Descartes – Open Learning space

Why did Nasa smash its spacecraft into an asteroid? | podcast September 29, 2022 Presented by Ian Sample, produced by Jacqui Wakefield and Madeleine Finlay, sound designed by Tony Onuchukwu, and the executive producer was Max Sanderson
How a man and his dogs discovered the cause of narcolepsy – podcast September 27, 2022 Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound design by Rudi Zygadlo, and the executive producer was Danielle Stephens
Why is the NHS in crisis, and can it be fixed? - podcast September 22, 2022 Presented by Ian Sample with Denis Campbell, produced by Madeleine Finlay with additional production by Rachel Porter, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, and the executive producer was Danielle Stephens
How will Jacob Rees-Mogg tackle the energy and climate crises? | podcast September 20, 2022 Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with Fiona Harvey, additional production by Rachel Porter, sound design by Rudi Zygadlo, and the executive producer was Max Sanderson
How air pollution is changing our view of cancer – podcast September 15, 2022 Produced and presented by Madeleine Finlay with Hannah Devlin, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, and the executive producer was Max Sanderson

Nicolas Bourbaki
This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force […]
Hardy and Ramanujan
This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force […]
Henri Poincaré
This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force […]
Georg Cantor
This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force […]
The Mathematicians Who Helped Einstein
This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force […]

Universities and post pandemic digital praxis: reflecting on an opportunity to explore a critical reframing of education and the curriculum
A jointly authored post by Sheila MacNeill, Bill Johnston and myself Last September, we contributed a blog post to the Special Collection organised by Post-Pandemic University to celebrate the centenary of Paulo Freire’s birth (Johnston, MacNeill and Smyth, 2021). Our post set out to contemplate how Freire’s ideas, including his critical perspectives on technology, marginalisation […]
Reflecting on 2020 and looking to 2021: A year-end editorial from JPAAP
First published in the summer of 2013, the Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice (JPAAP) is an online open access journal that is focused on evidence-based academic practice within tertiary (Further and Higher) education in thematic areas that include: learning, teaching and assessment; curriculum innovation and development; academic development; scholarship of learning and teaching; […]
Fears, hopes and reimaginings: learning and teaching within, through and beyond the pandemic (#SOLSTICE2020)
For many years I have had the privilege of attending and presenting at a number of the annual SOLSTICE technology-enhanced learning conferences run by Edge Hill University, presenting in latter years in my role as a Visiting Professor in education within the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Edge Hill University. Due to the COVID-19 […]
Overview and thanks – ‘Digital Learning: The Key Concepts (Second Edition)’
In my first blog posts of 2019, back in March, I was sharing news of the book ‘Conceptualising the Digital University: The intersection of policy, pedagogy and practice’ which myself and my good friends and colleagues Bill Johnston and Sheila MacNeill had just had published. Our book was a labour of love, informed by several […]
Conceptualising the digitally distributed curriculum at #SOLSTICE19
On Wednesday 5th June this week I’m presenting at the annual SOLSTICE 2019 e-learning conference at Edge Hill University, which is organised and run as a joint conference by Edge Hill’s SOLSTICE Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (@SolsticeCETL) and the Centre for Learning and Teaching at EDU (@CLTatEHU). The joint SOLSTICE and CLT […]
Coming full (culture) circle at #OER19 – Part 1
This is the first of two blogs posts that accompany the session “Unpacking the geopolitics of open for the strategic development of (HE) institutions and communities – what is a university for?” that Sheila MacNeill, Bill Johnston and myself ran on day one of #OER19 on 10th April. Sheila will post Part 2, reflecting on […]
My inspirational women #IWD2019
For International Women’s Day 2019, the Learning and Teaching Academy at the University of the Highlands and Islands are running our second annual #InternationalWomensDay event. Our #IWD2019 organisers Alex Walker and Ann Tilbury, two inspiring women, asked everyone who is participating today to share in advance their own inspirational women. This is who I chose […]
Thanks and acknowledgements for ‘Conceptualising the Digital University’
Long before we got to the point of having an opportunity to write the book that became ‘Conceptualising the Digital University: The Intersection of policy, pedagogy and practice’, Bill Johnston, Sheila MacNeill and myself benefited from early discussions and dialogue about the idea and implications of the ‘digital university’ with a great many colleagues across the […]
Recently published – Conceptualising the Digital University: The intersection of policy, pedagogy and practice
Well, it’s almost exactly a year since my last blog post. I blog sporadically, so it’s likely no one has noticed! It’s not good practice to blog so infrequently, although I have a good reason. Around this time last year, my friends and colleagues Bill Johnston, Sheila MacNeill and myself were undertaking, in earnest, the writing […]
Open practice and praxis in the context of the Digital University. #OER18
This week saw the latest in a small series of writing workshops for Bill Johnston, Sheila MacNeill and myself for our forthcoming book Conceptualising the Digital University: Intersecting policy, pedagogy and practice (Palgrave). Our work on this book has been a very enjoyable slow-burn, originating five or so years ago with the application of Sheila and […]

Tag: Descartes

Descartes meditation: What can we know?