Windows 7 Released

Installed the final release of Windows 7 on my laptop this weekend, replacing Vista Home. Windows 7 is pretty slick, so now enjoying speedy start ups and shutdowns. It is a lot faster than Vista and also cured some wifi connection issues I had been experiencing. So far so good :)

SCOLAR guides available

Two guides have been released for using SCOLAR:

A guide for Students (Word 2007 format)

A guide for Staff (Word 2007 format)

University of Plymouth login required for each.

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