Category Archives: Teaching

How to nurture a community of online learners

I’ve been involved in open learning for several years now. It started almost by accident, when some guy called Dave ran a crazy learning experience that we called rhizo14, carried on serendipitously into a sister experience called CLMOOC, and gradually … Continue reading

Posted in #CLMOOC, #rhizo14, DailyCreate, Learning, MOOC, Online learning, PhD, Social Media, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Recipes

My Granny taught me a lot about cooking. She’d read a recipe – say for pork chops with apple – and say that she thought she’d make it for tea, and maybe alter it a little bit, because she realised … Continue reading

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Miscommunication

Random moments of misconnection: George, a Chinese UG, tells me how hard it is to study independently when there is so much he does not understand in lectures. He struggles to understand aurally and finds it hard to use lecture … Continue reading

Posted in HE, Learning, Online learning, Peer interaction, PhD, Teaching | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Reclaiming Lurking

Lurking is a potential problem for theories of social constructivism and principles of active learning. It’s also a problem for data analytics – if the student is not VISIBLE, how do we KNOW that they are learning? The invisible are … Continue reading

Posted in #CLMOOC, #rhizo15, Academia, Critical pedagogy, Facebook, Learning, Online learning, Peer interaction, PhD, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Stealing learning

He came like a thief in the night. Stealthily, furtively, he crept in. With nobody watching he grabbed it, clutched at it with all his might, cradled it close to his chest and shuffled away. This picture of learners who … Continue reading

Posted in Learning, Online learning, Teaching | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Lurkers

I lurk There, I’ve said it out loud. There are times that, for various reasons, I read conversations and watch what is going on without visibly participating. Does that make me a bad person, or is my behaviour an entirely … Continue reading

Posted in Learning, MOOC, Online learning, Peer interaction, PhD, Teaching, University | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Academibot

Today’s Daily Create was inspired by a TED talk I watched the other day. Here’s my take on a useful robot 🙂 *Disclaimer – my job is really not this bad

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Be More Kind

A timely earworm for me this week as I am marking philosophy exam scripts. The lyrics are actually about our broken society, but the title of the song speaks to me as I try to decipher scrawly handwriting and make … Continue reading

Posted in Assessment, Feedback, Learning, Teaching, University | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t kill the messenger

It’s no surprise to find that Jeremy Hunt is talking rubbish again this week. In a Guardian article we hear that he is proposing a universal social media limit for every child. Sound good? Maybe – except that there’s no … Continue reading

Posted in Learning, Online learning, Social Media, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Cargo Cults

Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law states that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. I think that’s probably true of many things and not just limited to technology – that many things that others do look like magic from the outside. … Continue reading

Posted in #CLMOOC, Capitalism, Critical pedagogy, DS106, Learning, MOOC, Online learning, Peer interaction, PhD, Rhizomes, Social Media, Teaching, Technology, University | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments