Diamonds in the mud

They saved the best 'til last... The papers on the final day really cut the mustard for me. I chaired a session entitled 'pedagogical and psychological issues' (on my own request to the conference organisers) and I wasn't disappointed. An all female crew of 4 presenters took us through a fast-paced spectrum of ideas and research around e-learning. Maja Snyder (University of Maribor, Slovenia) evaluated several e-learning courses from a student perspective. Next up was Erika Pigliapoco (University of Urbino, Italy) who discussed the 'psychological sense of community' needed for all distance courses to succeed. Hot on her heels was Hiba Mustafa (University of Massey, New Zealand) who regaled us with a content superb offering entitled: 'Computer-based Meta Cognitive Training' in which she outlined a new web based tool for supporting problem solving for post-graduate students in medicine, vetrinary services, etc. Finally, in this truly global community of presenters, came Marissa Wettasinghe (National Institute of Education, Singapore) who presented a paper on how ICT has been used to support slow learners. And......I pronounced all their names perfectly.

The highlight of the day was found in two papers that shone out like diamonds in the mud in an afternoon of mediocrity. Lief Martin Hokstad (whom I had previously session-chaired in EDEN, Naples - the guy's a Steely Dan fan!) and his colleague Carl Fredrik Dons from the University of Trondheim, Norway, presented a paper about digital literacies which challenged and illuminated. Why is it that all Norwegians need three names? I don't know, but in conversation afterwards, we agreed that our research interests were so similar we probably need to do some work together...

Finally, last session of the conference....Mark Kramer (Pictured: University of Saltzberg, Austria) didn't disappoint us with a rip-roaring presentation full of hand-held technologies. His talk, entitled 'Learning in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing' was refreshing, providing the audience with new ideas to go away with. He took a picture of the audience and uploaded it to Flickr in under 10 seconds during the presentation just to prove a point. I'm the guy waving at the back...

Well, we were waving goodbye to each other soon afterwards, as we each made out weary way home. I have made some good new friends, and hope to work with some of them in the future. As for Villach and Ljubljana - these stunning cities with their breath-taking vistas of Alpine scenery will not go forgotten.

Dark clouds and peanut butter sandwiches

Well, it´s the final day of the ICL conference here in Villach, Austria. It´s clouding over again, and there is a rumour of rain. It pelted down last night, and I was glad that all the events, including the splendid conference dinner (sponsored by the Mayor of Villach, who failed to appear) were located in the same silubrious venue of the Congress Centre and Holiday Inn Complex. They certainly know how to treat you well here - the staff are superb, helpful and friendly, and the rooms are soooooo luxurious.

There are delegates from over 45 countries represented here, and many are milling around the wireless zone, or sitting tapping away at their laptops as I write this blog. Much of the conference content has been highly technical, which pleases the physicists and hard science bods who are much in evidence, but irrates the hell out of people like me. A lot of it goes over old ground I´m afraid to say. I have overheard comments such as ´where are the students in all this?´and ´what about the learning?´ I won´t bore you with some of the titles, as they certainly bore me.... and for me at least, dark clouds are gathering over the conference as it draws to a close. However, here are some of the more interesting titles which I have either sat in on, or plan to sit in on, during this final day: Towards an architecture of participation, The impact of graphics on wiki use, The human side of e-learning, and one to really get your teeth into ... Make a free wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich!

Overall, as with many conferences of this nature, there seems to be a shortfall in quality and innovation within the presentations. I´m not disappointed though... I have made several new contacts with some excellent people. It´s been a great networking experience.

Finally, there is one particularly Teutonic title: ´Make engineering students collaborate!´ We leave tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 0600 to catch our train back down to Ljubjlana and thence outwards to Stansted via the big white and orange bird. More reflections later when I have had time to reflect...

All things bright and dutiful....

I´m looking out over the river Drau, here in Villach, Austria. We´re in the Congress Centre for ICL 2007 - an impressive international conference focusing on all aspects of computer based/supported education and training. Villach is a beautiful little town in the South of Austria, and is nestled in between the mountains. Some of the papers so far have been challenging, others have been a little lacklustre, and one or two have been fairly dutiful in their presentation if not content. It is still death by powerpoint, but yesterday, Graham Attwell refreshingly came up with an image laden presentation which was laced with wit and incisive ideas. I did a podcast interview with him this morning in which he asked me about my current Second Life project. I will be meeting up with him and colleagues later in November, to present a panel about SL for Online Educa in Berlin.

Today the highlight was undoubtedly the keynote address by Nicholas Balacheff, who guided us through a tortuous journey (similar to the one by train yesterday that took us two hours up into the mountains from Ljubljana, Slovenia up to Villach) in which he covered formal and informal learning, computer aided didactics, computational intelligence, and a general overview of all that is currently live and kicking in eLearning. The situated contexts of learning are important, he argued, as we cannot learn complex ideas without first ´knowing´. Hmmm... interesting, when you put this into the context of problem solving, choice making and negotiation of meaning. With theorists like Nic Balacheff around, the future of eLearning, although somewhat uncertain, is as bright as the sun that is currently shining through the windows of this wireless zone.

More from the conference tomorrow.... for now, auf wiedersehn.

Trains, coaches and ICL 2007

I'm off to the Interactive Computer Aided Learning (ICL 2007) conference tomorrow morning. It's held at the Holiday Inn in Villach, Austria (pictured right). First I will be flying into Ljubjana, Slovenia, to stay the night before taking the train up the following day. Villach is a real pig to reach, so a night in Ljubjana beckons. The subject of my talk (which is co-authored by my wife Dawn) is 'Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills'. She's done some interesting work developing wikis for 'minimum core' delivery at the University of Plymouth recently.

ICL is a new conference circuit for me, but I notice that a couple of familiar faces will be presenting at the event, so I won't feel totally lost. Star blogger Graham Attwell (Wales Wide Web) tells me he will be arriving about an hour before he is due to present - cutting it fine, mate. Mark Kramer (whom I first met at EDEN 2006 in Vienna) will also be there, and one of the keynotes will be provided by Andy DiPaolo (Stanford University) who was also at EDEN 2006. I'm looking forward to it. Well most of it....I'm chairing a session on Friday in which every single one of the speakers has a name I cannot even begin to contemplate pronouncing properly. Should be fun. For the audience. I will try to blog from the conference as things unfold. Now, does anyone know where I can find a good diction coach?

FaceBooking our future...

Social networks will change the way we look at world issues claims a new article. The independent journalist Bill Thompson (Bill Board) has just posted a very challenging piece on the BBC technology news site. In a nutshell, Thompson describes a world in which the (so far) unconnected citizens of our planet suddenly discover how to FaceBook or Flickr using mobile phones. Says Thompson: "What happens when the photos on Facebook and Flickr show devastated crops and starving families - and these people are not just faces on the television but old friends, people whose likes and dislikes and reading habits and favourite films we know and share?"

Thompson puts it a lot more eloquently than I can, so read his article entitled: 'Social net offers new perspective'.

FaceBook research - your help needed

Anyone who is using FaceBook, for whatever purposes, and especially those who are being wrapped up ever tighter in its nefarious and slippery coils - this is a call out to you for help. I'm doing some research at the moment into how FB is being used, what people (especially teachers, lecturers and students) think of it, and what benefits and pitfalls they think it has. If you would like to take part, here's the short, 10 question survey:

1 What is your job title?
2 Why did you first subscribe to FaceBook?
3 What are the main reasons for using FaceBook now?
4 What specialist networks have you joined?
5 How regularly do you use FaceBook?
6 What other social networking sites do you use?
7 How do you use FaceBook in educational practice?
8 What benefits do you think FaceBook can bring to students?
9 What problems do you think FaceBook brings to education?
10 Any other comments you wish to add…

You can post your answers to me at my e-mail address here at the University of Plymouth. (It goes without saying that your answers and any personal details you provide will be kept secure/confidential and if I use your comments in any reports or publications, they will be anonymised). Signed: Mr X.

Thank you very much for your time. No, really. I mean it.

There or thereabouts ... Metaplace launched

Critics of Second Life and other 3-D virtual worlds found online should prick their ears up at this one... A new pc based (and simple to set up) 3-D virtual world generator is available, thanks to MMORPG Ultima Online creator Raph Koster. Announced on the BBC online news service today, the software, called Metaplace, apparently works from mobile phones too. Users can make virtual worlds in seconds using simple 'building blocks' very similar to SL prims, and without having to know a thing about scripting or programming. Sound like a dream? Maybe, and if they can keep it simple, it may be a winner.

One of the main criticisms of Second Life is that it takes so damn long to set up a 3-D environment, and for many moving around is a little like learning to walk all over. Another criticism is that SL is a bit like a 'ghost town' with more than 8 million subscribers worldwide, but very few actually in evidence in world. Whatever has been said already, it looks like Linden Labs (and There.com) have a serious rival. Anyone with experience of Metaplace - let us know how you have got on. Oh, and thanks to Helen Keegan who drew my attention to it this evening...

iPhone, uCompute

So O2 has won the franchise to sell iPhones in the UK. O2 (actually a Spanish owned company) will retail the phone at the princely sum of £269 (and don't forget the VAT, Darling). New and proud owners of the device - which is a hybrid phone containing a touch-sensitive screen, and an a built-in iPod media player and wireless media browser - will be able to access over 7,000 wireless hotspots around the UK. But caveat emptor! unlike most modern phones the iPhone can't access high-speed 3G networks. The BBC news item posted today carries the full story, and an additional news item of interest from Web User is also available. Ubiquitous computing and handheld technologies .... is anytime anyplace learning a step closer?

Second Life sexual health seminar takes flight

Our University of Plymouth Second Life project is going from strength to strength. This week we held our first live seminar on sexual health, entitled 'Broken Wing, Learning to Fly', which was a great success. Around 20 avatars were present at some point during the hour long event, and the average was 14. This is the first of a series of seminars we will be holding in the near future, all designed to raise the awareness of young people about contraception, safe sex and sexually transmitted diseases. The full report including several snapshots taken during the event is available on the project blog now.

If you haven't visited our Second Life project on Education UK island yet, please do - we think you will find it a breath of fresh air... Let us know what you think by taking the special quiz/survey on the site.

Only here for the fear

An item today on the BBC news web reports that British Telecom is commisioning the men in white coats (read psychologists) to study why some people avoid using the Internet. A quote from the report states: 'Early research done for the project suggests that, for some, using the net is as stressful as a bungee jump'. Well fancy that - how do they know? Let's push this experiment to the limit shall we? Let's get the 'subjects' to use the Internet (on wireless laptops or handheld) whilst doing a bungee jump, and let's get them to gargle with TCP for good measure. Then we can measure real technophobia. To heck with the ethics. (Only joking .... I wouldn't use the TCP).

It will be interesting to see what the men in white coats come up with in their findings, as to whether BT will be pleased about the outcome. I think we already know the answer to that don't we? After all, BT are paying.

IFIP therefore I am

I've been roped in as co-editor of the proceedings for the Joint Open and Working IFIP Conference: ICT and Learning for Youths (LYICT 2008), which will be in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by the Open University of Malaysia, in July 2008. I'm really looking forward to the event, as firstly I have never been east of Ankara before, secondly, it looks like a jolly decent conference, and thirdly, I get a chance to meet up with a lot of old friends I haven't seen for yonks. Elizabeth Stacey (Deakin University, Australia) will be co-chairing the International Programme Committee, and also co-editing with me will be Doug Brown, whom I have met at previous IFIP conferences such as the TC3 World Computers in Education Conference held in Copenhagen in 2001.

Elizabeth and I have worked together on IFIP's Working Group 3.6 (distance education) since 1999. TC 3 Education is quite an influential group, so it's great to be working with them. Check out the conference website on the link above, and think about submitting a paper! Hope to see you there.

Putting our minds at rest

Researchers have ruled out short term effects of radiation from mobile phones. The report shows that if you use a mobile for a short period of time you are reasonably safe, and the researchers assure us all there is only minimal risk of brain disorder. That's very nice of them. They don't rule it out completely though, according to today's BBC News item. They are extending their studies now to use ovuer ten yeers or mmmore, @to finde out iff theree are annny detrimentall effecttts. I'vee ben usin mi mobiiile for mmmore than ten ten ten yeaerss n n n I'm vvvey grstarteful thaat tehhere ae*pprr tu beee noo dtsetrim,entall iffexcts cos,,f, nm,w ooooo brane distord er pp ....phtttttttttt.......fhhu - pop hmmmmmzzxmmmm..... woooooo woooooo wooooooo

Hood 2.0

I spent most of last week in Nottingham University at the ALT-C 2007 conference - see my previous posts for the lowdown. I told my kids today that there is an airport just outside Nottingham called Robin Hood Airport. So followed a conversation about the naming of airports. We have a John Lennon airport in Liverpool, and there are several airports named after other famous people from history, including Leonardo Da Vinci (check out the eyes on that website!), Charles De Gaulle, John F Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. All well and good. But an airport named after Robin Hood .... a fictitious character?? Nottingham is Robin Hood crazy you know. There are statues of him, and there are roads named after him and his merry men. Even in my hotel room the effects of the Prince of Thieves was felt - although my bed was a double, the en suite toilet was very very small - a little john....

Why did they call their airport after Robin Hood? Who thought that one up? How much did they pay him? Can they get their money back? And what if we named all our airports after fictitious characters? Where would it all end...?

Cinderella Airport: Check in late and you turn into a pumpkin
Peter Pan Airport: No aircraft required
Count Dracula Airport: Night flights only
Invisible Man Airport: The metal detector goes off, but no-one knows why
James T Kirk Airport: You meet yourself coming back through Arrivals before you have left
Paddington Bear Airport: The baggage carousel is always sticky with marmalade
Lieutenant Columbo Airport: Standing in line is always murder
Bilbo Baggins Airport: Where dragons get refuelled

Got any more?

One of the legacies of the ALT-C 'Robin Hood' conference on learning technologies was the formation of a group on FaceBook called Hood 2.0 which is a slightly unhinged group of individuals who are interested in keeping in touch to discuss Web 2.0 technologies and their use in education and training. You can join it too. It's infinitely better fun than sitting around in trees all day, playing a lute and trying to rob people.

Reporting research

Last year I was asked to convene a research network for the Faculty of Education here at the University of Plymouth. I was given a small amount of money to promote a culture of research within the field of e-learning. Tomorrow I will be reporting on progress to the 'top brass' during our Faculty research day, and will tell them that we now have 30 members (mainly academics and researchers from education, but also from 3 other faculties, and several learning technologists and computer professionals). We are planning our e-learning conference for April next year, and I have booked Professor Mark Stiles (Staffordshire University) as our keynote speaker, after we met up at ALT-C 2007. The group has produced an impressive output of papers, book chapters, journal articles and a book, and I have arranged a series of research seminars featuring internationally recognised speakers including Mike Sharples, John Traxler, Steven Warburton, Avril Loveless, Palitha Edirisignha, Jane Seale and Steven Furnell.

I'm also going to talk about the six research projects we have started since the group formed, including our Second Life project for which we recently received a free one year land grant. The details of all of these activities and outputs can be found on the group's wiki space. This coming year is going to be very busy (but I guess it keeps me off the streets...)

Flickr, Flash and Friends

Back in my office this morning, I find myself reflecting on what was a very frenetic, challenging, enjoyable and tiring conference this year at ALT-C 2007. It was all over in a flash, but I have the blisters left as a reminder, (my hotel was 3 kilometres away from the conference centre) and a slight ringing in the ears which was a legacy of the very loud music at Jongluers (Tuesday night pictured) and Club Eleven (Wednesday night). Actually, Sam Easterby-Smith (Bolton University) has captured many of the images of that evening, and you may even catch a pic or two of me in his collection on Flickr.

By far the best conversation I had on the last day of the conference was over lunch just before everyone departed. I happened to glance up, and across the table from me was the incoming ALT-C 2008 conference chair John Sandars (Leeds University). We got talking (as you do) and then realised suddenly that we had been referring to each other's research in our respective writings. We found we have a lot in common and I hope we are able to work together in the future on some interesting e-learning/medicine related projects!

Hard drive home

Well, it's all over for another year, including the shouting. My hard drive is full and now I'm heading off on another hard drive ... home, along with all the other weary but contented delegates. We have just heard the final ALT-C 2007 keynote speech, from Google Head of Research Peter Norvig. It was I think, a fitting end to a very good conference. Peter is a thoroughly nice guy, and totally unassuming, considering his collossal achievements. Yesterday I spent time talking to him as we walked down the hill from the Law and Science building between sessions. He was interested in hearing from me about the state of play of learning technology in the UK. I told him that it wasn't so much a discipline as a field of disparate activities that is still in the process of evolving into a discipline. I suggested to him that events like ALT-C can act as rallying points for technologists, software developer, managers, academics and corporate bods. Without the organisation of ALT we would have no hope of creating a discrete discipline known as 'Learning Technology'. He nodded sagely.

Peter's talk I thought was a little tentative at first, given that he admitted to being less than au fait with the state of British learning technology. Resplendent in his colourful robot motif Hawaiin shirt, Peter used a number of historical illustrations such as the apprentice model of learning, and Gutenburg's printing press as he crafted his story. There was extensive use of the work of that wonderful old fossil Benjamin Bloom which he used as a frequent scratching post. If he had referred to Orlando Bloom he might have got more response. Peter began to warm to his theme though when he reached the point where he could talk about something that was as familiar to him as Silicon Valley. The Google innovations he showed were familiar already to most of the delegates, but he warned us that we could 'outsmart' ourselves if we used the wrong tools.

There is no doubt about it. Although Peter Norvig refers to the dark ages a lot, he is a luminary in the world of computer software engineering. He negotiated a gaggle of tricky questions from a knowledgeable audience with consumate ease, and a liberal dose of dry wit. And we warmed to him too. Was Wikipedia threatening Google's pre-eminence? he was asked. Not at all, he replied - Google sends about one third of all its traffic to Wikipedia, he said. Touche! Peter Norvig's keynote can be viewed in full and on demand, courtesy of Elluminate.

Well blogger me...

It's a strange world. The entire ALT-C conference it seems is filled with bloggers. Not only are they blogging about the conference, they are blogging about blogging. The bloggers are even blogging about being blogged about, and blogging about bloggers blogging. Here am I, like an absolute idiot, blogging about the bloggers blogging about bloggers blogging about each other.

Classic example of this is David Bryson's blog, in which he actually carries a slide show with pictures of all the bloggers at ALT-C. I am very relieved to see I am not in any of the pictures. ALT-C 2007 will soon be over, and they are already advertising ALT-C 2008 in Leeds. Only the keynote left to go... I'm about to escape before I go completely blogging mad.

Web 2.0 will eat itself

My new best buddy James Clay has posted the link to the video created for the Web 2.0 Slam Performing Innovative Practice Workshop at the ALT-C conference here in Nottingham earlier today. It's hosted on YouTube right here and shows the delegates in their small groups performing their own vignettes and parodies of Web 2.0 tools. We laughed until we stopped - a bit like our trip out to the Jongleurs Comedy Club last night (sponsored by our kind friends WIM-Bah! Thank you Bob Mills!) where we laughed until we ached.

Well, already there has been a lot of interest in the Web 2.0 Slam workshop, and a fair amount of blogs and other sites are carrying it. I know my blog hits have gone through the ceiling. Web 2.0 has a habit of looking back in on itself, and reflecting its own capabilities and characteristics. Talking to Mark Stiles tonight over dinner, it appears that Web 2.0 may not exist at all, and if it does, it's in danger of disappearing up its own backside. Or maybe it will simply eat itself. Whatever it is, now all we have to do is try to catch a little of it and make it work for our students...

Just Wiliam

Dylan Wiliam nailed it for most of us at the conference this morning. His keynote (the second at ALT-C this year) dealt with how technology will help to change the way our learners are assessed. Building his case expertly (liberally dosed with dry humour) Professor Wiliam showed how formative forms of assessment are key to the success of learning that actually 'sticks'. Teaching is complex and chaotic, he said. Your don't need to know about 'learning styles' either, he said. What you need to know about is differnt styles of teaching, which will tap into and challenge all kinds of learner styles and approaches. Technology can help us to do this he said. He said a lot of things actually, too numerous to mention in this short blog, but interestingly (as with all the Keynotes at ALT-C 2007) his talk is available on Elluminate as a video on demand. Dylan Wiliam's conclusion, convincingly argued for many of the delegates, I sensed, was that automated aggregative technologies will provide the solution where teachers need to know excatly where the group stands in terms of the knowledge and understanding they have just acquired. Straw polls taken through classroom clickers, discourse software (where student responses can be projected onto a screen for the whole group to discuss) or even simple handheld voting,will all indicate to the teacher that students need more explanation, or are ready to move on.

Well, move on we did - because many of the delegates have been talking about this keynote over lunch. The bottom line is: we need to realise it is more important to improve pedagogy than to improve subject knowledge. Wiliam believes that aggregative technologies will do this.

Wham, Slam, thank you m'ams

I thought Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan and Frances Bell caught the mood of the ALT-C conference today with their excellent workshop this morning entitled: 'Web 2.0 Slam'. In it they worked through a number of salient issues about the use of social networking technologies, including privacy, identity, communication and copyright. (That's me pictured with Helen doing a Web 2.0 Slam on social tagging using bits of crumpled up paper ... yes it really was that mad). The audience was encouraged to participate, and each small group was asked to create a 90 second 'slam', about some aspect of Web 2.0.

The wiki resulting from this session can be found here on Helen's blog. Thanks for an excellent, well worked and thought ptovoking session ladies!

...and the tension grows, and this time it's Mobile...

I attended a very interesting symposium earlier today, led by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme with presentaions from John Cook, Tom Boyle and John Traxler. More tension.... The title was 'Tensions between personal space and social space in mobile learning'. Toward the end of the session, we were asked to get into small groups and think about the design issues if we were asked to create a mobile technology friendly site within a city centre. Several issues emerged, including cover from the inclement British weather (electronics and deluges do not mix - ask Noah.) We also thought that because some people didn't have access to mobile technologies (the so called digital divide) that we should make systems/access for them using kiosk based technology. By far the most important issue for our small group was the problem of finding somewhere to top up your battery when it goes flat. How could this be achieved...?

There is a blog related to this subject run by James Clay, which you can visit to contribute toward the discussion.

The tension grows...

It's been a morning of tension. Several of the speakers were visibly nervous as they approached the daunting task of encapsulating the conference for a group of worldly wise tech savvy academics and practitioners. I for one was glad to be sat in the audience (I had Mark Stiles and Helen Keegan for company and camouflage...)

Michelle Selinger's keynote this morning set the scene for the ALT-C 2007 conference. The 'corporate backpacker' (Mike Sharples' description not mine) took a global perspective on e-learning, giving us all a break-neck world tour of e-learning initiatives. She talked about the tensions between informal vs formal learning, north vs south, schools vs higher education and cultures vs economies. There followed an insightful presentation covering the problems, solutions and caveats of implementing digital technologies in education. Perhaps Michelle's most memorable comment related to the imposition of technology expectations upon cultures that would not or could not countenance them. She named it 'technology dissonance' - and cited the example of university campuses in the Far East that would find videoconferencing unworkable when they only have 1 Mb of data coming into the campus.

The themes for ALT-C were also introduced, each with their own 'tensions'. Each can I think be summed up in a dichotomy... Designing learning spaces = formal vs informal; Large scale implementation = simplicity vs complexity; Internationalism = imperialism vs multiculturalism; and finally, the Social network generation = user-control vs institutional control.

The tension(s) will not ease... this conference will reveal them all, and leave us with more questions than answers I think....

The big T's

Well, I have managed to arrive in Nottingham in one piece and the drive up was absolutely fine. I also found the East Midlands Conference Centre without trouble, although it took me 45 minutes to walk up to the venue from my 'B & B' in Beeston. They seem to be short of letter T's here in Nottingham because the sign above the entrance actually reads 'Eas Midlands Conference Cen re'. Could this be an ominous portent - The 'T' in ALT stands for 'technology' - might this also be dropped (and with it all the shiny new technology)? I don' hink so...

Even with the dropped T's this year's ALT-C conference venue looks good, and although there are only a few people milling around at the moment, the place looks ideal for a successful conference. I can imagine it tomorrow buzzing with delegates. The exhibitors stands (all but JISC, who's stand is so large in the foyer that it's actually difficult to see) are all placed nicely around the outer edge of the 'Banqueting Hall' where it looks as though we will be enjoying most of our meals. Overall, good first impressions, and there are even some free access networked computers near the poster displays (I'm using one now). If I bump into you at ALT-C this year, say hi. Oh - and enjoy the free icecream on offer when you visit the ALT stand in the entrance hall!

Mast hysteria ... again

I blogged about the dangers of radiation from mobile phone masts back in April and like the perennial weeds that pop up uninvited in my garden all summer, they’ve raised their ugly heads again. The September issue of The Psychologist runs an article entitled: ‘Psychological origins of phone mast symptoms’. It reports on a study from Essex University where researchers asked 44 self-reported 'electro-sensitive' individuals and 114 ‘controls’ to take part in an experiment. Unpleasant symptoms were reported by the 44 but not by the 114 when they stood close to phone masts (but none knew when the signal was on or when it was off). The researchers concluded that the symptoms the 44 reported were merely psychosomatic - i.e. 'all in the mind'. Well that’s the first time I have heard of leukaemia being labelled ‘psychosomatic’….. (oops – bit of politics there!) Of course, the results might also mean that the 114 were merely less susceptible to any effects from the masts….

So, let’s follow this train of thinking. Whenever I turn on the TV and listen to a cabinet minister holding forth about some new government plan to cut health service funding, raise taxes or send more troops to Afghanistan, and I get an uneasy, nauseous feeling inside me, am I just being oversensitive? Whilst my Government supporting colleagues nod sagely in agreement, does this mean that for me it is all in the mind? Or does it simply mean that I have a better inbuilt bull**** detector than they do? Perhaps we should be told….