An-an-an-archic questions and another 1000 mile journey

I have been having an ongoing conversation with Jock Coats (@jockox3 on Twitter) that veers from face-to-face to Twitter to the blogs. For me it has been an education in the literature of anarchism, particularly that of the libertarian, individualist, mutualist, market sort, to which Jock adheres.in a recent post (http://jockcoats.me/mutualist_monopolies_introduction) jock concludes, "...how difficult … Continue reading An-an-an-archic questions and another 1000 mile journey

A journey of a thousand miles problem @jockox3 the limits of my anarchism #ukuncut

I accept a loose notion of the social contract and accept that there are limits on my behaviour imposed on me for the benefits of all - including the payment of levies (taxes) for the provision of services to us all, even if I might prefer those services to be delivered in a different way. … Continue reading A journey of a thousand miles problem @jockox3 the limits of my anarchism #ukuncut

Writing a Course Review

I recently met with a student who had been unsuccessful in achieving the criteria for one of the assignments on the PCTHE. Most of my comments are of a general nature regarding the writing of a course review, so I thought I would post them. Back up your assertions with evidence. As teachers and students … Continue reading Writing a Course Review

Wi-Fi Direct: a step towards the mesh? via Slashdot

Wi-Fi Direct will connect at existing Wi-Fi speeds-- up to 250 mbps. Wi-Fi Direct devices will also be able to broadcast their availability and seek out other Wi-Fi Direct devices. via mobile.slashdot.org Some of you might have heard me witter on about widely distributed databases (e.g. bit torrent) and mesh networks (e.g. OLPC). I made … Continue reading Wi-Fi Direct: a step towards the mesh? via Slashdot

Fascinating bi-modality in charts of social media use by young Europeans via @GrahamAttwell

European survey data on how young people are using social media. via pontydysgu.org Either they use it or they don't. Not much middle ground. 25% use the Internet more than 20 hours a week; 30% less than 5 hours. Well, it is more complex than that, of course, but even stronger bimodality is showm with … Continue reading Fascinating bi-modality in charts of social media use by young Europeans via @GrahamAttwell

Sustaining support

Further to the last post, Sustaining Communities, the tension in higher education is between: open educational dialogue and institutional pragmatics (a 1000 mile question?). Open educational dialogue is concerned with networks or communities for information sharing, which take a user-centred approach to learning and design for learning on all scales. These networks make use of … Continue reading Sustaining support

55 out of 193 countries (28%) account for 97% global GDP and 99% IT expenditure

...according to: Franda, Marcus (2001), Governing the Internet: the emergence of an international regime. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO, USA p 206 Posted via email from George's posterous

I was asked to comment on difference between education, training, learning

I used to be concerned in this direction when making a transition from working in industrial training and development education to working in educational development roles in higher education. All categorisations of this sort serve to channel people and institutions into differently funded and privileged regimes. There are no essentials of this sort. Conceptual categories … Continue reading I was asked to comment on difference between education, training, learning

how HESA normalises black, mixed and other ethnic group graduates to reduce their impact by a quarter! http://bit.ly/gsVwv

Or, at least that is one possible reading of this following example from HESA's Guidelines for the use of the DLHE Longitudinal Survey Dataset. To illustrate how this is done:Black, mixed and other ethnic group graduates accounted for 21.9% of the selected Sample A. From the initial census it is known that these graduates represent … Continue reading how HESA normalises black, mixed and other ethnic group graduates to reduce their impact by a quarter! http://bit.ly/gsVwv