Higher education – Page 6 – Music for Deckchairs

What next for the LMS?

Kate Bowles September 27, 2014 16 Comments

All of a sudden it’s LMS week* in mostly-US higher education. Nudged by the imminent Educause annual conference, there’s a whole pop-up festival of reflection on why we still have enterprise learning management systems—and why we have the ones we have. Audrey Watters, D’Arcy Norman, Phil Hill, Michael Feldstein, Jared Stein and Jonathan Rees have all contributed to this thoughtful and detailed conversation; anyone who thinks universities just woke up one day trapped inside a giant LMS dome really should read each of these at least. And Mike…

Edtech and online learning, LMS evaluation

Calling it out

Kate Bowles September 10, 2014 5 Comments

Many academics in their 50s might feel that they’re not ready to retire yet – but should they be forced out early? Well, of course, not all of them should. Anonymous, ‘Should Older Academics Be Forced To Retire?‘, The Thesis Whisperer Bullshit. Is this really the world we choose to live in? Is this a system that works? John Warner, ‘Calling BS … BS‘, Inside Higher Education I’m a fan of The Thesis Whisperer (“just like the horse whisperer—but with more…

Being an academic, Casualisation of work

Amongst colleagues

Kate Bowles August 31, 2014 8 Comments

It’s been great to feel supported and people reaching out to make sure I’m doing okay. It was my first experience with global worldwide Internet heat wrath, and it was very difficult. I will admit. My family paid a price for it. I paid a price, but I feel much better being amongst colleagues. Jeff Hancock, co-author of the Facebook Emotions Study, Microsoft Research Faculty Summit special session (transcript: Mary L Gray) Remember #massiveteaching? The Coursera MOOC in which the actions…

Being an academic

On, on, on

Kate Bowles July 15, 2014 27 Comments

Life chez Simpson was not normal, Helen now reflects, principally because a constant eye had to be kept on anything that might affect Simpson’s performance, whether he was racing or not. … “Social life [as a couple] was non-existent. I often used to think it would be really strange living a normal life, going out and having a meal with people.” William Fotheringham, Put me back on my bike: in search of Tom Simpson (2002) In the past 4 months I have kept…

Being an academic, Risk

Sightings

Kate Bowles July 11, 2014 15 Comments

Updates below In a bizarre coincidence, when I opened the book to scan the contents I found myself looking at the section about sharks. In particular, “surviving if you are in a raft and you sight sharks—”… I wonder if anyone would be interested in using this as a model for an edtech field manual for surviving the Higher Ed apocalypse. Jim Groom,”Survival: the manual” July 7 2014 Thanks to Jim Groom, I’ve been thinking about Jaws in this plainly bizarre week in the short history…

Edtech and online learning, Risk

Down on main street

Kate Bowles June 6, 2014 2 Comments

“We think it’s fair to ask the student to pay $3 extra a week to get the chance to earn a million dollars more over a lifetime than Australians without a university qualification. … Mr and Mrs Mainstreet are paying almost 60 per cent of the tuition fees of a uni student and they are also paying back the loan at the 10-year government bond rate of 3.8 per cent, whereas the student’s loan is indexed at CPI, currently 2.5…

Higher education, Risk, University marketing

Seriously, Mister Jones

Kate Bowles April 4, 2014 13 Comments

The good or bad faith with which power is exercised is irrelevant; raising the question on these terms will not be effective. Power cannot be shamed into limiting itself in this way. It seeks to limit us. Jason Wilson, “Moderation, speech and the strategy of silence”, Detritus You know something’s happening/and it’s happening without you/yes it is/Mister Jones Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”, this beautiful live version I’ve been thinking a bit more about Steve Wheeler’s invitation to discuss whether…

Being an academic, Change management

Aftermath

Kate Bowles April 2, 2014 16 Comments

This is a short post, because I don’t know what to do with my sadness at a well-known educational technology blogger with a huge following, who’s so enamoured of his own popularity that he writes an April Fools farewell note to blogging, that references the personal impact of blogging on him in terms of hate mail, threats, and clinical depression, and then spends the aftermath passing on the supportive tweets he got from people who responded with concern for his wellbeing. This, edtech, is our own…

Being an academic

For Leon Fuller

Kate Bowles March 11, 2014 8 Comments

With students having increasingly busy lives, it is not always possible for them to come to campus or have the kind of intellectual life that was traditionally associated with university campuses. That is the reality of the modern university student but is only just becoming the reality of the modern university campus. “The Campus is Dead: Long Live The Campus“ Indeed, our modern culture tends to regard trees as consumables, or ornaments that we can move or remove at will….

Being an academic, Change management

Walking and learning

Kate Bowles March 5, 2014 19 Comments

A meandering reply of sorts to Mike Caulfield, after walking with eight year olds In becoming a patient—being colonised as medical territory and becoming a spectator to your own drama—you lose yourself. First you may find that the lab results rather than your body’s responses are determining how you feel. Then, in the rush to treatment, you may lose your capacity to make choices, to decide how you want your body to be used. Finally, in the blandness of the…

Being an academic