An Unofficial Glance at things to get up to in Glasgow #ALTC25

Next week I am co-chairing ALTC25. Conference for UK Association for Learning Technology. I promised a Glasgow post on other attractions. 

There are loads of ways you can find out what is on in Glasgow while you are about for the ALTC Conference. But I thought I'd add my own wee list of places that I like.  Remember I am now a 60 something Glaswegian but I think the fun here can be pretty intergenerational. Whatever your thing is, you will find it in Glasgow. 

I do hope if you are arriving early on Wednesday you are coming along to Riverside Campus of City of Glasgow College. To see the ships simulators. 

I am big into cultural activities art, theatre and drinking coffee etc too, but you will get these from the internet.  I do recommend the hop on hop off Glasgow City Tour bus as a way to get your bearings. If you are about on Saturday have a look around the Barrows Market in Glasgow's east end. 

Here are a list of eating and drinking spots that  I think are really worth finding and all within  range of  the conference hotel.  You can look them up. I'd catch the subway if going to west end , get on in city centre and get off at Hillhead. You can't get lost, one big circle. 

You can combine visits to these places with more cultural activities. 

City Centre Drinks 

Sloans  - Old coaching house - old intercity coach terminal.

Mono and Stereo -  Two related bars Vegan and Good music 

Potstill - Best Whisky Bar 

Horseshoe Bar - Authentic Victorian Glasgow Bar 

Lauriston Bar - Just across the river - best Guiness and frequented by Indie bands.  

McChuills - live music 

Clutha Vaults - live music 

Scotia Bar - live music 

Del Monicas - live music and dancing 

Buff Club - dancing and new Jazz club 

City Centre Eats 

Brutti Compadres - a bit of eats and drinks in nice old courtyard

Cafe Gandolfi - Up market Glasgow classic for arty folks 

Pisano - best pizza in town and great value 

Sugo - great pasta dishes and great value 

Margot - up market posh nosh 

Dhabba and Dhakin - North and South Indian restaurants near each other

Finnieston and Around - lots of wee bars mainly great eats 

Craab Shakk - tiny atmospheric fish and sea food straight from west highlands. 

Mother India and Mother India Cafe - best Currys in Glasgow - second one is tapas style.

Ox and Finch - very posh nosh and hard to get booking 

The Gannet - posh michelin type but good food.

West End/ Byres Road - near Glasgow University so loads of places to eat and drink

Oran Mhor - old converted church always lots going on 

Tennents Bar - classic Glasgow bar

Ubiquitous Chip - nice bar and posh nosh

Craab Shakk West End - larger sister restaurant of Finnieston one 

There are lots of great places South Side Glasgow too - you can discover them next trip 

#Scotedublogs #openscot - Why you should blog and Why you should join this Aggregator

If you dig back in this blog you will see that one way or another I have been blogging since the turn of the century. It's never without its challenges but for me it is a key part of open practice. It is a positive way of moving things forward. 

There was a sudden flowering of the Scottish Educational Blogosphere around 2005. In this context mainly school based folks. One of the great platforms that emerged from that period was and is  #Scotedublogs a simple aggregator of Scottish Educational blogs. 

As an educational blogger it was great to have some company along the way, at least for a short for a while. 

At one point I even managed  find some sponsorship to help it grow.

Championed by John Johnston one of the many unsung heroes in Scottish Education. 

It is probably needed again more than ever.  In time of enshittification etc It is good to have something that anchors the disparate but very authentic voices of those working across or around Scottish Education. We are doing a wee bit of a push to re-build this 'community' of Scottish Edubloggers. 

This sits well with lots of other things I support around Open Education. #openscot 

All you need is a blog or similar with an RSS feed.

And then all you need to do is make sure your blog is listed. 

Here are some suggestions.  

I could go on a bit of a rant 

1. If you work in and or around Scottish Education you should have a blog or similar.  A critical part of professional development review in my view.
2. If you train teachers or have a role in developing staff - you should be showing students and staff all how to blog and or create a shareable professional journal.
3. If you work for General Teaching Council in Scotland you should have made this part of registration a very long time ago.  
4. I am an old hand and still use Blogger - it serves it's purpose. But if I was to start again I would start by using free wordpress and then migrate to A domain of my own from Reclaim Hosting. ( I have my own domain already).  
5. Colleges and College staff have been particularly absent from the blogosphere. This currently means the sector is pretty much stifled as there are very few established voices talking about current College challenges in a sensible extended way.  

All I do is publish this blog - as it is listed in Scotedublogs it will appear on feed and be syndicated to Mastodon and Bluesky.