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David Hopkins

David HopkinsMy name is David Hopkins. I work in the Business School, as a Learning Technologist, at Bournemouth University.

All views expressed on this blog, and in the posts, are personal are are not representative of my employer; the Business School or Bournemouth University.

Who am I?
I live and work in Bournemouth, UK. I graduated in 1996 from Kingston University with an honours degree in Geology and, after a short time in the UK oil & gas industry retrained myself as a web designer and Internet consultant. Over the next 8 years I worked in a variety of Internet agencies and as a self-employed freelance design and consultant. I gained experience with creating and managing online communities and managing customer expectations in an online environment, which brings my up to date and to Bournemouth University as a Learning Technologist, whom I joined in April 2007.

In 2011 I completed a PG Cert course at Bournemouth University in Education Practice and have begun the formal process of accreditation to the Association of Learning Technology (CMALT). I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Association of Learning Technology.

David Hopkins, BSc(Hons), PG Cert, FHEA

About this blog
I started this blog to order and publish my thoughts, and to engage with educators, facilitators, technicians, designers, etc who are interested in the same kind of things, namely eLearning, mLearning, Blackbaord / VLE / CMS, simulation-based learning, technology in the classroom, Web 2.0, Augmented Reality, QR Codes, etc.

I enjoy working in this evolving environment of development in theories, pedagogy, and approaches to ‘learning’. With all the hype about everything and anything online and with everything with an ‘e’ in front of it (eLearning, ePortfolio, eMail, eUniversity, etc) there’s plenty to keep me engaged and working hard. I am always trying to find out something I do not know, and to understand it, and bring it into my work so others can benefit from a new technique, a new piece of technology, or just a different style of doing the same thing … just something to bring some variety into the ‘normal’.

What is a Learning Technologist?
I believe the role of a Learning  Technologist is evolving, and I am enjoying the exploration of ‘what’ we are and ‘how’ we work. I have written a few posts on my thoughts on the role and it’s evolution – please feel free to leave a comment, even if you disagree with me, it is this engagement and discourse that is encouraging the discussion on our role and the kind of route we can/should be taking as a professional discipline in education:

Why “Don’t Waste Your Time”?
When I was setting the blog up I wanted a domain and not just something like david.wordpress.com. I was doing some searches, based around my name, and was coming up blank. I thought I ought to stop wasting my time and get on with some work … hey presto, a name. www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk.

David Hopkins / AvatarAvatar / Photo
I use the avatar at the top of the page for most of my online activity, it’s just a form of anonymity but it’s also a graphic I quite like. It may not (or deos it?) look anything like me but it’s served me proud on a variety of websites where I am easily recognised by it. I am also keen to say I am not hiding behind it (here is a real picture of me), but it has become my ‘calling-card’, so to speak.

Comments
Like all bloggers, I welcome comments! Comments are an important part of my learning process and this means I’m able to share more information with others. To leave a comment just click on the “comment” link after the post. The link may say something like “3 comments”, “Comments (0)” or even “No Comments”. Click on it anyway!

I do moderate the comments on my blog. This is only to stop the huge amount of spam that seem automated and quite filthy! I believe in openness so even if you disagree with me I’ll more than likely approve your comment; just keep it clean. OK?

Oh, and no adverts or pretending to like something when it turns out you’re actually employed by them. I want this blog and it’s comments to be honest, open, and fair and without prejudice.

WordPress
This blog / website is running the most up-to-date stable version of WordPress.

Twitter
I started using twitter early in 2009, and have realised that, without proper self-control and management, it can control and take over your life. I use my Twitter account ‘hopkinsdavid‘ for work and eLearning, I don’t use Twitter for personal and/or garbage.

Personal Learning Network / PLN
I am enjoying the freedom that my PLN offers me; I am not constrained to just my blog, or to Twitter or Facebook, but I can bring all sorts of different and varied systems in to my everyday blogging and eLearning life (professionally or personally). Here is the PLN I created in December 2009;

Subscribe
I hope that’s given a glimpse of who I am and what I do. The best way to keep in touch with the information from this site is to subscribe to the posts, either through Twitter, RSS feed, or email subscription (see form section in right-hand navigation)

Contact
Please contact me if you are in interested in joining Don’t Waste Your Time; either from a blogging perspective, eLearning/mLearning direction, or would like to know how I run this blog. Contact me on ‘david @ dontwasteyourtime .co .uk‘.

By David Hopkins 4:56 pm