Reflection: Education for the crisis? Notes from #e4c, 29th March
This blog post has been burning in my head since last week, feeling (rightly so) equally troubled, inspired and generally itchy about the whole subject area so excuse me if I get all ramble-y in places, I’m still working this out in my own head. Last week I was invited along (with around 40 others) to be part of a discussion group that was looking at education for the crisis. There were some people there who are good friends, people who I had never met but been following for twitter (in some cases, for years), some who I had came …
Review of the year: If 2012 is about the Olympics, then let 2011 be all about the croquet!
“haw pal, if your no playing get aff the pitch!” So it is that time of year again – and I can’t believe that we are approaching 2012. It’s always felt so far away. Far away, in the sense that it was the year that i aim to complete my PhD (so therefore my 18 month academic diary is deliberately empty to try and make the writing magic happen) – but also it is the unavoidable year that the UK host the Olympics. I remember the moment when we found out that we had “won” them – long before imagining I would …
Social Media for Research: Open Resource and Reflection for #MASocialMedia
I would like to share the session that I had prepared for a guest workshop that I was to deliver to this year’s MA in Social Media. Something, judging on last year’s session – and the 6 other sessions that I’ve delivered over the last 3-4 weeks, I was looking forward to trying out and exploring using social media as a research context. As it never got past the initial discussion “what is research?” I can safely say that it didn’t work well for this particular cohort’s expectations. What I can do, instead, is offer up the entire workshop as a resource …
Research Practices 2.0: Reflections on #RP2NOTT
Back in the summer, I was approached by Andy Coverdale to be interviewed and to help out on a project around social media for PhD students. The first part of the task was to be interviewed about how I use social media as part of my research practice, to be used as part of a web resource hosted by the University of Nottingham Graduate School. This was launched this week, ahead of an event in accompany the site. The event, “Research Practices 2.0” was organized for PhD students and facilitated by PhD students – where alongside Andy, I was approached …
What the hell is #mc539? (Week 1-9)
We’ve now hit week 9 of mc539 (the 2nd year web and alternative media module I teach at Birmingham City University), the last week before the end of term and the class go off to fulfil their project manifestos over the coming weeks. The entire course is available online and in public under creative commons. Here is a recap for those who are interested in the little world of #mc539, but may have missed it: Course introduction: “Alternative media is not new, but the web has provided an increased opportunity for alternative-ness. This course addresses alternative media practices, and explore …
#Education (or what the University could learn from teh internetz) (Presentation @TeessideUni, 3rd March 2011)
I was invited by Derek Harding to speak at the University of Teesside last Thursday around the broad topic of my research and teaching practice. Based on the things that I’m up to at the moment, I decided to propose an argument around the basis of a hashtag learning environment (linking both my work on #media2012 and the 2nd Year alternative media module #mc539) and more recently discussions around open and co-operative education environment – partly through resistance to the cuts, partly through activities emerging through online environments, partly as a much needed reaction to outdated (and often unquestioned) rituals. …