Month: January 2019

Very enjoyable first PgCert group meeting. Jon was very relaxed and made everyone feel at ease. We all wrote our names on post-its and then took it in terns to give our ‘5 minute’ presentations. A real mixture of ages and experience in the room, all arts based and all looking at making a difference with teaching. Here is the link to my presentation PgCert 5 slides We then discussed the two readings. The first was by Aldridge and the second by Holmwood. These were both very different, the first being very academic and the second much more accessible. With both readings I found looking up the terms using YouTube very useful. The Aldridge text reminded me very much of being at school again and felt baffled by the text. I really retained nothing despite re-reading this a couple of times. In contrast to this I really enjoyed the Holmwood text and felt enriched by learning about Meritocracy and Neo Liberalism.

Jon mentioned last week that we will each be delivering a 10 minute micro teach some time in March. I spoke with a fellow student about ‘green screens’ which was something that came up during my 5 minute (introducing myself) presentation. Currently I would like to use this topic for my micro teach. Below is my current structure:

Teaching objectives

1. Be able to identify real and green screen images
2. Understand basics of green screens and different set ups (lighting, shadows, surface)
3. Be able to set up a simple green screen
4. Be able to create own green screen images using the free Veescope live app
5. Understand where to download the app from.

 

Activity

1. Real or green screen? – presenting different images and asking the group if it is ‘real’ or ‘green screen’
2. Hands on activity – using an iphone to take photos using the – green screen app veescope live

 

My name is Tim Morgan and I Work at CSM in the department of Culture and Enterprise as an eLearning technologist. Together with my colleague Damien, I am responsible for the design and administration of the departments two distance learning courses.

The key aspects of the job I like are design (I studied Fine Art at Coventry University) and working with staff and students. Despite being on an academic grade, my role does feel ‘technician heavy’ with much more admin than I had imagined. I do have some contact with students running the Unit 7 ‘online intervention’ project which I facilitate but I would be looking at how I can be more active in teaching either through staff development sessions or should it become realistic, running some of the teaching sessions. I did do a PeTTLs teaching qualification many years ago but would like to build on this now with the PgCert.

Finally on a more personal level, in May 2018 I moved with my wife (Heide) to Berlin. This is a fabulous place and one in which I lived before between 1995-1999. I have an office at the Humboldt University where I do all my CSM work and fly every 3 weeks to London for various face to face meetings. I love cycling, languages and have a motorcycle.