Tadpoles

The last few months seem to have been pretty frantic. For me, this means struggling to hit deadlines, getting stressed, acting weird and reclusive and not taking enough time for reflection. By reinstating these Chalknotes (and blogging in general), I hope to ameliorate at least one of these character traits.

Location Technologies Workshop

My labour of love for the past wee while has been writing a new workshop on geo-technologies. It’s been a blast putting it together, partly because it’s been nice to be a geographer again (or at least pretending to be) but that I’ve pushed my own knowledge into new areas – and that’s always satisfying. Also, it’s been a group effort from Netskills. Right from the brainstorming stage my colleagues have given up chunks of their own time to help plan, design and test the materials.

Last week some of us were joined by Ralph Holland from South Tyneside college and Paul Miller from RSC Northern for a dress rehearsal. All went smoothly(ish) and I’ve got some very constructive and encouraging feedback.

The first ‘live’ event is in Bristol on the 23rd June. Places still available at a “new workshop” price of £99.

Out and about in June

June’s going to be busy.

  • 16th – Presenting a workshop at RSC Yorkshire and Humber’s elearning conference about digital storytelling for informal learning.
  • 22nd – A full Digital Storytelling workshop in Bristol
  • 23rd – Location, Location, Location workshop in Bristol
  • 27th – Presenting on Digital Storytelling to the Cambridge English Faculty Library’s “Food for Thought” event
  • 30th – Writing for the Web workshop for Imperial Cancer research

…plus a bunch of other ongoing things to keep me occupied.

Ongoing Masters Saga

My final assignment for the 2nd year of my MSc is in. It was a portfolio of evidence on some stuff I’d been doing with wikis in workshops. I wasn’t 100% satisfied but hopefully it will have been enough to get a pass.

It’s been odd trying to finish off the assignment in this format. At least with an essay you pretty much know that when you’ve got to the end of your argument, checked it makes sense, checked the spelling and finished the references and appendices you’re pretty much done.

This write up involved writing mini chapters on the project, embedding pieces of personal reflective audio, Gantt charts, screencasts etc. etc. Managing the assignment was as difficult as the original project!

This weekend I’m off to Limberg University, Hasselt in the Netherlands for a conference with the course’s international alumni and current students which promises to be a chance for fries, strong beer, chat and a bit of learning too. It’s a very diverse group of people and should be a lot of fun.

Purpos/ed

While I’m away I’ll be interviewing Guy Merchant for the latest Purpos/ed campaign. It’s the first involvement I’ve had with this project but it’s been really interesting seeing what’s come out of it so far and also how Doug and Andy have put it together.

It’s bit late in the day but I’ve started a draft of my 500 words on the purpose of education as a “fringe” contribution.

On a personal note…

Things ticking along nicely so not much to report.

We were back in Matlock for the first time since moving to Newcastle a few weeks back seeing some of our friends. It was quite emotional driving past our old house, visiting old haunts and chatting with mates. Still, I didn’t leave feeling I wish I was still there, so that’s good.

Also, how long do tadpoles take to become frogs? We’ve had hundreds of the beasties in our pond at home for months now and they seem to have achieved stasis or maybe they started off as frogs and we have a Benjamin Button situation going on. Difficult to say