Recently, on Twitter, there was a very entertaining account of a nightmare experience of giving a paper by Duncan Wilson, a historian at the University of Manchester. Just remembering the time I gave a talk in a uk university, 3 people turned up and 1 fell asleep after 10 min. They then told me there… Continue reading The glamour of the academic life
Category: outreach
When the book comes out
publishers, publication and REF...
Retirement, four months in: it’s all a blur
I think it's time for another stock-taking blog post. This retirement thing is complicated, and I know I have followers who are thinking of taking the same path and want to know what it looks like, although their paths may turn out to be quite different. So, four months of retirement: what has happened so… Continue reading Retirement, four months in: it’s all a blur
‘Helen and the Mentors’: life in a MOOC
The last thing I did at The Open University before leaving was to produce a MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course (still available here). I'm so glad I did this, because the challenge of writing around 35,000 words that took advantage of the FutureLearn platform - arranged in 'steps' of 750 words or five minutes… Continue reading ‘Helen and the Mentors’: life in a MOOC
Ten days of retirement
Naked Minotaur, ancient and modern science, and a MOOC - and no REF in sight!
Traitor to the cause? Why I wrote a MOOC
After I handed in my notice, I could have let things wind down gradually. The Open University requires a long notice period, six months, but unlike brick universities it doesn't have just a couple of days in each year on which you are allowed to go, so I could pick my time. However, I delayed this… Continue reading Traitor to the cause? Why I wrote a MOOC
The retiring academic 