Ddraig Goch Blog - The Musings of a Welsh Dragon!

12-02-2012

2012-02-12T11:24:00.004Z

The city awoke this morning to the sight of a light dusting of snow and a recognisable rise in the temperature ( the chance to go out without the necessity of wearing a hat/cap!)

The temperature in this part of Europe is expected the rise over the coming week, this makes it all the more important that the Dutch nation made the most of the chill, as could be seen by the prolific use of video footage from skaters on Saturday. The first video is from Amsterdam (posted by Kanaal van ditissander1):

Below is a skater on the Spaarne in Haarlem (posted by : Kanaal van visserjerome)

.. and not to be outdone here in Den Haag where skaters were to be seen in front of the Parliament (posted by Kanaal van RalfGTI):

11-02-2012 (Updated)

2012-02-11T19:39:00.003Z

The Dutch nation appears to have been waiting all week to get to the first weekend for 15 years where many local ponds, waterways and canals are iced over to a thickness where skating becomes possible ( 15cm - 6 inches).....today was the day.

Locally on the ponds alongside Sportlaan, in Den Haag the families where out early.......

.... it was mainly young families here, with many children under 10 on the ice....

in the centre of The Hague on The Hofvijver lake, alongside the Dutch Parliament older groups were skating.

Later in the afternoon in Haarlem, near Amsterdam the River Spaarne was frozen over and the skaters were out in their droves again.

...as temperatures are expected to rise above freezing next week (-7C this evening) today and tomorrow are likely to be the only chance that the Dutch will have to recreate their past as create by Peter Brueghel

Mr O'Regan and myself were in Haarlem on Saturday to visit the Golden Age Exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum the promotional video for the exhibition can be seen below:

10-02-2012

2012-02-10T19:45:00.000Z

Happy Birthday Mon/Brecon Canal

Celebrations have been held to mark the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canals.
Enthusiasts recreated the original opening of the waterway in 1812 at Pontymoile Basin with church bells sounding along the route.
The 49-mile, canal built to transport coal and iron, winds its way south from Brecon to Cwmbran, Newport and Cwmcarn.
Today it is popular with tourists on canal boat holidays.

At midday a bell was rung at Pontymoile Basin sparking a peal of church bells in both directions along the route with almost 30 churches taking part.
Richard Dommett, regeneration manager for the Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust, said the canal was flourishing.
"The top half of the canal from Brecon to Cwmbran is open for navigation," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"There are a lot of canal companies that hire weekly holiday trips for visitors.
"There are also a number of day boat hires, particularly at Brecon."
The canal is credited with kick-starting the Industrial Revolution in towns near its route.
Schoolchildren also performed at the anniversary celebrations.

09-02-2012

2012-02-09T20:21:00.001Z

I was speaking with my mum back in Wales this evening, she was reassuring me that both her, and my dad are keeping warm enough in the present cold snap. They have over the past few years made sure that they have insulate their property and they are certainly reaping the rewards as the cold weather retains its grip in Europe. As you will see above from the Met Office website there is more of the 'white stuff' on the way! I did manage at last after over a week to ride my bike home from work today, it's great to be mobile again and not over reliant on the bus service. All public transport has been packed during the last week as many also decide that cycling is not so practical in the snow and ice.

07-02-2012

2012-02-07T19:53:00.001Z

The big chill continues on mainland Europe. At 8.00am today the temperature being displayed on a street sign nearby was -13C..... oddly this evening when I was returning home from a birthday supper for my friend Steve O'Regan it felt warmer.... it was only -6C......quite odd really.

06-02-2012

2012-02-06T18:51:00.001Z

The Arctic conditions sweeping Europe have tightened their grip, with more deaths reported in Poland and Ukraine, taking the toll to well over 200.
Here in The Hague as you will see above the temperature tonight is due to drop to a chilly -10C.

In the Netherlands, speed-skaters are hoping that freezing conditions continue so they are able to hold an ice-skating marathon along a 125-mile (200k) network of canals connecting 11 cities in the country's Friesland Province.

The Eleven Cities Tour race has only been held 15 times since it was first officially organised in 1909, AP reports.

05-02-2012

2012-02-05T13:18:00.000Z

View from my windows.... at the front is the extremely icy Berberisstraat ( -4C feels like -9C):

while at the rear ( I managed to keep my balcony doors open for a few chilly moments ( no sitting out here for a while!):

Down the street there are signs of the cold spell, with the ice crystals growing on the bicycle windshields in Volkenboskade:

Also at the Tramhlate - Goudenregenstraat ( the trams are still running, but not quite to their regular timetable as we experience these extremely cold conditions that look set for the week ahead, with further snow forecast:

** Important update Ireland 21 - Wales 23 Result from the Aviva Stadium Dublin this afternoon .... Well done boys [report on the match]

Leigh Halfpenny strikes the winning penalty on 79 minutes :-)

04-02-2012

2012-02-04T19:07:00.001Z

As the temperature continues to stay well below freezing during the day, dropping further as you see above, we have though not had any further snow since Friday.
Today was such a clear beautiful day that I decided to head off on the 30 minute train journey to Gouda. There was quite a bit of disruption to the railway lines in The Netherlands, where today at least half of the trains has been cancelled due to the freezing conditions.
Gouda was a joy, from it's medieval central square, where there is a weekly Saturday 'Cheese Market'.

To the impressive Sint Janskerk ( St John's Church) which is the longest church in the country and also contains the treasure of The Gouda Windows.

I would recommend extremely highly the GoudaMuseum which remarkably has on show the cartooons used in the making of the windows from the C16 but also an enchanting view of Gouda through the ages - the museum was visited by The Queen in November 2011.

I was also able to have my Breugel moment as I watched the locals taking to the canals for some skating.

Even the local bicycles had become frozen....

03-02-2012

2012-02-03T22:45:00.001Z

Through this week day and nightime temperatures here in The Hague have been dropping. Thursday night ground temperatures dropped to -7C, and as Friday dawned the darkening skies heralded that snow was on its way. Just before lunchtime and for around 2 hours snow fell on the already frozen ground. Leading to very dangerous conditions for pedestrians and drivers... there was also a marked decline in the number of cyclists braving the conditions.

It is not only the UK where things can grind to a halt in extreme weather as evidenced by the report below from Dutch News

No trains in Utrecht and Amsterdam as snow chaos continues

Friday 03 February 2012

The heavy snow in the Netherlands on Friday led to chaos on the roads and serious disruption to train services, with no rush hour trains to and from Utrecht and Amsterdam. Elsewhere there were far fewer trains than normal.

At the height of the problems on the road, there were 830 km of traffic jams, making Friday the fourth-worst day on the roads ever.

Rail users organisation Rover said the problems with trains were ‘ridiculous and unacceptable’. Despite the warnings snow was on its way, Dutch Rail (NS) was unable to cope, Rover pointed out.

Up to 14 cm of snow fell in some places, causing serious problems on the roads. By 16.00 hours, some 900 accidents on minor and provincial roads had been reported and the ANWB motoring organisation urged people in central parts of the country not to drive.

Public transport was also affected in The Hague and Amsterdam and some flights from Schiphol were delayed or cancelled.

Skaters rescued as unreliable ice gives way

Friday 03 February 2012
At least 10 people have been rescued after sinking through the ice on the Ankeveense lakes near Hilversum, local paper Gooi- en Eemlander reports.
Hundreds of skaters have flocked to the popular skating area but experts warn the ice is still very unreliable in places. In addition, the snow makes it difficult to see where the ice is weak.
Elsewhere, a number of skaters have been brought to safety from the Ooij polder near Nijmegen. A 35-year-old man has been taken to hospital suffering from exposure.
The snow also caused the cancellation of the first outdoor skating route on the Blokzijler lakes, which had been set for Sunday. The snow has made it impossible to see which parts of the lake should be avoided, according to website schaatsen.nl

02-02-2012

2012-02-02T21:40:00.002Z

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto

The dutch do so love their ice skating and have for hundreds of years as can be seen in the image below, which is a Bruegel from 16th Century.

The excitement within the country is growing almost as quickly as the ice depth is.....
Dutch News 02-02-2012

The first organised skating route over natural ice will be set up on the Blokzijler lake in Overijssel province on Sunday, local newspaper Stentor said on Thursday.

The local skating club says the ice is now eight to 10 cm thick and three more nights of heavy frost will increase the thickness to up to 15 cm. 'There are some weak bits caused by the wind but we can skate round them,' a spokesman said.

Many ice clubs have already opened their outdoor rinks but the wind has meant many stretches of open water are still too unreliable for safe skating.

Canals

In Amsterdam, the city council has banned pleasure boats from using many city centre canals in the hope they too will freeze over for skating.

The big freeze is set to continue for the next six days at least, and there is a 50% chance of it continuing for the next 10, according to the KNMI weather bureau.

But the snow expected on Friday makes it unlikely the ice will thicken enough for an Elfstedentocht - the spectacular 200 km race between the 11 cities of Friesland. The event was last held in 1997.

01-02-2012

2012-02-01T19:26:00.000Z

Article from Dutch News 01-02-2012

Ice fever heats up in Holland Wednesday 01 February 2012As soon as the temperature drops below freezing, ice fever hits the Netherlands. Skates are sharpened and enthusiasts monitor the weather forecast closely in the hope that it will be cold enough to skate outside.Video linkThe big question on everyone's lips is always, will there be an Elfstedentocht this year - the marathon ice race between the 11 cities of Friesland over a 200 km course.The last edition of the skating marathon took place in 1997 and natural ice enthusiasts have been looking wistfully at their skates ever since. The ice has to be at least 15 cm to host the race, which attracts thousands of entrants.Low oddsThis year, the odds are slim. The Volkskrant quotes weatherman Marco Verhoef who thinks there is a 25% chance the race will be on. ‘We can’t predict if the ice will grow sufficiently’, he says.‘But if I had to say yes or no at this moment the answer would be no. And the ice will have to be extra strong to carry the spectators who will come to Friesland in large numbers.’Television presenter Jort Kelder says if the event does go ahead, it should not be hijacked by commerce.‘The Elfsteden marathon is an event for the people, like the dip in the sea on New Year's day. It’s not for sausage makers’, Kelder, a vegetarian, told chat show De Wereld Draait Door. Kelder is referring to smoked sausage maker Unox which supplies the intrepid swimmers with free Unox hats, generating massive publicity for the brand.RacesWhile the weather forecasters are still out on the prospects for a long freeze - and there are signs the temperatures might rise towards the end of next week - skating enthusiasts are already taking advantage of what ice there is.The first outdoor races have already been held -without the Dutch outdoor champions. The warm winter has forced them to head for Austria to stage the annual Dutch outdoor championships.NRC journalist Arjen Fortuin (half Frisian) describes what it feels like to skate on natural ice. ‘Proper skating is done outside, on natural ice, with real holes, real cracks and real cold. If you push off gently, your skates straight on the ice, you hardly make a sound. It’s no more than a short soft scratching noise.'You hardly move: you sway, gently pushing away the ice with your feet. You don’t seem to do anything much at all and yet you fly like a comet. Somewhere in that combination is the element that makes long distance skating so addictive.’Keep warmMeanwhile, experts are warning that the ice is still very thin and there are still many large patches of open water where the wind has stopped the ice from forming properly.And as the freeze continues all the papers carry the list of do's and don’ts issued by the authorities in case, as the KNMI has predicted, it will feel like minus 15 Celsius this week.Know what the weather will be doing, wear a hat and gloves, wear proper shoes, and wear layered clothing. Never go out in the car without a coat, a sleeping bag and a fully charged mobile. Keep moving and avoid the wind, look out for elderly neighbours and feed the birds.

31-01-2012

2012-01-31T20:09:00.001Z

...Wow, the end of month one, 31 days into the daily blog post routine. I must admit that getting back to blogging on a regular basis is rewarding in many ways. I have maintained my rather eclectic mix of rants followed by more regular photo blog posts. Of course this means that any audience of the blog have to wade through an amount of obscure posts to perhaps find something that is mildly interesting.
Looking back at blog stats ( Blogger stats are impressive) I know that the most popular blog posts over time have been tech related, my praise of the Asus Netbook still being the most visited along with others along the same lines.
It is sad that at present even though I still remain facinated by 'tech stuff that I feel somewhat distanced from my former 'classroom based use of new tools and apps, I just loved attempting to make the new tools at the time relevant in a teaching setting. I was pleased as you may surmise when Mr Gove the UK Education Secretary finally admit what many had suspected for many years - that the UK IT or ICT curriculum was not fit for purpose. For years many of us who believed strongly that using technology to create content and to connect was the way to inspire these skills in our pupils was the way to go. The only shame is that a generation of puils will have gone through our schools believing that technology was 'boring'....... which teaching to the curriculum definitely was. It was only by cutting loose and allowing creativity in that pupios became inspired .........we nearly lost the 'Facebook Generation' - I hope that this lesson has been learned at last.

30-01-2012

2012-01-30T19:43:00.001Z

I don't very often show my political leanings, however listening to PM on Radio 4 this evening where there were discussions on 'What the Police are for?' in the UK, two points were discussed which left me speechless.

The first was a politicians answer given by Theresa May recently when asked about the number of UK police on the 'front line'.....the Home Secretary's response was that the percentage of policemen and woman on the beat is to rise from 68% to 70% since 2010.... a good thing? In fact due to staff cuts the 70% is a higher percentage of a smaller number of frontline staff (2,500 less than 2010)... see Mark Easton's blogpost: More means fewer.
The second double take was on the issue of the extremely serious crime of anti social behaviour, where the Home Secretary appears to be saying that if the police receive 5 compalints ( from 5 different households) regarding the same incident of anti social behaviour that the police will have to take action!!!! It does of course beg the question, what happens if you are the only person to make the complaint? Will anything happen or will you be advised to get your neighbours to make a complaint. Surely this makes a mockery of modern policing.
In fact the most high profile cases in the UK where vulnerable individuals have been persecuted to the point of taking their own lives, neighbours were largely unaware or unwilling to make complaints.This new rule would have been completely unable to help!

I think that I may have got this out of my system now!

29-01-2012

2012-01-29T16:15:00.000Z

I hope that the two images in my blog post today are not signs of aging? The weather forecast for the coming week shows the possibility of night time temperatures down around -9C as a winter high pressure system sits over Europe blocking any milder air..... as I do not presently have my regular bed warming device ( Debbie!) it can get mighty cold...especially the toes! The Electric Blanket seemed to me a practical way to overcome this? ( I have justified it in this way anyhow!)

I am much more confident that the second image (another of my purchases today) shows 'good taste' in music rather than impending old age. I heard snippets of some of the tracks from Leonard Cohen's new album 'Old Ideas' along with reviews from some respected critics on the BBC 2 Review Show on Friday evening.... today I couldn't resist buying it, and having listened to three tracks this afternoon, I was not wrong. I would recommend those who appreciate hearing a voice steeped in life experiences singing some pretty blunt lyrics should consider Cohen's latest offering ( not so sure of the LC illustrations on the sleeve notes!).

28-01-2012

2012-01-28T20:49:00.001Z

Those who know me well, will be aware that over the past 44 years through thick, thin and thinner I have been a long suffering supporter of Liverpool FC. This week has been one of those weeks when all Liverpool supporters are allowed out to crow a little... having had a good week of results over our 'friends' along the M62.....

.....earlier in the week Manchester City were vanquished in the League Cup semi final, setting up an excellent final against Cardiff City at Wembley.... and today a victory in the F.A. Cup (2-1)against the 'old enemy' Manchester United... at Anfield of course.
I was very lucky when up in Liverpool in September 2010 to take a tour of the hallowed 'Anfield Stadium' for the first time in all my years as a fan, sadly I have still never seen a match at the home of my heroes!

It was somewhat saddening to see the state of the environment outside the ground, it is quite a dismal area of the city with many rows of boarded up houses, and of course the club do want to build a new stadium ( for the 21st Century) .... but in the ground you can almost reach out an feel the history of a ground which has changed little over the decades.

The Kop stand

The Home Dressing Room

The European Cup (2005) :-)

I think that we are allowed to make some noise this week :-) ...... I look forward to seeing at least one match at the stadium soon!

27-01-2012

2012-01-28T00:27:00.002Z

During my time in Den Haag and its environs I have made it a conscious plan to visit as many galleries as possible. This endeavour is aided by the MuseumCard an excellent 39Euro (annual) card which allows free entry to the majority of museums and galleries and reduced price entry to others.
The museum that I have visited on more occasions than others is the Museum Beelden an Zee the city's sculpture museum.

From the outside the Gallery looks a little like a cross between a WWII bunker and a British seaside toilet block! Sorry but it does, you may agree! it is very near to the sea and as a result has a real seaside feel.

Inside the space is used in many ways to good effect to show both large and intimate pieces in a light and airy setting.....back in September the Museum showed part of an exhibition from China, the remainder of which was displayed in the open air along Lange Voorhout

.The sculptures above show the large scale works of the exhibition... the last being an interesting study where the artist was given a small plate containing a typically Dutch scene, this was recreated with objects from the plate displayed at an angle ( the angle between The Netherlands and China on the globe!). One of the smallest but most devine objects on show is a 12 inch long Man Ray sculpture.

The Museum Beelden an Zee would definitely be on my must visit locations in The Netherlands.

26-01-2012..... blog post from 26-01-2010

2012-01-26T20:42:00.001Z

I was reviewing my Blog365 posts from 2010 and was taken by the corresponding post from 26-1-2010 and decided to re post ...an interesting exercise to look back at previous blog posts from previous lives. This is also something that I will try out during the year, taking the chance to journey down memory lane.
Blog post from 26/01/2010
A few weeks ago I received a comment on my main blog from Laine a the Macmillan Dictionary Blog. Their blog has been running a week for each of the countries which make up the UK and this week is 'Welsh-English Week', each week they ask a group of bloggers from the country concerned to put up guest blog posts and today it was my turn..... above is my blog post with the link ( this link will change to other posts through the week).

Please feel free to leave a comment at the Macmillan Dictionary Blog for me :-)

25-01-2012

2012-01-25T22:23:00.003Z

Above is one of my favourite images from 2011, for those who know my pictures from previous blog incarnations may well recognise the location ( by the side of a certain canal in Wales!). I was trying out the macro properties of my camera on this walk and captured some images of which I am quite proud..

... make a wish and blow ( well today is St Dywnwen's Day - Welsh Valentine's Day :-)

... nostalgia and home sickness all rolled into one blog post!

24-01-2012 - Keep taking the tablet!

2012-01-24T19:44:00.000Z

Having deliberately avoided the tablet wars and preferring the Netbook route ( Asus in particular) for mobile technology, in late 2011 staying true to my 'Android' roots I decided to scour the market in order to see what machines using the Android 'Honeycomb' OS offered the best deals.
My choice after a good deal of 'window shopping' was the Acer Iconia A500 tablet (see below)

From the moment that I turned it on and downloaded my favourite apps ( having run the HTC Magic smartphone through to November 2011... the apps were pretty similar) I was impressed by the way the machine communicated with many of my other cloud based storage being able to sync. contacts -Android phone contacts :-) and images ( Picassa based)

The goodies just kept on coming - the Kindle app, Skype ( using front or rear facing cameras), Internet Radio, Facebook, LinkedIn... and then of course an aspect that had never really hooked me previously - games.... Angry Birds ( to which I have become addicted!),

along with a brilliant driving game from EA which makes use of the tablet's accelerometer...........pool, golf, and on and on and on!

I think in short that the tablet may well be the 'killer one stop machine'. Of course I accept that this device would not be one on which you would use to write your novel ( the WP apps are not brilliant in the free app section!) and trying to use the tablet as a camera I still find embarrassing beyond belief.....however the speed of start up, easy connectivity and simple useability make this the buy that I am glad I waited for... I now only fire up a laptop at home in order to download my iTunes Podcasts or to watch some flash video....Acer Iconia I would recommend as a great buy.

It will be interesting to see how the next generation of 'Android' and of course tablets such as the Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy along with Acer grow in the coming years.

23-01-2012

2012-01-23T22:03:00.001Z

( Borrowed image of Chinese Dragon)

Happy New Year - 2012 the Year of the Dragon ( of course - a dragon)

The Dragon symbol of the 2012 year is an intelligent and laborious worker who never puts aside work though sometimes this leads him to excesses. The water Dragon has enough courage to face challenges and easily finds weak points that stand on his way to success.

Celebration of the Chinese New Year in Den Haag will be on Saturday 28th January

22-01-2012

2012-01-22T16:13:00.000Z

Sunday dawned with a clear blue sky, but a wicked wind. I set off at around 12.30 for an interview and book signing session by Redmond O'Hanlon and the Paagman Boekhandel

Setting off from the my old favourite No24 Bus stop on Sportlaan.... heading for the bookshop.

I wish that I had set off earlier and not done a quick shop and some house tidying as when I finally arrived at alomst dead on 1pm the venue was packed and dear reader you will have to take my word for it that the white haired bewhiskered gentleman in the distance is the author and explorer ( and Darwin, Wallace admirer) Redmond O'Hanlon.( I will post the link to the Paagman TV interview link once it appears - it will be on the PaagmanTV Vimeo HD channel)... sadly I did not have a book signed as there were no copies for sale in English!!!!

.......below is some footage of Redmond on one of his previous trips to The Netherlands. It was thanks to the Dutch TV Channel's series retracing Darwin's Beagle trip using the Stad Amsterdam which has forged such a strong link between Redmond and The Netherlands.

There is also a series of interviews with Redmond on my favourite 'Web of Stories' site.

21-01-2012

2012-01-21T22:04:00.001Z

It was with mixed emotions that I entered the Buitenhof Pathe cinema this afternoon to watch The Iron Lady. Having lived through the Thatcher era in the UK and remembering the odd juxtaposition of Mrs T's St. Francis of Assisi speech and her actions which caused extreme disharmony and discord.

Of course the film is not about the public Margaret Thatcher, but is a study on aging and the tricks that the mind can play on us as we grow old. Meryl Streep 's performance is quite amazing, considering that much of the action uses extreme close up shots showing quite raw emotions. Streep displays many of Lady Thatcher's mannerisms quite brilliantly and inhabits the persona.
The relationship between daughter Carol Thatcher and her mother is a key part of the film, as the once powerful woman, now has to rely on her daughter in so many ways. There has been much criticism of the film for having the key parts of the Thatcher political era come and go without much discussion of them, but of course this is not the point of the film.
I came away having enjoyed the film, but still a little wary of the way that I had been manipulated into considering the human story around such a controversial figure.... is it too soon for a film such as this?

20-01-2012

2012-01-21T11:36:00.001Z

Last evening an intrepid group of 11 IB 'Foodies' traveled to Rotterdam for dinner at the 2 Michelin Star Parkheuvel Restaurant. Of course the quality of the food and preparation was simply superb. It was amazing the way in which each course built additional flavours on the one before, also the wine selection for each simply worked.
You know that something is working when silence ensues at the table, this certainly happened with the Irish Beef course, when even grown men were heard to swoon...... I must thank Fiona Clark our DP Chemistry CAM and 'foodie in chief' for organising the evening ( we will draw a fine veil over the eventual price.... simple to say, good food is worth it!).
The only unfortunate part of the evening was that on leaving the restaurant at just after midnight the group quite quickly realised that the Rotterdam tram service had largely finished running at midnight.... also at the Rotterdam Centraal Station a further blow was the next train to Den Haag arrived at 2.02am! The shrill cry of TAXI was heard as we were able to find a minibus to take us back to the city, a further taxi home saw me arriving through my front door at 2.15am.....on 21st January... expect Saturday to be a quiet day.

19-01-2012

2012-01-19T20:25:00.001Z

My favourite image from 2011..... taken in the old still intact, in situ concrete roof in the world, at midday with the sunshine sreaming in through a natural opening as it has done since 27BC ( for over 2039 years)....it is of course The Pantheon.
It was back in mid August that Deb and I spent 4 days in the 'Eternal City' on a short break from the weather in northern Europe. It was fantastic to feel the warmth of an Italian summer day on our backs, the city was new to both of us, getting around by public transport was a challenge however it is a 'must' visit due to its enormous historic importance, so much of which is still above ground, the jewel in the crown some think of as The Colosseum which is of course breathtaking, The Trevi fountain is of course romantic, and The Vatican a great religious centre... but for me The Pantheon is both fascinating in its historic and religious significance, and as a result is number one.

18-01-2012

2012-01-18T21:49:00.001Z

Looking a little threadbare and having lost some stuffing and ....... his squeak! ( much like his owner of the past 54 years) above is my best friend.... my Teddy Bear. He is not a pedigree bear ( no Steiff is he), just a mongrel with no special buttons or markings..... but still much loved. He was a gift at my first Monmouthshire Police Christmas Party when I was around 6 months old. Over the years he has been forced to reside in cupboards and drawers since his early fluffy days when he went everywhere with his new young owner.
However he has now returned to his former life, he is the silent person who has to put up with my present ramblings, it is probably fortuitous that he has lost his squeak and is unable to protest. He puts up with sharing a bed again with me much as he did half a century ago ( Oooooh that sounds so long ago when put like that!), he has lost non of his opened eyed friendliness and shows this by how much he has been loved along the way.
He is presently lying around awaiting the end of another day in The Hague when once again he will hear the familiar tones of 'Sailing by' followed by 'The Shipping Forecast' and National Anthem on BBC Radio 4

Goodnight everyon, goodnight.

17-01-2012

2012-01-17T13:57:00.002Z

Happy Birthday Jaycob and Abi

17th January marks the 5th and 6th birthday's respectively of the two wonderful people pictured above. I have to pinch myself every now and again to think of both of these being in full time school. In fact had I still been teaching the same age group that I was when I left the profession in December 2007, Abi would have been coming into my 'age group' in the next academic year.

As you will no doubt surmise as with every parent or grandparent I am completely smitten and can be talked into almost anything by the two above. They are of course a shining example of their mum's skills as a mother, I know that Deb and myself are as proud as we can be of all three of them..... Happy Birthday ( Pen blwydd hapus i ti ) kids.

16-01-2012

2012-01-16T20:37:00.002Z

......today marks the first anniversary of my arrival in The Netherlands. Oddly it sometimes feels an age ago, while on others seems like only yesterday. As many expats will confirm the early months of a relocation thoughts like these assail the mind as one assimilates into the daily/weekly life.

I must praise all of those that I came into contact with on my arrival and since, as they have made the settling in process feel extremely normal and natural...... and this is coming from someone who had previously lived happily in the same house for 15 years! Coming to terms with living in a city was also a big change, I hadn't been a city dweller since living in London in the 1980's.

At this stage, apart from my stumblingly poor grasp of the language I feel entirely integrated into a new working life as a citizen of The Hague. The city has a motto ' enter the city as a stranger, leave as a friend' this is very true' as many can confirm.

Eva Zeisel 1906 - 2011

2012-01-15T19:04:00.001Z

Eva Zeisel obituary http://gu.com/p/34y9j
The death on 30 December 2011, was announced in The Guardian today at the age of 105. My blog post of Zeisel's TED presentation was posted on 26th April 2009 (http://ddraig-goch.blogspot.com/2009/04/amazing-eva-zeisel-ted-talks.html). It was fascinating to hear from such an eminent lady talking in a very direct and down to earth way.

What a life, thank you Eva.

15-01-2012

2012-01-15T16:34:00.000Z

The fact that my grandchildren are having their joint birthday party ahead of the birthdays on 17th January ( Abi 6 and Jaycob 5) has lead me to reminiscing about this weekend 12 months ago. Sunday 16th January 2011 was my last full day in the UK ahead of my work relocation to The Netherlands.
I admit to not having much sleep 12 months ago, partly through the excitement and anticipation of what lay ahead, and partly due to the ridiculously early start that I had the next day in order to catch the 6am flight from Cardiff Airport.
At the time it was hard to get my head around the fact that the day that had first been mooted by the IB Director General in March 2008 ( 3 months after my joining the organisation) during the first presentation given outlining the strategy behind the IB's relocation to 3 new Global hubs had actually arrived.
I must praise the organisation for allowing those considering the move ample opportunity to visit and search out accommodation ahead of the move, and for providing a good standard of support throughout the process.

Thus it was that at around 10 am on Monday 17th January I took up residence at Berberisstraat 78, 2565XC, Den Haag ( orange curtains first floor) with my suitcase containing all that I had until my belongings arrived from the UK 3 days later.

I had of course left behind those that I love most dearly, which is what made the decision to relocate all the harder from the outset.
One year on however it has worked, a few well timed visits home, along with visits here by many members of the family and of course the use of Skype on a semi regular basis has meant that life goes much as it did before. I have certainly found that the move has given me renewed energy and has proven once again that the maxim of - 'you don't know what you are capable of until you try it' certainly holds true. Going with this saying also saw me move from teaching into my current role after 19 years in the classroom ( who could have seen that coming?)!
I am also aware that with me not being around it has put additional pressure on the general organisation at home, and that I have missed things that I would rather not have ( the birthday party today being one!), on balance taking up the challenge has been good from both a personal and professional standpoint...... I am glad that I chose this option, life is there to be lived and as they rightly say ( whoever 'they are') 'this is not a rehearsal it is the real thing'

Happy Birthday Abi and Jaycob

14-01-2011

2012-01-14T22:29:00.000Z

This year I have seen two excellent films where the stars of the show were upstaged by a small dog.

Today it was The Artist - Director Michel Hazanvicius' homage to the end of the silent movie era. The film is lovingly shot in and around the same landmarks and buildings that were used originally.....Uggie the dog steals the show in all of the scenes in which he appears.

* On a side note last year Laura and myself watched a Josephine Baker silent movie with a live piano accompaniment at the same film theatre, my thought to give Laura the opportunity to see a black and white silent film very much as it would have been performed at the time. I felt it unlikely that black and white silent movies would ever be seen again.... how wrong I was.
The film plays the stereotypes of the age so well, and the very, very occasional use of sound is masterly.Plot Spoiler alert - the most telling being the leading man's heavy accent when he utters his only spoken lines at the very end of the piece, which would possibly have prevented his move to 'the talkies'.

A few weeks ago it was Beginners where Arthur stole the very considerable limelight from his stellar co stars ( Christopher Plummer was quite masterful as the 'out' Dad)

Good to see man's best friend showing that he to can act...... even though the rewards are I believe a little easier to build into a movie budget than are those of the rest of the cast!

Both films make it into my top 10 films that I have seen while here in The Hague, I look forward to seeing how well they do in the upcoming big Hollywood Awards

13-01-2012

2012-01-13T21:54:00.001Z

Aarghh! Friday 13th today. Actually it has largely passed me by as I have been at home today, admittedly feeling well enough to actually work from my dining room table. We have now a VPN enabled network connection which allows us to work remotely with access to all of our data, I was easily able to work as one of the team today, and finally get that I was beginning to pull my weight after a very lacklustre week of inactivity. It felt great to be useful again.
One advantage of being at home this week is that it has enabled me to get to the end of a book that I have had for many years, one of those weighty tomes that you get stuck in the middle of...... Mao the untold story takes the reader through his life chronolgically, much of the revolutionary battles and power struggles while fascinating can leave one reeling. I was trapped just before the Great Leap which was begun in 1958. I have now been through the Cultural Revolution and further purges and as I reach President Nixon's visit in 1972 with the 'old man' moving toward his end. The book does not 'pull its punches' in giving a unique insight into what was happening at the heart of this tyrannical reign.

12-01-2012

2012-01-12T22:12:00.002Z

I must say that I would not recommend a viral throat infection to anyone following this week where I have been confined to my apartment almost all week trying to avoid speaking wherever possible ( even to myself!).

My big regret today was that I had been asked to say a few words on my boss's retirement this afternoon, this was a great honour which I was very much looking forward to, as with many plans this week it did not happen.

I am glad that I made the effort to go out for our departmental meal last evening where we were able to surprise Ruth with her retirement gift from her immediate colleagues. I am also frustrated by not getting out to the cinema this week, as there are some great films around on my 'must see' list :

The Artist

Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

The Iron Lady - great quote from Kermode and Mayo..... not as exciting as The Iron Man :-)

J Edgar

The Artist is first on my list once I am mobile again.... with no specific order for the rest.

11-01-2012

2012-01-11T16:05:00.001Z

I did manage to get in to work this morning after 2 days enforced rest at home. I stayed until 2.40 and then journeyed to my doctor for an opinion... which of course is the usually vague 'viral infection', much as expected. The cure - nothing apart from Paracetamol/ liquids and some gargling.... the main issue is that my taste buds are on strike presently and as we are visiting a local ( very good) restaurant this evening as part of the farewell celebrations for my boss.. this is extremely frustrating... alcohol is also off the menu!
Hopefully all will return soon!

10-01-2012

2012-01-10T20:09:00.001Z

Today's image is another one from the poster collection at Spui Tramhalte (see below) a thought provoking African proverb!

09-01-2012

2012-01-09T20:12:00.000Z

Monday morning...... Mmmm! as you can see from today's image it was not a good day, I have felt as if there was a cold on the way for some days now, last night it finally arrived as I felt alternatively hot and cold, leaving me in bed sleeping and waking until around 2.30pm. I had the energy to walk to the local pharmacy to get the Hot Coldrex that you see above and have been on soup and drinks pretty much for the rest of the day.....hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, at least the aches appear to have subsided ( Paracetamol to the rescue!).

08-01-2012

2012-01-08T19:16:00.000Z

Sunday's in The Nederlands remind me of what Sunday's used to be like in the UK, very quiet with few people around and the sound of church bells permeating the crisp morning air. Today followed this pattern, with nothing much to do apart from my Dutch language homework ahead of my lesson on Wednesday I decided to make the most of the good weather and head out.

Having checked the local arthouse cinema (Filmhuis) before leaving for the tram, I noted that as part of the Movies that Matter season that at 2pm this afternoon a film called No more Fear which documents what happened in Tunisia following Mohammed Bouazizi setting fire to himself back in December 2010... the start of what was called the 'Arab Spring' in the west.

The film looks at a select group of people including the blogger A Tunisian Girl who were persecuted by the regime in place at the time, seeing it overthrown in January 2011 as the then leader and his family fled to Saudi Arabia. It was with sadness that reading some of the more recent postings (05-01-2012) from 'A Tunisian Girl' that the removal of the former reviled dictator has not resulted in the restoration of the feedoms that were instigated by the leader who was deposed in a coup by Ben Ali.... it would appear that Tunisia is still in turmoil.

Today's image is a shot of a poster on the wall of the tram halt closest to the cinema.... rather apt.I think?

2012-01-07T19:39:00.001Z

Today Steve O'Regan and myself set off for a visit to the KUNSTHAL ( Rotterdam) primarily to see the Stanley Spencer Exhibition which is due to finish on 15th January. The gallery is home to a number of other permanent and visiting offerings, we did take a look at The Mummies and Religious Art installations prior to beginning on the Spencer spectacular, indeed spectacular it certainly is showing the cream of British art from the 1920's to 1930's and with a fabulous array of Spencer's work. The most poignant being the self portrait painted by Spencer in the year before his death following his diagnosis of bowel cancer... this can be contrasted with two other self portraits including the one above used on the flyer....

1959 self portrait

Steve rarely gets his picture in any shots, so here just for those who know him is Mr O'Regan pictured in front of his favourite museum the Boijmans van Beuningen a stone's throw from the Kunsthal.

06-01-2011

2012-01-07T19:20:00.002Z

Work day today... the weather however improved today, winds died down and the often intense rain and sleet decreased. I was encouraged enough to cycle home, having left my bicycle in the safety of the underground garage over the Christmas break.
Over the past few days I have been clearing files form my work Blackberry including image files and have decided to include some of these images dating back to 2008 in posts this year. To kick this off I will begin with my current screen saver image -

As you will see this image is of myself imitating MC Escher in the Escher Museum ( Escher in het Paleis) the original image is below -

05-01-2012

2012-01-05T20:15:00.001Z

I was quite prepared today to blog on the incredibly high winds today which were forecast by the national weather service as a 'Yellow Warning'. I was very nearly blown over both on my way into work this morning and also when leaving at the close of the day as the winds gusted.. including stinging hailstones!
However on my way home outside my local Albert Heijn Supermarket the results of the local New Year celebrations were to be seen alongside the overflowing Bottle Bank ......... apologies for the lack of focus this is a Blackberry image.

All over Holland on Saturday evening this was occuring.....as the nation indulged its pyrotechnic side!

....Happy New Year.....now get into the shelters!

04-01-2012

2012-01-04T22:55:00.002Z

.....back to work today, always a shock to the system as one explores the torrent of emails that have come in during time away. Below is a picture of our new premises ( taken on a sunny day in August... not in windy, wet January!

We occupy the 3rd and 4th floor of Churchillplein 6, neatly sandwiched between two extremely secure buildings - Europol ( European Police Headquarters) on one side and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ( ICTY) on the other. It is quite strange to know that within a few minutes walk Radovan Karadzic and Ratco Mladic are currently going through their trials for genocide.
Before I left for Wales two colleagues and myself traveled to the city of Maastricht for their Christmas Fair which you can see below

We had a very pleasant day in such an interesting city (link)

I had an unexpected Dutch lesson today when visiting a local pen shop, the owner was very particular and picked up on my apology for my poor Dutch, he quite rightly told me that I should just dive in and use the language if I know roughly what to say, he was right of course it is the only way to learn, people around the city are very good at picking up on English if given the opportunity. Mr Akkerman, then insisted that I ask carry on the conversation as much as possible in Dutch..... this was an excellent lesson to learn and I thank him for it.

02-01-2012

2012-01-03T18:39:00.001Z

Very much a day for tying up loose ends and packing prior to my return to The Netherlands tomorrow. It is very odd to think that on January 17th I will be celebrating not only my grandchildren's birthdays ( Jaycob 5 and Abi 6), but also the first anniversary of my arrival in The Hague!
It will be with mixed feelings that I leave Wales tomorrow after 2 weeks here.

03-01-2012

2012-01-03T09:51:00.001Z

The day of departure has finally arrived, packing completed posting this at 9.50am awaiting a taxi to the local railway station at 10.10 the journey begins I am due to arrive at around 4.30 this afternoon.....post to be continued...
I arrived back in The Hague at 5.30 not too bad on a very blustery day for those travelling in Northern Europe http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16390088

01-01-2012

2012-01-03T09:43:00.001Z

Last year with so much new happening should have been a blog 365 year, however having come following the previous year where I posted every day, I was exhausted and needed a break. This year is different fully refreshed from the New Year's Eve Ceilidh at a local village hall where we danced until well after midnight.....I declare this a blogging year. :-)
Happy New Year to all.

Web of Stories

2011-12-03T16:30:00.001Z

The 'Web of Stories' site is forms an amazing resource containing the thoughts and life stories of a magnificent generation of individuals from 20th Century. Below listen to Alice Hertz-Sommer (b. 1903) as she describes living in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Biography:
Czech concert pianist Alice Herz-Sommer (b. 1903) has experienced a wealth of suffering. Incarcerated in Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Second World War, she survived the Holocaust with her young son, although her husband died at Dachau in 1944. Despite these experiences, along with her battles with cancer and the tragic loss of her son to illness in 2001, Herz-Sommer remains passionate about music and life. At 104, she published a bestselling book 'A Garden of Eden in Hell' recalling the events of the concentration camps. In 2010, a television programme about her life story was aired on BBC4.
Take a look at the array of lives here [link]

Online learning - Should Education be learning the lessons from Business ?

2011-12-03T14:46:00.001Z

I have a niggling doubt in my mind that I actually followed completely the wrong strand at the Online Educa Conference, which comes as quite a shock to me now!
Over the past 4 years at conferences on online education I have yet to discern that education has made the big leap forward into online learning....please hear me out before you jump to disagree. There have been great projects and groups of educators promoting the use of technology as a driver both for students and teachers. However at conferences it still appears that these moves are project based, and as such often finite even though they often make a valuable change in practice.
Presenter after presenter from higher education institutions were focusing on their work, often seemingly reinventing 'the wheel' as far as pedagogically sound online learning. I chatted with the developer of a 2 year EU project which aims to improve the online skills of teachers, the project was offered with a maximum number of 600 teachers - 1700 applied (showing the perceived need) the project required its facilitators to become online practitioners through a five month training programme, which was then delivered to teachers over the same time scale. The result of the project was the production of 'open source' courses by many of the teachers concerned, I suspect that these teachers will be looking for their 'next step' .... however the project has now finished! My question was where does this go next? The answer will be a new project proposal......does this embed online learning in practice and make a significant change to the way teachers teach? I would suspect yes for those involved but further....no!

I believe that I should actually have visited the Business Strand of the conference as my perception is that business 'gets it' as far as online learning is concerned. This is often because they have large often geographically diverse groups of workers who they have to train in a standardised easily scalable way in order to ensure the upskilling of their workforce.......does this sound familiar? Large companies have made extensive use of online training over the past 5 years. It makes good sense from a QC ( quality control) and financial sense to them which as it affects the bottom line is a great driver of this method of training be it in an LMS or Virtual World.
Education has always been somewhat sceptical of business practices, however shouldn't we admit that the case for online learning is proven. Do we not now to adopt a paradigm for online training along the lines of a set of internationally agreed 'standards' for online learning developments and delivery?

I look forward to the time when we can move the discussion on to the next level.

Thank you for hearing my thoughts. I look forward to reflections.

Tablets do rule!

2011-12-03T13:39:00.001Z

Having just returned from Europe's largest conference on 'technology supported learning and training' Online Educa in Berlin I have to report that 'Tablets in whatever guise they come do appear to be becoming the device that is taking over. Of the 2000 delegates and presenters there were an increasing number who have given up the use of even the slimmest laptop/net book for the easy to use tablet/smartphone solution.
I deliberately place tablets ans smartphones together because as I have found the Android device that I use is the same in all practical aspects as my HTC Hero smartphone. The main difference for me is the larger screen/keyboard on the tablet screen, enabling me to make notes without the requirement of switching to reading glasses!
It was interesting that a colleague of mine, who as we all have been is attached almost umbilically to a laptop, was heard to say in the taxi to the airport that a Tablet would be her next purchase as the advantages did appear to outweigh the disadvantages. I am sure that this was not the only such comment being made over the time of the conference.
For me it was the first full test of the device in a full conference setting, where did it win:
* Battery life - having the tablet with me from a 9.30am Plenary through to a 5.30 pm debate session, taking notes and pictures throughout the day there was still 20% battery. No longer the requirement to search for power outlets.
* Ease of use - the tablet is a much more user friendly device in a conference, small, lightweight, cool on the lap and easy to switch between apps. I was able to take notes which were uploaded to a Dropbox along with images of the often endless Powerpoint presentations. The device allowed all of the usual 'backchannels' of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email ... in addition to certain points when decent into Angry Birds was called for in order to disippate frustration ( Peter Nowak!).
Where did it not work so well:
* Keyboard - the on screen keyboard though large enough can be a little tedious for long text.
* Android and W/P - Androids do not come with a basic W/P package and rely on the download of a few compatible apps, which is an irritation ( unless anyone knows better).
For me apart from a frustration which occurs at most 'Tech Conferences' , the issues with wifi in general not being able to cope with 2000+ users all of whom want good connection speeds....... the tablet is certainly a step change on from my previous Asus netbook, which as many of you will know I was very attached to.
I would be interested to hear if this is the feedback that others are getting from colleagues.

Diigo Tags 11/24/2011

2011-11-24T08:30:00.001Z

Life is a race not to be first finished

tags: blog new zealand educational technology

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Diigo Tags 11/23/2011

2011-11-23T08:30:00.001Z

All cyclists jump red lights and menace pedestrians | Irontwit

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Ddraig Goch blogs again......tablets may indeed rule!

2011-11-22T19:20:00.000Z

.......Dear reader, I never believed that I would return to Ddraig Goch, however having tried out a variety of othef blogging platforms over the past months, it still amazes me how easy and of course for me, how simple it is to use reliable Blogger.
There is also the fact that with the new Acer Iconia tablet running Android Honeycomb all of my settings are piped across. This was also true for all of my (Android) HTC phone contacts and I also found to my joy that the same holds true for my Picassa albums!
I am aware that some time ago now I mused over the question, were tablets such as the iPad, `deal breakers`?
I would conclude presently that they certainly go a long way towards being the one device that you will need. I have even today concluded a deal with a colleague to part with my other beloved device ..... the Kindle2, the app on the tablet will enable me to manage books essily in one place.
I am glad to be back home :-)

2010

2010-12-26T11:38:00.000Z

It has been a tough year for 'free to use' web 2.0 technologies in 2010. We should have seen this coming I guess as the current global economic situation finally hit the tech sector, as they realise that the have to turn a buck!!!!
We had an early warning of what was to happen when the popular site Ning changed to a pay for use service..... it is still retaining its image it would appear.

The latest victim following its acquisition by the troubled giant Yahoo is one of my favourites, which having been around since 2003 has been a web 2.0 stalwart - Delicious

It is not all doom and gloom however as other new sites and applications such a Prezi for presentations and many others ( link to Edudemic: Best 35 tools on the Web).

I must say a big thank you to Blogger itself for continuing to support the global blogging community year on year.

We look forward to the new innovations to come in 2011...... bring it on.

Diigo Tags 08/15/2010

2010-08-15T09:30:00.001+01:00

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Diigo Tags 08/13/2010

2010-08-13T09:30:00.001+01:00

Twitterfall (1) - Mentions: (1)

tags: twitter tools twitterfall

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Diigo Tags 08/11/2010

2010-08-11T09:30:00.001+01:00

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Diigo Tags 08/07/2010

2010-08-07T09:30:00.001+01:00

Twitter Help Center

tags: twitter help center
Twitter Help Center

tags: twitter help center
kloza2
kloza1

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UK's old Tweeter dies at 104 y.o.

2010-07-29T14:39:00.000+01:00

This story appeared on the BBC Technology News pages yesterday, what a great lady she sounds, sadly I was not one of Ivy's 62,427 followers however I do wish that I had been.

Silver surfers rule! Digital Natives......pah!

Diigo Tags 07/23/2010

2010-07-23T09:30:00.001+01:00

manyvoices (manyvoices) on Twitter

tags: twitter
@manyvoices by many voices in Science Fiction & Fantasy

tags: twitter
Education Week's Digital Directions: Educators Test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging Tool

tags: twitter
Twitter for Professional Development
I've been collecting links for educators who want to start twittering http://twittering.wikispaces.com to engage others in this mosaic of galactic conversations. From my networks tweets, I learn every day, I share and talk to others. I listen to the wonderful things educators have to say.

tags: twitter for professional
Using Twitter as an Education Tool - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

tags: blog twitter
Welcome to Youth Voices | Youth Voices

tags: blog twitter
Our New Book! | mrmayo.org
Mr mayo's blog

tags: blog twitter

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Diigo Tags 07/14/2010

2010-07-14T09:30:00.001+01:00

Can we use twitter for educational activities

tags: twitter
BLOGGING TO EXPRESS SELF AND SOCIAL IDENTITIES, ANY ONE?

tags: twitter microblogging blogging
Twttr sketch

tags: twitter
Twitter

tags: twitter
Making Sense of the Twitter Speak and Twetiquette

tags: twitter
Microblogging Inside and Outside the Workplace

tags: twitter microblogging
THE HORIZON REPORT 2 0 0 8 E D I T I O N a collaboration

tags: technology web2.0 education report
2009 Horizon Report

tags: technology research web2.0
- This is cool! - post by si 16
2009 Horizon Report » Key Trends

tags: trends education 2009 web2.0
- We know students like gaming, but I believe it is because the game involves something that interests them. What games are most interesting to them and how can we (or can we) incorporate these in the school setting? - post by Donna Strickland

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Diigo Tags 07/11/2010

2010-07-11T09:30:00.001+01:00

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Programmable origami which folds itself!

2010-07-04T18:37:00.000+01:00

Thanks to wired.co.uk for the video and article on how scientists at Harvard and MIT have created material which when a current is passed through it activates 'foil activators' to magically transform!

The power of Blip.tv,YouTube, iTunes and the Interweb!

2010-07-04T14:48:00.004+01:00

Those who may have been following my ramblings for a while may well have picked up on one of my iPod favourites Carpool. This is a series of video recordings made by Robert Llewellyn ( aka Kryten from Red Dwarf... Scrapheap Challenge ....How do they do it? and many more UK shows).
Robert has been dabbling in 'new media' since the early days with varying degrees of success, much as many of us he really 'got it' as far as using free new media such as Blip.tv, iTunes and YouTube in 2008 it was then that he decided to launch Carpool, a series of 30 minute-ish car journeys with well known people ( celebs and others less well known generally) where he would taxi them in his Toyota Prius chatting and generally having a good time. These clips were then uploaded originally through Blip.tv and also to iTunes and through Robert's web portal LlewTube in fact the power of the web came into play with the first episode which was downloaded over 4,000 times before any announcement of its existence had been posted!!!!
Carpool has gone on to gain an audience of over 2 million and has run into over 74 episodes ( there were a few lost due to technical issues) most of which are hugely amusing and I would recommend anyone with a 'UK' sense of humour and of the absurd to download a few episodes .... I believe you will get hooked quite quickly and will want more!

The show has succeeded because the combination of Robert's personality and that of his Carpool passengers. The good news that you will see in the announcement show above is that Carpool the videopodcast is now going to 'proper TV' as it has been commissioned as a show by Dave a UK satellite channel [link]. It is great to see that a show which began as an online experiment in new media will now make it to a wider audience, Robert has also promised that posting to all previous outlets will continue.
Well done to Robert and all those who have made Carpool what it is, we the audience ( I can't actually get Dave on my TV!) look forward to the next chapter in the story.

Diigo Tags 07/04/2010

2010-07-04T09:30:00.001+01:00

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Diigo Tags 06/24/2010

2010-06-24T09:30:00.001+01:00

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22 06 2010 post from Ddraig-goch365.blogspot.com

2010-06-23T15:46:00.000+01:00

Eric Lauzon the IB Chief Information Officer gave IB staff in Cardiff a reprise of his presentation Education and Technology in a Global Economy which he gave originally in San Francisco in May for the Ed Tech Industry Summit. Eric used Prezi as the tool for his delivery which certainly held his audience. Please feel free to view the presentation and feedback your thoughts to me or directly to Eric.
We were taken through many of the issues that will be familiar to those endeavouring to encourage others in the use of technology in an educational setting - my favourite quote was from a child who says 'when I go into school I have to power down!'
When he came to discuss why it has proved difficult to embed IT in schools Eric challenged the reasons that are often given - ' Teacher Technophobia', 'Institutional Conservatism' and 'Lack of Resources', and put forward his theory that it is actually 'Teacher Practice', Curriculum design' and Assessment methods' that are having a greater effect. This certainly forces us all to consider how we can make serious long term progress in building technology into the curriculum..... thanks to Eric for his thought provoking presentation.

We were left with the thought from Prof. Stephen Heppell on what will be possible if we get this right:

'It's the death of education, but it's the dawn of learning that makes me happy'

Diigo Tags 06/23/2010

2010-06-23T09:30:00.001+01:00

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The Use of Twitter in Education

2010-06-22T23:57:00.001+01:00

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Dan Pink..... gets the RSAnimate touch

2010-05-27T10:07:00.000+01:00

I was searching around for information on Twitter ahead of a talk I am giving next month when I came across the above video animation of dan Pink's talk to the RSA.
Found on Nigel Whiteoak's Blog following a link from The Commoncraft guys page explaining Twitter

Ning is dead...... long live GROU.PS(BETA)!

2010-05-18T20:33:00.000+01:00

I am not sure if I am late to the party..... the answer here is, probably yes I am. However it was only today thanks to a participant in one of our online workshops who has been working with net guru Julie Lindsay. We have had groups using Ning sites for some time, with the soon to be implemented pricing structure for Ning many of us have been looking for what next......... .
Today it came with GROU.PS BETA - which describes itself as:

GROU.PS is a do-it-yourself social networking platform that allows people to come together and form interactive communities around a shared interest or affiliation. The functionality of any online group is limited only by the members’ collective imagination and ambition. The GROU.PS platform is used to create a wide variety of community sites, including online gaming forums, e-learning classrooms, fan clubs, charity fundraising campaigns, college alumni societies, and event planning portals. In short, any organization seeking to aggregate and organize people online can greatly improve its effectiveness, engagement and appeal by migrating to the GROU.PS platform. By giving any user the ability to create an easy-to-use, yet powerful, social network, GROU.PS is propelling online collaboration, communication and content sharing in a new socially-aware direction.

The company is privately held and headquartered in Palo Alto, CA with development offices in Istanbul, Turkey. GROU.PS was founded in early 2006 by Emre Sokullu. The site has more than 3 million registered members. The company is backed by Golden Horn Ventures.

Grou.ps offers a home for your Ning site

For those familiar with Ning will recognise the header section titles as they correspond exactly. Once you create your grou.ps site you can simply copy across your Ning group.
Apologies if this is old news.... it was news to me!

DimDim V5.5

2010-05-14T17:29:00.000+01:00

With a free meeting room for up to 20 people and a re-usable meeting room for 50 attendees for $25 a month. DimDim and its version 5.5 is still my favourite in the webinar stakes, and its virtual classrooms for educational meetings and training it remains on track and a company which listens to its customers.

Adobe respond to Apple

2010-05-14T16:58:00.001+01:00

John Warnock and Chuck Geschke the co founders of Adobe have respond to Steve Jobs move with regard to the use of Adobe Flash on Apple devices in the form of the open letter above. John and Chuck make very good points regarding open markets, which is of course an easy pitch against Apple and its controlling nature. There are many in the IT community who are pleased that HTML5 has come along to give Adobe and its downloadable Flash and FlashPlayer a run for its money. I must say that my only experience of HTML5 is using the beta test on Youtube and it is pretty unsatisfactory with youtube videos play very slowly and with distinct lines across the playback video. I would be interested to see native HTML5 at its best. I am aware that James FK and Will Finch at IB have been playing with the use of HTML5 videos which play on smartphones, the result so far was it worked on iPhone but failed on an Android device. I do hope that we are not going through another VHS v Betamax for the 21st Century!!

Such Tweet Sorrow.......

2010-05-12T23:21:00.004+01:00

I have missed this earier today but we appear to be close to the end game at Such Tweet Sorrow... as you can see below early this morning Romeo appears to be distraught .....
he is followed a little later by Juliet!!!
Follow the story at Such Tweet Sorrow.

Romeo and Juliet.... parting is such Tweet sorrow

2010-05-10T21:43:00.005+01:00

Things are heating up with Romeo and Juliet - following Tybalt's death at Romeo's hand at a football match on 5th May Romeo has fled to the Eurozone, however his mobile might lead 'the cops' to him as you can read in his tweets from this evening.

While Laurence Friar is pointing Juliet towards a solution see here from his Kool-Aid Cafe.

Alas poor Juliet.

Continue to follow the story to its sad conclusion.... in real time.

WeTab - the slate/tablet previously known as WePad

2010-05-09T22:20:00.003+01:00

** Updated post 09/05/2010 following the emergence of the now renamed WeTab on German Amazon priced at 449 Euros (£390) for the 16GB [ link] ** see below.

The iPad has emerged I would say with a great deal of trumpeting and flag waving but not much to back it up as yet. Typical of many Apple initial products it appears again to have come out of the oven 'half baked' for example with no camera or USB connectivity - the kind of connectivity that has become standard even on the simplest netbook.

It appears that 'Apple Air syndrome' has struck again.

There are of course many other tablets in the market many of which pre-dated the iPad and most of which quite frankly also lack any 'game changing' functionality.

However following an article from Engadget April 12th on the emergence finally of the (1) WePad from Neofonie in Germany. A quiet entry into the world of tablets, I did not hear many trumpets or see flags - but there surely should have been for this product!

You can see the WePad in action at the WePad channel on Youtube

Check out the WePad v iPad specs at their site it shows webcam, usb, sim card, multicard reader and audio out... yay at last, a game changer!

Apple you have I believe met your match, I for one can't wait to get my hands on a WePad and look forward very much to demonstrating one when they become available in the UK.

(2) Next is the HP Slate

(3) The Archos 9

Google Chrome........ one fast browser

2010-05-09T22:10:00.003+01:00

Google Chrome has become my personal browser of choice following my earlier scepticism, I personally like its clarity and lack of clutter. Now it is also super fast..... faster than a speeding, POTATO??

Google celebrate the 150th anniversary of JM Barrie's birth

2010-05-09T21:24:00.003+01:00

Google used the Doodle above to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the originator of Peter Pan the boy who never grew up. Many other organisations joined in on the celebrations [link]

with 10 facts about the author:

[onlykent.com]

1 – According to his passport he was a short man of only 5 feet 3 and a half inches.
2 – He was the ninth of ten children and when he was 6 one of his brothers died in an ice-skating accident. His mother was so distraught that Barrie tried to take his place, even wearing his brother’s clothes and whistling like him.
3 – Although he wanted to be an author his family wanted him to become a minister.
4 – He would play ‘pirates’ in the gardens of Moat Brae house with his friends, later depicted in scenes of Peter Pan.
5 – Until he wrote Peter Pan, the girls name Wendy, had hardly been heard of.
6 – Barrie made known in 1929 that the copyright of his most popular work Peter Pan, should be given to the Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London.
7 – He had many famous friends, among them H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. One of his closest friends was Robert Falcon Scott (Captain Scott of the Antarctic), who actually wrote to Barrie in his final hours at the South Pole before he died.
8 – He was married although it was reportedly unconsummated and ended in divorce. He never had children of his own.
9 – In 1912 a statue of Peter Pan was erected in Kensington Gardens but Barrie was disappointed in it saying “It doesn’t show the devil in Peter.”
10 – Barrie died in 1937 of pneumonia and is buried at Kirrimuir.

[mirror.co.uk]

1. His full name was James Matthew Barrie.

2. He was born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, Scotland, the ninth of 10 children. Two of his siblings had died before he was born. His birthplace is now a National Trust museum.

3. When Barrie was six, his brother David died just before his 14th birthday in a skating accident. To try to comfort his devastated mum, James wore his brother's clothes and whistled like him.

4. He wanted to be a writer but was persuaded by his family to go to Edinburgh University. He wrote drama reviews for a local newspaper and went on to spend 18 months working as a journalist in Nottingham.

5. Barrie established himself as an author with novels about Scotland based on pieces he had written for a London newspaper, inspired by his mother's stories about Kirriemuir.

6. He married actress Mary Ansell in 1894, having met her when she appeared in his play Walker, London. They divorced in 1909 after her affair with another playwright and author, Gilbert Cannan. Despite his marriage, Barrie had a close relationship with Sylvia Llewellyn Davies, whose five boys George, John (Jack), Peter, Michael and Nicholas (Nico) were a major inspiration for Peter Pan's Lost Boys. After the death of Sylvia's husband Arthur, 'Uncle Jim' supported the boys financially and later became one of their guardians when Sylvia also died.

7. Barrie's most famous creation, Peter Pan, first appeared in his 1902 novel The Little White Bird. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, was first performed in London in 1904. It was transformed into the novel Peter and Wendy, published in 1911. The royalties from the Peter Pan series were assigned by Barrie to Great Ormond Street Hospital from 1929.

8. He was friends with Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle, asking him to revise and finish his attempted comic opera Jane Annie. Robert Louis Stevenson, based in Samoa at the time, was a penpal, George Bernard Shaw a neighbour, Thomas Hardy an acquaintance, and HG Wells a friend, the science fiction writer trying to help Barrie as his marriage fell apart. Conan Doyle, Wells and Barrie played cricket together for the Allahakbarries, a team founded by Barrie. A friend of Captain Scott, he was one of the seven people Scott wrote letters to as his death approached on his South Pole expedition.

9. He was involved in the 1909 and 1911 attempts by playwrights to challenge the Lord Chamberlain's censorship of the theatre, but went on to be made a baronet - becoming Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet - in 1913.

10. He died of pneumonia in 1937, leaving his estate (except Peter Pan) to his secretary Cynthia Asquith.

New from Asus - mutli touch screen desktop and netbooks

2010-05-04T21:32:00.008+01:00

In news from the Engadget gang I bring you the latest goodies from 'tech gem' ASUS:

EeeTop PC 2010
Above is the extremely desirable and good looking EeeTop PC 2010 with the 20 inch multi touch screened beauty packing an AMD Athlon II CPU and up to 2GB of RAM plus a DVD drive in a package 1 inch deep..... to be priced in the UK at 1p less than 620GBP.

EeePC1218
The eagerly awaited Eeepc1218 an the one-piece aluminium shelled beauty as sleek as an MacBook Air which combines elegance with practicality - packing a range of ports that we have come to expect from ASUS this one will pack the Nvidia Ion2 GPU ( see video from Nvidia below) ... no pricing yet.

EeePC 1005PR
Last but not least there is the Eee PC 1005PR the device that will pack the Broadcom'sCrystal HD accelerator ( see below) along with Intel's Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a battery good for "11 hours" of life. In a package selling for $399.99

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen has not only stated that ASUS will sell 8 million EeePC's this year capturing 20% of the market, he has predicted that netbooks will continue to outsell new tablet PC's in an interview on April 30th this on the day that Steve Jobs announced that the iPad has sold 1 million units in its first month!

Such Tweet Sorrow the story so far.......

2010-05-03T11:01:00.005+01:00

For those not yet up to speed on this project - the RSC have commissioned a 'live- real time' performance of Romeo and Juliet that is being carried out through the medium of Twitter and associated 'web2.0' tools.

It would appear that love has blossomed between our doomed couple Romeo and Julietcap16

who are having to keep their love secret from their friends this is not easy in the world of social networking much as it wouldn't have been in the closed community of the original couple - you too can follow this on the live timeline as you can see in the screenshot above, or of course by adding Romeo and Julietcap16 plus the rest of the cast as 'Twitter friends'.
If you wish you can also follow how the story has unfolded since April 10 at 'the story so far....' on the show site.
It is fascinating to follow this story in this new medium and also to have an extended story that will keep everyone on the edge of their seats until the eventual sad conclusion.

I like many others look forward to continuing to follow the story...... I hope that you will join us?

Charlie is still so cool....... like :-)

2010-05-02T02:54:00.002+01:00

Visit the inimitable Charlie McDonnell at his Charlie is so cool like?? YouTube site, it is worth it to see the talented Charlie in action.

Adobe response to Apple's contract changes

2010-05-01T14:49:00.003+01:00

The Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray had an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen Thursday afternoon, and Digits live-blogged the event. Highlights are below:

Interestingly in the IB Cardiff office our tech guru's are currently working on embedding video which will play cross platform and more crucially on the iPhone using HTML5 see intro to HTML5 below:

Introduction to HTML 5 from Brad Neuberg on Vimeo.

Adobe Flash - Android 1 - iPhone 0

2010-04-25T20:37:00.004+01:00

It appears that after a recent more draconian clause in the Apple iPhone developer program license which stated :

'3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).'

The clause basically informs iPhone and iPad developers that they cannot use a code creator such as Adobe Creative Suite 5. Which at the very time that Adobe were working on shipping Flash CS5 for which would work on iPhones allowing them at last to play back flash.

This appears to have finally driven Adobe away from Apple as Mike Chambers stated on his blog on 20th April

'Personally, I am going to shift all of my mobile focus from iPhone to Android based devices (I am particularly interested in the Android based tablets coming out this year) and not focus on the iPhone stuff as much anymore. This includes both Flash based, and Objective-C based iPhone development.'

'We are at the beginning of a significant change in the industry, and I believe that ultimately open platforms will win out over the type of closed, locked down platform that Apple is trying to create. I am excited about Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 and all of the opportunities that they will make available to Flash developers across multiple platforms (desktop, Android, Palm, Windows Phone 7, RIM, etc…).'

Why oh why do Apple continue with their attitude of wanting to control the world and everything that runs on their devices.... Apples are the best in the world how much better could they be with some OpenSourcing???

Read Mike's blog and the BBC technology report

Location Based Social Networking

2010-04-24T21:21:00.005+01:00

There is a growth at present lead by smart phones and the growth in the ability to geotag, images and places. A few people that I know are trialling FourSquare a mobile app which has a web presence also - FourSquare allows you to tag places that you visit be these casual visits, workplaces and make comments about them. This is great as when you visit a new location you can pick up what people have said about it - you can also gauge the number and type of people who have visited. Another similar app is Loopt which also allows this geotagging of places.
Also in here is Gowalla which has tied up with some US based promoters to offer deals to those who 'check in' at a venue.

Now there is photo networking with Mopho (mopho.to)an app which uses geotagging

What is mopho?

mopho is the fun new way to share your location by posting a photo

Other apps let you check in to a location and add a photo. With mopho, the photo is the checkin.

This isn't just location-based social networking - it's "social photography": geotagged photos enriched with metadata, comments, and likes. It's all about the photos - the real proof that you were somewhere.

Here's how it works:

You're celebrating your friend's birthday, and the pics you take become your checkin at that event. Your friends are notified that you're there, and your photos are automatically posted to your Facebook wall and saved on your iPhone.
During the event, you can see who else is around.
Later, you can see who else took photos at the event, and view their pictures.

Here’s how it works. The app is essentially built around the camera, requiring you to first take a photo at an event or place (bar, restaurant, business, work etc). Once you take a photo, you can add a caption and you must pin the photo to a geographic place or event. Once you publish your photo, the image, along with your location according to place or event, will be pushed to your friends who are also using the app, to Mophoto’s site and your Facebook friends, via Facebook Connect. Mophoto will soon add the ability to push to Twitter as well. On the app and site, you’re notified when your friend posts a photo and can easily see photos your friends are posting from places and events around you, giving you an opportunity to follow them in pictures. You can also comment on and “favorite” their photos.

While Gowalla allows you to publish photos with your location, Mophoto aims to differentiate itself by emphasizing the photo first, with the check-in as an afterthought.

( TechCrunch 23/04/2010)

iPad, WePad, HP Slate and Archos 9 ( keep taking the Tablets!)

2010-04-23T21:35:00.005+01:00

There are of course many other tablets in the market many of which pre-dated the iPad and most of which quite frankly also lack any 'game changing' functionality.

You can see the WePad in action at the WePad channel on Youtube

Check out the WePad v iPad specs at their site it shows webcam, usb, sim card, multicard reader and audio out... yay at last, a game changer!

Apple you have I believe met your match, I for one can't wait to get my hands on a WePad and look forward very much to demonstrating one when they become available in the UK.

(2) Next is the HP Slate

(3) The Archos 9

Great news for a friend

2010-04-22T21:37:00.003+01:00

Excellent news today for Allanah King a great friend from Appleby Primary School in New Zealand ( seen above on a visit to Cardiff in 2009). Allanah made the following Facebook announcement today:

Happy to announce that I have just won the position of ICT facilitator of Link Learning Cluster of 31+ schools starting next week (one day a week) but I am going to keep my day job- for this term at least- thereafter four days a week so I can still do exciting innovative stuff with my class. 2010-2012

Allanah is a 'world class' exponent on the use of Web 2.0 technologies seamlessly into education for kids, which bring excellent results.

Well Done AK :-)

Social Media Explained Visually

2010-04-20T21:46:00.002+01:00

From 'Say It Visually' this link came from Andrew Churches at Educational Origami.

Pixels by Patrick Jean

2010-04-20T13:37:00.001+01:00

Pixels by Patrick Jean.... enjoy

( Thanks for heads up @willfinch)

iPad......... lookout the WePad is coming

2010-04-20T09:06:00.006+01:00

The iPad has emerged I would say with a great deal of trumpeting and flag waving but not much to back it up as yet. Typical of many Apple initial products it appears again to have come out of the oven 'half baked' for example with no camera or USB connectivity - the kind of connectivity that has become standard even on the simplest netbook. It appears that 'Apple Air syndrome' has struck again.

There are of course many other tablets in the market many of which pre-dated the iPad and most of which quite frankly also lack any 'game changing' functionality.

However following an article from Engadget April 12th on the emergence finally of the WePad from Neofonie in Germany. A quiet entry into the world of tablets, I did not hear many trumpets or see flags - but there surely should have been for this product!

You can see the WePad in action at the WePad channel on Youtube

Check out the WePad v iPad specs at their site it shows webcam, usb, sim card, multicard reader and audio out... yay at last, a game changer!
Apple you have I believe met your match, I for one can't wait to get my hands on a WePad and look forward very much to demonstrating one when they become available in the UK

Amazon Kindle2 E-Reader

2010-04-15T19:37:00.002+01:00

At last yesterday my mystery object arrived and of course it is an....... Amazon Kindle2 e-reader!!!!! Sorry for those who believed it to be something akin to an iPad ( I would have to win one rather than buy one!!!
Below is the unboxing of the Kindle2 received from Simply Electronics and delivered rather fantastically by DPD who lived up marvellously to their next day delivery - tracking the order was very easy on their website where I could see that it had arrived at Newbury the night before , at 9am the following morning I could track its journey to Cardiff at 3.30am and onto a delivery van for delivery between 13.48 and 14.48..... it arrived at 13.46 Well done DPD impressive. I would certainly recommend them on the evidence of this service.

Now to unboxing the device... firstly remove outer packaging:

This reveals the inner box:

Including the rather marvellous opening strip:

Inside is the simple but classy machine itself:

Mmmm sleek and stylish:

Hidden below is the instruction manual and power cable:

The Kindle2 started quite quickly:

Revealing the start up instructions inside:

It was simple to join the Kindle Store at Amazon and then purchase my first two books:

The No.1 Ladies' detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett...... now to some reading.

Thank You

2010-04-13T21:51:00.003+01:00

A big thank you to all readers of this blog as today at 21.58 the hit counter registered 20,000 hits since I started. Interestingly looking at the blog stats the most popular post by a very long way was a post on the Asus Eeepc mini netbook from April 8 2008, which is quite apt as I still have a soft spot for the Linux based net-book, and indeed I still own two of the devices (700 and 901) and the 4GB version bought then indeed saw Laura through her A Levels and has just become the property of my 4 year old granddaughter it is currently undergoing an Ubuntu overhaul and having some pre-school programmes installed by a colleague .
When I began the blog I had no real plan or idea where it would go, it began as those who have a long memory will attest as the outlet for tech and Web 2.0 discoveries that one excited if slightly aged primary school teacher was finding and sharing with his growing group of global friends.

As the map above shows there still remains a strong global audience and I hope that what is posted here has relevance even though the teacher has left the classroom possibly for good and the nature of the posts has somewhat changed.

It proves if nothing else that this new technology revolution is certainly a 'grass-roots' one as I would hardly call myself tech mainstream, I hope though to remain relevant.

It is possible that the blog may move to a new Wordpress home soon, I hope that you will come with me on the rest of this great adventure.

Thank You

Dropbox.com

2010-04-13T11:14:00.006+01:00

Have you recently had the need to save a large file ( up to 2GB free!) in order to share it with others or to have it somewhere where you can access it on multiple machines including your smart phone?

If so why not give Dropbox a try, it even has an iPhone and Android app making you truly mobile. Other storage spaces such as Box.net offer 1GB but with crucially a 25MB file size limitation, whereas Dropbox offers unlimited upload up to your 2GB limit - check out the features here

Many thanks to @willfinch for the heads up on Dropbox.com

Parting is such tweet sorrow!!!

2010-04-12T15:31:00.006+01:00

The Royal Shakespeare Company ( RSC) is using social networking ( Twitter) as the medium for delivering a 21st Century Romeo and Juliet. They have a cast of six who will tweet and supply links for those who want to follow the story over the coming five weeks. I heard Juliet ( Charlotte Wakefield ) Twitter @julietcap16 and Romeo on Richard Bacon's Radio Five Live programme this afternoon discussing the premise of the project:

Romeo James Barrett will make his appearance shortly. Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC, said: "Our ambition is always to connect people with Shakespeare and bring actors and audiences closer together.
"Mobile phones don't need to be the Antichrist for theatre. This digital experiment... allows our actors to use mobiles to tell their stories in real time and reach people wherever they are in a global theatre."

Interest must be high as their website http://suchtweetsorrow.com/ was recently down, but appears now to have come back on stream

Malcolm McLaren

2010-04-10T20:32:00.005+01:00

Following the untimely death of the arch agent provocateur of the punk scene Malcolm McLaren at the age of 64 from Mesothelioma, Graham Brown-Martin of Handheld Learning 2009 where Malcolm spoke in October of last year has paid this tribute followed by Malcolm's presentation ( hopefully uncut!). It was great to hear Malcolm speak on this occasions to hear a speaker who sees PC speak and just blasts straight through - Love him or loathe him, we sometimes right off people who don't just follow the party line - thank you Malcolm for straight talking.

We first noticed that he was unwell when arriving to give his speech at Handheld Learning 2009 when he arrived later than planned complaining of fatigue. Diagnosed with the flu he continued but soon after the conference was admitted to hospital for investigation and removal of fluid from his lungs. It was only at this point was it was understood that his condition might be symptomatic of Mesothelioma. Even when we spoke over Christmas when Malcolm was working as hard as I have ever seen him we did not know how quickly this cancer would steal him from us.

For me Malcolm was not only a friend but a mentor & confidante. His passing leaves a gap in my life but also some happy memories.

This talk from Malcolm at the Handheld Learning Conference 2009 will, I believe, stand the test of time. The speech doesn't elaborate about the period of the Sex Pistols, New York Dolls, Vivienne Westwood, his impact on design, fashion and music culture and the many other important achievements of Malcolm's life that will be reported in obituaries over the coming days. Instead and in keeping with the theme of the conference Malcolm discusses in his inimitable style - his life, learning, authenticy vs karaoke culture and what we gain from the experience of failure. Ironically, failure was something Malcolm never achieved. The talk was anything but ordinary, it polarised our audience and instantly trended globally on Twitter but what else would you expect?

Bravo and rest in peace, Malcolm!

"Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Txt Pistols" Malcolm's McLaren's "Reflections on Learning" keynote presented at the Handheld Learning Conference 2009, London. Contains mild references to adult themes and occasional use of adult language.

The Global Digital Divide

2010-03-20T13:49:00.003Z

Leading up to the Peterson Symposium in April a series of Reading Groups have been considering issues around the global nature of technology in schools by both teachers and pupils. Recently the issue of inclusion/the digital divide was on the agenda with the article ' Distance training of teachers in a rural area in Kenya' by Chiara Pozzi, Sociologist, e-learning didactic designer, Centro di Produzione Multimediale, University of Milano-Bicocca, as the main point of discussion. The study looked at the effective models that worked in the training of teachers in rural Kenya. The main reason for the selection of the text was the image which appears in the paper which shows the world at night with electrically lit areas glowing brightly while some areas of the globe are in darkness in more ways than one. The question raised was how do we bring digital literacy to those dark areas of the globe in Latin America, Southern Africa, India and South East Asia.

I must admit that my view is that we must make use of the technologies which are or have become part of the community - mobile (cell) phones and Television being two powerful media for digital literacy. I firmly believe that Stephen Heppell is an important voice which organisations should pay heed to.

If we are going to go down the route of 'one laptop per child' for the developing world then we should also consider the OLPC project:

Below you can see a video from Noah Dumahasi, project manager for Together Ghana, weighs in on the digital divide across Ghana and the development of communication technology in rural Africa. - Providing a Voice

Africa takes on the digital divide
And below an article about The digital divide or access to the latest technology, is far from being equal. An attempt to remedy this is the Digital Equalizer programme of the America India Foundation, started at the initiative of President Clinton in 2001. "We have learnt how to use the camera to record, edit and make a movie from what we have edited and to burn a CD," said J M Manu Kumar, a student.

Update - interesting reading to add to this mix - the 2008 Millennium Goals from UN
I feel sure that this will provoke a wide ranging discussion as we all consider what steps are required for the future.

Also thanks to Judith Fabian ( IB Academic Director)for the reference below to the recent Education Guardian article on the 'Hole in The Wall' project begun by Sugita Mitra to consider

Blog post from daily blog

2010-03-16T19:43:00.000Z

Much of our work today has been in the design and completion of the IB online professional development web portal ( see below) - the astute amongst you will notice that the site http://onlineworkshops.ibo.org/ will now operate in English, French and Spanish and also that we have grown a 'work with us' tab leading to a dedicated page for those who wish to join us in the IB's online PD project

We would really appreciate feedback from readers

#savewordle

2010-03-02T20:16:00.005Z

Sorry if I am late to the party however I was concerned when I read Jonathan Feinberg's news blog post from 1 March referring to the WORDLE site being taken down temporarily due to a 'perceived trademark infringement' the global alarm was raised by Techcrunch following the news being spotted by @jackschofield and @digitalmaverick - there was set up a Twitter hashtag #savewordle which swung into action, and thanks to a good IP lawyer it would appear that Wordle may be safe. We wish Jonathan and Wordle our best wishes and please feel free to join the hashtag campaign.

Improvements to the impressive DimDim

2010-02-24T19:58:00.008Z

The message above arrived on Tuesday 23rd February from those great guys at DimDim who are constantly developing their product into I believe one of the premier online meeting spaces offered to professionals globally. I have long been impressed with not only their product but also in their drive to improve what is offered. Do take a look and perhaps try out a free DimDim training session, it is the ideal way to see how well the system works in your browser with 'no downloads'.

Below you can see a logged in view which shows the 'Big Red Button' with which you can start a meeting.
I am also a fan of the use of social media to spread the URL of your meeting space.

Don't just take my word for it..... do give DimDim a try, I think that you will enjoy the experience and also will instantly have ideas regarding how you can make use of it in your organisation.

No, I do not have any connection with DimDim I just rate it highly :-)

Blaise Aguera y Arcas and augmented reality mapping.... Wow!!!

2010-02-18T19:41:00.004Z

For those who can remember the amazing TED video of Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrating Photosynth in 2007 where using Microsoft Livelabs projects he showed how you could render objects using photographic views of that object taken from different angles would not be surprised to find that in February 2010 the magician of the digital age is back this time to show us the power of augmented reality in mapping.

Watch and be truly amazed as we see the next stage of Photosynth as Blaise demonstrates the ability to overlay images over a 'streetview', in this case showing a scene with shots taken at different times of day.... but the truly magical experience is when we see live video overlay inside a 'streetview' scene which is itself from inside a building. This is truly the future where we will be able to render inside a map using user generated content both still and video to enhance our view of the digital world. There are obviously privacy and other issues that will have to be dealt with however the ability to view the world and places in this way is truly in the world of Web 3.0 or even Web 4.0 - I feel Web 4.0 will be our ability to actually place ourselves within this scene using whole body systems such as Pravan Mistry's Sixth Sense.... I can't wait!!!

BUZZ......off!

2010-02-16T20:21:00.004Z

Oh dear! It would appear that Google released BUZZ without thoroughly testing it was reported today by the BBC Technology News resulting in security and privacy issues for users of the new social networking tool which operates within Google services such as GMail, Maps etc.

Google has admitted to BBC News that testing of its controversial social network Buzz was insufficient.

The firm has had to make a series of changes to the service after a ferocious backlash from users concerned about intrusions of privacy.

Buzz was launched on 9 February. The service, which is integrated with Gmail, allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.

One problem that immediately caused concern was Google's decision to automatically give users a ready-made circle of friends based on the people they most frequently e-mailed.Unless users changed settings in their profile, this list could automatically be made public, allowing anyone to see who a user corresponded with most frequently.

Mr Jackson told BBC News that the decision to create these automatic lists was borne out of the idea that Google "wanted to provide a great user experience straight out of the box".

But privacy experts immediately pointed out this could cause problems for journalists, businesses or even people having an illicit affair.

Evgeny Morozov, a Belarus-born researcher and blogger who looks at the political implications of the internet, also raised concerns.

"If I were working for the Iranian or the Chinese government, I would immediately dispatch my internet geek squads to check on Google Buzz accounts for political activists and see if they have any connections that were previously unknown to the government," he wrote.

As a result of complaints, Google said Buzz would now only suggest people who a user might want to be friends with.

The company has also announced steps to make it easier to disable Buzz altogether and to ensure that people's accounts do not automatically connect with online Picasa photo albums and items that people may store in their Google Reader accounts.

The changes were in part thrashed out at a company-wide meeting on 12 February at Google headquarters.

"We realize that we didn't get things quite right - we're working extremely hard to fix this," said Mr Jackson.

He said that "transparency and control" were "top priorities" and that users would "continue to see improvements".

Asked if the Google founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - or any of the executive team would issue an apology for breaching their user's trust, a Google spokesperson said: "Google has apologised - we're very sorry for the concern we caused."

Google Chrome Extensions :-)

2010-02-09T22:00:00.004Z

At last, and I am not so sure how many days ( or possibly weeks) ago the new extensions for Google Chrome appeared but now they are here and ready to roll don't forget to give them a try. Unlike Firefox they do not appear to cause additional headers but fit in the the right of the address bar on the browser and either open as a pop out - as bit.ly does in the screenshot below, or as new tabs in the case of something like CoolIris ( which if you haven't used yet you absolutely should)...... Go get your extensions..... now!

Google Buzz new today

2010-02-09T21:38:00.001Z

Google has announced on Tuesday that it is immediately rolling out Google Buzz, a location-aware social networking tool highly integrated with its Gmail client, Google Maps and a new Android app.

It was announced on the Google Blog today:
'Today, we're launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up — you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.'

'We focused on making the sharing experience really rich by integrating photos, videos, and links. No more fuzzy little pictures: Buzz makes it easy to quickly flip through photos and experience them the way they were meant to be seen: big and full-resolution. And videos play inline so you can watch them without opening a new window.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there's Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you're doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don't miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time. '

Once again Google wait and then enter the arena - I do like the way they are continually attempting to build in real time interaction into their applications.

I am looking forward to Buzz coming to my HTC G phone - an update for Google maps 5 minutes ago does include the new app, I am now awaiting the GMail update!

Bulbdial Clock

2010-02-05T22:23:00.009Z

My love of timepieces ( blog post 16 01 2010) has been sparked again today in the 'Play Section of WIRED for March 2010 on page 058( see below) where lies the amazing looking Bulbdial Clock from the Evil Mad Scientists.

The clock using LED technology is an object of beauty as you can see below thanks to Oskay they are also being offered in kit form so that you can make one for yourself..... yay

All I can say is that...... I want one!!!!! See one in action below:

OLED transparent screens..... WOW!!!

2010-02-05T20:22:00.005Z

You can keep your Apple locked iPad Mr Jobs the future is OLED......

Above is the transparent OLED screen of the Samsung laptop shown as a concept at CES 2010 it now appears that this device may be on sale before the end of 2010 ( T3 article 06 02 2010). Now this device really could be a mould breaker, I agree with the article that this object certainly is desirable.... move over Mr iPad, as the OLED device not only looks 'truly cool' and highly desirable, it also heralds the use of OLED technology for things such as Satellite Navigation devices built into things such as windscreens ....... Combine this with Augmented Reality ( as seen with Sixth Sense MIT )and all I can say is WOW!!!

Just the thought of having this kind of technology built into surfaces taking the computer out of the box and beginning to develop a truly interactive UI just has to be the way forward ...... seeing these I am transported back to when I was a boy in the late 1960's looking at the fantastical devices in my coveted Look and Learn magazines.