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

17th March 2008

How on earth can a fortnight have passed since I last made a blog post. My goodness - where does time go!

March has been a hectic time with one project coming to a busy end and another beginning to fire up after some time in the doldrums. Last week saw me in Barnsley (Northern College) for a L4LW show and tell event alongside Lilian Soon and David Foord (see) on Tuesday and in Manchester then on Wednesday and Thursday (with Di Dawson most of Wednesday and at the NIACE e-Guides conference on Thursday). Di and I had met to sit down and plan two workshops we are delivering (and repeating) during April, May and June for MoleNET and Wednesday was the only time we really had had to get together. It made it easier as we had to be in Manchester anyway to stay over ready for the NIACE event. At the NIACE event, I delivered a session called 'Tagging as a Second Language' - which discussed the problems behind hurried tagging of 'stuff' online. I used Flickr images and del.icio.us bookmarks as examples. I was also asked to cover another session which Terry Loane had planned to deliver. Terry had fallen ill so I picked up his materials and ran a session on 'Voice recorder to Moodle'. This went well, due mainly to Terry's excellent preparation but some things were 'seat of the pants' for other reasons. First of all there were no voice recorders (same in my session, I'd ordered cameras, but none were to be found) - so we had to record straight to Audacity.  Also, some software which Terry had ordered was missing from the Presenter machine (it was on the other machines - I'd checked, but forgot to check the one I would use - doh!)

The NIACE event was great for all sorts of other reasons too. I'd not seen Chris Kelland of Becta for ages, but he was there and we had time to catch up. I spoke too, to Rod Paley of Xtensis about supporting them in their dissemination on NLN materials and hopefully he will get back to me in due course about how I and others like me might do this with them. Margaret Wallace of EPICT and I spoke too, about how Village e-Learning can do more EPICT work and help them to expand into FE. Amongst the many others I was able to stop and chat to (Eta, Karen, Nigel, John Traxler, Colin Gallagher, John Taylor and so on) - there were also some I could only wave to: Sorry to Paul McKean, Wendy Stevenson, Brian Lambourne, John Dalziel, Kevin C-W, Marion (ALT), Louise Jakobson and anyone else who saw me breeze by.

There has been much much more going on but time for writing it up has been scarce - even now I'm having to sign off as it's getting far too late into the evening. We're away on holiday next week and won't return until 1st April - when I suspect, I'll have to hit the ground running. I'm doing an online thing with James Clay and Lilian on the 4th - which will need practice, probably on the 3rd and we're out at a charity thing on Wednesday (2nd) evening. So watch this pace for news of all that and of our holiday in France.

      
  View my delicious bookmarks here 

View the BBC Education RSS feed here  

Links
2007
October - December
July - September
April - June
January-March
2006
2006 - all

Friends/Colleagues Darkhorse Radio

Featured Videos
Nasty Chicken
Nasty Burgers
REAL Simpsons
Singh Simpsons
Boris Johnson tackle 

Resources
Filleting fish 
**Copyright free images
 Resource page
**Student Life.

My other 'stuff'
**Copyright FREE  photo's
My MySpace blog
Googlepages
Blogspot Blog

Holidays and Gigs
 WBL e-Guides
 Emma's Wedding
LSN gigs - first
USA 

How can it be March already? I'm writing this while sat at Huddersfield Uni (another Saturday!) – where the day is devoted to ITT summer school tutors. The plan is to change the way summer school is delivered. I've been asked if I'd like to contribute to the various training events that will take place – not to undertake the summer school tutors role. But, although the day was planned to last until 3.30pm - I departed after lunch. The afternoon was to be devoted to delegates 'playing' with Moodle but over lunch I'd had a call from Emma asking if she and the girls could call round. No competition really! I arranged to meet Cheryl - the summer school lead next week and left to spend a delightful afternoon with my daughter and grandchildren.

This week has been a slog – enjoyable; but hard work nevertheless. On Monday, I went over to Leeds to meet one of my L4LW colleges and to complete their mid-project report. Then on Tuesday, I spent some time in Preston at Cardinal Newman 6th Form College compiling their mid-term MoleNET report. Like my other MoleNET projects, Cardinal Newman are behind with their procurement. The ASUS EEE UMPC, is central to their project and they (like others) are being constantly let down by suppliers. I'm sure that there are huge international reasons for this but procurement is becoming a problem. Huddersfield are waiting for their ASUS kit and Gateshead are waiting for the HP iPaqs. Having said all that - I was able to forward an email I'd received from e-Buyer - saying that they had stock of the items. We'll have to wait and see if the colleges can take up the challenge.

Friday saw me at the National Science Learning Centre, to deliver a 'this is ILT' session to lecturers attending a hair and beauty science conference (over two days). For me this went ok - but I intend to re-think the delivery for the next one in May. I'd been asked to give an overview of what's out there for hair and beauty (ILT-wise) and to do a bit of mobile learning and web 2.0. As a result I planned a full two hour delivery which on reflection (although I still have to see the feedback) was too PACKED. Of the 30 delegates, not one had seen or used Forms or Comments before and although some had seen the NLN materials, not many seemed to be using them. Most had not seen the round 3 (really good) stuff. So - next time, I'm going to show them a little less but give them time to have some hands on - hopefully not in a computer room (they had laptops on the tables in the excellent lecture theatre). Forms and comments will be one play-time thing, searching the NLN site, will be another, looking at SimDis a third and the fourth will probably be looking at some other resources sites they will find useful.

On my way back from York, I had lunch with Lilian and Leah (Lia?) in Selby. Lils had suggested the local garden centre and we met there. After lunch she recommended that I buy dinner next door at the Indian (cold food only) take away next door. Which I did and which was excellent. The food was tremendous and all I had to do was warm it up. The family come from Gujerat in India and the difference between the food from them and the usual Bengali 'Indian' food was marked. Very very nice and well worth a detour if you're in the Selby area. It's on the A63 just off the A19 as it leaves Selby for York on the (1/4 mile towards Cliffe).

I went for my usual walk with John on Saturday and it hurt! Because it was Gavin's 30th birthday party that night, John was meeting Sandy in Meltham at lunchtime, so that's where we walked. But it's been a while since we did that sort of circuit and the wooded hill-side walk really tested by soft and flabby leg muscles. I'd thought I was ok - we often walk 5 - 8 miles on a Saturday but this week the circuit had lots of extra ups and downs in it. I could hardly walk on Monday. Then, on Saturday night - at Gav's birthday party I agreed to join John and Jim on a bike ride in June - Morecambe to Whitby ...... in a day!! I don't think so.

Lots of my old students were around on Saturday night and it was great to see them. James - who had terrible self esteem when I first met him (now eight years ago) is holding down a full time job at a motorway service station and still (three years since I last met him) has the same girlfriend. What a great night - seeing the students, older but still with problems, making their way in the world is great. It was also great to see some old colleagues - like Sarah and Mark.

Plenty of visits and interviews again this week. I even used the Busbi to record one interview at Bishop Burton (b.t.w. Busbi = Disgo at Currys). I've recorded a real mixture of project promotions - from a 10 second 'this is what we're doing' to a three minute 'this is what we're doing and this is why and this is what the benefit will be' - brilliant - thank you all. Learning for Living and Work (L4LW) is now entering its end phase and NIACE's OLAS and COLS projects are also coming to an end. MoleNet is due to pick up again just before and then after Easter. So, hopefully more time to write the blog again soon.
 

I've been using my new ASUS EEE quite a lot this week. I think it is a remarkably good tool for the price. To overcome the text size on screen, I tend to set the OpenOffice.org Writer to view 'web view' and then increase the zoom level to 150%. This allows me to type without scrolling sideways and without squinting. I still catch the return button instead of the r/h 'shift' (which is the same size as all the main keys – as opposed to the l/h 'shift' which is slightly bigger). Many reviews suggest that the keyboard is a little small but for a two finger typist like me – it's not a problem. I've spent time too, using it with my Gyro Suite and a monitor. Works brilliantly. Web cam – ok! Sound recorder – ok! OpenOffice.org Presenter – v.good. What else can I say? A big improvement (and this may come with time) would be audio and video editing software, but I understand the Lilian might have cracked that one.   Fingers crossed. I've also managed to go through the process of making the ASUS recognise my Vodafone 3G modem - which now makes it truly mobile.

I also bought a Busbi digi-cam this week @ £29.99 from Amazon. Again – brilliant. It saves .avi files and works on 2 x AA batteries, has three buttons: on/off; record; play. The quality is at least as good as a mobile phone's, it's instant and works on both windows and ASUS/Linux. It's cheap and it's good - spread the word. That's it!

We spent a good bit of time being productive in the sunshine last weekend. The garage is now half a trailer load lighter and my mum and dad are visited! That sounds awful, but I I decided to walk over to their house on Sunday because I'd not been over for a while due to everything else that's going on. They both seem well, except my dad had (quite secretly) had a small operation last week and I suspect that he still has a little hangover from the anaesthetic. Since then, it's been very cold at nights and the days haven't cleared much either. The picture shows our Willow tree today. Yesterday, I drove to Sheffield and was hardly warm the whole way.

Tomorrow I have to go to Beverley again, for the L4LW project. I've already done three second visits in Leeds this week and by weekend will have done another four. In Beverley I'll visit East Riding College and Bishop Burton College, then on Friday I'm visiting Huddersfield and Wakefield Colleges. The visits this week require me to recruit one minute presentations from each project. At Park Lane on Monday, I was pretty much able to edit and complete whilst there (just a little finishing required) but with the other two colleges I had to bring the work away with me. Which puts pressure on the other things I have to do. Hey ho.

was strange yesterday. I took a day off to give Sharon what I thought would be the best present for Valentine's day - me! It is half term here so I'd originally thought we could go out for lunch. However, the restaurant I'd hoped to book was full - so we discussed various other options. In the end we decided upon a greasy spoon breakfast up the A62 just out of Marsden and afternoon tea - 'somewhere'. Somewhere, ended up being at Botany Bay near Chorley. It was 'ok' but not what  we'd envisaged. This required the addition of a special evening meal or Olives with Feta and super crusty bread - followed by Raspberries and ice cream. Well - we liked it!

We'd found our way to Blackpool after breakfast. It was very foggy and overcast in Yorkshire so we followed the sun and ended up circling Manchester and shooting up the M61.

It was great to see that they were digging up the promenade and re-laying the tram tracks. I've thought for a while that it was about time that Blackpool began to take an interest and pride in itself and with the works taking place, it looks like they have started. However there is still a lot to do. We stopped at Bispham, right alongside the Norbreck Castle Hotel, to see the shipwreck up the beach towards Fleetwood and parked alongside a couple of buildings that just shouldn't be there. They were wrecks themselves. Boarded up shells - one an old pub which will never see a cellar full of beer again. The most interesting thing about the shipwreck was the amount of people on the beach - more than anywhere else up or down the Golden Mile (five miles!).

My Asus EEE arrived yesterday too. This is not the one I'd ordered in January from the same supplier as the Huddersfield project - this is still nowhere to be seen, but from e-Buyer. I'd met two guys from e-Buyer on Tuesday at the Red Halo demonstration in Wakefield. They said that they hoped to have some units in by the end of the week and I scoffed! However, Roy phoned me on Wednesday and offered one at a good price - so I said 'yes'. I think it's fabulous. Listen.
 

we're rolled into February without hardly a pause for breath. I had a good trip to York on Monday - I always like visiting York. The weather was fairly fine and the project I visited seemed to be really on the ball. I saw some encouraging use of technology and an inspiring vision. Whilst in York, I took the opportunity to stock up on Fat Rascals from Betty's (and a Yorkshire Curd Tart and a Florentine - not all for me you understand!!). I started on the write-up when I got back and finished the first draft on Tuesday.

Following my trip to Bradford College on Tuesday I went and had a curry at the Kashmir. I don't get the chance to come here as often as I once did, so to have really hot pakoras, a keema spinach and chappatis - was a real change. Lovely. The rest of the week has rather moulded into one and it's quite a relief that I'm not working much longer today. I'm going our for lunch with Sharon and some friends.

Dave Foord, Lilian Soon and I have been working together on L4LW project funded by the LSC and managed by the RSC-YH. We each have a number of colleges to visit and support in their procurement and incorporation of 'e' resources for learners with any form of difficulty. Many of the projects have gone for site-wide licences for assistive technologies such as Read and Write Gold or Jaws. Others have looked at using mobile devices, specialist hardware or small items of hardware that enable learners to provide evidence of learning or to assist them in their learning.

The thrust of the project is to enable learners with difficulties to better prepare for entry to the world of work or support in that environment (Learning for Living and Work!). Many of the projects have had to have that exact qualification explained to them during the first interview. Because FE has been starved of cash for so long, there is a temptation to think that this is a chance to 'catch up' - and I understand that; but when project cash is won, it should be spent and used according to the project objectives. This is accepted by all but some work has been required to make sure that money isn't spent in a silly fashion. As a result, some of the outcomes from across the region should benefit future workers tremendously.

This week I have to begin my COLS work for NIACE - in York tomorrow. On Tuesday I have to make my final first round visit (to Bradford College) on behalf of L4LW. On Wednesday I will be accompanying Richard Brook from the Huddersfield  MoleNET project (at short notice) to Shipley, to discuss their MoleNET research objectives (I'm speaking with Carol Savill-Smith about this tomorrow). On Thursday we all meet to report back on phase one of L4LW at the RSC in Leeds, following which Lils, Dave and I will probably have another Thai meal (see January 7th). Straight after that I'm meeting Khawar in the Queens hotel to prepare for our OLAS consultancy work the following Monday. On Friday, I'm having the day off so that Sharon and I can join friends for lunch in Ripponden (can't remember name of restaurant). And sometime during the week, I have to finalise two bids for work in the region! Phew.

I've been much remiss with the blog recently. Work has been so busy that I just haven't had the time to keep it up to date. For much of the last two weeks I've been out and about, which means my time on a computer has been limited. But - never mind.

This week started with a trip to Sunderland to meet the Gateshead MoleNET team - the first real time that they had come together as a group: managers and champions together. Three large colleges in the north east; Sunderland, Newcastle and Gateshead (project leaders) are working together to explore and exploit the use of PDAs in sports science and science field work. The meeting was, for me as well as the tram, a real success based as it was on sound planning and stated outcomes. Everyone had something to contribute and (hopefully) took something away with them. When I go again, I have the official 'milestone' report to collate for MoleNET but I will also join them in a training session where items discussed today (use of video on PDA, authoring video for PDA etc) will be delivered. Last Friday, I attended the Huddersfield consortium meeting. Seven colleges share the project here (led by Huddersfield) and it can be hard to get everyone around the same table at the same time. But, all credit to Richard Brook, the project manager; he managed it this time. There have been a couple of near misses in the past but all college PM's were in attendance - which led to a lively and decisive meeting.

On Tuesday I was at the NetSkills base in Newcastle University. I was there to deliver days one and two of an e-Guides training course for NIACE. My co-trainer this time was Simon Fitzpatrick. We had a ball! We had nineteen trainees from around the north east and somehow, the way they gelled together, made this one of the best sessions I've done.

We'd both met one or two of the delegates previously, which helped. Both Linda and Denise had been amongst my earliest e-Mentoring contacts years ago when I was an NLN ILT Subject Mentor. The first 'big' event I'd done, for Hairdressers, was with the LSN at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester. This would be about October 2002 and Denise was certainly there. She arranged for me to get into her college; Northumberland College, later that year to present the NLN materials to her colleagues (which is when I think I first met Linda). They are both still energised by e-Learning and showed me perfect examples of wikis they are using with their year 11 students. 15 year olds are not the easier of learners to motivate in F.E. but the examples they showed me were both exhilarating and informative. I can't give direct links, because you have to be invited, but they are using PBWiki to great effect. Well done girls. Linda Richardson was also there - Linda had been part of our team last year, when we presented gigs for LSN on their ITQ programme. She is an ITQ guru.

At the end of the session, a number of trainees came and thanked us for providing the "best training session" they'd ever been on. It might be an exaggeration - but it's nice to hear nevertheless.

Most of the rest of the time has been spent touring West Yorkshire supporting the Living for Learning and Work programme (L4LW) for the RSC-YH. I'll write a bit more about that next time maybe - but for now I must get some work done. Thanks for reading.

It's been a strange weekend. That's probably because I was travelling back from Milton Keynes most of yesterday - but today has just 'gone'. Sharon has been in her office designing a new leaflet for EPICT. We've decided that it really is time we did something about it now and I suggested; given the amount of work I've got on right now, that she would take the marketing lead. While she's done that, I've moved all the Christmas things from the conservatory to their 'home' in the summer house. We hardly ever use is as a summer house partly because it's full of stuff - but also because we never have a 'summer'! I've pottered about, watched the 'live' version of '2 pints of lager' (which was cut-off at the end because I haven't mastered the new hard disk recorder yet).

I also managed to finally get Shozu working on my phone again. Regular readers will know that I've had a number of phones over the last two months but that Shozu has been a feature of each one. This time he application wouldn't load until today - and I managed to send a picture of Walton Hall (where Khawar and I met the OLAS folk on Monday). That made me happy! (Little things?)

I'm in Milton Keynes at the moment. I'm setting off back home at lunchtime, but for now I'm still here. I'd come down yesterday to meet Di Dawson at a nearby Express by Holiday Inn. DawsonLoane, Di's partnership with Terry Loane, have recently been awarded a contract to build a Moodle for the WI and my earlier work for them (the WI) will be the first course to go onto it. So we needed to go over that. But we also needed to talk about our roles as MoleNET Mentors and to write up a workshop that may be presented by us later in the year. The subject will be m-pedagogy. Whether that becomes the title or not remains to be seen, but our goals are to underpin the reasons for the use of mobile devices and the ways they can be used to enrich and enhance (there's the 'e') learning experiences. Part of our agreed goal will be to slide accessibility into the day without it being seen as a separate subject. Sadly, accessibility (especially of mobile devices) is misunderstood and often ignored. We hope to build it into the day with a positive slant.

Accessibility is at the root of the L4LW project that Lilian, Dave Foord and I are carrying out for the RSC YH. I started my visits this week and after talking to the first few colleges, I've realised that my (our) role will possibly become one that shouts out the learners voice. The project aims (the LSC aims) to help disadvantaged (however that disadvantage might manifest itself) learners with their journey into employment. But because the project is 'capital' based - a lot of 'kit' is being bought and it's appropriateness and use might need to be better explained. But we'll see. When I've talked to all my projects and when Lils, Dave and I can get together and chat we may see if there's a common denominator.  Next week is a really busy 'visiting' week and the week after that I'm back on e-guide duty - in Newcastle.

I met Khawar Iqbal on Monday just before our meeting with Yorkshire and Humberside OLAS learning managers in Wakefield. We're both working for NIACE to support senior managers to build their e-Learning capacity in prisons. City College Manchester is one of the biggest (probably the biggest) providers of OLAS learning and the work we do will be based around their e-Strategy.

With one thing and another, it's taken until today to really get into the RSC-YH work. The letters, for successful bids hadn't been sent in time to start any earlier and the MoleNET resources linking work took much longer than I'd thought. As did the SLC work. Now that my tutees are writing more and more in their reflective journals and ILP's there's much more time required on-site.

I'm off now - tea's ready (cup of) - I'll wrap up over the weekend

We went to Wales on Thursday last (3rd) to stay with Rosie and Steven for a few days before beginning work in earnest today. Whilst in Wales, we visited the Falcondale Hotel in Lampeter for a very nice (but expensive) meal (see foodie blog). Other than that, we didn't do a whole lot - I do like it in that part of Wales - despite the cold.

Tomorrow I have to catch up on all my RSC reading (at least half a day), with my online commitment to SLC's and with MoleNET. I have been keeping up with these last two over the Christmas period, but in a mainly passive way. I now need to kick back in with a more positive approach. There are a number of resources I still need to link-up on the MoleNET site and yet others I have found and need to explore. The rest of the week will be taken up with beginning the RSC project (can't start until after Wednesday), contacting my SLC tutees, planning MoleNET initiatives, meeting Khawar and preparing for next week, when my first OLAS visit takes place - with Khawar.

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

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

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.

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!