Author: georgeroberts

Cottage weavers

In another twist to the spiral curriculum thrown up in discussions triggered by the responses to Covid-19, we learn once again that things come round again, but different. In Britain much heavy and primary industry has moved off the islands, where logistics, marketing and finance networks continue to make it uneconomic either: To engage in … Continue reading Cottage weavers

Higher education: sunk at the end of history?

A reply to Justine Andrew. ‘The Strategic Imperative: Planning for a Post-Covid Future’. Wonkhe. Justine Andrew in Wonkhe (6 May 2020) sets out a strategic approach to the big questions facing higher education: sector, institutions and their governors. She, at KPMG, uses the structure: React, Resilience, Recovery, Renewal and New Reality. I want to suggest … Continue reading Higher education: sunk at the end of history?

Sustainable assessment

Been asked to reread David Boud's (2000), Sustainable Assessment: rethinking assessment for the learning society. For me the article dances around problems of performativity and supervision. Implicit and explicit throughout is the assumption that individuals might become effective at self-assessment. Assessment involves identifying appropriate standards and criteria and making judgements about quality. This is as … Continue reading Sustainable assessment

Our World in Data, Gapminder and Justice

ourworldindata.org, is one of those things that makes the Internet a-good-thing. It is one of those things that makes universities worth some of their pennies. "Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems... All free: open access and open source." Strapline and mission, in one. And their data visualisations are the best … Continue reading Our World in Data, Gapminder and Justice

The personal-political imaginary restructured by a universal-Turing-machine symbolic

The tools used in a personal learning environment (PLE) will to some extent determine the shape of that environment. The shape of any object is always in some way a reflection of the tools used to make it. And as tools shape the object, so too will desire for the object shape the evolution of … Continue reading The personal-political imaginary restructured by a universal-Turing-machine symbolic

A progressive, emancipatory, democratic re-centering

My Personal Learning Environment (PLE) first of all has purpose and principles. I enter into learning in order to foster progressive (Wikipedia), emancipatory (recognising and reorienting where power is drawn from) and democratic (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) relations between people and groups of people. My Personal learning environment is autonomist, supporting self-directed, purposeful learning and … Continue reading A progressive, emancipatory, democratic re-centering

The human other-space between community and identity

With the Covid-19 rush to online, learning environments are suddenly of core concern. We each, student, teacher and staff need to be able to insert our personal learning environments into those of one another. In an earlier post, I considered my Personal Learning Environment (PLE) first a purpose. Here I consider it as a place … Continue reading The human other-space between community and identity

The new normal in the arms of the old

Diversity of working practices must be one way of improving diversity of participation. It may become a factor in survival. In the first week of the Covid19 distancing, on a departmental coffee break in one of the popular meeting applications, colleagues maybe uncomfortable with distributed collaboration and diverse working patterns asked what they had to … Continue reading The new normal in the arms of the old