New Beginnings…again!

This will be the third incarnation of The Accidental Technologist blog which started life on the now-defunct EduSpaces.org social networking site (now called Higher Ed Space). This blog was created as part of my MSc in e-Learning studies with the University of Edinburgh. First off, the blog was designed to help the student to become more critical and reflective practitioners, and secondly, for some of the e-Learning modules, the blog posts would form the basis of a major (i.e. “high stakes”) piece of assessment.

Around 2008, EduSpaces.org had announced that they were going to close down the service. This prompted the University of Edinburgh to quickly find a replacement for this service. The Edinburgh team downloaded, installed and “reskinned” their blogging/social networking tool which used Elgg (like EduSpaces.org), a leading open source social networking engine which can be used to power social networks and/or e-portfolio tools, as its core platform. All of the MSc students’ blog posts and files had to be exported from the old EduSpaces site and imported into the new Holyrood Park site, which led towards the second incarnation of this blog.

I was also keeping a personal blog called Behind the Green Door which was hosted by TypePad – this has now been discontinued. The blog posts between September 2007 to February 2010 have been writted as part of my MSc in e-Learning obligations. I have now completed the MSc in e-Learning and wanted to ensure that the “intellectual capital” from these blog posts were “preserved” as a form of memento mori, hence creating this WordPress blog under my website, thus offering it a third lease of life.

From today, the posts on this blog will launch my continuing adventures in learning and teaching and how technology can be used to empower or encumber the learning process. This blog will represent a “space” where I can offer my musings, reflections and opinions on all things learning, teaching, assessment and research that is mediated through technology. I will also take the opportunity to report back from conferences, symposiums and other scholarly activities.

Today is the start of a new beginning for The Accidental Technologist…again!