Author: Sian Bayne

It’s a new semester start for our PhD students as well as everyone on the MSc. A special welcome this year to three ex-MSc’s who are joining us for their doctoral study – Dennis Dollens, Jeremy Knox (funded by the ESRC) and Phil Sheail (funded by the Principal’s Career Development Scholarships).

Anyone currently studying for the Masters who is thinking of planning ahead for PhD, please drop me a line at sian.bayne@ed.ac.uk.

And Dennis, Jeremy and Phil – may the quest for wisdom be a fruitful one : )

Semester starts formally on September 19th this year – just a few weeks to go. New students will find things kicking off in ‘Digital environments’ the week before, on the 12th September, but all other courses start on the 19th.

If you don’t see your requested course in MyEd or MyWebCT by the week of the 12th September, please get in touch with your course leader to sort things out. Everyone has got a place on their first choice of course for this coming semester.

Any general admin queries, please run them past Gemma (gemma.ramsay@ed.ac.uk) – any other concerns about semester start, please get in touch with me as director of studies (sian.bayne@ed.ac.uk).

Looking forward to seeing everyone again in a few weeks.

A couple of new book recommendations to enjoy while watching the rain fall…

Selwyn, N. (2010) Education and technology: key issues and debates. London: Continuum

Ellis, R. A. and P. Goodyear (2010). Students’ experiences of e-learning in higher education : the ecology of sustainable innovation. New York: Routledge

These are particularly good introductory texts for new students joining us in September. Both are also, I believe, available for Kindle.

Congratulations again to everyone who graduated from the programme earlier this week.

Fiona has put some pictures from the virtual graduation up on Flickr – it included fireworks displays, chat, and virtual cocktails as well as rounds of applause from students graduating in ‘real life’ and group enjoyment of the ‘real life’ graduation ceremony stream. Many thanks to Fiona for orchestrating the virtual event, and congratulations to our virtual graduates Wray Bourne, Esso6thHeaven, Viktorius Flux, Elia Holmer and Nigel Madeye.

Hamish, Rory and I were at the ‘real life’ graduation and it was terrific to see Michael Sean Gallagher, Gerard Remkes, Riah Jones, Angelos Konstantinidis and James McLuckie getting doffed on the head with John Knox’s trousers and to meet everyone in the pub afterwards – many thanks to James Lamb and Sharon Boyd for organising that.

Overall, a very proud day, online and off!

You can now sign up online for your course choices for next semester. To do this, just follow the Course Application Form link on the left in the Hub, or access the enrollment form here. We are no longer doing course enrolment by post!

You can see which courses are available in your Programme Handbook, or here on our web site.

If you want more info about any of the courses, take a look at the descriptors on the web site, check out the Course Handbooks available from the Hub, or contact the course leader.

Please enrol for your choice of course(s) by Friday 12 August – earlier if you want to be absolutely sure of your choice, as some courses will have limited numbers.