The institutions of society #NGTiP09 and innovation

Institutions of cultural reproduction: - religion, education, the family ... Institutions of production: - agriculture, industry, work ... Institutions of defence/war - the army, navy ... In "the past" institutions of production and defence were subordinated to the institutions of reproduction: "We enter into this great enterprise for the Glory of God..." The end of … Continue reading The institutions of society #NGTiP09 and innovation

#NGTiP09 embedding institutional change guidelines from @Gwenvdv

Embedding needs building. Building needs scaffolding. Gwen van der Velden recognises that change agents operate in networks of influence. To make change you need: - buy-in - user engagement - institutional solutions - patronage - a user-friendly pitch - reputation-awareness. Barriers to change include: student data systems, middle managers, staff learning needs. Drivers for embracing … Continue reading #NGTiP09 embedding institutional change guidelines from @Gwenvdv

#NGTiP09 Portfolio typology further to Flourish

Eportfolio needs to be discussed in respect of at least four dimensions: 1 Process - collection, selection, reflection, presentation 2 Tools and artefacts: - portfolio: items, systems, presentations (CV, assessed piece of work, etc) 3 Areas of application: - PDP, CPD, PDR, competency assessment, personal reflection 4 Cultures of use: - Disciplines, educational sector, professional … Continue reading #NGTiP09 Portfolio typology further to Flourish

using eportfolio for HE staff CPD and Professional Review – with a Flourish

The Flourish project: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/usersandinnovation/flourish.aspx Flourish, funded by the JISC, looked at eportfolio for HE staff in annual appraisal, accredited PGCert in Teaching in HE course, and CPD/Training. They used PebblePad in a "low-risk" environment running workshops, elearning retreats, staff information sharing channels, and using it with students. The key message is if you want to … Continue reading using eportfolio for HE staff CPD and Professional Review – with a Flourish

Oooh! Firefox 3. Hope I haven’t wrecked everything

I just went and deleted reliable Firefox 2.0.0.16 and dumped 3.0.7 into my applications folder. And now, I try to remember which things I had to struggle with six months ago. It chucked out my Piggy Bank, but that was something from MIT Media Lab that never really worked for me. The Delicious button couldn't … Continue reading Oooh! Firefox 3. Hope I haven’t wrecked everything

Tried using Posterous for a group writing exercise; not a top success

I thought that Posterous might be a useful, easy, collaboration tool. The barriers to entry are low and the user interface is email. However, it didn't really work. I made a crucial, but probably inevitable, mistake. And, for sharers there is the need to create an account. I hadn't counted on that. I thought that … Continue reading Tried using Posterous for a group writing exercise; not a top success

My ideal PDA wish list; is what I want a netbook?

I want a small, wifi connected PDA. The ideal machine has 1) good wifi 2) email client and off-line email writing/reading facility 3) full feature web browser preferably running Flash (and Air?) 4) calendar that syncs with Brookes Oracle & my MacBook Pro preferably through the Oracle Calendar client (iCal does not cut it - … Continue reading My ideal PDA wish list; is what I want a netbook?

how about a MOOC on rebuilding wealth in the commons @Downes

I share Stephen Downes' view (repeated here: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=47753 ) about efforts afoot to convert public wealth into private (and increasingly stateless) wealth. Actually the agency is too passive in that phrase - there are people working hard at it. PayPal is an example of an explicit attempt to engineer this. "One solution: move control of … Continue reading how about a MOOC on rebuilding wealth in the commons @Downes

Installing parallels v4 on top of v3 seems to have gone smoothly: virtual machine intact & Nvivo running :)

Installing Parallels 4 seems to have been entirely unproblematic. It detected my Parallels 3 environment, backed it up, removed v3 and installed v4. I have about 4 back-ups lying around now, but it appears to have behaved very well. Time consuming given the number of times 12GB got copied. Nvivo is up and running maybe … Continue reading Installing parallels v4 on top of v3 seems to have gone smoothly: virtual machine intact & Nvivo running 🙂