#TwitteratiChallenge

A week ago @smitajamdar nominated me for this. Whilst flattered and somewhat bemused by the whole thing I was left in a bit of a quandary. I’ve always avoided joining in with this kind of thing which feels to me to have something of the chain letter about it. On the other hand having been nominated by someone eminently sensible and whom i would not wish to offend by being all grumpy about it I felt I should, on balance, probably show some enthusiasm.

So, the other nominees were @MikeHopkinsFE @157lynne @mikehamlyn @Meetasengupta and am assuming they will be doing their stuff too. Like Smita I struggled with picking just five of my favourite educators, so others can decide whether to follow them and they in turn give all of us interesting new people to follow.

 

Also, I think things have moved on with this to the extent that the definition of “educators” has been significantly distorted to include just about anyone I think is rather splendid in the wonderful education twittersphere. And I think I’m a day late with this too.

1. You cannot knowingly include someone you work with in real life.
2. You cannot list somebody that has already been named if you are already made aware of them being listed on #TwitteratiChallenge
3. You will need to copy and paste the title of this blog post and (the Rules and What To Do) information into your own blog post.

What To Do?

So, here are my five. I know they are supposed to follow the rules now but will understand if they would rather not.

Mike is both a student and administrator and is an expert on HE history and Oxford’s universiities. Having developed a speciality in quality assurance of higher education programmes, he broadened this into management of academic administration across the broad range of activities that universities do that are unique to universities. He’s currently researching the history of curriculum structures in English universities; concentrating on the Twentieth Century and looking at how universities attempted to innovate.

Emma is a full-time university manager/administrator in the UK but has a quite distinctive and fascinating blog based on her research into Central Asian higher education and social change. She’s also published on UK higher education and in has had a book published with Palgrave Macmillan. Co-authored with Michelle Gander and Heather Moyes, Managing your career in higher education administration is reviewed here.

Chris Husbands is an educationist, academic, university leader and public servant. He is one of the UK’s leading educationists, currently Professor of Education Policy, Director of the Institute of Education, University College, London and UCL Vice Provost (Academic Development and London).  He has held senior leadership positions in three UK universities, two of which involved being a colleague of mine, and held visiting appointments internationally. His research on education policy, teaching and curriculum has attracted over £5million in external funding and has been disseminated through almost 400 publications including 12 books and 50 papers as well as journalism and presentations around the world. He’s a thoroughly outstanding person.

Steve Woodfield is currently employed as Associate Professor in higher education policy and management at Kingston University. This is a specialist research role in which he undertakes policy-related research and consultancy projects funded by internal and external sponsors. He has lots of experience in the design, management and application of policy-related, educational, business and consumer-focused research and consultancy projects. Steve has also acted as an external consultant in his areas of expertise, both to other universities and to organisations such as the British Council and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

John Dexter blogs at http://mrjdexter.com Most importantly he is a Chemistry teacher and the head teacher at the school attended by one of my daughters and therefore ticks all the boxes I reckon. And it’s Mr Dexter to you.

Finally, here’s a picture of me with a drink.

OK, job done. Do follow all of these great people. I’m off for an Irn Bru.