Digital education as the practice of freedom.
This has been the summer of my discontent with theory. I’ve read myself into a black hole. Dipping into this, that and other. Getting lost and fed up. Nothing fit. The problem was caused through...
View ArticleThe P in PhD: getting your hands dirty
Philosophy is tough stuff. We all experience life but when it comes to the consideration of knowledge, reality and existence, we tend to hand responsibility over to others. Instead of thinking it out...
View ArticleInterrogating TELEDA – for better or worse…
This research should not be about ‘teaching educationalists to use technology’ but being critical about the role of the university as a site of knowledge production and negotiation. HE is accommodating...
View Articleconnections between weariness of flesh and an age of abundance
Warning – longer than usual blog post – quite apt considering the title! These past months I’ve known information overload. The era of abundance. The smallness of my blog in the massiveness of digital...
View ArticleWeltanschauungs or world perceptions
I really need to move on to my data collection. The reading will continue but I must start the pilot interviews. My action research methodology is participatory and I need these conversations to help...
View ArticleLets get critical…
Critical theory recognises there are multiple, often contradictory, claims to knowledge. A diversity of ways for seeing and being. Critical theory challenges dominant world views, mediated through...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Howl’s Moving Castle in Lyotard’s postmodern condition.
The phd machine lumbers on. Like Howl’s castle it’s clunky, noisy, blowing steam, neurons going off in all directions (I’ve stopped questioning how my mind works). Miyazaki’s moving castle is creepy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Terrible tangents or interesting times ahead?
What’s an ammonite got to do with it? I’m thinking about my pilot phd interviews and wondering about the process. As a research activity, my PhD offers the chance to explore the interview in more...
View ArticleStill not fluent with the ontological (and others) but hopefully gaining ground
The phd is taking shape. The biggest challenge is time. Progress is slow because of the vastness of the project versus scarcity of hours. Each week I give up sleep and half my weekend. At the CERD...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fighting poetry and phd – I’m never sure which side I’m on
Septet is seven poems of seven lines, each with seven syllables. Today is 31st October. Hail All Hallows Eve – let the shadows through… 1 October is the gothic month. Mildewed roses blacken Squash...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PhD crisis: what value can be extracted from failure?
PHd crisis? I don’t think I can manage another one The process of narrowing down my research focus is taking forever. I’ve enough dead ends to populate a cemetery. The solstice is coming. The coldest,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching and learning in a digital age; the myth of digital competence
The human need to create, manage and control information and communication remains constant. It could be said books and Blackboard sites are different ways of doing the same thing and the gap between...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Winter solstice – where science and culture merge
Winter is the time of alternative beauty. I love the patterns of ice. The cold chills and I miss the sun on the allotment but there’s one more task to do; I always cut my grape vine at this time of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thesis Whisperer is a bit Schadenfreude then you realise it’s your reality.
I’m not a fan of online self help. In fact I’m starting to wish the internet had fixed opening hours like 9-5 and closed early on Wednesdays. If it wasn’t available outside work I’d have an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bursting MOOC bubbles are good; time to talk about the value of VLE
The MOOC bubble is bursting. See Online Revolution Drifts Off Course or Completion data for MOOC For some time there’s been evidence of a shift in MOOC attitudes eg MOOC Star Professor defects and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Freire and Blackboard, tea and biscuits on the table: final reflections on...
I didn’t expect to encounter Freire at Blackboard conference. It was a passing reference in the context of lifelong learning and mature students – but enough to get me thinking about the production of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let’s get digital – digital literacies workshop with Doug Belshaw
Doug suggests eight elements of digital literacies. If we interpret elements as characteristics this gives some idea of their complexity but not what they are. Maybe we need to look at categories....
View ArticleClik here to view.
14th Blackboard Users Conference ticks the boxes and hides the car parking bay
Conferences are always valuable opportunities for reflecting on practice and networking with like – and lesser like – minded people. The 14th Blackboard Users Conference at Durham University 9-10...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflections on the Life of i – 14th Durham Blackboard Users Conference #durbbu
University views of Durham Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral I belatedly saw the pun potential between conference title Life of i and my presentation calling for greater attention to digital...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Will virtual badgery catch on? The art has a long way to go for linguistic...
I’ve been badging. Like buses, there were none for ages then they all come at once. I can’t embed my javascript animation on this page but to prove my new found skills here is the code. var red =...
View Article
