Mark

Tabitha, our cat.

It’s a sad day today. Today we said goodbye to our gorgeous 18 year old cat, Tabitha. In truth, she’s been struggling for some time and we had to make the difficult decision. We’ll miss the cuddles and companionship, heck, I’ll even miss the whining, begging for food, bites and scratches. 😿

It’s the start of the exam period today, so best of luck to all the students! As we continue the rollout digital #exams, we’ve scaled things up significantly. We’re also testing a small number of fully remote exams with online proctoring and students using their own devices. #BYOD

Proud dad moment. Comes off the bench in his first game and scores a hattrick putting the team 3-0 up.

‘The boy’ has his first U8 #football match today, albeit a friendly. This could be my new Saturday routine for the next 10 years. ⚽️⚽️⚽️ #Coffee flask required. ☕️

While I’ve been jaded by tooth pain, I’ve had the time to play with minimal websites and practices. Lately I’ve been playing with Micro.blog and bearblog.dev, but settled on gohugo.io to give me more freedom as I move away from WordPress, so I’ve opted for speed, security and web minimalism.

I must’ve been on the naughty list this year as #Santa brought me an infected wisdom tooth, a lovely surprise on Christmas morning. I’m making my way through the #antibiotics, and starting to feel human again, but the pain still persists. There isn’t anything much worse than #dental pain, right?

Turns out, they had a few.

YouTube video by TheBeatlesVEVO The Beatles - The Beatles - Hello, Goodbye (Remastered 2015)

Merry Christmas 2025 🎄 Something I didn’t know until last week (due to a Xmas quiz) was that The Beatles had a Christmas No.1 with Hello, Goodbye. A perfect excuse to link to a Beatles video and enjoy a bit of festive nostalgia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblY...

‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent

This article on the overuse of AI for creating teaching materials aligns with my views, especially in regards to AI voices. Retaining authenticity and a human touch is important for learners, especially if the bulk of the content delivery is online.

I love it when ‘I’m a celeb’ comes on the tele… my family kick me out of the living room and I get way more sleep. 😴

A step-by-step guide to developing a high-impact online course Want to design an online course that your students engage with, that supports diverse learning styles and is seamless to navigate for both educator and student? Here’s how to structure the process

Just read A step-by-step guide to developing a high-impact online course on THE Campus. It captures exactly what we’re aiming for at my institution. My experience? Academic buy-in at all levels is absolutely key if the process is to succeed.

#EdTech #HigherEd #OnlineLearning

I pushed out the Board activity in #moodle this week to my institution providing a sustainable Padlet-like tool to promote student #collaboration in online learning environments. Early users are enjoying it and will use it instead of the Forum activity in some instances.

Sold off some of my Fuji camera gear (but not all of it). Taking a gamble on the new iPhone Pro which is pre-ordered as early reviews are positive and as they say, the best camera you have… is the one you have with you (or something like that).

Oasis gig at Cardiff

Nearly 2 weeks ago and still buzzing. #oasis #rocknrollstar

X’s dominance ‘over’ as Bluesky becomes new hub for research Data indicates more scholars turning to alternative social media site to post about their work after Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

Bluesky has overtaken its flailing rival X in hosting posts related to new academic research, indicating the platform is fast becoming the go-to place for scholars to share their work

#AcademicSky #EduSky