Silent Sunday

Glasgow Uni

Glasgow Uni” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine  shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Silent Sunday

Heart in the Snow

Heart in the Snow” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Silent Sunday

315 Winter skies

315 Winter skies” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Reflection on an ongoing collaboration

OEGlobal Postcard

Postcards on Pedagogy” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

It’s a couple of weeks into the UW/UofG collaboration, and I thought I’d take a few minutes to reflect on my experiences so far.

It started out very low-key for me. Mum died on 10th October 2024 (I still can’t type that without having to pause to wipe my eyes). So when the collaboration ‘officially’ began at the beginning of November, I knew that my participation would be interrupted by my need to travel 470 miles south to attend her funeral in early November, and all of the emotional upheaval that would entail. But I thoroughly enjoyed meeting my group (Debs, Alka and Mary) over Zoom and coming up with an asynchronous activity for us all to add to before meeting again on the 18th. On my return from England, after pushing through the mountain of work that had accumulated in my absence, I enjoyed a brief hiatus that I allowed myself in which write. Sending a quick email to Debs, Alka and Mary on Tuesday evening (my time) resulted in three lovely replies in my inbox on Wed morning – that really gave me a boost, and I have found a little more time to plan my next contribution to the collaboration.

I also found time to catch up with a project initiated by Carole, who is sending out prompts asking people to respond with a digital postcard. Carole had sent a card around to the group with a picture of her typical classroom. I have had neither classrooms nor students for years now, so I responded with a postcard remix from the amazing Bryan Mather’s remixer. However, this did get me thinking about my own learning environment, and an idea for my next remix.

Both of these activities have helped me to reflect on what I was hoping to gain from this collaboration, and what I was enjoying. I think that one thing that I have realised from my online communities is to enter experiences like this without rigid expectations, but with high hopes. I hoped to meet good people, to have interesting conversations, to participate in ways that I had not anticipated, and without rigid rules (no facilitators telling me that I am doing it wrong).  And I always hope for the opportunity to play with remix.

Well, so far I’ve not been disappointed, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the month.

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Who am I?

Question postcards

Question postcards” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I’m a Scot (now), but I’m English (born)
I’m PhD Education, but I’m a Philosopher at heart (20 years teaching, I miss it at times)
I’m on a professional services contract, but I feel like an academic (developer)
I’m a reluctant, grieving matriarch with two cats (who I adore)

I’m an awful uke player, a lapsed pianist, an ex-coloratura soprano
I’m an avid knitter, an intermittent gardener
I’m a remixer, a tinkerer, a bricoleur
I’m a would-be poet who doodles in meetings

And I’m counting down to retirement, because I am tired to my bones.

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Silent Sunday

Mallard at Tebay

Mallard at Tebay” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Silent Sunday

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Silent Sunday

299 Autumn Leaves

299 Autumn Leaves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Use more cats!

Bribery

Bribery” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Today in the Active Learning Network CPD session Isobel asks us to reflect on the sessions. The activity that I enjoyed the most was the session by Mark Wilsher called The Purr-fect Grade: How grading cats teaches us about student assessment.

What one thing will you take from the sessions?

  • Use more cats in my work
  • Use cats more in my work

What obstacles might you face?

  • Only having two cats
  • My cats not behaving when/as I want them to

How might you overcome these obstacles?

  • Get more cats!
  • Bribe/train my cats

What might you gain from this activity?

  • It would give me joy!

What might you miss if you didn’t do it?

  • The joy of talking about/stroking my cats when I should be working!
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Predicate Calculus

Today’s Daily Create asks us to “write a poem formatted like computer code about natural networks”. As I started to think about how to do this, I wondered if a GenAI programme might help with philosophical logic, so I asked ChatGPT to give me an example of predicate calculus. Having ascertained that it could provide something meaningful, I asked it to:

“Please write the following in predicate calculus: bees drink the nectar from the flowers”

Here’s the answer

“Bees drink the nectar from the flowers” in predicate calculus, we need to define some predicates and structure the sentence properly.

Step-by-Step Breakdown:

  1. Define the predicates:
    • Let B (x) represent “x is a bee.”
    • Let F (y) represent “y is a flower.”
    • Let D (x,z) represent “x drinks z” (where x is the bee and z is the nectar).
    • Let N (z,y) represent “z is the nectar from flower y.”
  2. Express the sentence:
    • “Bees drink the nectar from the flowers” can be written as:
    • Ax Ay Az (B(x) ^ F (y) ^ N (z,y) -> D(x,z))

    This means “For all x, y, and z, if x is a bee, y is a flower, and z is the nectar of y, then drinks z.”

This formalizes the idea that bees (represented by x) drink nectar (represented by z) from flowers (represented by y).

That’s poetry to me.

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