After an extra pre-term meeting we've now sorted the HE Reading Group topics for the first trimester of the year. Invites on their way to the BSU (and guest) group members. Looking forward to good discussions at our informal meetings. Mixture of output by colleague, reports, book chapters, papers.

*adding 'low risk of crocodiles' to the risk assessment section of my next conference attendance request at work.

In Our Time doing the video of people talking podcast thing, via iplayer? The granddaddy of chart topping podcasts. I don’t listen like that, though now, academics, you have a chance to turn up in costume. You know you want to! www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

In Our Time

In Our Time explores the ideas, people and discoveries that have shaped our world.

bbc.co.uk

The sheep have turned up for the freshers’ poster fair.

Welcome Week for new undergraduates and despite the negative news and commentary, thousands of excited young people about to study things they have a passion for, meet new friends and enjoy the next few years. Give it one week before they figure using the letters to spell out PASTA again.

Good quick read on podcast assessments. Done well, supports new skills, enables different expression. Done poorly, they reproduce issues from before whilst provide a mirage of learning. As per academic writing, there are skills involved to be developed, time to be spent thinking and editing.

Staff and Educational Development Association@seda-ed-dev.bsky.social · last wk.

In this week's blog post: thesedablog.wordpress.com/2026/09/15/s...

Ooh, nice, now a Tree trail walk at our campus too. I've been working through the Urban Tree Trails in the city - great to explore areas with a new lens. www.bathspa.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

I don't recall reading much with major second person writing, and now read two in a row by chance: The Raven Tower (Ann Leckie) - added fun (2nd p) narrative on reliability front due to the rules of the game for the gods. The Everlasting (Alix E Harrow) - back/forth each time loop/twist

Welcome to the first half of our new cohort of the PGCHE on campus today. Our usual broad mix of disciplines to learn about and from even with our small group today, from acting to teaching, from music to creative computing.

Whilst this tip is for panels, it's also a common tip I give for teaching seminars. Many of us have been in a class with 5 groups doing the same activity, then all asked to feed back in turn. Same stuff. First group go, then get bored, etc. Give different foci, or ask only for alt/different points

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 3w ago

These are all great tips. I'd add two more.... 1) Do not let the entire panel answer the same Q (from you or audience) unless they are disagreeing. No one wants to hear the same answer four times phrased slightly differently.

Sometimes they have recaps in the extra/trailer section and I keep wondering why more don't - good way to encourage watching by reminding you what you enjoyed before and want to continue vs 'can't quite recall, will look later'. Now I've said that, I have to record recaps for my yr 1 module...

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 3w ago

just saw a story about the second season of Three-Body Problem coming soon and I mean surely we can come up with a better TV system than "hey remember that thing you watched eight episodes of two and a half years ago? no? you don't? you can't remember the plot or characters at all? well we're back!"

Had a great chat with the group attending today. Good to see people from PGCHE cohort as well, and lots of creative assessment links as the proposer (linked to their MA work in HE) and most of group in our new merged School of Creative and Cultural Arts. Authenticity, holistic vs analytical etc etc

Giles Martin@gilesdrmartin.bsky.social · last mo.

Early September pre-term HE Reading group session at Bath Spa coming up on 1st Sept, whilst I'm planning the sessions for the main autumn term (still open to suggestions for the year). This one on "Indeterminacy in using criteria" and a discussion around rubrics.

Bluesky/social media on good days gives you lots of lovely randomness. TIL from one thread that a) England had only 15% forest cover in 1086 b) that muntjac deer here are all invasive and from a group that escaped in 1925 That's the wiki dive sorted for lunchtime...

Jack Tindale@jacktindale.bsky.social · 3w ago

One of the more interesting graphs I've seen, something that seems really counter-intuitive until you think about it. England only having about 15 percent forest coverage at the time of the Doomsday book (about half of what France and Germany have today) is wild, isn't it?

A little rain and the green shoots are up quickly nearly turning the meadows over Bath green from a very yellow scorched look a week ago. First time pleased for a rainy August bank holiday.

Trying really hard not to see this as a visual metaphor for academia...

NBC News@nbcnews.com · last mo.

A Chinese humanoid robot outran Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint world record on the opening day of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, posting a time of 9.39 seconds — 0.19 faster than Bolt’s pace in 2009.

We've found the next Chancellor's gown for graduation

Greg Jenner (Historian)@gregjenner.bsky.social · last mo.

By the way, this is how wealthy aristocrat Henry Cyril Paget enjoyed dressing

TIL it's a moquette (only lived there for over 25 years...). Delightful nerd love for something seen but rarely questioned. Also gits my general argument that a way to enhance civic space and society is random themes of stuff, adding meaning to the everyday if you choose to look.

Qagggy!@qagggy.bsky.social · last mo.

UK transit nerds are next level.

Suggestions for everyone 'older' considering cost of living for new students or graduates. Using an inflation calc, work out these in today's money: 1. Your rent aged 18/21 ish 2. Your starting salary when you began your career (every CEO please do this) www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-pol...

Inflation calculator

Check how prices in the UK have changed since 1209

bankofengland.co.uk

Additional question: Are we current still in the "I hope your summer is going well" stage or now in the "I hope you had a good summer" stage? Though latter always sees a bit like subtle criticism that you did not in fact do all the writing you told yourself you'd do...

New-Cleckit Dominie@ncdominie.bsky.social · last mo.

People who pay attention to such things: is starting an email without the ritual "I hope you are well" now considered actively rude, or is this just a habit acquired by the bots that write most of my incoming mail?

A favourite travel “cheat” of mine: using National Trust places for stops instead of services stations. Plenty v close to major roads and junctions. (This one is Knightshayes Court’s cafe, conveniently nr A361 route to north Devon beaches)

One of interesting things moving into a uni with significant professional practice and creative practice areas, supporting staff coming in from other careers (not trad academic route) or still in them, is seeing the parallels with research in many ways (including nexus here) but no uni time for it.

Marta Zboralska@marta-zboralska.bsky.social · last mo.

I remember being asked about “research-led teaching” in an interview for a full-time teaching-only job, and I really had to stop myself from saying “but you won’t be paying me to do any research!”

This is one of the major dangers often ignored when treating universities like a (bad) business* and treating staff transactionally. The system relies on staff not treating it transactionally. Just a restructure takes 2 yrs to work through. (*yes I’ve seen plenty work over hrs in businesses too)

David K Butler@davidkbutler.bsky.social · last mo.

Universities only work because a lot of people do a lot more work than they are paid to do. In times of special distress (eg a merger), we are suddenly expected to do even more work than that and people check out or burn out.

Early September pre-term HE Reading group session at Bath Spa coming up on 1st Sept, whilst I'm planning the sessions for the main autumn term (still open to suggestions for the year). This one on "Indeterminacy in using criteria" and a discussion around rubrics.

We're going to have to go through the whole 'digital natives' thing again with 'AI natives' now aren't we... sigh...

It’s all fun and games until the same system marks the boss as a sociopath… 😬

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last mo.

“In the past few years Microsoft has filed a patent to record body language and expressions in meetings, while Amazon has filed one to track emotions via voice and Nvidia to infer emotions from audio data.”

I don't suppose anyone has a useful map on regional number/density of universities (and places)? Also proportion in the same region for home/uni? Not sure this gap will be helped by hollowing out opportunities and HE deserts in various subjects...

Social Market Foundation@smfthinktank.bsky.social · last mo.

The chances of going to university still depend far too much on where you grew up. Our analysis of UCAS #ResultsDay data shows 43% of 18-year-olds in London have been accepted into university, compared with just 25% in the North East

This might be interesting to consider this alongside the idea of a hyperstition from the 90s, fictions that make themselves real. In some ways, coming from different angles, both are looking at things in a context of mass-overwhelming-information and people's attempt to make sense of such a world.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · last mo.

The answer is complicated and nuanced, but Leek's foundational point is that in a data-driven society, "predictions" are self-fulfilling prophecies. 13/

Some may be shift in apps/web, but BSky also has an issue with two different usage approaches - I'll call them town square and cafe. The former is the politics linked use, one big megaphone place, debate etc. The latter a venue for a lot of quite separate conversations with friends/contacts.

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · last mo.

oooof these are not good numbers

Grateful for several colleagues giving up time (and expertise) to chat on record for a new set of podcasts for use internally. Now to work out if I can edit in a heatwave...! Purpose: resource as part of learning (alongside live stuff) to hear the thinking of experts, critical ways of thinking.

As my random wiki reading finally paid off at pub quiz at last conference on this topic, I’ve decided all should know about the Great Emu War: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War (Look, I like learning new things, and part of that is learning very random things)

Emu War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org