First Morning at ALT-C

While this blog is supposed to be focused on the learning I'm doing at ALT-C, I do think I need to add to the comment yesterday about the accommodation. I slept really well, even with the window open the surrounding area is really quiet, the challenges came when it was time for morning ablutions. The sink is a tiny corner sink with no space for a razor or shaving gel, an above sink glass panel is placed at full stretch height, so moving from gel to razor was challenging though possible. The shower was clearly designed for very thin undergraduates. It was about two inches wider than me, so trying to turn around to get the shower gel or shampoo was a challenge, indeed it was easier to get out of the shower turn around and get back in - yes I know what you are thinking, time for me to lose weight!!

Breakfast opened at 7 and it was again nice to meet up with people and meet new people. Marion Miller, one of the theme speakers, was sitting opposite me. Nice to meet her for the first time. Seb, who I had only met online , also came over for a chat. He was discussing whether it would be better to send the abstracts out in advance, some on the table thought yes, I thought electronic copy would be more useful. Given how easy it is to search in an adobe file. Seb mentioned that the online interactive programme has a good search facility. I'd not even noticed there was a site search, but playing with it this morning shows it is actually quite effective. Though to my mind you do need the overall timetable to search it most effectively

I'm helping with the online questions using Elluminate this morning, so I'm going into the main auditorium early to see the set up and check out what I need to do, our initial training for this was online last week, but I'd still like to see it in practice - see blending face to face with online provides a mix of learning experiences, so I'm practising what I preach in our Blended Learning project at Glamorgan.