More patterns, Rutland

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Patterns, nr Rutland

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Lossiemouth, Scotland

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Are our boots on the ground?

I have been offline – visiting a big trade fair in Germany, Photokina, and watching the Scottish referendum from Cologne. My question about all this digital stuff is, are our boots on the ground?

My understanding of the potential vote in Scotland was informed by the internet – I devoured tons of websites, twitter feeds and Facebook posts (from both sides). I assumed from this survey the Yes vote would win, my brother living in Scotland (and a political activist) spoke to people and he felt that the No vote would prevail, he was correct.

So with online education – perhaps a future for education – we need to keep a perspective. Sometimes old school works and clearly online connected course really work, so we should not get carried away and keep our boots on the ground

Can you handle information overload? And a picture…

I have been following the RSS feed for the Connected Courses on feedy, but my unread feeds (included my own selection of feeds outside CC) go well into the 100s. I simply do not have time to read them as the real/physical world takes over. Students, also, do not have the time to handle this amount of data, our students miss important course information because their university email is full of university junk mail.

So how to handle this, I use every tech I can think off – RRS feed synchronised on every device I use; Feedly and Readkit. I delete viciously…but it is not enough. Is this a failure of words, is there a limit to the number of active participants in any online activity?

Is John Hennessy, the president of Stanford right is saying this about MOOCs “Two words are wrong in ‘Mooc’: massive and open”. Is this the case with the Connected Courses – can we cope with this information overload?

Pictures are easier for – the image above was one I shot last weekend on a project for EDF Renewables…it says more about the English landscape than a 1000s word can.

1000 emails – exciting and challenging times!

Back to work after the summer holidays…with 1000 emails on my work account (mostly junk!) The delete key was used a lot, but it did made my hair stand on end!

The start of a new term is always an exciting time, looking forward to seeing how the current MA Photography students exhibit their work and welcoming the new cohort of students. Lots of hellos and, sadly, some farewells.

They all have an exciting new world ahead of them, released by the internet from tyranny of ‘old school’ darkrooms and publishers, photographers can do so much more now. I am confident that these new photographers can cope with the challenge of establishing stable income streams for themselves, where there is a will there is a way. Great photographers, great artists, have alway been multi-taskers.

I think the key thing is not to stand still, which is why I am taking part in this connected courses project. I what to challenge and engage with something new, to actually put my understanding of photography and the internet to the test.

It will be a challenge – finding the time will be the real problem – lets see what happens!!

Lossiemouth late August – hiding before the beginning of term

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Working hard at my computer getting ready for the new term!

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Reactivated this blog for connected learning course

Back online to work with the connected course project!

Moved over to Tumblr

My have mainly moved over to Tumblr – easier platform and, perhaps, more appropriate to my work. My tumblr – http://bigshuggie.tumblr.com – simply notes the pictures (and other things) I have found that interest me.

So drop over and have a look, Hugh