Category: Uncategorized

Shaping an Identity: hacking the human?

Higher education shapes identity on many levels. We can readily identify three: the individual student/academic; the institutional characteristics of the higher education sector; and wider transnational cultural-historical activity. This slicing into comprehensible tranches is characteristic of my pragmatic approach to knowing, characterised by a logic of effectiveness in the present: sure, it is a continuum, … Continue reading Shaping an Identity: hacking the human?

Knowing authentic learning experiences

Evidence is one truth condition. There are at least three others. These give us a way of knowing authentic learning experiences and provide indicators of engagement, participation and outcomes. They are, also unsurprisingly, aligned with conceptions of authority and power. Badiou (2014) recognises four truth conditions: four ways that truths or a truth may be … Continue reading Knowing authentic learning experiences

Scaffolding Ed Dev conversations: a response to Roxå, T., & Mårtensson, K. (2017)

Roxå, T., & Mårtensson, K. (2017). Agency and structure in academic development practices: are we liberating academic teachers or are we part of a machinery suppressing them? International Journal for Academic Development, 22(2), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1218883 Roxå and Mårtensson (2017) argue that the discourses of academic development as mediated through formal education and training programmes by … Continue reading Scaffolding Ed Dev conversations: a response to Roxå, T., & Mårtensson, K. (2017)

Is the machine us?

Wait a minute. Learning analytics are always mediated by a human, or by humans (plural). Sheila MacNeil, in a thought provoking post subtitled ... analytics of the oppressed, launches into "... the learning analytics interventions should always be mediated by a human debate later this week at Digifest." Software and machinery always embed human values and beliefs about … Continue reading Is the machine us?

QAA Quality Enhancement Network 12/11/2015

Fiona Handley from University of Brighton uses the term "Graduate Attribute" for digital literacy, where blended learning is the starting point. Focus on the learning and then ask about the technology that "suits me". As an aside, it is interesting to note that at an event devoted to digital literacies, the connection to the internet … Continue reading QAA Quality Enhancement Network 12/11/2015

Towards a new education?

I asked Richard Murphy a question on Twitter after reading his post, "It’s not just a new politics we need: we need a new economics too." "And a new education?" He replied "Almost certainly". @georgeroberts Almost certainly — Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) October 7, 2015 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js This "new education" has to lie in what Murphy calls … Continue reading Towards a new education?

Tealab? TEL me about it

Reviving Tealab: Tealab is explicitly a Teaching Laboratory and discussion "space". There are a number of excellent initiatives across the university that lap over the territory. When Tealab was set up it was intended to replace the Learning and Teaching  Forum (LTF),  with a focus on people (possibly "younger" whatever that might mean) interested in … Continue reading Tealab? TEL me about it