All 3 entries tagged Diverse

Another book

Just got the author’s copy from the publisher of my latest book. I’m just the editor, but it’s still great seeing my name on the cover. There’s a slight glitch in the preface, which will hopefully be changed. But apart from that it’s ready to be printed. The cover is below

This is what it says on the back about the book :)

: 30 Jan 2008 11:44 |  Tags: Diverse |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A more effective Monday

Writing about web page http://www.earthhum.com/

Quite a lot of stuff happening now – I guess I’m getting there.

Last week had a trip down to Southampton for a meeting with the EDIT4L people and the external evaluators plus the programme manager. It was all very relaxed – it’s so much easier when it’s with people that are easy to get on with. Then Thursday was a workshop that ties in with the EDIT4L project. Southampton have designed an online toolkit that takes users through the process of creating lesson plans. The idea of the project is to take people through the use of it and get feedback. The three people who turned up to the workshop were really helpful, and we got a lot of good ideas about how to best make use of the toolkit.

I still haven’t got anywhere on the PhD – yesterday was spent editing more papers for the DIVERSE conference proceedings. We’re up to 20 papers now – and they’re a really interesting selection. I can’t wait for the proceedings to be published. The other publication is the first of three editions compiling papers from the first four years of DIVERSE. ALT are publishing them and seem to be really efficient. They’re just getting on with it with no fuss, no endless meetings, no laborious decision-making. People like that are such a breath of fresh air to work with.

I’ve finally got to grips with the Design Patterns concept. Last week involved going through a set of concept maps of the various elements identified with using games for learning, selecting the appropriate taxon for that deployment pattern and adding it to a table. The process wasn’t made any easier by working in an open plan office. It’s the sort of deep thinking that I need total quiet for, otherwise the thinking doesn’t happen. Whoever thought that work could be conducted in a space like this wasn’t really thinking (maybe they were in an open plan office at the time). Even turning up Earth Hum to full volume on my earphones didn’t drown it out (listening to Earth Hum doesn’t really contradict the “complete quiet” dictum, since it’s the closest music you can get to white noise). Ironically it’s now completely quiet in here apart from the tapping of a dozen keyboards.

This morning I was involved in a videoconference with Amsterdam using Breeze – which worked pretty well. Students here and students there discussed plays, one from NL and a couple from UK. It’s difficult getting a free-flowing conversation going through videoconferencing, but it’s early days yet. That’s part of the Streaming Theatre project.

Also today I’ve started a distance learning course at the University of Genoa. It’s on Narrative Learning Environments – and I’m still not too sure what they are. I’ll keep you posted.

: 09 Oct 2006 17:47 |  Tags: Diverse Edit4L Grindsmygears Streamingtheatre |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Not an effective Friday

Well today was meant to be spent working on the DIVERSE 2006 conference proceedings and planning my PhD. Instead I slept in to 10:30, spent the morning on ebay and shopping, and the afternoon reading and sleeping. I finally got down to it at 5:00 and am just taking a break now at errm 5:40. I did test out the videoconferencing set-up in theatre studies via Skype in between naps, though.

The DIVERSE 06 proceedings are the first set we’ve put together. We’ve had problems getting previous ones published, then decided to gather the papers from 01 to 04 together thematically as a series of books. I’ve edited the first of these books together, hopefully that will be out soon. The thematic thing actually worked so well the plan was then to collect papers from later conferences, to form follow-up books. The idea was that publications based around a theme, rather than linked only by being at the same conference, would have a longer shelf-life and a broader appeal. The reality, of course, is that contributors want their stuff out straight away, rather than wait until enough papers are collected together on a common theme to form a book. So, OK, not one of my best ideas.

What I’m doing therefore is carrying on with getting the three books collecting papers from 01 to 04, and now editing together the proceedings for 06, which is also picking up papers from 05 where people want them published. 07 proceedings can then be all the 07 papers plus whoever missed the deadline for this year, then 08 can be for the 08 papers. And then we’re on track. I might still give contributors an extra year to submit, though.

Reasons not to shop at Morrison’s
1) The sausage rolls – full of gristle
2) Ade2 – on the face of it a drink that also contains vitamins is a good idea, but mixing together pineapple, passionfruit and soya Why??
3) DVDs – note to any retailer selling DVDs – don’t store the boxes in one place and the DVDs somewhere else – any customer not aware of that ends up going home with just the box. Plus who wants a DVD that’s been knocking around outside of its box. Just leave them in the box and tag it like everyone else does.

And I did a bit more family history research. I found my great-great-great-grandmother Eleanor Nelson in the 1851 census. Living in the same place as in the 1861 census – but with her name mis-spelt, which is why I hadn’t come across the entry before. She was a nurse in West Norfolk and Lynn hospital. I think one day I’ll have to go over there and take a look at what the place is like.

: 29 Sep 2006 18:30 |  Tags: Diverse Genealogy PhD |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem