Apple Education Leadership Summit

Julie Lindsey provides a brilliant overview of the Apple Education Leadership Summit which she attended in Hong Kong. There were a few infulential speakers at the event, such as Stephen Heppell, Tom Kelley and Marco Torres. The conference highlighted Apples approach to learning - challenge-based learning. Julie also posts a video summary of the summit.
http://123elearning.blogspot.com/2009/04/apple-education-leadership-summit-what.html

Nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank

Well the inevitable finally happened last week, the "zoombie bank" of Ireland, Anglo Irish, finally got nationalised by the Irish government exposing the irish people to a massive risk. Investors in Anglo Irish have seen their share go from 18 euro two year ago to 22 cent. One notable loosers is Sean Quinn the CEO of the Quinn group. 

Minister Lenihan says that this was a necessary step, he better be right, if this goes wrong - it will go wrong of icelandic proportions. 

David McWilliams got it right again, I read in one of the papers, in a column he wrote over Christmas that the bank will be nationalised before Feb. Well done David, this is not the first time you got it right. Mr. McWilliams states that he knows whats going to happen because he has a basic understanding of economics, something sorely lacking in the government. He also notes that all the bad assets in the Irish banks should be taken over by anglo irish - sort of a toxic waste ground. Minister Lenihan disagrees. So who do we believe the solicitor who's party's policies have got us in this mess or the economist who keeps predicting it right?

Happy New Year

So its out with a horrible 2008 which sent Ireland spiralling into economic peril and in with 2009 which promises to be a whole lot worse?!?

So just to cheer you up I though I would give some links on interesting things to look forward to in 2009 - as the curse goes - may you live in interesting times...

Whats going to be hot in Java 
http://joshuajava.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/10-java-technology-resolution-for-2009/


Some elearning predictions
http://boora.ca/blog/?p=2149


If you have some opinions on the future of learning communities and technology perhaps you could contribute to the upcoming research symposium in Hong Kong 
http://www.ectel07.org/cfps/callforpapers.2008-12-29.4914555958
The symposium is not until March, in the meantime you can post your opinion as a response to this months big question on learning circuits
http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2009/01/challenges-plans-and-predictions-for.html



http://joshuajava.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/10-java-technology-resolution-for-2009/

Programming for Eclipse

I am finally getting my hands a bit dirty and messing around the the SWT stuff in eclipse. Its very powerful stuff, but also very verbose. Trying to get a combo box work at the moment in one of the projects custom views. This involves a lot of work with selection providers and listeners. I found this of use:
http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-WorkbenchSelections/article.html

Half-Marathon Day!

Today was the half marathon, where 4500 people took to the phoenix park in Dublin to pound 13.6 miles, and it was tough! The weather was perfect, perfect if you werent running. It was sunny and warm. I managed to make it in a time of 2:08:40, not too bad - next time i will want to break the 2 hour mark.

If today told me anything it was that I am not doing the full marathon this year, perhaps next year. I dont think I have the fitness. I will keep the running up and do 10 mile races, as I think that was the one I enjoy the most and got my best time in. Anyway we will see what happens, I am rambling now cause I am so tired - better go to sleep.

Yanky's Presentation Workshop

I will be presenting at the Enterprise Ireland ICT Show Case on the 6th of October, outlining the MIKAEL courseware authoring tool. My main aim there will be to bring an eLearning company on board with us to bring the tool to fruition

Today, in preparation for that I attended a workshop on presentation skills given by Yanky Fachler - http://www.yankyfachler.com/home.html. The workshop was attended by all those who will be presenting at the show case. We had a chance to present our work in a safe environment and then have everyone critque it. It was very informative, not only when you were getting feedback on your own talk but also when you were watching other people speak with your audience hat on - as Yanky put it.

It was a whirlwind experience, and I think I have learnt a lot regarding presentation skills, but not just about the skill and art of presenting but also how to apply it to me personally. Today demonstrated to me the power of collaborative learning.

Now I have a lot of work to do before the 6th.

Prof. Randy Pausch

I learnt yesterday that Prof. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University lost his fight with cancer and passed away last month. He will be a big loss to CMU and to the computing world.

If you are looking for some inspiration, I recommend watching his last lecture - click here