The book and the paper it’s made from have recently taken a rap. The suggestion is that the book is outmoded. It's well past its use-by date in education and it's not environmentally friendly.I like the book. Having had a lifelong association with the invention, I realise my opinion inclines in its favour. To be fair to the book in the context of learning, however, the reasons gathered in support of its removal or replacement should be related to its merits and demerits as a learning resource.When weighing the stresses, it is difficult to assess its effectiveness against digital counterparts unless a few ground rules are defined.Judged by its cover:It is unfair to pitch the book against such things as an online chat or a wiki. Whatever the equivalents of these technologies will look like in future, their application and purpose cannot be compared, with any relevance, to those offered by a book. Try comparing the virtues of a submarine with those of a helicopter and you’ll see what I mean.Neither is it fair to condemn the book just because its content may go out of date. Data in a web-page, a blog post or even a tweet are just as likely to go out of date, and for the same reasons, with no likelier promise of edits to correct these.What are the benefits and drawbacks?The rate of use of paper throughout the world is now higher than ever; it rages wildly and at a mounting pace. But it’s not the book, textbook, printed educational literature or school note-pad that is mainly to blame for the burgeoning rate of paper production. Advertising, and the wasteful packaging of goods, contribute to more than half the global consumption of paper.More trees:This does not detract from the volume of paper consumed for educational purposes. It is huge. A recent article on campus sustainability and paper consumption by Clark University, reported that 720 trees are harvested each year to supply printer/copy paper for that establishment alone. It may be just a leaf in a tome, but I have an eye for conservation, and that fact leaves me pondering. Burgeoning content:Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach states, in her September video, that by the year 2020, knowledge could be doubling every 72 hours.She claims that by that time, there will be no place for the book in schools, as it would be impossible for it to keep pace with the rate of knowledge growth. Setting aside issues of relevance to the school curriculum, knowledge delivered at its predicted rate of creation by 2020 couldn’t possibly be accomplished in book form. I wonder if any data management system could ever deliver knowledge at such a rate - and for what purpose.Pictures, images and diagrams:In the twentieth century, advances in the printing industry brought vibrant colour to illustrations in books. Only in the last 15 to 20 years has such quality of detail and colour been viewable on the computer screen.The digital device has the edge on the book, with the use of diagrammatic sequence, melting images, moving images or other animated schema. Especially in student learning, there is a growing need for the use of visual images as learning tools to promote student understanding.Videos in particular can provide amazingly detailed imagery. With the animation technology available today, it is possible to view a 3D virtual journey through the chambers of the human heart, or to observe the journey through the intake and exhaust valves of the internal combustion engine.As David Whitehead said in his speech on strategies for improving literacy, simply asking students to imagine (as a thinking/learning tool) may not be as successful as it was in the past.One might be forgiven for thinking that this may be as a result of the use of explicit animated imagery, rather than other teaching tools that are perhaps more likely to exercise the imagination of young minds. For as limited as a book may be in depicting complex concepts in pictures, its practiced use has the power to stimulate the imagination.Visuals with text: When creating a learning resource, there is a tendency to overuse the features available to the digital resource designer. While acceptable and effective page design has become a well-established skill in textbook writing, the same cannot be said universally of digital learning resource design.The misuse of PowerPoint as a learning tool highlights the vagaries of incorporating voice with text. Their joint use accompanying displayed images or diagrams in a learning resource causes cognitive overload in the learner. It is difficult to achieve this with a textbook. Verbal and written information simply cannot be presented simultaneously unless the teacher speaks while the learner is trying to read.Copyright moves quick quick to music:One of the wonderful things about books is their ability to be shared.A book, when first sold, can then be lent, gifted or sold again - the so-called first-sale doctrine. But for the existence of that principle, libraries, second-hand book and CD stores, as well as video rental outlets would be illegal. Though there have been several attempts made over the decades to place restrictions on the resale of printed books, actions restricting the sharing of digital equivalents have moved more fiercely. It seems that even the publishers of printed resources may now wish to cash in on this idea.It was suggested in The Future Of The Internet III that copyright protection technology may dominate content control in 2020. A little less than a third of expert opinion surveyed agreed that this was a likely scenario.The tractable e-book:As I said at the start of this soliloquy, I like the book. But the thought of a digital replacement still excites me. I’ve yet to get my hands on an e-book, like the Amazon Kindle. As Jim Henderson says:"For this to go, there has to be buy-in by the publishers."Video

Learning, and one’s ability to retain it, depends on the distributed frequency of related study sessions over time.Clark Quinn’s recent post, to do with the effectiveness of crammed learning, brought to mind a discussion I had with a colleague some years ago. We’d been inquiring about the rate of return of assignments from a distance learner who had crammed the equivalent of several months’ study into one day.Does learning have a half-life?Clark cited an article by Inga Kiderra outlining the research findings of Hal Pashler. What is learnt during a study session seems to decay. The rate of decay has a dependency based on the number of related study sessions in a series and its duration. A series of study sessions over a significant period of time has a cummulative effect and can lead to longer lasting retention.Learning diminishes at a rate that relates inversely to the pace of distributed study sessions over time. It means that a series of crammed sessions, during the week before an examination, is unlikely to bring about learning that's useful a year or so later. Competence over time: A simple example of the properties of learning over time is how the skill and knowledge is remembered that’s needed to solve a quadratic equation in mathematics.Though this is not an easy skill to obtain, it is one that can be acquired by a competent student of mathematics by cramming over a few days. To do this, competent learners have to grapple with new ideas, some concepts and some content. One piece of content that the experienced student needs to know is the formula for the solution: A learner who has acquired the skills and knowledge during a few days of crammed study may be hard pushed a year or so later to remember that such a formula even exists, let alone how to apply it. If the practice of solving quadratic equations is not revisited during the interim period, there may be little remembered of the activity.The learner who has gained skills and knowledge over several months of regular practice may not be able to remember the exact formula a year or so later either. However, recollection of the concept of solving a quadratic equation, as well as recalling that the formula exists, is more likely. It may be that the solution is only a Google search away. What is really being assessed? Every learner is different in the way they assimilate what is learnt. What one can gain usefully from a paced rate of learning may not be equivalent to that acquired by another, even if their end assessments are identical.The ideas brought forward by Pashler’s research have implications for the results of tests that lead to qualifications, as in the New Zealand Qualifications Authority standards. One has to ask what is being assessed in these tests.There is no doubt that a good result in a standard assessment shows that learning has occurred. This is a measure of the ability of the learner to learn and perhaps understand through study. How do we test long-term retention?Depending on what study has gone before, and the pattern of that over time, however, a grade in a standard test may not be a useful measure of learning that may be put to use in the future.There are similar implications for the results obtained through online assessment. Study that’s performed online, by a learner who is able to access all the resources for a unit of learning, may not be carried out in the best way possible to enable long-term retention. ( 10 ) << - related posts - >> ( 8 ) ( 7 ) ( 6 ) ( 5 ) ( 4 ) ( 3 ) ( 2 ) ( 1 )

On the first day of Christmasmy browser brought to mea tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the second day of Christmasmy browser brought to metwo Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the third day of Christmasmy browser brought to methree permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the fourth day of Christmasmy browser brought to mefour wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the fifth day of Christmasmy browser brought to mefive Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the sixth day of Christmasmy browser brought to mesix Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the seventh day of Christmasmy browser brought to meseven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the eighth day of Christmasmy browser brought to meeight Delicious bookmarks,seven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the ninth day of Christmasmy browser brought to menine Diggers Digging,eight Delicious bookmarks,seven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the tenth day of Christmasmy browser brought to meten Google searchings,nine Diggers Digging,eight Delicious bookmarks,seven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the eleventh day of Christmasmy browser brought to meeleven widgets wandering,ten Google searchings,nine Diggers Digging,eight Delicious bookmarks,seven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme.On the twelfth day of Christmasmy browser brought to metwelve bloggers blogging,eleven widgets wandering,ten Google searchings,nine Diggers Digging,eight Delicious bookmarks,seven Seesmics screaming,six Skypers Skyping,five Open-Nings!four wicked wikis,three permalinks,two Wordle blimpsand a tagged comment in a Twitter meme!To all my great friends - bloggers, commenters, followers, visitors and mates, have a great time over the festive season.Thanks for all your support and help. I really have appreciated being with you all this year.

Okay, okay! I admit it. I’m hooked. I’ve become a dyed-in-the-(New Zealand)-wool blogger, posting on Boxing Day. But I’m only responding to another dyed-in-the-wool blogger who posted on Christmas Day.René Meijer's thoughtful and reflective post, My Learning Disabilities, is a response to Tony Karrer's, What Did You Learn About Learning 2008. René's post struck a chord with me that was almost a peal of Christmas bells.He spoke of authentic and valid assessment, and posited that most people do not learn by engaging with the written word. I agreed, and I left a comment on his post. It ran something like this:You say you understand that we only really learn by ‘interacting’.I say, we need to define what’s meant by ‘interacting’. By my definition, you are correct.Learning by interacting:Others may have a different idea of what ‘interacting’ is all about and still agree with you. For instance, I believe that it is possible for interaction to take place when a learner is reading from a book. I know, I know, but this sort of interaction is indeed a high level thinking and learning skill, not often practiced by most learners.You go on to ask, "How do we verify that learning has taken place, if we aren’t sure how (to) create authentic and valid assessments for the competencies we are not aspiring to instil?"I say that the only way we can be sure that learning has taken place IS by authentic and valid assessment. I’m not criticising here - I’m concurring.Assessing that learning has happened:Thing is, our assessments may well show us that learning has taken place, but may not really validly measure to what extent it has occurred. This is not so much a problem for the learner as the teacher, but it is often placed as a burden on the learner. I think that this action is wrong.But if I can put my glitch in here, assessment is all very well, but considering that it doesn’t always indicate what we (as assessors) think it should (in others words, it isn’t authentic and valid) we should restrict its use for us (as teachers) alone.Assess the teaching not the learning:That is to say that if it is neither authentic nor valid, it should NOT be used to assess the learner, especially if it is used as a measure of what the learner knows - more so because there is a difference between what is known and what was learnt. Note the use of tense in that last sentence.My preference is that assessment should be used (exclusively) by and for the teacher. It should be confidential, between the learner and the teacher if such sharing is necessary. But it should be used by the teacher to validate that teaching has been effective, not that learning has taken place.To use non-authentic, non-valid assessments against the learner is most unfair, especially if we realise that it is neither authentic nor valid. Most times it is not, and there are many reasons for this.What's learnt on the learning pathway:One of them, often not recognised or admitted, is when the particular assessment method applied fails the learner, by simply not recording what the learner has achieved along the learning pathways.Extreme examples of this are an assessment test that returns a zero mark or a standard assessment criterion that reports a not achieved. Such instances can be interpreted as indicating that the learner has learnt nothing at all - a very unlikely scenario.related posts - >> ( 9 ) ( 8 ) ( 7 ) ( 6 ) ( 5 ) ( 4 ) ( 3 ) ( 2 ) ( 1 )

This month Joanna Young, of Confident Writing, challenges bloggers/ writers to select the best writing from their year’s posts. Accepting Joanna's challenge put a focus on what writing is all about for me.I pick my September post, Learning and the Much Maligned Mistake.This post is simply the best because it embraces learning, an important aspect of my blog, and is about the hallmark of the learner.In particular, 2008 was a learning year for me; I learnt to be a blogger.

The earliest I recall watching a mobile phone in action was in 1991.Rob Carter, then CEO of the Housing Corporation of New Zealand, addressed a conference of company trainers at a campus in Nelson. He'd been communicating directly by phone through most of his introduction by the presiding manager.Carter’s mobile phone was the size of a slender builder's brick. It had an antenna that could have doubled as a child’s fishing rod and was heavy enough to inflict a painful injury if dropped on someone's foot.By the end of the 90s the mobile phone, more commonly known as the cell phone or cell, was small enough to get lost in a handbag.Customary usage:One morning, while I was travelling to work in an almost full bus, a mobile phone went off in a woman's handbag. I could hear the device honking even though I sat several seats away. The woman searched frantically through her handbag as the honking got louder, the sound having been muffled by a copious collection of accoutrements.She eventually found the phone and slapped it to her ear, shouting as if to communicate with a pedestrian in the street. Several passengers jumped in unison at the abruptness of her bellow.Everyone, including the bus driver, was soon giggling as they listened in on one half of an intimate conversation. An elderly gent, sitting a few seats in front, turned and scowled in the direction of the banshee-like screeching, blinking at the ear-shattering outbursts.When the conversation was over, she snapped shut her mobile, leaned forward and shouted, "Are you alright sir?" By this time the whole bus was well captivated by the commotion.The gent turned very slowly, stared matter-of-factly at the woman for a few seconds, then spoke in a low, exquisitely clear voice."I didn’t think you’d need a phone with a voice like that!"The whole bus erupted uproariously. I could feel the glow from her ears as the poor, hapless woman cowered in embarrassment.Robust as:At the beginning of this century, mobiles weren’t quite as sleek as they are now, but they could still fit in your pocket. My first mobile was a Christmas present from my son, Jack. It was a Philips, a bit bulkier than most, but remarkably robust.One day I was running for a bus in town when my mobile dropped from my pocket, bounced off the kerb and cascaded its contents into the gutter. Instantly, a bus ran over the battery and halted at the bus-stop.In desperation I collected all the bits I could see, including the battery, and grudgingly mounted the bus. After a few minutes spent squeezing the device back together again, I pushed home the battery. Immediately the display prompted me to reset the digital clock and the mobile made contact with the nearest cellular transmitter. I used that device for several years before it died.So what for the future?Ten years earlier, if I had suggested to someone that one day we’d have devices slightly bigger than a box of matches, that could be used to send text messages across the globe, I’d have been told that I was out of my tree.Yet in 2001, while travelling by bus to work in Wellington, New Zealand, I was able to have regular text conversations with my daughter, Gemma, who lived in Harpenden in England. Today I can access the Internet with a mobile and update my blog.It is predicted in The Future Of The Internet III that mobile devices will be commonly used to access the Internet in 2020. With the recent development towards a graphene chip, it is reasonable to think that future mobile devices will offer far more computing power and flexibility, enabling Internet access with a wide range of applications.The predictions are that voice recognition will also be a standard capability of the mobile. With any luck, my computer dream might become a reality - before 2020 I hope!related posts - >> ( 2 ) ( 1 )

Sue Waters has tagged me to list 7 things you really don’t need to know about me.Truth is, I’ve already put a comment on Diane Cordell’s post, though she didn’t tag me, and I said it all there.Ah but, being tagged means I have to write a post about it - if I accept the challenge. Then I think, "What’s this got to do with elearning?" Hmmm.Oh well. Whatever. ‘Tis the season. I accept.Here are 7 things you really don’t need to know about me: Despite my love of words, I'm hopeless at languages. When at school I got 11% for Latin and 17% for French.Parliamo Italiano?Though I don't have a fear of heights and I like hill climbing,I don't like rock climbing or mountaineering. The only similar sport that I dislike more than these is potholing. Potholing gives me the hebes.Of the many years spent in three different countries, I enjoy living in NZ the best - that's why I've lived here for 34 years.I was born in Scotland, but it is too cold there in the winter. Malawi is nice - called Nyasaland when I lived there as a child.At Downstage Theatre in Wellington in 1980 I had a part in the play, The Suicide, by the Russian playwright Nicolai Erdman, director Phillip Mann. It was a long play, almost 3 hours, and the season ran for 4 weeks. The play was extremely successful, with a cast of 16 actors and one fiddler. I was the (token) gypsy fiddler. I never spoke a word on the stage, which was fortunate, but I appeared first on the stage in scene 1.The only reason I was 7 years studying at university was procrastination. At a time when I was about to go on to study teaching, after I had graduated the first time, I was offered a post-grad grant. I went into teaching 3 years later.When my oldest son, Nicolas, was just over 2 years of age, he could catch flies in mid air. He never harmed them. He caught a wasp once, examined it closely, then let it go and wasn't stung. Only recently, I found that I had the same ability, though in over 50 years I'd never tried to catch a fly.I found out that I had this dubious talent when my daughter, Hannah, kept a pet female brown tree frog, Rocket, in a large vivarium. Rocket needed live food and lived for almost 4 years on what I caught for her - a record age for female Australian brown tree frogs, who live in the wild for only 16 months on average.I was born Church of Scotland. I've studied several religions, including Buddhism. My wife was the Anglican parish secretary for years in Island Bay where we live, and continues to attend Church regularly. My youngest daughter, Catriona, travelled to Fiji this year, and lived there for almost a fortnight while she pursued her Anglican mission.I've played music at the Church and read readings. I've read the Bible - a goodly book that I enjoy reading - and know many quotes. But I'm not religious in the least. I stopped attending Church with my wife a few years ago as people got the wrong idea. They couldn't understand my acceptance of the Church versus my personal belief.

I have always believed that the imagination is closer to reality than reality itself. As a child, I looked up at the sky and saw things in the clouds that didn’t exist here on earth.But as I grew into an adult, I became quite naive. The sky is reality. What I saw really does exist. But it is through my imagination that I can see things in cloud patterns that may not appear to be at my level here on the surface of the earth.Giuliana Guazzaroni, on Verso 3.0, has posted a video that takes me back to my childhood. The strangely accented voice of the narrator brings a matter-of-factness, almost ho-hum-ness to an unfolding digital future.Take a look for yourself at who you are - the prosumer. Who will be the CEO of Prometeus?Loosen the reins of your imagination; sit back; peek at a snapshot of the 50 years span of time that we are in; identify where you might be in 10, 20 or 40 years; enjoy!The Media RevolutionThe Media Revolution Part 2related posts - >> ( 1 )

This year, the musician and visionary, Benjamin Zander said,"I can imagine a conversation between a Jew and an Arab which says, ‘It is a privilege to share this land which we inherited from our forefather, Abraham, and just think what we have given to the world in art and culture and knowledge and mysticism and religion, and what we could teach the world about living together.’ That is something! Now, that conversation hasn’t actually taken place yet. If it did, it would transform the world."On 29 December 2008 my daughters called me to the living room window to see a magnificent rainbow. It was indeed magnificent, and as all rainbows in the evening, it circled the east.When I posted a picture of it on Flickr, Bonnie Kaplan said,"What a great sign of good luck for all of us."I hope she is right. My hope is that it is a sign from the east that there will be peace in 2009 and for all time.

Ranginui Door, Te Papa Museum, WellingtonMy hopes and predictions for 2009 are few and simple.I predict that the solid-state memory chip will be the biggest most influential factor in developments in 2009. It will pave the way for the revolution yet to come with the introduction of the graphene chip in the years before 2012. What broadband did for Internet use, the graphene chip will do for the proliferation of hand-held devices, but that is a year or so off yet.Connectivity will be better that ever before simply because of the extra memory space permitting the whole caboodle, platform/operating system, to be downloaded with the software. Mash-ups will be the way to go, and used more than ever before and for similar reasons.The ebook will further develop, expanded by the possibilities unleashed by the extra memory space permitted by the new and developing massive memory chips that are now available.Social networking will continue to become more popular and the increasing popularity of the hand-held device to access the Internet will permit the use of social networking to burgeon. I suspect that the cellular networks and associated services will require major upgrading to cope with the huge increases in the use of the hand-held device.Hopes for 2009:Malcolm Gladwell’s 'Outliers' points the finger clearly at the worth and origin of the real expert. My hopes are that society will embrace the recent studies and understandings that have come to light about the worth of expertise - true expertise, not so-called expertise that’s adopted on a whim.The skills and knowledge that come with true expertise will once again be recognised as an essential attribute for societal progress. The usefulness of content, that has been shaken almost off its foundation in the past decade, will once again be recognised in education.There will be less sabre rattling about what is learnt from printed books and the like. Digitising text from existing printed books will continue and there will be (more) digital books written that will remain digital - those will not be available in bound printed form.The digital novel will write the introduction of a new era.This post was published (NZ time) before Tony Karrer's Big Question for 2009

Have you ever thought of what it would be like to look up at the night sky and see, among thousands of brilliant stars, Herschel’s Jewel Box, or the beautiful Hercules star cluster?This is the International Year of Astronomy. There is fascinating activity in an area of land in New Zealand, known as MacKenzie Country. Very little smoke or other pollutants rise to the sky from its less than 2000 inhabitants, so cloudless nights are abundantly rich in starlight.Jet streams - high-altitude, high-speed wind currents - usually flow from the west at high speeds in the upper atmosphere and can spoil the view of the night sky. But there's no significant turbulence in the air above MacKenzie Country, for there is no jet stream near enough.For these reasons, MacKenzie Country is tipped to host the first world heritage site in the sky.Graeme Murray is the director of Earth and Sky Ltd, which has exclusive tourist rights at the Mt John Observatory, a main centre for astronomy research in New Zealand.Murray’s dream is to establish a World Heritage Starlight Reserve in the MacKenzie Country by obtaining recognition and protection for sky in the region from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).UNESCO support for the project may well be celebrated this year.New Zealand could then become the centre for The Startlight Reserve in this, the International Year of Astronomy.

It’s a Scottish tradition to tidy the home before New Year comes in.At the end of last year, I decided to follow this tradition on my blog. Come Hogmanay, otherwise known as Auld Year’s Nicht in Scotland, I’d tidied up newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com.I brought all my post-labels up to date and created new ones that were relevant to topics covered in each post.I updated the alt attributes on each image tag and removed the link-to-image that’s automatically added when it's uploaded into Blogger. Some months ago, I started taking these measures with all new postings.I’d learnt that this provision was courtesy to the visually impaired who may choose to use a speaking browser - otherwise known as a screen reader (incidentally, I also removed Odiogo last year for I found it did not provide a significant advantage).I checked links on all posts dated after 1 June 2008 to ensure that they were still active and relevant. There were some webs that had actually changed (their content was no longer relevant).I found alternatives for the few that were in this group. There were others that simply didn’t work any more. I either found alternative sites to link to or I removed the offending links.I’m used to using a link-checker on my work web at TCS. Incidentally, the entire TCS site is down at the time I write this post and has been since before the New Year. Consequently, none of the links on several of my resources posts work at the moment. Sooner or later someone will rectify this at TCS and all will come right - I hope.No apparent luxury:I do not have the luxury of a link-checker for my site in Blogger. I use the ‘check links’ facility in DreamWeaver on my development web site at work, but I can’t run my blog site through it. I’ve searched Google several times over the months and not found any quick link-checkers for blog sites. Latterly, I began to wonder how other bloggers checked the links in their archived posts.I have 131 posts dated 2008 on my blog. Most have at least one link to another site. It may be to a blog site or a web page. In a few more months, I’m going to have a sizable lot of posts to look after, and a corresponding set of links to maintain.It’s dead Jim:There is nothing I find more disappointing, when following a link on someone’s post that looks like an interesting lead, than getting the dreaded ERROR 404 or other such ‘Web-site Not Found’ notice.Web links have a half-life. They don’t necessarily last forever. Some break altogether, which means the unfortunate reader goes nowhere on click. It could be that the linked site doesn’t exist anymore, or that it’s been relocated, with no provision for redirection. It could also be that the site has gone down, and that the fault may be rectified in the near future. I’ve found it pays to wait a bit before revising a dead link if it’s to a site that I can trust. There’s life Jim, but not as we know it:Sometimes the content on a site changes. As a result, the site may no longer be relevant to the context of the link in my post. While this rarely happens with links to blog posts, it is not an uncommon problem where links to web pages are used.The need for vigilance in this regard is paramount when web links are used in elearning modules. Though the performance of the links on my blog is not as critical as this, it can be regarded by visitors as a reflection of my blog.What is good practice?When I find that links are faulty on my blog posts or web pages, I fix them by finding alternative relevant sites or remove the offending links in courtesy to my readers. Am I being too fastidious in bringing old posts up to date? Does it really matter if old links don’t work anymore?How do you check for broken links on your blog posts?

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers has brought about an outpouring of interesting reviews. Some are lucid, some are not so; some are supportive and some are emotional. Some show distrust for the claims he makes.I wonder why there is such emotional feeling in so many of the reviews I’ve recently come across. The 10,000-hour principle is one particular aspect that seems to be taking a bit of a thump from some reviewers.Yet the evidence Gladwell provides, and let’s not deny it, the past support for this not-new principle, clearly points to its validity.It’s true that Gladwell is making some sweeping statements in his book, but his arguments are compelling. It’s also true that if someone goes looking for evidence to refute any of Gladwell’s claims they are sure to find it (Goethe).Looking for evidence:As I read through Outliers, I found myself looking for evidence for and against too, and why shouldn’t I? From my own knowledge and experience, most of what Gladwell alleges about expert ability in musicianship alone seems to stack up.But one has to take care when considering exactly what is meant by an ‘expert’; I will discuss one piece of evidence I found in support of this. Virtuoso violinist, Yehudi Menuhin was undoubtedly an expert on his instrument. I choose Menuhin because Gladwell does not mention him anywhere in Outliers.A quota of hours:Menuhin began to play the violin when he was 3 years old. He reached expert status perhaps before the age of 13, and continued to practice, perform and teach in the realm of the expert till near the end of the twentieth century. There was plenty of time between the age of 3 and 13 for Menuhin to have put in his requisite quota of hours to become one of the 10,000-hour experts.Yet when I looked about for evidence of his inexpertness on the violin, it was not hard to find, even within his mature years as a world-class violinist. I had already recalled an interview I’d seen on TV when Menuhin admitted that the techniques required to play Scottish fiddle music were beyond him. These techniques applied especially to his expertise with the violin bow.Recently, I’d also found a YouTube video where Menuhin admitted that he could not improvise while playing jazz and swing alongside Stéphane Grappelli - that Grappelli had to write the music for Menuhin to follow so they could perform together.Yet Menuhin could improvise on his violin, there is no doubt about this. Improvising is part of the classical ‘training’ that all violinists go through sooner or later. He simply could not improvise in jazz and swing music. For as close as jazz music is to classical, the genres are significantly far removed from each other to compromise Menuhin’s expertise.Clearly, the term ‘expert’, in the context of Outliers, has to be well defined before a cogent discussion can eventuate the pros and cons of the principles involved within the discipline of the expert.Cooperation, collaboration and the common good: Let me state here that in no way do I write this as a criticism of Menuhin’s talent as a musician or performer. I have admired his supreme musicianship since I was a child. I also feel that it says a lot for how Menuhin was as a person, that he came clean about his own deficiencies as a violinist. Few expert musicians would be so openly honest about their expertise on their own instrument.Menuhin was willing to cooperate and work with his fellow expert musicians, in all aspects of their interests, their craft, their various instruments and musical disciplines. This is one message that I took from Outliers, that a successful society has to be built on collaboration for the common good, not just for the privileged or the elite. Kim Hill's interview with Malcolm Gladwell (27m 48s), NZ 13 Dec 2008

When Catriona was very little, she found comfort in a little bag of sweets. She rarely ate them, but would find pleasure in knowing they were there. She'd pick one from the bag, suck on it for a few seconds, then replace it, in the knowledge that she liked that sweet and could return to it for a suck later on. She did that with all her sweets, discarding the ones she didn’t like.One of Tony Karrer’s 100 conversation topics is Ways that my children are learning that is significantly different from how I learn. This posts is about Tony’s topic number 25.Have you ever been confronted with a technology and didn’t know how to use it? Y’know, the situation where you need to use the darned equipment but never had the opportunity to learn how to, and there’s no one around to show you. Now! When you’re desperate to use it!It'll go bang!I find this happens to me a lot. I have to jolt myself into action to do some exploring, maybe push a button here or click a link there - tap the keyboard to see if anything changes. I have to push aside my fear that the screen might explode, or that smoke may come gushing out of the computer. I fidget and look around to see if anyone’s watching.This is a fear that I’ve always had when trying out new things. I realise that it’s my fear of computers that drove me to want to find out more about them. They are fascinating things, computers. Too fascinating to leave alone, and yet too mysterious not to excite my fear that I might get pounced on if I play with them.Perhaps it’s something to do with my upbringing in an age when technology was rich in contraptions. The Billy Connolly line, "You’ll poke your eye out with that!" doesn’t seem inappropriate."Leave it alone! You don’t know what you’re doing! You’ll break it!" These are all demon voices that shout from the past at me, when I venture to explore somewhere I’ve never been before at the computer. "You’ll go blind!"Habits die hard:I recall when I was teaching young typists to use what we called word processors, way back in the late 80s. These women were fascinatingly slick at typing - on typewriters. Yet they could not get their heads round the idea that the Enter key (labelled Return key then, funny enough) didn’t have to be tapped when you got to the end of the line, or that typos didn’t need correcting as you typed them.I had a great time unteaching these young minds about all their habits. It was a lot of fun. It taught me that humans are creatures of routine. We follow practices and cultures, unquestionably. We become so committed to them that we’ll argue the point when someone suggests we shouldn't follow habit.I introduced the typists to what I called the suck-it-and-see approach to finding things out on the computer and was met with looks of horror. "We would never do that," came the affirmation.Across the barriers:Young minds always catch me out with their direct thinking. And I’m not alone in this. Last year at the NetSafe Conference 2008, I listened to a presenter tell her story of a survey that had been constructed to fathom the practice and thinking of young teenagers.She told of a 14 year old girl who was asked the survey question, "Would you swap a blow-job for a mobile phone?" The girl immediately replied, "What sort of a mobile phone?" The thinking transcends the barriers - obviously!I just found it!I watch my kids with a new remote or computer game. It mesmerises me to observe the way they work. How is it, for instance, that with all the years of tuition, enquiry and practice I’ve had using PhotoShop, that my teenage daughter will find things on the application, within minutes, that I’ve never seen before?I’d ask her, "Who showed you how to do that?" She would reply, almost insolently, "No one - I just found it." She would have found it using the suck-it-and-see approach. But she would have had no inhibitions about ‘sucking’ to find out.Suck it and see:Here's an exercise. The next time you are using a new application, or one that you're not too familiar with, lay aside half an hour to check out the menus. Most apps, like Word 2007 for instance, are quite extensive, but half an hour spent checking out the menus on a blank file can pay dividend.If nothing else, it can help you learn the layout of the menus. With any luck, you'll pick up a thing or two about how to do things that otherwise would lie hidden, never to be found, till a teenage child - son, daughter or student - stumbles across it in minutes while fiddling around.I don’t honestly think that this approach is anything new. In fact, I’d say that it is a natural fun way of finding out and learning. My feeling is that the baby-boomer learners, like myself, may carry baggage unwittingly, that inhibits them from using the suck-it-and-see approach as a first measure in learning.

Last week, being in the middle of New Zealand’s summer holidays,I looked for something out of the ordinary. Whatever I was in search of, it had to take me and my kids away from the melee of technological society - away from TV, play-stations, mobile phones, blogging, elearning. You name it: I wanted to be away from it!A front-page article in Wellington’s daily, splashed a picture of an activity I thought might just do the trick. So early next day, Catriona and I hurriedly bundled ourselves into the car with a lunch hamper, and off we set.An early start:At that time on a Saturday morning, it was only half an hour’s drive away. We arrived at Harcourt Park, early enough to stroll round and breathe in much of what we would experience while the day matured.The natural beauty of surrounding bush, pristine sweetness of the air, simplicity of being on foot, softness of cropped grass, gentle medieval music tinkling up from the valley, brought us into another age and atmosphere.This is 2009! On these hallowed grounds, there are to be duels fought - and battles! There are to be archery competitions, mounted skill-at-arms contests, and the pageantry of jousting!Callum Forbes and The Order of the Boar Jousting Club, the network of medieval clubs from all over New Zealand including The Company of the Dragon, and the welcomed participation by jousters from, Sweden, Belgium, USA, Canada, Australia and Holland, are set to make this a day to remember.The Upper Hutt City Council is the sponsor of a two day World Invitational Jousting Tournament.The parade of the participants is colourful and it is splendidly different.If it weren’t for the digital cameras poking eagerly from the appreciative crowd, and the quality Tannoy commentary, I’d believe that the twenty-first century is a memory of things past! All this is happening - with today’s technology - now!The most skillful jousters, riding the bravest steeds, are wearing the finest suits of armour at the tournament.But warm up contests are necessary to whet the skills of horse and rider. Armour is not required. Besides, carrying 40 or 50 kilograms of extra steel must not tire a trusty steed too early in the day.There are archery competitions to watch and siege engine displays to see. Activities of foot combat and swashbuckler combat rouse the interest of all, anticipating the main event, the jousting.Round one, of three, begins at noon. The day is a sizzling pizza, warming in summer’s oven.Let the pageant commence. With such splendid displays of sport and ridership, it was difficult to cope with the connotative action from the Tannoy when its music started up. We were pulled sharply back into the twenty-first century.As the last jousting run of round 3 came to a close, the sizzling pizza, hot from the oven of summer’s kitchen, cooled in a humid afternoon.

Have you ever thought of how you go about reading links in a blog-post or a web-page? A recent posting on Sue Waters' enviably informative site impresses me by advising bloggers to cite relevant information using links (hyperlinks), as long as it doesn’t mean going hyper with a fan of links. I go along with her reasoning. I also find comfort that she (a scientist after all!) is as fond of a fan of links in a post as I am.Links in a post can be extremely useful. They can put you in touch with people you didn't know existed. They can also keep you up to date with things perhaps you should know about.Most recently, there seems to have been an increase in the attention given to the ‘cognitive overload’ that accompanies sifting through burgeoning masses of information online - the dizzy headaches - the hazy eyes - the lack of concentration - the spinning head.These symptoms are exactly what I experience when I visit a fan of links, one after the other, while also trying to follow the highbrow train of thought of the blogger who posted them. Following up a fan of links baffles me! Link becomes a four-letter word.Decision making can be exhausting:Making decisions can tire the brain, apparently. But making decisions is exactly what you have to do while sweeping through a bevy of links, skimming through the accompanying articles as you go. When I do this, my brain constantly has to come up with yes/no answers to a fan of questions:Is this information going to be any use to me?Should I know this?Is it going to be any use to someone else?Could this be useful for my students, say?Should they know this?Is what I’m reading important enough to come back to?What’s it got to do with what the writer’s saying anyway?I get up to about link 5, and recognising that I’m on the verge of blowing a gasket, I break - for a coffee. It's probably the best thing I could do.One method I’ve used is to ignore the links altogether, at least in the first read. I bash on with what’s in the post or article to try and make some sense of it. This sometimes works.But if there’s essential information cited through links, especially early in the text, and I know nothing about that stuff, I’m sunk. My brain runs out of steam when following the rest of what's there to read. My understanding wobbles. I effectively go nowhere when I try to continue reading.I’ve then got to stop, retrace, and do some homework on the content in the links. This procedure is irksome, frustrating in the extreme, probably because by that time, I’ve got the old cognitive overload syndrome. Again. My head starts spinning.There have been several postings recently on writing for skimming, notably Tony Karrer's, and there is certainly room for improvement in the way material is presented to reader/learners. But the need for the reader/learner to improve skills and strategies for coping with floods of new information is also becoming a major priority in the workplace.But what's the best way of tackling a fan of links? If you have any thoughts on this, strategies or practices that you could share, please let me know. My head hurts.

Reading through Tony Karrer's recent post Better Memory, reminded me of the importance of cataloguing information so that it can be easily found again. The recent revision of his First Time Visitor Guide also got me thinking about the importance of indexing.Since I published my 100th post, I've found it more and more difficult to keep track of what's on my own blog. Things are becoming more difficult to find there for I forget when and where I wrote things and sifting through my archived posts has become too cumbersome (I also recalled what Sue Waters said about a blog archive taking up valuable space on the side-bar, so I might relocate mine yet).I know from my own experience how difficult it is to find topics posted on other blogs and I'm often gobsmacked when I discover some archived gem on a blog that I thought I knew well.So I'm taking a few tips from Tony Karrer. I'm experimenting with an Index Page for Blogger in Middle-earth. Check it out and help me improve it.

Kevin Hodgson (aka Dogtrax) is an amazing teacher, blogger and friend who continues to impress me with his energy, enthusiasm and inventive ideas that are put into action; this man walks the talk.He was the first person ever to post a comment on my blog. He reads 500 blogs a day on his RSS Reader. I awarded him the Fantastic Commenter Award during my first month of blogging because of the ubiquitous way he permeated the blogosphere posting relevant comments everywhere I looked.He involves his students in some of the most remarkably innovative activities and he and his students are well known for their claymation movies.He started his own published cartoon series, Boolean Squared. He has also been running a blog activity called Day In A Sentence for years and it gives me a lot of real pleasure to host Kevin’s ‘Day In A Sentence’.This week’s challenge, true to Kevin’s principles, is to use the theme peace in your day/week in a sentence.So get your thinking furnace roaring, forge your sentence, and post your words in a comment here. Your innovative product will be postedE O T W.

courtesy make your own comic I’ve just read Dick Carlson's How to create amazing technical learning. It’s an ebook that contains a lot of down-to-earth common-sense advice. It’s a good read and hilariously funny, lightening what could otherwise be a rather boring topic.Carlson gives some grunty tips on preparing and delivering training as well as pointers on how to handle a few aspects of a training company. It’s in a 72 page portable document format (pdf). Check out the link at the base of this post[1].Techos hate them!I like pdfs, and was surprised to learn that techos hate them. A couple of years ago, I had a really useful discussion with my son, Jack, who explained what it was about pdf files that irked the pants off techos.I remonstrated at the time. On reflection, I now have to agree with Jack.Some pdfs look good, smell good, feel good, but when you get down to using them as resources, they are inordinately difficult, if not near impossible to use. And there’s no excuse for this.Hundreds of pages!There are pdf resource ebooks that run to hundreds of pages but have no linked index or bookmarks to assist you to navigate the content.I get lost and I’d give up on a lot of those if it weren’t for my dogged determination to learn the good stuff in them. When I open an ebook, the first thing that hits me, even with some of the best, is the stunning quality of the huge images, the copious intros, and the trailing contents in the first, several pages. These are all very good for letting me know what’s in the book: I just get tired getting to the stuff.As I scroll through the contents, I recollect the original intention of the pdf. It was to provide a way of sending a formatted electronic text that could be printed without problems to do with the exactness of how the printed end product looked.Keeping up with the technology:Since last century, Adobe has built some very useful and wonderful features into Acrobat. I won’t bore you with the details, but nearly all of those features come into their own when the pdf containing them is viewed from the screen.These days, most pdfs are viewed from the screen, but they’re not made to be used that way. They’re designed as if they should be printed and read from the sheets. The problem is that the use of the technology has just not moved with the technology available.Neither are resource ebooks meant to be read from start to finish. When I find a resource ebook that’s really useful, I have to open it in Acrobat and put in links, as well as bookmarks, to prevent me having cerebral blowout when I try to find things that are useful.Content? Link it!Even with a large ebook, it doesn’t take me longer than half an hour to put the links in. But it’s easier to do when the pdf is first made, and of course, I’ve no control over that decision. Content links, as well as bookmarks that can be opened from the left margin, can be planned when the text file is first created, and before the pdf is made.Check out the links and bookmarks in this Content Developer’s Bulletin by Becta. It’s only an 8 page pdf. But it’s written for people who haven’t a lot of time to scroll through even 8 pages looking for the good stuff.Wonderful resources:There are links to these wonderfully information packed resources that are hard to navigate at the base of this post[1 - 3]. Check them out too. They all have great, useful information in them. It’s a pity it’s so difficult to find. There’s one that’s admittedly a report[2] and not really an ebook - but it has over 270 pages!The writers of The eLearning Guild post some splendid ebooks on all aspects of elearning. They are truly wonderful and I recommend them to anyone interested in learning some good tips and skills. One of their books has 834 tips for successful online instruction[3]. It runs to 71 pages. I’ve used it a lot, and I kept going back to it, but only after I’d thrown it into Acrobat and bookmarked the sections.I’m all for moving with the technology. Let’s use ebooks, yes, but let’s also have them made using the up-to-date features available with today’s technology, so that the functionality of the product is also up-to-date.Creating Amazing Technical Learning - Dick CarlsonEnhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies - The Berkman Center For Internet & Society, Harvard University834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction - The eLearning Guild ( 2 ) << - related posts

There has been doubt hung on the worth of past learning over the years. Recently, Bill Farren put into question the value to young students of what has been learnt by ‘old’ teachers. There has been much new debate about the efficacy of content, which presumably is a record of past learning. Out of a plethora of bellicose discussion came the notion that the use of textbooks, whether paper or digital, is now past its use-by-date.A million hits:How much of this has come about without real thought being given to the usefulness of past learning? Perhaps it is motivated by other factors not at all related to the worth of what has been learnt.Could it be that the huge amount of content, the ease that this can be displayed through in-your-face millions of hits on Google, has driven our pedagogues to a state of desperation? Has the burgeoning quantity of data forced teachers, and teaching authorities, to swing the pendulum away from teaching content, in a bid that’s really centred on self-protection, albeit perhaps unintentional?What’s on the cutting room floor?It’s known that copious decision-making tires the mind, causing wrong decisions to be made, often at times when the correct choice is crucial. But when teachers have to select a useful curriculum from the great unwashed heap of knowledge, the decision-making that has to take place is profuse.Perhaps the use of Occam’s Razor in education is becoming commonplace, so that all problematic issues, including content, finish on the cutting room floor. It certainly seems to be the growing practice when the challenging issue is student behaviour. Perhaps it’s not the content that’s the problem, but the way it’s being selected for learners.Access to content:Textbooks have been subject to makeovers for decades. Broad indicators of the changes can be examined without any real understanding of the knowledge the books contain. Indexing, as one specific indicator, has undergone dramatic change in the last 50 years, from the algebraic nightmare of numerically indexed paragraphs within chapters, to the complete absence of an index.Mid-twentieth century textbooks had contents pages, traditionally near the beginning of the book, and often had an index at the rear. Latterly, the style and format used for the layout of content pages and index pages were at the whim of the publisher. Many formats were designed for looks rather than utility.Whose responsibility?It was not uncommon for a textbook to have an index that learners couldn’t or wouldn’t use. A textbook with such an index is as useful as one with no index at all. I recall having several textbooks like that in the 70s. They were good resources for what they contained. Their indexing was so bad, however, that I had to develop my own system for refinding the information. I’m still doing that with ebooks today.Apparently, the onus to take charge of indexing, as well as the refind that Tony Karrer talks about, is being placed firmly on the learner. There’s no doubt that being responsible for refind is becoming a learning necessity - almost an indispensable learning skill for those who have accumulated the so-called 21st century skills.Though I don’t doubt the usefulness of the skills, I wonder how much the need for some of them is being impelled by a move away from traditional indexing in learning resources, both digital and printed, that are being built for use in schools and tertiary institutions. related posts - >> ( 1 )

This has been a week much in need of peace. Our contributors have done well to embrace their thoughts on this theme in a sentence.I put their words in a Wordle blimp.It didn't quite come out looking like a dove of peace. Perhaps nearer to the shape of a dove's egg - some nice word-combinations hatching.Karen whispered...Peace: a feeling, a statement, a goal.Murcha murmured...Peace is a word that has been on my mind lately - world peace that is - as I am about to go to Qatar with three students from my school to look at some of the issues we face as a globe, and as our globe 'flattens', how we can work together to achieve and maintain world peace.Paul breathed...Peace is enjoying an 'Alberta Clipper' sprinkle an additional five centimeters of snow on twenty.Eric murmured...Reminding myself to breath and listen this week has provided glimpses of peace.Karen S whispered...Peace is one child helping another, a smile of friendship, a sparkle of understanding and relationships that are the foundation of learning and living.Ken sighed...A blackbird’s unforgettable chronicle graced our garden today, but the gentle bird-song they heard in Gaza will not be remembered.Kevin breathed...It was a peaceful, easy feeling that came over me this afternoon as I realized that I was going away on a four day weekend to a warmer environment with only my wife (kids, left behind).Diane whispered...I am at peace with myself, no matter the tempest that at times surrounds me.Mathew sighed...Wishing peace for the world and the probationary teachers in my district who may be losing their jobs.Amy rippled...Falling snow is always peaceful to me no matter how much my friends complain about the driving and the shoveling.Shaun murmured...Letting go of old things has allowed a sense of peace to seep into me this week.Cynthia sighed...Tramping through the woods in front of my house this afternoon, avoiding the limbs and briars that reached out to stop me, I finally found the bed of native daffodils that always bring me hope and peace.Gail murmured (after the second Wordle blimp was cast)...I'm watching a beautiful sunrise here in the Sierra foothills - and hoping to hang on to this peaceful moment as I return to work next week and learn how California's budget woes will play out in my district.Paige sighed...The rain falls steadily from the dark sky in shades of grey; drinking coffee and gazing through the window, I am at peace.And Bonnie breathed (out two contributions)...Peace for this week is peace of mind as I immerse myself in learning for my digital creation. And by Monday I will be on the road to Washington with warm clothes, to celebrate a hope for peace beyond myself.

I’ve just re-read Kim Thomas’ article of her interview with Donald Clark. The Last Siege Tower Is Education was posted in December 2007. It gives Clark’s opinion of how governments have administered to teachers and the classroom model of education. Clark explained how this has not worked, in spite of the huge cost in the attempt. Much of what he has shared on his blog since the interview has not moved a smidgen from the opinion he is quoted as saying. A quote from Clark caught my attention. "I think the day Vygotsky got introduced into pedagogic theory was the beginning of the end". I agree with him.Learning through collaboration:The assumption is based on a belief that useful learning can take place in collaborative groups. It is thought that this needs guidance, but requires little significant content input from a teacher.How does a group of children assist each other to develop the numeracy that they need? How does such a group help one another to improve their reading abilities? How can a group of young learners teach each other about Science or History or learn a second language?A mother and child model:Most of Vygotsky’s studies were directed at the collaboration between mother and child and the development in the child that occurred through this. I doubt the notion is sound that Vygotsky’s conclusions can be extended to any useful learning that might take place when young children share what they know in a group. Never mind the analogous learning that might come about in older groups through the same process.The idea becomes even more tenuous when extended to learning that may come about in online groups, as has been suggested by some educators.Out of the mouths of little children:When my older daughter, Hannah, was being taught in year 8, she became disillusioned with Science at school. I knew Hannah had a real ability to understand things to do with Science. When I discussed the matter with her she said, "I don’t think what we’re taught is Science".A brief chat with Hannah’s teacher at a parent evening confirmed my suspicion. "My pupils bring all they need to know to the Science table", she said. "We discuss what they know and they learn from each other". I thought, "This is Science?"Even when she was in year 8, Hannah new that this wasn’t Science. She went on to a traditional high school where her interest, skills and knowledge in Science blossomed. She was awarded an excellence National Certificate of Educational Achievement in year 11. The chief contributions to that qualification were her successes in Art and in Science.This post is beginning to sound as if I’m giving myself a big pat on the back. I’m not. In fact, I admit that I did very little to assist Hannah with her Science study, or her Art for that matter. What I did do was to provide a supportive environment for her at home. The important factor in her interest and achievement in Science, was just good teaching, not collaboration in groups with her peers.No need for reinvention:Technology, Clark says, can remove the need to reinvent lessons covering the same ground and that are given by teachers to learners throughout a region. He is optimistic that technology can provide better, quicker and cheaper answers to ways and means of providing education in basic skills.This was the promise to education seen through the design and the making of digital learning resources and related technologies at the beginning of this century. That promise has never been met. Indeed the recognition of this delusion has come at an unbelievable cost - the cost of digital resources that have been made but are not used.What's in it for education?So what does all this mean for learning in 2009?Clearly, education is in a bind. This year’s predictions tend to favour elearning as being cost effective, with some reservations. I have reservations too, and not just some.The economic situation that affects all countries will make it unlikely that significant funds will be released for the development and use of learning resources and related technologies as has happened in the past. If there is any possibility that a solution will be found and implemented in 2009, it will not be achieved by technology alone.There is to be a significant shift. And it will be left up to teachers to make this shift. But without technological resources and the skills to use them effectively, teachers will just be holding candles in the dark.

"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly!"G K Chesterton - What's Wrong with the WorldManny Charlton, once asked if he could come over to my place and watch colour TV. He wanted to see the launch of The Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles’ first TV film. Colour TV was new technology then, and Charlton’s black and white TV could not do justice to the film.A few days after watching the film, I met up with Charlton. He was still dazed. He idolised The Beatles, along with Jimmy Hendrix and other pop icons who were around then."I’ve put my guitar in the cupboard," he said when I asked him what he’d been up to. "There's no way I can follow that!" was his explanation.Musicianship:Of course, he got over the trauma of seeing his idols in action. Charlton may be a humble Spaniard, but he is no mean guitarist. Even at that time, he enjoyed local fame as a member of the local pop band. Charlton had quite a following in his hometown, Dunfermline and in the surrounding Fife district.Roadrunner:I coached road running while teaching at Rongotai College in the 70s. The head gym teacher, Sid Turnbull, organised sponsored hundred miler team events, to raise funds for the school’s new gym extension.Every boy in the school participated. The teams had 10 members who each ran a 10-mile course round Miramar Peninsula. Points were awarded to the teams according to a scale for times taken to complete the circuit.One of the team runners, Peter, had congenital deformity in both feet. His doctor recommended walking and running to assist normal growth development following corrective surgery.Peter did not find running easy, but he trained for the event with the others in his team. He clocked a slower circuit time in training for the hundred miler than anyone else in the school. But his coach supported him, and so did his team mates, despite the obvious points disadvantage that would have to be sustained by his team.Little did Peter’s team know that Sid had already made adjustments to the rules for awarding points to physically disabled runners! Peter’s team went on to win an honourable place in the competition.The Soldier’s Joy:In the 70’s, I was introduced to a sheep-shearer, Davey. Davey was interested in folk music and he admired my fiddle playing when he’d hear me playing at festivals. He was well known for his enthusiasm and his hopeless musicianship.Davey had two passions: going to music clubs, and playing music. At that time he was learning to play the guitar. He approached me at a folk music festival and told me he’d just bought himself a fiddle.He asked me if I could help him with a tune he was learning to play on his new fiddle and I offered to assist. When he played the tune, I told him that I’d never heard it before. He smiled and said, "You play that tune. It’s the Soldier’s Joy."I was so taken aback, it was hard to keep face, for his fiddle playing was so terrible that I honestly could not recognise the tune he had played. I asked him to play it again and I was no further towards identifying the tune.I liked Davey. His enthusiasm was something I really admired, and me being a teacher, I appreciated his dogged persistence. Fifteen years later I was elected the Performers Officer for the Wellington Folk Centre. A year or so on, I held that responsibility, at the same time accepting the office of President.It was then that a friend told me about how Davey was very active in the country music scene in Wellington. The suggestion was that I should listen to what he was doing with his music.Multi-instrumentalist:I went along to a concert where Davey had been asked to play as a warm-up artist and I was astonished at his ability to play and sing with feeling. He played several different instruments, including the fiddle, very well. In particular, he had a way of gathering together other musicians who played good music with him.I approached him after the concert and asked if he’d like to do a gig at the Folk Centre sometime. He was visibly humbled, but he accepted the invitation to give a concert.Of course, I had to publish the program in the newsletter. When some of the committee members learnt that I’d booked Davey to do a concert, they were quite shocked that I’d been so stupid as to ask someone who they said had obviously no talent for music. In fact, they said that I’d spoil the reputation the Folk Centre had established in providing good quality entertainment.I ignored their harsh words and suggested that maybe they should come along and hear for themselves. None of Davey’s critics turned up for his concert, needless to say.But on the night of the concert, the auditorium was packed. Most of the audience was from the country clubs, but there was some from the membership of the Folk Centre too.Davey’s concert was splendid. He sang and played no less than five different instruments that evening, including his fiddle. As well, he embellished what he offered by inviting several of his musician friends, on separate spots, to accompany him on the stage. I thoroughly enjoyed Davey’s concert and so did the packed audience.What’s this got to do with blogging?When I’m plodding my way through blogging, I sometimes wonder if I should bother. I feel this particularly at times when I read through some of the fabulous posts of other bloggers. I came across a great post today that was posted only two days ago - 49 comments - several links to the post from other blogs - wham! I start thinking:"Why am I blogging?"Then I remember Davey, and how his enthusiasm for his hopeless musicianship served him well to become an appreciated artist. I recall how young Peter ran his way to victory, and won a position for his team mates by his dogged persistence, and competing the way he did.I think of my friend, Manny Charlton, who wanted to put his guitar in the cupboard after he’d heard The Beatles play on TV. I recall how he went on to become a rock star, as lead guitarist in the group, Nazareth.Video of NazarethThe names Davey and Peter, used in this post, are aliases.

There have been 7 enemy assaults since mid-November 2008. Three intrusions in the last few days were from different locations. The latest sorties brought activity within local boundaries to a near halt. Strong garrison defended the battlements and three prisoners were detained - origin unknown. Following a perfunctory hearing, they were summarily executed and their remains destroyed.It’s not clear the extent of local injury sustained by the attack. Collateral damage is still being assessed and there’s a likelihood of some loss of life.Fortunately, alerts aroused the attention of the home guard, prompting immediate vigilance within the resident defense systems.The most recent attacks showed how important it is to ensure strong garrison is put in place, to provide frequent updates, and to be vigilant so that defense systems are kept on the alert at all times.Here’s my list of enemy attacks to date:The SbCtri.exe, alias W32.Spybot.worm, is particularly nasty. It was buried in the Registry of my computer spitting out clones of itself, which, fortunately, WinPatrol and Spybot-Search And Destroy were able to detect and eliminate.I had downloaded updates from Symantec just the day before, for I’d already been alerted to the presence of the worm. It was only when I received the latest update from Symantec the following day, that I was able to destroy the intruder SbCtri.exe, together with a couple of resident Trojan horses.My total defense system consists of the following:BlackICE PC Protection (firewall)Symantec Antivirus (virus checker)Spybot-Search And Destroy (spyware detector and destroyer)WinPatrol (spyware detector)I perform frequent updates to my security system and spyware detectors. I take automatic updates from Windows. I also run Ad-AwareAE by LAVASOFT quite frequently.A few years ago I used to do weekly updates to the virus checker.Now I do it daily, sometimes twice a day. It’s a bit of a worry.