Alex Fenton

Home computer gaming from the 1980’s onwards

Magnavox 3000

Magnavox 3000

I have to doff my cap to my Dad, who, in an inspired move, bought us a TV console around about 1980. Memory and the Internet fail us as to exactly what it was, but it played about 8 games, most of which were essentially Pong. I think it was the Magnavox Odyssey 3000. We might have still had it at our house had our rabbit Toyah not chewed through the wires in the hope that they contained lettuce I suppose. Either way, this was one of the world’s first home computer games systems and it paved the way for a future entwined with computer games. (more…)

By Alex Fenton, ago

Open access showcasing platform and the UKPSF

I have spent most of my career as a web programmer and digital developer. My teaching responsibilities have increased over the years and these things can cross over and weave together to support students. Creative Hive is a web platform that I developed to support students to create a blog and website to showcase their work. This project I believe ties in varying degrees with the UKPSF Areas of activity A1, A2, A3 and A4,K2 and K4, V2 & V4. These alignments came largely from help and support from staff and students to shape and inspire the project.

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By Alex Fenton, ago

Flexible, distance and blended learning for CPD short courses

SSMM course

Opportunties for change – support for flexible and distance learning Photo by A.Hickey

Flexible and innovative learning models and also CPD are actively supported by Salford University as outlined in the teaching and learning strategy (The University of Salford, 2013, p.13). On a wider level, QAA (2010, p.63) also supports the quality facilitation of collaborative learning in HE. (more…)

By Alex Fenton, ago

Open educational practises, open resources and MOOC’s

MOOC screenshot - Search and Social Media Marketing for International Business

MOOC screenshot – Search and Social Media Marketing for International Business

Open educational practises (OEP) generally include the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and are usually free to access,  open licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, assessment and research. The exact definition varies, but  the concept of opening out education is increasingly popular with the UK government investing £15m on open resource projects since 2009 (Jisc, 2013). One of these projects is Jorum, a resource based at Manchester University allowing people to freely share learning and teaching resources. An example at Salford is USIR our open paper repository, I use this to share my papers with the world and look for other useful papers. (more…)

By Alex Fenton, ago