The joy of a new book

20140724_143348There it was, on the doorstep. A parcel, obviously a book. I knew it was coming, but it was still a nice surprise to see it there. And as with most pleasant things in life, there was a story behind its arrival.

Just over two years ago, I wrote a post titled ‘Of Oxford, books and a theory of stupidity‘. The focus was my experience in buying a couple of books associated with the Oxbridge historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (T-R) at a market in Oxford. Then, out of the blue, a few months ago I received a message from a reader who was interested in purchasing one of the books, in this case a bound series of articles from T-R’s personal library. Continue reading

The wisdom of the ancients: A new book on research in online distance education

Browse the current ICDE website and your eye will likely focus on the the word MOOC. Yes, like everyone else, the ICDE is entranced by the notion and all that it entails, and in doing so has provided helpful summaries of reports and articles that have emerged in the past year. I urge you to ignore it and follow the link under ‘More new items’ to New book from Athabasca University on Online Distance Education. Continue reading