Allan Johnson

#IsItOK? What I’ve Learned from the Paralympics

Posted on September 1, 2012July 7, 2013 by Allan Johnson in Observations

Hannah Cockroft wins T34 100m (Photo credit: ian_fromblighty)

I have never been a big fan of televised sport, so I was not terribly disappointed that I contended with a number of pressing publishing deadlines and a heavy teaching assignment during the Olympics. I did watch the opening ceremony with delight and did happen to see the cycling event as it sped through Kingston upon Thames, but in all honesty, my knowledge of the games was largely confined to what I learned from friends’ texts about favourite Olympians.

But that was until last night, when I found myself gripped by the Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball. It was absolutely astonishing to watch, and certainly more exciting than the games of basketball I have seen in the past. I stayed for repeats of Hannah Cockroft’s 100m victory (that was surely the clearest win in sporting history, right?) and the downright incredible five-a-side blind football game. Claire Balding’s majestic coverage of the events added to the enjoyment, and I will certainly be following the coming days with an unexpected new interest.

Yet the most exciting part of my night’s viewing was what came next, Channel 4’s The Last Leg. Fronted by comedian Adam Hills, it’s a typically irreverent roasting and roundup of all things Paralympic, which has no problem discussing disability honestly and humorously. I appreciated it for demonstrating how to speak about disability without being patronizing, and, indeed, how to laugh about disability in sensitive and appropriate ways, just as we would about anything else. Continue reading “#IsItOK? What I’ve Learned from the Paralympics” →

7 Things This Academic Learned from the World of Brand and Design

Posted on August 31, 2012September 9, 2013 by Allan Johnson in Observations

Design library, reorganized by topic — Design library (Photo credit: juhansonin)

I spent a postgraduate gap year working for the brand and design agency Ingenious Rapport, first in business development and then shortly after as Creative Account Manager. In addition to working with some extraordinary colleagues (indeed, some leaders in the field), I had the opportunity to work on thrilling accounts, including a major UK bank, government agency, and several popular restaurants. The experience was as eye-opening as it was edifying. From thinking about how to use super high-speed personalized printing to promote books and cars, to tracking down someone who could make me a giant illuminated sign in 48 hours, my days were filled with extraordinary (and often extraordinarily fun) commissions. I also learned a bit about print and digital design, social media, and the business world in general through the process, all of which has contributed to my approach to teaching, research, and academic practice.

Design does matter. It was fascinating to see the design process take place. A key part of my job was to meet with clients and figure out what it was they needed and how they wanted their brand to be communicated through print and/or digital media. I then translated that into a brief for the designers, who would take it from there. Serving as the intermediary between the designers and the client, I was often right at the centre of debates between design and practicality, between function and form, and I took one important thing away from this: people choose to spend their time with the objects that intrigue them most. This doesn’t just apply to advertising and websites, but to everything around us. And, because of this, I have maintained my interest in design and typography into my academic life. Is it something to become obsessive about? Perhaps not. But using BlairMdITC rather than Times New Roman for a syllabus is a simple detail that can make a difference to how your ideas are viewed, understood, and remembered. Continue reading “7 Things This Academic Learned from the World of Brand and Design” →

www.duolingo.com

Posted on August 11, 2012July 7, 2013 by Allan Johnson in Observations

The language learning site Duolingo has recently left beta for a full release, and it is nothing short of thrilling. It is a free site which, in its own words, helps users ‘learn a language and simultaneously translate the Web.’ Not only is the interface sharp, engaging, and extraordinarily intuitive, it personalizes language learning in a way that should keep language teachers salivating. With each successive unit, you are given new translating tasks (most of which are from Wikipedia, though it appears this will become more diverse as the site grows) which build upon and help to assess what you have learned.

Whoever saw language learning as the start of crowd sources translations was definitely on to something. When you translate authentic material from the web with Duolingo, it is assessed against all other submissions, ultimately identifying the most accurate or most correct.

Through this, it takes into account the fact that any language, at its most essential root, actually is an exercise in crowd sourcing.

The programming behind all of this magic must be pretty astonishing, but the entire learning process looks seamless and perfectly tailored to each learner (not to mention, entirely free and a new significant competitor to Rosetta Stone). French, German, and Spanish are already live. I am looking forward to Swedish and an iPad version.

A Discovery of Academics

Posted on July 15, 2012July 7, 2013 by Allan Johnson in Observations

I’ve finally made peace with my Cloud, and come to terms with the fact that while I will continue to read books for pleasure on my Kindle, most of my actual research will be distinctly paper-based for the immediate future. (I’m just waiting for the next great piece of kit to make that change.) But, oh, have I been reading a great book on my Kindle lately. It might be about early modern history and written by Deborah Harkness, a well-regarded scholar in the field, but it is certainly not academic. Here’s the run down:

An American academic is spending a year at the Bodleian working on her latest research on the history of alchemical science. There she meets Matthew, a handsome, 30-something professor who has more publications to his name and more interdisciplinary interests than could ever be possible for a person his age. It’s a charming love story set amid the city of a thousand spires, but the salient fact here is that she is a witch and he is a vampire.

Everyone around me seems to reading Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches at the moment, and for good cause. It is well-paced, inventive, a bit escapist, and quite stylish. What strikes me most, though, is its portrayal of academics and their circles. Professorial phenoms, the book playfully suggests, are simply millenia old vampires who have had years to perfect their research and to develop their experience. Matthew’s poise, his polish, and his ability to turn out a slew of books in one semester seems supernatural precisely because it is. (And it’s a fun way to think of academics in the real world–just imagine how many thousands of years Harold Bloom has been around.)

More delightful, though, is the book’s portrayal of Diana, the American witch, and her understanding of academic insight. As a child she shunned magic, not only because of the tragic death of her parents, but also because she wanted to be certain that her achievements really were her own. And it’s a resolution, she is certain, which she has largely stuck to, particularly in her professional academic life. When she happens to get stuck in her research or can’t see the next route her work will take, she simply imagines a large white table filled with the puzzle pieces of all that she needs to fit together–the dates, the events, the speculations, and the controversies of history. And, in a snap, the puzzle comes together in her mind. But it is only part way through the novel when Matthew finally explains to her that this visualization is magic, and, in fact, she had used magic all along.

Maybe there is something peculiar and even a bit supernatural about academics, from the young publishing wizards who defy their years, to the profoundly intuitive thinkers who can make sense of even the most illogical of analytical puzzles. A Discovery of Witches is giving many readers an insight into the mania and joys of an academic life, and its an insight that perhaps many academics could learn from as well.

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