iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My good thing for today is @hopkinsdavid.bsky.social's chapter in this book. An interesting read that I will definitely be sharing in our discussions about assessment and AI.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Candidate selection meeting for my council ward is taking place on Friday, but members have not been told who is standing or how many candidates have put themselves forward. Poor form from the party to not even let us know if it is a competitive selection.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It is really important that the two leadership candidates, the deputy leader, and the members of the SEC publicly say this proposal is nonsense and won't happen. I don't think the senior sources involved realise how bad their proposal is.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Make your favorite film sound as boring as possible without giving away the title: Small-town band proves artistry is better than exploitative capitalism.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Make your favorite film sound as boring as possible without giving away the title: Ancient war criminal vows revenge on ageing admiral. Ancient war criminal fails.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Make your favorite film sound as boring as possible without giving away the title: Man attends estranged wife's work Christmas party. It doesn't go well.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

There have now been episodes inspired by Casablanca and The Muppet Christmas Carol (with Spock in the non-puppet role). The Casablanca episode was good. The puppet episode was fine, until it became the early-noughties Crossroads revival and revealed that the story had been a dream.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Last week's epsidoe of #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds was basically Event Horizon. This week it was basically The Hangover. What's next? Local Hero?

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

"that statistic should set alarm bells ringing across our movement" Except it won't set off any alarm bells in Scottish Labour. CLPs, the SEC, the SPF, and probably other acronyms too, will continue timidly accepting decline with a confused shrug.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

A nice trip through to Edinburgh this weekend to see Camanachd Leòdhais progress to the next round of the Chieftan's Cup against Tayforth Camanachd. Lewis were 4:1 winners in the end after a closely contested match. #shinty #iomain #camanachd #sport #ScottishSport

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Either the estate agent captured a magical blue van in this video, or they used GenAI and didn’t check the output.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

An injury hit Glasgow Mid Argyll were knocked out of the 2026 Balliemore Cup yesterday following a 4-0 loss to Beauly Shinty Club. #shinty #iomain #camanachd

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It would be quite funny if Burnham was allowed to be on the shortlist for a by-election and his opponent in the selection was David Miliband. Not good, but funny.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

To be fair, if I was Prime Minister and I knew my time was up I would be inviting a random assortment of people to Number 10 to see the reaction. “Why are Sean Dyche and Bradley Whitford from the West Wing at number 10?”

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

“Defeated candidates did not take part” in the online meeting to identify what went wrong in the Scottish Labour campaign. Examining what went wrong in a political campaign by asking only those who were elected doesn’t sound like a way to get useful answers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

@maffewgregg.bsky.social Does the leader of Scottish Labour chopping Grado and cutting a promo with a title belt on his shoulder meet the high standards of the Cultaholic Video Podcast’s hall of fame? youtu.be/TZUJvdiYbss?...

youtu.be

Can Anas Sarwar Really Become Scotland’s Next First Minister? | Grado Goes To Holyrood

YouTube video by LBC News

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

If the connections with Stranger Things are that tenuous (and if they think the story is worth telling) why not make it a series in its own right instead of a spin-off? Not every TV show or movie needs to be part of an interconnected universe.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

I really hope this proposal is rejected. Party members should choose the order of list candidates.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

The Dukat account is one of the finest pieces of satire this century.

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Natalie Lafferty @nlafferty.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

#altc25 The perennial question of how to communicate with students is posed to the student panel and the perennial response not email, use social media. Yet not all students are on social media and in the world of work you have to navigate email, Teams and multiple information channels.

media.in

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Rules Don't Work @rulesdontwork.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Getting people to understand how LLMs work is a safety and health emergency

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Prof. Emily Nordmann @emilynordmann.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Learning technologists - what's the most annoying thing about working with academics/what don't we understand about your job that you wish we did? I am writing a blog for #ALTC25, be as honest as you like 😅

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

We are looking for a Learning Technologist to join the Academic Development and Student Learning (ADSL) team at Glasgow Caledonian University on a 12-month contract. myjobscotland.gov.uk/education/gl...

myjobscotland.gov.uk

Learning Technologist (1.0FTE/FTC 12 months) - GCU01868 | Glasgow Caledonian University | myjobscotland

View details and apply for this student services role in Glasgow with Glasgow Caledonian University on myjobscotland

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Jason Miles-Campbell @jasonmilescampbell.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Skates on, Scotland and NI! We're looking for speakers for Jisc's next Connect More (2-3 Dec) to showcase what they're doing/what they've learned in learning and teaching technology. Themes and the speaker suggestion form are at www.jisc.ac.uk/forms/submit... - by the end of THIS FRIDAY (10 Oct).

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Will Netflix be showing North Tonight?

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

This morning we held our second Glasgow Caledonian University Festival of Education, an online event focusing on preparing for the upcoming academic year. It was great to facilitate a couple of the breakout sessions and see some of the ideas colleagues were sharing.

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Learning Design team at The Open University @ou-ld-social.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Ahead of the new academic year it’s more important than ever to consider what students think & feel about their learning. Our latest resource explores '7 Top Tips' students told us can impact on how they feel about the workload associated to their #LearningJourney. #StudentVoice #LearningDesign

Title: Designing to positively impact student workload.
Text:
Heading: 7 top tips from Open University students.
What did we do?
We asked our Curriculum Design Student Panel how they perceived workload in their studies e.g. what might make workload feel higher or lower than the actual time they spend on it. Here are the factors students said helped to reduce both actual and perceived workload.

Sub-Heading: Multiple formats.
• Provide activity and assessment guidance in multiple formats.
• Use video and/or audio to break up large blocks of text.
Sub-Heading: Estimated timings.
• Provide estimated activity timings to help students to
manage and prioritise their study time.
Sub-Heading: Clear signposting.
• Indicate where activities and content contribute to specific
assessment tasks.
Sub-Heading: Set expectations.
• Provide guidance to help students structure independent study time.
• Outline the intended purpose to help set task boundaries.
Sub-Heading: Vary activities.
• Include a variety of activity types to support engagement.
Sub-Heading: Chunking instructions.
• Break up instructions / module materials into small sections. This
provides break points and supports time management.
Sub-Heading: Assessment workload.
• Keep assessment submission weeks free of additional course
material to help students catch up where required.

The tips here encompass aspects of the Open University's ICEBERG
Learning Design for retention principles. You can find more design
tips and resources relating to ICEBERG on the Learning Design blog (https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learning-design/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ICEBERG-booklet-compressed.pdf).

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Filtering out the AI generated slop when sourcing images to decorate resources or training material related to generative AI is a massive pain now. I might just start adding images from 1970s science fiction.

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Ballot Box Scotland @ballotbox.scot · 07/08/2025

The Ballot Box Scotland Holyrood Hub page for the 2026 Scottish Election is now live; with all you need to know about stuff like boundary changes and MSPs standing down/deselected. As the big day approaches, check back regularly for the latest polling and analysis. ballotbox.scot/scottish-par...

ballotbox.scot

Holyrood Hub: Scottish Parliament Election 2026

Ballot Box Scotland’s full coverage ahead of the May 2026 Scottish Parliament Election.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Glad to be getting our Blackboard Ultra drop-in sessions up and running for volunteer testers and to include a little Gàidhlig on one of our posters. I might not have much Gàidhlig, but I will use the little bits I have at work.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I’m a football fan, but considering men’s football already dominates media coverage of sport I don’t think it needs the additional exposure. There are plenty of other sports that would benefit from high quality coverage on free-to-air television, but sadly very few get that at the moment.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Someone on a mailing list is complaining about the number of emails they get because people react to emails sent to the list. They have asked everyone to refrain from reacting in the future. Completely unrelated, but I am now very tempted to put a wee thumbs up reaction on that email.

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Sanjana Modha @sanjanafeasts.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Regarding the collapse of our publisher, Unbound, the authors involved (myself included) offer this statement to you. This comment aims to provide insight into the events. We encourage you to read and share it far and wide. Thank you 🙏🏽 www.thebookseller.com/comment/the-...

thebookseller.com

Opinion: The Unbound authors' view

The authors affected by the collapse of Unbound deserve real support, honest accountability and clear answers.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

That story prompted a few interesting questions for me about how my local council is using Generative AI tools. I am sure the FoI officer will love the questions I have now sent in.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

A very wet trip to Argyll yesterday to see Inveraray progress to the next round of the Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup after defeating Glasgow Mid Argyll 3:0 at the Winterton. Full album: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCgifP #Shinty #Iomain #Camanachd #SportPhotography #ScottishSport

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Tim Ellis, TDSB Ward 2 candidate 🍁 @djdynamic.ca · 26/05/2025

Absolutely surreal to have lived through the Napster days and watched as the titans of industry moved hell and high water to lock down any possible chance that someone's song might get swapped online without giving the studios a cut and now those same people are just like "well we gotta steal music"

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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

The list of associated people exclaiming "I can't imagine how this could possibly have happened" is very

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 09/05/2025

An effective way to implement GenAI into assessment: thoughtshrapnel.com/2025/05/09/an-e…

Auto-generated description: A colorful table outlines the AI Assessment Scale with levels from 0 (NO AI) to 5 (AI EXPLORATION), each describing different extents of AI integration in student activities.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Hope my mechanic likes Planet Rock and 5 Live.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

#LTHEChat A3 Ease of use, logical user experience and meeting their needs. Price could be a consideration, and I would probably try and include open source/free options that are user friendly.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

#LTHEChat A1 Wimba Create/Course Genie. This shaped how I use Word/Google Docs for collaborative storyboarding in learning design.

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Really enjoyed James Dean Bradfield's interview with That Pedal Show. These long form interviews are great for musicians. youtu.be/bfhymGooYOw?...

youtu.be

The James Dean Bradfield Guitars & Gear Interview [Classic Manics Riffs, Tones & More!]

YouTube video by That Pedal Show

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Glasgow Mid Argyll and Kyles Athletic continued their preperation for the 2025 season this afternoon. It finished 2-2 at Peterson Park earlier in a chilly pre-season friendly between the two. flic.kr/s/aHBqjC2yk6 #shinty #iomain #camanachd

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Catching up on some photos from the Jack Ashers Sixes tournament a couple of weeks ago. A really enjoyable day of shinty with more than 200 players and 35 teams competing on the day. flickr.com/photos/jmacm... #shinty #iomain #camanachd

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John MacMillan @jmacmillan.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Either one particular MSP has just discovered Anon Opin, or one of the two people who signed their petition has.

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