The Beginnings of Ragged by Will Bentinck

Grant and Jess introduced me to Al, because Al wanted to start organising some events, inspired by the Ragged Schools, and Grant thought I might like to help. I was hugely interested – I think education is the single most important thing – so joining a small team of friends on an exciting journey of experimenting with new ways of taking pleasure in learning and in teaching sounded like an opportunity I couldn’t miss. Read more…

Transformation Through Life Modelling With 'Girl in Suitcase' and 'Spirited Bodies' by Esther Bunting

Esther Bunting who performed ‘Girl in Suitcase’ in Edinburgh in association with Ragged University in 2011 explains a bit about this life drawing performance, and about her work with ‘Spirited Bodies‘ which will be coming to Scotland in September 2013. There are opportunities to draw whilst watching this show, so have your charcoal and pencils ready!

Girl in Suitcase is about my family’s situation with Mum becoming ever more dependent on Dad (and the rest of us); and my personal need to ‘come out’ as an ex-sex-working life model.

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The Traditional, the Contemporary and Orthodoxy

The roots of the word ‘orthodox’ help to clarify the distinguishing qualities of established schools of thought to the neophyte arrangements which fit outside of the canon of currently accepted scientific knowledge.

The word orthodox arises from two Greek words, ortho and doxa. Ortho has the meaning; in composition, straight: upright: perpendicular: right: genuine: derived from the Greek, orthos, meaning straight, upright, right. Doxa has the meaning: derived from the Greek meaning opinion and relating sound in doctrine: believing or according to the received or established doctrines or opinions. Read more…

2nd May 2013: Gamified Educational E-tivities? by Karenne Sylvester

karenne sylvester

Please come along to The Castle Hotel in Manchester on the 2nd of May from 7pm to enjoy this talk

Name of speaker and subject:

Karenne Sylvester

Title of talk:

Gamified Educational E-tivities: Chocolate-covered Broccoli or Honey-coated Peas?

Bullet points of what you would like to cover:

  • Philosophical thinking about games
  • Historical link between games and education
  • Why the terms “educational games” and “serious games” are misnomers
  • Pointsification vs. Gamification
  • What gamified educational e-tivities are and how the addition of sweeteners supports learning

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How The Ragged Uni Idea Came About by Grant Crozier

Sometime in 2010 Alex Dunedin, Jessica Haley, Will Bentinck and I met up for a pint, because Al had had an Idea.

The idea was simple: we had spent so many great evenings together talking to each other (and also to complete strangers) about subjects we were passionate about, and had learnt so much from each other (and from the strangers), that Al figured surely there could be a way of creating an environment in which anyone, no matter who they were or their background, could get together in an informal setting and share their passion and knowledge. Read more…