December 24 round-up

We went to the coast for a week over Christmas, and had an unexpectedly sunny day on Boxing Day, the drinks in the picture above were outside a pub in Tresaith.

The end of an eventful year, during which I left the Open University, became semi-retired, got engaged and had to do a lot of emergency care for elderly parents. It seems odd now to think I was still working at the OU 12 months ago, the human ability to adapt to a new context and take it as the new norm is always a surprise. And speaking of new norms, 2025 looks set to be a shitfest right, so start erecting those cognitive defences now.

I signed off on my N-Tutorr report this month, my report acts as an overview, and I enjoyed flexing the writing muscle again. They should all come out in the new year. One of the things I’ve tried to emphasise in my report, which looks at the impact of five technological trends on higher ed, is the old Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy advice of Don’t Panic. I think a lot of the ed tech industry relies on generating a sense of panic – that feeling that if you don’t engage with [Insert New Tech] now, and engage with [Insert New Tech] completely, then it will be too late, and all will be lost. This is a useful notion to foster for purveyors of [Insert New Tech], because quite often once the dust has settled, the actual benefits are less all pervasive than initially trumpeted and uptake would be less. But that doesn’t matter because now we’re onto [Insert New Tech 2]. This is different from saying that these technologically driven changes to education are not useful, but that the scale and immediacy is not at the levels pitched in the media. I’m sure you can think of one current tech that fits that bill…

Books

I finished the year having read 171 books. I read a lot, across all formats, and across a lot of genres. Admittedly I read a lot of ‘low-brow’ fiction, mainly horror, for entertainment, but the notion that reading has to always be worthy is much to its detriment. Audrey has some interesting reflections on reading this month, we follow each other on Goodreads so I often pick up on recommendations based on her reading (I don’t think the reverse happens much, sorry Audrey!). Like a 6 year old in a playground, I’m asking if you want to be my friend too.

Anyway, let’s see what 2025 brings. I keep expecting to have a quiet year, and then “stuff” happens.

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