Fin de la nuit

Following my own trend of thought, I inadvertently completed one of Week 1 task - the selection of a photograph to express my identity. I could have chosen Flickr, but I can't say I like this social software. Nothing wrong with it, and it is possible to add commentary, but I just don't respond to the lack of context. Flickr makes me think of an uncurated exhibition where images/artefacts are just displayed without some kind of thread. Fine for end-of-degree student shows (though even here, 'end-of-year' is the thread). All this to say that I'd rather have my pictures embedded here in my blog, where I can give them an 'inflection'. I can also kid myself that they are likely to be less public. I like the idea of using images as part of a self-introduction - something to adopt in my own practice as a tutor :-). Using a picture that is not one of oneself is also an interesting idea. It has to be something with some kind of meaning, and as the meaning is not nece...

An informative and colourful Powerpoint presentation on Communicating via Micro-Blogging with Twitter, published by the Department for Education, South Africa

The Oxford Brookes course I am doing now started mid-week with a 'Week 0' which is really a time for meeting other students and exploring the Blackboard site. This is a really nice idea: as a student I can get familiar with the course without any pressure to do 'important' things. That is something to remember for my own Communication modules: it's easy enough to give access a few days before the official start and let students explore the module. I wish I had thought of this! I may be changing my mind about the idea of 'drip-feed' which the Oxford Brookes course. This involves giving students details of tasks before they are to take place. I has wondered about this in my teaching but thought it would be better to prepare students properly about the boundaries of what needs to be done. There is probably a half-way house to explore here too, which would work well with what I call 'flexible frameworks' (ie tasks and readings chosen to support learning ...

This is a small experiment about loading pictures - to see how easy it would be. This is also a somewhat larger experiment about using imagest to connect with students (and possibly other people). I uploaded a photo that has meaning for me (to do with my Celtic roots), but how do I need much to disclose? And when? I can see how sharing pictures at the beginning of a course could help 'break the ice' (something I probably should have done in with my Eastern African students). They reflect a personal experience , so there needs to be a 'story' to support the social dimension. At the moment I am not sure what else there could be in the use of pictures in my teaching. This isn't too say that sociability is not important - far from it. It's more a reflection on the kind of teaching I do (about professional communication and academic writing). But perhaps it's the same as with the use of social media: at first, things aren't clear but meanings and purposes se...

I just came across an interesting link about using Twitter for teaching: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-gross/embracing-the-twitter-cla_b_204463.html Somehow I wanted to keep a record and also share this link with others. What social media do I choose and why? Delicious is an obvious one for bookmarking, but this isn't a site that I particularly wish to share with others. Nothing really personal there, but still I like the idea of keeping one of my sites free of interactions. Which leads me to another point: I already feel I have too many communication tools, with messages ariving to me via email (3 v. busy accounts), LinkedIn, and Facebook (which I don't use much). At the moment there's my Ning site too, for an online focus group. I tweetted the link, because I am interested in finding what happens with Twitter. I just started yesterday, and it's really through using it that I'll get a sense of using it for teaching and for professional reasons. It's nic...

I've been wanting to have a blog for a while, to talk about my e-tutoring and the students I support online. Two reasons for that: clarifying my ideas, and letting students know what's behind my decisions as e-tutor. What's prompted me to start is a course I've just started about using social media for learning , taught by Oxford Brookes University. I need to create a blog to reflect on my learning as a student. So I'll end up using a very different voice from the one I anticipated when I first thought of blogging. This feels disconcerting and somewhat humbling, but this should help me understand students better.