Lex Ferenda

This is a short (or not-so-short) essay on the subject of how I try and connect my blog life and my PhD life. It’s in response to a question from my supervisor, Eoin O’Dell (who was in turn responding to Jack Balkin and others). As this blog is now a year old (although with some periods of inactivity within that year), it seems useful to reflect a little on how things are going.

Click to read on, but be warned that this is over a thousand words of ‘reflection’… Read the rest of this entry »

What could bring these three strange places together in one post?

1. Bernie Goldbach (blog) has taken the first (public) steps towards what will be ‘Educamp Ireland‘ in Thurles (County Tipperary), based on the BarCamp concept (don’t forget the Dublin event). To sweeten the deal, he offers free curry chips for anyone wearing a Tipperary (GAA) strip; I find myself wondering whether my similarly-coloured Wicklow jersey will do the trick? The purpose of the event (provisionally scheduled for 7th June) is to bring together a wide range of people who are interested in IT and (primary and post-primary) education. Read more at the wiki and sign up to attend, volunteer or present.
2. Abstracts for the Bileta Annual Conference 2007 have been made available. The BILETA conference is an unusual event, mixing talks on technology law (i.e. Internet regulation), legal technology (i.e. case databases) and even e-learning in legal education (including podcasting and legal teaching (PDF)).  I’m also quite intrigued by this abstract by Patrick Quirk on themes of cyberlaw courses (including the ‘PacMan Problem’ where other courses ‘eat up’ cyberlaw themes).  Unfortunately I can’t attend Bileta this year - maybe next year (although it’s on the expensive side, even if I’d been able to get across to Hatfield (University of Hertfordshire)).
3. Open University professor of educational technology and decent blogger Martin Weller marks his 100th blog post, with some observations on how he has engaged with the format.  For what it’s worth, his presentation on ‘Web 2.0 and Higher Education‘ is excellent.  (Noted by John).  Prof. Weller lives in Cardiff.
   

Lex Ferenda is a year young today! I started this blog not long after I started my research degree. Both blog and PhD are coming along well; they share the fact that work seems to come in bursts rather than in a continuous flow. Later today, I’ll take up my supervisor’s challenge and throw together some thoughts on ‘why I blog’ (in the context of being a research student). (Update: I did this over here). But for now, have a piece of cake and make yourself at home.

(Image is of Galileo facing the inquisition; his birthday is a more important reason to mark this date!)