My name is Clare Atkins and in one form or another all my adult life has been about teaching. Currently, I am a Senior Lecturer in Information Technology at a small regional polytechnic on the South Island of New Zealand but my first teaching position in 1972 was as the entire Religious Education department of a secondary modern (11-15 yrs old) school in East Sussex, England!
Over the years I have taught all ages from 11 yr olds to senior citizens and I have taught a bewildering (well to me anyway!) range of subjects which includes : religious education, history, geography, French, English, English as a foreign language, social studies, library studies, knitting, spinning, dyeing, knitting pattern construction, knitwear design, the history and culture of South Asia, systems analysis and design, database technology, SQL, systems development methodologies, conceptual data modelling, database design, research methods for information systems, academic writing and reviewing, and object role modeling.
I have taught formally at a number of levels including CSE’s and O Levels (the precursors to GCSE), A Levels, undergraduate, Honours and Masters degrees and now finally a PhD too. I have also taught interest courses to adult education groups, run workshops for academic staff and informally mentored both teachers and students in virtual world education in Second Life. Arwenna Stardust is my alter ego in Second Life and she blogs here too!
So, all in all, I have had some experience of teaching in a variety of situations and a variety of subjects, to a variety of students from a variety of cultures, in two different countries and now in two different worlds – this real one and the second one! But just in case you are thinking that I haven’t really experienced the real world (!!), I need to add that I have also worked as a computer programmer, a database administrator, a data manager, run my own business in partnership with my sister, had three major relationships, two children, one grandson and a major spinal operation – so I do know something of life outside the classroom too.
As a result, I also have lots of thoughts on education, learning, teaching, training, students, teachers, techniques, technologies, education tools and so – well when I say thoughts, I guess its more like opinions! However, there is nothing I like better than a good discussion and so I like to float opinions (even when they are really nothing more than thoughts) just to get some feedback – and thats what this blog is all about!
