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Views around the South Downs during a January 2021 hoar frost

This week could run to 73 pages of A4 with screenshots. It is a Google Doc I keep. Actually, that's just for the four days Tuesday to Friday. 

Teachers will be 'live' with students teaching online next week. All are on a quick learning curve both technically and culturally. The cultural shift is nudging towards greater communication, networking and collaboration. Teachers need to stop being soloists and work as an ensemble - or as they do at the OU in an orchestra with the conductor the Chair who lead the unit craetion, not the tutor 'delivery' any part of the unit syncrhonously and being the 'face' of a course for a particular intake. 

We are exposed and challenged as teachers and students and so learning a lot. More than ever before it matters to take notes! I feel at times like the last person on the planet to take notes with ink on paper, as well as digitally in mindmaps, or like this, supported with audio and video recordings. I don't go back through it all, but I do go back through much of it. I will even have some of it transcribed electronically so that I can verify what was said, by whom and get the wording right. 

It leaves a lot undone. A hoar frost the other day and I took loads of photos on an extensive walk around the edges of Lewes onto the South Downs. I've not posted a single one, though I have at lost gone through them. 

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An unusal and easy win

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Staff at Tizz's in Lewes enjoying the Christmas spirit of late night shopping.

Despite being a 'Learning Technologist' I put myself on the creative and instructional design side of elearning rather than the IT side of things. I don't take well to learning new platforms - but have to. My greatest motivation and drive is where I have a project goal that requires the software.

Today I have added a plugin to Wordpress which allows me to add 360° images. 

Algori plugin for 360 images icon

Here are a few shots I took at Lewes Late Night Shopping last night. 

http://bit.ly/2YmxgoZ 

The win is to be able to say to 'Creative Industries' here at GB MET who use Wordpress to create portfolios of their work that they can now include in these 360°shots too. 




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Casual Litter Picking Reveals a Trend

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Feeling a certain civic pride and duty as a Town councillor I know pick up litter when out walking or running. There is a pattern: takeaways, plastic bottles and untouchables. I don't pick up used tissues! 

In Lewes, until recently, we had none of the take away chains - yet I find Macdonald's milk shake cups, bags and happy meals. We recently had a Subway open and within a 5 to 10 minute walk from their outlet in all directions you can now find a wrapper or coffee cup.

Then there are the plastic bottles.

If we are banning plastic bags, then why not plastic bottles? The town has plans to reinstate water fountains and to add others.

I would oblige take away outlets to at least have promotional advertising on 'Littering' in the outlet, and potentially on the offending litter.

'Please put me in a bin'

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Putin rides into Lewes on a tank

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Wednesday, 5 Nov 2014, 20:51
From 2BlogI

Fig.1 Putin on a tank during Nov 5th bonfire celebrations

Every bonfire society marching through Lewes pulls a float - this one of President Putin in a mankini riding a tank drew a good deal of attention. At the end of the evening he gets taken to a fire site and blown up. I detect a Polish influence. Or do we all think he needs to have a rocket shoved where the monkey puts its nuts?

From 2BlogI

Fig.2. Putin's tank heading for the Borough Bonfire Society firesite

Previous stars of the parade have included David Cameron, Tony Blair, George Bush (Jnr) and Angela Merkel and the regional chief of police. Alot of people were saying it should have been Nigel Farage. 

From 2BlogI

Fig.3. At least he's not topless.

New costumes I noticed in town this evening with Suffragettes and VADs 'Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses from the First World War. A random Gandalf and Superman, otherwise the usual 17th century buccaneers, Native Indian Chiefs, Confederate Soldiers ... and such. 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Jonathan Vernon, Thursday, 6 Nov 2014, 06:40)
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Decorating war memorials to mark the centenary of the First World War?

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday, 26 Aug 2014, 04:26

Fig.1 A USSR Second World War memorial in Bulgaria

While the above in Bulgaria is considered by the Russian Embassy in that country to be graffiti, I rather think that it brings the memorial to the attention of a contemporary audience. I know of and have photographed many such monuments around the UK which could be brought to life.

From Oxford

Fig.2. A coloured-in plaster-of-paris replica of a Roman Statue

See how Roman statues originally looked. How about applying this approach to our statues and memorials too? Many are already getting 'walk-by' voice over tracks. Why stick with augmented reality. Go the whole hog. 

From First World War

 Fig. 3. Lewes War Memorial

A golden angel with silver wings perhaps?

Imagined your local war memorial in gold leaf? in silver? 

From WW1 Memorials

 Fig.4. Sir William Goscombe's 'The Response' - Newcastle City Centre

Imagine painting these figures in vibrant natural colours and lighting it at night? That would get the attention of the crowds going out on the town (Newcastle) at night.

 

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Cathy Lewis, Tuesday, 26 Aug 2014, 18:55)
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An evening marching with Commercial Square Bonfire Society, Lewes

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JFV%2520Bonfire%25202012%2520e.jpg

Pictures only - marching with the grand procession through the town of Lewes with one of the six bonfire societies.

Pics Here : mymindbursts

My excuse?

Playing with the idea that if one image is worth a thousand words, then 32 must be worth ...

 

Permalink 4 comments (latest comment by Joyce Rae, Tuesday, 6 Nov 2012, 19:47)
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Nearly home: Lewes Station

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Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 9 Dec 2011, 14:50)
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Lewes Bonfire Night, Southover Bonfire Society

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday, 8 Nov 2011, 15:59

DSC02528.JPG

Bonfire Night, Lewes, East Sussex.

We do this all evening, seven bonfire societies, marching in costume through town.

Families and friends.

Cars banned from 5.00pm to 2.00am

A fish-eye lens without flash.

 

More @ http://www.lewesbonfires.wordpress.com

 

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ECA Deadline 16 hours away

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Saturday, 27 Aug 2011, 10:04

Parts 1 & 2 v.good. I like the writing style. vs Reflection seems a bit of a rant (My wife, 2010, this afternoon)

Me rant! Whenever?

OK.

This is the most tender exchange my wife and I have had in two years. She lives in another room in the house, rarely to leave, where at great expense to the pharmaceutical community she turns interviews with medical experts (in French and English) into multipage, overly quoted, qualitative reports which make an OU ECA look like a kindergarten doodle.

(A decade into this she is a better pharmacist and GP than our local ... pharmacist or GP. She has vetted and reviewed everything well ahead of it being issued. Which may explain why I have yet to die from asthma. I'm always pumped up with the latest best thing(s)

In an hour I'm poolside coaching Britian's future Olympian swimmers for the next few hours (think Rio in 2016 and beyond, some of them have only just turned 9).

I have a mindmap - hideous term, hateful concept, but when I've done one for a TMA and stuck to it the (bleep, bleep, bleep) things seem to provide structure for my unstructured way of thinking.

800 words of reflection.

Could I say it four ?

'Been there, done that?'

or a few more ...

'Been there, done that, enjoyed the learning journey, up for more.'

Not really worth 20% of the marks.

Meanwhile an eventful day in other ways, prioritise as you see fit:

A statue of Tom Paine was revealed in Lewes (where we live). It is July 4th. He had something to do with the 'Rights of Man.' (Or the rights of one man, him ...) as he was pissing off everyone in Sussex when he jumped ship to the Americas.

I found four baby guinea-pigs in the hutch that has been my responsibility to clean out for the last decade. Daughter just 14 couldn't give a monkeys, though 'til two years ago she adored them. I have called them: 'E,' 'C,' & 'A,' and 'H807.' As the children are finally beyond naming them. Though my son, now 12, did call them 'bite-sized.' Our dog, who has come to replace the G-Ps in our affections, is tender ... she was introduced to guinea-pigs as puppy and just about understands that they are neither small tennis balls or food. We have had some wonderful adventures with out pigs these last ... 12 years.

We haven't had rain for 17 years (or is that days, or weeks) so I felt I had to water the garden. This is having had rain from October 13th 2009 to March 11th without a break).

The papers are declaring it the worst lack of rain in the the first six months of a year since ... well, since the last time this happened in 1992, 1998 and 1976. I have been attempting to syphon water out of the bath into the garden as I did in 1976 age 13 ... and face the same problem. Gagging as the stuff reaches my mouth and finding the lip over the windowsill is impossible to overcome. Do I buy a pump?

What next?

My brain is yours for £ and $.

Oh, and a nine year old headache from my late father's estate that suggests I may be taken to court in France. The joke is the letter was sent by recorded delivery that requires a signature is unintelligible to our Postie so he just put it through our letter box. My wife suggests we could (and should) ignore it. Why when I write to France I do so in French ... while the French when they write to English speaking countries do so ... in French?

Anything else?

Not for now

800 words is probably harder to write than 2,000.

And what is reflection anyhow?

Not a rant, not 'stream of consciouness.'

An essay?

A grovel for marks.

Your choice.

But no one reads these things anyway.

Lurkers please say 'Hi'.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Paula Roberts, Sunday, 4 Jul 2010, 17:24)
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New blog post

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Wednesday, 16 Jun 2010, 07:40

Seventeen weeks into a twenty two week course H807, Innovations in E-learning, I decide that I have to get a desk - flat-pack and cheap, as I can't work effectively with a broken laptop (screen gone) perched on the end of the bed leaning on a toy 'trolley compute console' thingey with printers and files in stacks on the floor. No cupboards, no shelves. The house still has that 'just moved in' feeling ... or rather, just emptied the removal van.

We've been here for nearly 3 years.

Life, eh? I've learnt that if you don't sort a place out in the first few weeks you never do, we never have. Though there is a lovely hedge around the garden. Pity you can't grew furniture too.

So why am I still perched on the end of the bed peering at a screen between a stack of ring-binders?

Lovely desk, but my son has it. He has homework to do too.

Does it matter?

For me, I've always liked a desk, shelves and desk space ... somewhere to spread out. I've always liked a 'room of my own,' as Virginia Woolf put it and was ok until the assemblages of family pressed in and the need to relocate out of the country and into a town for schools and easier commutability to London led to a series of compacting exercises.

Excuses?

I think I'll take the dog for a walk on the South Downs.

As Nietzsche said, 'how can anyone become a thinker, if he does not spend at least a third of the day without passions, people and books?'

Or is the dog a passion?

And the South Downs?

Try High Barn to Hope Gap and the River Cuckmere with the chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head in the distance and the English Channel Horizon 15 miles or so away.

Where I think.

(I think !?)

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