Just the kind of thing...

4.8 Public Comment on University Policy and Administration
4.8.1 'Public comment' in this context includes public speaking engagements, comments on radio and television, letters to newspapers, and expressing views in books, journals or notices. All media requests for information and enquiries that relate to the University must be referred to the University's Press Office.

This section doesn't mention what might be called Web 2.0 channels (which surprises me) but what does the last sentence mean? If The Guardian (or whoever ) seeks my opinion on working at NTU or a policy of NTU do I have to check with the Press Office? Surely not but it is not clear and HR are suggesting this is all part of our legal contract of employment.

Happy New Year! Very Peculiar Practice...

Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

The New Year is here and the new term beckons. I remember when 2008 was a date in science fiction novels... Santa was kind to me but something I'm really looking forward to is reading a couple of novels I treated myself to via Amazon just before Christmas.

A Very Peculiar Practice and A Very Peculiar Practice: The New Frontier, both by Andrew Davies. I'd lent the DVD of the first TV series (on the BBC many years ago) to a colleague and when he returned it at the end of last term it prompted me to search for the novels once again. They've been out of print for some time but Amazon gave me links to second hand copies via some kind of affiliated sellers. So everyone won.

The series should be compulsory viewing for anyone working in Higher Education.

Phil

NTU New VLE

On a more positive note (after the last posting) I would add that today I went to a meeting of the NTU eLearning Consultative Group. Essentially this is the group who are tasked with selecting a new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the Nottingham Trent University.

Now I’ll resist putting in any details since some things are sensitive and so confidential (+ Doh! Someone might read this blog!) but what I can say is that this is just one of several groups that I am involved in that goes to show what a great bunch of people are working at NTU.

There are some really resilient, creative and witty people to be found at NTU.

Of course a mixture of empirical observations and rumours suggest this is not the case everywhere within the university – just like any big organisation – with there being an uneven distribution of these talented, likeable, and dedicated types…

Make up the remainder of the posting yourself!

One Percent = 1%

Oooh we've just had a 1% pay rise.

What shall I spend it on?

Champagne? Computer? Car?

Okay maybe a cup of coffee... after all the caffeine will make me more produtive.

Sunday Bloody Sunday?

Whilst it is rather pleasant in my conservatory at the moment it would be even nicer if I wasn’t about to embark on another pile of marking. I've got lots of other work related things to do, such as a backlog of audio and video clips to sort out, multimedia work for two subject centres, submissions for summer conferences, just so many Web 2.0 services to play with, and some really interesting background reading for my specialist areas.

But that will all have to wait because of the marking. I know it is really important, and is the bread and butter work, of a non-research active academic but I thought I'd have a quick gripe before settling down to get on with it… because some days, especially Sundays, you just don’t feel like it.

Gripe… gripe… gripe…