Burning Bright

THE (Times Higher Education) Digital Universities Europe 2023 conference took place in Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, on 23-25 October 2023. The programme included a wide range of pedagogical, digital support, e-learning support and pedagogical leadership perspectives. The conference had a pleasant balance between keynotes, presentations, and panel discussions, with good breaks and time for networking, booth visits and discussions. Above all, the experience of place and time on campus and the programme’s arts and culture immersion felt invigoratingly holistic, taking into account the embodied nature of the human being. There was also room for multiple voices and views to be expressed. The humanistic and human-centred perspectives and the atmosphere conducive to critical and creative thinking was noticeable, as if flowing through the spaces, lights and sounds of Gaudí’s nature-inspired architecture into our digital reflections. Leading pioneers in the field of digital ...

Image: Pixabay, Kenneth Schulze It's almost two years since I started this blog. It's been a while since my last posting. Recently, I was in a car crash. A moose ran onto the road and hit my car, the poor thing. Or rather, I crashed into it as it was crossing the road. The poor creature hit my door, the driver's door, rolled over the roof and continued on its way. At 80 kms per hour, there's really nothing you can do if they are right there. Well, I managed to hit the brakes maybe for some parts of a second before the crash. I'm still here! Still alive. Not all survive to tell their story. I wish to go back to my first posting, The Tyger, by William Blake. The Tyger/ William Blake (1757 - 1827) Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand and eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies, Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, and what ...

At the Isle of Iona, Scotland (2018). Image by Susanna Kohonen. Let’s recognise “(…) the legitimacy of a pedagogy that dares to subvert the mind/body split and allow us to be whole in the classroom, and as a consequence wholehearted.”  –bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom , p. 193. I experienced a crisis a few years ago, having to transform and re-design all my teaching from on-campus to online, due to faculty requirements. From then on, I have grappled with a paradox I thought I could never solve: How to combine embodied, experiential learning and digital pedagogy. I still consider it a paradox. But like the mystics, I believe in contemplation: You can hold on to and inwardly consider from a peaceful, non-confrontational stance, that is, contemplate, the seemingly opposite elements of the paradox, even though they may seem totally incompatible. Something, some sort of answers, will start to emerge. During Digital Pedagogy Lab (DPL) 2021 , in m...

  Sometimes one image is worth a thousand words. I sometimes feel exactly like this. That's when I know it is time to switch off the laptop and get out into the woods or into the backyard, listen to the wisdom of the birds, or the hum of wind in the pine trees. Thank you for sharing the video and for the permission to use it, Lecturer Marjaana Tuovinen from Savonia University of Applied Sciences, and her cat, Birra!

Image by Susanna Kohonen "The body sometimes knows better than the brain", declares a headline in the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat . Research on the hidden interaction between body and brain is on the increase, HS reports.   Body memory or body-based memory, visceral consciousness, subjectivity and self-awareness in the form of sensory awareness - these would have been called nonsense and laughed at just a little while ago.  Humanity, compassion, empathy - are these concepts that are still not fashionable enough to use? "Too soft"? Let's keep in mind that a while ago, also the concepts of  emotional intelligence ,  highly sensitive persons , as well as   visceral sensory neuroscience , and even  sustainable development , were considered humbug. In the same way, some still laugh at and consider it humbug to include Drama Education and the subject of Drama in the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education . Drama is not just drama, as we drama p...

I went skiing today for the first time this winter.  It's been a while!  I don't think I did any cross-country skiing last winter... Image: Susanna Kohonen My body remembered it, though. All of it. Including the pain in the soles of my feet after not having used the skis for a long time. Every time the same thing, no matter how well you warm up and stretch before skiing. Our bodies are wise. They remember everything, apparently.  I wonder if my body remembers what it feels like to be in the same meeting room with colleagues or in the same classroom with students, once we get there! What it feels like not to have to restrict myself only to what can be done through the screen and online. What it feels like to have lunch together in the cafeteria and to chit-chat with fellow teachers over a cup of tea of coffee, while complaining about the rush hour, long queues, and crowded lobby. I have to say I am so looking forward to that time.  I am getting rather worn out of remo...

  Wait, I can't hear you! Turn your microphone on. Try again.  Image: Courtesy of Päivi Tauru. Her Finnish Spitz, Kaja, taking part in a Teams meeting. Phew, I don't think I have ever been happier about Christmas break than this year! I got my human to come out and play with me in the snow, too. Many times! Yeay! Oh yeah, I'm also looking forward to the New Year snow games. Except for the fireworks that some humans seem to need so much. My New Year's wish is that you all could also take me into consideration when planning your online meetings and online lessons for the next semester. You see, for one, I can't see all colours very well.  I could smell everything VERY well indeed, but for some reason the screen sharing doesn't include scent sharing. Now why is that? Didn't anyone consider us dogs when planning this system?  Well, usually I fall asleep under the desk and just snore at your meetings, anyhow. And then, you know, sometimes it is SOOO hard to just ...

This year the Finnish University Seminar will be organised as a two-hour webinar. The focus is on well-being at work: Do we still have energy to develop our work, despite the COVID19 hassle? For me, energy to develop my teaching means a fizzy, bubbly, empowering feeling. In other words: Do I still have that bubbly feeling about my work?   Image by  Prawny  from  Pixabay   Since coronavirus-March I've been trying to make something else bubble, too. I've been trying to make a sourdough starter bubble as a gluten free version. Oh my, what a learning process that has been, and still continues to be so. I opted for a gluten free diet a few years ago, for health reasons. I have found the best gluten-free advice and the best gluten-free recipes online, in the English language sphere of the internet.   Sourdough starters caught my attention last year. At first, I went for any sourdough starter blog and recipes. I thought I could easily just rehash them mys...

We teachers have been told for quite a long time that we should digitalise more of our teaching and transfer most or all of it online. It’s easy – just use this or that software, these digital platforms, a heaped measure of virtual learning environments, a pinch of apps, a dash of doctrines. Sprinkle with a helping of livestreams, top with video recordings from cloud servers, oh except wait a minute, you mustn’t forget subtitles or else remove the videos quickly. “I can’t open the file,” “The video doesn’t work,” “Why can’t I hear a thing,” “Unable to access the site.” Error, error. Tyger! Tyger! burning bright... A dash of doctrines? They have indeed been flooding through doors and windows with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. Best practices, good models, check these five ways to improve your online teaching, read these ninety-five online theses hammered onto the door of the cathedral of virtualities, hey does your student plagiarise or cheat in online exams, here’s an algorithm for...

Photo by Susanna Kohonen.  St.Columba's Bay, Iona , Great Britain. A labyrinth for meditative walking.    How fitting that the launch of my blog happened to coincide with the  World Mental Health Day ! Several years ago I understood and accepted the fact that my work as a teacher would never be what it used to be. It took me a long time to reconsider whether I wanted to continue working as a teacher. As I chose to do so, I then had to re-calibrate my perception on what it means to be a teacher. Namely, about 80% of my courses had to be re-designed and transformed into online courses.  For me, it was a rocky road. As someone who firmly believes and promotes learning-in-interaction, learning-by-doing, as well as experiential learning, which I thought could properly take place only when people actually (physically) meet each other and work together. To me, it seemed impossible to achieve these aims in virtual and digital learning environments.  So my...