
Higher Education Whisperer
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The Higher Education Whisperer: Vocational & University Course Design, Learning, Teaching & Research by Tom Worthington, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU.
Higher Education Whisperer
3d ago
Greetings from the Australian Centre on China in the World,at The Australian National University, where Rogier Creemers from Leiden University i speaking on China’s Techno-Developmental State: Achieving the Future. He began by noting there were few China tech policy watchers, despite there being plenty of Chinese government documents available to work from. Also Dr Creemers suggested China is a ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
3d ago
Greetings from the Coffee Grounds Cafe, at the Australian National University, on a wet monday morning. According to media reports, the government of China has placed restrictions on its citizens studying online at foreign universities (Australian universities welcome snap decision by China to ban online studies, The Guardian, 29 January 2023). Australia's universities were already preparing for ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1w ago
Dr Jinghong Zhang making tea Photo by Tom Worthington, 2023 CC-BYDr Jinghong Zhang talked on "Gongfu Tea and Camera" a the Australian National University in Canberra, 25 January 2023. As a bonus they made tea after. There was a serious scholarly point to this. Dr Jinghong Zhang described an approach to anthropology where the camera becomes part of the introduction to people. In one of Dr ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1M ago
Professor Gavin Moodie, University of Toronto, recently discussed the effects of a merger between the universities of Adelaide and South Australia. Professor Andrew Norton, Australian National University suggested urban participation rates in universities would decline if funding went to regional campuses. However, these analyses are focused on the physical location of university campuses, which ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1M ago
Tom Worthington at ANU Coffee Grounds Cafe. Photo by Tom Worthington CC-BY 2022Greetings from the Coffee Grounds Cafe, at the Australian National University. in Canberra. I just met with a PhD student who is researching an ancient dead language, and working on a commercial spinoff, while employed part time by the government. Someone who talks to university donors happened past with a project ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1M ago
ASCILITE have released their first "Scanning the Australasian Ed Tech Horizon: The 2021-2022 Contextualising Horizon Report" (Campbell, Porter, Logan-Fleming, & Jones, 2022). It is a big title for a relatively short 47 page report. This covers rethinking lectures and assessment, blended learning, Co-design and Microcredentials. The bigger picture is covered with rethinking the university ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1M ago
Today I talked to the participants of Thomas Cochrane's "Design for Transformative Mobile Learning Design BootCamp", along with other authors of the paper, "Analysing mobile learning designs: A framework for transforming learning post-COVID" (2022). My notes on "Designing for online, blended and synchronous learning for computing students" are available. The talk gave me a needed confidence boost ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
1M ago
The Higher Education Review Terms of Reference, lists seven key areas for consideration (Department of Education, 2022). Here are some thoughts on the topic. Please note that while I am an Honorary Lecturer in Computing at the Australian National University, and a member of the Professional Standards Board of the Australian Computer Society, these recommendations are my own, and may not represent ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
2M ago
Professor Mary O’KaneThe Australian government has tasked Professor Mary O’Kane, and a panel of six other eminent Australians to conduct a Higher Education Review, as part of the Australian Universities Accord. The term "accord" is one Labor governments favour for broad agreements with sectors of the economy (most famously used for a 1980s agreement with unions). The review's terms of reference ..read more
Higher Education Whisperer
2M ago
In an opinion piece, astrophysicist and ANU VC, Brian Schmidt urged that "Research in Australia’s universities should be driven by curiosity, not commerce" (The Guardian, 25 October 2022). He pointed out that technology such as WiFi was a spinoff from pure research. However, most of the useful, and profitable innovations from universities are not happy accidents, they are applied research to a ..read more