rogerneilson

Those of you who know me well will know that one of my interests is military history.  As a young lad this developed and continues to this day. Those of you who know me well will also know that I am as far removed from a military person as you can get! Of all the ‘arms of service” it was the cavalry that appealed to me most, whether it was the dashing Cavaliers or the Napoleonic Hussars or just the ‘mistaken’ thought that it meant you didn’t have to walk – something just triggered my particular passion.

Until they were effectively rendered redundant and obsolete by those infernal flying machines in the Great War cavalry were best used as the eyes and ears of the army – roaming far and wide, checking routes, the best approaches, the most likely areas for foraging and for gaining advantage in a campaign. They were ‘high maintenance’ compared to the footsloggers – but their value was in their speed, their reactions and above all the information they could gather and bring back to HQ.

One of the most famous cavalry commanders ever was J.E.B Stuart, who during the American Civil War was the eyes of Robert E Lee as he successfully outmanouvred and outfought the Union forces. As the war moved on the Union got wiser to the use of cavalry and this, in part aided them to contain and overcome the ‘rebellion’. In 1863 the high water mark of the Confederacy was Lee’s invasion of the north that culminated in the battle of Gettysburg. In advance of the campaign Lee let  Stuart and his cavalry loose on a wide ranging raid to disrupt the enemy and to provide intelligence on what they were doing.

Stuart set off and indeed had a fine old time, raiding, disrupting, tearing up rails, scaring the populace: however he neglected to send word to Lee of what he was doing – and Lee was therefore ‘blind’ for most of the campaign.

Yes I know you are by now probably asking, where is this going, what relevance does this have to me?

I run a City Learning Centre, I have done so for seven years now – there have been one or two changes in that time!  Part of my role (and those of my colleagues) is to scout out new ideas, to introduce new approaches to others – to boldly go….. (ok, no Star Trek references). So, in many ways we have the role of Cavalry, wide ranging, scouting – and sometimes terrifying the local populace (joke honest).

For around 9 months now I have been a pretty regular twitterer. Twitter is amazing as a way of getting amazing information from an amazing network of  eyes and ears.

I have also become a great fan of Diigo, both as a way of keeping my own discoveries and also of sharing, and having others share their discoveries.

So as a scouting cavalryman for the ICT army I think I am doing a pretty effective job of keeping on top of new ideas, new opportunities, new developments.

I do wonder though, am I so busy riding about doing this scouting that I am not getting the messages back to everyone, I am not passing the ideas and information back to the practitioners.  Or if I am, they look at me, in my flash gear, with all my expensive technological garmentry -and they reject anything I say because its from me and I’m not one of them any more.

So the quandry is, how can I get my ‘despatches’ back to people who will read them and value them?  Am I just prancing around on a fancy expensive technological horse?

And the results, in no particular order (as they say on these contest things that I never watch)

1. Lampless Projectors – Casio, just released last week
2. Snow Leopard running on MacMini
3. TedxOrenda
4. Pasco bluetooth cleverness for linking Itouches to dataloggers
5. Smoothwall – looks like a sensible (if that’s possible) internet filtering system
6. Digital Creator 1 – looks much more practically oriented
7. CLC stand – well more like an anti-stand (a visitor kept asking where the brochures and freebies were) – a great place to sit, chat to colleagues, catch up on things
8. CDSM – great developments continuing in VLE and on-line materials
9. Design your own school by www.designyourschool.com
10. Superstory (2Simple)

The list could have been longer but I decided that 10 was the cut off line.

Probably very few of you will remember the original BBC Series ‘Survivors’. The new version has just begun its second run of episodes. The plot is essentially a post apocalyptic recover one where following a plague the few left try to sort out the world. I don’t know how closely the rest of the new series will follow the original but there comes a point in the original series where there is a breakthrough in that a group of survivors who live in a locality are persuaded to set aside a day when they will gather at a local landmark and trade ideas, goods and skills. The beginning of a new civilisation. (Cue hopeful music)

Cut to me, Wednesday afternoon, tired, bedraggled, travel worn, 2 hours that morning looking at a bleak snow scape near Brixton as travel chaos scuppered my morning plans, ‘fresh’ from wandering the lanes of BETT looking for some reason for even being there…..

Its TedxOreanda and over the next 3 hours my whole view of BETT on transformed. The next two days (us northerners can’t do the full 4 days) I put into practice the new view.

No-one is quite sure of what the full costs of exhibiting at BETT is, figures are bandied around, and as you’d expect there is ‘commercial sensitivity’. There is a sense that the ‘big boys’ spend a fortune and of course they only do that because they are going – in one form or another – to get that back – the old adage ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’.  At times it can seem like what we witness are very slick snake oil salesmen who could be equally at home flogging anything else as well. I think this accounted for my extreme dissatisfaction on Wednesday as I  searched in vain, like so many other questors walking the lanes – for the ‘new’ thing. I was seeing BETT as a very glossy, almost obscene capitalist advertising splurge – are the rumours true that the carpets are brand new on the Monday and in  skips on the Sunday?

So, I sat with this unpleasant feeling about the whole ‘binge of BETT’ and listened to these fantastic stories at TedxOrenda and then the one came round about stopping worrying about the market….. so I put on my ‘augmented reality 3d glasses’ and lo and behold I am actually in a very bustling marketplace. Its a place where people come to trade, to sell, to exchange skills, to talk, to ponder, to pass the time of day.

Next two days at BETT were all about trading ideas, giving opinions, offering thoughts. Yes I did buy some stuff, but came away from the marketplace feeling I’d gained a lot of knowledge, and that I’d made a lot of connections.

Now the amount I spent and the contributions I made would not have even covered one of the tiny stands,  but if we are all doing that then probably there is a balance being achieved.

We need the marketplace, but lets not be awed by the sharks out there swimming, and lets remember they need us – and if they ‘gobble us all up’ then where are they going to go for their next meal?

Ok its that time of year again……

Looking forward to the challenge of taking it all in and making sense of it.

Looking forward to meeting lots of people, old friends and possibly new friends via twitter.

Looking forward to a time to reflect and consider…..

Not looking forward to the ache in my legs after two plus days of wandering round

Not looking forward to all the rebadged ‘tat’ that has been there for several years but is just hitched to the latest ‘buzzword’

Not greatly looking forward to the hustle and bustle of London and the travel issues that may well emerge this year.

It would be so easy, just like turning over and going back to sleep on a cold miserable day, to just give it a miss.

Why don’t I?

Because I might just miss some nugget that is hidden away.

Rusty Cogs: attribution and source

A short, for me, blog entry. Sitting here not long to the hustle and bustle of wedding preparations, transport, logistics, therefore have finished work a couple of days early.

End of a term, though for a CLC, unlike schools we don’t tend to think in terms. However traditionally we close at Xmas, and we let the building run on low energy use, and we recharge our batteries.

I’m pretty sure this is the 7th Xmas we have had as a CLC, and to my recollection its the first where the local CLC people have not got together for a meeting, a chat, and a lunch. Increasingly the meetings we do have are shorter, more agenda items, more time pressured. People get to them for bang on time, they leave the second the items are finished.

In a few weeks it is BETT. BETT has always been, for me, a time when all the ‘movers and shakers’ are in the same place, where as much as seeing new things, its about talking new talk. Its about what goes on in between the events as much as the events themselves.  I suspect that fewer people will be there, and when they are the visits will again be much more time pressured.

What are we gaining by this fixation on what must be done as opposed to what could be done? What are we losing by the lack of cohesion, by the lack of familiarity, by the lack of simple good cheer and comradeship that comes from sitting having a coffee, a glass or two of something stronger, and mulling over the nature of where we are and what we could do?

Difficult to agenda such interactions into a packed meeting, but for anyone who who has ever used any machinery you quickly appreciate the need for oil and other lubricants to keep the wheels turning.

1865 – Red Flag Act

Progress in the development of cars saw stiff opposition from companies running horse-driven coaches. In the mid-1800s turnpike charges (similar to toll charges) for the “early cars” that which were then plying on road, were steeply hiked. These heavy and crudely built steam-driven vehicles must have badly damaged roads, and to some extent the increase was possibly justified.

The ‘Locomotives on Highways Act’ (Red Flag Act) was passed by the British Government in 1865. It was intended to regulate the use of heavy traction engines pulling large loads. The Act limited speeds to 6.4 kms per hour in the country and 3.2 in towns. It also required that every road locomotive must have three attendants – one to steer, one to stoke and one to walk 50 metres ahead of the vehicle, bearing a red flag, signaling the driver when to stop.

The Red Flag Act discouraged further developments of road-steam-vehicles. A subsequent Act passed 13 years later in 1878 did away with the red flag, but nevertheless the vehicle still had to be preceded by a man on foot to warn drivers of horse-driven coaches.

http://www.cybersteering.com/trimain/history/ecars.html

I was reading Chickensaltash’s blog this morning about some work being done using Skype.

Now way back in the past I did experiment with the use of a piece of technology called a telephone. It had its drawbacks – its was expensive – the learners using the technology were not very good at it. It was however great as it meant they had to use ‘real world’ technology, and they had to get better at it.  After a few attempts they managed to string together some meaningful communication and the amount of self conscious giggling diminished. It was constrained by the need to ‘borrow’ someone’s office and the fact that it cost. It would have been prohibitively expensive to call anyone ‘long distance’ never mind the other side of the world. Of course you had a pretty good idea who you were talking to at the other end of the phone.

Now I have used Skype on a number of occasions, mind you I can, I’m an adult, I’m in no danger. I can deal with any problem of a voice at  the other end of the line – and as for seeing them, well, hey I can hang up pretty quickly. I possibly even have a Skype safety certificate – or if not could knock one up pretty fast on demand. It would be a different matter to allow a learner to use Skype…. I mean, they might talk to the wrong person, they may see the wrong person…….

I know, lets allow them to, but only after a person with a red flag has checked it out first, the learners can walk behind at enough of a distance to not really see or hear…. that’s really good use of technology. In fact we could always relay the message to them, acting as a kind of interpreter, cum censor…… yes that’s sure to enable our learners to operate on the superhighways.

I was recently in a conversation about the need for my laptop to have filtering on it so that when I was away from work I could be protected from anything untoward.

Given about half of the stuff I try to access at the moment causes a gentleman with a red flag to leap out and wave it about I am obviously in need of significant protection – I mean I try to read ‘blogs’ I try to look at games based learning. I am probably still under suspicion as the person who once tried to buy some digital blue cameras…….

So I say, bring it on, lets all have a red flag waver in front of us, lets just make sure no-one can actually exploit the wonders of technology and talk to sensible, sane and wonderful people on the other side of the world – at no real cost – just in case it frightens the horses and they stampede! I mean, look at the evidence, the world is full of people who have been trampled by horses shocked by the motor car!

Audio recording of blog text

Ok, I am pretty close to starting a major project involving putting i-Touches into a full year group of a Primary school and seeing the results over 18 months. The i-Touch  is marvellous BUT it has two serious drawbacks. it does not have a camera and it does not have a microphone. If it did it would be pretty close to being an i-Phone without the phone (though that can be overcome with a little thinking). The camera aspect brings with it more complications than might be welcome in a Primary context but the lack of a microphone is a pain.

I am not here arguing for a studio quality sound recording facility, rather the ability to quickly capture something heard, or said to you – or, and perhaps more importantly, capture your own ideas on audio. After all we do a lot of writing and it’s actually got its limitations – and for many learners an audio might be a better way of capturing ideas.

I just took delivery of a SwitchEasy Microphone Thumbtack for an Ipod Nano or Ipod Touch. Attached is a recording made by it. You will see from the picture how it attaches. I have to say that for £10.99  I am impressed.

Amazon link

Looks like although this is a useful service its also being viewed as a spam system by a lot of Tweeters. Beware. I have just revoked access until we see how it develops. Am leaving the blog up though.

Twitter is a key part of my working world now. The very nature of it is that it is fast, it is short, it is somewhat random. It is dependent upon interactions, whether they be at a conference, in a meeting context or in response to tweets from others. So, now there is Tweetcloud. It will aggregate all your tweets over a given period, and will then ‘cloud’ them and you get a sense of some order from the randomness. An intersting opportunity to take stock and get a sense of what haa been uppermost in my thinking on my PLN since I began tweeting. Nicely it also stores them so you can do side by side comparisons over time. A good little application this.

I am really liking the ability to get ’stuff’ from others via Diigo.

Today I got a recommendation for Tagul, which is a growth out of Wordle by a programmer in Russia. The main evolution is that each piece of text is a hyperlink.

It got me thinking, using a Tagul as the main page of a presentation may enable hyperlinking in a similar way to Prezi. All I need now is a reason to try it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,–
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Ulysses: Tennyson

Ok, what’s he on about here then?

Well I have been doing quite a lot of reflective thinking recently, culminating in some major think yesterday. I spend a  lot of time these days in the company of younger colleagues (not difficult to achieve that really at my age). There is an amazing brimming of ideas, inventiveness and opportunity out there now for those who wish to take it. There is Tom Barrett and others who pick up an idea and run with it as a collaborative exercise such as Google Maths; there is the Gunpowder Plot Tweet Stream of Chris Leach, then there is jet set superstar Ollie Bray. These are just some examples of the amazing stuff that is being done, and the real opportunities to work with colleagues who can, and do, on a daily basis make things happen and push the boundaries of accepted pedagogy.

I was very lucky when I began my teaching career to join a department that was new, a bit ‘off the wall’ and up for asking questions and trying new things. I could so easily have ended up in a reactionary fossilised place (there were plenty of them to go around). Any success I have had since then is in no small measure to the good fortune of my first placement. Others were not so lucky and were ’socialised’ into the boneyards.

Tonight, assuming work is out of the way I may well join a group of others in a flash meeting to look at new ideas, I have had my Twitter stream running all day as I worked, i have bookmarked to Diigo numerous fragments for use another time. I have marked work submitted electronically, I have reviewed collaborative documents, I have looked at new software, that may be a very different way of delivering in a classroom. Its my choice I have done much of this, its not really ‘work’ in the sense of the assembly line, or the daily grind. Its interesting, and its done in the company of amazing people, some of whom I will never meet.

So, how does this all fit with the poetry? Well, Wordsworth recognised a time when he was alive when there was suddenly so much potential, so much challenge, so much of a thrill – and he also spots that those who are young will have the most chance to seize these opportunities. There’s an echo of any decent teacher in this, we are after all projecting forward what the learners will be able to take from this ‘brave new world’. There is also the corollary, that those who are not so young have less opportunity – or do they?

Step to Ulysses, he sits being once more the King, governing his unruly people, having seen and suffered so much on his epic journey back from Troy. He is bored, he recognises he maybe has less energy. less spring in his step than the younger man he once was, but he is faced with a choice – eke out his days in boring administration, or once more jump aboard his ship and set off for more fabulous adventures.

And to jump yet again, how’s about Andrew Marvell?

Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.