I’ve seen several tweets during the past few weeks about the Networked Scholars course — an open course organised by George Veletsianos. As described on the course’s Canvas site: This 4-week course introduces participants to the tools and practices associated with academics’ participation in online social networks in order to share, reflect upon, critique, improve,…
Workshop: considering openness
I facilitated a workshop with academic staff at GMIT (Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology) last week in which we considered, mostly through group discussion, openness as educators. Carina Ginty invited me to share some of the ideas from Navigating the Marvellous: openness in education as a prompt for the discussion. The following slidedeck summarises some of…
Connecting with #ccourses
I’m jumping into the Connected Courses adventure — here goes!! #ccourses popped onto my radar during the early summer, through Twitter and Flickr feeds (thanks @heloukee 🙂 ) The blog posts and videos and tweets which followed whetted my appetite further. I identify as an open educator and feel deeply not only about helping my…
Navigating the Marvellous: Openness in Education #altc
For three days last week I participated in #altc (the Association for Learning Technology Conference) at the University of Warwick — attending in person for the first time after participating virtually for several years. It was a joy to meet so many online friends and colleagues for the first time and to take part in such…
A conversation about Third Space, Third Place, and Liminality
At the Networked Learning Conference 2014 in April, I began an interesting conversation with a Twitter-friend, Kathrine Jensen (@kshjensen). I presented a paper at the conference on my ongoing research in the area of networked learning and digital identity, focusing on student-staff interactions in open online spaces. I cited Kris GutiĂ©rrez’s conceptualisation of the Third…
Open education and digital identities
I’m currently in the early stages of Ph.D. research on digital identity practices in open education. I’ll be exploring how educators and students in higher education construct and negotiate their identities — social, pedagogical, civic, professional — in open online spaces in which they interact. Some of the questions I am considering are: How are…
What now? Women in Physics, Computing, Engineering, STEM
ccc Yesterday, December 9th, 2013, marked the 107th anniversary of Grace Hopper’s birth. For many years an inspirational figure amongst women in computing, it’s immensely satisfying to see “Amazing Grace” receive wider and well-deserved recognition in recent years for her pioneering work as a mathematician and computer scientist. Coincidentally (or not?), yesterday also marked the…
Assessment in open spaces
“We have to build our half of the bridge, no matter who or where we happen to be.” – Colm McCann Summary: Learning and pedagogical relationships are transformed when we engage with students in open online spaces or networked publics. These can become ‘third spaces’ of learning, beyond the binary of informal and formal learning.…
RIP Seamus Heaney
I’d been working on another blog post today, but have just heard the sad and shocking news of Seamus Heaney’s death. Along with many others, I feel as if I have lost a friend. Seamus Heaney walked alongside us for many years — through his poetry, his activism, his human presence. The photograph above is…
Summer and a new start
Summer 2013. It’s midway through August; our new and returning students will be joining us soon, both physically and virtually. It’s been a productive and exciting academic year and an outstanding summer here in Ireland. Next year promises to be even more interesting… today I learned that I have received funding for beginning work on…