This is just me thinking out loud… My wife went for a run at the weekend. She does that. I do not run, for the record. She’s an orienteer (running with a map and compass), she’s also a former British Champion at night orienteering. Orienteering is a very social sport, so the pandemic had an…
Read moreAuthor: Lawrie Phipps
Looking Ahead!
St Lubbock’s Day! Well one of them. One of the things about bank holidays that come after a long break is that I always feel that it’s like a “get ready for work day”. I’m lucky, often I am recovering from jet lag from a skiing holiday, in readiness to get ready for the first…
Read moreIn Support of our Trans Colleagues
We would like to thank colleagues who collectively helped us draft this letter. The recent surge in long-standing prejudice against trans people in the UK (some of which we are also seeing in the US and Canada) is worrying and infuriating in equal measure. We the undersigned are stating our unequivocal support for the trans…
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Learning from students and staff during the pandemic: A talk for #ESLTIS21
The #ESLTIS21 (Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship) conference took place on 10th September, I was privileged to be invited to speak about some of the research that I have done during the Pandemic. I also want to give a shout out to colleagues who I’ve worked with on that research including Donna Lanclos, Jasmine…
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What does the premium on “presence” actually cost?
Joe Biden’s recent pronouncement on “broadband is infrastructure” amplifies the message that our lives are connected in significant ways in digital systems. And, in a report, the United Nations Human Rights Council said: Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and…
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Stop normalising pandemic practices!
Robin De Rosa tweeted out a link to an article, and her comment tells you all you need to know about the article. But, as I was waiting to see the dentist, I thought I’d read it anyway. The article is effectively an interview with a Marketing Professor, it reads like the journalist sent a…
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Thinking about what needs to happen next.
I’m currently working on a piece about digital leadership in learning and teaching, as part of a wider series. I’ve been thinking about the digital word salad that we have all become more familiar with because of this past year; flexible, blended, online, synchronous, asynchronous, hybrid, hyflex. And the models! How many models have we…
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Thinking about effective remote working and social connectivity
This post was updated on 9th Feb 2021 – see bottom for extra content. During lockdown there has been a lot written around online learning, and I think it would be a fair characterisation to say that the “great pivot” of 2020 was primarily a tsunami of “content push”. This is not a criticism, the…
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Reflections Week Twelve: People wanted help, we gave them guidance
We often see individual requests for help, we see staff trying to make things work. One area that is well supported by both IT and Learning Tech teams is the kind of inquiry that leads to a “push this button” type response. For example, how do I narrate a PowerPoint? How do I upload this…
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Reflections Week Eleven: Policy, Practice, Behaviour
It’s been a strange week, even by lockdown standards. Last Sunday we saw a government advisor justify breaking his own government guidelines,visiting family 260 miles away, I don’t have words for the tale he spun, the way he manipulated the narrative to put himself in the role of victim; and then justify a 60 mile…
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