5 mins reading Co-authored with Emily Wade. ‘Zoom’ is going to be a strong contender for the Oxford Dictionary’s next Word of the Month. Internal university communication channels and educators’ feeds in the Twittersphere have recently been lit up with talk of the live video conferencing app and the broader need to find innovative Digital…
I Got a Thing…
3 mins reading So in the past few weeks I became a father to an amazing little boy and I won a national teaching award. My sister told me I can only keep one… I'm still thinking. Thanks to everyone who's inspired my teaching along the way: students, tutors, family, friends, Frank, and Tiff. pic.twitter.com/oKxBPSxZSR…
Taking Inspiration
6 mins reading Right now I’m sitting on a train heading into the city amidst an ongoing national bushfire crisis and a steady stream of no longer ironic predictions regarding Donald Trump starting World War III. I won’t deny there was a temptation to skip tonight’s Melbourne Media Makers networking event given the broader context…
Branching Out
3 mins reading and 15 mins listening This is me speaking to Danielle Teychenne in an early episode of the Our Gamified World web series we co-host together (shameless plug, but I promise it’s not the point of this post). This screen-captured image is as fortuitous as it is random, and perfectly connotes an ambiguity…
Rebels Up the Front
4 mins reading ‘No one listens to experts anymore…’ These words were spoken by Tracey Slatter, Managing Director at Barwon Water, at a recent Geelong Communications and Marketing Professionals Network event sponsored by the City of Greater Geelong. The sentiment matches something that I – and no doubt countless others – have been grappling with…
Finding New Ways
6 mins reading We need to get better at telling stories. These words were spoken recently by a manager in the teaching and learning space to a large group of tertiary educators. The immediate context was Virtual Reality, though I have a feeling the statement was intended to apply more broadly. No one in the…
An Audience of One
7 mins reading Over the years I’ve occasionally found myself describing to students what might be termed a ‘hierarchy of value’ in regards to peer-to-peer interactions. This sounds very problematic on the face of it, but hear me out. To paraphrase myself: If you like a peer’s tweet, that’s okay. If you follow their account…
TikTok: Time Doesn’t Stop
When I first discovered this thing called TikTok, my mind began to close over. I’m not sure if I was initially told about it by someone, or if I saw some of its 15 second creations shared on a different social media platform, but I do recall having a feeling that was the equivalent of…
Taking Stock
3 mins reading Seven weeks ago I created the Digital Learning with @digitalzones website. Back then – just a blink in time, but in another sense difficult to recall – I had no idea what would come of this. I remember being honest enough with myself to admit there was a good chance I would…
Copyright Matters
3 mins reading and ?? mins viewing/listening So a few days ago a student told me about a media-making assessment task they’ve undertaken in another unit that places no importance on the issue of copyright. Students are essentially allowed to do whatever they want within this video project, with free reign afforded in terms of…
