Doh! Wrong blog!

Last three posts were actually intended for my third year Economics students.

This is what happens when you're editing multiple blogs in a dashboard in a hurry.

I'll leave them up but reminder to self to be more careful.

Luckily I spotted error before the class in 30 minutes...

Virtual Revolution: 3D Explorer URL

Virtual Revolution: 3D Explorer URL

Just in case you have problems finding it here is a direct link to the 3D Explorer multimedia.

You can effectively watch full episodes or jump between Chapter points and resources.

We do not have the class time to watch all four hours of the series in class but a DVD is available from library or you can watch it on-line as a good quality video stream. Over the course of the module I will highlight some key sections that I think you really should watch; but I have to say the whole thing is really very good.

VR: The Great Levelling Blog

Here is a link to the official blog post for the first episode of The Virtual Revolution: The Great Levelling.

The Virtual Revolution: The Great Levelling

The Virtual Revolution 3D Explorer Guide

Levelling The Land is Episode 1 of The Virtual Revolution.

The Virtual Revolution is a recent production form the BBC and Open University.

The four (one hour episodes) are available on DVD from the university library.

Lest We Forget

In memory of John (Jack) Wane.

May 22 1920 - Oct 8 2009.

Photograph taken in Berlin 1945.

Bring Me Back To Life

My work-ish blog has been neglected for some time. Time I brought it back to life (as Evanescence might say). Until a few minutes ago when I embedded a SlideShare presentation on OER into it. Not that I haven't been busy doing stuff but have been concentrating on Twitter (for sheer convenience) as well as updating other blogs.

iTunesU as a model of OER

Is iTunesU a successful model of Open Educational Resource distribution?

View more presentations from tbirdcymru

SlideShare presentation - iTunesU as a model of OER

PowerPoint & Pecha Kucha

Might be a useful approach for future teaching and learning materials hence inclusion here... PowerPoint - e-learning, blended-learning, multimedia, PowerPoint.

Referencing with RefWorks

Now I'm a member of staff here at NTU but I'm also a student doing post-graduate work.

I'd been meaning to try and get to grips with RefWorks for some time and a few days ago I finally did. I had to adapt my way of working but once I did it proved to be very effective. There's a really useful add-on too which allows you to import book from Amazon into your RefWorks database, which did't quite work as I think it should be was nonetheless pretty useful. The real benefit came when I finally wanted to create my set of References and it simply churned them out in a style and file type of my choosing.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Don't need to say any more really but if you ever get the chance to visit the Imperial War Museum there is a special gallery dedicated to the holocaust. Grim but worthy.

Just the kind of thing...

4.8 Public Comment on University Policy and Administration
4.8.1 'Public comment' in this context includes public speaking engagements, comments on radio and television, letters to newspapers, and expressing views in books, journals or notices. All media requests for information and enquiries that relate to the University must be referred to the University's Press Office.

This section doesn't mention what might be called Web 2.0 channels (which surprises me) but what does the last sentence mean? If The Guardian (or whoever ) seeks my opinion on working at NTU or a policy of NTU do I have to check with the Press Office? Surely not but it is not clear and HR are suggesting this is all part of our legal contract of employment.

NTU Policy Updates

Just seen an email sent earlier today from HR about updated staff policies. Amongst the other stuff I found this statement:

Staff should avoid activity that might adversely affect the reputation of the University or bring the University into disrepute.

Would this include Blogger and Twitter postings? YouTube videos? What I might say down the pub? Comments on the websites of the BBC, Guardian, Times Higher or whoever? Given there is an approaching general election would this include staff who legitimately stood for election but who put forward controversial issues - whatever they might be and however democratic?

I know this is a constant theme of mine but I think employers interfering in employees private lives (with the possible exception of where they break the law) is all rather feudal. What you can say... What work you can do outside of your "main" work... Surprised too that the European Union does not have a view on this - Human rights anyone?

Still alive...

I haven't updated this blog for some time as I tend to concentrate on the blog for my third year module; The Internet, Computers & Society. Furthermore I'm currently firing off the odd work related posting on Twitter is even quicker and easier than logging into here, especially from my phone.

And of course everything tech or work related took second place to my parents in 2009...

Small Office Home Office (SOHO)?

Something that has delayed my plans for new revision materials, including multimedia "stuff" (see last post), is the lack of space I have at both home and work. York House was a bit of a dump but at least it was a more spacious dump than Chaucer - which is nice but lacks both identified office space and just spare (quiet) corners (or complete rooms) in which to sometimes work, especially spontaneous creative work.

Home is relatively small and my wife correctly reminds me that our conservatory is not an office and so now and again I clear out (or take *back* to my office) assorted materials. It would be so nice to have more room to keep all my bits and bobs or to leave out things like Camcorders all plugged in and ready to go... (either at home or work). Instead I spend lots of time and energy constantly sorting, hiding or otherwise putting away and getting out things without actually getting much done. Or as much as I'd like or otherwise could...

Blogger, NOW and YouTube

I've been off work lately because my mother recently passed away so I'm very grateful for a combination of Blogger, NOW (Nottingham Online Workspace) and YouTube. More to the point my third year Economics students are/will be for as I play catch up with my planned revision materials/sessions for their impending exam.

A mix of text, images, audio and video can be fairly quickly generated (I hope/plan) to give them a full range of revision materials that should suit any number of learning styles.