Creating a student induction with ChatGPT: what it does and misses
ChatGPT seems to be all the rage at the moment, and has been so since at least November/December of 2022. Students and educators are simultaneously worried, excited and fearful of the possibilities that a tool like ChatGPT might create. The inspiration for this post comes from a lot of thinking since at least February and…
Potential theoretical frameworks
The resource below is from AdvancedHE Pedagogies of Internationalisation theoretical frameworks. These are various theoretical frameworks that can be used for far more than internationalisation for questions and issues related to, for example, critically reflective professional practice, education policy, education futures and many others. Thanks to Sara for finding this one! I’ve slightly modified the…
Special episode – More than a pivot: thinking critically about our pedagogy
In early June 2020, Jesse Stommel, Sara Camacho Felix, Lee-Ann Sequeira and myself held a participatory workshop where we thought through our assumptions around what it means to design for learning and teaching in digital spaces especially in current circumstances. Due to the participatory nature of the workshop, admission was limited to 100 people with additional…
A cornucopia of ideas: food for thought for digital education
Keep an open mind Given the sudden shift to digital education that Covid19 has caused during the first half of 2020, we have now an opportunity to better understand digital education in order to prepare for autumn teaching. However, first we might want to appreciate and understand how much Covid19 has affected and continues to…
Banana Banana Bread
Before this wonderful banana bread gets lost to the Internet archives, I’d thought I’d share it by reposting it. Banana Banana Bread Adapted from AllRecipes.com Ingredients 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 6 mashed medium overripe bananas Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees…
Holding virtual office hours – suggestions
A colleague asked about holding virtual office hours. The question entailed both how to do this in terms of the pedagogy and the technology. So, I drafted a document that addresses some suggestions around holding virtual office hours (and tutorials) which can be found here: https://sway.office.com/yqhBJFryvfm46a5e?ref=Link as a Sway document that can be printed and…
Moving to digital education
The purpose of this post is to shed some light on some thoughts to consider, good practices and tips for moving from face-to-face teaching to digital education.
NB: These are suggestions to help you to move to digital education. These solutions depend on your own abilities, desire and time. You have the support of…
Getting students to use (new) apps
I’ve decided to quickly write up some thoughts on getting students to use new apps for learning and teaching as a reflection on what I’ve observed over the last few years and more recently. It’s safe to say that I approach this post from the point of view that there are many opportunities for digital…
A great piece of research on mental health amongst English language teaching professionals
I recently participated in a study on mental health among English language teaching professionals. The findings have recently been released and I highly recommend that colleagues read the study and its results. Managers within ELT and EAP (English for academic purposes) might benefit from reading the results of the study. Mental health is a serious…
CMALT portfolio compiled!
I am taking part in a pilot offered by the Association for Learning Technology that aims to support people in obtaining Certified Membership, or CMALT. In order to obtain CMALT, you have to reflect upon your experience to date and how it relates to the dimensions set out within the frameworks of CMALT. These dimensions, in many…
A defence of “political correctness” — Politics and Insights
I think this article is well worth a read for those of any political persuasion. The author makes several well-supported points. Dialogue is crucial if we are to understand each other and anyone with a view different to ours. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Im5GzJLJD-A?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent The left believe that in order to address prejudice and discrimination, it’s important to…
Repost – #15toptips for Student-Centred Teaching 7: Build peer mentoring into your students’ higher education experience
This is a good post about how to build peer mentoring into university courses. With growing numbers of students studying, the value of having experienced students support first-year students is also increasing. Shazia Ahmed and Sarah Honeychurch from the University of Glasgow have also done quite a bit of work on peer assisted learning (PAL),…
Thoughts on ‘Why Believing in Your Students Matters’ by Katie Martin
Today I came across this succinct article by Katie Martin on why believing in our students matters, as this can have a significant impact upon a teacher’s practices and students’ uptake of learning regardless of where learning and teaching that takes place – whether face-to-face or online. While I have known about the need to wait for…
Ideas on teaching: should we abandon adherence to lesson aims?
Reflections on an article on Bakhtin & digital scholarship I’ve recently read an article from the Journal of Applied Social Theory called ‘Bakhtin, digital scholarship and new publishing practices as carnival’ which discusses how digital scholarship causes disruption to traditional academic practices (Cooper & Condie, 2016). The authors theorize the issues by using Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts on language and…
Are we OK, you and I, after you voted to destroy my dreams? — Andrew Reid Wildman, artist, photographer, writer, teacher
Reflections on the EU referendum result I came across this moving post which was written as a result of the EU referendum that appears to be causing deep fissures across the UK to surface. Increasing numbers of reports are coming in of xenophobic and racial slurs being hurled against ordinary people going about their daily…
Designing and Conducting a SoTL Project using a Worksheet: A Baker’s Dozen of Important Sets of Guiding Questions — The SoTL Advocate
I came across this post from another blog that I follow. The post has a few ideas for scholarship and some guiding questions that can help teaching staff identify potential areas for scholarship/research. Read more below at the original post. Written by Kathleen McKinney, Professor and Cross Chair in SoTL, Illinois State University Many of…
Facebook for Peer Assisted Learning
Today I gave a presentation in which I shared scholarship that has been done by Shazia Ahmed, Sarah Honeychurch and Lorna Love from Student Learning Service and the Learning & Teaching Centre of the University of Glasgow on virtual peer assisted learning groups organized on Facebook. Project background & issues The groups support first year undergraduate students,…
Notes on ‘How we answer the questions’
Event overview I attended an event called ‘How we answer the questions’ on the ALDinHE mailing list and though that it would be a good event to attend in order to get insight into how staff at other programmes address the issues related to questions that students bring to tutorials and also for me to better understand…
Digital Education Practices 
You must be logged in to post a comment.