Highlight: I completed the final revisions of my book, developed an online course (for someone else), worked on the action plan for the Open Programme following our recent review, worked on GO-GN outputs and ran a research session. In short I did a lot of stuff that I don’t normally get to do because I’m in meetings about doing stuff. Theme: Get stuff done. I feel I can start the busy September to December period now with a relatively clean slate. It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have meetings all the time. I know I am guilty of arranging meetings myself and they’re often necessary to progress…

via GIPHY Highlight: The month started with a week’s holiday, exploring local beaches. And since then I’ve been enjoying summer work mode. Now that my daughter is grown, I don’t have to take holidays during peak months and it’s a really good time to do work. Meetings have plummeted, so I’ve been ticking tasks off my to do list, having dog walks at lunch, written a book chapter and scheduled in remaining work. In short, it has felt how work should feel. I wake up at night and think “oh, it’s ok, I’ve got a fairly easy work day tomorrow”. Not that I’m one of those people who work weekends…

Highlight: As I’ve probably bored you all with mentioning, I wrote a book recently, “Metaphors of Ed Tech“. It’s sort of a companion piece to 25 Years – one is the narrative approach to a subject, the other the metaphorical. I submitted the completed manuscript to Athabasca University Press in February, and it has since gone out for reviews, which all came back favourably. One reviewer commented that it was “a fun and robust read” and the other that it was “a delight to read”. Those are the types of comments for which you would make up false identities to post on Amazon, so it was an unashamed ego boost…

Highlight: I’m going to wrap three GO-GN events up for this (although one took place in April). First, we ran a one day seminar prior to OERxDomains21, which saw the incomparable Bryan Mathers running a fun session on “Draw your PhD”. We used pens, and paper! In May we hosted a new member special, with Barbara Conde Gafaro, Stanislaus Agava Litsalia and Dave Cormier (who he?) presenting. I’m really pleased that even in lockdown we continue to recruit new members to GO-GN who are conducting such fascinating research. And towards the end of the month we launched not one, but two, cohorts of wiki scholars on a 6 week course run…

via GIPHY Highlight: In a time when fun is in short supply, it was a ball to be a guest on Terry Greene and Anne-Marie Scott’s podcast “Check the O.L.: Liner Notes from Groundbreaking Online Learning”. I discussed 1999’s Open University course, You, Your Computer and the Net (which I’ve mentioned on here several times). With apologies for my audio quality, it’s a good chat, and we each choose a song from 1999 also. As well as being an informal, friendly listen, what Terry and Anne-Marie are doing here aligns with the aim of 25 Years of Ed Tech, and the accompanying Between the Chapters podcast, namely that there is…