Penworks.Net

27/04/2016

PhD at University of Malta

I have taken up full time PhD at University of Malta, in the Faculty of Education. This is hugely exciting and my title is ‘Designing Smart City Learning’. I’ve reproduced a short excerpt from the proposal, plus included proposal viva slides and pdf of full proposal here. I’m developing an evaluation system based in theory (connectivism and networked learning pedagogy/epistemology)....

CV/Learning & Teaching/PhD

11/12/2015

Discovering Phenomenography

After receiving my copy of Laurillard’s Conversation Framework I picked up quickly on her praise of phenomenography as an approach to research that might translate into practice. Now phenomenography might well be the methodological underpinning for my whole project, it sounds applicable, but as a novice educational theorist many things you come across at this early stage sound appealing and relevant, so...

PhD

10/12/2015

I Was Here

Two systems that basically do the same thing, track where we are and who might be around. One is the radar dome, the other is an Inukshuk, at Dingli Cliffs. I just thought that was so cool. When we design digital application interfaces and experiences, we always think about Inukshuk in terms of humanising the digital journey experience, though maybe mostly it...

PhD

29/11/2015

Paul Pangaro

I’ve come across Paul Pangaro. It’s been a while since I’ve felt a genuine excitement and complete engagement with a person for what they are talking about, where they are coming from. Not since seeing Thomas Friedmans MIT video talk on his flatworld ideas in 2005, or Bruce Sterling’s incredible Spimes talks have I felt so absorbed by ideas and a persons way of thinking about things. These ideas...

PhD

01/09/2015

Moving to Malta

I moved to Malta. This is overall an incredible thing and either really stupid or utterly brilliant. I do love the Rock and all it has: history, ancient culture, sun, unpretentious good life, relaxedness. Downsides, yes there a re a few. Traffic is very bad at rush hour, buses can be very full, and it’s a lazy lifestyle so I...

Blog

14/08/2015

Stone Island

Qawra coastline is barren, bleak and awesomely rocky. Malta is known as The Rock, and this is why. No shells here, they are all crushed long before they get to the beach, but fossils decorate every rock surface, testimony to the ageless prehistory of this place. These images were taken mid June 2015, when the wind was still up a...

Images

14/08/2015

The Past

This is some of the last set of photos from Cambridge Road, taken a few days before I left. I hated that place when I arrived in 2006, for many reasons, but it kept me safe, it made me who I am now.

Images

18/02/2015

Elearning Matrix New Site

I’ve launched the first prototype of the new Elearning Matrix, a greenfield full rebuild of the earlier xhtml eMatrix, developed from 2020-2013. The new version has moved on quite a bit and uses a number of more advanced web development techniques as well as being html5 and fully responsive. Based on ExpressionEngine 2.9.2, I’m now using the Content Elements add...

Learning & Teaching/Webdev/Work

27/01/2015

DigiClass

I’ve done some interesting work for a London based inner city charity developing a curriculum for age 12-16 yr after school classes, teaching digital skills that would lead on to accredited learning, using an approach of a ‘Level 0’ syllabus construction. The system of accreditation is based on what is provided by the British Computer Society, using a mixture of...

Ideas/Learning & Teaching/Work

This is possibly the worst #okboomer version of #digital #literacy support I've seen. It's like hiding the cookie jar instead of teaching that you can't live on cake. https://t.co/PSoe2nFk4w, 11 hours ago
RT @AyoCaesar: When free fibre optic gets denounced as "broadband communism", remember how the NHS was opposed at the time. This from a 1948 tabloid is particularly nuts: "The State medical service is part of the Socialist plot to convert Great Britain into a National Socialist economy.", 11 hours ago
RT @IanCLucas: When Johnson says there is no evidence of Russian interference, journalists must challenge him with facts. @CommonsCMS reports are sources., 11 hours ago
Johnson sounds like a complete idiot. How anyone could take the person seriously is beyond me. Completely unconvincing horror toff. Only beaten by Prince what's his name. @bbc5live do we really need to hear this word for word? If so please put Corbyn and Swinson on for balance., 11 hours ago
RT @BBCr4today: Former Tory justice secretary @DavidGauke on why @BorisJohnson's Brexit policy means he doesn't want to see a Conservative majority in the election, and is urging people to vote for the Lib Dems or the centre ground #r4today | https://t.co/RzFZePL6gy https://t.co/FJ5upPABGZ, Nov 13