St David’s Cathedral organ
I was introduced to Johann Sebastian Bach as a boy, while a chorister in St David’s Cathedral in Hobart. We were blessed with a world-class organist and choir master, John Nicholls, who knew no greater pleasure than blasting out Bach on the magnificent church organ. As the choir was located close to the organ, we not only received it at full volume, but could feel the vibrations through our feet. Continue reading
There’s been a weird confluence between the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) and rugby this month. Not only is the rugby world focusing on the Rugby World Cup, but the open learning community has focussed on Murrayfield, the spiritual home of Scottish rugby, via CoL having its ninth Pan-Commonwealth Forum (PCF9) at said venue. I didn’t know that Murrayfield Stadium is also a conference venue, but it makes a certain kind of sense, and I wish I’d been there! Continue reading
My discovery of commonality with a Rolling Stone originated in my search for the highest note achieved in the famous hymn ‘I Was Glad’ by Hubert Parry, often performed at British coronations (it was performed as Catherine Middleton walked down the aisle of Westminster Abbey to wed William). After the usual scramble around multiple websites, I ended up in the Wikipedia entry on ‘boy soprano’, where it was noted that “Keith Richards sang as a choirboy in a trio of boy sopranos for Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in the 1950s.” Yes, I too was an Anglican choirboy, but never in such an esteemed setting. Continue reading
‘Never meet your heroes’ is the oft-quoted mantra, clearly implying that they’ll disappoint you if by chance (or otherwise) your paths cross. Now maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve managed to meet my heroes (albeit fleetingly) in three of the major categories (music, sport and science) and they’ve all been magic memorable moments. Continue reading
About 15 years ago I took a drive along the beautiful backroads of the Mornington Peninsular, and by chance visited scenic Point Leo. The road approaches perpendicular to the coast, then takes a ninety degree turn to the right, at which point you are greeted by the sight of a beautiful sheltered bay. Continue reading
Truth be told I was hesitant: should I go to see Canned Heat for their gig in Melbourne? I contacted my old friend Andrew in Hobart, a serious fan of the group (has at least six original vinyls), and he thought it was worth a go. It didn’t look that promising, the venue being the Corner Hotel in Richmond, a location I was aware of having passed it many times on my way to the Richmond Arms Hotel just up the road, usually in preparation for a Super Rugby match at nearby AAMI stadium. Continue reading
Back in 1998, I was lucky enough to pick up a job in the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) at Monash University, under the leadership of Graham Webb. We moved back from Hong Kong to Melbourne, and thus began one of the most productive and satisfying periods of my working life.
The highlight was the design, development and implementation of InterLearn, an online learning platform. Continue reading
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) continue to expand in number and enrolments. In a little over a decade, this growth has been impressive, with student numbers reaching just over 100 million in 11,400 courses in 2019 (you’ll find the 2018 statistics on MOOCs here). But what is meant by ‘massive’? Continue reading
Perusing my links last week, I naturally checked in to Martin Weller’s blog, and found he’d written about and linked to a talk given by his colleague at the UKOU, Rebecca Galley, on the topic of Learning Design. It’s a nice talk, tracing the evolution and success of the concept of Learning Design as applied within course teams at the UKOU for the past decade. Continue reading
Learning by drone? Well, not exactly, but as was probably inevitable, teachers are using drones to help educate their students. Want to read more about it? You’ll find a nice little introduction and outline of what’s happening in the latest issue of Innovating Pedagogy, the annual report from the UKOU and partners. Continue reading