Tag Archives: University

Boundaries⤴

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Yesterday’s Daily Create was about boundaries, and I was thinking about what my response would be as I was walking up to a Uni meeting yesterday morning.

First, as I got off the bus and started walking up the path, I stopped to take this picture. It’s not obvious from here, but the road to the left goes up the hill to the university, while the path straight ahead goes through Kelvingrove park – and once you start along the path through the park you cannot get through to the Uni until the far end of the park – a high metal fence creates an unpassable boundary between gown and town.

Path up from Dumbarton Rd to Glasgow Uni
Path up from Dumbarton Rd to Glasgow Uni flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Then, as I reached the entrance to the Main Building I discovered that it was shut, instead of standing open as it usually did. It was no problem to walk a few feet to an open archway, but again I noticed that this usually open space was locked down.

South Front Door, Main Building, Glasgow University
South Front Door, Main Building, Glasgow University flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Although I was not expecting it to be closed, I wasn’t surprised as I’d been emailed earlier to alert me to the extra security due to the student occupation outside the library. Despite the torrential rain, these tents have been there for a few days now. I felt for them a couple of minutes after I took this photo as the heavens opened again and I was drenched by the time I got to my next meeting.

87/365 Student Occupation
87/365 Student Occupation flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

So very many different boundaries – both physical and moral, represented in these three pictures.

Malicious links⤴

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20190425_Elephant at the Metal Zoo


20190425_Elephant at the Metal Zoo flickr photo by Damien Walmsley shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

A couple of weeks ago I had a feeling that my emails weren’t working properly. I couldn’t work out what was happening, but sometimes I sent an email and got no response at all. But I didn’t think much about it until I sent an email a couple of times about something time critical to somebody I knew was awaiting my email, and followed it up with a Teams message when there was no response.

Anyway, after this I put a request over the help desk with a couple of dates and times of emails I thought were not getting through and asked them to look into it. Later that day, as I was out and about, I got a Teams message from a guy who identified himself as “Threat and Vulnerability Lead” at UofG who told me what was happening.

Back in late 2023 I changed my Outlook signature to include a link to my Mastodon profile. I still had a link to my Twitter/X in the same signature, you might like to note. And, on Feb 27th 2025 Microsoft decided that this Mastodon link was “malicious”. Yes, that’s right – nearly 18 months after I added it to my signature.

I removed the link – as the IT guy said, it wasn’t something UofG were doing or within their control. But it annoys the hell out of me that MS are flagging up a link to Mastodon as malicious while ignoring my Twitter/X link. (I removed that as well, by the way).

Go figure!

Reflection on an ongoing collaboration⤴

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OEGlobal Postcard

“Postcards on Pedagogy” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

It’s a couple of weeks into the UW/UofG collaboration, and I thought I’d take a few minutes to reflect on my experiences so far.

It started out very low-key for me. Mum died on 10th October 2024 (I still can’t type that without having to pause to wipe my eyes). So when the collaboration ‘officially’ began at the beginning of November, I knew that my participation would be interrupted by my need to travel 470 miles south to attend her funeral in early November, and all of the emotional upheaval that would entail. But I thoroughly enjoyed meeting my group (Debs, Alka and Mary) over Zoom and coming up with an asynchronous activity for us all to add to before meeting again on the 18th. On my return from England, after pushing through the mountain of work that had accumulated in my absence, I enjoyed a brief hiatus that I allowed myself in which write. Sending a quick email to Debs, Alka and Mary on Tuesday evening (my time) resulted in three lovely replies in my inbox on Wed morning – that really gave me a boost, and I have found a little more time to plan my next contribution to the collaboration.

I also found time to catch up with a project initiated by Carole, who is sending out prompts asking people to respond with a digital postcard. Carole had sent a card around to the group with a picture of her typical classroom. I have had neither classrooms nor students for years now, so I responded with a postcard remix from the amazing Bryan Mather’s remixer. However, this did get me thinking about my own learning environment, and an idea for my next remix.

Both of these activities have helped me to reflect on what I was hoping to gain from this collaboration, and what I was enjoying. I think that one thing that I have realised from my online communities is to enter experiences like this without rigid expectations, but with high hopes. I hoped to meet good people, to have interesting conversations, to participate in ways that I had not anticipated, and without rigid rules (no facilitators telling me that I am doing it wrong).  And I always hope for the opportunity to play with remix.

Well, so far I’ve not been disappointed, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the month.

Use more cats!⤴

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Bribery

“Bribery” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Today in the Active Learning Network CPD session Isobel asks us to reflect on the sessions. The activity that I enjoyed the most was the session by Mark Wilsher called The Purr-fect Grade: How grading cats teaches us about student assessment.

What one thing will you take from the sessions?

  • Use more cats in my work
  • Use cats more in my work

What obstacles might you face?

  • Only having two cats
  • My cats not behaving when/as I want them to

How might you overcome these obstacles?

  • Get more cats!
  • Bribe/train my cats

What might you gain from this activity?

  • It would give me joy!

What might you miss if you didn’t do it?

  • The joy of talking about/stroking my cats when I should be working!