Safe Hans

The weather here yesterday in Leeds was appalling. It poured down from the start of the day until the evening, but were our spirits dampened? No they were not, because we enjoyed an excellent first day here at ALT-C 2008. The day started with a rousing keynote speech from Professor Hans Rosling, who soared to new heights when he suddenly decided to climb a step ladder half way through his speech. Mark van Harmelen (ALT Director of Development) rushed to grab the ladded to steady the speaker, and through his white knuckle anxiety, we could all see the health and saftey risks and potential litigation flashing through his mind (photo from Helen Keegan's Flickr stream). Hans was safe however, and proceeded to wow the assembled delegates with a virtuoso performance, and opened our eyes to demographic statistics of birth and death rates, economic rises and declines and carbon emissions across the globe, using a new piece of graphic animated software he and his son had developed. Known as Gap Minder, it reveals statistics in a way never before seen, except perhaps in a more simplistic way by the likes of visual search engines such as Quintura.

In a style reminiscent of that other great Scandinavian, Victor Borge, Hans Rosling made some pithy omments that had the audience both laughing and questioning their previous take on life. Encyclopedia Brittanica, he said, is read by people who believe it to be true. Wikipedia is read by people who know it is not true, and that is its value. The main global trend now, he declared, is convergence. And still the gems kept coming - 'TV stations use graphics and animation to brand rather than to inform, he told us'. 'Ignorance is the best friend of the teacher'. And finally.... 'there is no digital divide - only a continuum'.

For those who missed this most excellent keynote, the video on demand is now available on Elluminate here. Now for day two of ALT-C....

Pineapple flavoured Leeds

Wow, that was quite a drive - 320 miles, done in 7 hours, but I'm now here in Leeds, for the ALT-C conference, and I'm sat trying out the Ethernet connection in my student room. I have a nice view from the fifth flooor out over the campus, with plenty of greenary and the big white tower glowering from the distance. I bumped into Jane Seale who had arrived just before me, and we made our way down to try to find registration. And got a little lost. Fortunately we were intercepted by Mark van Harmelen, (ALT's Director of Development) who showed us where to go.

The conference venue, what I have so far seen of it, is spacious, with a large balcony (registration) overlooking the dining area on one side and the Conference Exhibition area on the other. Great if you don't suffer from vertigo.

The parking here is difficult. I'm about a mile, three months and a weekend away from my digs, and it took all my remaining strength to trog my case over, and up 5 flights of stairs (there is no lift in the Henry Price Building, so Henry, you should be ashamed, whoever you are). I managed to spill a carton of pineapple chunks in the bag holding my cables during my slog over from the car park, and it went everywhere. I am now the only official ALT-C delegate with pineapple flavoured computer cables (make that Leeds). It's quite warm here as well, and to cap it all, I now have sticky pineapple juice all over my cables (see my earlier blog) where my pineapple carton burst Getting ready now for the pre-conference buffet which takes place at 18.30 tonight. I think I need a shower first though....

Travelling lite

I'm travelling light today on my drive up to the University of Leeds to attend the UK's annual learning technology bash we all know as ALT-C 2008. As you can see from the image left, I'm taking a minimum of kit to be able to get the most out of the event, presenting my talks, communicating with home as well as twittering, blogging, and any other which way reporting live from the event I can think of. At least this event is in the UK so I don't need to worry about all the international power adaptors and other paraphernalia I usually take with me. No passport required either. In my electronic kit I have:

1 Acer Aspire 2920Z Wireless Laptop
2 Ethernet cable (just in case...)
3 Camera UCB cable
4 4x Gang Mains extension
5 Laptop Power cable
6 8 Gb Flashdrive
7 Apple iPhone
8 iPhone Power adapter and battery charger
9 Sony DSC-W80 Cyber-shot camera
10 Camera battery charger
11 Nintendo DS Lite
12 Nintendo DS Lite Power cable

Gone are the days when all I needed to take were my business cards a change of underwear ... ah, that reminds me....

Punk it up

I'm getting ready for the 310 mile drive up to Leeds tomorrow to participate in ALT-C 2008. I'm going to be speaking in the main conference about some of the research we have been doing in Plymouth on wikis in teacher education. I'm also speaking in the fringe event F-ALT entitled WTF Edupunk, where I will try to show how the punk rock ideology has parallels with contemporary thinking about going outside the walled garden of the institutional VLE to use free, open content, social software tools. The movement behind this idea is referred to by many as Edupunk. I make no apologies to Jim Groom or anyone else for repurposing the idea behind his poster boy image (above) because that's what punk is all about - do it yourself!

There is a growing consensus that punk philosophy can and indeed, does, have a resonance with those in universities and colleges who are considered mavericks. I have never used my university VLE for a number of reasons, preferring instead to use a variety of tools, websites and methods that in my opinion, work better. Just about anything a VLE can do, social software can do better, with the possible exceptions of surveillance and control (and even those are debatable). Joining me for the presentation at this fringe session will be Helen Keegan and Graham Attwell, and we hope that there will be some lively debate on this thing we call edupunk.... Punk it up!

The Lite goes on

I wrote yesterday that I had submitted a poem about the divide between the generations as a part of the workshop on the digital divide at ALT-C next week. Well isn't life interesting? My poem features the infamous Nintendo DS Lite. There is also a quip about Brain Training software. My son has a Nintendo DS. Both my daughters have one each (one is actually a lurid pink - the DS not my daughter). I even gave one to my wife for Christmas (look, stop it). But me.... I have never even touched one. Never felt the need to. Until today, that is.

This morning, sat smiling at me on top of my Faculty of Education standard issue desk, was a parcel. Contained therein was a free, spanking new, Nintendo DS Lite, complete with Brain Training software. Courtesy of HandHeld Learning 2008 - the conference that will be held in London in October. I had forgotten about it completely! Apparently if you registered as an early bird before the deadline, you were given one free to use at the conference. At the time I thought it was an excellent marketing ploy and an innovative idea. True to their promise, Handheld Learning sent me a DS Lite. Bummer. Now I will have to spend time getting to know how to use it. More time spent having to learn how to use these new fangled gadgets... I don't know. I think I'm turning into a grumpy old man.

Anyway, here's the link to the poem for you to (hopefully) enjoy.

Slamming about again

At ALT-C 2008 next week there will be several workshops, but one of those I will not miss is the one entitled 'Learning about the Digital Divide', run by Frances Bell, Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan (remember them doing the illustrious Web 2.0 slam at ALT-C Nottingham last year?) joined this year by Cristina Costa (the pocket dynamo of Web 2.0) and Frank Theissen. Out of last year's workshop came a number of interesting artefacts including the cult website Hood 2.0 - which incidently has a workshop in its own right this year! Last year was not only great fun, but also innovative and challenging. I chaired the session, and it was one of the most enjoyable workshops I have every presided over.

This year they have gone one step further and have created a Digital Divide wiki using Wetpaint in which they are inviting everyone and anyone to submit a 'Digital Divide' slam. I have sent one in already - it's a poem entitled 'Hooked' - about the digital divide between immigrants and natives. Check out the site and contribute if you have something you want to get off your chest.... oh, and see you there, I hope.

I heard it on the Crowdvine

It's immensely enjoyable, and quite addictive this Crowdvine thing. My Twittering is suffering, I can tell you. ALT-C 2008 has set up its own space on the social network tool to enable people to discuss, organise, schedule and generally get together prior to the event next week at the University of Leeds. As I write this blog entry it already has 260 members, and more are joining every hour. There are already several threaded discussions on eclectic and diverse topics, and everyone is building up their own little networks of people they want to meet, talk to, have a beer with, etc.

As James Clay commented on Crowdvine yesterday - 'How things change'. Two years ago, only 6 people participated in the ALT-C wiki, and last year saw the first surge of interest in blogging from the conference, with about 15 of us regulalry posting. This year, social networking is de riguer, and we can expect a lot more blogging, tweeting, flickring and other digital jiggerypokery going on as the conference takes off. To join in go to the ALT-C Crowdvine site here.

It's your F-ALT

The preparations for ALT-C are nearly complete and we will all gather once again for our annual edu-knees-up in Leeds in a few weeks time. But running parallel with ALT-C this year is the Fringe ALT (or F-ALT). F-ALT will be serious fun, that is, fun with a serious undercurrent. We have been allocated space just off the main venue at the University of Leeds to conduct a number of events including WTF sessions on Microblogging, Second Life, Learning Objects, shoes, beer and all the other pressing concerns that reside in the tortured mind of the contemporary learning technologist. I hope to pitch my hat into the ring with an outrageous rant on the merits of EduPunk. (Well, Jim Groom is following me on Twitter, so I think I have something to say...)

F-ALT will also feature its own awards (The F-ALTies) where prizes will be awarded in a number of areas of activity, including: an award for the worst acronym for an e-learning project, the 'Not a Learning Object' prize and an award for the most pretentious blog post of the year (I am in the running for this one I think).

It will be a gathering of the clans for those learning technologists and academics who can stand the pace, and who don't mind laughing at themselves and poking fun at the establishment. I hope to see you there...