The Two Most Interesting And Useful Academic Things I Have Learnt in my Academic Career: DL and ECC
We are all motivated and interested in lots of different things — and that’s a very good thing. It would be a boring world if everyone did the same thing. Often, too, it is so easy for a research to chase after the “new shiny thing”, and end up never really developing deep knowlege in anything — a jack of all trades, and a master of none.
Unlike many job roles, I do two main things: I teach and I research. An easy trap for an academic to fall into is that their teaching does not overlap with their research. This means that everything you learn from your research does not quite feed into your teaching, and vice-versa. For me, everything I learn in my research area helps me to become a better teacher. Every probing question I receive from our students helps me to answer in a different way, and to make sure that I completely understand the topic, too.
To specialise in an area which is highly relevant is a good thing — I think — and allows you to continually advance your knowledge. The key focus is then to make your topic accessible to those new to the area — and not to take the knowledge gained for granted.
And, so, this weekend, I laid out the key knowledge in the two areas that I find most interesting, and that has built a…
