All entries for Friday 02 February 2007

February 02, 2007

Warwick Learning Environment features and your chance to tell us what you think

Follow-up to Announcement: Second Arts Faculty E–learning Exhibition Lunch, 9th February from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

In preparation for the Arts Faculty E-learning Exhibition on the 9th of February, I have created a detailled concept map that aims to document the many features of the Warwick Learning Environment.

Here is the Sitebuilder 2 node:

Sitebuilder 2 features

No doubt there are features that I have missed, as well as features that people would like to see added. As a means of capturing these extra features, I have printed the map out on A0 paper. I will display the map at the E-learning Exhibition. It will be accompanied by three sets of post it note pads. The yellow set can be used to add features to the map that I have forgotten about. The green set is for giving us feedback on current features. The pink set can be used to add suggestions of new features. All participants at the exhibition will be invited to add notes to the map.

Warwick members can download the concept map (MindManager required).

Or see the map as a PDF file.


Robert O'Toole : 02 Feb 2007 14:49 |  Tags:      |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Another Day (1979) video by Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel

Writing about web page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKknfE4wGmM

I think this is something really special. Discovered recently on YouTube, a special performance by Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel of the song by Roy Harper, with a powerful undercurrent of emotional tension. I was only 8 when this was recorded. I have a vague childhood memory of Kate Bush being quite scary. Which I think was probably true, despite the vegetarianism (cue Hitler reference). She is now, of course, entirely child friendly.

Note the use of a pre-recorded video on the screen behind the kitchen table. Quite an innovation in 1979. It mirrors the live performance, but with subtle differences – they are for example wearing smart clothes in the video. This gives the sense of the domestic reality being doubled somehow. Is that doubling the past? The future? Memory? Fantasy? Reality? Whose reality? Whose fantasy?

And then there’s the line in the song, sung by the male character, about the female character being entombed and inaccessible. Metaphor? It’s such a dark and powerful lyric. Very Kate Bush.


Robert O'Toole : 02 Feb 2007 12:49 |  Tags:     |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem