e-Rambler » Quickies

Strictly Come Teaching

Jez — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:36:15 +0000

I should make it clear before getting into this that it’s my fiancee who watches Strictly, not me. My fiancee. I just happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye while I was doing something manly, like DIY. Anyway…

If you live in the UK, you’ll probably not have managed to avoid at least hearing about Strictly Come Dancing, a reality TV show in which professional dancers teach celebrities to dance (in the US and Australia it’s called Dancing with the Stars).

In recent years the big Saturday show has been supported by a half-hour gossip show every weekday evening, going by the name Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

In case you were starting to wonder where I was going with this, the first little bit of yesterday’s It Takes Two saw the professionals talking about the approach they take to teaching their celebs, and it makes for quite interesting watching. If you’re in the UK, you can watch it on BBC iPlayer, around 1:10.

What’s interesting is that all of the celebrities think that their pro is a great teacher, but from a dispassionate point of view there are differences. I think Brian sums it up nicely when he says “a really good teacher is a teacher who learns to adapt their teaching style to different types of student.” It’s noticeable that the professionals who have consistently done well across series have been the ones who adapted well to their celebrities.

And as Erin points out: “‘World Champions’ doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good teacher.”

Just a little something to think about.

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Quickie: Accepting Jack

Jez — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:34:00 +0000

I’ve got Radio 4 on while I do the washing up, and I’m listening to It’s My Story: Accepting Jack – Six Years On. It follows a number of families with kids who have special needs, and about 20 minutes in, there’s a wonderful moment when a sibling is describing the benefits of having a brother with disabilities. In between not having to walk far to school and getting to skip the queue at the theme park, this young boy announces that he’s had “a lot of learning experiences”, having had to learn sign language which he might need later in life.

Kids have a natural ability and desire to learn, and given the opportunity they can understand this and grow. How can we keep that going into adulthood?

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Quickie: University of Sheffield to use Google Mail

Jez — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:00:32 +0000

I got an email in my inbox today announcing that the university will be transferring all taught students’ email accounts to Google Apps for Education (also previously discussed on Chris Sexton’s blog). As is fairly standard, university email has until now been handled in-house. I’ve never had any problems with it: it’s reliable, and the webmail interface (based on Horde Imp) is clunky but dependable.However, it’s never compared with either the interface or the storage available with Google Mail. As soon as Google enabled POP3 download I set that up and I’ve never looked back. I think it’s great that the university is outsourcing its email to Google, and this is going to mean a major improvement in the student experience; after all, most students use email as instinctively as breathing these days.

It seems to be a win for everyone. Google gets a whole generation of students exposed to more of its products. The university gets email services for free while allowing its support staff to concentrate on doing the stuff they specialise in: supporting the institutions educational and research needs.

My one issue so far is that this change is currently only affecting taught students. Research students and staff will still be on the old system for a while yet. I can understand that some staff, at least, will be more resistant to this change than the students, who are with us for a few years at most. I also know a number of staff who, like the students, don’t like the current system because it’s a bit dated and awkward to use at times. It looks like I’ll be sticking with my own GMail account for now, but the transfer to Google Apps for staff/research students certainly gets my vote.

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Weekly links: blogging, books and business

Jez — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:06:42 +0000

Here are a few things that have caught my eye this week and I thought might interest you as well.

open…: 10 Things to Build a Blog Readership â€” I’ll certainly be following these tips. I feel that particularly the first is relevant to practically anything you do.
On active reading (aka highlighting books religiously) | Readers Under 30 | LibraryThing â€” an interesting discussion on the merits or otherwise of highlighting things in books.
Four Ways to Use “Pull” to Increase Your Success – The Big Shift – HarvardBusiness.org â€” a business take on the benefits of the modern web.
Amplified Twittering and SocialÂ Reporting â€” James Clay suggests having dedicated ‘social reporters’ at conferences to keep up the real-time social media coverage when delegates are otherwise engaged in workshops.

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Quickie: new Twitter client, Tweetie, released for Mac

Jez — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:55:47 +0000

I’ve been playing with Twitter for a couple of months now, and I have to say, I rather like it. I’ve graduated from interacting with it purely through the Twitter site, and tend to use a client for most of my tweeting.

On my iPod touch, I’ve been using a client by the name of Tweetie from an indie developer by the name of atebits, which has loads of great features that I won’t bore you with here. Today it was announced (via Twitter, of course) that the Mac version is ready for human consumption.

I’ve switched over to it as my primary Twitter client already and I have to say I really like it. It’s still got some rough edges and it’s missing some useful functionality that I liked in Nambu, but it’s already showing the great attention to detail and some of the range of features that have made the iPhone/iPod touch version so good. There are already some detailed reviews up, from The Unofficial Apple Weblog and TechCrunch, so I’ll leave it at that, but if you’re a Mac twitterer and you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you give it a try.

I’m also testing out another bit of software right now: a Mac blogging client by the name of Blogo. This is my first post using it, and I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

In the meantime, how do you access Twitter? Or perhaps you dont? Leave a comment below to share your opinion.

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Weekly links: Twitter bits

Jez — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:24:26 +0000

I often come across links that I find useful or enjoyable and that I’d like to share, but that I haven’t got time to write a full blog post about. I’ve decided, therefore, to try wrapping a few of my favourites up into a weekly(ish) digest which I’ll post here.

This week, a selection of Twitter-related links:

HootSuite â€” Describing itself as “the ultimate Twitter toolbox”, HootSuite lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts, have multiple users on one account (without revealing the password for that account), schedule tweets and much more.
TwiTip â€” A blog filled to the brim with helpful Twitter advice and tips.
What the Hashtag?! â€” A user-written encyclopaedia of hashtags: great for figuring out the meaning of that cryptic hashtag you’ve just found in your Twitter stream.
13 â€œTwitsâ€ Who Will Change Your Perspective on Reality â€” A list of Twitter users who are well worth following.
The 10 Users Youâ€™ll Meet on Twitter â€” A breakdown of the types of people you might run into on Twitter.
Why I talk about the weather on Twitter â€” A nice, brief comment from Joanna Young of Confident Writing on joining in the conversation

You can also get an idea of what I’ve been reading and doing from:

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