Ricardo’s Blagado
Ultraversity Graduation
Friday, 24 November 2006
Today 120 of the 140 researchers who graduated with their BA (Hons) Learning Technology Research turned up in Chelmsford to receive their certificates. They had not met on the course before, which
Stonking television news report on our online degree graduate
Saturday, 23 September 2006
This television report on BBC's regional news programme, Look East, surprised me with how well it summarised some major aspects of our Ultraversity project's degree programme. Here is a transcript
Discipline
Monday, 18 September 2006
I was ferreting about looking for information about the demise of the UK e-university. It is a horrific story of extraordinary salaries and bonuses for an essentially failed enterprise - a stark
How to learn and what to learn
Thursday, 14 September 2006
Thanks to my colleague Gill Roberts for pointing me to a paper 'Who Learns What at Work?' by Alison Fuller et al.
They have been interviewing employees in the food processing and retail sectors and
ALT-C 2006 Edinburgh
Saturday, 9 September 2006
I have just returned from the 13th International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) in Edinburgh.
Scratch
Thursday, 8 June 2006
It puts together a pretty slick visual programming environment (
Ultraversity Research Findings
Friday, 2 June 2006
I have just posted in the Ultraversity Project research blog, the first three pamphlets to summarise some research findings.
180 Degrees of Separation
Friday, 12 May 2006
I have just bought this book, unseen. I know it's going to be inspiring, challenging and exciting. I know I'm going to love it.
Why?
Computing/IT as a subject for 16-19 year olds: What should we be teaching? Why? How? What are the barriers to success?
Tuesday, 25 April 2006
"There is a lot of debate at the moment about the content of IT/ICT/IS/Computing for 16-19 year olds. The focus of consideration recently has been in the teaching of ICT embedded within the
Action Research and the Research Assessment Exercise 2008
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
The Higher Education Funding Council released details of its criteria for this exercise on 31 January 2006. Pressed by my host university's (Anglia Ruskin University) interest in the nature of
Action Research
Sunday, 26 February 2006
Ultralab, like any other research centre, has to explain its ethos and working practices and a recent meeting in our host institution Anglia Ruskin University to tackle job matching and evaluation,
Keywords
Monday, 31 October 2005
Just completed a really satisfying addition to the Ultralab web site. I have redesigned the footer to be a dynamic list of the keywords used to label content in the web site. The keywords also link
Enquiring Minds
Friday, 30 September 2005
I take my hat off to Keri Facer at Nesta Futurelab and their associates, for coming up with a project I have lot of time for - Enquiring Minds.
In Ultralab we have been talking about how we can take
Channel 4’s Education Policy
Saturday, 24 September 2005
A gathering of people interested in education came together in conversation as part of Channel 4's new education strategy on 22nd September 2005. I was there, thanks to Henry Warren, and it was a
At last - blog feed into Plone
Friday, 23 September 2005
Its taken several weeks of tearing what little hair I have out, but finally managed with Jonathan Furness' help to make an RSS feed work inside a Plone page. For a sneak preview of Ultralab's web
Cannons, paper bags and cucumbers
Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Went to the Stilgoe Family concert at the Royal Festival Hall with Sasha on Saturday - what fun. We burst paper bags to be the cannons in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, played by the Royal College of
Design for creative learning
Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Several of us from Ultralab enjoyed an evening with our mate Professor Stephen Heppell at the Regent Street Apple shop last Friday evening. A real pleasure to hear from Jonathan Ive via video-
Apple Teacher Institute 2005
Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Another great continuing professional development (CPD) opportunity for teachers is over. The Apple Teacher Institute is held in Cheltenham College each year around Easter and attracts enthusiasts
Childnet Academy
Tuesday, 29 March 2005
The Academy is underway and the winners are sharing their work. This picture is of Lalit, who is describing his 'Animals in Danger' website. Lalit is eight years old.
Montego Bay view
Monday, 28 March 2005
For the Childnet International Academy and conference, we are staying in the Sunset Beach Resort in Montego Bay. This is the view out of my bedroom. Enough said. (Yes that is the beach volleyball
Childnet Academy Jamaica
Sunday, 27 March 2005
Travelled to Montego Bay, Jamaica, via Kingston. The 777 to Kingston seemed cramped compared to a 747, although seats were OK. The flight from Kingston to Montego Bay was in a light aircraft - I sat
The best laid plans…
Saturday, 5 March 2005
Well I should have known better...
... the British Council seminar proved to be so busy, I could not fulfil my promise to blog every day. Instead, here is a resumé:
We began on Sunday night with a
British Council Seminar
Saturday, 26 February 2005
On Sunday I start a week-long seminar, directed by myself and Stephen Heppell for 25 overseas participants. We are holding it in a country hotel north of Northampton. The influence of past workshops
Ultraversity for action enquiry in the workplace
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
Everyone in Ultralab is busy filling envelopes in a recruitment drive to enrol students in our online, workplace, action-enquiry undergraduate degree - BA Learning Technology Research.
Few realise
A.I.’s IOU
Sunday, 17 October 2004
It's delightful when a prejudiced comment made by yours truly provokes a genuinely informative piece of work from someone less lazy!
Such is the case with Belinda O'Dea's unpublished paper on the
Creativity - Catalysts and Inhibitors
Wednesday, 29 September 2004
This is the document collaboratively created in SubEthaEdit by the participants in the Unleashing Creativity session at Navcon.
Catalysts for creativity
Open questions
being involved in real
A World of Taste
Wednesday, 29 September 2004
These posters advertising food are in the shop window opposite Ultralab South in Christchurch, New Zealand. They interest me because I live to eat, but also because they are slightly unsettling for
Creativity
Monday, 27 September 2004
It is commonly held that the basis for an innovative and financially healthy nation is the creativity of its adult population in the workplace.
"Our success depends upon mobilising even more
Wrong phrases that sound right
Friday, 13 August 2004
I love these kinds of phrases where a homophone replacement (word that sounds the same) nevertheless still makes a kind of sense. I have been collecting these for seven years and a comment to my
Navcon Conference soon!
Thursday, 12 August 2004
Really looking forward to this now - only a month away. Chance to catch up f2f with all my mates in NZ.
The New Learning Landscape
Thursday, 17 June 2004
Finally got the current presentation framework - 'The New Learning Landscape' onto the web. Very flawed, but at least makes it easy for me to reference my own stuff!
RED LETTER DAY part 4 - Beethoven's 9th Violin Sonata 'Kreutzer'
Friday, 5 March 2004
ACTUALLY Saturday 28th February - 7.30pm
"Some people say that because I've been performing since I was barely five years old, I didn't have a childhood. Believe me, when you've seen abducted child
RED LETTER DAY part 3 - Sauternes Prune Creme
Friday, 5 March 2004
ACTUALLY Saturday 28th February - 6.00pm
So, Sash and I hot-foot it across Hyde park to Lancaster gate, catch the Central Line to St Pauls, walk up and through the Barbican to the Barbican Centre to
RED LETTER DAY part 2 - La Bohème
Friday, 5 March 2004
ACTUALLY Saturday 28th February - 2.30pm
"A spectacular, roller-skating Bohème sends an opening salvo in the battle for the hearts of London opera-lovers"
Anthony Holden Sunday February 29, 2004 The
RED LETTER DAY part 1 - Garageband, iPod and composition
Friday, 5 March 2004
ACTUALLY Saturday 28th February - 7.20am
Sasha had to create an improvised composition, notate it, and use it at college.
Being a Millwood he left it to the last minute.
He recorded a piano part in
Creativity and Science Teaching
Thursday, 26 February 2004
Just been to a fab day in a wonderful Kent countryside location to act as expert audience for a PAL LAB's workshop review day. Although exciting, full of dialogue and participative, I really missed
Plone
Monday, 23 February 2004
Really getting up a head of steam about Plone - the content management system based on Zope.
Significant new additions include Users & Groups and 'ContentPanels' - the latter allows you to make a
Papers, papers
Tuesday, 17 February 2004
Busy reviewing the papers we want to publish - found some real gems which illustrate learning, theorise about learning and most of all build from evidence to a connection between online community
Working on a publication
Tuesday, 10 February 2004
Spent yesterday working on a collection of papers from Ultralab for publication - makes great reading - watch this space.
What fun
Wednesday, 4 February 2004
I'm looking forward to this...
...but not sure what I'm doing - need to make sense of it all.
A blog to report ideas and research insights in my work at Ultralab, the learning technology research centre at Anglia Ruskin University. I helped create Ultralab in 1990 with Stephen Heppell and directed it from 2005-2006. This blog was made during the latter period.
