Saturday, July 28, 2007

Dunwich Dynamo something for the weekend ! Plus update

Well when your all asleep in your beds Saturday I am doing the Dunwich Dynamo again !
Its 200km bike ride through the night from London to Dunwich . It isnt for the faint hearted it is for the slightly mad !

http://www.londonschoolofcycling.co.uk/dunwich.html

a quote that describes it thought not from me

"Somewhere during the night you will hear a voice say, "Why am I doing this? I am never doing this again!" Look forward to this voice. Welcome it. Laugh at it. Embrace it. Look forward to hearing it again next year. Just know that it will come and that you will ride past it and be stronger when it fades into the shadows."

-- Chris Tirpak,


I have heard the voice I have laughed at it and I am back for the 5th time and weather forecast is for rain in the early hours.

"No sleep till the coast"

Dunwich Dynamo 2007 survivor

116 miles in the rain for all but the last hour and what rain ! 9hrs 12 minutes on the bike 12.86 miles an hour . Good pace 12.8 for first 64 then a bit faster but under 13.00 for last 52. The food non stop well I did 5 cups of tea coffee with sugar to aviod the hypothermia setting ( no I am not kidding).

See the photostream

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Great to arrive at the Suffolk coast in proper sunshine. Trainee dynamo rider Linden aged 8 did last two miles . followed by a breakfast ( full English of course ) and a swim .

The most challenging yet ? Will I be back ?




I heard those voices mentioned at the earlier quote I laughed at them as the true imposters they are !!

BTW did the ride on my only bike a Dawes discovery 301 steel framed workhorse which I love. Should I go for a new bike next year or should I keep with tradition !

Answer to both questions YES ! See you at the dynamo 18th July 2008

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning outnow

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is recently published with some interesting stuff from old Mlearning crew and those up and coming new faces great stuff.Can be viewed downloaded at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/29

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Oxford Internet Survey 2007 now published

The Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) found that with two-thirds of Britons online, the poor, the old and the less educated are still losing out.

this yearly report is worth looking at and seeing the trends as the world wide web after its birth in the early 90's heads towards its late teen's. Download report at http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/oxis/OxIS2007_Report.pdf
download 2005 report at http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/oxis/OxIS2007_Report.pdf
interesting to contrast the two.
read about the background to Oxford internet surveys http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/

Future Lab event Why Don’t You…? Supporting innovative approaches in education

30th 31st October Immrasat in London

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/events/listing/why_dont_you


If we are to move towards a more personalised education system, then we need to support a wide range of innovators in education. This event will explore the conditions, tools and strategies that support innovation, focusing on teacher practice and the design and development of digital learning resources that support new approaches to learning and teaching.

Through a mix of inspirational presentations and hands-on activities, it has been designed to more specifically address issues such as:

  • What tools are available to enable teachers to move towards more personalised approaches to teaching and learning?
  • How can we innovate to respond to the changing needs of learners in a digital society?
  • What examples of innovative practice are there in the UK?
  • How can we encourage teachers to apply more innovative and creative uses of digital learning resources in UK schools that are suitable to learners' needs?
  • How can we foster a culture of innovation in education?
  • At policy level, how can we facilitate and encourage these innovative practices in order to create a climate which actively fosters this shift?
I am running a session called

BLOG OFF: these Web 2.0 tools will never make it into the learner experience

This workshop involves a tour of some Web 2.0 tools that are used by learners, and issues such as barriers to teaching staff deploying these tools to support learning will be examined. The workshop will be themed between rapid delivery sessions and a chance for participants to create artefacts.

see my bio at
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/events/listing/why_dont_you/speakers

but whats more scary are the other speakers:

Donald Clark
Shaa Wasmund
Lizbeth Goodman, SMARTLab
Andy Black, Becta
Trevor Baylis OBE
Eric Rosenbaum, MIT
Mark Pearce
Natalie Jeremijenko

really grown up stuff .

32GB USB memory stick

Toshiba expands TransMemory lineup and readies 32GB Limited Edition



Now is this the start of mature phase of the revolution started in the early 90's by USB flash drives. It also allows ready boost a odd vista trick to boost vista performance by using some the memory of a high speed flash drive to run Vista faster. Worth a look. Not in the UK yet but coming!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/25/toshiba-expands-transmemory-lineup-readies-32gb-limited-edition/

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The times they are a changing

The debate of PDA (EDA) is getting more difficult. The rise of truly smart phones Nokia95 Toshiba g900 and meaningful UMPC like the UMPC 650 nice photo eh !! is really making the term a bit historic in my humble opinion. Samsung blazed the way with the Q1 and more recently remtech have hit the ground running with the very sleek and practical UMPC650 . The UMPC650 is here its not just a proof of concept box as to price let you know !

Now smart phone UMPCwhat's your weapon of choice or are they both part of the business offer armoury . In education use it strikes me the umpc might be the logical choice but watch the space going to be exciting . But remember its noty about the device its how you use it !!!

Intel Toshiba samsung are all working hard in this area. Looking forward to BETT2008 already

Monday, July 16, 2007

Intel and $100 laptop join forces

Intel and One Laptop per Child project join up. No comment either way but huge heads up to both organisations for helping drive the agenda on. Both the organisations and hopefully the worlds children will benefit. So good on you both !! see my earlier posts on olpc by searching using my tag cloud,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6897950.stm

old skills meet hi tec in interest of conservation

Now this is an odd story but worth a look plus the software is free

African researchers have developed a software for PDAs that turns the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert into digital wildlife trackers. Most of the Bushmen cannot read or write, but they can see what is alive in front of them — and the icons on their PDAs. The screen displays more than 40 animal species, subspecies and plants. The icons also cover activities such as drinking, feeding, running, fighting, mating and sleeping. Pressing an icon records a sighting or other indications, which is sent wirelessly to a computer server by satellite. Of course, this free software can be used for other purposes than nature conservation. It can be applied around the world to social surveys, organic farming, integrated pest management and disaster relief


http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=633

Monday, July 09, 2007

TXT 4 HELP WITH UR KIDS Government launches new plan to help parents by text messages and social networks

you may not like this but further evidence of mobile world impacting on everyday life a worthwhile development Goverment announce innitiative press release found at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0124
TXT 4 HELP WITH UR KIDS Government launches new plan to help parents by text messages and social networks

Parents will be able to receive text and instant messages to help them with their children, thanks to a £34m new initiative launched today by Children’s and Families Minister Kevin Brennan.

Using phone helplines and the internet, ‘Parent Know-How’ will signpost parents to information and support services. It will be targeted at people who may struggle to find the help they need – such as the parents of disabled children, fathers and those from disadvantaged communities. Kevin Brennan, Children’s and Families Minister said: “We want to support those parents who seek help with bringing up their children. By improving phone line support and setting up text messages, instant messages and social networks, we will provide help for parents when it suits them best.”

Interesting approach or waste of time leave decision up to you

its not about the device stupid

Be at the molenet project launch today had pleasure of working with a range of the top people in mlearning in the education sector in the UK .

Geoff Stead
Bob Harrison
Dave Whyley
Lillian Soon
David Sugden

havent given links but go on waste a few minutes on googling them or even better search my blog. The event was part of the Molenet project launch www.molenet.org.uk
at University of Aston in Birmingham a great day

Geoff came out with 3 stages in his involvement in m-learning

phase 1 outreach
phase 2 targeted learning on specific devices (device specific)
phase 3 collabortive learning and projects with camera's,phones,PDA & PC's (device agnostic)

great stuff good progression model of engagement Geoff.
Great day check out website later for presentations.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Five stages and ten top tips for busting barriers - e-Teams

A great piece from epic on virtual team working I recognise a lot of the issues here working in a virtual team myself . The stages of

  1. forming
  2. storming
  3. norming
  4. performing
  5. sustaining

I can identify in my experiences.
Ten top tips: "Five stages and ten top tips for busting barriers - e-Teams"

UMPC650 the new generation of UMPC




This has come to my attention seems like a really useful bit of kit.



http://www.remtech.com/product_detail.php?category_id_send=30&subcategory_id_send=79&product_id_send=258

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | BBC's Johnston describes relief

I dont usually blog this sort of thing but did you sign the online call for Alan to be released? Good news in a increasingly turbulent world.BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | BBC's Johnston describes relief