National Bike Week it may be, but that’s no excuse for this kind of behaviour! Amazing…
How long will it be before the Bond franchise picks this up, as in the Casino Royale parkour/free running chase?
More on the ‘dog walking on its hind legs’ theme. This time with Bambuser which, simply, streams live video from the camera on a mobile phone.
Create an account, download the app to the phone, log in and that’s it. Stunningly simple.
On the day that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is reported as having said that books for pupils are outdated, it’s interesting to read about the apparent failure of Microsoft’s Philadelphia ‘School of the Future’. The failure of which was due, in part, to the failure of the technology:
“Although the technology itself was not supposed to trump basic classroom practices, Microsoft and the school’s planners had decided not to allow the use of textbooks or printed materials; instead, all resources were located online through a portal designed by Microsoft.Yet educators frequently encountered problems accessing the internet, because the school’s wireless connection often would not work.” [source]
Perhaps Microsoft’s aim was lofty and laudable (to improve education) but it was also a marketing tactic. Schwarzenegger’s aim seems much more financially driven, with the aim of saving hundreds of millions of dollars. If there is a moral to the Microsoft School of the Future failure, it’s that technology in education needs to be robust, appropriate and educationally (not commercially) driven… How will Californian schools, and their pupils, fare?
Well, those were my first thoughts. And, if news of the school’s failure was correct, then I’d probably stick with the conclusion. But that was until I did a bit of searching around the content of the eschool article and, as with all media reports, there’s always a bit more to the story than at first sight. According to this blog from the school itself, “we don’t feel like a failure” and, according to one of the students, “It hurts my heart to hear people call my school a failure because I have already achieved great thing [sic] and I am not done yet! …when I walk down the aisle in June 2010 [to graduate] I will remember this article and further my education to become the best lawyer Philadelphia has seen all because of the School of The Future.”
So maybe the moral is really to remind us that it’s always dangerous to take any media report at face value…
Only recently discovered The Daily Motion Less chaotic in organisation than YouTube, there’s some higher quality video content and genuinely well-crafted material, including this…
They’ve not made a lot of fuss about it but Auntie Beeb is quietly testing live TV for mobile phones. It requires a wireless connection but 3G is apparently on its way. And it’s surprisingly good too. Runs pretty smoothly on my Windows Mobile phone. In fact better than the live radio that’s also being tested.
Live BBC TV on my mobile
A novelty perhaps at the moment. To misquote Dr Johnson, “Sir, live TV on your mobile phone is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
Still struggling to really engage with Twitter. Maybe I should try Flutter!
Where the Wild Things Are has probably stirred more discussion, word for word, than anything else published – it’s only ten sentences long! It’s a brilliant book and I hope the forthcoming film does it justice. The trailer looks promising…
In London for a meeting earlier this week and at a location I’d not been to before. Good opportunity, I thought, to try out the much-trumpeted and recently launched Street View from Google. Simply entered the post code and found the venue easily in Street View. Even better, I tracked the walk from the tube to the meeting. OK, a tad geeky but the test (and the proof) came when next day I walked out of the tube and, confidently, straight to the meeting – as if I’d been there before. Both reassuring and kind of spooky.
I didn’t bump into Wally though, who had been placed in Street View as a clever marketing ploy and spotted only a day or two after the UK launch.
There’s been a lot of media noise about the 150 years since Darwin’s Origin of the Species. The Open University’s very own Charles Darwin site includes a nice nonsense tool that allows you to ‘devolve‘ yourself by uploading a photo and regressing a few million years. Which figure from the current government is this? No prizes on offer here… Try it yourself. Incidentally, you can also order a free Tree of Life poster showing branches of evolution.
It’s a long time since I was in Norwich so I took the opportunity to mooch around a bit. Pleasantly surprised by the mix of old and new – bus stops with live information displays in the same street as the castle. It’s hard to miss the cathedral so naturally thought I’d pay a visit. A beautiful place and made all the more beautiful by the choral evensong I happened to chance upon. Very restful and peaceful.
More of the ancient and new is mixed in the cathedral’s pretty good website too.
I was in the east for the Norfolk ICT Conference and found myself in the illustrious company of Russell Prue and John Davitt. Lots in both their presentations… but John shared his Learning Event Generator which is now or soon to be available on the i-phone, and Russell demonstrated the power of dedicated school-based radio. A big thank you to Russell for helping solve the random sound problems caused by Vista’s sound system. Note to self, use XP for future presentations… Thanks to Judy in the Norfolk team for all her help too.
