Reflections

I went to That London today - go me! It was to attend an OLASS Roadshow; we were showing the attendees the progress the university is making on project to allow offenders to access our online resources. This will be limited to the course website rather than the collaborative elements and they will not be allowed to break out of that space and access anything else on the web. This has the potential to be an enormous leap forward and offers an opportunity for students in prison to access non-print teaching materials; video clips, sound files, etc in a coherent manner rather than getting them on digital media or, worse still, simply getting transcripts. We can also provide interactive tools to assess and develop understanding.

The attendees, about 50, were drawn from prisons across the country and I was pleasantly surprised at how many I knew.

We then went and had a coffee and went our separate ways. As I wandered back to Victoria I reflected on the wisdom of the catholic church in building Westminster Cathedral close to the station.

Grabbed the train home and sat reading. A young couple got on and sat in the seats in front - they were enjoying a Tennants Extra and their loud conversation revealed that this wasn't the first drink of the day - I'm not being judgemental; I felt slightly envious! As the train left Victoria they both bundled into the toilet and didn't leave it until the train was drawing into Maidstone an hour later. As we got off their loud conversation continued and he pointed out to her that he was 30 minutes late for his court appearance.........