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Showing posts from September, 2018

I’ll tell you why you should vote for me

I’m a better person than you. Harsh, I know, but true. Just look at my suit, my cufflinks, hair, my Bertie Wooster aristocratic air, my Oxford polo blue. I don’t know much about the World (at least, the one you live in). But I’m an economic genius (ignore all those fraud hearings). I understand you’re struggling with health and wealth and work. But that’s all someone else’s fault, and I’m the only one can halt the irresponsible assault of some Labour berk. I’ll tell you what you want to hear: You really should be proud. We’re better than those other chaps: All that foreign crowd. and while you are not, obviously, as good a chap as me, We share in the same noble blood: We’re just the same! You see? So vote for me. Although I’m posh, I’ll represent your interests, and give you everything you need: panem et circenses .

Is someone trying to steal your PowerPoints?

Educational technology is brilliant at many things - but one thing it is absolutely brilliant at is sharing and connecting.  You can share content across different platforms, you can share resources to students wherever they are, and you can connect to people in an almost infinite number of ways. This all sounds great!  But one of the things that has surprised me since starting work as a Learning Technology Adviser, is a brand of protectionism demonstrated by some academics.  Their driving concern when it comes to any educational technology is that no ‘outsiders’ should ever have access to their academic resources . The argument used to justify this concern is that they have spent a lifetime developing these resources, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to let any Professor Tea-Leaf nick them all just because they happen to be an External Examiner for the course, or another lecturer on the programme, or the Programme Manager or a student. After all, these dubious characte