I've been seriously neglecting my PhD posts so I'm going to do a speed catch up over the week, starting off with the official start date: 1st October 2018, Induction Day. As I'm an unofficially distance student it was great to get to Edinburgh for this but I wondered how much would be relevant to... Continue Reading →
OER19: tears, laughter and hope
OER was the one conference over the years that was always on my 'must go' list but I never felt that I had a legitimate reason. I wasn't formally involved in open education, either for research or teaching and learning. Yet, by default, I am an open practitioner, I instinctively share and ensure that as... Continue Reading →
Intention: sneaking creativity into medical education
Looking ahead to #OER19 in Galway and browsing the list of great sessions the one I knew for sure that I would be attending was Amaz-Zine: How to create a DIY OER Zine with Amy Burvall and Bryan Mathers as I have long been a fan of both of these creative geniuses. I spotted Amy’s... Continue Reading →
2018: A Year of Fun
Good grief if I don't press the Publish button now it is going to be 2020, I've already rewritten this about three times and it's not as if it is a work of literary genius. Looking back to this time last year I was reticent about doing a 2017 round up as it had been... Continue Reading →
#femedtech curation: quiet voices
For the last two weeks I have been curating the @femedtech account on Twitter, which has pretty much been a blast. These are just a few of my thoughts before I hand the baton over to Joyce (@catspyjamas) across the globe in Australia. On the first day I had no idea where to begin, the... Continue Reading →
Gearing Up for my PhD: Bumps in the road
Despite all good intentions of becoming a regular blogger, it has been a while since my first PhD post in August, which promised a follow up on all things pen and paper. Quite a lot has happened during the summer including a couple of bumps in the road, which I am navigating slowly but steadily... Continue Reading →
Gearing Up for my PhD: The Starting Line
This thing is now pretty darn real - I have received a 'Welcome PhD student' (OMG) email from the Depute Director (PGR) of the Graduate School of Education and Sport, outlining my start date and induction day. Next up was a conversation with my supervisors about our first meeting. All in all it is official,... Continue Reading →
Warming Up: LSP Journey Part 3
I fully underestimated just how tiring training would be and I didn't manage to get my notes from my book into this space until now, a full two weeks later so I'm not sure how the gap will affect my reflections and I will probably miss out bits and pieces. Anyway, we started out by... Continue Reading →
Getting Started: LSP Journey Part 2
I went into my first day unsure of what to expect. Having previously facilitated LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshops I was slightly apprehensive that I might learn that there were hard and fast rules to follow, rather than the free flowing approach I had taken using case studies online. Also, what if you had to use... Continue Reading →
Becoming a Meddler-in-the-Middle: LSP Journey Part 1
Chris Barbalis I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to London for LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) facilitator training, a four-day intensive course, and this seems a pretty good point to reflect on some recent joining-of-the-dots for me. Being a fan of constructivism and constructionism introducing LSP into medical education seemed a logical extension... Continue Reading →