The chocolate speaks

As a break from thinking about and preparing my workshop session for STLHE, I went in search of caffeine. One of the few (relatively) nearby locations is in the CAW Centre (the students' union). This is "Headstart" week so the campus is alive with youth thinking about their new lives at the University. There are a multitude of booths set up in the CAW centre so I thought I might capture a good idea or two to bring back to New Zealand. I spoke particularly to the organisers of the orientation week (classes don't start till Thursday of the first week) and they are encouraging the new students to have input into the design of orientation for themselves. A good idea - will be interesting to see if they have any different bright ideas. They also talked about faculty holding get to know the profs as more than a distant face in a lecture theatre. Sounds like a jolly good idea to me, or even at a programme or departmental basis.

The other person I had a long conversation with (sorry Michael that your coffee got cold) was Michael from the Careers Education Centre. Aside from the accent and the looks, it could have been the head of careers at Canterbury speaking. "Students don't want to know about career planning till year 4; faculty aren't interested and see no linkages between their classroom and what the students might do in the future." He has tried everything that I have heard of to engage students and staff and has now decided to resort to good old word of mouth and customer satisfaction to develop his business - an exact replica of the conversation Michael and I had had about GA/TA training before I set off for the coffee.

On my return I noticed the wrapper from a Dove chocolate that I ate a few days ago. It is a bit like fortune cookies (each wrapper has some bright suggestion inside). This one says "learn something from everyone you meet."

Photo today comes courtesy of Hilary who called to visit between Berlin and Wellington. This is a favourite view of Petrin Park in Prague (she had a side trip there).

Reviewing one's life!

Time is confusing me here in Windsor. This morning I checked my Canterbury email and replied to a couple of messages. I was most surprised that the Acting Director needs to be responding to emails at 1am! Then, this afternoon I sent a couple of emails at the end of my working day to other colleagues in New Zealand and I got instant replies - they are at work tomorrow morning already! Trying to find a suitable time to call my daughters - one in NZ , one in UK has required me to go to the world clock and register my needs. So is it today, yesterday or tomorrow!!

Then tonight, in lieu of television, I have watched the video recording of the workshop session that Michael and I ran yesterday with a view to deciding how we would use this footage. I have to say, I am not quite sure, as it was genuinely a workshop, so the participants, who had no microphones , did a large proportion of the input into the session. Michael and I did the planning and gave the instructions. My reflection is - is this fair for the participants? In this instance we had billed the session as "Capturing excellence" and were quite clear that we wanted to pick their brains for the benefit of others. But how much "input" is a workshop participant entitled to receive from the facilitator, or does all the "input" come from the participants? Perhaps, the skill of a good facilitator is to have sufficient expert knowledge in the field to be able to build on participants input and to fill gaps should they form and to stand back and let it happen when the participants are fully engaged and sharing quality input. I know that sometimes I come away from a workshop and wish I had listened more and said less and then I would have learnt more. A word of warning perhaps for those of us who might like to hog the limelight. Some useful thoughts as I prepare for workshops for the ICED and STLHE conferences.
Today's picture near Almonte, Ontario. Rather English don't you think?

Other Universities

I have spent a great time in Ottawa, visiting two quite different EDCs and catching up with friends from Ireland. The last time I visited Ottawa (12 years ago) I was on a fact find about surveying education in Canada and exploring the possibilities of placements for our surveying students in the real estate practices of Canada (I fancied the opportunity to be their placement tutor and therefore be required to come to Canada.) Whilst I had an interesting time, unfortunately no placement opportunities were forthcoming and it has taken a long time for a return visit.

Not sure what to pick out as the highlights of the two visits - there are many points of contact and similarity and some different ways of looking at issues. The agenda covered Student evaluation of teaching; academic integrity; learning management systems implementation and change; institutional change and how to run an educational development centre. The formality of the academic integrity process at Carleton is forbidding but reassuring at the same time. Also interesting that the staff in the Educational Development Centre maintain their discipline teaching opportunities - it is not often you see a set of skulls decorating the windowsills in the EDC. But they also have created a most welcoming environment in their relatively new premises with super pictures. As I was being shown around Maggie let me into the main seminar/training room, and explained that they had failed to sway the designers into allowing them flexible and movable tables and chairs. A very well designed room nevertheless and able to be used in a reasonably flexible way. (see picture below) .

Ottawa University's Teaching and Learning Support Services has an extensive array of technology support activities as well as more traditional academic development. I enjoyed seeing (and hearing) a truly bilingual university at work - and observing some of the additional challenges that poses.

Today has been a busy one at Windsor, co-facilitating with Michael a workshop on "Capturing Excellence" in PhD supervision. We had a fun time and the participants engaged fully, even to the extent of putting coloured posit notes on their papers without being given a rationale. As in Canterbury, some excellent practices in PhD supervision/advising are going on and there were plenty of instances where people became aware of there being "another way" compared to their standard personal or departmental practice. This event was jointly sponsored by the Dean of Graduate Studies, endorsed by the VP Research and CTL, and is hopefully the beginning of a suite of activities for staff and students int his area. Much of the workshop planning was informed by similar activity going on at the University of Canterbury and the development of the working relationship with the Postgraduate Dean there too. Practices can be universal or at least similar and fine tuned for the location. In his opening remarks the Dean of Graduate Studies referred to Windsor's peripheral location which is sometimes depicted negatively in Canada and said that whilst there was little that could be done about that, the faculty had within their own control the opportunity to ensure that the students' have a positive master's or PhD study experience. A lesson for us all to remember.

Photos today are the seminar room at Carleton and Michael wondering about excellence this morning.

Conflict resolution

On my travels to Ottawa I had a very interesting conversation with a guy who is in conflict resolution. This came out when he discovered my Northern Ireland roots. He had been to Belfast in the early 80s and done his grad school research on trying to find a solution to “The Troubles”. He admits that his idealism wasn't quite sufficient to achieve that. However, we did discuss how the approaches and techniques he uses in organizational conflict resolution might be applied to the research/teaching “conflict” that arises in the academic world. Again, I come back to the question of promotion practices. I have now heard in the UK, NZ and Canada people saying that “yes the promotions/tenure criteria acknowledge teaching, but it is still not as important as research”. We talked about a model where people play to their strengths within the context of a department or academic unit which is where the balance between research and teaching should be addressed. In other words those that are the really good and keen teachers should be allowed to focus on that aspect of their role, with a reduced expectation of research outputs, and vice versa. That is fine so long as the individuals remain in the department, but what about someone wanting to move when the currency of hiring is research output and grant winning abilities? Perhaps departments need to identify in their hiring decisions that overall departmental balance and be explicit in their hiring promotional activities that they want someone to focus on teaching or research. It makes a lot of sense to me, and of course, individual balances can be changed through negotiation over the years, but it would allow faculty to have a real focus on one or other of their prime roles, and do it well without penalty. That identified priority would then be part of the promotions/tenure application and the criteria would be adjusted accordingly. This is part of a worldwide change that is needed so the community that thinks this way will need to work together. Maybe it is the slow infiltration that membership of the (late lamented) ILTHE had into the job ads for lecturers in the UK. Once the ILT was founded and began to gather a membership, job ads began to say "membership of the ILT desirable". What I am looking for is the job ad that says "this department practices a balancing philosophy and allows members to work to their strengths".

My picture is of the Centre for Leadership in Learning at McMaster University with Erika, Elvia and Paola (and me of course)

The long weekend

Monday 19 May is Victoria Day in Canada - isn't it strange how the outposts of the Empire continue to celebrate regal days when such celebrations no longer happen in the UK!

Well I got to the University of Waterloo and had some really interesting conversations with the director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence (yet another title) and her colleagues Trevor and Mark. It seems that there are plenty of places reviewing their Learning Management Systems so good ideas to be shared across the globe. Mark, with help from some colleagues, has just started a wiki to be found here http://netsavvy.uwaterloo.ca/. He has set it up not just for his colleagues at Waterloo but for others anywhere who are interested in New Educational Technologies. Not to be outdone,UCTL, and in particular Mike, posts podcasts regularly on issues of interest in the world of teaching and learning http://uctv.canterbury.ac.nz/1/139/ . I have been interviewed today by my host Alan, and no doubt some of that conversation will find its way onto the CTL website in due course. UW has an interesting summer academy for selected staff who spend four days reviewing and replanning a course. The content of this programme is challenging and stimulating for staff and participants alike, but the particular idea that appealed to me was the duration of the programme - a four day period spread over (but not formally including) a weekend. As Trevor says "there is an amazing amount of thinking and processing goes on over the break. It is perhaps also easier to get three days from one week and one from the next, rather than being away for 4 days all in the same week. It also does give that bonus time for those who are willing to take it.

from I spent the later part of Thursday evening with Nicola from UW at her home on the shores of Lake Ontario (I think)- when I found it. I wondered how she managed to do a two hour trip each way to work four times a week - lots of thinking time! But I discovered that if you follow the right signposts it can be done in 55 minutes. So unfortunately I lost all that conversation time with a like minded soul. Our conversations ranged over a wide variety of topics, not least of which was the nature of employment of staff in Centres for Teaching and Learning. I know this is a topic that has been aired on a list serve recently and one that I discussed in my interview this afternoon (see later). Perhaps it is a function of the leader of the unit and their personal bias that influences the nature of the work done by a unit and the extent to which it is or is not an academic department. Then on Friday I had a very stimulating time with Erika, Paola and LailaMcMaster University. Needless to say, inquiry based learning was high on the agenda, but also the implementation of a change in Learning Management System with attendant issues of timing and preparedness. Our experiences at migrating from WebCT4.1 to 6 last year were helpful for Laila, in giving her some ideas about how to get the appropriate training in place and to encourage faculty to take it up. The research that has been done at McMaster indicates, that even if a student only takes one inquiry course, it has a positive impact throughout their entire programme.

On a completely unrelated theme (or maybe not so disconnected) as I write this blog I am listening to BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week programme - this week's subject is Franz Waxman . This is not my usual listening but I have been prompted to listen to this programme by my friend Rachel who is valiantly working at a PhD on the subject of this composer as well as having a full time job. This programme has been put together at Rachel's suggestion. How does that count as a "publication" for the British Research Assessment Exercise or the Performance Based Research Fund in New Zealand and how is it compared to other more traditional publications? The connection is with PhD supervision - Michael and I are planning our workshop for next week to try to get together some guidelines for the University of Windsor, based on the experience of their own faculty. This reflects work done at Canterbury, using student focus groups to gather data about courses so that the faculty cannot claim that it is only research and their department is different. This is their own data and it cannot be denied. So different contexts and concepts, but the methodology is similar.

Over the weekend I spent many hours at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Hamilton and so leave you with a photo of the wonderful tulips.

More conference thoughts

These will be brief, as I am tired out even though I was only in the audience at a very interesting Campus Technology Day where lots of different aspects of technology in teaching, libraries, communication and portal were considered. I did learn yesterday that using your brain is more tiring that physical work, so I must have been concentrating hard. There was a large and impressive turnout of faculty, staff and students. I attended a very interesting presentation about the the way the University has gone about moving from its homegrown LMS (Vicki) to CLEW which is based on Sakai. This is of interest to me as this process is underway at Canterbury. I took lots of notes and will be talking more to the protagonists before I return. The major factors in the successful implementation appear to be partnerships and communication. There is also an elaborate system of advisory committees and I will be interested to hear how they worked. Many of the presentations were recorded so when they become publicly available I will put up a link so you can hear and see more.

I'm off to ask questions tomorrow and Friday at the Universities of Waterloo and McMaster so that I will have some data from which to write my papers for UC before I return. Also going to do some sightseeing - having hired a car, hope I remember which side of the road to drive on. I have been practising on my bicycle!

A totally unconnected photo - expect that there are often lots of cat conversations in CTL. This is a cat with attitude.

Conference thoughts

Having just spent two days at Oakland University, Michigan at a teaching and learning conference (as I mentioned yesterday) I thought I might have a few thoughts on conferences generally. This one I have just had the privilege of attending was fully subsidised by the two universities involved so the individual participants did not have to find any funds. Asking people around me how they had enjoyed the two days, there were mixed views "I've enjoyed today", "I have been to some really good sessions but one or two were not really worthwhile", and so on indicates that there is a lot of hit and miss in conference attendance. This conference was small and compact, no more than 3 concurrent sessions at any one time, so not too hard to make decisions. And a reasonable guarantee of a worthwhile audience. But all the person hours that have gone into this conference preparation and the funding behind it - is this the best way to promote interest and the development of teaching and learning? I have come away from the conference with a range of good ideas about activities that can be carried out in the classroom; I have a real sense of the need to be creative, not just in the classroom and with assignments, but in tackling all the issues which beset HE. I also heard some really interesting information about how our brains work in a way that is relevant to student learning (thanks to Terry Doyle and looking forward to his new book). So as my Assistant VC says "So long as you come away with 3 good ideas from a conference it has been worthwhile" I think she also considers the time for reflection, recovery, time out are really important aspects of conference attendance. I have come away feeling energised by creativity and the creative ideas of others - even tho I never seem to manage them for myself. But it is a much freer way to look at life and work and I'm sure would help lots of students if we could allow that flexibility into their classes and their work. I am particularly indebted to Beth Talbert for the inspiration. I am conscious that my hosts are in the process of putting huge amounts of time, energy and efforts into preparing for the STLHE conference and despite my question above, I do believe that these efforts are worthwhile and that the conversations over lunch and tea, at the end of sessions, during sessions and the sessions themselves do make going to conferences a positive developmental experience that would be hard to replicate in any other way. So long may the conference industry boom!

Today's photos: one of Detroit (to the left) and Windsor (to the right) from the Ambassador Bridge as we crawled over it yesterday. The return trip this evening went like clockwork with no holdup whatsoever - just like conferences you are never quite sure how it will turn out. The other photo is of Alan (Dr Alan Wright Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning at the Unviersity of Windsor) in full flow welcoming the delegates this morning.

What will I be when I grow up?

I am at a Hilton Hotel in Detroit, Auburn Hills in between two days of a teaching and learning conference jointly organised by the University of Windsor and the University of Oakland. It is a really neat initiative that is in its early stages, but to be supported. Amazing how many Faculty members at both Universities have research into teaching and learning that they want to showcase. The bigwigs have gone to dinner so I have got a glass of wine have been reading an article entitled "The desire to learn: an analysis of knowledge seeking practices among professionals".

Whilst I can't claim to really understand the article - too many long sentences and big words for me - it has set me thinking about how I learnt to be a surveyor, and then a lecturer and now an educational developer. How does a degree in French and German prepare you to negotiate rents on large office buildings? What were the intermediate steps? Then when the practice no longer needed me (redundancy) I went on to teach surveying - I know I learnt to teach by trial and error and generous feedback from my students, and that, when I did the "Teaching for old wrinklies" crash course at the University of Northumbria, Dept of Built Environment, after teaching for 12 years, I learnt new things, but more importantly my trial and error results were confirmed as good practice. Now I claim to be an educational developer, what gives me that right? Experience, knowing the theory, being willing to engage in conversations and discussions about how to improve student learning and to think about the ways Universities can approach that problem systematically, being open to new ideas and being able to enthuse others to think about their teaching and get the pleasure from it.

The best bit I took from today's workshop was a comment from a retired faculty member at Windsor, (who said this morning on the bus as we came over from Windsor "You are never too old to learn") that it was much too late to try to educate students about academic integrity once they got to University, honesty should be an inbred value from childhood. He asked how we answer our children who ask "What do I do when my boss and my colleagues are claiming my ideas and proposals as their own?" I have just read a comment from Jo Tait about trying to measure student learning in numbers and her suggestion was maybe to grant bonus points to students who manage to ask questions that we can't answer. So George you get some bonus points today for your son!

The poster presentations at the conference were interesting and varied - in my mind the best one was done by a group of students who certainly demonstrated the concept of multiple intelligences in their use of visuals, numbers, words and actions in a poster which depicted the way in which a team developed itself and its skills to achieve a task. If there had been a prize, that poster would have got my vote. I also note that psychology departments seem to be disproportionately represented.

Sorry there are no pictures tonight - I did take some as we sat on the Ambassador Bridge this morning as the US customs were being hampered by crashed computers. But I didn't pack the required bit of kit to get them from the camera to this computer so you can see the view tomorrow.

Passing time

I get very confused doing this blog, as my laptop is still connected to New Zealand time (it helps me to know if it is a civilised time to phone Jenny in Wellington) but it does mean that I post blogs 16 hours after the current time! I have also been a bit lax in posting so once again I am catching up.

Friday went by in a blur, sending out welcome letters to international delegates signed up for the STLHE conference, a lovely idea dreamed up by the conference team here; doing a few more edits for the book chapter on our NZ Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project and sending it off for comment to the editor (glad that the email received an "out of office" reply so there won't be anything more to do there for a little while); going for lunch at the local Chinese with Jeanne, Bev and Michael (where there was very interesting conversation on interesting books that we had all read which connected closely or not to academic development but I do need to get a record of the titles); organising my travel and meetings in Ottawa and Hamilton for next week and the week after. Suddenly time is getting very short. But some sense of achievement at the end of the day.

My next door neighbours came for dinner on Friday evening, Luke is a new post-doc in the University. We had an illuminating conversation sparked by the fact that he said he deleted the Windsor Daily News email without even thinking of opening it. I asked him about his sense of belonging to the Windsor University community. He said he had no space for that, he was focused on things that would promote his route into a faculty position and was being very self-centred about that. He didn't even identify any loyalty to his department or discipline, this he justified by saying he was in an inter-disciplinary position now. The conversation reminded me that I need to be very careful about judging people or actions from my world view as it may well be very different from someone else's.

Saturday was a lovely day and Alan and Marie-Jeanne took me off to Pointe Pelee National Park as it was International Migratory Bird day (or something of the kind). What a fabulous spot despite the label it applies to itself (see photo below). We saw numerous brightly coloured birds, some butterflies, fish and turtles. Alan and Marie-Jeanne were struck by seeing cacti growing outside. That makes me think they are used to much colder climes - you will note that the first phot was at teh beginning of the day, but later on the top layers had been removed, thank you sun. I'm glad to say that Alan and I managed to avoid shop talk most of the day ( he needs a break from time to time.)

Canadian photos for today taken at Pointe Pelee.
You will note Alan's precision in setting up this photo(the footboard!)

Learning Outcomes

This morning I was doing some workshop planning on two diverse topics -- PhD supervision and teaching spaces and wanted to know about common course sizes at the University of Windsor. The connection - well students spend a very small proportion of most courses in the classroom, therefore most of their learning takes place in other places and spaces and I was looking for this information to be able to make my point about the importance of informal learning spaces as well as the design and layout of the formal ones. Relevant information for PhD supervisors as well. So I asked Jeanne and she said that wasn't her remit and didn't want to feed me false information so I should ask Bev. Well she tells me that there isn't a formula that she is aware of and there are some rules of thumb she knows so she turned the question round to me. I talked about EFTS and 1200 hours and a need to think about the time students might spend doing specific activities. But I don't have a formula either as we are thinking about students who read at different speeds, think at different speeds, who have different work patterns etc. We did think a plan of getting students to wear mini video cameras for a day or two to record their thoughts and actions might give us an insight. But even if we can't pinpoint the numbers, we do need to encourage faculty to be conscious of what we are expecting of students in their waking hours. But the best bit was Bev said to me "I'm glad you are asking questions that we can't answer (we being her and I) as at least I know you are doing something!!" Outcomes driven?!! :)☺

Folk must be at least browsing the photos as I have had a number of offers to house swap! Thank you for taking the time to read these ramblings.

Today's photo is of me studying something up a tree in the bush at Arthur's Pass, between Christchurch and Greymouth. The New Zealand bush is amazing!

Serendipity again

I was finding that the rotation of my lunch in the microwave was not sufficient excitement as I sat in the lab, so I flicked through a pile of handouts and training materials about how to use a smartboard. I thought I really should look at these, but they didn't appeal sufficiently to stop me going further down the pile where I found the February 2008 issue of University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires, with a blazing headline "The big PhD debate". So that article provided me with interesting reading for lunchtime and where the serendipity fits in is that just before lunch I read an email Michael had forwarded to me from the Dean of Graduate Studies say he wanted to go ahead with our proposal for a PhD Supervision workshop towards the end of this month.

Two particular sentences struck me from this article: the number of PhD students in Canada has increased 48% since 2000 to 35000, and two out of three PhD graduates will not become university professors. The other linked idea is the paragraph "This begs the question: Does doctoral training need to be adapted to take into account these new career prospects?" That prompted me to wonder how current doctoral training helps the students become all round professors, rather than just researchers? Plenty to think about in planning the workshop and a deadline to keep me working.

Today's photo is of Mitre Peak, Milford Sound - one of the most beautiful places I have visited in New Zealand. It rains frequently - 186 wet days on average and 6249mm p.a. I was there in a drought - it hadn't rained for 5 days!

6749	186

Back to normal

I have had a day of meetings today so feel more like normal. Lots of hot air, things to do and new ideas all mixing around in my head.

Meeting one was with Roy Amore from Religious and Political Studies. Roy is currently on sabbatical and writing textbooks. So we had interesting discussions about how to make textbooks more useful to students - isn't it strange how things keep connecting? (see my post for Saturday!) Roy was only looking for a sounding board for his thoughts and any helpful suggestions I might have - but it was really a refinement of his thoughts - so no take away work. (I like meetings like that.)

Secondly was a luncheon appointment with Wansoo Park from Social Work. At Alan's request, we are working together to provide a particular welcome to overseas delegates to the STLHE conference here at Windsor in June. I had drafted a letter and a list of useful bits and pieces of information (thanks to Hilary for our conversations on the train between Windsor and Niagara Falls) and we were reviewing these. I learnt a lot about Korean eating customs as I was eating for the first time ever in a Korean restaurant. I also learnt about assumptions and writing simply. We have done some editing and rethinking and so there is a little take away work but not too much. And it is fun getting to know Wansoo.

The third meeting was with Jennie Atkins, Director of the Academic Writing Centre and the English Language Improvement Programme and Izabella Kojic-Sabo who is the ESL Programme Manager. The comparable unit at Canterbury (the Learning Skills Centre) has just joined UCTL so I am on a steep learning curve about their operation and what they can and do do for students. It was interesting listening to what they do here at Windsor, the challenges they face and how they are tackling them. Could have been in New Zealand as the issues and ideas are all very similar. I was very impressed with what they manage to achieve with such a small staff and also at the tenacity with which they pursue faculty to help them help their students achieve their learning outcomes which are centred on writing. This support service is so valuable. Its benefit is evident when the AWC staff get the opportunity to work in partnership with faculty to help students achieve and develop their independence. It makes me wonder once again, how we reinforce the message that faculty and support staff are all at the university to help the students in their learning - a collaboration not a conflict between faculty and administrators. Take aways from this meeting are good ideas to take back to Canterbury, and a promise to turn my scrappy notes into something I will understand in three months when I get back to New Zealand.

The caption that goes with this photo is "If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would get done!" Have to say I am beginning to feel deadline looming so things are getting done slowly.

Sunday 4th May

As today was a day off I just did a 40km cycle to La Salle (and back) via some of the most lovely parks and pathways. The real beauty of cycling around Windsor is that it is flat. Don't know how I will ever deal with Richmond Hill Road when I return to Christchurch. After a couple of hours I found a Tim Horton's but just before I went in I asked a couple if they could tell me how to get to the waterfront. They gave me excellent instructions to Mona's Place - "Home of the famous Monaburger and the best breakfasts in town". Of course we also had a conversation because he was from Paisley in Scotland and she was from London, England but have lived her for the last 30 years. But Mona's place is in a beautiful setting, and the breakfast was excellent too (even though it was 2pm). I had taken Ranald Macdonald's "Scholarship of Academic Development" along for company, so sat out under a beautiful blue sky, on the waterfront and read a chapter or two. But no great thoughts were prompted today, except that I thought Michael might enjoy Sarah Mann's chapter.

Belated Saturday

As Saturday is not officially a day at work, I forgot to write anything here yesterday. So this is really Saturday's post. I did spend some time reading, following those good conversations with Alan. One of the books I looked at , but it wasn't really on my topic is called "The Learning Paradox" by Jim Harris . I think it belongs to Brian as I have borrowed it off the shelf in my office. The first page after the contents page reads:

"Right now, before you begin the book, I want you to rip out this page. Yes, you understood me correctly, I said rip out this page. If you are in a bookstore, please pay for the book first."

The author then goes on to give the reader permission to desecrate the book. This got me thinking about student texts and student engagement. I have not been a great fan of the University of Canterbury's (and probably many other Universities') practice of creating text readers (large bound collections of articles, extracts from books etc.) instead of encouraging students to use the library facilities.

But this concept of making the book your own and being encouraged to make notes in the margins, underline, etc is about engagement with the text. That is what we want our students to do, and that is really well facilitated by the creation of the readers. It means the students don't need to underline and highlight the library books, which really annoys some readers (as I found out as we discussed this very issue over dinner at Michael's house). I have always staunchly believed in the continuing existence of books as I can't imagine a life without them, but perhaps thinking this way will help me see myself into the 21st century. I now see a really good reason for electronic textbooks so that we can all annotate them. Bringing all those electronic ways of receiving, marking, giving feedback on student work and engaging with texts is actually better facilitated electronically. Maybe I will have to abandon my pencil (and after buying a pencil sharpener yesterday!!!).

I was the lucky recipient of a ticket to hear the Windsor Symphony Orchestra yesterday evening as Brent, Bev's partner, was occupied composing a piece for the University of Windsor Women's Chamber Choir, which won the University Choir category of the 2008 CBC National Radio Competition for Amateur Choirs, to sing later this month in a concert featuring the winners in all categories. Well done to the Choir and to Brent. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and the social with Bev, Lorie and Ed afterwards. So thanks Brent. So life is certainly not all work.

This photo is not from outer space, but rather from the east coast of the South Island, New Zealand. The Moeraki Boulders are huge spheres of rock on the beach. For more information try http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/destinations/moeraki.html

Getting CLEWed up

Friday 2 May

It is raining today, real rain that should speed up the spring flowers. But I have been inside learning about CLEW - Collaboration and Learning Environment Windsor - the new LMS which is being introduced across campus. I was especially interested as the University of Canterbury is currently evaluating its LMS and considering options. I did reflect, and subsequently discussed with Bev and Michael, how CTL can use CLEW in its daily work so that we can all speak with confidence about its use and capability. However, it also occurred to me as I ended my training session with a bundle of disorganised documents and folders etc, that actually the logistics of developing a coherent CLEW site could be facilitated by the prior development of learning outcomes, their associated learning activities and assessments.

Aside from my training session, I have also had some good conversations with Alan which touched on writing we hope to do together, workshop planning for STLHE and thinking about how we will evaluate the Visiting Educational Developer visits to the CTL. Good food for thought for the weekend. Hope the weather picks up.

Today's picture is designed to amuse!

May Day

I thought it was March that madness was associated with, but there certainly seems to be an air of lightheartedness around the CTL today. Perhaps it is sheer panic with STLHE only 45 days away!

I experienced my first formal meeting of the CTL staff - what a jolly affair. I would like to generate the same level of banter and craic (good Irish word which has no translation into English) at my team meetings, at the same time as getting through the agenda with such speed. This reflects my perception of the work environment and work colleagues which you have in CTL. I was also struck by the range of talent and expertise residing within the centre, and I will have to make an effort to come to talk to more of you about your roles, and how distance and flexible learning are happening at Windsor.

I have been doing some forward planning today so that I can make contact with colleagues at other Universities in Ontario. This exercise has made me realise how valuable time is, and how easy, without deadlines, it is to let it slip away. Also how valuable inside knowledge is, within our fairly small world of academic development.

At UCTL in Canterbury, we have a weekly newsletter just for UCTL (there are 29 of us but quite a different composition ot the CTL) and today's contained a quote of the week (a new feature). I think it reflects the role that many of us in academic development play and this is certainly good advice.

‘Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked’. Lord Chesterfield (1694 - 1773)

Today I will post you a lovely photo of New Zealand, specially to further whet Larry's wanderlust.It is the view of the Pacific from my flat in Sumner.