JOHN MILLNER

ggg

Audioblog

http://web.mac.com/millnerjohn/iWeb/Site%203/Podcast/Podcast.html

I made the audioblog on my Powerbook using GarageBand to make the track and iWeb to publish it. I've hardly ever used these tools before, and it took me a while to work out what all the knobs and levers do. Garageband is really a music composition package but does podcasts pretty well too; it comes with more sound effects and musical stings than you could shake a stick at, and allows you to mix each track separately before mixing them together, and then to export straight to the iTunes podcast directory if you want to. iWeb makes web publishing REALLY simple - you just drag and drop images, type text into the page, and then hit 'publish' . I would really recommend both applications, but they only run on macs..

The sound on this podcast is ropey because I couldn't get an external microphone to work with my computer and so had to use the mac's internal mike. Recording my voice made me realise how much I dislike the sound of it, so I don't think I'll be doing many more of these..

ps - the waves were just wishful thinking!

Assignment in a bottle...

So.. let me see... TMA all finished ... rolled it up and put it in an empty whisky bottle (surely that used to be full?)... put the cork back in... wrote Karelena MacKinlay, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland on a lable and stuck it on the side... staggered to the beach - down by the dead tree with seaweed where the leaves should be - and chucked it in.

that IS what we were supposed to do with it isn't it?

Damn & ...

I can't honestly say I've enjoyed Week 14. In fact, I can honestly say I've hated it.

Normally I don't have much trouble with this writing lark, but the TMA report on competency procedures is just refusing to play ball. I'm beginning to feel like a dentist pulling out multiple wisdom teeth - a tooth for every paragraph - with no anaesthetic, from the mouth of a screaming, struggling patient. (If I'm the dentist in this simile, you're probably thinking, who is the patient? The patient is my poor, whimpering, bloody-mouthed brain - that's who.)

Then there's the other half - a review of the poster parade: that should be ok shouldn't it? Except that the poster parade doesn't seem to have happened yet, so I can't review it. Gnash. Grrrr.

As for the group task on good practice .. I don't know what to say about it other than it has been a model of poor practice on my part, exacerbated by vague and woolly instructions which left everyone stumbling around in the dark wondering where the light switch was, and a crazy schedule which meant everyone was trying to do two weeks' work in one week, and a group that just didnt seem to have enough people in it...

I better stop before (as Cathy Sack would say) I really get a cob on. I'm almost ready to start banging me 'ed against that brick wall in the photo.

A better idea: I'll pop over to Horrigan's Cafe for a cup of tea. Not too hot tho, as the stumps where my wisdom used to be are still sensitive...

Windermere

I've found a way to make the Week 14 group task much easier to understand!

First, print out the Researching in Groups page and cut out the instructions for Activity 14.1. Next take some ordinary domestic caustic soda and dissolve a handful of it in some water (wear rubber gloves!). Drop the instructions in the solution. There'll be a lot of fizzing and a gas will be given off with a strong smell of academic waffle.

In a few minutes the instructions will have become much clearer! After I carried out the above procedure I was able to read:
1) Agree on some characteristics of good practice in eLearning projects you've looked at
2) Reach a consensus on what might be the characteristics of excellence in the work of eLearning practitioners
3) Consider if there are any connections between the characteristics in 1) and those in 2)
4) Use both sets of characteristics to suggest some assessment criteria for eLearning professionals.

This was not so hard. What features did the most interesting eLearning projects have in common? Things like good design and pedagogy, promotion of community, learner-centredness, accessibility, innovative and usable technology, reflective practice, and so on...

As for the characteristics of excellence - here's my stab at them, as exemplified in my favourite eLearning initiatives and with some help from various H808 resources, including Katherine Wilson's blog:
Download file It turns out these excellence criteria do have a lot in common with the good practice characteristics listed above. (My group hasn't got round to parts 3 and 4 of the task yet, but no worries - we've got nothing much else to do this week..)

BTW if you're wondering what the dog has got to do with either chemical odours or eLearning competencies - well, believe it or not there IS a connection, tho only with the latter subject (for she gives off only the sweet smell of dog). You may remember that the conference on Competencies for Online Teaching mentioned in the Peter Goodyear paper this week took place in Bowness-on-Windermere in the English Lakes; and it so happens that this photo of Zinny was taken last Christmas while crossing lake Windermere on the Bowness ferry!

Added to which, it is almost two months since we had a picture of my dog, and it seemed about time..

TMA Ahead