What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • RIP Jim Cotter

    In the middle of the busy days of Holy Week comes the news that Jim Cotter has died.

    Jim was a poet-priest – someone for whom words were as important as breathing. He wrote prayers in which unicorns danced.

    He was also I think the first out gay priest I ever met, coming to preach in St Andrews about 25 years ago. I met him too in his house in Sheffield. I know also that he spoke here in St Mary’s many years ago and must have been part of the story that has led us to be the congregation that we are.

    Jim was talking about gay clergy being out and living in the open years before anyone else did. Indeed, some of the things I talk about which people still think are rather radical, Jim was talking about a generation or more before. He was a visionary and a prophet and suffered a lot in life because of it.

    Many, many people will have copies of his night prayers sitting beside the bed. I used them last night and thought about how many people have so much to be grateful for because of Jim Cotter.

    God be in my gut and in my feeling
    God be in my bowels and in my forgiving
    God be in my loins and in my swiving
    God be in my lungs and in my breathing
    God be in my heart and in my loving

    God be in my skin and in my touching
    God be in my flesh and in my yearning
    God be in my blood and in my living
    God be in my bones and in my dying
    God be at my end and at my reviving

    May he rest in peace now at last.

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3 responses to “Listen up! Moocs are the future”

  1. Jaye Richards-Hill Avatar
    Jaye Richards-Hill

    Great stuff – peer assisted learning and peer assesvent to boot. The feedback you get from peers is incredibly motivational as well as informative and powerful in stimulating further learning. Have a look at Sugata Mitra’s work on Self Organised Learning Environments for further evidence of the power of a heutagogical approach to learning. I call it Knowledge Grazing! And it’s lifelong, isn’t it…

    The certificates and the open ‘badges’ for learning like this are great on a cv or profile. They demonstrate a self-motivated desire to learn for lesrning’s sake. We need to use thus approach more in schools to re-engage kids with learning and turn ‘schooling’ into real meaningful education.

    Well done you…and the thousands like you 🙂

    Reply
  2. Kelvin Avatar
    Kelvin

    One of the things that interested me was how much of a learning experience it was assessing the work of others. I’d thought it would be a bind but in fact it was incredibly interesting seeing what other people had made of it.

    There was an option to assess extra students than the three one needed for credit. An interesting concept – that marking is fun, interesting, educational and not for teacher.

    Reply
  3. PamB Avatar
    PamB

    As a graduate of the Open University I have to say that a lot of this sounds very familiar in essence, if on a much greater scale. However, I would nitpick (it’s my job) that moocs are PART of the future. Not such a snappy title, though.

    Reply

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