Sugden’s posterous

Last week I was involved in a MoLeNET ‘boot camp’. The premise was simple: we all get together and thrash out pedagogical issues which are to be included as part of a resource/activity creation tool, which is being developed on behalf of the MoLeNET community. 

We spent two days sat around our laptops in a smallish room at the excellent Novotel in Leeds. Although this post isn’t about the food, it would be a crime to mention the hotel and not mention the food. As always the lunchtime buffet was a delight, with a huge variety of seafood, cold meats and salads to start with and the usual carvery type fayre for mains – but served up in an interesting way. The first day we also had bacon sandwiches (with croissant, ham, preserves and fruit), which was a delightful surprise. Thank you Novotel.

Anyway – they also brew a passable (not great, but passable) coffee. And there’s the rub: we were all free to get tea and coffee whenever we liked. Each morning we had a selection of biscuits to soak up the drink and on both afternoons we were presented with a selection of cakes and buns. So the tables in our small rooms gradually filled up with the usual long meeting detritus.

So let this story be a warning to everyone – cakes crumbs and coffee do not go well with laptops.

We’d almost finished our two-day meeting and I was returning from the bathroom to begin packing up, when a cup of coffee was accidently knocked over my (I still think of it as new) MacBook Pro. I think I went into an instant ‘oh it’s only a keyboard’ form of stasis. It had never seemed a big thing before, keyboards on college machines had always been the cheapest of the cheap and any lasting damage from spills could only be caused to the PC itself, often hidden right away under the desk or sat at the back of the desk – a fair way from potential damage. But the Mac (or any laptop) is much more vulnerable than that – potentially £1,200 of vulnerability.

Luckily, the MoLeNET Mentors are such a stellar team that they instantly sprang into action. Instructions were being shouted from all over the room: the main one being ‘remove the battery’. I’d already pulled the power cable and the machine was by now being held upside down so the ‘remove the battery’ instruction was probably a laptop saver, as I would not have thought to do that. Paper towels and serviettes were coming from all over the place as colleagues rushed to help and the mess was eventually cleaned up. Apart from one person’s ashen face, my otherworldly stasis and an upside down MacBook Pro with an overwhelming smell of coffee, things soon settled down to the normal goodbyes and see-you-laters.

I was advised not to use the machine again for a minimum of three days to let it dry out completely, before being allowed to cross the fingers of one hand whilst turning it on with the other. All the advice was coming from people I trust; long-term Mac users, so my stasis would continue into Sunday – only 48 hours, but my fingers WERE already very tightly crossed.

When I finally turned on the MacBook Pro, it worked. I opened as many windows as I thought fair and breathed a slow sigh of relief when nothing ‘blew’.

Then, later, I noticed that the keys were sticky. We’d wondered whether the coffee had had sugar in it, but not knowing whose it was made that impossible to know – I’d hoped not, as the sugar would have made it nigh on impossible to fix without some kind of surgery. But all of the keys eventually came unstuck and now, 24 hours later, they seem to be working fine.

I’d looked on the Internet for sticky keys advice and two helpful addresses were sent to me by Simon Finch on Twitter: http://bit.ly/6SATq8 and http://bit.ly/4qiBmw. Apparently you can carefully lift off the keys (which I didn’t do) – James Clay suggested cleaning them with baby wipes; Mick Mullane said cotton buds and distilled water. In the end I loosened the sticky keys by tapping them and then blowing compressed air across the keypad. I’m sure that this practice is frowned upon as it may move debris into more corruptible areas of the machine – but it worked for me.

So three things to say as I wrap up this post

• There are many sites out there aimed at helping you in times of technological stress:
• Thank you to all those of you who volunteer to help people in need – Simon, James, Mick – thank you.

and

Don’t leave coffee (or tea, or biscuits, or food/drink of any kind – and while we’re on it – all pets, young especially - but older are not immune to walking all over the keyboard) anywhere near your laptop!

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(I'm posting this via Posterous because Wordpress is playing up today. I'll re-arrange the pictures when I can)

Returning to work this week has not quite gone as planned. The snow that came just before Christmas didn’t really go and then at the beginning of this week it returned with a vengeance.

This time however, it came in waves and eventually covered the whole country.

Sitting behind my desk and watching Twitter reports come in from all over has been an interesting experience. Some local councils have taken to announcing school closures on Twitter which for many has been a real boon. Some still use phone/text ‘trees’ to inform staff and students of closure and others the local radio. The more enlightened use all methods.

There has been some debate about how soon schools (etc) closed “too soon” say some, “not early enough” say others – so what is the right answer?

Well, I wonder if there isn’t just the one answer but certainly, just because the school closes – learning doesn’t need to stop. How many institutions are set up and prepared for closures like this? Not as many as there should be, I’ll bet. Last year, when snow brought the country to a stop (albeit not for so long as this year) we discussed the possibilities on James Clay’s e-Learning Stuff podcast [Link – full URL at bottom of page] and noted that there are many options open to teachers and learners alike. Ideally, the institution would have prepared contingency measures for staff and learners (with the collaboration of staff and learners) to follow. This issue was also raised by Col Hawksworth this week on his MindMug blog.

But how many institutions actually have the foresight to prepare in this way?

With no contingency in place, my wife sent texts to her learners and told them that ideas for work would be posted on the Moodle and that she would be there – on chat – during the class time. But no one came. There is no culture amongst the learners (in Sharon’s case full time nursery workers/managers who were probably too busy with extra children anyway) to visit online learning activities at times like these.

So, how do we change that culture? How do we prepare our colleagues AND our learners for ‘snow time’?

I believe that we have to get them all thinking about the use of audio and video for instruction and assessment as a matter of course and to use online collaboration tools as part of their day-to-day college, school (whatever) life. We need to wear the technologies and associated techniques like comfortable coats!

There are plenty of choices out there – either paid for or free, and it only takes a little imagination to use them.

[the list is taken and adapted from Jame’s podcast notes – with thanks]

·  Ping.fm which can be used to send the same message to various micro-blogging and picture services.

·  Spinvox a service which converts audio into text. Allows you to phone into your blog, convert voicemail to SMS, and much more.

·  Audioboo and iPadio are both simple tools to make podcasts, by just using a telephone.

·  Dim Dim is a free to use online conference and presentation tool.

·  Elluminate another online presentation tool

·  Instant Presenter as used for the MoLeNET and NIACE online conferences and activities.

·  Oovoo which is an alternative to Skype and can be used for four way video conferencing.

·  Ustream is a online video broadcasting service.

Also see James Clay's 'Top Ten Tools of 2009' for more useful tools.

Last year's e-Learning Stuff podcast.

http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/e-learning-stuff-podcast-012-its-snow-joke/

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#lovesprouts

Having prepared your sprouts ala Twitter:

My perfect recipe for Sprouts this Christmas.

1) First of all arrange for all sprout haters 2B out of the house. #lovesprouts

2) Trim outer leaves; put one deep cut into root (no need for cross). Place pan of water on stove to boil #lovesprouts

3) When water boils, add a litte salt (stuff your arterial thrombosis) and the sprouts - boil for one minute. #lovesprouts

4) Remove from boiling water: immerse in cold (preferbly iced) water. #lovesprouts. Now - 3 versions for completion

Version 1 - plain

Cook dinner. As you start serving (I suppose you'll have to allow everyone back in the house now - Mmmm) anyway, as you start serving, slowly melt some butter in a pan and add the par-cooked sprouts as they begin to sizzle, lower the heat and cover with a lid for maybe 3-5 minutes. Serve. You should have lovely crunchy (or JUST past crunchy), delicious sprouts. If your guests suggest they are not soggy enough - remove them from the house and don't let them darken your doorstep again.

Version 2 - Tourangelle

Make a white sauce (just make one - this isn't a cookery course). Copy Version 1 above but with two slight changes: 1 - add a little crushed garlic to the butter and 2 - add the white sauce as you serve the sprouts. Super delightfully delicious.

Version 3 - A meal in itself.

This time you need some chunks of smoked bacon or ham (sliced rashers will do) and some walnuts (no other nut - just walnuts). Melt some butter (or duck fat - yummy) and cook the bacon/ham. When cooked and about to begin browning, add the sprouts for 3-5 minutes and then the blanched and peeled walnuts (look it up - the peeling is not essential for me, but the blanching probably is). Drain, serve. Actually - for this one, youprobably don't need guests, just sit alone with a pint of cold beer and a chunk of bread and ENJOY.

Merry Christmas.

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Well, it was my birthday on Monday. Celebrations started on Friday last when Sharon took me to Leeds for the night. We'd decided to go on Friday because many of the Last Minute hotels in Leeds were booked up on Saturday. Even our recently favourited Ibis.

We stayed at the Hilton which was surprisingly dour and second rate. Sharon worried constantly about the 1" plus gap beneath the fire door but I had more positive views about the likelihood of fire anyway (Positive in the sense that there wouldn't be one). We had no towels and two phone calls plus a face to face request at reception failed to make these appear. In the end I had to visit the housekeepers myself (as they 'sorted' a room down the corridor). Then having been out and bought a bottle of wine, we noticed that there were no glasses! Sharon sorted that one with the same housekeepers. And, to finish, the room was noisy - all night. Cheap but hardly cheerful.

  We had no luck with our planned meal either, at Strada, Red Chilli or La Tasca as they all professed to have hour long waiting lists - but this turned out to be a good thing as we ended up at Anthony's, one of the finest restaurants in the north of England. I suspect that this was down to timing: At 9.15pm they had probably 'sat' all their bookings and could see just enough room for two more. I believe that an hour earlier our cold call would have received a 'no'. The food was delightful. Each morsel had flavour, taste and texture and the 'service' was unobtrusive - which is, in itself a delight and far from the normal "is everything ok?" you get as you sit there with a mouth full of food, listening to your co-diner tell you something really interesting. All restaurants should take a leaf out of Anthony's book and teach their waiters to hover - wait - watch - be invited to talk.

On Saturday, we had a nice relaxed breakfast at Bagel Nash. Their coffee turned out to be the best I've tasted in England this year and coupled with an 'everything' bagel (with butter and jam) was a great surprise. We went to Gill and Tony's on Saturday night, a last minute invitation which, once again, turned out to be gem. We're always relaxed in their company and it was a nice addition to a stretching birthday weekend. Emma and Charlie brought the girls around on Saturday afternoon - which is always  nice. Ben and Shiv came around on Sunday. It's so great to see my kids from time to time - but like the old song by Harry Chapin suggests http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH46SmVv8SU time is always tight.

Then I began one of the busiest weeks of recent months. On my actual birthday, Monday, I travelled to London to meet my colleagues and friends before our delivery of the Advanced e-Guide/PDA programme Day 2 on Tuesday. I went early so that  could attend the MoLeNET event being held at the Apple Store on Regent Street. I learned lots of things here - one of which I will pursue at some time in the future - the iPhone accessibility features. I think I need to reflect on the week a little more.

Anyway - many many thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings and best wishes. I like to think that my electronic replies of gratitude reached you - but as I can never be sure: Thanks you again. :-)

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OK - I'm finally irritated enough to comment on this.

I love my MacBook Pro. Everything about it is 'fab' - except its simple refusal to recogniZe English spelling of words. I know that i can add the word in question to my dictionary BUT WHY SHOULD I? Microsoft allow me the luxury of choosing my native language - why can't the (super talented) hippies in San Francisco do the same?

The letter zed (zee????) has no place in realise; itemise; criticise (they even have to change the 'z' to an 's' in criticism!!) and so on.

Get a life chaps and chapettes at Apple - give us our language back!

David

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We’re at the end of what really is day two, but is officially day one
now. The Improving Language and Culture with ICT course has started
well.

On Thursday, we’d heard that there was to be a right-wing English
Defence League rally in Leeds on Saturday with the inevitable
opposition rally occurring at the same time. Because our visitors were
coming to Leeds to witness and learn more about British culture (and
given that the postmen and local refuse collectors were striking
anyway) we decided that as the Latvians had arrived a day early, we
would ask them to visit York on Saturday instead of Leeds! This turned
out to have been a good plan because the two that did go to York had a
brilliant time. The third Latvian went to Bradford and enjoyed herself
too – the only problem being that we’re spending a day in Bradford
this Tuesday. Never mind.

So that was three participants sorted – but the rest were arriving at
various times in the day. Only one, from Germany, was affected and
then, only because the police had put a ring around the railway
station, that prevented taxis from operating out of there. The poor
man had to walk all the way to our hotel, with his luggage, not
understanding why there were no taxis!

Sharon and I arrived mid-afternoon.

We first went to Leeds Metropolitan University to drop off all the
tools and equipment we will need on Monday through until Friday and
then to the Novotel in Leeds, where we had our first meeting today.
They knew we were coming today, when we called in last week to check
and they knew who we were on yesterday when we came along with all our
‘stuff’ for Sunday (today) – but today (Sunday), they had no idea who
we were (but that’s another story and one that a stern voice and no
nonsense but polite attitude took five minutes to sort out). Then we
arrived at the Ibis, where we are to stay for eight (8!!) days.

We’d arranged to meet everyone at 7.00pm for dinner at 7.30pm – at the
Ibis. Which was ok, but fairly confusing because no one had met anyone
else. Luckily I have a distinctive visage and was able to attract
people from all over Europe to our table. There were fourteen of us
for dinner and as it was Halloween (another story), a special menu
too. So the meal went ok and the group got on well. Four people were
still traveling as we went to bed.

Breakfast was nice and relaxed but the weather had changed. Outside it
was pouring down. Torrential rain followed by strong winds was the
story of the day. Everyone was drenched by the time we got to the
Novotel. We’d planned that everyone would introduce themselves first
and then tell us a little more about their countries by means of a
newspaper collage. But most of them didn’t bring their newspapers to
the Novotel. So we moved on to the ‘what do you think England is, what
do you think the English are, what do you think about English culture’
activity. We were investigating preconceptions and asked the group to
mix themselves up to reach a common understanding of ‘England’. This
turned out to be a brilliant get-to-know-each-other activity that
highlighted some real stereotyping. The idea is that we re-visit the
activity again next Saturday and see how things have (or have not –
gulp) changed.

We spent the afternoon at The Armouries (after another stern voice and
no nonsense but polite attitude with the taxi company). Now we’re
preparing to go out into Leeds for a communal dinner – at La Tasca!

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Further to the post at: http://blog.midchesh.ac.uk/coolstuff/ kindly posted by Alan Carr, I'd like to add a few notes for Office 2007 users.

To enable and access Macros you need to enable the Developer Toolbar. I can't remember 'exactly' how I did this but first of all Click on the Office Button and then PowerPoint Options. It was somewhere around here (anyone who can be more exact please reply and remind us)

Once the Developer Toobar is installed you can click on it and access the Macro Security button. By default this is set at 'no macros' and you will need to change this to make Alan's instructions work. Once you've changed the Macro Security re-open the file you've downloaded following Alan's instructions and click on 'Macros'. 

To get the folder's address; locate your folder and right-click its name in the address bar - choose 'Copy Address as Text' and paste this into the dialogue box presented when you follow Alan's instructions. Don't forget the / forward slash.

Many thanks to Alan for sending this through - it's an interesting and easy way to present photos. My first PPT created this way was only 1.7meg and there were about 20 pictures - but beware, they could be much much bigger files created this way.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8299362.stm

I've just read the above - which I saw posted on Twitter by Kathy Boyer @kathymboyer and I do wonder if this is something that affects us all in one way or another.

Whilst on holiday this year, I blogged extensively - http://dsugdenholidays.wordpress.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsugden/sets/72157621427475884/ Prior to starting my http://eduvel.wordpress.com blog, I blogged for almost five years on my http://www.village-e-learning.co.uk/blog.htm blog page. I recently noted that I have been blogging for ten years http://eduvel.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/10-years-of-blogging/

I think I am a blogger.

But since Jaiku died (did Google kill Jaiku by neglect?) and since I took up with Twitter (which is only half as functional as Jaiku ever was or Friendfeed still is - 'for now'), I've found myself searching for the quick post. Which is what micro-blogging is all about. Reading the 140 character maximum post on Twitter has been like a drug. So much so that having finally made Tweetdeck work for me, I have a fourth column showing my Facebook news wall (or something similarly unintuitively named), which updates me on the most banal of things my 'friends' are doing. It repeats their tweets, it tells me how far they have got with the 'I've a Zombie Warrior in my garden' game or that they have thrown a sheep at me. I hate Facebook. But still it's there - my fourth column - and I tell myself it's there because it keeps me in touch with both of my 30 something kids; what my 18 year old steppy is up to; what my ex-students are doing, playing, drinking etc. But - WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW?

I can phone my kids (I can visit them - they visit me), I can knock on Betony's door, she's only upstairs, I never bothered before Twitter/Facefeed what my ex-students were up to and I managed quite well. But now, I'm constantly checking what he/she/they has/have said and no longer blog like I used to. On the upside I still learn a lot from my friends on Twitter and hopefully my contributions to that genre of community practice are valued - but Facebook? I'm in the process of killing one account - I wonder if I should strangle the other too?

b.t.w. - when I say Jaiku is dead - I mean mortally wounded. When I say 'for now' after Friendfeed, I mean it has now merged with Facebook - so it's only a matter of time before it too starts struggling to breath.

David

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