A fringe benefit of writing this blog is that I regularly get asked to do reviews of L&T work for others.
It might sound odd to put it like that, since I guess you also have a pile of journal article review requests and the like, and you probably don’t think it’s the best part of your job.
But L&T reviewing work tends to be somewhat different.
Most obviously, it’s more varied. This week, I’ve been reviewing an article, but also sitting as an external expert on a programme validation panel and inputting to a promotion application for someone on a teaching track.
But it’s also that there’s much more scope for me to learn from all this.
In all three cases, I’ve got something useful for my own practice. Clearly, I’m not going to talk about the article or the promotion here, since that would be inappropriate, but I can tell you about the programme validation.
This is a distance learning programme, building out from some existing practice, but also making systematic use of an approach that I didn’t really know about before, namely e-tivities.
In essence, this is a methodology for creating structured and engaging online activities : as with so much L&T it’s not particularly complex, but it is clearly-presented and digestible.
And that’s why I like doing this kind of thing: I get to discover more ways of making learning work, that I can pull pretty directly into my classes.
Whether those who ask for my comments feel the same way is more debatable, but maybe we’ll get those involved here to write it all up some time in the new year.
So next time you’re asked to do something like this, do consider it, because it might be as good for you as it is helpful for them.
And on that note, I’m off on annual leave until 2021, which doubtless contains its own unique pile of Things To Deal With. Have a great break, as and when you get to it.