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Axes and ancient boat building skills

CMA masters students spent most of the long bank holiday weekend at Buckler’s Hard in the New Forest learning ancient boat and ship building skills. The backdrop of the River Beaulieu, the intermittent sunshine and occasional ice cream belie the serious labour (both physical and intellectual) involved in learning to work with adzes and axes. Using a range of replica tools students worked with chunks of oak to recreate boat building technologies from the Bronze Age to the Post Medieval period. Continue reading →

British Council highlights University of Southampton Online Masters Programme in English Language Teaching

The British Council has reported on the experiences of Online MA in ELT student Natanael Delgado, a lecturer and former primary school teacher from Mexico, in a recent blog post. To read the post in full, visit the British Council blog. For further details on the University of Southampton Online MA in ELT, visit the University of Southampton Humanities website. Continue reading →

Update from Tanzania by Dr. John McNabb: A postcard from Africa 4

Sadly this is my last postcard from Africa. We had a quiet weekend reading and discussing various plans for the future. Today (Monday 5th) on the other hand was a busy one. Pastory, James and I had a productive meeting this morning with colleagues and collaborators from the National Museum. @JamesColeArch with a Large LCT at the National Museum in Dar. This afternoon was another memorable one. Continue reading →

Gamer data: Fun preferences

After last week’s hair-pulling day of frustration, I’ve made I bit more progress. The survey contained seventeen questions which were based on the theory of four types of fun, set out by Nicole Lazzaro. These were 101 point  Likert scales, wherein the participant indicated their agreement with a statement, using a slider with no scale and the slider “handle” position set randomly, to reduce systematic bias. Continue reading →

Update from Tanzania by Dr. John McNabb: A postcard from Africa 3

Today (Thursday 1st May) is a national holiday in Tanzania so James and I had a more relaxed day visiting the galleries of the National Museum of Tanzania. The museum is an impressive place with really up to date galleries on human evolution and rock art. I took a lot of photos which will make their way into my lectures. The ethnographic collection also impressed me with the range and variety of material on display, reflecting Tanzania’s rich cultural heritage both past and present. Continue reading →

Proximity!

My Gimbal beacons arrived yesterday. These are three tiny Bluetooth LE devices, not much bigger than the watch battery that powers them. They do very little more than send out a little radio signal that says “I’m me!” twice a second. There are three very different ways of using them that I can immediately think of: I’ve just tried leaving one in in each of three different rooms, then walking around the house with the the simple Gimbal manager app on my iPhone. Continue reading →

British Council highlights English as a Medium of Instruction

The British Council has explored some of the important questions related to the growth in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in non-English speaking universities worldwide in a recent blog post. Questions discussed include the speed of growth of EMI, the reasons for growth, the benefits and disadvantages of EMI and teacher perceptions of using EMI. EMI also featured as a theme at the British Council Going Global conference on 30th April 2014. Continue reading →