As is traditional for all new blogs, I’m kicking off with a who-what-why post to give you an idea of who I am, what I do and why I’m writing about it. No doubt this will also become my ‘About’ page in the not too distant future, albeit a slightly edited version I imagine.
Who am I?
My name is Mick Norman and I work for Kent Law School at the University of Kent as E-learning Support for the department. Previously a Law student at Kent Law School, I started working here in September 2007 as a receptionist but quickly found that there was a need for someone to look after the day-to-day running of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), WebCT, for the department. Since then, I have been developing the role into its current incarnation as E-learning Support. This has included, amongst other things: testing and providing feedback on the new University VLE, Moodle, and providing full support to both staff and students in the department in the use of Moodle, including running training and induction sessions.
What is this blog for?
My interest in e-learning extends further than ensuring that the current Law School resources are reliably delivered and that staff and students are adequately trained (although don’t get me wrong, they are both fundamental to the effective running of e-resources in a department). I am constantly working with the Faculty Learning Technologists (FLTs) and Information Services (IS), testing and providing feedback on new technologies, as well as researching effective technologies and resources that may be useful to the Law School. Therefore, part of my blog will be dedicated to posting about the technologies we currently use, new technologies and my experiences and views on them. (It is probably at this point that I should throw in a disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the University of Kent or Kent Law School).
I shall also be providing frequent updates on a project I am running with Helen Carr, one of our lecturers. The aim of the project is to create a number of online resources that together will provide a foundation in the English Legal System that allows the student to learn at their own level and pace (I shall blog a more comprehensive description at a later date).
As if that wasn’t enough, Helen and I are running the project using the Agile working methodology, supported by Steve Coppin in IS, and I will be blogging about my experiences as we go along. Again, I shall blog a more comprehensive explanation about this later on, but in the meantime I highly recommend to you Steve’s blog on Agile which will give you an idea of what the Agile working methodology is and how we are hoping to apply it in an academic setting.
Why am I blogging?
Part of the Agile working methodology is that the project is not hidden behind closed doors until it is released but that everyone is kept up-to-date with developments. Blogging about it allows people to comment and give feedback as we go along, allowing us to respond to change rather than following a plan (see Steve’s blog post on the Agile manifesto for more information about this).
My hope is that by reading my blog you will be able to keep up-to-date with the English Legal System project as well as current and potential developments in e-learning for Law.
So that’s about it. Do subscribe to my RSS feed if you want to keep up with my posts and feel free to leave a comment if you want to share your thoughts. Until next time…