This is, very much, a picture chosen because it is a person I know looking very much themselves, and in exactly the right context, too. All he needs is the bike in the background, and it really wasn’t far away.
Professor Carl Bereiter, Emeritus of the University of Toronto, is someone I’ve been lucky enough to, if not exactly work with (at 94 years of age, Carl doesn’t exactly turn up to the office very much any more) but certainly meet, talk with, hear from. He is genuinely one of the pioneers of the academic field of computer-supported collaborative learning, in which I have occasionally been known to dabble. And please, don’t ask which one of the people in this picture is him.
So that’s another one ticked off the list of ‘Bands I Have Liked for Thirty-Plus Years But Never Before Seen Live’. Then again, Jane’s Addiction did their first ‘farewell tour’ in 1991, have still only ever managed to scrape together four studio albums, and the original four members have only just decided they are still prepared to talk to each other and go on the road again before one or more of them dies. Which in singer Perry Farrell’s case, has always seemed likely to happen imminently. Therefore, I never really had the chance to break the duck before tonight. But I’m not complaining — they were worth the wait.
May ends with a burst of sunshine and this shot offers the chance to inspect the range of slightly-toasted pink and vaguely brown skin tones that the average English visage offers up at this time of year. My Friday evenings may seem to often be spent at the pub, and specifically this pub (the Railway), I admit — but in fact this is the first one for eight weeks.
The island of St Helena was discovered in May — at least according to tradition, May 21st 1502. Hence its name, as that’s the feast day of St Helena. So this may have prompted May 2024 being declared ‘St Helena Culture Month’, and here’s probably the world’s most senior St Helenian academic, Professor Dan Yon, doing his bit for it with a public lecture in the museum in Jamestown tonight. Not that he teaches here — Toronto is his usual base.
Well, I am here to do some work, at least. In fact it’s been a busy week, and one I was relieved to get to the end of: maybe Friday afternoon isn’t the best time to ask others to do some work on my behalf, but we got through it. Colleague (and former student) Gareth sits in the background and makes his third appearance on the blog.
Since I left Windhoek there have been only landscapes and fauna depicted on here — so on my last full day in Namibia let’s pay some credit to the fine people who have welcomed me in this country. My three guides have been particularly notable: Johannes in the Namib Desert; Veondjavi in Damaraland; and for the last three days, Samuel here in Ongava. The latter is seen here waiting with me for my plane to arrive: this is, in effect, the departure lounge of the Ongava airstrip.
“Hello… hello? Can you hear me…..?” [pause] “I think you’re on mute….” Did the Starship Enterprise’s communications network have a ‘mute’ button do you think? Colleague Louis does his best.
If they don’t necessarily look happy I can assure you that they were, as these fans of Morecambe FC have just seen their team come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Crewe Alexandra: and at 2-0, no one in the whole ground saw that result coming, believe me. As the set of humanity that counts itself as Morecambe fans includes the wife (and I have to say, increasingly, myself), this was a good turnout of events.
I’m not saying this has never happened before — see the note — but today I can say that along with about twenty-five other people, I took a class with someone who is genuinely the world-leading authority in their specific field. Like, the ultimate teacher. I said to a colleague the other day that I was coming to this session on epistemic network analysis (it’s a way of depicting the patterns of conversation in groups, the way they talk about things) with some ’eminent American guy’ and she said, immediately, ‘Oh, you mean David Shaffer?’. Even Clare — who, while being a highly intelligent woman, does not move in the same strictly academic circles as I do — had heard of him. And Prof Shaffer turned out to be a friendly, agreeable chap, the two hours of my time very well spent.
Note: I think there are three other appearances of truly globally reputable teachers on here: Etienne Wenger, Michelle Brown and Jürgen Habermas.
Being 42 