Mullett's Corner

Before I go into the actual event and what went on, I thought I'd take a moment to say how wonderful what little of York I saw was. Stepping off the train into Eboracum, walking past ancient Roman settlements and towering parapets was truly a sight to behold, often in stark contrast to the modern architecture that now sits quite comfortably next to the old. The still very grandeur Roman structures still had a place in the bustling city of York, very much like the scene I witnessed on the train up there; two young lads both reading next to each other, one with a kindle, one with a paper book. A common theme I picked up on during the Google Apps for Education European User Group 2014 (GEUG14) ... and breathe... event. The old and the new. GEUG14 took place in The Ron Cooke Hub in the Heslington East Campus of University of York. The Ron Cooke Hub - University of York Pretty impressive place! I met a rather enthused  +Tom Smith  to whom I had to apologise ...

It's been a few months now, my Chromebook still goes with me to every single meeting at work. From keeping notes on & offline using Google Keep, to collaborating (Google Docs of course) on a discussion paper while sitting in the local Coffice with a colleague  +Aaron Burrell . My use of Google Apps has exploded and I now use a plethora of Googles tools and extensions to optimise and make my work effective and efficient. I guess there's almost a slight smugness about it. Mainly because all the things I worried about before no longer exist and everything I do use in my Google suite is so incredibly easy, it's almost laughable. But somethings wrong, I feel rather alone with it all, yes other members of my team BOTH (yes three people in the team) use Google Apps effectively, but that's it. It frustrates me, knowing that the rest the institution I work for still work using, certainly in my eyes, archaic technologies in their everyday work. Slow machines running ...

I did think about using 'Kologarn' in the title of this blog but very few people would understand the metaphor. Again, I digress.. I'm about to rant about the one thing I've evangelised and advocated about for so long.. Google. Yes, Google. I love Google, I really do.. it's given me the ability to not worry about CRC Errors or having multiple devices 'Sync'd'. All I have to do is log-in to Google, where ever I may be to access all of my work/personal stuff. My Chromebook, no matter how visually appealing and wondrous it is (CBHP11 of course), is simply redundant. If it breaks, I get a replacement, log-in and it's back to normal, no panic, no fret. For instance, 'the' aim for my work now is to advocate Google Apps for Education (GAFE) enough that it gets rolled out and I get to teach everyone how to use it, I'll end that sentence there before I start to daydream. Which is why it pains me to raise a few faults with Goo...

Dig Lit - David Mullett After my cloud epiphany, I've gradually bumped across most of my daily processes to Google, I've actually started to use Gmail as my personal/career email after years of having my own domain name and looking after my own mail accounts. All my personal, work documents and elements are in Drive and all my photos are in G+. It became quite clear recently that I didn't really use any proprietary software at all, not tied to any particular OS or hardware, ok apart from the exception of iMovie on my Mac Mini, however it was this clarity that made me realise maybe owning an iPad and iPhone wasn't particularly effective any more. A quick look back at the last 10 opened apps on both devices solidified my trail of thought, Google Drive, Picasaweb, Chrome, Messages, Phone, BBC News etc etc Nothing that was iOS centric. Would it not make more sense to use a Chromebook and Android phone instead? Yes, it would make more sense, a lot more sense. H...

Forest Wander -  http://flic.kr/p/avDP2c A small journey took place yesterday.. I normally check out Campus Technology on a regular basis, just to see what's floating around the state side of learning technology. US universities are massive in comparison to our local network ones so it's nice to see what emerging technologies are being used in well funded unis straight from the ole valley of silicon, to give maybe an insight as to what's to come or to keep a watchful eye out for. I did however want to find a nice UK based LT news site, after some random googling I came across the JISC CETIS Assistant Director's work blog, within a few minutes I had Diigo'd a couple of links. What technologies have been used to transform curriculum delivery? - I found this a particularly easy read, I didn't have to read through pages and pages of overhyped buzzwords to find out what the point of the article was. The use of IBM's ManyEyes widgets to display the data...