During January, there have been several events that have made me think about getting back into blogging properly. Martin Weller’s 1000th blog post (though I realise this is going to be my 848th) more or less coincided with seeing Edubloggers 28 day challenge. Added to both of those, I’ve been doing more work with our CampusPress installation – LearningSpaces – encouraging others to blog. I started this blog nearly 15 years ago – because I knew I was going to get students to blog.
So, I really feel that I should practice what I preach – and get back to blogging.
February 1st 2019 marks 3 years of being at Dundee – it’s been a busy 3 years, and I’m feeling more settled here. In part, because I’m starting to see people in the team moving from ‘colleague’ to friend, which I missed a lot when I first came. Mostly, though work is moving towards the aspect of the work that I’d particular felt drew me in the original job title – eLearning advisor, albeit something that was tagged on as an “and”. Working with the software over the last 3 years, I feel I’ve got to know Blackboard intimately which I think is vital. It’s hard to support those using a tool if you don’t really know its quirks, and supporting innovative teaching ideas when you’re not familiar with the tools (and know how far they can be pushed) is difficult. There’s more, much more, to learn as we move to the Ultra version of Blackboard. From what I’ve seen, that’s going to make a lot of the “how to” easier, so we can focus on other aspects, whether that’s learning design, innovation in assessment, supporting the development of digital skills, or anything else.
Today, I went to MisInfoConX Scotland (#MisInfoConXSco) – a very thought provoking event – probably (definitely!) the most controversial event I’ve attended – but it gave me food for thought for moving towards supporting staff and students develop their digital fluency. Thanks @Natalie for suggesting that phrase, it seems more encompassing than digital literacy (which seems to involve a lot of check lists, rather than demonstrating appropriate usage in different situations).
Last year wasn’t as easy as it could have been, both a work (a lot) and personally; so I’m going to start my 4th year here with enthusiasm. Part of that will be actually finishing some of those draft posts in here as they’re still relevant, just unfinished.
And a few local photos.