Monday, June 26, 2006
Interlude
I am going to be too busy to blog much this week so here are some flowers to look at till I get back.
I am going to be too busy to blog much this week so here are some flowers to look at till I get back.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Extreme sports in Whitby
We had the option of indoor adventure golf to pass the time on our Whitby visit. Judging from the appearance of this pirate it looks a pretty dangerous sport..
Instead, not wanting to lose any limbs, some of our party spent a great deal of time looking through their camera viewfinders hoping to take a picture of the truly spectacular lightning we kept seeing out to sea, sadly without success:
Monday, June 19, 2006
Camping- but not the way Simply Clare does it..
Hard to imagine that this time last week I was driving back (through torrential rain and thunder) from 24 peaceful and mainly sunny hours camping in Whitby with our chaplaincy and students. Simply Clare does rough camping, travelling light (check out her posts from July 2005, can't work out how to link to them!) - we do extremely easy camping, taking every gadget we can lay our hands on:
Hard to imagine that this time last week I was driving back (through torrential rain and thunder) from 24 peaceful and mainly sunny hours camping in Whitby with our chaplaincy and students. Simply Clare does rough camping, travelling light (check out her posts from July 2005, can't work out how to link to them!) - we do extremely easy camping, taking every gadget we can lay our hands on:
And of course we stay in touch while away:
Anyway, more of our adventures later. But as a taster, one thing I did was spend a lot of money here.. and not on a mug, either..
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Just passing through...
Too nice to be indoors blogging. Today we went cycling and tomorrow after this I am going here.. back Monday night.. should have some pictures to blog afterwards!
Too nice to be indoors blogging. Today we went cycling and tomorrow after this I am going here.. back Monday night.. should have some pictures to blog afterwards!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Couldn't blog yesterday...
I was here having a meeting over dinner under Chatham House rules.. interesting that everyone says Chatham House rules but as you will see from the link it is really just one rule. Also everyone thinks it means you can't say what happened but it is a bit more complex than that. Anyway, I will just tell you the food was great and that if we had a college helicopter we could have used the hotel helipad. But we don't, just the good old college Brava and our satnav which tried to make us go to Leicester instead.
And tonight I have been listening to two of our students talking about their work in The Gambia. They have been raising funds and begging equipment for a nursery school out there and at Easter they went out and took the stuff and worked with the teacher to show him how to use the resources. Some great pictures of the kids having new books for the first time and those little bear things you use for number work. All this during their PGCE year and at the same time they have been running Nightline, the Lincoln student telephone counselling service. I get all proud of our students when I see them doing stuff like this.
I was here having a meeting over dinner under Chatham House rules.. interesting that everyone says Chatham House rules but as you will see from the link it is really just one rule. Also everyone thinks it means you can't say what happened but it is a bit more complex than that. Anyway, I will just tell you the food was great and that if we had a college helicopter we could have used the hotel helipad. But we don't, just the good old college Brava and our satnav which tried to make us go to Leicester instead.
And tonight I have been listening to two of our students talking about their work in The Gambia. They have been raising funds and begging equipment for a nursery school out there and at Easter they went out and took the stuff and worked with the teacher to show him how to use the resources. Some great pictures of the kids having new books for the first time and those little bear things you use for number work. All this during their PGCE year and at the same time they have been running Nightline, the Lincoln student telephone counselling service. I get all proud of our students when I see them doing stuff like this.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
More student photos
Yesterday I emailed the students who have said they are interested in digital photography, both those who made it last week and a couple of others. I reminded them about asking for photos and gave them my Flickr details so they could see some of mine (haven't yet shared this blog.. should I?). Another student sent me two great pictures today- one of her dog and one of her baby nephew. Both amazing and with a great email explaining how they got taken. She didn't say if I could use them so I won't blog them yet but it is so cool getting these emails with pictures amongst all the work stuff.
So, since I can't yet show you Emma's really great dog picture, here is one of the first pictures I took on my Canon, to pick up Dr Joolz' notice posting:
Guess where it was taken? Dr Joolz' sign is funnier but this one has a certain something too, imho.
Yesterday I emailed the students who have said they are interested in digital photography, both those who made it last week and a couple of others. I reminded them about asking for photos and gave them my Flickr details so they could see some of mine (haven't yet shared this blog.. should I?). Another student sent me two great pictures today- one of her dog and one of her baby nephew. Both amazing and with a great email explaining how they got taken. She didn't say if I could use them so I won't blog them yet but it is so cool getting these emails with pictures amongst all the work stuff.
So, since I can't yet show you Emma's really great dog picture, here is one of the first pictures I took on my Canon, to pick up Dr Joolz' notice posting:
Guess where it was taken? Dr Joolz' sign is funnier but this one has a certain something too, imho.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Audacity
When I was doing my little bit of research fieldwork last week I wanted to record the discussion on something digital. Probably everyone else already knows about this free software called Audacity but I didn't. It does lots of fancy stuff, or so I am told by the students, but it also does straightforward things like recording speech. Our music technican installed it for me and then I just needed a microphone plugged into my laptop and it recorded the whole thing onto my hard drive. Then I saved it as a wav and an mp3 just in case. Much less intrusive to have a laptop on the table while we talked than a tape recorder. And I like the name too, audacity is an excellent word I think. We have the audacity to be interested in digital literacies..
When I was doing my little bit of research fieldwork last week I wanted to record the discussion on something digital. Probably everyone else already knows about this free software called Audacity but I didn't. It does lots of fancy stuff, or so I am told by the students, but it also does straightforward things like recording speech. Our music technican installed it for me and then I just needed a microphone plugged into my laptop and it recorded the whole thing onto my hard drive. Then I saved it as a wav and an mp3 just in case. Much less intrusive to have a laptop on the table while we talked than a tape recorder. And I like the name too, audacity is an excellent word I think. We have the audacity to be interested in digital literacies..
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Pot pourri post..
Several things to say to day, hence title.
1. It was very exciting to get comments straight away- thought it would be weeks before anyone noticed I was back. Thanks, Dr Joolz and Guy!
2. Another 'got back in there' today- finally, after several months of trying, we got out on the bikes today - only an hour or so but definitely a cycle ride. So here is a picture of our bikes to celebrate that. (We also managed to eat outside for the first time this year.. June 4th.. hmm. )
Several things to say to day, hence title.
1. It was very exciting to get comments straight away- thought it would be weeks before anyone noticed I was back. Thanks, Dr Joolz and Guy!
2. Another 'got back in there' today- finally, after several months of trying, we got out on the bikes today - only an hour or so but definitely a cycle ride. So here is a picture of our bikes to celebrate that. (We also managed to eat outside for the first time this year.. June 4th.. hmm. )
3. And one of the students from my research focus group has done what I asked and sent me his favourite photos with permission to use as I liked (thanks, Karl!). Most are landscapes from Kinder Scout and Wales - he is a geography and education studies student- but this one is kind of cute (it is called 'love you' but he was at pains to point out- and I quote from his email- 'the one titled, love you, well, that's just sheep, but I find this picture fascinating, and don't panic, I don't love sheep, it was just the first file name that popped into my head, ha ha') :
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Deep breath, jump in, start swimming..
Surprisingly hard to start blogging again after such a gap. I have planned so many entries in my head and not then posted them. Finally here I go, prompted by finally getting round to starting my research for UKLA yesterday. I have found 5 students who are all keen digital camera users and had a great hour with them talking yesterday- now I just need to transcribe it and decide what to do then..
Have seen some very nice use of camera phones lately. We had a dinner for staff who have been here for more than 10 years- many of whom are our housekeeping team- and afterwards they - and I - went to the bar. They were up and dancing with the students and several of them were taking photos on their phones too- I have a picture of this happening on my phone but haven't yet downloaded it! Meanwhile I have to confess I was captured on video on a phone dancing with several others to YMCA.. they did threaten to put this on the SU website but I have been spared. Then a student emailed me this- taken on his phone at 3am after a night of end of term celebrating:
Surprisingly hard to start blogging again after such a gap. I have planned so many entries in my head and not then posted them. Finally here I go, prompted by finally getting round to starting my research for UKLA yesterday. I have found 5 students who are all keen digital camera users and had a great hour with them talking yesterday- now I just need to transcribe it and decide what to do then..
Have seen some very nice use of camera phones lately. We had a dinner for staff who have been here for more than 10 years- many of whom are our housekeeping team- and afterwards they - and I - went to the bar. They were up and dancing with the students and several of them were taking photos on their phones too- I have a picture of this happening on my phone but haven't yet downloaded it! Meanwhile I have to confess I was captured on video on a phone dancing with several others to YMCA.. they did threaten to put this on the SU website but I have been spared. Then a student emailed me this- taken on his phone at 3am after a night of end of term celebrating:
Nice they are so pleased! (It was the only picture from that night he felt able to share.. thanks, Ken. As he says, not a bad picture given the time of night and the fact they were tired and emotional. )
