Hello,
I’m back from my bike ride through Ohio and although it might disappoint some and delight others, I’m won’t talk too much about the trip here, but will probably add an extra post midweek. Suffice to say that I’m feeling well and had a terrific time. We managed sixty miles on the first day and seventy-two on the second day, we earned our tacos when we finally rolled into Cincinnati.
Getting up at first light to ride and collapsing into bed means I’m probably on the same schedule as the residents of Nuuk in Greenland, I’ve been going to bed much earlier than the rest of the family, so sleep seems to be my main form of recovery. I’ve been waking up to answer emails and riding the bus as the sun comes up, teaching my lessons, and heading home.
It has been a busy week, we’re fixing to stay in the States a little longer and that means renewing contracts, lease agreements, insurance, and all that takes so much paperwork and phone calls. I’m looking forward to falling over a bit at the weekend.
It was fun to be in the company of students and get to know them again, with masks it was like meeting them for the first time.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
In a return to the Global Languages & Cultures Room, we ran a workshop on immersive technologies. Students assembled google cardboard, then moved to the powered headsets and some of the interactive experiences that we have set up. I’ve only held a few of these types of introductory sessions since lockdown and each time I am reminded why they are fun to do. It is fun to see people’s reactions, especially those trying Virtual Reality for the first time.
In articles like this one, I have written about how important onboarding can be, even talking about how you put the headsets on properly and how to clean them before passing them to the next user. We talked about how the technology feels on your head and some of the cultural differences around the accessibility of wearables.Contrast VR producer Zahra Rasool talks about this, not only in terms of content creation but also the form factor itself.
We’ll be back online and remote only next week but can’t wait to open up the room so that students can drop by and try the tech. We are in a strange limbo land of cautiously meeting and working together, keeping an eye on emails and the university dashboard. There is an extremely high rate of vaccination and only a few cases but each week numbers are creeping up, we’re headed in the wrong direction I’m afraid, and only time will tell what happens next.
Life Lessons
Tomorrow is the anniversary of 9/11 and events are taking place across the US and around the world to commemorate the date.
I remember at the time, working as a graphic designer in a studio above a TV rental store. As alerts began to sound, we ran down the stairs to look through the windows at the scenes that were unfolding, barely comprehending what we were seeing. We closed up and headed home to learn more about what was taking place.
We have driven East to Washington past the site of the Flight 93 National Memorial. Our thoughts turn to that day and we talk in the car about that day and what happened.
This was an attack on the US, where people like us have moved and now work. Citizens from 62 countries were killed in the attacks. Since that day our world has become more polarized and there have been terrorist attacks in almost every country. All while the dark shadows of extremism, oppression, racism, colonialism, and sectarianism continue to cast darkness.
Lost and Found
The UK’s Association for Learning Technologies (ALT) has produced a series with ITN called The Future of Learning, this looks like an interesting series and hopefully, someone will find a way to record it for me.
Great article about hosting foreign language film nights (via ACTFL) - I would love to include a British movie series (in the US, British English is a foreign language) and might include a double-bill of Kes and Secrets and Lies.
A little late but these three short lessons were useful this week to talk about its origins and why May Day is celebrated as International Workers Day almost everywhere and Labor Day has significance in the US.
Learn all the school hacks that your students use and see if they work.
We’ve been having issues with the wifi on campus, so if you want to know whether it’s down for you or everyone, use this site.
Teaching and Assessing Core Skills is a new class from the British Council on FutureLearn. Very sad to hear about proposed cuts and closures to offices and sites across the globe, have worked with the British Council on many projects and have always been impressed by their openness and championing of the arts abroad.
Thank you
I’m looking forward to a moment to sit down with the photos from my trip and tell you the story of those few days. Look out for an extra issue coming soon.
Found myself humming this song while I rode along. Lovely to hear the news about the Mercury Prize. What a wonderful talent.
There’s catching up to do this week, already meetings with colleagues to talk about next semester and next year, thinking about projects and tying up some of those loose ends left dangling from before lockdown. I’m looking forward to reaching out to a few people I haven’t spoken to for a while.
I hope that you’re well and things are good with you. I’m sorry that I haven’t replied to some of your emails. Just to say thank you and I mean to drop you an email. I just love hearing from you, let me know what you’re up to and what if anything you find interesting about this newsletter. I’m grateful too when you spot recommendations or alert me to the news I might have missed.