Penworks.Net

11/07/2016

presentation at icity malta 2016

It was a fantastic experience to present at this conference (ICiTy Enhancing Places through Technology), and it went really, really well. I spoke for the correct amount of time, was coherent and got people engaged in the topic enough to ask good questions at the end. Hurrah! I really enjoyed it. I have a varied experience of presenting. Sometimes it...

PhD/Work

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

02/02/2015

New Consumer Creators

I was asked to give a talk last year for a local arts organisation in Holloway Road – Rowan Arts. They were running a one day conference with quite a few interesting speakers and events and about fifty people attended. I was fairly honoured to be asked and thought the best way I could be relevant was to talk about...

Images/Learning & Teaching/Social Media