New Trimble Juno SC available for fieldwork

After much deliberation, the Experiential Learning CETL (University of Plymouth) now has a set of Trimble Juno SC PDAs for use in fieldwork. These devices come with built in GPS (2-5 metre accuracy), SIM modem, camera, Wifi and bluetooth ideal for numerous teaching and learning contexts.

The picture shows the PDA housed within its own bespoke OtterBox. The box is designed to take the usual knocks an bumps and incorporates a screen protector. It has been quoted on some sites as acceptable for 'light rain' use, although we recommend using AquaPacs to ensure complete protection from the elements.

The software we currently deployed on these devices for our own educational contexts include: ArcPad, Memory-map, MScape and TrackMe.

What is PDP?

Acronyms and Abbreviations, dont you just love them? I occassionally get asked... What does PDP really mean? (Personal Development Planning)

The Higher Education Academy has a rather good summary: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/pdp they also provide some case study examples (see links at the bottom of the page) showing how other persons have implemented PDP. E.g. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/id91_a_series_of_case_studies

These range from purely factual information gathering (e.g. for CVs) to the more subjective student centred reflective journals. Reflective journal information can be used as evidence in, for example, the ‘further information’ sections of job application forms – what the students did, achieved and skills they used in their projects; or perhaps even their labwork/fieldwork experiences.

Plymouth e-Learning Conference 2010

The 5th Annual e-learning conference hosted at Plymouth University is upon us.

Proposals are being taken and details are available on the Plymouth e-Learning Conference 2010 website.

Only a 200-300 word online abstract required, easy! The online submission form.

Steve Wheeler the conference chair has given his thoughts on his blog.

Graphic courtesy of Mark Lyndon.

Strange Dreamweaver CS3 crashing bug

Found a very strange bug in Dreamweaver today after making some adjustments in the CSS for a website I was creating. It happened after saving the code where upon Dreamweaver just crashed!? When trying to restart I was not able to get much further past the splash screen without it crashing again! With a little hunting around on the forums, I discovered that it was in fact the CSS that was probably crashing it. I removed this from my dreamweaver 'site' (temporarily) and then tried again restarting dreamweaver. Amazing, it worked!

What other steps did I take?
I made some slight adjustments with the CSS outside of Dreamweaver, using notepad, I then saved and added the CSS again to the site (this time using Dreamweaver) I then opened the CSS in Dreamweaver and saved again. No crash...

Faculty of Science and Technology formed

The official merger of the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Technology happened today. Welcome to all parties concerned.

Timetable system gets a revamp

News has just broken about an update to the timetable system. 'Timetables' menu under 'My Edesk' will now have (to quote):

• provides new search capabilities


• brings personal, module, programme and room timetables together


• has a more accessible view, both on screen and printed


• allows timetables to be downloaded to permit users to load the data into their calendaring application, e.g. Outlook Client (this uses the iCal standard)

Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre website goes live!

Very please to have upload and made live, the Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre's new website that I have been working on recently.

This site includes Quick Time 360 Virtual Reality, integrated MobileMe gallery and a customised Blogger Blog.

Visit this site.

Migrating Teaching and Learning content in TuLIP

As many of you are already aware the 2009 learning and teaching sites have now gone live. Here are some guides and further information to help ease the process. The following will be particularly useful when you migrate content from your existing 2008 teaching and learning sites to next academic year:

Where can I find my Learning and Teaching sites?
The site directory for all the teaching and learning sites can be found here (select options using the radio buttons): http://study.plymouth.ac.uk/sites/ltsitedirectory/Pages/Faculties.aspx

How do I migrate content from existing 2008 Learning and Teaching sites?
An ILS (Information Learning Service) guide to migrating your content: http://training.plymouth.ac.uk/training/onlinehelp/howto/Manage/Managing%20%20the%20new%202008%20Teaching%20and%20Learning%20Sites.docx

I want to see how this migration is done (Video) Created in Adobe Captivate, this shows you an example of how to migrate content from last years sites (courtesy of Rebecca Vickerstaff): http://www.tech.plymouth.ac.uk/learntech/captivate/migration_tool_2008_demo/migration_tool_2008_demo.htm

How to become a member of a module site (Video):
Module owners are taken from UNIT-e and are not carried over each year, so this has to be done manually. Created in Adobe Captivate, this shows you the process of becoming a member (courtesy of Rebecca Vickerstaff): http://www.tech.plymouth.ac.uk/learntech/captivate/joining_a_group_demo/joining_a_group_demo.htm
Further online help is available from ILS (such as TuLIP training guides): http://training.plymouth.ac.uk/training/onlinehelp/Pages/default.aspx

Triple boot Windows 7 RC (64bit), Ubuntu and Windows XP

After a relatively successful beta test of Windows 7 and the warning from Microsoft to change to the latest iteration, it was time to try the release candidate...

Ok, how did I do the triple boot?
I already have Windows XP on an old PATA 200Gb Maxtor drive and was reluctant to over write this. The main drive is a SATA 1 Tb Samsung, which I intended to use as a dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 (64bit). To start with Microsoft requested a complete clean install of Windows 7 Release Candidate, and considering that I had Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on a dual boot previously, I thought it was time to upgrade both.

The first step was to back up all the important files you need for later. I then used GParted Live 0.3.4, a really excellent (free) Linux based partition tool. I wanted to split the 1Tb drive into 3 partitions, the 'main' partition for windows 7 at ~500Gb and the the other two approximately 250Gb each for Ubuntu and for 'an other' (I'm always looking to test other operating systems).

Just a note on the GParted bit...to save headaches...I found it was in fact easier to format just 2 partitions to NTFS, Ubuntu will work out the partitions later and you are left with the ability to set your final partition to 250Gb with a simple slider ;) (hey presto - 3 partitions). Why? I know you can format any which way using GParted but I found that Ubuntu airs on the side of caution and tries to add another partition if you have already catered for Linux operating systems, its just nice to keep things tidy. After all, I'm going to try to break the software in testing later.

From previous experiences I prefer using the Grub boot loader, advantageously this installs as standard on Ubuntu. This made for an easy decision on installation order, install Windows 7 first then Ubuntu last. The reality? It worked, Ubuntu 9.04 had no problem recognising the old PATA 200Gb (with XP), plus Windows 7, it then installed itself and quite happily set up grub. All that was needed was a simple tweak in Grub to set which operating system boots first, ...enter the terminal and sudo grub.

Grub tips
There are a lot of useful tips on the ubuntu forums and Grub site when I did the install, but recently I found this handy post that simplifies the process. Remember that if you put one 'section' of code above another, that will shift the order closer to the top of the boot loader window. The first section of code (one at the top) always boots first by default (e.g. just below: ## ## End Default Options ##). If you you want to tweak a little further, rename the 'title' to something more meaningful for your purposes.

Did you know you could PebblePad Mobile?!

All you need to know about using PebblePad on mobile devices is available here.


First impressions:

There are three ways of mobile devicing, the first I tried was SendR, which is essentially a small Java application that you have to download. Remember there is a cost for downloading items onto your mobile phone! This application allows you to log into PebblePad (Plymouth) and then upload assets to your main PebblePad. Its a little quirky to use and be aware that Java applications functions better on some mobiles than others. Not to dissuade you from a handy little application, but you may encounter errors on this one...

PebblePDA on the other hand a little more slick to use. You simply downloaded the file to your PC, activesync'ed your PDA and then double clicked on the file to install. Its about 2Mb in size. The PDA version allows you to bring down files from your main PebblePad area and also upload. What I liked about this version was you could do all of this via activesync. Saves on Internet costs. However, if you want to use it remotely (no activesync), you will still have to pay to upload or download.

Finally, the simplest version was Pebble Mobile, point your internet mobile browser at http://eportfolio.plymouth.ac.uk/pebblepad/mobile and bobs your uncle you can log in as usual. Very neat.

...Remember you will have to pay whatever your mobile ISP charges to surf the web.