Neisse work if you can get it...

Deep joy, I'm off to the Czech Republic again on Sunday - second time in a month - for a week of teaching at University Neisse in Liberec. Neisse is unique (unless you know differently), because it comprises students from three countries - German, Czech and Polish. For the first year they study together as one group in Liberec, second year in Poland and for their third and final year, they study in Germany. It's a cultural melting pot, I can tell you!

I'm looking forward to the trip, because they are great kids, and are really motivated to learn - not just their subject, but also as much technical English as I can get in during the five days I'm with them. We will look at interpersonal psychology, information technology, communication skills, rhetoric, slang, idioms, and so on. I will try to keep this blog going while I'm over there and may even post a few pics, if I can upload them from my camera. In the meantime, have a look at the Czech Mates Wiki for some more details on Neisse...

The Good, the Blog and the Wiki

I'm going to present a research seminar tomorrow to my own Faculty of Education, here at the University of Plymouth. I will be talking about the research I have done recently with wikis as a collaborative tool. The entire session will be video linked from Exmouth (where I will be) to the main campus at Plymouth. I have entitled it 'The Good, the Blog and the Wiki'. We will be video recording the session, and then making it available as a streamed media on demand. It will be accompanied by associated documents, PowerPoint presentation and a discussion group on a newly created web site. It has the potential to be either a technical disaster, or a huge triumph.

Then we are going to do it all over again. At least another 9 times, with guest speakers from other universities around the UK. The schedule for the research seminar series is available for all to see.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and leaving the technical details in the hands of my technical colleagues. I hope I don't have to go looking for a tall building....

Playing Tricks

Not sure I recommend you try either of these, but I saw them on the BBC Test Match Special site and they may raise a smile (It's amazing what people will chat about online when rain stops play...)

"Using a ruler, the plastic type, not the Queen, you can lever off any of the keys on a keyboard and then swap them with other ones. It's fun to play on people who do not touch type."
Matt W, Norwich, in the TMS inbox

"More computer tomfoolery: wait until a colleague leaves their desk, take a screen print of their current screen, save it as a JPEG, open up the picture and press the F11 key. It all looks normal but when they try doing something they will find nothing responds. Laugh at bewildered faces of said colleague."
Glyn, Lancs, in the TMS inbox

The Web is Us/ing Us

I've had this little link to the Web is Us/ing Us for some time now, and have even used it with some of my student groups. If there is anyone left who hasn't yet seen it on YouTube - then have a look. I highly recommend it as a thought provoking take on the participatory nature of Web 2.0.

Bad Korma

First time I got my grubby little paws on a compact cassette tape was back in the steam driven days of my early teen years - the tape was the album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and it opened up a whole new world for me. I spent countless hours mixing down my favourite tracks onto cassette so that I could walk, skate or otherwise transport myself around with music as a constant companion (shouldn't be admitting to this as a fully paid of member of PRS). Now it seems all those days will soon be no more. The advent of digital (CD, DVD, Mini Disk, MP3, and all that) has finally put paid to the halcyon days of the compact tape cassette, just like it did to the VHS tape and vinyl disks. For lo, Currys, one of the major UK electrical suppliers announced today that cassette tapes will no longer be sold in its shops (BBC News Online).

Linear technologies they say, are dead. I know that CDs are ideal for track finding, mixing, mashing, multi-media storage and a shed load of other things, but vinyl disks always have that extra 'ambience' (I still have at least 400 LPs in my cupboard at home). The word 'analogue' is fast becoming a derogatory term thanks to Marc Prensky (gotta love the guy), but vinyl is making a comeback for DJs and other music afficionados. I have an iPod and a CD player at home, but I'm not getting rid of my vinyl or my cassettes - and I'm not going to shop at Currys anymore. Instead, I'm off to the local Tandoori for a Korma...