and the craziness of welcome week / freshers week has passed and we can now […]
Today’s “thing”: I’m reflecting on information security and my smartphone
Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve been spending a while between these last few blog posts for my digital capabilities adventure because I wanted to take some proper time to reflect on things. A lot of what’s involved in this project are things I interact with and discuss every day, so it’s easy for me […]
Digital footprint – what info of yours is public
Reading Time: 4 minutes I do a lot of work with students about creating their online presence, especially senior year students who are about to go off into the world and begin life as freelance artists and practitioners. One of the first things I do, before we get onto the fun tasks of building […]
My digital capabilities adventure continues – thing 1 & 2: social media
Reading Time: 3 minutes So it’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, my mocha has somehow mysteriously evaporated and my wife is ignoring me for an afternoon with Assasin’s Creed. I think that means it’s the perfect time for me to write my first official blog post on my digital capabilities adventure with 23 things. The […]
Using my blog as a medium for some self development: a project on digital skills
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.
How do you get your blog to look like that?
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?
A place where learning happens, a pedagogy and a construct: studio
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. […]
Life list, bucket list, it doesn’t matter so much what you call it, more that it motivates you.
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 […]
It’s just a jump to the left…..a quick introduction to my current research project
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 advice in a blogging chat – and it didn’t come from the garden blogger
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 […]
Formative assessments are pointless
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 […]
Why do I blog? Time for some reflection.
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 […]
Not sure if blogging is your thing? Here’s why it should be…
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 […]
Multimodal assignments – you are probably doing this already
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 […]
Standardisation, safe and comforting or driving out creativity in teaching?
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 […]