foolfillment: the blog

I’ve just been playing with Microsoft’s new offering - 3D maps.

3D maps from Microsoft so far are very impressive(although it’s ground my machine down to a halt) I’ve been looking around New York for starters, and managed to get stabbed in the eye with the spike of the Chrysler Building! The level of detail is absolutely astounding. What is fantastic is that you can link to a particular view (or at least you appear to be able to, try this to see, or this one - you’ll need to install it first) from whatever angle you are looking from.
Like Google Earth it is very easy to navigate. I’m sure I’ll be spending a little more time on this in the future.

There’s a write up of it over on Read/Write Web which covers which cities it’s available for. I’ve had no luck with Google’s 3D images, which were also launched today. Those also sound pretty good - a 360 panorama taken from video recorded from a van driving the streets, so in effect you can see the view from any point along a street it’s been down, apparently you can make out faces in enough detail to recognise people…

I got a letter today!

I’ve got lots of other things I was going get around to blogging about soon (like teachmeet07) but this gets immediate attention! I’m delighted to get placed in East Lothian for next year and I can’t wait to find out which school I’ll be in. It’s great to know finally where I’ll be and I can start making some more concrete plans. As well as it seemingly being a great place to start out in, it’s also a lot easier for me as I don’t need to start looking for a place to live.

It was a bit of a shock to find out today, I wasn’t expecting the letter until Wednesday but I should have taken a hint when I got an email from the GTCS yesterday wishing us luck in our probation year.

As I’ve completed my final year project at last I’ve decided to make it available here as PDF file. Perhaps this is foolish!

Feel free to have a look, but bear in mind this is my first piece of research.

Collaborative Wikis for University Students (PDF 1039kb)
Abstract: Wikis are opening up exciting opportunities for collaborative learning. This study looks at a group of university students using wikis as part of their group-based design course to see if there are any benefits. What is found is the importance of treating wikis as a new technology and creating new tasks instead of using them as a modern alternative to more traditional learning methods. Also striking is the sense of ownership that the students felt over their own work, and the importance that face to face communication plays in developing understanding despite having access to wikis.

I went along to my second eduBuzz meeting this afternoon, and there was again a lot of interesting discussion which covered a few different topics. I think it is a great sign that these meetings are open and the likes of me are welcome to come along and take part (or just listen as I mostly did), it shows a great deal of openness, but also gives them the chance to hear a perspective from outside East Lothian.

One of the first areas discussed was the edubuzz site itself. There was also time talking about how to get more people on board and push it beyond those who are already using it. I’ll try to cover these in more detail below. (more…)

No time for proper blogging so this will have to do:

I don’t mean to be a pedant but, he does mean less than lethal doesn’t he?

ACC Ian Dickinson, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: “The use of the Taser, which is one of a number of less lethal weapons available to police, is intended as a specific alternative to the use of firearms. It can only be used in the most violent and dangerous situations.
Source: BBC News | Taser gun used to quell pub row