Friday, 20 October 2006
History Matters
This is an entry really for Tuesday 17th October...
...the day that History Matters wanted everyone to make the biggest blog in history to record a snapshot in time. In this account of my day I have tried to include details that may be of interest in the future, particularly about the technologies currently seen as essential, as well as some currently seen as innovative, that we use for teaching, learning and work.
I left for work at 6.55 am. I commute 30 miles to work in a University, and I am nearing the end of my first month in the new job which (like my previous job) is a one-year contract.
My car is 5 weeks old and is a SEAT Ibiza special edition – featuring a digital radio (plus alloy wheels and a bit of extra speed). The criterion of having a “greener” car fell down my priorities list because of the commuting - the ability to accelerate out of trouble on the A46 moved higher up: electric cars are still not affordable or readily available. I was hoping they would be by now – I only buy a car once every ten years, so it’ll be a while before I do it again! Hope I don’t regret the (comparative) gas-guzzling in a few years’ time. But I do like my new car!
I spent ten minutes after I got to work fishing my car parking permit from where it had fallen under the windscreen. I pay a small amount for the privilege of parking in a University car park about 7 minutes’ walk from my office. I work on the 18th floor of the highest building on campus. I must find some way of attaching my permit to the windscreen! Parking (and traffic generally) is a big issue for me. I now take about 60-80 minutes to drive 30 miles. I used to spend 15-50 minutes driving just 5.5 miles (along a very busy ring road!). If I’d stayed there I should have had to consider a bike!
Today is a busy day in a busy week with a lot of training events as I am in a new team on a new project. We work with “exciting new technologies for learning” such as e-learning, m-learning, podcasting, wikis, blogs, and advanced online discussion techniques. I am proud to be working with one of the foremost authorities in this area. However as University staff are credited for their research more than their teaching it can be difficult for them to find time to prioritise changes in teaching and learning.
Today was a masterclass in uses of online educational technologies with a Professor from the Netherlands and one of the few times at such a seminar when every word she said was worth listening to. We were provided lunch, which is always good, but has the downside that you are networking/talking throughout lunch and do not actually get a break.
I was shattered by the end of the working day. Yesterday I got home after 10 pm after dinner with an important committee, went to bed, got up and came straight back to work, so by the end of today I had a really bad headache, and driving home was harder than usual. My husband had had a bad day too – he is a computer manager and one of his systems was playing up. He spent all evening on the computer connected to work (and to another colleague at his home) trying to sort it out. Success in the end, but he missed his weekly badminton session. Meanwhile despite the headache I managed to throw together a dinner (baked tuna with cauliflower, green beans and tomato and olive salad - no carbohydrates because both of us adults are a little overweight and trying to eat healthily) and our son needed driving to and picking up from Explorer Scouts.
I guess this is a bit of an extreme day workwise for both of us, it isn’t always like this, but it’s also not unusual. (I only commute three days a week and work from home the other two days.) But today no time at all to do housework and it badly needs doing!
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:05 AM
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