DLP Reflection 8 - Day 2 in Adelaide

Day 2 was as productive as day 1.  We agreed on a title and a timetable.  Amazing!  The commitment of the scholars and the facilitation by Heather was remarkable.

The success of these two days has re-inspired me after months of frustration.  Just as soon as I can hurdle the mountain of marking before me I will get moving on my project again.

Craig and the rest of the team at Flinders are to be congratulated for choosing such a good venue and hotel for the meeting.

I am now on the executive.  Maybe having Sam do the first shift was not such a good idea.  However I did not want the last shift as that may require some head-kicking to get projects finished and publications organised.  I have updated the moodle site with my notes and I hope the others will add their notes quickly so that we have a complete written record as soon as possible.

DLP Reflection 7 - Day 1 in Adelaide

For some reason I am not getting the emails about this project.  I am not sure if that is due to a fault in the UC email system or that I am excluded or incorrectly included in the mailing list.  It was a real problem as I did not know what was to be covered today until this morning.

The sessions on determining the purpose, the outcomes and the audience went reasonably well.  I like Stephen's ideas of the mash-up and Sam's ideas on the discussion tables.  People need to sex-up there ideas though - some ideas are good but expressed in a boring way when they could be turned into something much more exciting with a little creativity.

On the admin of the day, name tags would have been useful.  It took a while to remember all of the names.

It was encouraging to here that my problems with the progress of the project were repeated by others at the meeting.

DLP Reflection 6 - Why didn't someone tell me about this 2 months ago?

Alan Arnold has just pointed me to a program called emarking assistant.  This is an add-in to M$ Word which drops in a marking rubric into the student's assignment and then automates the marking process and facilitates the addition of comments.

This program may change my project significantly by meaning that the use of rubrics will not be the same problem and can be dropped out.  Instead the focus will move to developing rubrics and communicating them to students.  I still need to test this program to see if it is as good as its marketing suggests.

DLP Reflection 5 - The Money is Available - Finally

I now have a definitive answer on access to the funds.  I have not seen the paperwork yet but I am told it is in progress and that I can spend the money by buying things personally and seeking reimbursement from the university later.  I have ordered the voice recorder so that I can start the interviews as soon as I have finished this pile of marking.

DLP Reflection 4 - Recovering from Illness

I hate sinusitis - 2 weeks of constant pain and bleeding.  It still is not better but at least I can keep up some semblance of work now.  The University has no plans for sick leave.  While I am supposedly on sick leave, it is still up to me to reschedule the classes and teach them and still do all the same preparation and marking.  So as I return to work and am not up to full strength yet I have to do 4 weeks of work in 2 weeks which is impossible so things keep falling further and further behind.

DLP Reflection 3 - Funds

I tried to find out how to buy a voice recorder so I could do the interviews I want.  No-one could tell me how this could be done or if it was allowed under the grant.  I finally tracked down Helen who had forgotten about the funds under the project.  She has promised to get it set up so I can use the funds.

DLP Reflection 2 - Reference Material

I am having a lot of trouble finding reference material for the project.  I have asked Peter Donnan for some help with this.  I hope he can help me find some useful things.