Autumn sunset in Matlock

Autumn

Time to reinstigate the Chalknote. My blog has just become a hosting site for my Diigo autoposts and that is LAZY BLOGGING!!! Although thanks to those of you still reading. :)

At work

My lack of posting has been partly down to a dip in confidence in having anything meaningful to say but also beavering away, getting a range of workshops written and prepped. These included…

Effective Use of ePortfolios – London 10th November.

Last in a series that started in 2008 (before my time with Netskills) in partnership with Lisa Gray at JISC as well as numerous other JISC Advance services like Infonet. The purpose is to help institutions that are in the process of implementing ePortfolios get to grips with the key concepts and showcase a number of examples of people already on the trail. In attendance we had a mix of mainly HE, FE and commercial training providers. I was really pleased with the outcome and the quality of the presentations so the role of honour goes like this:

  • Lisa Gray – JISC – delivering the keynote
  • Samantha Moss – Solent University – talking about their recent Mahara installation
  • Emma Purnell – Wolverhampton Uni – their work with PebblePad and also facilitating some of the tasks
  • Geoff Rebbeck – Thanet College, Kent – explaining his work using a range of eportfolios to suit different purposes.

    • The resources from their presentations as well as the summaries of discussions will be online very soon but you can see the resources from previous events on the Netskills site.

    The next step is to decide how Netskills can continue to support ePortfolio users now that this project is at an end.

    Exploring Digital Storytelling – London 17th November

    This is the first workshop I’ve written for Netskills from the ground up and it felt a bit like taking my pedigree puppy to crufts, hoping it would do alright and not poop on the carpet.

    Again, I’m pleased with the outcome and feedback from the attendees. I think I’m going to write a few blog posts about some of the discussions we had rather than pad this post out.

    MSc Course

    This has been ramped up a gear given we’re now in the 2nd year. Helen Sharpe (from London Grid for Learning) and I had to lead a discussion on a critical reading of a paper by Jean Lave on the nature of teaching and it was a bit of a wake-up call. In the end we did OK, getting some good feedback but I was alarmed at how long it took me to get to grips with some of the main arguments. It’s a good paper to read if you have access to a decent library.

    Lave, J (1996) Teaching, as Learning, in Practice, Mind, Culture and Activity, 3:3, pp149-164

    I’ll do a post on my reflections shortly.

    On a personal note…

    Feeling more and more like Newcastle is properly home now. Although a visit from some good friends from Matlock, bearing a present of a photo of the view from our old house, gave an unexpected pang of nostalgia.

    We’ve been without TV for 4 weeks now while we get the ground floor of the new house decorated. I haven’t missed it and our kids haven’t complained about missing CBeebies yet.

    Wall-E is utterly fantastic! Saw it for the first time recently. Really had to work hard at not blubbing at a movie in front of the children.