IDEL – roll on, I think?

3 weeks and counting to the start of my first course in Digital Education! It’s a double credit course so should keep me out of trouble for the autumn semester. Then all I have to do is get through one more semester for a postgrad cert, another two after that for a postgrad diploma. As for the MSc, well who knows at this stage???

I have to keep reminding myself what IDEL stands for (‘Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning’, sounds impressive, doesn’t it?) and now I’m starting to wonder what I’m going to be learning about. Well, the programme web page refers to exciting phrases such as ‘stimulating, confidence-building collaborative activities’, ‘the chance to engage hands-on with digital learning environments’, ‘cover many of the theoretical, political and pedagogical issues which define digital education as a vibrant field of study’ and that’s just the first paragraph (well, there are only two paragraphs in the course summary!)

A recent email from one of the programme co-directors suggested the ‘mix of excitement and trepidation’ at this stage to be quite a ‘common phenomenon’ – phew that’s okay then, it’s not just me!

So, while I’m really looking forward to getting started, I’ve realised that my biggest fear is relearning how to write, seriously. After a break of a few years, this year I’m supervising a number of students completing MSc research papers in areas of interest to me. I hope I’m giving them good feedback and advice on their writing – but this is the problem – it’s their writing, not mine. While I’ve been reading tons over the summer (journal articles, books, blogs, not to mention MOOCs) I haven’t written anything, in fact I haven’t written anything since I submitted my masters thesis in 2003 – that’s 14 years ago – press the panic button!

Still, this morning I received a notification for a blog that I follow with a new post entitled ‘Why you should blog during your PhD’. While the title drew me into the post it was the reasons given that lifted my finger off the panic button, in particular ‘You get to practice your writing’. So, perhaps this blogging that started as a head start to IDEL might trigger a renewed love of writing – go figure or should that be go practice!