David Sugden
After many false starts with 'organised' web logs like Blogger - I gave up and thought I'd have more interest and more input, if I did my own. This is just a simple web page, so any contributions will have to be via email [blog@village-e-learning.co.uk] - I promise to edit very little and to publish all lucid comments! Please state how I should sign you off (anon; my name; my name and address etc). I've deleted the comments feature, because of all the spam I was getting - sorry! e-Mail me if you have anything to say - address above. Click here to go to beginning of blog.

NEw Mobile Learning Blog NEW

This will probably be my last post of 2007. I make it in the full knowledge that by publishing it, I am sharing my life and myself with the world - or anyone who is remotely interested. Thank you for having that interest. Bloggers and the readers of blogs are changing the way society lives and breaths. This article sort of encapsulates my thinking of blogs and bloggers (apart from the 'celebrity' bit). Happy New Year

It's been an active year. Only when I look back do I realise (remember?) some of the great things we've done. We went to France in May. To Wales in Summer and to Turkey in October. Some of these links are cursory, but of course, I was supposed to be on holiday! Sharon also took time out to visit her mum in Alabama in April. Then, in summer - after many months of on and off (and various illnesses) Betony was diagnosed with ME/CFS. This imposed a new school regime for Betz but she seems to be coping well. Our plans for holidays in 2008 must take Betz's fatigue into consideration and are therefore the subject of much discussion.

Work wise it's also been a great year. I've done work (and am still doing work) for NIACE, LSN amongst others. Next year, I have work coming along from the National Science Learning Centre and the RSC-YH, both of which concern new work. I will continue to support MoleNET and SLC's too. Hopefully, 2008 will be as rewarding as 2007. Best wishes to you all and thank you for reading. Happy New Year

      
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Christmas Day. Isn't it funny (sad?) that the first thing I've done today for relaxation is to sit on the laptop and fill in my blog? Well, it's not as straightforwardly sad as that -- I'm on the laptop uploading Christmas pictures to Flickr. So by the time I've finished this entry, there should be loads of pictures up there for all to see. I still tend to put the more family-based pictures on Photobox so I, and others, can have them printed. Most of the family ones however (taken with my Sony Cyber Shot 55) are all a little pixelated. So we have to go back to the drawing board with that one. My older Olympus C-3030 3.3 mega pixel never had these problems.

Sharon and I started our Christmas break on Friday 21st by walking into Slaithwaite and catching a train to Stalybridge. The railway station there has a real ale bar on the platform and they serve 'traditional' black peas along with other bar-snack stuff. We had an hour and a half before our return train, which made it a nice break for us. On Saturday, I walked into town via Marsh, where I picked up some stuff from my mum and dad's. Sharon picked me up in town and we had meat and potato pie for tea!

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we had my mum and dad, Emma, Charlie, Amy and Charlotte round for Christmas Dinner. We set up the conservatory for our meal as it's the only place we can sit eight people. I did a 'take-as-much-as-you-please' Smoked Salmon and Smoked Mackerel salad to start, with brown bread and butter. What a load of crap the bread was! I'd taken the easy way out and bought Hovis from Tesco's - so, so nasty!! It was sticky, soft and crumbly. Awful bread! However, it was followed by home made gluten-free (by Sharon for Betony) bread and Sesame Foccacia (by me for us) to accompany the Parsnip and Ginger Soup. After the soup we had Roast Turkey (see separate story on my Myspace blog.) with home made apple sauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy plus Honeyed Parsnips, Carrots and Peas with Cabbage and roast potatoes. Lovely. Sharon had made a Banana and Mandarin Trifle which finished us off. It was a great day and I was able to play with Amy and cuddle Charlotte. My mum and dad seemed to enjoy it too.

This morning, all three of us got up for breakfast at about 9.00am. We had scrambled eggs, Smoked Salmon and Kir Royale before opening presents. I'd got Sharon (I have no imagination) a canteen of cutlery (Viner's Rat's Tail - 12 settings - 88 pieces) and two wall lights - well, French roof slates, mounted with candles and glass for the conservatory. She got me a hard disk TV recorder and a double Louis Armstrong CD - which remarkably, I like very much. My previous experience of Louis was the usual 60's radio stuff and his statue outside the Algiers ferry station in New Orleans. This CD also has an accompanying book which, given time this week, I will enjoy reading. We then watched Christmas Carol (with Patrick Stewart) on E4 and grabbed a little lunch (cold turkey and home made pork pie). For tea, we had all the vegetables (and stuffing) left over from yesterday, warmed up with cold turkey. A really restful. lazy day!

It was great to see Lilian, John and Nick the other day - as always. They had had a traumatic time getting here and we didn't have as much time to chat as we might have liked - but it was still a nice relaxing start to Christmas. Both Lils and I have been contacted by RSC YH about some work to be done over the first three months of 2008, so that sounds exciting. I'm waiting in for the post today - to get my new K850i and then we will join the hoards shopping (probably in Stockport!). We have two accessible Tesco Extras, one in Batley (convenient for Sharon who still works in Dewsbury) and one in Stockport which is mile away. Remarkably though - Stockport is easier and quicker to get to.

Season's Greetings

It's not a good day on the roads today. The weather has warmed up considerably but apparently it's absolute chaos out there. John W, Lils and Nick J are supposed to be joining me for lunch but both John and Lils are circumnavigating the M62 which is closed due to an accident. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7149454.stm

So it's looking increasing unlikely to be the relaxed chat over lunch that we'd planned. Hey ho.

The crisp packet is one I had on the way back from York on Monday. It made me laugh. I was in York to meet Paul Malpass of the National Science Learning Centre. I'm working with them on a Hairdressing event they has hosting in February but he wanted to chat about a Food, Catering and Hospitality one that they were beginning to plan for the end of April. He asked me to be involved, something I am honoured to do. I'm certain that the event planned will be a huge success.

My intention now is to work tomorrow, to go shopping on Thursday with Sharon (make a day of it) but still check various online things. On Friday we have a guy coming along at 10.00am to talk to us about real wood flooring. As soon as he's gone we will walk into Slaithwaite, catch a train to Stalybridge and have lunch with a few drinks at the station bar, before returning home by a similar route. That should set us off in the festive spirit. My mum and dad will come along on Christmas Eve with Emma, Charlie and the two girls for a Christmas late-lunch. So really there's the rest of today, all tomorrow and bits of the rest of the week and I'm done for the year. A year i will reflect upon here, over the break.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
 

I've had a busy two weeks. For me, the Leeds e-guides PLUS event was unsatisfactory for a some reason. This year's PLUS events are for all comers but they are also the stage for current e-Guides who wish to pursue the 'EDI/JEB level 3 educational use of ICT' qualification. Attendance on this day gives delegates the necessary taught hours and allows them to take a 1 hour supervised test.  Others attending are the more traditional PLUS delegates - wishing to update their skills in a supported environment. There are therefore, two distinctly differing needs and expectations from the day - which makes it hard to manage on your own. RSC-YH came along to support the afternoon session - which allowed me to invigilate. But people also drifted off early. Very disappointing. I tried to believe that it wasn't me but it's hard to feel blameless.

This week I've been to London and Cardiff. London was for a MoleNET meeting, where the team came together for an input from LSN. It's a long day going to London - even when I don't catch my first train until 7.16am (I usually catch the 6.41am). This time, I went via Manchester and 'Virgin', having seen a good deal on GNER. However, not only was I late for the meeting (trying to save money for LSN isn't always a good idea) but I had my tickets confiscated by the Virgin conductor because the tickets were not kosher. I was allowed to continue my journey but was told that GNER had no right to sell those tickets! Bummer. It's a good job my return was via Leeds and (I thought) GNER. But even there - I was wrong. GNER no longer exist. National Express now own that route. But at least my tickets were valid and they now provide FREE INTERNET.

Cardiff took two and a half days! I drove down on Wednesday, stayed over Wednesday night, did the gig Thursday and stayed over at Karen and Dave's Thursday night. I drove straight through home on Friday morning, so I could attend a MoleNET meeting at Huddersfield College - for technicians. So it's been a very 'm'obile week! Cardiff was a repeat of the gigs we did earlier in the year for Sarah Knight of JISC. John Traxler and I began by asking what is 'm' and why might we use it. This was followed by John Whalley discussing the JISC 'Innovations' publication. Just before and after lunch, we planned to have break out sessions but the second session had to be cancelled because of the time lunch took (I really need to update my food blog - the food here was brilliant). We started the afternoon therefore with two guest speakers from Wales and finished with John Traxler and I discussing where we have come from in the last three years and where me might go in the next few years. I thought the gig was ok - everyone seemed fine. And the best thing??? To see Sarah Knight for the first time since she went on maternity leave!

Phone update. I posted the K850i back on Monday and today I rang them to see if they had received it. they had! But ... I now have to wait until next week for them to re-stock. AND, I have had to start my contract (renegotiate!) with them again. It's such a pain! I have missed (am missing) my super-phone!

The phone saga continues. The battery life seems much better than before, I'd fully charged it by Friday morning and it didn't need re-charging until Monday night. Ok - it had had a couple of half hours USB'ed to the laptop as I transferred files and 'stuff' but four days still seems very good indeed. I like the phone. But - it has a fault. I can no longer access the Accessories Folder. I've been onto T-Mobile, Sony Ericsson and (by accident) Shozu but none of them can fix the problem. So it's going back! I need access to that folder to send my photos to  the net via Shozu.

Amy was three yesterday. It doesn't seem two minutes since she was born. We popped over to see her (and her new sister Charlotte) last night and she was giddy with excitement. We'd bought her some tiny (but real) gardening gloves, a trowel, a fork and a tiny rake - because a noisy drum might not have been welcomed by her mum! We'd also got some flower pots, some Daffodils, some potting compost and a couple of Crocus glasses. So, when all the toys have faded from her memory, she will still (if she plants them) have some flowers to look at. Well we thought so ;-)

I'm  off to Leeds soon to prepare for my e-Guides PLUS event tomorrow. Then I'm not around for the rest of the week as Sharon has decided to take me away for my birthday! I'm looking forward to that.

December tomorrow! Where did the last few months go? Anyway, I'm beginning to feel a bit more positive now - the funeral earlier this week had made a few waves in my firmament.

So, phones. As I've said earlier, I sent back my K810i because of a poor battery life and so began a period of research. The criteria had to be stated - yet I'm not sure I ever did that ... I wanted a good camera on the phone. My W800i had been brilliant for two years so I wanted nothing less. Sharon's K800i has a 3.2 mpx camera which is likewise brilliant - so I originally plumped for the up to date version of that - the K810I. This had the benefit (another desirable feature) of prominent keys to cope with my fat thumbs. And finally, lots of space for memory expansion. No real problem because Sony's have micro card slots for their own brand of card. I'd just bought a 4 gig card for the K810i before I sent it back. I asked a young lad (21-23?) in the T-Mobile shop, which phone he would have if all restrictions were lifted (money, usage etc.) and as his eyes glazed over he pointed at the HTC Touch. His desire was to have a PDA phone as it would make him very happy. But ...

PDA phones need two hands to operate them and the phone bits tend to take secondary place to the rest of the groovy stuff they do. My comparisons therefore had to include Internet access, email access, video record and play, video conferencing (not that I ever will), music playing, sound recording etc. And I found all this in a phone I'd dismissed earlier as having a crap battery life. When I checked - they all have crap battery lives. For me, a phone should last more than two days before it needs recharging. But questioning owners (and retailers) of modern phones has led me to believe that two days is ok and can be improved if you "turn off the 3G" AND read the instructions for battery use (as if!). oh - they also said "don't buy a Nokia N95" - "a fabulous product but more trouble than the middle east".

Well yesterday I took delivery of my shiny new K850i. I made sure that the battery was fully uncharged before I went to bed and today I start with a full battery. It should be a fairly normal day for usage, so let's see. I did all my early playing with the phone yesterday and it is very very good. There's no joystick - this has been replaced with an unusual set of rockers but the screen is part touch-friendly. More later when I've had more time with it.

Carole's favourite song

Carole had a good send off yesterday.

130 people packed into the crematorium as the funeral was led by Martin and the two girls, Lisa and Suzy. Some friends and family had met at the house (me included) before being picked up in two limo's for the trip to the crematorium. There were fourteen of us in the cars but many many more had made their own way there and were waiting for us to arrive. I just stood in fairly stunned silence most of the time, watching people. Funerals are really strange affairs where observations are apt to be somewhat skewed. I looked around and saw people refusing to pray and miming hymns while others were very forthright in their oral contributions to the service.

Martin had left all the arrangements to his brother in law Roger, who had done a sterling job, including the arrangements for speeches and the like. A few poems were well presented (and coming from people I knew to be long-term friends, they were acceptable) - but I worry about the hymns and 'readings'. I would like the chance to help with planning my own funeral (some time way off in the future) and its content. If there's a hymn at all, it will be like Carole's final one - All Things Bright and Beautiful; if only because it was well loved at school. When I  was first married, Sue and I wanted to have the theme to M.A.S.H. playing but we couldn't because "it might be inappropriate" and anyway no one could find the piano music.
Actually - I now realise that I can decide what is and what is not appropriate and if I want Jeff Buckley [and] to sing Leonard Cohen's [and] Hallelujah at my funeral - I will (it may have to be recorded as Jeff died in 1997). I think that what I'm saying is, I'd rather the occasion was marked with happiness and not be subverted into some deity I acknowledge, but don't particularly believe in.

24th November  2007 

Just added another post to my Mobile learning page

Readers may remember that we bought Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 9 some months ago - to help out Betony with her ME/CFS (one of the features of this illness for Betz, is RSI-like pains in here wrists and arms). You'll have seen from the previous entry that it was a frustrating experience too. Well it didn't get any better. After running well on the XP laptop for a while (Sharon was even taking it into work for use with a dyslexic student) we were invited to download an update. So we did. But then it wouldn't work because it said that the software had been installed too many times. We contacted Nuance and reminded them that it had been installed so many times because their instructions (when we forlornly tired to make the product work on Vista) said to uninstall and then re-install! Nevertheless, they wanted us to send them the serial numbers. Which I did. Then, despite having the serial numbers, they wanted to see photocopies of the CD covers, the serial number AND our original bill. Which having dealt with us for three months on and ff trying to make the product work - you'd think that we were fairly kosher. But anyway - I sent them jpegs of all the stuff they wanted. Then they said that they couldn't open the files - could I send them again but re-name them so that there were no more than eight letters (no numbers or non-alphabetic characters) in the names!!!! I renamed them one.jpg, two.jpg and three.jpg. But still they couldn't open them - could I now post them to an online repository (like e-Snips I suppose) and send them the link. NO!! that was it, I have packaged up the 'stuff' and sent the lot back. What an awful company to deal with!

I've also sent my phone back. Sadly, I'd made a mistake by buying it the way I did. Wrong information from the T-Mobile shop I'm afraid. The short story is that I could have had the phone for free when and if I renewed my contact - but I didn't want to do that just yet. However, simply buying the phone renewed my contract! so I'd paid money for something I could have had for nowt! And anyway - the battery life was rubbish. So it had to go back. I now need to look around for a new phone before I go back and properly renew my contract. But they all seem to have such dire battery lives. I'm not hearing good things about the Nokia N95, the battery on the Sony Ericksson K850i is reportedly poor (and I don't need a 5mpx camera) - so it may well be another K810i (I say shamefacedly)

It's been a strange week. The SLC work has really kicked in and I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time chasing up prospective Coaches from around the country. I'm not sure that they have realised (or whether their invitation stated clearly enough) that so much work was required to complete their induction online BEFORE they attend face to face meetings next week. The new programme has been reduced to just two days face to face and the rest of the work is to be done online - so it's quite important that they 'engage' straight away. But for some, it's less than a week to go to their day 1 event and they still haven't started. And catching them on the phone (or by email or by text) is proving impossible.

I'm just about to set off for another workshop at Bishop Burton College in East Yorkshire. I'll be doing pretty much the same as last week but, following my work with Lilian Soon (at the MoleNET Champions training also last week), I've also developed a texting test for them. With luck I hope to use Lilian's text server to receive the replies. Finger's crossed!

Carole's funeral will be next Tuesday, so I've booked my train and will stay the night in Milton Keynes. I sometimes wonder who we go to funerals for. It can't be for the dead person, they don't know you're there - so we must go for those friends, colleagues and acquaintances that still live. Why then, should funerals be such sombre affairs? Surely we celebrate the life of the person just passed, rather than their death! I don't know.

Anyway - to add later when I get a minute - The Dragon Story and the return of my K810i

Just added another post to my Mobile learning page

This morning, I read that airmen from Germany, based in Afghanistan as part of a larger NATO force, were refusing to fly after dark 'because of health and safety'!! I would have thought that health and safety would be the least of their worries based in Afghanistan. What on earth did they think their role would involve when they joined up? Did they think that the opposition might just keep office hours and that they might possibly meet up from time to time in the pub for a bit of a reminisce?

Carole died last night. I had an email from Martin this morning to say that she had quickly deteriorated and that they had taken her into the local hospice. However, a further email told me the worst. It hadn't taken long. I'd mentioned that Carole had motor neuron disease in a previous posting in February and some readers commented at the time - many thanks for that. There is no easy way out of this hideous disease - even thought your mind functions, your body doesn't. The family, as can be expected are distraught and our thoughts go out to them.

Today has been another MoleNET Champion training day. We followed a similar pattern to yesterday and (I think) all the delegates enjoyed the day. They certainly had lots of questions and seemed to leave with plenty to think about. Di, Lils, Mick, Danny and I all stayed over at the Travel Lodge on old Street last nights and we were joined by Geoff Foot and Ron Mitchell for a really nice meal across the road at some Brassiere or other (I'd love to say which - but don't know the name).

As we left tonight, Danny told us that there had been a meeting during the afternoon (I'd wondered where all the LSN lot had gone) and that because of an increased band of Moles - the projects we would support had been refined. Instead of four we (mainly) would have three. I lost Stratford and Accrington but gained Huddersfield. Richard, the project leader at Huddersfield had left under the impression that I might be around to help but that Lilian would still be their mentor. Whoops - that took about five minutes to change (and I wasn't involved!) But I'm really looking forward to picking it up because I think that it has the potential to be a truly successful project. I will also still support Gateshead and Cardinal Newman!

Yesterday saw me back at Bishop Burton College in East Yorkshire. I'd been asked to present a short workshop but hadn't really been given any objectives. I therefore asked (as planned) the 12-14 attendees (more than ever here) what they would like to have 'refreshed'. Many of them had been with me before and had made positive moves afterwards - but - they liked the idea of seeing Forms and comments in Word again, 'if' statements in Excel and interactive text boxes in PPT. A couple even said that they had used hot spots on pictures since I'd been last and could I show those to others in the room. I finished with an overview of some Web 2.0 tools. A great session.

Today has been the first of two MoleNET Champion training days in London. I think that it went down very well. The day started with an introduction from Jill Attewell and then Di Dawson showed everyone how to use the CTAD 'authoring tool' - which all projects will get free of charge. Ron Mitchell then showed us all the various MoleNET Moodle installations and invited Champions to login and communicate. Lilian Soon and I shared a couple of repeated sessions in the afternoon, where we talked about the great potential for mobile phones. Mick Mullane showed the opposing groups his Podcasting work and techniques. There was much discussion throughout and (I think) everyone went away with something to dwell on.

Comment made

Lisa replied to my earlier posting:

Thanks Lisa - anyone else?

I'm currently sat with my laptop contemplating a post from Lisa Valentine's blog:  She suggests (and I have taken liberties here) that some of the younger people around us are not as well taught as perhaps they could be and I have to agree. The problem is that young kids are not taught to put the 'theoretical' learning imposed upon them in school into 'practical' use. Just last night we were talking with Betz (16, final GCSE year) about her history not being taught in any synchronous way. For example, they were first given a bit of 1919-1938 Germany (and went into the real nitty gritty of Hitler's henchmen during that period), then they looked at 1920 USA, (depression etc) and then at WW Two. This is now being followed by WW one!. Our conversation was suggesting that if the kids had had a bit of 'why' 1914-1918 (the lead-up) first and then the world-wide implications of 1919 (many of which impinge on some of today's problems) - they might have understood USA and worldwide 1920-1945 better. But at one stage of the conversation she asked "was the 1914-1918 war the one with the guy assassinated to start it" (well yes it was, but ....).

I have replaced my Sony Ericsson W800i phone with a Sony Ericsson K810i. See also

My W800i was brilliant and did pretty much everything I ever asked of it, including take brilliant pictures (even at 2mpx). Sharon's K800i was (is) ok but I didn't like the lens cover or the keypad - yet I lusted after the 3.2mpx camera it has fitted. So when the K810i was launched I tried all over the world to buy one but was thwarted by the price of £300+ (I didn't want to upgrade my T-Mobile contract). So, last month I'd decided to finally upgrade but was told I might be better waiting until November as the 'flex' deals might be cheaper. So I did. (the K810i was by then down to £180 in the shop).

My W800i became dodgy on Saturday morning (just died!) so I called in at the T-Mobile shop in Huddersfield and found that the K810i had been replaced with the k850i - which has a huge 5mpx camera, a good lens cover and ok keypad. BUT - they were out of stock and I NEEDED a new phone.

So, I went back online and found the K810i for sale on http://www.t-mobile.co.uk  @ £80. I ordered one and it came yesterday. I've still to check but I think they only charged £55. Good phone though. I have consoled myself with the fact that I bought a 7.2mpx Sony camera last month, so bigger doesn't always equal better (as Lilian Soon said to me 'that's the main issue with having a phone that tries to act like a camera'

The future? Well, if it all works out ok and me buying the phone hasn't altered my T-Mobile contract, I will go back towards the end of November and upgrade my contract to whatever (a Flext 30 probably) but take a K850i with it! Betony can then have the K810i. She has been gutted at the passing of my W800i, because she always saw it as hers (after I'd done with it!)

The Nokia 95 fell by the wayside because I would have to re-learn all the Nokia 'stuff'' and I'm au fait with Sony Ericsson now. But that was the only credible alternative for me!

I've just noted an article (it came to me via Jaiku and I tracked the originator down) that just about tells us why it's worth pursuing mobile learning as a paradigm. The author: HIROKO TABUCHI, suggests that "The PC's role [..] is diminishing" because its "once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones.." See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071104/ap_on_hi_te/bye_bye_pcs

This week has been busy.

It started, as noted earlier, with a day out in Lancashire visiting MoleNET projects. I had had to be back in Huddersfield by 3.15pm to see Betony's teacher. Betz has ME/CFS and we are constantly updating ourselves and school with its progress. It is her GCSE year, so we are particularly sensitive to her needs at this stressful and busy time for her. We were meeting the head of year this time to remind her that she had promised to ask teachers to send work home for Betz.- and it hadn't happened yet. By Thursday (when by coincidence we were up at school again for open evening) much of this had been sorted out. She's a good kid but the illness puts her out of synch with the rest of the world. Just last night she was bright eyed and bushy tailed AND chose to do some school work - so she is trying. It just isn't easy for a sixteen year old to have this kind of illness AND to have all the opportunities and pitfalls a young teenager has to encounter anyway. The illness may jeopardise her planned trip to Auschwitz at Easter. The plan is to set off at 2.00am from here and to drive to Heathrow. Fly to Berlin. 'Do' Berlin until evening, go to hotel, eat, sleep; 'do' more Berlin until evening and then board an overnight train to Warsaw. Do Warsaw and Auschwitz all day - fly back and drive up to Huddersfield. It would be hard enough for any teenager but may well make Betz much worse - not to mention the onset of GCSE revision immediately upon their return.

Alongside (left ) was a Schmapplet which contains one of my Flickr photographs (right). (I've deleted it now - it tried to take over) The company had contacted me to ask permission for its use because I have a creative commons on my Flickr stuff., which states that there should be no commercial use. I was happy enough to give my permission to http://www.schmap.com/ in this instance because the image was fairly 'posed' anyway. I'd taken it  last month when I was working in Liverpool with Jo Kirkby. We'd been asked to wait a short while for our table - and while we were waiting I'd rearranged all the table 'stuff' and taken the photograph. I was really just playing with my new camera - see my Flickr photographs for more.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week I was one of about 20 people being trained for work at a SLC (PTP) e-Tutor. This was a quite intensive two days and very worthwhile. Many of those present were fully au fait with the programme but not as familiar with online learning. For me it was the opposite way around! So the programme, when it begins in a couple of weeks - it should be a an excellent example of online learning.

I spoke to Rod Paley of Xtensis on Friday. I'd asked him a few weeks ago, about how people like me (keen on NLN materials and roving the country promoting excellence in e-Learning) and about how we might access the materials now that they have been re-launched. He was very helpful and I am hopeful that the issue will be resolved soon.

NEW

Holiday blog in progress

NEW

Well I'm back! This is the first holiday I've had in a good while, where I've not kept any kind of diary. I've not even finished uploading my pictures to Flickr, although I have put those from my phone up there. That alongside, is a picture of the sunset from Oludeniz on our last night there. I may well write up some reflections later on Googlepages - but it depends on the time I have available before my memory collapses! I've Started a holiday blog!

I was straight back 'in the thick of it' today, with two visits to MoleNET projects in Lancashire. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I have  to catch up on some online work in preparation for training as a SLC (or NTLCP) e-Tutor for LSN. The online stuff doesn't worry me - it's just that everyone else has had a week to do it and I will have to read ALL their 'stuff' first so I don't make a fool of myself - like I did this morning, when I waded straight in without checking what I should have been doing. Whoops! The two days training takes place Wednesday and Thursday at Wyboston Lakes near St Neots. Next week, I have another e-Guides day in Liverpool  with Jo Kirkby. So I'll probably use Friday this week to begin preparation for that (although there has been a fair bit of interaction online, in between. I also have some work in Bradford coming up that needs preparing for, a small bit of e-Portfolio stuff to do for NIACE and I've promised some time to Rod Paley of Xtensis and to the guys at Optivote - so Friday will be busy too.

Ok, that's it for a bit now. I'm off to Turkey tomorrow for a week. We're going to my daughter's place (she and her husband Charlie share the ownership with his sister and her husband). See http://www.turkishretreat.com for more details and photographs. I've never been before, or to Turkey, so I'm really looking forward to it. Because both Sharon and I ended up working most of our holiday in Wales this year, I'm taking no technology with me at all (apart from the phone - to check out England's progress in the RU world cup on Saturday) and I won't be frequenting any cyber-bars. Warm weather clothes and a few books, that's all I'm taking.

I've made contact with all my MoleNET mentor-ships now and have two visits arranged for 29th October (both in Lancashire). I've spoken at length with the others and they seems ready - raring to go. So - that's it. I won't even e Shozu ing to Flickr because I'm not sure how much THAT would cost me!

Last night (or more exactly - yesterday evening) I received notification of the partners I would begin work with on the MoleNET project. Not partner exactly, but mainly be a critical friend of particular projects. It all seems very rushed as this was the first anyone (apart from the projects themselves of course) had heard of the final groupings. The first groupings were announced last week at the Handheld Learning Conference and were captured on Andy Black's blog (and his subsequent flickr account). I asked if I could announce this second round of successful projects today. Permission was granted as I drove into the hotel car park!

Today I have been lucky enough to present a workshop (well - 'present') at the national Regional Support Centre (RSC) Conference in Sutton Coldfield. As the workshop was 'Mobile Learning' - announcing the MoleNET projects would be very apt and quite eagerly received. The successful projects are:

Cardinal Newman (6th form - Preston)
Bolton
Gateshead
East Berkshire
Lowestoft
Havering
Chichester
Aylesbury
Brockenhurst
Regent
Accrington & Rossendale
Boston
Lewisham
South Thames

Many of these are collaborative bids and plenty of good project management skills will be needed to keep them all together. So well done everyone.

For me, today wasn't just good because the sessions were well received (I think), but it was good to see so many old friend from around the country. I even took a booking for next June from RSC-SW. Thank you everyone for making me feel so welcome and amongst friends.

It being October 15th, I suppose that I should write something about the environment! I had hoped that by now, I would have had more planned or even penned, ready to contribute to the wealth of comment which will be out there today. But I haven't and I suppose that the only thing I really feel passionate enough about to call up from nowhere - is the appalling lack of care some (many?) people have for litter. I know that litter is not what the organisers were thinking of when they planned Blog Action Day, but it really gets my goat and upsets MY environment. The canal near my house - but also quite close to Huddersfield, has just benefited from a new set of waterside apartments - built on brown belt land - a great improvement. However, the canal itself is not seen as a benefit to those who live there! Walking past recently I noticed that not only are used take-away cartons thrown into the waterway, but so are used disposable barbeques too! It's obvious that these are thrown from the balcony/patios that overlook the canal by lazy people who just don't care about anything other than themselves!

I'm  at the QIA - ALT 'e-learning - making it work' event in Nottingham. It's the opening session right now and Seb Schmoller is talking.
 
Later, I'll be facilitating two sessions (each one twice) and will write them up as I go. The venue: The National College for School Leadership in Nottingham. You approach the place down a dirty looking industrial road but then you turn a corner to find a fabulous new (still has scaffolding) building set in the countryside with a large lake. The rooms seem ok, certainly the bedroom was comfortable, if a little strange (it had an eight chair conference table in it!). The picture alongside, shows the central atrium which is very comfortable and well supplied with wireless access via BT Openzone.

Now Markos Tiris from QIA is talking. And now he's gone. The first session I'm facilitating is by MyKnowledgeMap and the ALPS project. My role is to expand the handout supplied by noting things said during the presentation. The next session, after lunch is from Bridgewater College and called 'ILT for the nervous: how an Early Years section made this journey from the 'late' to the virtual learning environment. Both these events (along with all the others, will be written up later (from mine and other facilitator notes) by Kevin Donovon.

Margaret Bennet is talking of 'Getting rid of 'e'' ... (She's Group Director: Communications and Partnerships - for lifelong learning). Although QIA isn't an 'e' organisation it is focussed. Shown us QIA's Mission. Three main areas ... Improve your Organisation: Improve Teaching and Learning; Respond to government reforms! Now talking about the Excellence Gateway (EG).  Markos is now taking us through the NTLCP (ex-Stds Unit). The programme is changing over the coming months (ties in with my meeting yesterday) and will become modular. All the big boxes are now online (he told a separate audience this in March at the NIACE Conference). Can be fully interacted with online and can be downloaded. Margaret is now showing us a 'Teacher VLE'  that they have been working on. QIA corporate site has a bid opened today for up to £5m (been launched today).

New social networking tool being launched NOW! Chief Techie is showing it to us. But actually it looks like they have just joined up all the bits we put in anyway?? So now there's a call for practitioners to start uploading their own resources. Even enthusiasts are not using the site as well as they could (research says). Now looking to make programmes more effective. Research suggests whole-institution approach works best. Many organisations fail to invest in staff development. Discussion of comments from Kinston College that suggest they are losing the 'e' and hiding the technology and focusing on good teaching and learning practice. £3.9m avaialble to develop and share good practice via EG - announcement on Becta site! That's it.

I am currently multi-tasking! It's not something men are renowned for but something I often feel the need to do. I'm in a meeting .. and the discussion (whilst interesting) is not one that I feel qualified to contribute fully to. So, I'm listening, making notes as I need AND I'm writing my blog. This is something we discussed at e-Guides training some weeks ago and as a result, it was suggested that we discuss rules for laptop use during delivered sessions (no email answering etc.) This week we did discuss it with the e-Guides, and they were very good, but as time passed they, like me, began to multi-task. I'm not sure that it's a huge problem in a group as big as this (12) as others are (probably) doing the same. However, later in the day a group leader did threaten to ask a colleague to turn her laptop around (luckily not me - or she would have been shocked to see the tee-shirt site alongside ... >

NOTE about the image ... Now you need never wonder if there's any wifi nearby. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/

So having justified my actions, I now want to have a whinge about railway food. Yes, the coffee is better than it ever was - with Ratazza, Costa and the like - but generally speaking (BIG stations apart) the cafes are truly awful. This morning I bought a fruit scone at Upper Crust on Derby Station. It was advertised as a 'buttered fruit scone' and cost £1.39! If it was indeed 'buttered' (which @ £1.39 it should have been), the quality of the 'butter' was lard-like! I had one bite and threw it away it was disgusting. My friend, travelling south via Leeds and communicating via Jaiku, had bought a sausage roll from Upper Crust which was just a greasy nasty. Come on Upper Crust - buck your ideas up.

On the subject of Jaiku - they have now been taken over by Google. What will that mean? At the moment there's no advertising on Jaiku, but will this change? I hope not - many suspect that the reason for Google's interest in their supposed move into mobile telephony. "The suggestion that Google plans to get into mobile phones was supported by the news that it had bought the Finnish firm Jaiku, which makes a mobile phone application that allows people to use instant messaging to keep track of each other's activities" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7036797.stm

Well, today was a good day! It was the first day of our e-Guide's training event and everyone (as far as we could see and with just two exceptions) went away very happy. The new programme is effectively different to that we delivered last year (and to that my co-trainer Jo, delivered last year too). However, it aims to complement the NTLCP and to support those colleagues in post 16 education that have a desire to expand their 'e' skills. The first two days are split into three parts: part one deals with the course and the personal issues involved; part two looks at the various tools and technologies involved or that could be involved and part three looks at how to implement and embed those skills amongst local colleagues.

But the real event of the day was 'dinner' - again! Jo and I had met in the bar as agreed, at 7.15pm, to go through the plan for tomorrow. At eight o'clock I tried to get us a table, but they were "busy" and we couldn't have a table until "8.30 - at the earliest" (luckily as it turned out). I have to say that neither tonight or last night, did the place look stretched - the staff are just not trained well or efficient!. So, at 8.30pm, we were shown to our table just in time for the fire alarm to go off about 8.35pm! It was nine o'clock before we were allowed back in and Jo and I decided that we didn't have enough confidence in the staff to get us fed anytime before 10.00pm - so we left and went around the corner to Est Est Est. This was once again (see my last visit) a busy place but the waiting staff were attentive and the food was good. Really good. Jo had the Sea Bass and I had a huge pizza (with olives and read as a starter) Very nice!

Getting to Liverpool on a Sunday by train, doesn't seem to be the most comfortable means of travel! When I'd first looked at the train times it had seemed such an easy thing but there is obviously a great deal of weekend work on the trans-Pennine line from Huddersfield to Manchester as all the timetables are all to cock. My train tonight (5.01pm) came in from Leeds but went out towards Halifax (not something you see much from Huddersfield) and then took the Rochdale route into Manchester Victoria. Quite odd. But, the main problem was the amount of people on the train - I could hardly squeeze onto it! And the situation didn't improve in Manchester either. For a start the only Liverpool-bound train was going via Victoria (rather than the more normal Piccadilly) and it too was full! I decided not to stand all the way to Liverpool and sat in 1st class instead. No worries.
Met Jo, my co-trainer on the platform (she'd been on the same train - but all the way from Leeds) so we shared a taxi to the Albert Dock, where our hotel is situated. We couldn't eat at the hotel before 10.00pm (because of a football match??) so after we had discussed Monday's programme we went around the corner to an Asian restaurant, where we had a delightful meal. Bed now!

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Doesn't time fly? The first week in October has flown by and it's now only two weeks to my holiday in Turkey. My daughter and her husband own a half share in a villa out there - so we're going to have a look. Watch out for pictures - although they won't be live (like Wales) as I do not intent to take any technology with me. A book (some books), some warm weather clothes and that's me done.

This week has seen me in Manchester, Newcastle and Lancaster - all for different reasons. I met Sally from the Women's Institute on Monday at the Midland Hotel. We fine tuned the course I've been writing and I got back to her that evening with my changes. I still have a couple of quizzes outstanding but hope to do these today. I was on the 06.11am train to Newcastle on Tuesday, to be there bright and early for my day's work training the staff at the Crisis - Skylight Centre in the use of their brand new interactive whiteboards. I'd been asked by an old friend; Christine McDemott (another chef, formerly of Northumberland College, now in charge of the Skylight Cafe) to come along and to show them their Smart boards. The group of tutors and staff that I worked with were brilliant. They picked it up quickly and soon got the idea of how to use the board properly. I was also shown a video of the work and the service users they get there - they disserve great credit - well done. The new Gallery on Smart version 9.7 is great. Download your copy now!

My brother Andrew is over to see us, from Australia - where he lives. So he accompanied me to Lancaster for a day out. he took the car up into Windermere and then down to Morecambe - luckily for him it was a clement day! I was shown around the new RSC-NW offices. and met of my friends up there. I'd been asked to take part in the interviewing of WBL candidates for the RSC. In the end it was a difficult choice, with all of the candidates having many strengths. Well done to the chosen candidate.

I' back in the North West next week on Monday and Tuesday when I'm delivering e-Guides again, with Jo Kirby. We're staying at the Premiere Travel Inn on Liverpool's  Albert Dock, so the food should be ok! More when we've done it. Then I'm in Nottingham for two days - one for LSN (meeting) and the other for the QIA/ALT conference, where I'm working as a facilitator. We should have the MoleNET decisions by then too.

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We bought a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking (preferred) 9 last month and had some difficulty installing it, so I wrote the the manufacturers. The machine we were installing on was fully spec'ed with 1gig of ram and a good enough processor. It did however, have Vista Home Basic installed (when it say 'did' it still has - nothing has changed) which we suspected was the problem. Nuance, the manufacturers sent us a link to download something and after a while we tried to install again. . When I say 'we' I mean Sharon mainly - I haven't got the patience. In this day and age, software shouldn't be so difficult to install. Anyway, after hours of trying Sharon came down and blamed me (like you do), so I went and tried. My short attempt resulted in the whole thing being uninstalled and a stick up your bum email being sent to Nuance.

Sharon had by now calmed down (I was still crawling up the wall) and had opened up the old Acer laptop (500meg ram, almost five years old and XP installed) and installed it without difficulty. XP you see! The whole thing has prompted me now to more than consider an Apple computer next time rather than risk anything with Vista on it. If I have to learn a new operating system and associated software - it might as well be one that works! 

I've now had the chance to go and photograph the twizzler mentioned last week. Here it is in the image above. See below for more details.

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What did I learn today?

Well for a start, I didn't know that the crossing control buttons (which say WAIT at a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing) had 'twizzlers' underneath them! I was out walking with John Rousell (author of SimDis) this morning when we ended up stood at one of the crossing points on a busy road. John said - "just feel and see if it has a twizzler" (apparently not all do, especially older versions). This helps the blind and sight impaired to know when the road is safe to cross. Traffic noise often drowns out the beeping sound we usually associate with these crossings.

If you put your hand just underneath the button, and have a good feel around you will find the knob that twizzles whenever the crossing light is green.

There is a flaw however. As we waiting for the light to go green - with my hand feeling for the knob to start twizzling, the traffic in front of me backed up - so that as the light went green (and the twizzler twizzled) there was a car in front of me. If I had been blind, I would have walked straight into it as the crossing doesn't tell me that!

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The next two days were spent at Loughborough University, being trained to become a MoleNET mentor - part of the LSN's support network for the project. It was an interesting two days and I feel to have been 'trained' - although perhaps not in the way they had planned. I found the content interesting and the reasons behind the content even more so - but my personal journey was very much aided by the presence and collaboration with (and of) friends and colleagues, new and old. Ron Mitchell, as always - quietly helpful, Brian Lambourne, feet on the ground and learner focussed, James Clay and Di Dawson, technically proficient and helpful, Lilian Soon, honest as the day is long - Mrs 'm', Geoff Stead (I always like listening to Geoff he knows SO much) and Danny Atwere, Colin Rossiney, Anne Dennis, Geoff Foot - and new colleagues. Thanks to you all.