Spotlight: Maria Costantino

We're launching a brand new feature on TaLKBAC today called Spotlight. The aim of Spotlight is to provide a member of the group with an opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences of teaching, learning and creativity with the rest of the community.

Our first ever TaLKBAC Spotlight falls on Maria Costantino, a Critical Studies tutor at the University for the Creative Arts. In part 1 of this interview, Maria provides an insight into her experience of being a tutor in an art and design context and offers some valuable tips on how to provide effective support for students. 

TaLKBAC Spotlight: Maria Costantino Part 1
 

I would like to thank Maria for agreeing to let me interview her, and I hope you enjoy it. Please share any thoughts and questions you may have in the TaLKBAC group. It would be great to learn whether you agree or disagree with any of the points Maria makes, and also to hear about your own experiences of working in an art & design context.

Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for part 2 of the interview. And lastly, if you would like to be interviewed for TaLKBAC Spotlight I would love to hear from you!

Creating mindmaps with Coggle

Mindmaps are a great way to organise ideas visually, but online mindmapping tools can sometimes be tricky to use. Having tried a number of such tools, Coggle is the most user-friendly and easy-to-use that I've found. And the good news is that it's free.

The video below provides a very quick demonstration of how to create a mindmap using Coggle:

 

Another nice feature is the ability to sign in with your Google account. This has the advantage of storing your Coggles in your Google Drive, and means that you can also invite other people to collaborate on your mindmaps.

If you're wondering how you might use a mindmap in an educational context, this article by TeachThought contains ten ways that teachers can use mindmaps with their students.

TaLKBAC is back!

The sun has been blazing away and hopefully you've been finding some time to get out there and enjoy it!

After a brief hiatus during which I consumed rather too much French wine and cheese, TaLKBAC is back. Whether you'll be spending your summer on a sunny beach or stuck in your office (hopefully not) you may find yourself in need of some stimulating discussion in the areas of learning and creativity. The TaLKBAC team will do our best to oblige, and over the next couple of months we'll be bringing you some new features to keep you inspired:


TaLKBAC Spotlight

Each month I will be asking a member of the community to share their thoughts and views on teaching, learning and creativity. There is already a significant amount of expertise in this group and I'm excited by the potential for us all to learn from each other's experience. This Wednesday will feature the first part of an interview with Maria Costantino.


10 Days of Twitter

Starting on Monday 4th August, this 10 day activity provides an opportunity for you to get started with Twitter and learn everything you need to know.




 TaLKBAC Superstar

There's nothing like an incentive to motivate people, and who doesn't want to be a star? Each month the TaLKBAC Superstar will be awarded to the person who has contributed the most knowledge to the community over the past month. And if a star isn't enough they'll also receive a £10 Amazon voucher.



This is all in addition to our regular features e-Learning Lunch and Hashtag Highlights. Roll on Monday, and let's get back to some serious talking. Have a great weekend all.

Tony

TaLKBAC holiday

This is just a quick post to say that I won't be posting on TaLKBAC for a couple of weeks as I'm off on my summer hols. But it's also a good moment to pause and look back at the last couple of months of TaLKBAC.

We've grown to a healthy 49 members and I'm looking forward to growing this past 50 and beyond once I get back. There have been some inspiring conversations so far, including Annamarie's thought-provoking discussion around celebrating the value of an arts degree which produced over thirty comments.

More recently, posts considering a potential vision for Higher Education in 2030 have yielded some insightful comments and I look forward to building on this and other themes over the coming months. We'll also be introducing a new feature called TaLKBAC Spotlight involving interviews with members of the community about their views on aspects of teaching, learning and creativity. Maria Costantino has kindly volunteered to be the first, so look out for this interview towards the end of the month.

In the meantime I hope you're enjoying the Hashtag Highlights and the tools showcased in e-Learning Lunch. The number of tools that can be used creatively to enhance teaching and learning continues to expand at an exponential rate, and I'll be doing my best to keep on top of these over the coming months.

Please do make use of TaLKBAC in my absence, we are growing into a supportive community with a considerable base of knowledge and expertise. If you have a question or discussion that you would like to share with the group then don't be shy, get involved!

I'm looking forward to my holiday, but I'm also excited about continuing to learn and discuss with you all on my return.

But in the meantime, happy holidays!

3/7: Hashtag Highlights

Before I list some of the interesting content that has cropped up on Twitter this week, I thought it might be useful to share this article by TeachThought. The article explains what hashtags are, how they work and some of the conventions around using them. Towards the bottom of the article you’ll also find a handy list of hashtags that are commonly used amongst educators.


#edtech (educational technology)

9 useful alternatives to Google for academics and student researchers. There are several alternatives to Google Search which can help you and your students locate relevant journal articles. Of particular interest is JURN, which provides access to over 3000 free arts and humanities journals.

#acwri (academic writing)

Stuck for words? A list of phrases to help you write your introduction. This academic phrasebank from the University of Manchester contains some useful suggestions to help students introduce key issues and concepts.

#creativity

How to kill creativity: cash, cynicism and headphones. In this article the creativity and advertising specialist John Hegarty proposes three useful tips to help creatives lengthen their creative careers.

 

There are also a number of ‘live’ chats that take place each week or month on Twitter. I wanted to draw attention to these as they provide great examples of how Twitter can be used to support real-time conversation with people across the world. If you’re interested in following the discussion just go to Twitter at the designated time and search for the desired hashtag. To participate, all you have to do is include hashtag in any tweets that you send.


#ukedchat

Every Thursday at 8pm GMT educators chat on Twitter using the #ukedchat hashtag. Beginning in 2010, the group has evolved into a supportive community of educators with a dedicated website containing a whole range of useful resources and jobs for educators. Read their mission statement here.

#artsedchat

On the second Sunday every month at 8.30am EST (1.30pm GMT) arts educators host a live chat on Twitter using the #artsedchat hashtag. More information can be found here. This hashtag is primarily used by educators in the USA but anyone can participate.

#ukfechat

This is a live chat for those teaching in the UK Further Education sector and takes place every Thursday between 9 and 10pm.

Following blogs with Feedly

If you are a regular reader of blogs then it's worth using a tool called a 'reader'. A reader is a bit like your own customisable newspaper which enables you to read all the blogs that you follow from a single place.

Feedly is a free blog reading tool which makes it easy to keep up with news in your field. If you're using blogs with your students then Feedly is also a useful way to track their activity and organise their blogs into yeargroups. The short video below provides an introduction to how to use Feedly:

Personalizing your Feedly from Feedly on Vimeo.

Using a blog reader such as Feedly helps you make the best use of your time. For example, you might allocate 30 minutes a week to skim through new items in your Feedly, then use a tool such as Diigo (featured in last week's e-Learning Lunch) to bookmark any interesting content. As you add new blogs to your Feedly reader you can create folders in the menu to organise your blogs into themes:

 

I hope you find it useful!