Nicky Payne and Suzan Lewis (PI) in the Business School along with some external colleagues have been successful in obtaining a ESRC research seminar series grant. They have been awarded £23,536 for a series on work-life balance in the recession and beyond. This is great news and I am sure we will all be interested in the outcome of the discussions too.
Also, Olga van den Akker has been spreading the word on the BBC. She appear on Eddie Nestor's show and can be heard talking about sex and relationships.
Tom Dickins
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Thoughts about REF
Over on Heuristics and Theories I have made a few comments about evolved psychology and the research excellence framework that might be of interest.
Tom Dickins
Tom Dickins
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Community universities
The THE ran a story about two globetrotting early career academics who have given up their jobs to explore alternative university models.
I will soon be visiting Haight Ashbury, so I felt a little cynical at first, but Udi Mandel and Kelly Teamy have been keeping an enlivened learning blog of their adventures in pedagogic space, and it makes for interesting reading.
One point that they make is about cooperative knowledge economies, the idea that we might work with our students rather than present them with an education, thereby seeing universities as creative engines of culture, rather than training facilities. Whilst we cannot break loose and set up shop on Hampstead Heath there are perhaps other ways we might engage more freely with our students and the community during the academic year. Perhaps something to think about...
It also reminded me of a suggestion I heard some time back that students should have their lectures at home - no, not MOOCs, but stuff we prepare for them - and come to university to do their homework. So classes become seminars and labs where we help the students to learn skills such, whilst they gain content in their own time. That idea always struck me as economically more sensible - a better use of us and our abilities. And, of course, it changes the whole 'contact time' dynamic. It is not so much the amount of time, but the quality of its use.
Tom Dickins
I will soon be visiting Haight Ashbury, so I felt a little cynical at first, but Udi Mandel and Kelly Teamy have been keeping an enlivened learning blog of their adventures in pedagogic space, and it makes for interesting reading.
One point that they make is about cooperative knowledge economies, the idea that we might work with our students rather than present them with an education, thereby seeing universities as creative engines of culture, rather than training facilities. Whilst we cannot break loose and set up shop on Hampstead Heath there are perhaps other ways we might engage more freely with our students and the community during the academic year. Perhaps something to think about...
It also reminded me of a suggestion I heard some time back that students should have their lectures at home - no, not MOOCs, but stuff we prepare for them - and come to university to do their homework. So classes become seminars and labs where we help the students to learn skills such, whilst they gain content in their own time. That idea always struck me as economically more sensible - a better use of us and our abilities. And, of course, it changes the whole 'contact time' dynamic. It is not so much the amount of time, but the quality of its use.
Tom Dickins
Friday, 14 June 2013
Visiting speaker: Caroline Edmonds
Speaker: Caroline Edmonds
Date: Thursday 20 June 2013
Time: 4pm
Venue: HG09, Hendon Campus
Title: The effect of water consumption on cognitive performance
Abstract: Folk wisdom suggests that drinking water is “good for you” and can help children and adults to perform well at school or work. However, there is very little published research formally examining the effect of water consumption on cognitive performance and mood. Our studies have shown that supplementing children with water can improve their performance on tasks assessing visual attention, processing speed and memory. In adults, our studies have shown that this is not just due to expectations that people may have about water helping them to perform better. We have also examined links between university students bringing drinks into exams and their exam performance. I will discuss these studies and suggest future directions for research.
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Project Management
Got a project? Need it managed? I could help.
I've recently become a qualified Prince2 practitioner.
Prince2 is:
"widely considered as the leading method in project management [blah blah, which helps] deliver what is required by appropriately managing the costs, timescales, quality, scope, risks and benefits [and] provides a common language between organisations and with external suppliers." (TSO, 2009)
Basically it's a distillation of 'best practice' when it comes to delivering stuff on time and within budget. I can apply these practices to your project and "talk Prince2" with external organisations who are likely to use or even require Prince2 processes. I am more than happy to be put down as a named Prince2 qualified project manager on any grant proposal should you feel that this would increase your chances of success.
Contact me for a chat via s.nunn@mdx.ac.uk or pop into TG39 for a coffee.
Stephen Nunn
I've recently become a qualified Prince2 practitioner.
Prince2 is:
"widely considered as the leading method in project management [blah blah, which helps] deliver what is required by appropriately managing the costs, timescales, quality, scope, risks and benefits [and] provides a common language between organisations and with external suppliers." (TSO, 2009)
Basically it's a distillation of 'best practice' when it comes to delivering stuff on time and within budget. I can apply these practices to your project and "talk Prince2" with external organisations who are likely to use or even require Prince2 processes. I am more than happy to be put down as a named Prince2 qualified project manager on any grant proposal should you feel that this would increase your chances of success.
Contact me for a chat via s.nunn@mdx.ac.uk or pop into TG39 for a coffee.
Stephen Nunn
Monday, 10 June 2013
Decision making research in action
In the course of a project that both Georgina Hosang and I are involved with we were sent this fascinating film link about a traffic calming project in Poynton.
It makes me wonder about measuring flow throughout our changing campus and a list of possible final year and MSc projects...
Tom Dickins
It makes me wonder about measuring flow throughout our changing campus and a list of possible final year and MSc projects...
Tom Dickins
Monday, 3 June 2013
Visiting speaker: David Harper
Speaker: David Harper (University of East London)
Title: DSM V and the problems of psychiatric diagnosis
Date: Thursday 13 June 2013
Venue: HG02, Hendon Campus
Time: 4pm
Abstract: In the light of the debates triggered by the recent publication of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, in this talk I will outline the longstanding problems associated with psychiatric diagnostic frameworks and suggest possible future directions for more valid and humane alternative approaches to conceptualising distress.
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