if you give me your attention ...
... I will tell you what I am.
WS Gilbert, from Princess Ida
If I might be allowed a moment of self-indulgence there are some things about me that I think it will help if someone reading this knows.
First, this is not the first portfolio that I have been asked to put together. I was part of a Commons before, during which I produced a portfolio, relating to the teaching of introductory programming. I found that very useful, which is why I was keen to do it again, in a different subject area.
This existing experience meant that I was at times naturally tempted and inclined to re-use some of the material from the earlier work. A reader will probably be able to detect where this has happened; it is possibly also interesting to make comparisons between equivalent sections.
In the parallel section of that portfolio to the present one I wrote that I was not a "typical academic" and presented a potted history of how I got into teaching in Higher Education.
This time, I must record that by the time anyone reads this I will not be an academic, typical or otherwise, any more. Cuts in HE, along with something by the splendidly euphemistic title of an "economies exercise", mean that HE and I will be parting company in July 2010. It's been quite an interesting 22 years or so, but all good things must come to an end.
This has had effects on this portfolio. Reading through what I have written it's a lot more reflective than other portfolios I've seen. It's as if, without realising it, I've ended up trying to "round off" and justify what I've been doing for the past years. It gets close to the valedictory in tone sometimes. I'll make no apologies for that, and I'm not going to change it.
Another effect is that I think some sections are a little more candid than they might otherwise have been. Colleagues who have compiled portfolios before have often noted that they can be very guarded. I've now got much less reason than others to be so guarded, and perhaps reason to be precisely the opposite. I've thought long and hard about whether to leave some of the more candid observations in. I have left them, for the moment at least.
The end result looks to me like a portfolio that is rather more personal than some you will find out there.
There, I thought you should know all that. Now, read on ...
university of leeds | school of computing | disciplinary commons | tony jenkins
