Tag Archives: HE

Blogging as an academic practice⤴

from

Percolating ideas
Percolating ideas flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license

I’ve been enjoying dipping in and out of the “On Writing” series that Jim Groom’s been hosting on Reclaim TV, although I’ve not been able to watch them live as they usually stream at 5pm on a Friday, by which time I am off line and off to the pub to meet friends. However, luckily they are also recorded, so I can catch up at my leisure, and this week I finally got around to watching the episode with Lee Skallerup Bessette, or ReadyWriting, as she’s known on ALL the socials.

Lee and Jim talk about many of the facets of Lee’s life – such as her growing up in Quebec but not being a francophone (watch the episode to hear why she asserts this), but – of course – it’s what Lee says about blogging that really resonates with me. Like Lee I’ve always been a voracious reader and a prolific writer, though I don’t write nearly as much as Lee, I don’t think. And, also like Lee, I do find it pretty easy nowadays. So when I heard Lee saying (at about 53 mins into the video) that her habit of blogging has helped her to be able to consistently push out a lot of decent quality words quickly, as long as the subject is one that’s familiar to her, I was nodding vigorously at the screen. And then she connects this type of writing to learning a musical instrument:

you don’t have to be great at it right but you just keep practicing it because it makes sense and it brings you joy and it helps you make sense of your life and it connects you to other people (at about 54:44 mins in)

Yes, absolutely yes. I’ve had a pretty shit week this week, for one reason and another, but I’ve still managed to churn out lots of words – because I can.  Well, when Lacey lets me!  Thanks Lee, and thanks Jim, for a great episode.

Academic Book Chapters⤴

from

Every time I have an academic book chapter published I promise myself that I will never do it again, because it takes so long from first submitting an expression of interest to finally seeing it published. But then I forget, and see a call for chapters that interests me, and before I realise what I am doing I’ve committed myself to the process again.

But, on the other hand, there’s something really fulfilling about seeing the final publication and reading over what I wrote again  – not least because it’s been so long that I have actually forgotten what I wrote. So recently I was really pleased to find that I had chapters in two books published.

The first was a book about similarities and differences between disciplinary research and SoTL:

Honeychurch, S. (2025). SoTL and Disciplinary Research in Education Sciences: Collaboration, Bricolage and Remix. In: Bohndick, C., Kordts, R., Leschke, J., Vöing, N. (eds) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning und disziplinäre Forschung: Eine komplexe Beziehung. Doing Higher Education. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-47908-4_14

The second was, on the face of it, on the very different topic of Hope:

Honeychurch, S. (2025). 3. Serious fun: Reimagining Higher Education from a humane perspective. In S. Abegglen, T. Burns, R. F. Heller, R. Madhok, F. Neuhaus, J. Sandars, S. Sinfield, & U. Gitanjali Singh (Eds.), Stories of Hope (1st ed., pp. 41–48). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0462.03

As I read both chapters over I realised that both owe a lot to my remix communities in different ways. The title of the first explicitly talks about bricolage and remix, though the chapter itself discusses it in the context of an academic group who are not themselves bricoleurs. The second doesn’t mention remix in the title, but the chapter itself uses DS106 as an example of how to infuse HE with hope and fun.

When I talk to newer academics about starting out in publishing I advise them to find a golden thread – a theme that they see recurring in their work, or would like to develop. I guess it’s no surprise that I’ve found mine.

Death by Meetings⤴

from

Busy work
Busy work flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

My institution has an obsession with meetings. People humble brag about how busy they are, counting the amount of meetings in their calendars as evidence of their busyness and importance. I’m sure this is common practice in HE (for some, I emphasise, not all HE employees are like that!). I find myself falling into that mindset myself – when I set aside time to concentrate on work that has to be done without interruption I feel guilty that I am not ‘really’ working, and when I switch off Teams and email so I can ignore the meeting requests I worry that others will think that I am being lazy.

But this week I spent two whole days working without the interruption of any meetings. Two. Whole. Days. I had time to think, and immerse myself in what I needed to do (and note that this was still work that had to be done – stuff that the institution were expecting of me). I had to be really strict with myself and ignore a couple of last minute meeting requests and also remind myself that having a clear calendar did not mean that I was free to pick up extra work that others thought I had time to do. I still felt guilty – I still feel guilty – but I also feel relieved that I managed to protect my time and complete the work that needed done and also have time to get started on some tasks that I did not envisage that I would ever have time to fit in.

So yesterday, when I was back in one of those meetings that I had to attend (camera off, emails open), I came across this book: Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable. I have no intention of reading this book – from online summaries it looks as if it gives strategies for improving meetings and I’m sure it’s great – but what is really needed is a culture change.

And fewer middle managers.

Death by Meetings⤴

from

Busy work
Busy work flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

My institution has an obsession with meetings. People humble brag about how busy they are, counting the amount of meetings in their calendars as evidence of their busyness and importance. I’m sure this is common practice in HE (for some, I emphasise, not all HE employees are like that!). I find myself falling into that mindset myself – when I set aside time to concentrate on work that has to be done without interruption I feel guilty that I am not ‘really’ working, and when I switch off Teams and email so I can ignore the meeting requests I worry that others will think that I am being lazy.

But this week I spent two whole days working without the interruption of any meetings. Two. Whole. Days. I had time to think, and immerse myself in what I needed to do (and note that this was still work that had to be done – stuff that the institution were expecting of me). I had to be really strict with myself and ignore a couple of last minute meeting requests and also remind myself that having a clear calendar did not mean that I was free to pick up extra work that others thought I had time to do. I still felt guilty – I still feel guilty – but I also feel relieved that I managed to protect my time and complete the work that needed done and also have time to get started on some tasks that I did not envisage that I would ever have time to fit in.

So yesterday, when I was back in one of those meetings that I had to attend (camera off, emails open), I came across this book: Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable. I have no intention of reading this book – from online summaries it looks as if it gives strategies for improving meetings and I’m sure it’s great – but what is really needed is a culture change.

And fewer middle managers.

Haikus for learning⤴

from

ALN logo

Over the last month I’ve been participating in the Active Learning Network (ALN) CPD Series. This has consisted in a set of webinars with each one facilitated by a different members of the ALN CPD organising team, and three presenters each week giving a version of the activity from their book chapter in the 100 Ideas for Active Learning book. This has been a fantastic series, and I’ve come away from each of them with lots of ideas. The one that particularly made my heart sing was the session by Jessica Hancock called Haikus for Learning. Although I would not describe myself as a poet, I do participate in the DS106 Daily Create each day, where a not uncommon task is to write a poetic response, and a form I am often drawn to is the haiku – both for its simplicity and elegance, so I was intrigued to see how Jessica was using it in the context of student assessment.

Jessica asked each of us to write a haiku on the subject of assessment. She introduced the activity by giving a clear description of what a haiku was, including links to resources to help us to count how many syllables our writing had and lots of examples. Participants commented afterwards that they had appreciated this detailed guidance and this is definitely something that I will use when I run a similar activity. She then directed us to a Padlet to add our own haiku – and even suggested a first line to help those needing inspiration. Here’s one of mine:

Now write a haiku

you will be assessed on this

Please make each word count

I can see lots of potential for using haikus in HE. As I don’t currently teach or assess groups of students, I have been thinking about how to modify this activity into my practice. Here’s a couple of ways I can think of using it:

  • Structured writing sessions – ask each participant to write a haiku at the beginning of the session to describe how they are feeling about getting started, or what they are finding difficult. Ask them to write another one at the end to describe how the session helped (or didn’t help).
  • Evaluation of CPD sessions – ask each participant to write a haiku to say what they are taking away from the session, whether positive or negative.
  • I’m also pondering how to use these as a method of data collection for research/scholarship projects …

You can see Jessica’s session, and all of the others, in this playlist and below.

National Unicorn Day⤴

from

Today is National Unicorn Day. Yes, really. Some of you might know that the unicorn’s Scotland’s national animal. And in these dark, uncertain days, I think we need a miracle to see us out of Brexit, out of te UK, out of austerity.

Here’s our national animal standing proud on the steps of our Uni chapel.
Happy Unicorn day, all

IMG_2154

Miscommunication⤴

from

Close up, blurry image of a pink flower

Random moments of misconnection:

George, a Chinese UG, tells me how hard it is to study independently when there is so much he does not understand in lectures. He struggles to understand aurally and finds it hard to use lecture notes to find out what he missed because he … does not know what he missed. We talk about strategies, I suggest some support networks. I tell him not to struggle alone.

Later that day some of us struggle in an LTHEChat as the terminology used by the question setter is obscure. I laugh with my network. It does not matter to me that I am not understanding as nothing hangs on it. Still, I feel frustrated that an opportunity for a conversation was lost.

Unboundeq runs scavenger hunts. These are FUN! We share blurry, close up pics of everyday objects with each other and try to guess what they are. It’s hard. I realise how difficult it is to anticipate what others will and will not find obvious.

We also talk about ALT-text, and realise how hard it is to add this in a way that makes visual activities inclusive. I don’t feel I have an answer to that.

There’s a lot to process here.