Mullett's Corner

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...

AJ Cann - http://flic.kr/p/7nMoyC Just finished the first of our student inductions for 2013/2014, It wasn't the biggest one we've had, four students to be precise. However our new reworked structure seemed to go down well. The slides have been tidied up and we more clearer define the differences between the intranet/VLE/e-portfolio. We have also started emphasising the importantance of reflective journaling and the use of e-portfolios, promoting our institution provided Mahara installation. When given the usual choice of what the presenter should focus on next our friend Twitter reigned supreme again with a joint 2nd going to Diigo and Goodle Drive. After going through the motions I asked the students a new question we have in there, asking if they will take any further action or investigate what we have talked about.  100% Yes was the answer from the students, which is nice to see. Still a bit of tweaking to do and maybe throw in some more interactive clicker qu...

Mani Babbar -  http://flic.kr/p/78eFU6 I've always been someone who believes having that extra backup is a necessity rather than an option. My iMac at work had to have the same file structure and programs installed as my Macbook Pro, my mp3 folder had to be the same over those two devices plus my custom battlestation at home. This became quite time consuming having to work separate syncing programs to keep everything up to date, had to use an external hard drive for the music as it was so large. Hints of OCD? Yeah, that happens, ectopic heartbeats were a regular occurrence when the syncing software displayed two files exactly the same and asked me to choose one. Bags had to be packed certain ways etc etc , you get the idea..  But it all started to change with the rising popularity of the murky fog that is cloud computing. I must have been introduced to Google Drive about 3 years ago now, and lets say I was incredibly hesitant, I DID NOT want another laboriou...

Michael Porter -  http://flic.kr/p/Ybv7 Do you like my shoes? Unfortunately most of the students in my student induction sessions chose option 3, 'I don't really care' :( Luckily this is only our ice breaker question to firstly let students use the clickers and secondly to get across the informality of the session. We adopt the use of TurningPoint clickers in our student induction sessions, with the main focus being on letting the students steer the session to what they want to talk about.. yes there is an underlying motive of gathering data about social network use and students technical capabilities. We have shifted what we talk about into two sections, the institutionally owned software (VLE, E-Portfolio) and the individually owned software which consists of Twitter, Diigo, Mahara, Google Docs.  For the institutionally owned software we run through the usual support protocols for each service and a quick demo of login procedures, we also talk about what ...