The demise of Coal Mining in the UK

For generations, the stalwart miners of the UK literally "kept the home-fires burning" and kept the wheels of industry turning through wars and recessions.

However, we cannot, today, rely on a steady supply of UK coal to fuel our insatiable appetite for digital communication, online shopping, online everything during the COVID19 pandemic - why not?

ARTHUR SCARGILL DOING AN IMPRESSION OF KING CANUTE.

Was it all the fault of "Milk snatcher Thatcher?"  I hear you ask.

NO

It was a combination of many factors in the 1980s (in no particular order of importance):

1. The growing power of the Mining Unions that threatened the more flexibile labour market hopes of the Conservative Government.
2. The far-sighted (at that time) thinking that we needed to use a cleaner source of energy in the future.
3. The demand from households for gas, electric and oil fired heating, rather than for inconvenient and dirty coal.
4. Health and Safety concerns that would make traditional coal mining uneconomic.
5. The huge supplies of coal available from other parts of the world.

The list could go on.

Now, how many of my three readers think that I'm really talking about online learning in Higher Education?

Answers addressed to your own VC please.

Preparing students for SAFE Online Learning

I have written about this subject before in The Farmers Breakfast and I'm Engaged but when's the Wedding? but not, as I recall, in respect of ONLINE learning.

The COVID-19 inspired rush to go online for many Universities risks forgetting some of the basics as online TEACHING is delivered, rather than online LEARNING.

Picture courtesy of bruno cervera azsk at unsplash

In a traditional classroom or lecture hall students feel relatively safe.  They know from many years at primary and secondary school that they can be:

• Confident that they know what is going to happen,
• Familiar with the environment and the peer group,
• Sure that they will not be picked out in front of their peers and have their lack of preparation exposed,
• Assured that whatever content is delivered, it can be revised before the exam .

NONE OF THIS FAMILIARITY AND REASSURANCE CAN BE ASSUMED ONLINE

So, online learning needs students to be SAFE - yes, another mnemonic is brewing.  Students need to feel:

• Secure - in the environment and the technology,
• Acknowledged - where peers and the session facilitator (teacher) note their presence,
• Forewarned -  clear about what the session will deliver and what is expected of them,
• Engaged - by the subject matter, the interaction, the response opportunities - basically by anything that keeps them focused.

Future blogs will expand on the practicalities of this necessary part of planning for online learning.