Personal Blogs
Norwegian Wood
Wednesday 19 October 2011 at 21:51
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday 21 October 2011 at 04:17
It was my first Haruki Murakami read recommended by Susannah Waters whose writers' group I had joined in 2002 or 2003. She said I wrote like him. Rambling stream of consciousness with lashings of self-doubt, introspection and sex? I recall considering how as a writer he kept the development of several relationships hanging through to the end. I recall feeling in a similar way between several relationships where no one could commit. I recall the landscape so evocatively portrayed in this film. And now I'll download the book and see what I make of it. Much more here: www.mymindbursts.com
OU MBA B822 Blogger to Follow
Wednesday 19 October 2011 at 07:08
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday 21 October 2011 at 04:30
B822 is the idea A,U,A?
Tuesday 18 October 2011 at 23:30
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 8 November 2011 at 18:28
Actionable Useful Appropriate (Amabile 1998:77)
Even regarding Social Media I am asked this all the time, let alone my call for more use of video and 'user generated content'.
It being 'creative' is not enough, value must be apparent, predictable, then measured and monitored. At times processes want the Jack in the Box; while I want it 'out there' turning heads and grabbing attention.
I am taken by the diagram that puts creativity at the intersect of Expertise, Creative Thinking and Motivation, but when I read about intrinsic motivation over extrinsic I grin: this is familiar territory, personally it is what makes me tick, and appropriately in the week I am interviewed to volunteer at the Olympics and on the evening I agree to some pro bono work for my old swimming club, I am reminded of the role intrinsic motivation plays in sport.
The intrinsic motivation principle of creativity: people will be most creative when they motivated primarily by the interest, satisfaction and challenge of the work itself and not by external pressures. (Amabile 1998:79)
THE CREATIVITY MAZE (Amabile 1998:80)
A mouse is extrinsically motivated to find the cheese in a maze and will in time take the direct route to the goal however many twists and turns there are.
The creative person, for the love of the maze will question every twist and turn and ultimately uncover a quicker or more direct route through, over or with the maze.
I've found me again.
Repeatedly trying against type to be the mouse I become unstuck. I've been there, in the context of film production, I have been the producer who hires people who are motivated to achieve what they perceive as required for the project.
Money matters, but I have worked with people who do it for free and are equally if not more motivated to deliver and are prepared, as I have twice done (short films: 'Listening In' and 'Watersprites', to work through the night). (Both on YouTube under JJ27VV)
I can indeed apply what I learn today, today.
An OU motto used only the other morning by our Dean Prof. James Fleck (or in my case what I learn tonight, I can apply in a few hours time to question how creativity is facilitated or crushed by the system and little ways to feed the motivation of those around me).
Not satisfied simply to read this, take notes and screen grabs, I feel I will be sharing links or copies with close colleagues, faculty and campus colleagues as a means to seek a modus operandi that facilitates creativity.
At this point, unusually I must break off this conversation and contemplate where I place such deeper and potentially sensitive and private reflection.
Ideally this would be into the pages of a locked e-portfolio blog, or alternatively offline (initially) into a relational database such as FileMaker Pro.
Serendipitous to be on this module now and for the first article I read to be this one?
(though I should have been doing an MBA the year before this paper was published).
Reference
Amabile. T.M. (1998) pp.77-79 How to kill creativity. Harvard Business Review. October to September.
B822 - Orientation ahead of D-Day
Tuesday 18 October 2011 at 22:51
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 17 April 2012 at 07:41
My fourth module and some 12 days before we officially start.
I neither hang back, nor do I wade in; I appreciate that the person who finally makes it on 1st November may feel left out or left behind.
I leave nothing in the cafe area where no fewer than two course tutors have introduced themselves. Elsewhere I am one of four to have made it to the door.
There will be books, though thus far I am downloading PDFs are reading them off the iPad.
In order to take motes it strikes me that a second tablet would be an advantage so that I can have two screens. Two hinged like a book?
I sense a different tone, a sense that there is a team present to supervise our first moves rather than a single tutor.
The print-like lay-out of the texts lifts the words away from the VLE too, subtle yet recognisable differences. Already the reading impresses: I could spend the next ten years giving the many creative techniques a go and not get to the end.
This is something that has impressed me with each OU module that I have done, you could never want for something to do, ample to fill 12-15 hours a week, yet room to spend 20 or more hours if you wished.
On a totally different matter I agreed to complete and submit my old Swimming Club's Swim21 application, something that I had done for the last three years. In this way I can at least keep my interest in swim coaching alive even if I am no longer poolside (for now).
And then in my inimitable way I go to the Harvard Business Review, as invited, to download 'How to Kill Creativity' only to spot 'The Rise of the E-lance' instead which takes a 1998 look at the opportunities then arising for the freelance in an IT rich world.
I download this into iBooks only to find a 2011 PDF on Webinars of most immediate interest, afterall I am this week an next seeing people about putting on Webinars for us. Some self-discipline is required, getting the required reeading done first during time I set aside to do so, rather than last.
B822 WK ZERO Day -12 Action Stations eCrayons at hand
Tuesday 18 October 2011 at 07:07
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 17 April 2012 at 07:36
Let's say I'm going to blog this one by the day; not at all hard to do.
I am an habitual diary-writer with a 37 year track record. Can I, however, make this more of a tool and less of a toy, this is after all a module from the Business School and according to discussions (in the 'Open University Business & Law School') 'transformative' (alumni rave about it) i.e. more reflection and less indulgent 'stream of consciousness' monologue spoken through my QWERTY fingertips?
I stumbled into the module pages as an alert on my Student Home pages indicated that a message had been posted.
It looked ominously playful with each sentence a different Rainbow red, orange, purple or blue.
That's a first!
The Course Chair likes his e-crayon set.
(He did kindly resist using multiple fonts, though, research has shown that making something physically difficult to read improves retention of the information expressed because the mind has to work at extracting meaning).
To course notes
I ALWAYS make the a space of my own by cutting out and posting elsewhere the bits that matter to me: here is how my six months will be spent; two months each of:
- an introduction to the module concepts that focuses on the individual level of creativity, cognition, style and development.
- team-based and individual approaches to creative problem management.
- ways of developing organisational innovation and climate.
A box of resources, books and maybe a DVD awaits me at home (I away from home during the week) Let the FUN commence!
Steve Jobs and doing what you love
Monday 17 October 2011 at 19:45
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I love doing this. At best I am like someone doing street art on the pavement on the South Bank. It is jazz. I could be on my own and I'd do it regardless. I have so many blogs I frequently lose track of them. They tend to be on a theme. One is a treatment for a screenplay with photos of locations, another is a novel, yet another three year's worth of swimming lesson plans and another every ski run in Val d'Isere / Tignes.
I hate to let a moment pass without writing about it.
Why do intelligent people fail?
Sunday 16 October 2011 at 09:48
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday 17 June 2012 at 09:30
Too busy to blog (again)
Saturday 15 October 2011 at 07:08
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 17 April 2012 at 07:31
Fig. 1. Display of the Olympic Village, ExCel, Custom House, London Docklands. Part of a display for the 3,500 Gamesmakers who are being recruited over the next months to support the Olympics next summer.
Not blogging is for me a loss as I have always used a diary (1974-1999) and then a blog (1999-to present day) to provide a record or archive of what is hitting my head every day.
This provides, during times of reflection, the opportunity to think over events. (With a diary I might not look back at a page for a decade, but at least it was there).
I have little doubt that this is because I am between modules. Creativity, Innovation and Change (B822) kicks off in November.
Many colleagues keep a 'daily log or notebook'. I used to, but found I'd fill them too quickly. I favour IT to assist, sort, store. I will 'forget about' something in the knowledge that I can draw it from my electronic 'brain'; this of course assume that the content has made it that far. So a blog is a repository. The problem is which blog? These have a habit of splitting into multiple folders.
Nor is this blog the place for Social Media and Online Communications (my role at the Open University Business and Law School). Though at times there is considerable overlap with all that I have learnt in the Masters in Open and Distance Education. (Modules H800, H809 and H807 completed).
Nor is it the place for my potential adventures with the London Olympics 2012, which had me (like a number of OU Colleagues) attending a 'Gamesmaker' presentation and interview yesterday. I have been lined up for the Press Office, potentially to contribute to the Knowledge & Information desk which will draw in educational value from the events to share with future Olympics, otherwise either in the Olympic Village editing/writing a regular newsletter, or at one of the venues 'door-stepping' athletes and getting their words to the media centre.
My summer 'vacation' 2012
A part solution to the failure to post a blog is:
1) I took notes (directly into an iPad for the most part, so no need to transfer/transcribe)
2) I took pictures (sometimes with the iPad, now with an iPhone, such grabs of presentation slides that I immediately upload to Picasa Web. These in turn would be best placed in a photo friendly blog in WordPress, FlickR or Tumblr, though currently they are saved into locked galleries online).
3) I keep a daily log/notes of my day, aggregating content of interest from RSS Feeds (LinkedIn groups and Blogs) as well as Google Alerts. This has always remained offline. I need to get it into FileMaker Pro so that is it more searchable.
The above to provide a catalyst for developing further any one of these topics at a later date (if at all), but usually easy enough to discover if blogged (private view), or put into a relational database software package such as FileMaker Pro.
I therefore have a record of events, meetings, presentations and so on, which include:
MONDAY PR and the words of students and alumni from discussions and requests to our growing groups in LinkedIn.
TUESDAY Interviews with Alumni (three of the 1996 graduation group reflecting on their experiences of the MBA and what they have done since). Brief a TV production company.
TUESDAY Creation of a blog for Open University Business Network. Kathryn Tickell at the Stables (or was that last week ?!)
WEDNESDAY Using Camtasia, Audacity, a MAC and the Institute of Educational Technology 'Podcasting Suit' to produce a video-version (animation/movie) of a presentation I gave on Social Media in Higher Education which I wish to induct academics (or their teams) to use to compress 45 minutes lectures into scripted pieces that are more 'Web Friendly'.
WEDNESDAY Tweet inaugrual lecture of Professor Cherie Booth and the acceptance speech of Leslee Griffiths BA.
THURSDAY Personas and Mental Mapping (an OU technique to understanding and predicting visitor behaviours when using online materials)
THURSDAY Communications, Leadership and Influence (a presentation by the new Director of Communications). I took from this the need to make the time and effort to empathise with colleagues with whom I work.
THURSDAY Open University Businesss Network (a series of quarterly breaksfast briefings for local business people that started on Thursday)
THURSDAY Edit of interview visiting fellow from Ghana
The Northumbrian Pipes
Wednesday 12 October 2011 at 06:09
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Wednesday 26 October 2011 at 07:23
Kathryn Tickell was at The Stables, Milton Keynes last night.
The music was wrapped around the stories of shepherds and farm labourers on the hills of the North Tyne valley. My father's great grandparents and several of my mother's too came off the land above Hexham, from Newton, to Chatton and Alnwick, to find work on Tyneside in the mid to late 19th century.
For a while my father lived in Chollerford, on the North Tyne and I was at school for five years down the road at Newton.
Trips out to Kielder, before and after the reservoir, were common. We often drove into Scotland over the fells via Wooler and Jedburgh.
In the 1920s my grandmother and her sisters would go and stay in Rothbury for the summer.
Northumberland, you could say, has some resonance for me.
I have a book of memoirs from 100 years ago which were brought up to date with stories of dreadful winters in 1963 which I don't remember and of 1979 that I do as I often struggled trying to get from my father's place in the Eden Valley, to my girlfriend in Wylam then home to Gosforth.
Picnic spots, school camping trips, parties in Church Halls and even singing in The Tynedale Festival and in churches in Hexham, Corbridge, Matfen and Alnwick.
Do I hanker after it?
The brackish water, bogs and ferns? a drive along the Military Road below Hadrian's Wall would be enough.
Private diary entries not meant for public consumption
Sunday 9 October 2011 at 21:07
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 20 March 2012 at 04:50
This is a quote in Ian Kershaw's 'The End' (2011) of all things regarding one of many diaries he read researching the downfall of Germany in the final year of The Second World War.
It expresses for me what was or came to be an early perception of the 'online journal' (as they were called before web-log, then 'blog' came along).
I started to put my diary online in 1999.
I even copied out passages in notebooks that went back a further 20 years. It was an online diary to begin with, even a form of publishing. It morphed into other things as readers and other regular writers emerged.
The reality of 2011 is that this blank space is whatever you want it to be and whatever others make of it: a soap box, a survey, a statement, a chapter of a book, song lyrics, snaps, charts, gobble-de-gook.
The enigma of the private diary uncovered was the sense that this was the truth, how someone thought and behaved.
Today some of us, though not in this space, chose to reveal everything we can regarding what it means to be human. There was an element of 'exposure' but this, what I read in 2000, 2001, 2002, became the appeal and attraction, particularly to many isolated, even depressed people who discovered they weren't alone.
This isn't a blog, it is electronic paper.
Sunday 9 October 2011 at 20:45
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OK you can't do origami with it but platforms such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress, and even one of the originals, Diaryland, let you do so much. They can be a secret diary, just click private, or they can be a forum, self-publishing, an ePortfolio, a gallery for photos (or video), even a shared 'wiki-like' collaboration.
Train Fairs, Unfairs and the Ridiculous
Sunday 9 October 2011 at 18:21
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday 9 October 2011 at 18:31
Two weeks ago I was pleased as punch to be able to travel from Lewes in East Sussex to Milton Keynes for £7.50 (RETURN!) OK, four hours in a train and a choice of diddling around with a Milton Keynes bus at the other end (an hour from the station to the campus or 15 minutes and £7 by taxi). Last week £17.50, same timetable, I hoped I'd got the bus figured, but still an hour to the campus. This week? I cannot for the life of me find a train (return, outside peak hours) for less than £75. Consequence? I have no choice but to drive, leaving home at 5.00am tomorrow, or even tonight. Much later than 5.00am and a 2 hour motorway schlep can take 4 hours 
The joke is that I could do my job brilliantly while orbiting earth in Thunderbird 5. I've been online all weekend in mini and micro moments picking up RSS fed conversations from various sources, following colleagues and contacts as they up date blogs ... and I receive Google alerts to an iPad (mobile around the house, train, bus, car); iPhone shopping, walking the dog ...
(I have an answer on how to relax: competitive sailing in the English Channel. I've done it, injury, tactics and exhaustion concentrate the mind).
More on Steve Jobs and his creation that is Apple Mac
Friday 7 October 2011 at 15:07
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Saturday 8 October 2011 at 09:20
OU Business School Prof John Naughton is interviewed on Sky News and Al Jezeara on the legacy of Steve Jobs.
Can I get him to join OUBS in LinkedIn where we are reminiscing all things Apple.
Yesterday I gave my first Steve jobs presentation, a coincidence, I'd been put onto his visual, three point, narrative style by a colleague.
Last night the pub quiz ended on the music round and extra points for the hidden link.
We got as far as 'occupations' - lacking taste I thought the answer was jobs - Steve Jobs.
Not Mac users?
I will buy a Mac this weakend to replace the one that died after eight years (though surgically extracted into an external hard drive). She was called Suzi, I'll call my new Mac 'Steve'.
Steve Jobs has died
Thursday 6 October 2011 at 03:26
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Saturday 8 October 2011 at 09:21
I'm up for a while in the middle of the night preparing a Steve Jobs inspired presentation - his approach is legendary. I've had a Mac from the start, with the Apple II.
Academic paper on blogging
Tuesday 4 October 2011 at 22:55
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Birds of a Feather: How personality influences blog writing and reading. (2010) Jami Li and Mark Chignell. Science Direct. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 68 (2010) 589-602
The joy of this:
Tuesday 4 October 2011 at 21:15
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday 2 May 2014 at 19:35
Leslee Griffiths BA Student and Business School student tells her story: http://www8.open.ac.uk/business-school/study/testimonials/leslee-griffiths
Serendipity, Creativity, Innovation and Change (B822)
Tuesday 4 October 2011 at 03:41
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 17 April 2012 at 07:12
With another 60 credits to achieve the MA in Open & Distance Learning I learnt I could 'stretch my legs' and pull in some points from other fields of study.
B822 is a Faculty of Business and Law School module; its fans, I have learnt are many and vocal.
My fear is the return to books and studying after a too brief interlude; it doesn't half muck up your weekends, what is more it has taken me entirely away from something else that I do (or did): writing fiction.
My fear too is that I am at the Faculty where the module was written and from where it is taught so there is little distance for me with this piece of distance learning.
However, that Muse 'Serendipity' just came to my rescue (during an interlude from sleep where I was busily asking myself 'should I' or 'shouldn't' I?
I stumbled upon the blog of Barbara Wilson, which happens to be my late grandmother's name, she happens to be an OU Lecturer in Creativity and Leadership (living in France) and her latest blog is about a paper from one of the authors of B822 which I promptly download and put into iBooks.
The relations of adult playfulness with psychometric and self-estimated intellegicne and academic performance.
It doesn't take much for me to feel the familiar comfort of reading, contemplating the application of ideas and taking notes. In one respect I spent a year, full-time, studying this at the 'School of Communication Arts'. Let's see.
Why do you blog? What will keep you going?
Sunday 2 October 2011 at 07:47
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 20 March 2012 at 04:57
There are good reasons to encourage more people to do this, to share thoughts and ideas online, to reflect on their work, to aggregate ideas (like a portfolio), to generate and share content.
What do you think?
Why have YOU embarked on this journey?
What will motivate you to keep doing?
How about every day for a year?(the goal of us early bloggers in 1999).
The End: Hitler's Germany 1944-1945
Wednesday 28 September 2011 at 20:32
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday 30 September 2011 at 13:58
I'd say I'm reading this cover to cover, but it's an eBook that I am reading both on an iPad and Kindle. The Kindle for the bath, outdoors and when driving (I set it to voice snd put in earphones). Why? I enjoy Ian Kershaw; he can tell a good story and waves in almost as much detail as Proust.
50 Today - I could sulk, or reflect
Tuesday 27 September 2011 at 16:05
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday 2 October 2011 at 07:43
P.S. And an age-appropriate photo will replace the happy Dad of 9 years ago that you currently see. Intellectually I feel like a 19 year old - fighting fit and argumentative. The way I will go down here on in.
I have never gone grey, not lost much hair, still swim a mile or more a week ... avoid the sun, but tan easily.
I do NOT need reading glasses ... but my skin, in places is starting to look like rice paper ... I'm a baby of the 60s.
Thrilled to be alive, highly mixed up in e-learning ... a century ago (like my grandfather) it would have been planes, motorbikes and cars.
About to go out and eat on an extraordinary evening on the South Downs with views across the English Channel with the three people who matter the most to me in all the world, my wife and children.
Have I done my bit?
When they emerge from university and have five years steady employment, with a partner ...
When do you let go?
Given than my mother's parents, aunts and uncles reached their 90s ...
I feel, and celebrate that we never let go.
If in 50 years time my mother and my siblings and our cousins and second cousins and our children are all still present ?
- I want to have a role in the Olympics.
- I want to have a role in remembering the First World War.
- I want to be a grandparent.
- I'd like to be by the sea and on it most days.
- I'd like people to grin with pleasure feeling they've achieved something extra-ordinary and unexpected.
- This for me is the OU.
P.P.S. I am neither jingoistic or necessarily a patriot. The above is a statement of circumstance. Those millions of us living here ought to reflect more often on how great it is to live a life in peace, with food, a roof over our heads, clothing and friends. The challenge of the next 100 years is to educate some people not to abuse it: flytipping stinks, littering is no better. There are too many people in our society who frankly don't give a monkey's +@#
EMA Away!
Monday 26 September 2011 at 18:09
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday 27 September 2011 at 07:37
I have a month or six weeks before B822, the shift I suppose into the application and management of innovative e-learning.
After some silly hours over the weekend, which I wish I'd done a week ago, I 'crashed' by watching two E4 films back to back, falling asleep and catching up or falling behind by flicking between the movie and the movie+1.
They both featured Spitfires, the first Alec Guiness and a Maltese girl - he died; the second Kenneth Moore and hearty British girl - he didn't die but he did lose his legs being a show-off in an Avro.
Ian Kershaw's new book looks a good read; I've got through his biography on Hitler visiting my inlaws (he fought in the Warsaw Uprising), politics and the WWII are big topics.
And I have this blog to sort out, migrating its contents over to www.mymindbursts.com
iPhone
Sunday 25 September 2011 at 20:08
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I got an iPHone three weeks ago.
Today my son (13 years 3 months) loaded the Carling APP, and a fish pond.
He then showed me how to turn it off. So one of these and one of those
I do now follow various foriums with the RSS feed to my email, picking them off as the happen, responding from time to time, rather than letting them stack up.
For the second time today I did a Google search only to come back to this student blog, whilst in one respect chuffed, it doesn't help me correct the considerable volumes of nonsense that exist here.
This possibly explains the 1,000+ page views a day.
A geography field trip
Sunday 25 September 2011 at 16:41
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday 17 June 2012 at 09:19
The last time I went on a Geography Field trip was January 1982. This was a School of Geography trip to Majorca. We stayed on the south of the island and took a coach every day to the beautiful, scenic, and for the purposes of this trip, featured covered mountains (limestone), rather like North Yorkshire but not so wet ... with trips to the coast where cliffs showed the geology (rather like Hope Gap here in East Sussex).
If you experience of running a field trip of any kind is rather more recent than mine you might care to comment. I added in some practical matters such as risk assessment.
I can see that at this size it isn't legible.
Click on it and you go to the Picasa Web page where it is held and it can be viewed any size you like, or downloaded.
Bing or Google ?
Sunday 25 September 2011 at 11:03
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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday 25 September 2011 at 11:25
Keen to get the initials of e-learning authors/academics I put 'Hawkridge, Morgan and Jeffs', into the search engine Bing and was directed to a not very helpful student blog ... this one
Whereas Google offered the correct journal, and paper authored by these three and corrected Jeffs to Jelfs. One click and I had the paper downloaded (for the umpteenth time) as a PDF.
I don't bookmark or save documents anymore, I just Google it. Now, is this because Google is intuatively following my choices? I hotdesk between computers though, I'm on my wife's laptop now, was on my son's desk top earlier on ... while during the week I'm on my own laptop or iPad.
I guess it depends on how I am signed in. Who knows. I should (but don't).
H800 EMA NO PANIC!
Sunday 25 September 2011 at 09:34
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This 6,000 word assignment is in its final draft.
My current estimation is that it will take another 16 hours to complete; it is due 12 noon on Monday.
Why so long?
The content and narrative is in place, and running at 8,000 words it should be just a case of judicious editing and referencing. The challenge is how to create the required, or my desired, weave of references, quotations and illustrations while not 'losing the plot' or making something straight-forward confusing.
Whilst two years to get to publication for an academic seems extreme, I do nontheless now appreciate how and why these things can take so long. However, I question why the marking system and the objective appears to be to turn us students into the writers of academic papers, when for most of us the desire, certainly in the Masters in Open and Distance Education is far more practical, indeed the Sussex University e-learning diploma is assessed through the completion of a series of workable e-learning modules or activities that can lead to students applying this content directly in their workplace or joining any of the many e-learning and web business along the Sussex Coast.
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