Although I have called this page ‘About us’ right now it’s just me, the us is aspirational. I very much hope that others will decide to write for this page too. If you are interested in contributing please reach out my email address is admin@teachingandlearning.site.

That said, about me, my name is Maxx, I have been working in Higher Education in the Australian tertiary sector since 2007 after completing my PhD. I am what is now more commonly referred to as a third space academic. That is I am employed as a Faculty-based academic at an Australian university but in a non-traditional role, as both a lecturer and curriculum designer in a Faculty-based team. In this role I have had the opportunity to work with scores of academics on their teaching and curriculum design over the last six and a half years, prior to this role I have also run a small educational design company delivering educational design services to Government and private clients and prior to that I was an award winning discipline-based academic teaching into my speciality of ancient history for nearly a decade at another Australian university.

I hope to use this blog as a place to discuss and share thoughts about teaching and the many approaches to teaching available to us, and to engage with you and your thoughts about teaching (at universities, high schools, primary schools or anywhere else for that matter). Personally, I am particularly interested in serious games, wargames and simulations as pedagogical tools and also the ways in which we use (or don’t use) the online environment in our teaching, particularly after the prolonged lockdowns we’ve faced over the last few years. This is not to suggest that my posts or yours (should you choose to comment or submit your own posts) will be exclusively related to those topics, far from it, in my work with academics across the Arts Faculty I come across a variety of ideas and approaches that may stimulate topics for discussion.

What areas of teaching or pedagogies are you interested in? let me know in the comments below.

A few things to remember when reading this blog:

  • Opinions belong solely to the authors of those opinions, not their institutions or anyone else who chooses to publish here.
  • You are always free to disagree with an opinion or point made by myself or others but please keep the disagreement respectful, ad hominem attacks, nastiness, etc. won’t be tolerated.
  • If you would like to add your thoughts in the form of a post I would very much like to hear from you, I will put a post up shortly that will outline ways you can propose and submit a blogpost.