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It's after 9:00PM on the last Thursday of the month of a very long week and it's snowing. Sometimes it snows in London, but it rarely sticks around. Who knows, perhaps this time we'll get some drifts.
This post began earlier this week. In the morning, when the plan for the week had been drawn up and the forecast was a bit chilly. Originally, this was to be about an app from a vendor or maybe about UK tuition fees or even about a university's foray into chatbot technology. Then, on Wednesday, a cold bug blew in and the household ground to a halt. Schedules were modified, hopefully our university student babysitter used the added time for more studying (*revising for my UK readers). Definitely better to be away from all of us than to be another victim of the bug.
Whenever I start blogging for Inside Higher Ed, I always take a look through a virtual stack of potential topics, PR pitches, saved tweets, scraps of paper with random notes, and eventually a post will form from the initial chaos that is my usual routine.
However, when you have a toddler at home, routine is anything but fixed. It's like being in a snowstorm where every single snowflake is unique. It's beautiful and slightly chaotic.
My sincerest apologies to anyone who was looking forward to reading about AI, chatbots, app-based food insecurity info, student experience initiatives, or my as yet to be written rant on widening participation within UK universities and the problem of the Royal Family. My instincts are to hold off on that last one until I'm certain that it won't get me deported.
So, yes, this is actually turning into more of an old-school blog post. More of a daily web log format that the portmanteau promised. I literally just shrugged my shoulders. It's late if you're a parent. There's never enough time for quality rest. The to-do list is never-ending and I love it. Sometimes a couple of extra hours of sleep would sure be nice (every parent reading this is nodding their heads in agreement!).
Next week, this blog will be back on its regular digital journey...sharing resources, telling stories, causing the slightest ever trouble for the status quo, and hopefully benefitting you, the *awesome readers of IHE.
Before I end this snow-inspired, cold-bug-driven post, I must include a kudos-laden paragraph for a good friend. Congratulations to Dave Webster for his new role as Director of the new Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Trust me, Dave is going to do great things at SOAS that benefit his new campus community as well as the UK higher education sector at large. His blend of critical thinking plus digital pedagogy is stellar.
The clock is ticking and the baby monitor is crackling with static. A quick check of the little guy and it's definitely time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading, sharing, and engaging.
*I know you know that revising in the UK equals studying in the US. However, when I first moved to the UK, I still had my American English hat on and thought that UK students must be doing an awful lot of paper editing. Thankfully, I am much more adept at code-switching after 5 years 'abroad.'
**Nothing gives you away faster as a non-Brit in the UK than the liberal use of 'awesome' that is as American as apple pie. Not everything is awesome, but it sure does feel good to say that it is.
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