Nothing particularly interesting

A comment was made to me recently that I had been keeping 'rather quiet' of late.  It was nice of anybody to notice of course - and I muttered some drivel about marking, and assessment boards, and preparing a new module, and that sort of thing.  All of which is true.  However, the comment made was not a general one about the fact that I have not been irritating everyone with countless tweets quite so much, but was more specifically about the fact that they had not seen me rant and rave wildly about politicians.  More specifically, about the Conservative government.  More specifically, about Michael Gove. It is not that I have become a convert to any of these things, but there are two reasons why I have been consciously trying to reign in my impatience for Conservatives policies and ideologies, and my tendency to twitch violently at the very mention of Gove. Reason 1: Misery and Pessimism The first is that the whole business has simply got me down....

Computers are a distraction. Or at least, they can be. I have already been blogging about some of the ways in which you can make them less distracting - even helpful to maintaining focus. I have just found another one, and this one has reminded more than ever of what it used to be like to sit down with little more than a blank piece of paper and a pen. When I first started using a computer, the problem I found was that it was just too interesting . Rather than working, I would always be tempted to explore Hypercard just a little more, to experiment with small scripts, or switch to the rather nice little chess game which came with the machine. Today computers come with a positive library of distractions which make my old Mac Classic seem about as interesting as Channel 4s round-the-clock broadcast of the Short v. Kasparov chess championship, and I have been sucked into their world of multimedia and gadgetry which is often quite beautiful but has made me forget the prob...

I have just been perusing the blog written by @MAmanda87 . She is a student of the Open University and has been interviewing fellow OU students and asking about their experiences.  As a former OU student myself, and a lecturer currently working alongside the OUVS, I have always had a love for the OU so it is heart-warming to see just how positive these experiences are.  Perhaps the most interesting thing though, is the tips and advice given by the students. I have always felt that the best way to advise students about their studies is to let other students do the advising.  As a tutor it can sometimes feel as though there is a disconnect between myself and my students - an kind of sub-textual understanding that although any advice I might give is welcome, that I am not really 'one of them'.  I remember (back in the days when I was young and relatively healthy) going into my local  weights gym. I'm not talking about those fancy places with giant video screens a...

Ok. So it seems I have been running the risk of hypocrisy for some time now.  In my capacity as a lecturer to undergraduates I have been espousing for some time the values of the internet and of the wide range of media it provides - not only as a source of information, but as a means of clarifying, sharing, and developing thought in intuitive ways.  This is all well and good, but for all my enthusiasm I have been terrible remiss at using the wretched thing myself. I guess my main problem (and surely I am not the only one here?)  is the whole 'so here I am, what do I say now?' syndrome.  If I were one of my own students, I would be recommending forming study groups.  Writing up thoughts and reflections on classes, or books and chapters read (if they read any).  Either way, there would be a definite purpose to what they were trying to achieve. So what is my purpose? Well, I could argue that my hope is to develop something which might be useful to studen...