Long time no see - saw you in Limerick, Ireland!

It has been many months since I posted my last reflection on this blog - time flies away as it is said! This week was a break from my normal routine life. I went to the University of Limerick, Ireland to present a paper at the EATAW (European Association for Teaching of Academic Writing) conference. I had never been to Ireland and nor to the EATAW conference. So it was an opportunity to explore both.

I was really impressed by the way the conference was organised despite so many parallel sessions going on. The key message was to do with 'enhancing teaching academic writing through student experience' which was reflected in the sessions too as several sessions were led by students themselves - pretty impressive. I wished I had some of the students from our own modules at the OU - pretty inspiring though not many things to take away!

Another highlight of the conference for me was meeting an ex-classmate from Lancaster after 8 years. The most surprising bit was that she worked at the OU for more than a year about two years ago and I did not know this! Life is full of surprises, huh? Likewise, I met with a writing centre director from Louisville Uni (Mary Rosner) who knew my ex-classmate from Nepal - Shyam.

What about the presentation? The topic was on collaborative learning in academic writing in open and distance learning. Well, I was slightly nervous about it as my colleague, Dave, could not make it as a co-presenter which was not new to me though as I had done a solo for a dual one before (last year). I was glad that I could finish it in time and left plenty of time for questions and discussions which invited lots of good response; Jim (colleague and boss!) too was impressed - so far so good!

There was also a social event organised last night - an Irish dance - Ceili dance. It was fascinating to see the young boys and girls dance without moving their hands/ arms but only legs and body! Here is a little snippet!

EATAW social event - Ceili dance

It was not all fun though! The first night when we were trying to find some food after 6.30pm on campus, we ended up eating roast potatoes and fries! Then I wondered how Deepak Dhungana, one of my ex-students, spent nearly two years or more there alone! Or maybe it's different when you stay there rather than just visit!

Well, I also met several other people including David Russell, one of the US New Rhetorics theorists, who were interested in my work. So I think we should make use of conferences such as this one to extend our networks although there may be little or no time for this as was the case with me. No regrets! All's well that ends well!

Bed rest, lucky huh?

Yesterday, I decided to buy a few sacks of compost to revamp my garden. So with Monica (my wife) and Sankalpa (younger son), I went to a garden centre in Bletchley. We had done the same a few months ago but it seems that the flowers did not have enough nutrients and so some of them looked withered. A solution was to give them more manure and that's how I made the journey.

As we returned, I was passing the compost sacks from the boot of the car to Sandesh (elder son) who then took them to the garden. When it was the third one, I had to wait for a few seconds more for Sandesh. Then, I had a bout of acute pain on my right hip and I nearly collapsed but he arrived to take the sack. I limped into the house and started having all sorts of crazy thoughts in my little brain: call the ambulance, stay in hospital, miss the conference in London in which I was presenting a paper, delays in marking the student assignments, etc. I was in the bedroom, lying on the floor in pain - at times wriggling! Monica and the boys followed, not knowing what happened to me. I explained what happened. Then, the sweet home was now a gloom place for everyone - I could not believe how much I mean to my family! Almost everyone was tearful but I assured that there was nothing seriously wrong. Yet, the pain was unbearable if I wanted to stand up and walk on my own. I had to rely on Monica and Sandesh, them serving me as crutches! It was the weirdest experience I have ever had. Well, you always go through something new everyday, I suppose. Just you may not realise this newness!

I waited for about one hour but I thought it would be better to get checked by a doctor just in case, you know, anything can happen! So Monica and Sandesh took me to A & E in MK General Hospital at 1.35pm. There were many people waiting for their turns in the waiting area. Once my details were recorded, we were told that we had to wait for at least one hour! Well, there was no other choice except waiting patiently. The pain was constant and got worse when I had to sit on the bench/ chair. Anyway, there was no point in complaining. At 3.15pm I was seen by a nurse and carried out the initial assessment. Then after about 25 minutes, a doc saw me. He was a tall guy of Indian origin. He seemed quite helpful and assured me that there was nothing serious but he told me that I have had to take a bed rest for a few days and take pain relief and anti-inflamatory tablets for five days.

Since yesterday I have been taking co-codomol and sodium declofenac. I am not dong anything except checking emails occasionally and responding messages on the Facebook. I had a good sleep and a very good appetite too. I hope to be back to normal life by the end of this week. But I feel so bad that I am not able to go to the WDHE conference in London - something I so much looked forward to! Such is life!

As I wanted to inform a couple of work colleagues at the OU, I received some interesting messages too - all very positive, including the one saying make the most of your bed rest as you never know when the next one will be!

Facebook - a language learning tool?

FaceBook has become a very powerful social networking tool recently. For some people, it is the way to re-connect with their past (e.g., long lost friends) and for some it is the way to connect with the whole world. And, indeed, for some people it works as a medium of broadcasting what they think every moment, quite similar to Twitter. In some countries, it works as tool for political pressure and can have serious implications as well (e.g., a recent ban of facebook in Bangladesh). If you are a FaceBook user, you know what I am talking about anyway.

Over the last 15 months I have been thinking about how I could use FaceBook for learning a language, namely, Bangla. This idea came to my mind when I was making classroom videos for the English in Action project in Bangladesh back in February 2009 when I met several Bangladeshi English teachers in different parts of the country. I was initially struck by the fact that as soon as any Bangladeshis met me, they would start talking in Bangla assuming that I am one of them - it was natural for them to think in such a way as I do look like one of them. But what struck me was not their assumption. It was the idea that if I could learn more Bangla, I could easily become one of them and communication may become easier.

While making the films, some of the teachers asked me if I was on facebook and my immediate response was 'yes' - I don't know why I got so excited! They wanted to add me as their friends and I accepted them. Then I thought about learning some Bangla from them so that I could continue to learn the language from distance too as I was there only for a couple of weeks. So, I requested two of them and they were happy to help me. However, the excitement did not last long because after a few exchanges of the messages in Bangla and English our communication lost its momentum. But I do still feel that it is possible to learn a language through facebook. To continue this learning, I have kind of started again with some enthusiastic friends from the Institute of Education and Research, the University of Dhaka. Let's see how far I can go this time...

Just posted my feedback on LB160 assignment 1

In an effort to make use of mobile technology, I have been podcasting for LB160 students in the OU. Here is the latest one:

Sympathy or empathy?

Over the last few months, I have been brooding over these two words - sympathy and empathy. The online dictionary has given several definitions of these words and so do many others. I also had a look at wordia.com which shows videos of people describing what these words (sympathy and empathy) mean to them. Unfortunately, sympathy does not yet have a video. This may probably mean that people can easily express sympathy to others but may find it difficult to empathise with others.

These words are very commonly used in our everyday life too. For example, we show our sympathy to our family members, friends and even strangers. This may make the recipient of sympathy feel better although I have no access to any research evidence that I can present here in order to support my view. On the other hand, it is often very difficult to find people who can empathise with others in the real sense. I keep on trying to put myself in a teenager's shoe to see if I can find out more about my son's feeling as he is in his early teenage. It doesn't seem impossible abut certainly very challenging. This actually reminds me of people who always look for sympathy towards them and never stop to think about whether the sympathiser can actually show his/ her sympathy to this person without impacting on themselves or others around them.

Not only our everyday life, I have found the concept of SYMPATHY very powerful in a professional setting too. A case in point is teachers' professional development when they find it difficult to empathise with their learners. As teachers, can we put ourselves into a learner's shoe? Would it help us with our teaching? And this reminds me of an article that I recently edited for the IATEFL ESP SIG, which talks about emotionally intelligent teachers - teachers with an ability to understand the emotional feelings of their students and respond to them accordingly. Perhaps, this idea can be applied to the teacher professional development project in Bangladesh, English in Action. Well I am still thinking... and you may be interested in reading more about empathy here.

Appropriation of English?

You may enjoy watching this clip: learning English in South Asian ways!

After the long summer break...

Today was my first day back to work... you can imagine what happens when you return to work after more than a month: a nightmare! Well, it was not a nightmare as such but there were many things that needed my attention urgently. For example, I had to set up various meetings with my line manager, English in Action team members and send emails to students and colleagues who had ben waiting for my response for ages. Anyway, the day went smoothly without causing any major havoc, to my satisfaction.

My morning was spent on thinking through and discussing the implementation of the EiA interventions in its pilot phase: what model of support for teachers to follow, how to maintain sustainability and how to ensure institutionalisation will not be a problem later. I discussed these issues with Claire H this morning as I am not going to attend the forum discussion tomorrow when I will be in the EAp online course meeting.

Right now I also need to finalise the articles for the Journal of Professional and Academic English to be published in autumn this year. The deadline for sending the edited articles to the publisher is approaching which means more pressure - so for a while I will be snowed under which does not surprise me. I must say that I am enjoying this editing business!

Well, prior to these serious business tasks, I had some fun with my family and friends. For instance, I was in north Norfolk for a coastal visit. And I also went to some local places in Milton Keyens recently. See some pics below.