pic of the day - xray

I went for an xray of my hands today to see how bad my arthritis is. For years I have said that I thought I might have arthritis in the top knuckles of some of my fingers, but the doctor always said that this was impossible (a) because arthritis would affect the second knuckle and (b) because it would develop in all my fingers simultaneously.

Such a pity my mother's pinkie fingers and right index finger never got that memo!

Since we moved and now go to a different practice, the doctor picked up almost immediately that I had arthritis and was appalled that I hadn't been receiving treatment. Apparently, new drugs significantly retard the progress of the condition... as long as they are administered early enough.

Oh, and a quick word for the local radiography team. I arrived 15 minutes early for my appointment and was on my way again before the time for my appointment had even rolled around. Nice work, ladies!

Does soft skills training have a deep enough impact?

Geetha Krishnan has recently burst onto my radar. In a very short space of time he went from being someone I hadn't heard of to a Facebook friend whose blog I read, and whose tweets I follow. His blog is called Simply Speaking, and he mulls over issues that face us in this field.

This post explores whether a soft skils training programme can ever have sufficient impact to make a permanent change to a person's behaviour. He doesn't offer any answers, but he lays bare some issues which too often go unspoken.

LPoD - mushrooms and cancer

According to an article my husband ripped out of a free London newspaper, "eating a daily portion of mushrooms could cut the reisk of breast cancer by up to two-thirds".

The article cites the International Journal of Cancer. According to this article from the BBC, combining this consumption of mushrooms with a regular intake of green tea can reduce the chances of breast cancer by up to 90%.

However, Dr Sarah Cant of Breakthrough Breast Cancer sounds a note of caution:

"Breast cancer incidence rates do vary in different countries and China has lower rates than the UK.

"However, this is likely to be due to cultural and lifestyle differences such as having children earlier or exercising more for example, and is unlikely to be solely due to diet.

"We still aren't sure which individual food types influence the chance of developing this disease."

The research findings seem to have been picked up by several major newspapers, each of which pick up a different slant on the story.

I have tried unsuccesfully to find a web presence of the journal itself, so if anyone knows of a URL, I'm all ears.

In the meantime, I'm more than happy to eat 10g of mushrooms a day.

pic of the day - blossoms

This evening as we were walking the dog, we noticed that already the confetti-fall of white and pink blossoms has begun. I thought it best to get a picture of them while they were still on the branches!

LPoD - red tape

Today's learning point concerns Swedish passports. Our sons both have Swedish citizenship (although they speak barely a word of the language) and their passports have now expired.

In addition to the usual falderal associated with getting a new passport, Sweden doesn't allow dual citizenship - if you want to carry a Swedish passport, you are not entitled to carry any other.

In order to obtain a replacement Swedish passport, the applicant must demonstrate that s/he does not carry any others. This means (in the case of Swedish nationals in Britain) submitting a form to the British Home Office requesting confirmation that the applicant has not been granted British citizenship. This confirmation must accompany the application submitted to the Swedish consulate.

The widgetal age

Widgadget (anyone want to guess how it should be pronounced?) offers users the opportunity to create widgets free of charge. Here's one for this blog. Now to figure out how to add it to my website (which is very tightly locked down):

Blair does God

When Tony Blair was in office, journalists found pinning him down on the question of personal faith was like trying to nail jelly to a wall. His spin doctor, Alistair Campbell uttered his most quotable quote when pressed on this subject, saying, "We don't do God."

Today the Telegraph runs an article reporting what appears to be a volte face from Blair on this subject. I wonder if he felt that 'doing God' while in office would be political suicide. Perhaps Obama's success - as someone who adheres unequivocally to a faith - has given him the courage to speak up.

Certainly for those of us who have a faith, it is not a cosmetic add on that we can check in at the door of any debate. It is as fundamental to who we are as our gender, even if - unlike our gender - it was a late addition.

People who profess no faith simply don't get it. I think the term 'religious' is no help here. Being religious simply refers to an outward practise from which you can desist. Having a faith is a completely different matter. Speaking as a Christian, my relationship with God is as real to me as my relationship with my husband, if not more so. I talk to Him... and He talks back. Being asked to disregard my faith would be on a par with being asked to cheat on my husband.

You may choose to believe that I am deluded - that is your inalienable right. I am not going to use this space as the place to have that debate. The point I am trying to make here - with myself as the example - is that faith is a core issue. It is much more than religious practice.

Tony Blair appears to have come to the view that without an understanding of the role of faith in people's lives, it is impossible to lead them effectively.

I would suggest that those of us in L&D are faced with a similar challenge. If we wish to engage people, riding roughshod over their core beliefs or requiring them to check them in at the door is not the way to achieve it. Neither is waving a dismissive hand and declaring that "they're all the same thing."

pic of the day - traffic light dog

I've been a bit slack about posting these for the last few days. Long story. So here is the pick of the day for yesterday. It reminds me of this lolcat picture. I wondered how the photographer had managed it. When I saw how this picture of Jessie had turned out, I realised it had probably been an accident.

On locations

Today I received an email from someone within my network asking who I knew that is based in the Boston area. I had a moment of panic as it dawned on me that I have very little idea where any of my network peeps are based. Then I realised I don't really need to know - you're all right here, aren't you?

Off the top of my head, I know which continent most of you are on, and some of you have made enough mention of your locale for me to get a closer fix than that.

For example, I (think I) know that

• Vicki Davis is in Camilla, Georgia
• Harold Jarche and Stephen Downes are in or near Moncton, New Brunswick
• Graham Wegner is in Adelaide, Australia
• George Siemens is in or near Manitoba
• Jay Cross lives in sunny California... Berkeley, I think
• Jeff Utecht is still in Thailand, although he is American... sawasdee, Jeff
• Ron Lubensky is in Melbourne - although he still has a Canadian accent after 20 years plus
  
• Janet Clarey is in New York state
• Frances Bell works at Salford University, which is in or near Manchester
• Claudia Ceraso is in Argentina
• Rina Tripathi is somewhere in India
  
• Eduardo Peirano is in Uruguay
• Don Taylor is in the London area
• A whole raft of you are in Brighton and Hove: Clive Shepherd, Donald Clark et al

And I'm finally starting to run out of steam. But that's just at random off the top of my head. Not bad for someone who has recently been assessed for Alzheimer's, eh?

It is with a sense of relief that I realise my atrocious geography is no longer a factor. I know exactly where to find you all! You're in my Bloglines, my Google Reader, my Twitter stream, my Facebook contacts.

You're all local.

Ain't it grand?

On not laughing

Some years ago now, I worked in a learning centre which used government funds to provide really low cost IT skills training to the general populace. Most of our students were either middle aged women re-skilling to get back into the job market or senior citizens wanting to learn how to use computers.

The terminology was completely alien to especially the latter group and they adopted all sorts of approaches to try to make the jargon stick. Since many of them started out being utterly terrified of computers, it was important for us to encourage them at every turn, which meant not laughing, no matter what they came out with.

I kept a straight face through sloppy disks. Slippy disks. Flippy disks. Tick with the mouse. Broadsheets. Microsoft Exceed. Words. I didn't laugh when a lady tried to use her mouse like a remote control and point it at the screen. I maintained my composure through it all. Although sometimes it was tough, I reminded myself constantly to focus on the effort and the achievement, not the unwitting results.

Yesterday I was glad of it, when the young Korean lad who cleans my house to earn a bit of extra money while he attends a local language school came and asked please to buy "What is this?" He held out... oh no... a lint roller refill. I kid you not. He is the sweetest kid and so earnest and keen to learn. He tried very hard to copy what I was saying and, when he finally managed "lint row repew" I decided that was close enough. I was delighted that this little session emboldened him to ask another favour.

Apparently his English host family has asked him to say grace before the meal, and he would like to be brave enough to try. Would I please help? I wrote down a short prayer of the sort we say: "Lord, we thank you for this food. Bless the hands that prepared it and bless our fellowship. Amen."

He worked so hard at this, practising as he pottered about, that he made my heart swell. How the Almighty must have felt, being thanked so profusely for a future meal, I can only imagine!

As he left the house, he tried out his little prayer on me. I gave him the thumbs up and he set off with a broad grin.

Such a small thing. Yet it meant so much to him.

At times like this I wonder how many other teaching/learning moments we miss because we only notice the funny side of people's attempts to master a new skill.

Of course, I don't want to become so intense that I lose my sense of humour, but it was a sobering thought. I can't wait to find out how it went.

Speaking plain English

So it seems councils in England have been given a list of phrases and terminology that is now banned. This article identifies some of the words and phrases that are no-nos, and their suggested replacements.

I am in favour of plain speaking, and several of the phrases included in the article defy belief. Who do you suppose came up with the expression 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement'?

However, I do wonder a little about the principle behind this. To what extent does a single organisation get to control what people may and may not say? I'm not sure I see anything wrong with procurement, for example, which is not quite the same as simply buying something. There's a whole process involved in procurement, with enough red tape to close the hole in the ozone layer and more hoops than a tin of spagetti-os.

Buying is a much simpler concept: I'll have one of those, please. Certainly, sir, that will be £28.75. There you go. Thank you sir, there's your change. Ah, put it in the charity collection tin next to the till. Very generous, sir, have a nice day.

A few years ago, there was a crackdown on the language used in BBC news reports. Several words, it seems, had to go, many of them to be replaced by 'big'. We now have big instead of major, significant and serious, to name but a few. There are big increases in house prices (well, okay, there aren't at the moment, but you know what I mean), big concerns over this and big issues being addressed.

'Injured' was another word that simply had to go. Nobody gets injured anymore in news reports. They're always hurt. Confusingly, if their hurts are really big, they may become ill. To whit, "X is still ill in hospital following a big accident in which he was badly hurt."

Oh, and we no longer have collisions, we have crashes or accidents.

I'm not keen on the convoluted jargon that seems to develop around some projects, but let's not assume our listening/reading audience is collection of complete numpties, please!

What is a degree worth?

This article in the Daily Mail online seems to indicate that having a degree no longer makes the difference it used to in terms of earning power. University chiefs are looking to double fees to £6500/year, with some vice chancellors pushing for fees of up to £20K/year, arguing that graduates will earn on average £400K more over the course of a lifetime.

A recent study from the University of Warwickshire places the pay premium for a university graduate in arts and humanities at just £2.8K/year.

Certainly since I left school, having a degree has gone from being something worthy of note to being rather a non-issue... unless you're applying to work at the Open University, that is, where a first degree is still a minimum requirement.

Don't send a computer to do a person's job

Computers aren't terribly imaginative machines. They're tools, like any other, and they do what you tell them. Even when that isn't what you meant to tell them.

Today I got an email from one of my communities, advising me that another member had posted a project that matched my skills. It seems I am a perfect match for the role of Japanese-speaking recruitment consultant.

Let's just break that down for a moment:
Japanese-speaking - er, no
Recruitment consultant - er, no.

Let's break it down even further then:
Japanese - no
Speaking - yes (I have public speaking coaching experience)
Recruitment - no
Consultant - yes.

Well, we're half way there, then. The rest I'm sure I can pick up as I go along. Where do I sign?

Honestly!

Data without context

Warning: this post contains some personal revelations you may not be comfortable to learn.

I recently indicated that I was being assessed for early onset Alzheimer's. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say that there has been cause for concern.

So I went to see my doctor. She advised me of the possible contributing factors for forgetfulness, such as stress, pain, medication and peri-menopause. Check, check, check and check. But, knowing how worrying uncertainty is, she carried out a blood test. All the key indicators for dementia came back within the 'normal' range. But this is simply data. Without a benchmark, how can anyone spot a trend, or make a prognosis? This is where I miss the old-fashioned concept of a family doctor who is able to see such data within the context of a life well-known.

To give her her due, the doctor followed this up with an aural assessment. This is a list of 30 questions that a doctor asks a patient with possible Alzheimer's. And this was about the most meaningless assessment I have ever done! The questions were so facile, that, in order to 'fail' the test I would either have to be pretty far gone down the road of senility, severely concussed or of low mental capacity. I kid you not. The questions were things like:

• What day is it?
• What month is it?
• What year is it?
• What season is it?
• Spell 'world' backwards.
• Recite the multiples of seven.
  
• I am going to tell you three things. I will ask you them later.
• Fold this paper then put in on the floor.
• This is a pen, this is a watch. Repeat.
• Name three things in this room.
• Name the same three things in reverse order.
• Name the three things I told you earlier.
• etc.
  

The problem with all these tests is that there is nothing to compare the results against. Without that, they are meaningless. Just data. Data doesn't become information until it has meaningful context.

We went through the same song and dance for years with hormonal levels. When I began to suspect that I was perimenopausal, at least a decade ahead of schedule, I went for blood tests. These showed my hormone levels to be at the low end of the normal range. But, once again, this was data without context. Meaningless. And so followed a series of three monthly blood tests which were similarly meaningless, until I just refused to go any more. I figured I had a better idea of what my body was doing than the doctor did, and I didn't need to subject my squeamish self to the ordeal of bloodletting to know the deal. The doctors were basing their judgements on data. I was basing mine on experience. I had the advantage of context.

It took them no less than 6 years to state with certainty what I had known all along.

Some of the quizzes we include in our learning resources are equally meaningless. Let's face it, we're dealing with adults. They know whether they have understood something or not. Surely it would be more meaningful, in a lot of cases to bump the so-called test and ask: have you understood this section? If the answer is no, going back over the same material again is unlikely to change that. So we should offer them a link to an alternative resource; or the contact details of someone 'with skin on' of whom they can ask questions; or the URL for a discussion forum, where user generated content may make the penny drop.

I feel much the same about 'tracking reports'. If you're Joe Bloggs's manager and you receive a report that tells you that Joe visited every single page of the recently published learning resource and that he got 80% on the quiz, what does this actually tell you about what Joe has learned? Many of our clients seem to feel duty bound to include some kind of pass/fail assessment as an indicator of how much a person has learned. C'mon, as Joe's manager you don't need any of that to tell you how well he does his job. You've got far more reliable indicators at your disposal.

Before setting in place a system or process that is going to capture screeds and screeds of data, perhaps we need to push back a little and ask a few key questions:

• What data do you want to extract?
• Why? What purpose do you want it to serve?
• Who is going to analyse that data?
• What do you really want to know?
  
• Are there other ways to discover that?
  
• How is it going to serve the business goals of the organisation?

By way of contrast

I have just been witness to two examples of parenting that were in such stark contrast to each other, that I can't get them out of my mind.

The first was a woman with three kids, standing behind me in the supermarket queue. One of the kids hugged her from behind and, apropos nothing at all, declared, "You are my Mumsy." This is obviously something that happens often, because the mother replied, without missing a beat, "Indeed I am, and you are my girl." Not five minutes later, in response to something I must have missed, that same mother was fixing all three of her kids with what I can only describe as 'that look'. You know the one. The look that says, "I'm warning you...' but still has a twinkle in the eye. The three kids were grinning sheepishly back at her. I laughed and said, "I know that look! I have kids of my own," to which she replied that she was making the most of the look while it still bore results. I think in family that affectionate, when it obviously matters to the kids how their Mom feels about what they do, 'that look' will be effective for many years, yet!

As I was packing my groceries into the boot of my car, a couple passed me with two kids. I didn't see what the kids did, but the reaction from the mother was, "You stupid girl!" I had to bite my tongue hard, because I was only witnessing a single incident, but every nerve end was jangling. The girl in question was labelled... and by the person whose opinion probably matters most to her.

I belong to the 'criticise the action not the child' school of parenting. "What a stupid thing to do!" while still not very encouraging, is a long way from being inescapably labelled a stupid person.

Let me hasten to say that I haven't always got it right and I still fail daily. I am no paragon. In fact, I am deeply grateful that I am counterbalanced by John's more phlegmatic nature, and that I don't have to handle this alone. Not for the first time, I am reminded at the enormity of the task of parenting and I am in awe of single parents (among which are numbered my own mother and my sister) who manage without burning out completely.

We have an expression in South Africa that translates as "my harvest is still green in the field." In other words, I am not really in a position to give advice on this, because my child rearing is still ongoing, and much may yet go wrong!

It made me think of the Dorothy Law Nolte's guideline for raising children. It's probably very cheesy... until you're a parent... or until you realise how much your own subconscious responses are the product of your upbringing:

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

When I got home from the shop I had to find a pretext to get my boys in the same room as me, just so I could look at them with my head cocked to one side and do a stock take of what it is they're learning from John and me.

LPoD - menopause bread

For those 'women of a certain age' among us (what a ridiculous phrase - how many women are of an uncertain age?), here is a recipe for 'menopause bread'. According to this article, scientific research shows that soya and linseed reduce the instance of hot flushes. Don't you just love it when they tell you 'scientific research says...' but don't cite their source? Especially when this article says

"the research hasn’t lived up to the early promises. There is no consistent evidence that soy reduces the severity or frequency of menopausal symptoms (like hot flushes) or reduces breast cancer."

What the heck - I'm willing to give it a go! Anything to stave off the need for HRT which has been linked to breast cancer, for which I am in the high risk group, all three of my Dad's sisters having had the disease, with only one survivor. Ironically the only survivor developed the disease earliest, when she was the age I am now!

Later edit: 18/03/09 This recipe doesn't work in a bread maker. You have to do it the old fashioned way. I tried to take the easy way out. #Epicfail.

I take no responsibility for the imperial measurements, which seem inconsistent to me - those are the quantities I was given.

100g (4 oz) soya flour
100g (4 oz) wholemeal flour (may be replaced with buckwheat or more rolled oats)
100g (4oz) rolled oats
100g (4 oz) linseeds
50g (2 oz) pumpkin seeds
50g (2 oz) flaked almonds (or other nuts)
50g (2 oz) sunflower seeds
5 cm (2") piece of stem ginger, peeled and finely chopped/grated
225g (8 oz) raisins/dates/cranberries
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
425ml (15 fl oz) soya milk
1 tablespoon malt extract

Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add soya milk and malt. Mix well and leave for about 30-60 minutes. If the mixture is too stiff, add more soya milk until you achieve a dropping consistency.

Heat the oven to 190C (375F/gas mark 5). Line a small loaf tin with baking parchment. Spoon the mixture in and bake for about 60-90 mins until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.

Turn out and cool. Eat one thick slice every day.

pic of the day - carwash

I took my car through the autowash. It was by far not the most interesting thing that has happened to me today - after all, I got bitten by a dog at obedience class this morning! But I just love the picture, so here it is.

Learning? Work?

Dave Ferguson is hosting a blog carnival today on the theme: work at learning: learning at work.

Have you ever listened to kids talk about what they want to be when they grow up? When they're really little, boys often dream of being cowboys, policemen and firefighters, while girls often dream of being princesses, ballet dancers and mothers.

Give them a few years and those ambitions begin to change. Listening to a bunch of teenagers talking about what their dream job would be can be fun. I remember hearing one girl (who obviously had at least one weakness in common with me) declare that she would like to be a taster in a chocolate factory.

I have a cousin whose passion in life was always (still is) nature conservation, wildlife and things of that ilk - particularly ornithology. However, he and I share an uncle who was the richest member of the family at that time. This uncle was an accountant. So Michael (not his real name) became an accountant, because he wanted to be rich, too. Michael (who will be 40 this year) is now far and away the richest member of our family. Far richer than our uncle. But work, to Michael, is a means to an end. He learns what he needs to know in order to do better financially. But when you see him with a pair of top of the range binoculars in his hand, focusing on some or other bird in flight, as he and his son have an animated discussion about it, you know where is heart still lies, and where learning (for both him and his son) is never a chore.

I never knew what I wanted to be. I liked the idea of teaching, but I didn't like the idea of working with children. This was borne out by the results of an aptitude test I completed at the age of 15. Nobody thought to tell me about what was then called staff training. I didn't even know that working people did any learning. I thought it was school, university, work. The end.

Somehow, when I had finished drama school and was waiting for Hollywood to call, I found myself working for one of those dreadful companies that send people touting goods door to door. Not encyclopaedia, but not far from it. I hated it, and I sucked at it. Oddly, though, I discovered I had a knack for training up others to do it.

Somehow, in every job I took after that, I wound up teaching someone to do something. No matter how much I hated the job, I really liked that part.

It wasn't long before I took a job where that wasn't a part of the job... that was the job. At a time when computers were migrating out of the cold back office to Everyman's desk, I began to run IT training courses. Often, I was only one step ahead of the learners myself. Countless times, I would be surrounded by the hubbub of a busy workshop and I would suddenly think, "Man, this is fun!"

In those days, the happy sheet was king and time after time, in the 'any additional comments' section, comments on my workshops included the word 'fun' or a simile thereof.

I hated school. But I loved learning. This was a revelation to me. It really was fun. And people who came on my workshops would pick up on that, and (sometimes in spite of themselves) they would catch themselves having fun, too. More than once, I had a visit from the trainer in the next room, asking me to keep the volume down, because people were trying to work next door.

Life is short and precious. Far too short and far too precious to spend it doing something that doesn't push your buttons.

For me, what pushes my buttons is learning. I love that I get to work at learning. That my job is learning. My own learning and that of others. I love that I get the chance to help people rediscover their own passion for what they do simply by being enthusiastic about it myself.

The point of learning at work is to get better at whatever it is you do. Or to learn a new way of doing whatever it is you do. If you never enjoyed that in the first place, you don't have much chance of enjoying learning about it.

Fortunately for me, I get to learn about learning. About learners. Which makes for a wonderfully self-fuelling cycle. People tease me about being a geek. But show me anyone who loves what they do as much as I do, and I'll show you a geek.

I genuinely wish that everyone could have a job which made them say "Can you believe I get paid to do this?!" Then learning more about it wouldn't be a chore. It would hardly seem like work at all. Those who work in regulated industries would have no trouble completing their 30 hours of CPD learning every two years (or whatever). In fact they would find it hard to draw the line between doing their job and learning about their job. Which, for my money, is how it should be. The learning should be so embedded into the work as to be indistinguishable. We're getting there. Slowly. But we are getting there!

I will encourage my sons to adopt the same approach. My elder son has recently realised (of his own volition, because I was blowed if I was going to tell him) that forensic science is not the field for him. He wants to do something related to sport/exercise and anatomy/physiology. You should just hear the lad talking about his pet topic! For me, it's like looking in the mirror. The eyes light up and the hands wave about... the passion is there. Learning about these things at school isn't like work at all. Fields like physiotherapy and sports therapy are horribly oversubscribed in the UK, but if that's what he wants to do, somehow we'll make it happen.

My younger son, since he was just three and watched two cooling towers being imploded outside Cape Town, has been adamant that he wants to do demolitions. One day, we were watching a movie together and one of the characters said the line that summed it up for him, "I get to blow sh*t up, and get paid for it!" Perhaps he will. Perhaps, like his older brother, his passion will shift in a couple of years time. But, if that's what he really wants to do, somehow, we'll figure it out.

Work at learning? I expend an incredible amount of energy on learning. But work? Nah! Learning at work? All the time. Thankfully.

pic of the day - modesty

My (Swedish) mother-in-law gave me this coffee cup some time ago. Fortunately, since I married John almost 21 years ago, I seldom have a day without a Swede! Mind you, since we moved to the UK 10 years ago, there have been several days... weeks, even... without sunshine!

I was once foolhardy enough to ask her why she and her husband chose to give their son a name like John, when neither of them could pronounce their Js. Her retort was swift and defiant: "Hiss name iss Yon, it's you who can't say it!"

I was duly chastised.

On being in the middle

I often joke, a la Jasper Carrott, that I'm of average height, medium build, average intelligence, middle aged, living in the midlands of England, etc. You get the idea. There's one thing I've not previously included in that descriptor, purely because I'd never thought of it before.

I am also a mezzosoprano.

For those not up on musical terms, this means that I have a mid-range singing voice. I can't hit the top register of a coloratura, despite the best efforts of my college voice coach (who was herself a talented coloratura). While, in fact, I am able to reach the lower register of a contralto, I don't have the rich warmth that goes with a true alto.

So, rather like the Grand ol' duke of York I alluded to recently, I'm neither up nor down. But being a mezzo is not purely a matter of elimination. The first time he heard me sing, David Matheson, who directed me in Fiddler on the Roof (in which I played Hodel), declared me a 'true mezzo'. Being a mezzo also entails a certain timbre.

It's a long time since I sang in any major capacity. But when I did, I had two choices. I could rue the fact that most romantic leads were written for '1st soprano' voices. Or I could relish the roles that were available to me. I chose to do the latter. The mezzo often gets the character part.

I mean, let's look at it this way. When you're auditioning for Oklahoma, a mezzo stands little chance of being cast as Laurie. But who cares, when there's an Addo Annie to be had? Who wouldn't rather sing 'I cain't say no' than 'Out of my dreams'? And when there's a production of Grease in the offing, let's face it, wouldn't you rather be feisty Rizzo than goody two shoes Sandy? Any day of the week! Rizzo gets to sing 'There are worse things I could do'. End of discussion!

And the mezzo has her occasional leads, too. Carmen is no role for a coloratura. And Maria in (ack, gack, ptui) The Sound of Music is pitched well for a mezzo.

As I mentioned in a recent Facebook exchange with Dave Lee and Cammy Bean, I once had to sing 'My Favourite Things' from The Sound of Music for a singing exam, and I Liza Minelli-ed up to the hilt. Why not? It's not as if I was trying to play the role in the full length musical. There's a lot you can do as a mezzo, that you daren't try as a coloratura.

In much the same way, I realise that I'm never going to play the lead in this 2.0 collaboration on the subject of learning and development. I acknowledge that I simply don't have the range of a Downes or a Siemens. But there are some fine supporting roles to be had.

And I'm up for it. How 'bout you?

There are worse things you could do.

pic of the day - determination

It hardly looks real, doesn't it? This tiny little flower (and I mean tiny - this is an extreme close up) has pushed its way up between two conrete paving slabs, where it blooms with only weeds for company. You gotta admire such indomitable determination.

pic of the day - recession

Oh the grand ♪ol' Duke of York ♬
He had ♫ten thousand men,♪
But when recession♪ came to town,♫
He got ♬closed down again!♪

The Duke of York pub is a landmark in our town, sitting as it does at the intersection of two major roads. Official bus routes refer to it, as do traffic reports.

It has fallen victim, like many other pubs in the town. Unfortunately, because the recession has also meant an increase in vandalism, the windows have been covered over with sheet metal.

Tiny twits!

This is pretty cool. A 2nd grade class twittering their way to literacy. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible for me to embed the video here for you to see, but pop over to the site and check it out for yourself.

Twenty years and counting

Yup! In case you missed it, today is the 20th anniversary of the www. Oddly, this year is also the 20th anniversary of my proper entry to the world of L&D (I had done some training before, but as a bolt-on to another job).

Hat tip to Jane Hart for the link to this article in Scientific American.

Where would we be without the web? It has become integral to the way we do... well just about everything!

Tomayto Tomahto

This Calvin & Hobbes strip is one of those 'it's funny cos it's true' situations. There are times when one person says something that the other person just doesn't understand because they can't connect with it. Calvin just can't take school seriously. He is simply not motivated by the grade curve. Susie might as well be speaking another language. Of course, her frustration is that she has her whole formal education planned and she sees being partnered with Calvin as having the potential to upset her neat little apple cart.

This morning, as I walked my dog, we passed a bunch of loitering lads, making a show of being in no hurry to get to school before the bell. One of them let forth a high pitched squeal completely at odds with the laconic image he was trying so hard to portray, and hid behind one of his friends. In his hurry, he chose the worst possible friend because, although he hadn't squealed, the friend was just as terrified of the dog as he was.

Knowing how limiting an irrational fear is, I stopped and invited both boys to come over and talk to Jessie, to feel how unbelievably soft her coat is. I promised them that she would do them absolutely no harm, being the sweetest natured hound imagineable. The non-squealer declined my offer. The squealer, to his credit, took a few steps towards us. Jessie, delighted at the attention, turned to face him, ears forward in interest. The lad, his attention focused on her teeth, rather than her wagging tail, took this as a sign of aggression and retreated with another squeal.

At this point, a third boy, whose body language identified him as the top of the pecking order, strode towards her with his hand out, announcing, "I'm not scared of dogs!". Every single thing about him screamed that this was all bravado. That he was as terrified as the other two (although I can't imagine why). But, give him his due, he touched her nose before sauntering away again in ill-disguised relief.

Jessie, meanwhile, was totally baffled by the signals he was giving off, and tried to hide behind me.

As I continued on my walk, I thought particularly of the the squealer. Because he was willing to try, I really believe he and Jessie could have connected, had we had enough time before the school bell for me to explain what her body language means. The non-squealer I'm less sure about.

Because of my different cultural background, there have been times when I have said something that has left British people looking at me blankly, even though I have spoken in English, which is my mother-tongue. I have had to find another way to express myself, some sort of common ground, in order to be understood. It has been up to me, as the outsider to learn how to express myself within the British idiom.

As learning professionals, we tend to come at things from a different angle, but, when we try to express our views to management, we are often met with blank stares. User generated what? Social mediums? Are you suggested a seance? Discussion forums? What on earth have they got to do with training? Why can't you just write me a course like I asked you to do? Why do have to complicate things by talking about wickets and blodgers?

We need to find a way to express ourselves that makes sense. We need to find the common ground. And, it will be up to us to learn their idiom because I promise you, precious few corporate managers have the slightest interest in learning L&D-ish!

LPoD - South African visitors to the UK

Who says Facebook isn't a learning tool? One of my FB friends, a fellow South African ex-pat, most of whose family is also still back there, posted some information on her page that has become today's learning point.

Essentially, it seems that the UK issued an ultimatum to several countries to tighten up security around the issue of passports (you may remember that I recently posted that during 2007, 6000 Chinese nationals are said to have entered the UK on genuine South African passports obtained 'under the counter' for £5000 each). It seems many of the other countries affected such as Botswana, Brazil, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago took heed. South Africa, it appears, did not.

As a consequence, all South African nationals will now need a visa to enter the UK - even just for a holiday. Apparently, according to a South African based immigration group called 1st Contact the process of obtaining this visa is cumbersome and lengthy. Also according to 1st Contact,

There is also a newly introduced bio-metric component attached to this new regime. It has been alleged that South Africans will be required to complete a 10 page application form, incur fees anywhere from £ 65 (for holidays Visas) to £ 600 (for business Visas) and then still make their way to VFS (Visa Facilitation Service) office, for finger printing and retina scans. The biometric scans are then sent to the British High commission along with the application to review, before the granting of Visas takes place.

Some of these measures have already been introduced, with the balance expected to be in effect in mid 2009.

Historically South Africa has made up the 5th largest tourist group in Britain. According to an article published in the BBC, in 2007 419 000 South Africans legally visited the UK, comprising of 168 000 tourists and 46 200 business visitors, where over 3000 South Africans were even granted work permits.

It seems the point of these measures is not to curb the number of South African visitors, but to strengthen the UK's borders. However, many South Africans, and other Commonwealth citizens are expressing a different view under their breath. Now that several eastern European countries have joined the EU and their citizens can legally move to the UK without the need for visas, the number of immigrants from these countries has rocketed. Since the UK is powerless to change this, there are those who feel that the UK government is taking what action it can, and that Commonwealth countries are the chosen target. I'm not prepared to make that judgement one way or the other, just yet.

The immediate effect for me is that the cost of these visas is very high when you're paying for them in Rands, currently at a little under ZAR14 to the Pound. This effectively means that the once slim chance that members of my family may be able to visit us in the UK is eradicated. And since we were hoping for a gathering of the clans to mark our elder son's entry to adulthood later this year, this is a heavy blow for me.

My mother has implied that she would be prepared to come over and 'do' for me, should I have to undergo surgery to my neck (which unfortunately seems to be indicated at present), but I suspect that her offer might have to be withdrawn under these circumstances.

Articulating a response

On Wednesday, I posted about my struggles with Articulate Engage interactions and Quizmaker quizzes. And, in the interests of fair play, I would like make the following known.

The folks at Articulate Towers obviously have their finger on the pulse of social media, because there was a swift response from them in the form of an email from a team member, one Dave Moxon, with an invitation to get in touch by email, outlining the problem.

There was a prompt response to my email, and an invitation to teleconference. Yesterday at 5pm my time, I was in conference with Dave, who gave me presenter rights and got me to show him my set up and to demonstrate what went wrong.

Of course, as is always the case when you visit the doctor or get through to the helpdesk, everything worked perfectly!

What Dave did identify as a potential problem was that I was storing my Engage interaction files (.intr) and Quizmaker quizzes (.quiz) in the same folder as my published projects. This, apparently is a Bad Idea, so we created a new folder called Published Projects and did a little housekeeping.

Dave also considered the possibility that two other factors might be at play:

1. The computer that I have been working on has four log-ins. One for each member of the family. All four of us have a space on the C: drive, but, for example, my space is known as the K: drive. The partitioning may have had a role to play in the problem, but...
2. ... the more likely culprit appears to be the fact that we have an external hard drive onto which our computer automatically backs up every day.
   

The call ended with an invitation to get back in touch right away should this ever happen again.

We didn't find a definitive solution, but the point of this post is to acknowledge Articulate's alertness and engagement with their users, and their level of customer service. Wouldn't I just be a Mother Grundy if I only ever reported what went wrong?

So, going forward, I will:

• work on my laptop instead of the shared computer
• back up to a stick to make up for the loss of the external hard drive and auto backup facility
• create folder hierarchies for each project before I start, and keep my Articulate files separate from my published projects.
  

Superhero me

Thanks to Mark Oehlert for the link to the Hero Factory. This, by the way, is my alterego. I rather like the fact that the date in the top left corner of the image is my birthday! At first I wondered where it had picked up that piece of data, but Mark's has the same date on it.

Criteria for successful completion

A while ago, I was walking my dog with my elder son. We were following the route I normally take when I walk her on my own, when he turned a different way. In a purely interested, non-critical way, I asked his reason for the different route. "It's a short cut," he explained. This of course led to a discussion about the point of the walk - completion versus process.

That conversation has been pottering away in the back of my mind ever since, popping up its head every now and then.

It made me think of the gym, where you will see these two approaches to exercise (among several others, no doubt). Your personal programme may include work on some of the resistance machines. Some people do the exercises with slow control, while others race through. Those who are going slowly have probably understood the point of the exercise is to really work those muscles. Those who race probably have their eye on completion. Get this done. Go home. Have a beer.

My sons have both always had chores around the house (I know, I know, I'm a battle axe and a harridan - I've heard it all before). Variations on this conversation have happened countless times:

Me: Look at the state of this mug, why is it in the cupboard?
Son: It came out of the dishwasher like that.
Me: But it's not clean!
Son: I can't help that. I washed it.

I have lost count of the number of times I've said something like, "When I ask you to vacuum the carpets, the job is done when the carpet is clean, not when you have run the vacuum cleaner once over the whole area."

I related a while back how my elder son claimed to have taught well in a session about javelin, even though his learners hadn't learned anything. His attitude was along the lines of: I have done what I was asked. The fact that it bore no fruit is out of scope for me.

One of the things primary school teachers often relate in respect of set work is that boys tend to complete the set work as quickly as possible, while girls complete the work as correctly and beautifully as possible. I'm not sure to what extent the gender thing really applies, but I certainly noticed the allegedly typical male behaviour pattern in both my sons in primary school. My elder son still tends towards this when it comes to written work, although his verbal reasoning is in a different league. Since reaching high school, my younger son has become more concerned with presentation, but this may have something to do with his interest in visual art, which is one of his chosen subjects.

Surely the completion thing comes down to understanding and buying into the criteria for success?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this line of reasoning, but it's an interesting conundrum, and I don't think the box ticking approach to education/training, whether in school or at work, is going to result in meaningful learning. It strikes me as being little different from the attitude of my elder son that I mentioned a moment ago. But my son is 17 and has yet to gain a sense of perspective. What's our excuse?

LPoD - Narrative inquiry

I wish I could write enough about this point to reflect how much I have been thinking and learning about it lately. It isn't really the learning point of a single day. It is an on-going process. Because I am adopting a (first person) narrative inquiry approach for my dissertation, I have been trying to find out as much as possible about it.

This is the way I go about things. I didn't know that there was an established methodology called first person narrative inquiry. I just felt very strongly that this was the right way to go about presenting my work. Only once I was defending my case to my dissertation supervisor did I learn that others had trod that path afore me. She sent me in search of materials to reference in my rationale.

I came across a few choice pieces:
Clandinin, D Jean and Connelly, F Michael. 2000. Narrative Inquiry - experience and story in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4343-6.
Farrands, Robert Miles. 2007. Excitement, bewilderment and emergence: exploring a life world through writing as first person inquiry
Whitehead, Jack. 1988. Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?' Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol 19, No1, 1989, pp 41-52. Accessed online 12 November 2008.

As I have been reading these, I have become enthused all over again for the narrative approach. I was excited almost to the point of tears (pathetic, isn't it?) by the title of Whitehead's paper, because this is exactly the question I have wanted to explore in respect of my own professional practice: How has the use of social media affected my professional practice? In particular, I want to look at it from a learner's perspective, since altogether too much research addresses the teacher's perspective.

There are great wadges of text I would love to lift right out of Clandinin's book, but that would leave little place for my own writing in between! Take for example, these gems:

"Educators are interested in life... learning and teaching and how it takes place...the leading out of different lives, the values, attitudes, beliefs, social systems, institutions and structures, and how they are all linked to learning and teaching"

"For Dewey, education, experience, and life are inextricably intertwined. When one asks what it means to study education, the answer - in its most general sense - is to study experience."

"People live stories, and in the telling of these stories, reaffirm them, modify them, and create new ones. Stories lived and told educate the self and others, including the young and those such as researchers who are new to their communities."

"People are individuals and need to be understood as such, but they cannot be understood only as individuals. They are always in relation, always in a social context."

Can I get an Amen? Tell me I'm not the only one who wants to stand up and cheer... please?

And, of course, because I think in analogies, this immediately brings to mind a vivid image for me. Because research tends to pick a narrow focus, you get a whole load of in-depth, highly detailed pictures, like exquisitely wrought beads. But narrative inquiry provides the string that turns those beads into a beautiful necklace. Each bead has its place among the other beads, and each either complements or clashes with other beads on the string.

My head is brimming and buzzing with stuff on the subject, but I think I'll do a more complete exploration in the dissertation itself.

I'm such a geek. This stuff really gives me such a buzz!

I know I've said it before. It isn't about the learning. It's about the learner. The person.

Contented geeky sigh.

Articulating my woes

I have been using Articulate to put together an e-induction for a client with a global staff complement. It was the client's express wish to use this product, as they are hoping to be able to do their own maintenance going forward. I was well-impressed with Studio '09 and its extra features, and I don't take that back.

However, there is one aspect of Articulate that has not improved. Not even slightly. It's sticky and stubborn!

Let me explain. Using Articulate Engage, you can create interactive screens for the user to explore aspects of the learning material in different ways. Of course, the first time the client sees these, there is bound to be something that needs to be changed. X happened in 2008, not 2006. Y's name is mis-spelled. The URL attached to Z piece of text is wrong. That kind of thing. So you duly make the changes and republish the resource. No problem.

Except, for some reason best known to itself, Articulate re-publishes the old version of the interaction screens. So you go to your browser cache and empty it. You delete old versions of the resource from your system. You hunt down all the 'temp' folders in your file structure and purge them.

You republish. Again. And yet again, Articulate republishes the old versions of the interaction screens. You are unable to find a trace of these old files anywhere on your system. But hoo boy! Articulate not only finds them, but uses them.

The same problem applies to Quizmaker quizzes.

So... if you're me, and your client is champing at the bit, you delete and re-insert every single interaction and quiz in the resource. Then redo the Slide properties on each and every one to make sure the menu structure is correct. This takes you the better part of a day. And this day is after your IT expert husband has burnt the midnight oil for two nights running trying to find where the system is getting its data from.

When you have paid over £1000 for the licence, this feels a bit off-side. So, if anyone out there has a solution, please... I'm all ears!

pic of the day - 900 years

I took this photo this evening on the way to the athletics track with my elder son. I have two reactions to this image.

First, I am in awe of a place with a recorded history that goes back 900 years. Coming from a so-called 'young' country like South Africa, it seems incredible that there are buildings that go back that far (mind you, if you come from an even older country like Greece or Egypt, where there are structures that go back thousands of years, this must seem pretty paltry).

My second reaction is more cynical. 'Living' history? What other kind is there? Responses on a postcard...

LPoD - teenagers and their sleep patterns

Fascinating! I just happened to be driving back from Oxford today in time to hear a radio interview with a Dr Paul Kelly regarding recent research into teenage sleep patterns. Kelly referenced this programme on the BBC, in which he appears (hopefully this will be available to non-UK residents - please let me know if this is not the case).

The research question was something along the lines of: are teenagers just lazy or is there a physiological explanation for their tendency to sleep until 11am?

It seems that, from the onset of puberty until the age of 21 in boys (19.5 in girls) there is a genuine physiological shift in their body clocks which results in a change in the pattern of the release of melanin into their bodies. At around 10am, the hormonal shift from sleep to wakefulness starts to kick in.

Kelly was talking about a school which plans to shift its school day to run from 11am-5pm instead of 9am-3pm.

Of course, there was an instant outcry from the listening public who opposed the idea. With the show being aired during working hours, you can imagine that the bulk of the listening demographic comprises pensioners, most of whom were thoroughly indignant, it seems. There was a lot of "When I were a lad" and "Never did me no 'arm". Teenagers were roundly criticised for being lazy and out of touch with the real world. Only one woman - the mother of 3 teenagers - dared support the idea.

If there is to be resistance to the concept, I would prefer to see it based on sound reasoning, rather than "that's 'ow it's allus bin done". One opponent did cite the logistical issues around teachers' working hours and child care issues, which would obviously have to be considered.

As the mother of two teenagers, and, as an erstwhile teenager myself, I would have to say that my observations are as follows:

• My husband and I have always been night owls, preferring to stay up late and sleep in, whenever possible. We're not teenagers any more (you'll be astonished to learn), so are we anomalous? On the other hand, we are able to rise at a 'respectable' hour and function normally, whereas it seems that teenagers demonstrate a quantifiable improvement in cognitive ability later in the day.
• Our elder son has also always been something of a night owl. Since he turned 16, he no longer has a bedtime. However, we do find it necessary to stick our heads around the door and say, "Erm, Sweetheart, it's almost midnight and you have a first session tomorrow. I suggest you get your tail into bed."
• Our younger son was the solitary lark in the family. While the rest of the family was deep in blissful slumber, he was ready to start the day with a smile and a twinkle. I have a niggling worry that our grunted "Unh-unh!" at him every morning has done damage to his psyche, since he lacks the easy self-assurance of his brother. Be that as it may, with the onset of puberty, even our lark has taken to lie-ins whenever possible.

On one side are those who argue that we need to establish good time-keeping habits rather than indulging our teenagers, because they won't be indulged once they begin working. On the other side is the idea that they might perform better if the school day were timed to fit their body clocks.

As the interview progressed, I could picture in my occasionally photographic mind just about every exam timetable my kids have ever had. Almost without exception, the start time for their exams has been 9am. So not only do we have a ludicrous system for assessing a child's competence in any given subject, the mechanism is scheduled to take place at the worst possible time for our teens. Hmm.

From my own perspective, I have no problem with moving the teenager's day forward by two hours. Of course, I'm not a teacher, whose life would be disrupted by this change.

pic of the day - I wandered lonely as a cloud...

The daffs in my neighbour's garden opened this morning for the first time, and I simply had to get a photo. They've made an appearance in this project before. As you can see, I got right down to their level. I hunkered down as low as I could get. Sadly, I wasn't able to find a vantage point from which to get them face on. But I rather like the fact that the daffs seem to be ignoring me in their single minded focus on the sun - our houses (which are semi-detatched - very common in the UK) face due east.

pic of the day - impaled!

You couldn't do this kind of thing on purpose! I accidentally elbowed an apple off the top of the pile in the fruit bowl, while the dishwasher was open. It landed sweetly as you please impaled on the tines of 3 forks.

As evidence of how my kids have bought into the pic of the day project, the first (coherent) words fom my younger son were "Pic of the day! Pic of the day!" My elder son was sent to retrieve the camera from the car... and there you have it.

Choice

It's a Saturday afternoon. My husband has gone to the office to do something or other to a server - as IT types are inclined to do every now and then. My elder son is washing and vacuuming his Dad's car in keeping with a Christmas commitment. My younger son is playing World of Warcraft (he can now wield two-handed axes for those in the know). So I am pottering around online.

One of the things I did was to check out the updates on my Facebook groups. In the process, I visited the group: People for Replacing the Public Education Model, and I came across a link to this post from Stephen Downes. I'm puzzled as to how I missed it when it first appeared.

It was a reproduction of a magazine article and as such a break from the normally concise blogging style of OLDaily. It captured my interest because of its first person narrative style. I love stories.

Anyhoo, in the article, Stephen's key point in respect of education can be wrapped up in one word: 'choice'. My own choices of subject in high school were severely limited because I attended a school that prided itself on its standing as an academic institution. Drama (my great passion at the time) was unavailable as a subject. It was purely an extracurricular pursuit. Music was available only on a peripatetic basis, although I seem to remember that an exception was made just once for a phenomenally talented student through whom the school stood to gain kudos. Likewise art was not officially on the menu beyond grade 8.

My cousin, in an entirely different part of the country, had to apply for special permission to break the strict zoning policy in order to attend a school that offered the subjects she wanted. And permission was only granted because she was a straight A student.

There is a private school in the UK which boasts a body of students drawn from all over the world. These students are affored the opportunity to take their home language as a subject for their final exams... whatever it may be. A teacher will be sourced for that child. I learned this from a friend who worked at the school. In fact, it was through the school that I sourced a Swedish tutor for my family. I'm willing to bet that none of the state schools offer the myriad non-native English speaking immigrants that luxury.

A common thread here is that of high achievement and/or money. Rules were bent for those who are likely to produce top marks or those with means. Mediocre students need not apply. Students from average income families or less need not apply.

What message does this convey to our students and, by extension, to their families? Why should an average student be denied opportunities? Why should money be a deciding factor as to what a child may and may not study at school?

My husband and I have made it a policy to expose our children to as wide a range of hobbies and activities as possible. After all, how are they ever to know they have a talent for abseiling or a love of ice hockey (for example), if they never get to give it a go? The wider we cast our net, the greater the chance that each of our sons will find the thing(s) that light the spark in their eyes. Children whose lives are small and narrow, may wind up living out their days in desultory ritual, and we see altogether too many such people in our daily dealings.

Sadly, the education model has a way to go before it is able to accommodate this broad approach. I look forward to the day when education offers divergence rather than convergence: an ever increasing breadth of experience, rather than a whittling down process. There's plenty of time for whittling down once you know for certain what it is you want to focus on. I maintain that the teen years are too early to make that choice.

Did someone say 'Dream on'?

Sigh.

Designing learning resources like dog food?

I think about odd things while walking my dawg, I confess!

Have you seen the ads for dog food? Have you noticed the varieties available? It has been a rich source of material for many a stand-up comedian that dog food should come in flavours like 'Neighbour's cat', 'Park squirrel' and 'Disgusting smelling dead thing found in the bush', rather than 'Roast lamb and mint' and 'Beef and gravy'.

It never occured to me until I became a dog owner to wonder why some dog foods come in multi-coloured chunks. Dogs are colour blind! The multi-colours are to appeal to the dog owner. The person paying, rather than the 'person' consuming. Now this wouldn't be a problem, except that those colours are usually achieved by adding artificial colourants to the food which are not good for your pet.

If you buy dog food based on your own preference, you will buy the tinned stuff that looks more appetising to you, with tastier sounding ingredients.

But if you buy dog food based what's good for your dog, you will buy bags of uniformly coloured grey 'kibble' type things. Your vet will tell you the hard food is better for your dog's digestive system (I won't go into the gory details), and the absence of preservatives and colourants is far healthier.

When we design learning resources, are we designing them to appeal to the buyer or the user? I'm not suggesting we should design uniformly bland materials - let's not push the metaphor that far. What I'm getting at is fitness for purpose. If we can please the buyer while serving the purposes of the user, well and good. But what happens when serving the purposes of the user will not please the buyer because (s)he is unable to consider things from the user's perspective, and just wants lots of whizzy stuff, like the 'excellent course' (s)he saw at such-and-such a place (referring to something with magnificent graphics and the worst instructional design you've seen in a decade).

This is when our consultancy skills are tested! This is when we need to explain why the design that we are putting together is better for the user than the thing (s)he wants. This is when we need to know our stuff, and be able to present a cogent argument (and I use the word in its broader sense) based on a solid foundation.

After all, surely the litmus test for both dog food and learning resources is: does it do what it is supposed to do? And does it do it well? Is my dog healthy and fit? Is my staff member able to do his/her job with confidently and well?

'Fit for purpose' didn't become a cliché by chance.

pic of the day - crocus

A pity about my shadow in the frame, but I had to stand on a park bench to get the vantage point, and the only one available resulted in this shadow. If I were a more professional photographer, I would no doubt have rejected this shot, or never taken it to begin with. But I am a sun-lover, so I decided to go the glass half-full route and celebrate the fact that there was enough sunshine at 9-ish this morning to cast that shadow!

Just look at these brave little flowers. Right after the snowdrops, hugging close to the ground, even in the bitter cold, up they come. They don't need a flowerbed or any tending. A harbinger of spring. I know it sounds churlish, but I get a little tired of yellow in the spring time, so the purple and white of the crocus blooms are a great delight to me. I suppose it doesn't hurt that purple is my favourite colour!

pic of the day - a boy runs

I tried so hard to get a decent shot of my elder son practising sprints tonight, but I failed miserably, even though I set my camera to 'sports'. This was the best I could do. However, I also managed to capture him on video.



He has been so miserable lately. Having gone from Mr Popular to whom his bullied little brother turned for succour and support, he has become the target of victimisation in his own turn at the new school. Largely because he is so very sporty and competitive. It was such a pleasure to watch him run tonight. Unlike longer distances, there is no space for thinking in a sprint. It's just all about getting those arms and legs moving as fast as you can so that you can get across that finish line as quickly as possible!

Oh... and whoever it was who twittered me recently to say you'd love to hear me laugh (later edit: I believe it was Clark Quinn) - you can just catch the raucous sound on the very end of this (short) video. The shout that made me laugh was not an expletive but one of the sprinters shouting "Track!" which is how one clears the track ahead of dawdlers during a practice. (Later edit: what was funny about that was that there was no-one on the track - he shouted as a force of habit)

pic of the day - untitled

This is a piece my younger son is submitting for his art course work. He was very pleased with it until he added the yellow border. Now he is thoroughly depressed, because he thinks he's ruined it. I rather like it, but would have preferred a deep burgundy or cobalt blue coloured border.

Two stories from southern Africa

My grief grows.

Robert Mugabe's recent 85th birthday bash cost an estimated £105K, while his country suffers hyperinflation of an order that recently saw the release of a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note! This after lopping 3 zeros off the end of all denominations in attempt to curb the spiralling figures. It is to be noted that the country's unemployment level is estimated at 94%. Of course, this presumably means taxpaying employment. No doubt there is a great deal of informal employment going on, with services being paid for in kind. Many Zimbabwean businesses no longer accept their own national currency, and instead demand South African Rands, US dollars or British Pounds.

If you have an interest in the story that is unfolding in the country once called the breadbasket of Africa - get it first hand from an insider.

Moving just across the river to my own homeland, we learn that a campaign of violence has been initiated by the ruling African National Congress against opposition parties ahead of next month's election.

Ahead of the 1994 elections, observers around the world predicted bloodshed. But the churches of all colours took to their knees and prayed. The people from all communities determined that they would prove the world wrong. And so they did. Standing in line to vote together for the first time, Black, Indian Coloured and White (for those were the racial classifications within the country) people were peaceable. They elected an ANC which was led by Nelson Mandela, a man of noble grace respected the world over.

But the age of Nelson Mandela is past. The man who now leads the African National Congress is a man without even a complete primary school education. A man who will assure a group of Afrikaans farmers in Bloemfontein that the Afrikaner heritage will remain and that their contribution to the economy and the future of the country is held in high regard. Shortly thereafter, that same man will assure a fulminating group of young activists that land redistribution in South Africa will follow his election as surely as night follows day. Many have taken delight in pointing out that Zuma has several wives. To me, this is an irrelevant matter - a legacy of his culture. Without looking it up, I would hazard a guess that there are other national leaders with more than one wife. What bothers me far more is that this is a man skilled in the art of saying exactly what people want to hear in order to secure the presidency for himself. Frighteningly, he seems to have no personal values which he holds sacrosanct.

No charges brought against him appear to stick, and one wonders, once he occupies the office of president, whether it will still be possible to level criticisms and/or accusations against him at all!

The southern African subcontinent appears to be going to hell in a handcart. More than once, ex-patriots have been heard to express the view that, had Zimbabwe had even a drop of oil, the US would have invaded them long since in order to depose the dictator and restore democracy.

Well, South Africa has several drops of oil - much of it produced from coal, not to mention gold, diamonds, steel, uranium, platinum and a plethora of endangered fauna and flora. So you never know!

So I've had a diagnosis at last!

About 4 months after I hurt myself, I have finally had a diagnosis. The MRI scan shows a prolapsed disk in my neck - C7 for those in the know. Oddly enough, when he saw me shortly after the incident, my dentist predicted that it would turn out to be a prolapsed disk.

Since it has taken this long to reach a diagnosis, during which time there has been no improvement, it seems the only recourse is surgery. Unless I opt to go the private care route (which I can't afford), there is likely to be a lengthy delay.

Now that I have been diagnosed, I have doctors tutting at me, saying "You must be in a lot of pain." Funny they should mention that, because that's what I've been trying to tell them for 4 months. It seems pain isn't taken seriously until it has been verified by a medical consultant. Your own claims to be in agony are probably just you trying to jump the NHS queue, or looking for attention, or trying to get your hands on drugs... or all of the above.

My best friend in high school became a surgeon. She is still my friend today, I wonder if she can be prevailed upon....

Nah. I guess that wouldn't be right. It's not quite the same as asking a mechanic friend to look at your oil filter, is it?

pic of the day - glass

One of the unfortunate but inevitable results of an economic downturn is an increase in vandalism as the dispossessed vent their anger. One of the ways in which this anger is expressed in my town (a town which was pretty low down the economic food chain to begin with, and has been hard hit) is that broken glass has appeared all over the pavements.

This photo was taken this morning as I walked my dog. It is one end of a pedestrian walkway between two houses. The entire walkway is so littered with glass shards as to make it almost impossible for an unshod, four footed beastie to avoid stepping on several. There is another area - the parking lot of a thoroughly vandalised, abandoned parade of shops - where the glass is so bad that, even with my agonised shoulder, I carry my 26kg dog for 20metres.

You might ask why I don't take a different route, to which I have to answer, to my sorrow, that every route to the park where I can let my dog off the leash for a few precious minutes is equally littered. The council assured me, when I phoned yesterday, that it would be cleared up within 24 hours.

It hasn't.

Sigh.

Stephen Downes: the monkeysphere

Stephen and I approach things from very divergent starting points, and I am simply not the polymath he is, yet we seem to share many hot buttons.

In this post, he vents his spleen about the current economic downturn.

Somewhere (I forget where) I heard that Stepehn has taught himself the art of 'one take' writing. The result of this is the odd typo and malapropism. The thing is, with his sense of humour, one can never be quite sure that the malapropisms, at least, are not intentional. For example, in this post, he refers to 'the idyll rich' which conjures up a wonderful image of people living in let-them-eat-cake-land, with absolutely no grounding in the reality of the life we lesser mortals face every day.

If I were to sum up the post, which would be to oversimplify it appallingly (so don't take my word for it), I would say that the Downes is looking at the situation and telling us: We've got to care about each other, dammit!

I concur. In fact, one of the reasons most people prefer to interact with me in small doses, is my propensity for climbing onto that soapbox at the least provocation.

The thing is that that much caring can be too much for a human mind to bear. Perhaps we have taken refuge in the monkeysphere in an act of self-preservation, in much the same way as the mind has the ability to take refuge in catatonia, or to shut off certain intolerable memories.

Perhaps.

But we ought at least to give it a shot, no?

LPoD - starting blocks

I have probably mentioned this more than once before, but, in my youth, I was a 400m sprinter. As was my husband. Not surprisingly, we have spawned a sprinter in our elder son. At the moment, his distance of choice is 200m. Fortunately he runs a good bend - absolutely critical if you're a 200m sprinter!

When my husband and I were competing (not against each other, of course), it was practically unknown for athletes of our age to use starting blocks. In fact, it was quite common for kids to run barefoot (remember Zola Budd? It was Africa, after all!).

Nowadays, even teenage sprinters use starting blocks when they run for a club. Our son has had to learn to set his blocks - something we were unable to advise him on. This was a new experience for us. Between us, we have been able to advise him on almost every other aspect of his sprinting: faster starts, best lanes, better strides, improved arm movements, shortening the bend, leaning into the bend, breathing, focusing the eyes, relaxing the neck and face so as not to divert energy from the arms and legs, head position, keeping your rhythm... you name it.

So we have been fascinated at this new arena. It seems that this is how a simple approach to setting your starting blocks:

• Place the knee of the rear leg opposite the instep of the front foot
• Move forward with the hands until the body weight is directly over the hands and the arms are vertical
• Ideally the angles of the legs in the "set" position should be: leading knee 90 degrees, rear knee, 120 degrees.

There are more mathematical ways of doing it, but I suspect you would be better off focusing on what works best for you, rather than on playing it by the numbers!

Take your marks....!