The first I knew of Ultralab was on a freezing cold January night on
Stephen Heppell's yacht, which was moored in St Katherine's Dock for
the 2002 BETT show. I had left New Zealand the year before and had
become a harrassed and disillusioned London secondary school teacher.
Everyone on the yacht was saying strange things about learning, like
that it ought to be delightful and fun. I had had no idea there
were such people in England!
I joined the Ultralab team in July 2002 to summarise the online
conversations in the Talking Heads project. This was when I developed
an enthusiasm for research, mainly through working alongside
Ian Terrell, who took the time to mentor me.
I now work on the Ultraversity project. My primary role is that of
a Learning Facilitator, and it is through this role that we are trying to break down barriers of
tutor and student, to encourage community learning and peer support. We are continually developing this degree as we teach it which is challenging and exciting.
I
also co-ordinate the research outputs for the Ultraversity team, with
Sarah. We have a
blog where you can download our papers and discuss our research.
I work with
Lesley to co-ordinate
Ultralab Learning, a postgraduate community of enquiry. I am currently working with the University to develop a postgraduate cross-faculty pathway, with our graduating Ultraversity people in mind.
One of my favourite projects at the moment is the Collier project, which works with several European partners to bring together international school leaders to work on action research projects.
Anthony and I recently travelled to Turkey which was an incredible experience - not just because of the excitement of seeing such a beautiful and welcoming country, but because of the delight of meeting international colleagues and sharing our stories and ideas about action research. We learned much and taught much and were very impressed by Turkey's universities. Ultralab's part in the project has so far mainly been to define and design the action research postgraduate module, and develop the online spaces for the project, including the online community and the website.
My research interest is primarily on how students experience online learning: what are the particular challenges and issues they face and how do the successful ones overcome these? This is the focus of my MA dissertation.
I also enjoy working with colleagues in other institutions, which gives the opportunity to compare practice and enrich research.
You can view my COS profile
herePublications:
Revill, G. Terrell, I., Learning in the Workplace: a New Degree Online, Innovations in Education and Teaching International Special Issue: New Technology, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education, Routledge, 42(3), 231-245, Aug 2005, ISBN=1470-3297
Revill, G., Ultraversity: An Online Research Degree, English in Aotearoa, Christchurch, New Zealand, Caxton Press, 56, 35-37, Jul 2005
Down, J., Terrell, I., and Revill, G., Support Staff and Raising Standards: Implications for Schools, Snapshots: the Specialist Schools Trust Journal of Innovation in Education, 1(3), 18-20, Nov 2004
Terrell, I., Revill, G., Down, J., Professional Development for School Support Staff: the Ultraversity Project, Paper presented to IPDA conference November 2004, Available at: http://blog.ultralab.net/~blogger/uv/, 2004
Basiel, A., Revill, G., Terrell, I,. Arnold, L., Innovations in Non-written Forms of Work Based Learning Assessment., Paper delivered at UALL Conference Edinbugh. March 2004, Available at: http://blog.ultralab.net/~blogger/uv/
Terrell, I., Revill, G., Down, J., Developing the Role and Effectiveness of Teacher Support Staff Through An Innovative Online Graduate Programme., Paper presented to BERA conference September 2004, Available at: http://blog.ultralab.net/~blogger/uv/
