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

WikiWhat?

Since my last post on contributing to Wikipedia (and I worry that no-one has yet had a go at fixing ‘Open Learning‘), matters Wiki have again crossed my path. In fact it’s hard to ignore the Wiki explosion, with Wikiquote (Who wrote “The hotel shop only had two decent books, and I’d written both of them.”?), Wikispecies (Did you know you are a heterotroph?), Wikinews (yes, it’s been proved that there are six degrees of separation), Wikibooks (contributors are known as Wikibookians), 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

A new year – ‘So, anyone got your carspace yet?’

It’s 2008, and it’s off at a run … stayed on leave until mid-January, so now back at work and slowly getting into gear. The new ODLAA Executive Committee is gathering steam, and ready to make the year a good (great!?) one. Up in the wilds of NSW, Ian at UNE is beavering away at the website, bringing it up to date and poised to add new content as it arises. I’m looking forward to getting to know the rest of the team a little better (although I have at least a passing knowledge of all of them!) and to engage in Continue reading