New job, who dis?

It has been four months since I joined ALT as their new COO. I can no longer use ‘it’s my first day’ as an excuse. I had been a learning technologist, albeit with varying titles, for over ten years. I have worked at four different universities in that time. My last, was my longest. I […]

A little less suspicion, a little more trust

I recently attended a disabled student-led panel session, organised by Warwick Enable and Autism at Warwick, where students shared their experiences and challenges studying at Warwick. I also attended an Echo360 Webinar in which Dr Emily Nordmann shared evidence from research around student attendance when lectures were recorded. In particular, disproving the myth that students […]

Shaping the Student Learning Experience

In June, I was invited to open the final day of the Jisc Change Agents Network 2021 conference held (virtually) at Keele University. This blog post is a reflection on the experience and a summary of what I said. It was a real honour to be asked. The next question was, what to speak about? […]

A tale of two conferences

This week, I was involved in two conferences, TEALfest and ucisa Spotlight on Digital Capabilities. This post is a reflection, therapy, warning and advice for anyone considering organising their own conference. Don’t do two conferences at the same time This ought to be obvious but it bears repeating. Do not schedule two conferences at the […]

It’s very well intentioned, but…

“[I]t’s all very well intentioned, but” are words that haunt me. These are the words of one of our students with accessibility needs reflecting the support they have been given by our University. The words have haunted me ever since because I am one of a few people trying to champion accessibility and I am […]

Birds, bees and blooms

Pictures of the various bird visitors, bees and flowers in bloom in my garden. I am licensing these images as creative commons so feel free to use them but remember to attribute! This work by Kerry Pinny is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden

These photos are from our October 2019 trip to National Trust Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden and stay in National Trust Holiday apartment Vyner at Fountains Hall. I am licensing these images as creative commons so feel free to use them but remember to attribute! This work by Kerry Pinny is licensed under […]

Gibside

Photos from our trip to National Trust Gibside landscaped gardens and stay in the Landmark Trusts’ Banquesting House. I am licensing these images as creative commons so feel free to use them but remember to attribute! This work by Kerry Pinny is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

COVID-19

Since March, we’ve been living in a completely different world. This is my COVID-19 blog. I am tired. My team is tired. We are doing our best. We are expected to do more with the same. I think there’s enough noise on this subject right now so that’s all from me. The end.

Change vs. Compliance

Every so often, a new regulation comes in to being that scares the sh*t out of everyone. *GDPR flashback*. We rush around to make sure we’re compliant, when what we really want, is long term changes in practice, attitudes and behaviours. In this post, I’m going to look at the most recent tear stain on […]