What would Wittgenstein think of remix?

Posted on 15th February 2021 by NomadWarMachine

We were playing a game at the weekend, which Kevin started.

We answered by making an acrostic of the word we guessed until we got it right

Then Wendy put her twist on it. Different game, different rules. Obviously related – that’s how remix rolls, and the challenge is to work out what the new rules are, or how the old ones apply.

And that got me thinking: what would Wittgenstein think of remix? I think he’d have understood that it’s all a matter of what game you are playing.

“However many rules you give me—I give a rule which justifies my employment of your rules” (Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics [RFM] I-113).

Posted in #CLMOOC, Learning, Online learning, Peer interaction, Rhizomes, Wittgenstein | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Tying it all together

Posted on 30th January 2021 by NomadWarMachine

Nearly there. This week I spoke to my supervisor and my Graduate School and I have sent off my “intention to submit” by March 31st 2021. It’s almost done- I just need to finish the final chapters and give it a thorough edit.

Thesis Structure

It’s been a long journey – as I scrawled down on a scrap of paper this week, my thesis has gone through changes: I began by looking at collaborative learning, moved to thinking about peer interactions and am ending with a rich picture of participatory learning.

Nearly there

I’ll leave the thanks for the acknowledgements, but for now I will give a shout out for my loyal little research assistant, who keeps me going through it all.

Research Assistant
Research Assistant
Posted in #CLMOOC, Academia, Editing, Learning, MOOC, Researcher Journal, Writing | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Hamish the Tour Guide

Posted on 18th December 2020 by NomadWarMachine

Yesterday, as part of the SocMedHE20 conference, we ran a competition to guess where Hamish the Cow was. Hamish was originally knitted by me back in the old world of social contact, before we realised we’d have to run this year’s event online. I remembered him this week, so we devised a plan to photoedit him into a series of images of Glasgow and tweet them out during the day using the hashtags #WheresHamishNoo and #WinHamishTheCoo We had a lot of fun. Maybe you will too.

https://twitter.com/SocMedHE/status/1339509512974311426?s=20
https://twitter.com/NomadWarMachine/status/1339570582082478083?s=20
Posted in Conferences, Learning, Online learning, Photos, Scotland, Social Media | Leave a comment

Learning as Performance

Posted on 17th December 2020 by NomadWarMachine

Today I gave a presentation for the #SocMedHE20 conference, which was on the theme of “Using social media to build community, care and compassion” . It was a conference with a difference as it was all online – presenters were asked to submit up to 5 tweets which we then scheduled to be tweeted from the conference account (we called this a “Tweetposium”). Here’s mine – partly done to nudge myself to write a paper about it (the conference will have a special issue of the Journal of Social Media for Learning). Here’s what I said as a warm up:

My basic idea is that, at least for those of us who practice and share out in the open, learning can be seen as a performance – in a similar way to the thought that teaching is a performance (the sage on the stage). I’ll be using and to illustrate my answer.

Posted in #CLMOOC, DailyCreate, DS106, Learning, MOOC, Online learning, Peer interaction, Social Media | Tagged , | 2 Comments

November Haiku

Posted on 24th November 2020 by NomadWarMachine
Autumn haiku
Posted in Photos, Poetry, Scotland | Tagged | Leave a comment

October

Posted on 31st October 2020 by NomadWarMachine

The months go so quickly at the moment, but my photos remind me of what we’ve been doing. Mugdock continues to be a joy – harder now the nights are drawing in, but walks in the later afternoon help to blow away the cobwebs. And there was a kestrel.

Kestrel
Glasgow from Mugdock
Glasgow from Mugdock
Glasgow from Mugdock
Autumn skies
Dusk
Posted in Photos, Scotland | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

September in Scotland

Posted on 30th September 2020 by NomadWarMachine

I can’ t believe how quickly this month has flown. Uni’s back (though most of us never went away), autumn is here, the nights are drawing in. We’ve been driving out for walks when we can, always with cameras slung around our necks. Here’s a selection from Mugdock this month

Mugdock
Twilight at Mugdock
Evening Stroll
Evening
Antler tree
Posted in Photos, Scotland | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Herons

Posted on 31st August 2020 by NomadWarMachine

Herons are beautiful birds. So big -huge wings and very distinctive in flight. When on the ground they often blend into the background, but here are some pictures I’ve taken this month. This one down at Victoria Park:

Heron

Victoria Park again – different day, but probably the same heron. I love it when they perch like old men in macs:

Hunched

And another – almost certainly a different bird – at Mugdock last week:

Heron

One of the few blessings of lockdown has been our discovery of Mugdock. We always knew it was there, but recently we’ve been visiting regularly. Such beauty on our doorstep, and views like this:

Looking south from Mugdock
Posted in Photos, Social Media | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Lagnakiel

Posted on 30th July 2020 by NomadWarMachine

A holiday. A month ago it didn’t seem possible, but here we are, staying in a lodge outside Oban. Beautiful views:

Arduaine Viewpoint
Arduaine Viewpoint

Lots of birds – like this heron hunting outside our window:

heron

And this one down by the shore:

Heron

At Kilmore, which is lovely:

Kilmore

Flocks of birds (geese?)

Flying

And, from McCaigs tower, we saw Mull in the distance:

Kerrera and Mull
Posted in Photos, Scotland | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bookmarks

Posted on 28th June 2020 by NomadWarMachine
Bookmarks

I can rarely find a bookmark when I want one – I use scraps of paper, post it notes, whatever I have to hand. I remember trips to bookshops as a child, the thrill of a book token for Xmas or a birthday, swapping the token for a stack of new books, picking up a handful of free bookmarks at the till. Now I buy most of my books online, of course. But sometimes I take a book from my shelf and find a real book mark inside it – like this one, made for me by Algot:

So here’s my latest project – a series of bookmarks doodled in odd moments – some from daily doodle prompts, others just because. Now I am addressing envelopes and awaiting postage stamps so I can send them around the world.

Posted in #CLMOOC, Doodles, Gifting, postcards | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments