Blog version:

Climate stuff later in the week – the cupboard is shamefully bare this evening!

1. Short notice of this one, sorry: Donald H Taylor is leading a session for eLearning Africa at 13:30 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 30th March, on Challenge and change – the African view of L&D in 2022. More info and registration here https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Rel2LfKMQu-62QVqeVii8A

“Last year, L&D globally was dominated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. What has changed this year, as we emerge from its impact? The answer: everything has changed, and nothing has. Technology, expectations and much more has altered over the past two years, but organisational focus is still very much on delivering training, rather than helping people learn …”

2. If you missed Andy Hockley’s very well-received webinar for NATESOL last Saturday, From Teacher to Manager, you’ll find the recording here https://youtu.be/dh1s1vuGAWs

In his talk, Andy looked at some of the reasons why you might want to take on a management role, some of the skills that you will need, how you might acquire them, and some routes that you might take. He also looked at some of the challenges that you might expect to face in moving into management.

But please don’t all leave the classroom at once!

3. Universities are still the future of higher education says Tom Worthington in his blog post reviewing a report by Ernst & Young that suggests otherwise, Are universities of the past still the future?’ https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2022/03/universities-are-still-future-of-higher.html EY report here https://www.ey.com/en_gl/education/are-universities-of-the-past-still-the-future and PDF below, so you can make up your own mind about the future value of universities.

4. My colleague Adam recognised last night’s poem for Ukraine, Refugees, instantly as one by Brian Bilston, ‘the poet laureate of Twitter’. Here’s another of Mr Bilston’s poems, on a much less serious topic

No, You Cannot Borrow My Phone Charger

Help yourself to whatever

you’d like from my larder;

my stilton, my sherry –

or my port, if you’d rather –

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

If you want I will read you

an ancient Norse saga,

or dance naked in public

to Radio Gaga,

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

Make me learn the speeches

of President Carter,

force-feed me quinoa

until I grow larger,

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

You can beg all you want

but I’m not going to barter

because, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

PDF below and here’s the piece about Mr Bilston in The Irish Times that Adam sent me where I found that poem https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/brian-bilston-the-poet-laureate-of-twitter-1.2600316

5. And, finally, here’s today’s poem for Ukraine, August 1968 by W H Auden, written in response to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. (PDF below, too.)

August 1968

The Ogre does what ogres can,

Deeds quite impossible for Man,

But one prize is beyond his reach,

The Ogre cannot master Speech:

About a subjugated plain,

Among its desperate and slain,

The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,

While drivel gushes from his lips.

W H Auden