Learning New Stuff is Cool
Posted by: Sonya on: March 13, 2010
- In: awesome| change| edumacational| links| work
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WARNING: This post may contain frequent uses of the word ‘awesome’ as I’m going to be talking about something which was, well, awesome and it does seem to be my favourite word at the moment. Seriously, do a search on the page to see how often I’ve used it recently…
Today I attended the international student conference at the university, and it was awesome (see, used it already!). I’m a technologist, and it’s normally the more techie things I’m interested in at these conferences so when the talks turn to issues around pedagogy I can find them a bit of a snooze fest. (I shouldn’t say that should I? My boss could be reading this. 
)
The two keynote speakers today were both marvellous, but it was our first speaker, Professor Sugata Mitra who, and I think I can safely speak for all 200 odd attendees, blew us all away. You may be familiar with Dr. Mitra as ‘the slumdog professor’, the man who inspired the novel Q&A which in turn inspired Slumdog Millionaire. Around ten years ago Dr. Mitra started to experiment with self organised learning environments by placing sturdy computers in the middle of slums in India, and with no guidance, just the natural curiosity of children and no hang-ups to hold them back, the kids spontaneously learned to use the computer and the internet – in English – all on there on and in no short order. Professor Mitra has since replicated these experimental results all over the world in impoverished areas, including our own dear Gateshead(!), with ever increasing success.
Everything I thought I knew about education has changed – we could be on the verge of a paradigm shift in learning if only Professor Mitra can convince governments to start seriously investing in his techniques. I’m inspired, and a little awe struck. That’s a feeling that has stayed with me all day. I wanted to come home and burn my text books, just use the TMA questions and then go and do my own thing to find the answers. I’m not going to go quite that far, but I am questioning how I study and I think it is going to have to change.
The Professor was a damn hard act to follow, and indeed the next serious of short presentations definitely seems to lack pazzaz after his lecture, but they were still educational and inspiring none the less.
The second key note speaker, after lunch, was another highlight of the event. David Killick from Leeds Met gave a talk on what it means to be a global citizen and has made me realise my place in an ever smaller world and the responsibilities I have to everyone else in that world. We all need to stop thinking of ourselves as Scottish or British or European, and start thinking of ourselves as true global citizens.
You know, global citizenship is something which has been gaining more and more track at the university and today wasn’t the first time I had been introduced to the concept, but David was the first person who made it interesting and exciting.
The remainder of the afternoon was given over to student lead projects and both of the sessions I attended were eye openers. The first session was given by three language students and they talked about their experiences of learning a language and working overseas and at partner universities on exchange programmes. That session made me quite sad that I don’t speak another language to anything approaching a passable level, something I think needs to be corrected.
The final session I attended (excluding the drinking session to mark the close of the conference, the wine was lovely thank you…) was given by an English Lit student who set up a writing group to help refugees and asylum seekers in the Newcastle area. She was nervous giving the lecture, but she came over really well and was warm and friendly, and the work she has done is wonderful and invaluable. We got to see the first published collection of stories and poetry and a draft of the impending second edition and they were, oh hell, lets end the post with it, awesome!!!
You can find some more information about Professor Sugata Mitra in this Guardian piece – http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/03/professor-sugata-mitra, and he has a wiki page about SOLE and SOME here – http://solesandsomes.wikispaces.com/
David Killick’s bio is available here – http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/alt/index_David_Killick.htm
Hello
Posted by: Sonya on: March 13, 2010
- In: cool| music
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Am I allowed to post two entries called ‘Hello’ back to back? Will I break WordPress… let’s find out!
I’m in a very cool place right now. It’s late, all is silent except for the music in my head, it’s a Friday night and I’m chilling out in the living room on my own, Charlotte went to bed ages ago and it’s nice to have the place to myself like this sometimes, listing to a new Fiona Apple album – Extraordinary Machine. It’s not new new, but I’ve only just bought it a few weeks ago.
Watched Star Trek VI earlier. Charlotte bought it on Blu Ray on the spur or the moment yesterday. It was fun, but ooh, it does look quite aged to me now. I don’t think it’s stood the test of time, or maybe it’s just that I’ve seen it so many times in my life, and then last year the awesome new one… I can remember seeing Star Trek VI for the first time, perked on the edge of my big brother’s bed. The film was released in 991 according to the back of the box, so I must have been about 11 by the time Gordon was able to get it on video. I used to love doing things like that with Gordon when I was a kid. The other thing I used to do was watch him play video games, not sure what he had now, an Amstrad maybe? Of course I wasn’t allowed to play myself, no, no, for lowly little ole’ me it was a privilege just to be allowed in to his room! I wonder if he knew how often I used to sneak in when he wasn’t around and just hang about in there admiring all his cool stuff? Tee hee.
Typing this on my new MacBook Pro. My old white MacBook started to crack along the edge of the palm rest so I decided an upgrade was in order. Loving the new computer.
Hello
Posted by: Sonya on: February 28, 2010
- In: cool| nerdy
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Hello. Haven’t written anything in ages have I? I haven’t had much free time, and when I have I couldn’t be bothered.
A colleague a work sent me this link a couple of days ago (below). It works in the same way as those service such as shorturl.com and bit.ly that shorten web page addresses to make them more useable, but this one generates a new address that looks super dodgy. My website address, for example, is http://5z8.info/begin-bank-account-xfer_i9a1r_molotovcocktail
The link is http://www.shadyurl.com
Hey, it’s 2010!
Posted by: Sonya on: January 5, 2010
First post of the new decade, just for the heck of it. Christmas was fabulous, Charlotte bought me a keyboard(!) and a snoring puppy. I’ll have to make a video of the puppy at some point to share with y’all because it’s so cool.
Hogmany could have gone better, it just never seems to work out for Charlotte and I… This year the first hitch was that we couldn’ make it down to Blackpool as planned because the country has decided to go all Arctic on us for some reason and I didn’t fancy getting stuck in a blizzard somewhere in the Pennines. So, we made alternative plans. Half past eight we had started to get ready, I plugged in the iron to do a top for me, turned up the dial and BANG! Damn thing shorted out and blew up in my hand burning me from thumb to wrist. The burns weren’t too bad, although I did spend a day covered in burn plasters, but the shock scared the shit out of me. So we ended up seeing in the new year cuddling on the sofa watching Aliens, me trying not to touch, move or bend my hand in any way. Oh dear. Here’s hoping for a better year…
Exam Results
Posted by: Sonya on: December 19, 2009
- In: cake| cool| open university| work
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I got my exam results at the beginning of the week – a grade 2 pass and an improvement on my actual score from last year! But the coolest thing is that everyone in my office got me a wee card and a cupcake as a congratulations. I’ve never worked in an office like this before, I have such a freakin’ great job.
Sunday Funny
Posted by: Sonya on: December 13, 2009
I just logged on to update a couple of my links and I was checking out my stats and discovered that I can see what people who have come here from Google have searched for…
- 4 people searched for ‘chocolate birthday cake for ladies’;
- 3 people searched for ‘capybaras’;
- 2 people searched for ‘hairy Japanese’;
- 2 other people searched for ’sexy banna’ – which Charlotte and I initially misread as ’sexy banana’ which would have been way funnier. What’s a sexy banna?;
- and one person searched for ‘high five lesbian’.
Interesting.
In a more boring note, most of my visitors have been searching for information about Sony eBook Readers but I am also getting lots of hits from people looking for info about SRS and Dr. Chettawut which I feel really good about as it means that page is serving it’s purpose very well.
Extra Special Bonus Christmas Post!
Posted by: Sonya on: December 5, 2009
- In: christmas| funny| pretty
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Take a close look at the tree on the left. This is the Christmas tree in a very well-known local shopping centre that shall remain nameless. Remind you of anything? 
The second tree is ours. Much more tasteful isn’t it? It is very small, only about a foot high, but I do think it makes up for it in beauty. As on so many occasions the photo fails to do it justice. The tree and all of the little ornaments are all handcrafted in wood, and I think it’s just brilliant.
All Rise for the Queen!
Posted by: Sonya on: December 5, 2009
- In: cool| royalty
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Finally, coming home from Lishi one evening I noticed all the bins in Northumberland Street had been removed and all the police swarming around with machine guns that day hadn’t gone unnoticed either. Charlotte and I were talking about it later and I said to her, ‘Do you think the Queen’s coming to visit her granddaughter?’.
Well, I’m good me. I came in to work on the Friday morning and all the talk was of a secret royal visit. One of my well networked colleagues had heard on the grapevine that if you happened to be in and around Northumberland Street mid-morning you might well get to meet the Queen. So at 11am almost the entire office all headed out in the freezing cold and I got to stand around six feet from the Queen for, probably less than a second, as she sped past me in her big posh car. Officially she was here to open the new City Library and the refurbished Hancock Museum.
I’m by no means a Royalist, but how often in your life do you get to see the Queen? It was very cool, and the coolest thing of all was that her big posh car has exactly the same interior as my Rover!
And yes, the photos are rubbish. I’m no photographer, and they were taken on my humble wittle iPhone.
Goat Staring
Posted by: Sonya on: December 5, 2009
What seems way back now, in the beginning of November, Charlotte and I were privileged enough to attend the premiere of The Men Who Stare at Goats at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. Well, there were actually two premiers. The other one was in New York and had George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. Newcastle’s not good enough for them apparently. But we got the screenwriter, Peter Straughan who’s from Gateshead, the producer, Paul Lister, and the author of the book, Jon Ronson. It was a cracking evening, the guys gave a group interview before the movie (which is fabulous by the way, kind of Coen brothers style) and a question and answer session after. Then Jon hung around signing copies of the book – he even signed my goat poster! – and I gave him a pen advertising my department at the university because the one he had been given by the cinema was rubbish for signing, apparently.
My Exams
Posted by: Sonya on: December 5, 2009
I’ve been rather remiss in my blogging of late, so let’s put that right today with the first of three that I’ve had in my head to write for a while…
It’s hard to believe that my exams are now over and done for the year, and I’m actually already starting to prepare for 2010. I spent the first half of October frantically revising and the second half, post-exam, mentally drained and good for nothing. The exam itself I think, I hope, has gone okay. I was able to give complete answers to all three questions and I don’t believe any of them were complete crap, but I’ll find out the week before Christmas how well I have actually done.
The first question I answered was on the theme of ‘freedom’ and this was my best and most complete answer, contrasting the idea of negative liberty as advocated by Mill with Marx’s conception of positive liberty and throwing in some Rousseau for good measure. My second essay was on the ‘dirty hands’ problem of politics with reference to Machiavelli which was okay – it was a good three page essay but it wasn’t ordered properly. I got through a couple of paragraphs before I realised that I really needed to have given some exposition first so I had to interweave it a little. My third essay was on Mill and whether or not it could ever be right for a state to restrict freedom of expression. This was easily the weakest of the three because I was starting to run out of time and had to rush it a little, but I still managed two pages. Also, unlike my first two essays, I was able to think of a different, possibly better way to answer the question after the exam.
Oh well. December 18th is the provisional date for my results.
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Myself and Charlotte, my love.
I'm 29, Scottish, but live in Newcastle, and I work as a learning technologist.
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