I started this blog back in 2008 when I was involved in developing a course, to be delivered in a blended format of face to face teaching, small group tutorials, online content and online tutorials. It seemed like a huge task but it is one that was successfully achieved and has been tried and tested for a several years now. It has developed and grown and changes have been made over this time some of which I am yet to blog about. 

Blogging has been very sporadic for me over the last few years, time is the issue and also having ideas to explore and present on a blog is not always easy. 

The stimulus for this blog post is a MOOC I have enrolled in called Creativity, Innovation and Change, from PennState University. The course has several mechanisms for students to connect with each other and a group of New Zealanders, myself included, have joined a Google plus group to keep in touch and to share throughout the course. The course is 8 weeks long and I look forward to seeing where it goes. I have watched one or two of the course videos, which I have found quite generic. Clare Atkins, one of our NZ group participants posted a video, part serious part comedy by John Cleese, which did stimulate my thinking about the whole topic. Paula Lourie, another group member posted a video presentation she had been involved in developing on the topic of this course which also gave me food for thought.

I am not the best student and I am not very good a following the rules and doing what I am told. I suspect many of my students are the same. I tend to follow my own path and explore the things I find to be of interest. One of the first week course activities was to build a paper tower, which many course particpants seemed to embrace with some enthusiasm but it did nothing for me. I was not really that interested. 

Strangely though I have found that my brain is bursting with ideas of things to do, innovations to try and changes that I believe could improve the way my course and perhaps other practice skills courses are delivered to our students and the learning experiences students have. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the course or if it is just something that has just happened. I do know that I am an impulsive person by nature. I feel I have some good ideas burning away I just need to identify where it is that I put my energy and work out how to move things forward.