The name’s Links…EduLinks.

You know what? I made a mistake.

Cat

With all these posts on the subject of ‘Time’, I decided to look at how I use my blogging time to help you, my readers, best.

One big deal arose. So I’m putting my hands up to the mistake, ready to bring things back to order.

Long-term readers of TheUniversityBlog will remember that I used to post regular EduLinks to the site. Then I posted EduLinks less regularly. Then I stopped entirely, in favour of a separate TumbleLog site. Putting choice links and quotes there, I felt, would be a good thing.

Well it wasn’t. It hasn’t really worked on any level, so I believe that everyone benefits if I put EduLinks back where they belong…right here! My apologies for messing you about.

I have learned a good thing from using the TumbleLog. As well as occasional bumper posts of links here, I intend to post up single link posts and quotes of note. It should be the best way to provide the right amount of goodness here on TheUniversityBlog, and bring everything together in a (hopefully) satisfying mix of woo!

If you’re a recent follower to the site, I hope your experience is about to get that little bit better. If you’ve been following the highs and lows on here for a while now, I hope you’ll be happy to welcome back an old friend in the EduLinks. Thank you for your support!

Students as consumers…but even more so!

I’m going to have a brief rant here. If that’s not your thing, feel free to bypass this post!

Peter Mandelson says that students should be more demanding and take a more consumer approach to their education.

If students weren’t already forced to act as consumers, Mandelson’s suggestions highlight just how much students are expected to deal with the issues surrounding their education themselves.

photo by m.a.r.c.

It sounds to me as if the onus is falling ever more on the individual. If something isn’t working, it’s the internal system, not the wider policy…

I can’t help seeing ‘students as consumers’ as a way of brushing many wide-ranging issues of higher education under the carpet. I’m concerned the empowerment issue is an attempt to justify the case for fees and, quite possibly, higher ones. Then variable fees, perhaps? Then what?

Mandelson believes institutions should compete more in order to improve courses, but what motivation do universities have at the moment in order to take this seriously? Money is tight already, so until the future of funding is given the time of day it needs, universities are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Nobody is able to shine as things currently stand.

Universities are strangely public and private. They have various sources of funding, which only confuses the matter. There are no answers, no guaranteed solutions, and no way of telling what’s around the corner. Yes, all businesses suffer from a lack of guaranteed solutions, but universities often have it a lot worse, and may also suffer with a poor level of autonomy. Many businesses know why they’re trying to make money and provide the best quality, even if they don’t know where they’re headed or if they’ll succeed with their ventures.

Higher Education rarely even has that luxury. Is it about teaching, learning, vocational training, researching, money-making, something else, all these things…? And with such a varied mix of personalities, opinions and cultures on campus, how can a collective strategy or focus be achieved through anything other than luck?

Let’s get this funding review underway soon. We all understand that HE has to be paid for somehow, so what’s the point in stalling? For one thing, we need to find a way of seeing students as learners and developers, far more importantly than as consumers. The review won’t be properly concluded until that happens.

Okay, rant over. I’ll resume normal service now! 🙂

Make Time For Time: 4. Technology and Time

I don’t care if your new phone is meant to save you time. I don’t care if some brilliant software claims to cut down on your admin. I don’t care if the latest wonder-tool of the Web World takes seconds to do what used to take hours.

With new technological advances, we seem to gain time in order to lose it somewhere else.

photo by miss_rouge

A lot of the problem lies in the way we perceive these tools. Mobile phones can now do almost anything. But we end up doing new things on the phone, rather than use it on the things you already know. The same goes for services like Facebook. It’s easier and quicker than ever to stay in touch with people you know, sending them messages and keeping abreast of what everyone is up to. But we end up spending hours on the site, chatting with people we’re practically sat next to, or playing one of the many games and time-wasting activities on Facebook Apps.

Technology does not free up time. It can help, but it doesn’t go further than that. The only thing that can truly free up your time is yourself.

Use the wonders of new technology to streamline your projects. Don’t be tempted by the other million services that’ll snatch your time back again. It’s difficult not to get sucked in at first, but the more you look out for time wasters, the more the process should become second nature to you.

Move away from technology while you make solid plans. Cal Newport suggests the following balance:

High-tech and highly-structured solutions are best for capture
Low-tech and loosely-structured solutions are best for planning

Cal mentions, “A blank sheet of notebook paper…can outperform even the fanciest scheduling system, so long as the work to be scheduled is held somewhere safe.”

Keep track of what’s important and what’s just a laugh. We’re all meant to have fun, but we’re not meant to have fun at the expense of everything else (including other fun!). It’s easy to get hooked on stuff and, far from having fun, you’re spending all your time on something because you can’t drag yourself away from it.

Don’t do new things just because everyone else seems to be doing them. Peer pressure doesn’t just come through new technologies. You may just be caught up watching TV shows like X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing because everyone else is apparently watching and enjoying. If that’s the only thing you’re enjoying, fine. But our lives quickly get plagued by a range of ‘can’t miss’ and ‘can’t stop’ events. Before long, there’s no more time to spare and something’s gotta give.

Limit the number of passive activities you choose to enjoy. With the Internet, cheap gadgets, easy connectivity and an always-on attitude, I hope it’s obvious why too many passive activities equal danger.

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The take home points are these: Streamline; focus on the plan rather than the technology; be cautious and aware; don’t get bogged down by everything that comes your way.

Time is precious. Don’t let gadgets grind it down to nothing!