To make sense of our field, every now and then we need to step back and take an historical glimpse at how we’re going. If you don’t already do it, then when you scan the journal contents pages for historical contributions and meta analyses. In terms of the recent history of open education and the emergence of MOOCs, you won’t find a better summary than that by the inimitable Stephen Downes. Continue reading
Tag Archives: history
Blogging pleasure
I love blogging, and particularly enjoy hearing from readers. Sometimes it’s comments, sometimes the offering a guest post, and sometimes a note concerning a resource in which I (and, by extension, my readers) might be interested. Continue reading
Hello Mr Bean!
I must admit that in my semi-retired state I haven’t been keeping up with news and events in the world of distance education as well as I used to. So I’ve been a little slow to realise that Mr Bean has been appointed as VC-designate a the UK Open University. Continue reading
Change of name
The alert reader (blithely assuming that there’s at least one) will have noticed a change of name for this blog, from the ODLAA President’s Occasional Blog (hence the ‘opob’ in the URL) to David’s Occasional Blog (how’s that for creativity!).
The simple reason is, unsurprisingly, that I am no longer President Continue reading
Academic promotion: through teaching or research? … plus Wikipedia misinformation!
First, apologies for the long title for this post – it didn’t start out that way, but as I was writing I came across a serious error in Wikipedia, a timely reminder to treat it with caution. And given my recent penchant for talking up matters wiki-related, I thought I’d better temper my enthusiasm and report my finding. Continue reading
Conference tales
Perusing the latest blockbuster issue of Distance Education (29, 1, 2008), the article by Don Bewley on the history of ASPESA (ODLAA’s predecessor) naturally caught my eye (and so it should – Som Naidu had flagged it with me!). Building on an earlier contribution by Alistair Inglis (Distance Education, 20, 1, 7-30, 1999), Don provides a special focus on the regional activities of ASPESA, in particular the South Pacific dimension.
What I found as I read through the article was that it rekindled memories of particular incidents and people associated with conferences. Continue reading
And now for something different …
Today I’m cleaning out my office in readiness for entry to blissful (semi) retirement. Marilyn has warned me not to bring home too much stuff from work, so I’m being brutal in throwing out old books, papers, reports, etc.
Whilst rummaging in my rubbish, I came across a test Continue reading