A first for NCI Learning and Teaching - Twitter makes its debut at #NCILT

I spent an enjoyable lunch time seminar at the Centre for Research in Learning and Teaching (CRILT) in NCI today where the topic of conversation was "What Makes a Good Teacher?". For the first time (to my knowledge) Twitter was used to get some preliminary questions and comments before the seminar. Though the vast majority of those attending do not use Twitter, there were  few of us discussing the points in back chat mode, plus a couple of our colleagues who could not physically attend were also commenting through Twitter. We had the Twitter feed on the seminar room wall. and though the feed was rather slow to update - it did I feel add to the proceedings. This type of Twitter activity at meetings and conferences is now well established all over the world.

For a change I decided to say nothing at the seminar, but to confine my comments to the Twitter medium. While it is hard to shut up (especially when the topic of conversation was so interesting), I did enjoy posting to the Twitter wall and reading the comments of others. The hashtag is #ncilt, and here is the feed:

Tweets about "#ncilt"

Back to Evening/Night Classes

For the past few academic years all my classes have been with full-time students during the day. Since the demise of NCI's learning technology postgraduate courses, I have not been given evening classes and I have to say I have missed working with part-time postgraduate students. 

Image source: Comedy Plus.

This evening, the first of two Higher Diploma in Data Analytics programmes begins at the National College of Ireland. From a student recruitment point of view, this has so far been a very successful programme for the College, we will have about 140 students divided into two classes - now all we have to do is deliver! This evening, the first group start off with the module Business Analysis and Problem-Solving Techniques which I will be teaching. I will have a class of 75 students - by far the largest part-time evening class I have ever had. The class is four hours long and starts at 18:00 hours. I think this is too long and should be split over two evenings, but the time-table Gods think otherwise. It will be a challenge for me to keep going for this amount of time and keep the interest up - it will equally be a challenge for my students to keep their interest up and stay awake. Many will have completed a day's work by the time they come to class at 18:00.

The Business Analysis module is based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) methodology. It is a new module for me to teach, though it is similar to a Business Systems Analysis module I teach on the Certificate in Business Analysis course. I even managed to get my book An Introduction to Business Systems Analysis onto the reading list for the module. I'm really looking forward to this module!

One thing teaching at night means is that since I will be working late, I will not be starting work until two o'clock in the afternoon. I have the morning to myself and am writing this post at home. I plan to spend the rest of the morning writing. 

10 Years in NCI Today

This time 10 years ago I started out on a career change after leaving the e-Learning company SmartForce the year before. I had some part-time work with NCI in late 2002 and early 2003, but became a full-time Lecturer in Computing on 18th August 2003.

Image source: Brand Style Design.

It has been a very enjoyable 10 years, I hope that the next 11 (to retirement at 65) will be just as enjoyable. I love the teaching part, and there is great academic freedom to investigate (also called "Research") things, plus I get to learn a lot of new cool things. Where else would I be allowed to blog, maintain a YouTube channel, read, and follow so much on the web. I have had a great variety of subjects from Statistics to Programming to teach. This coming semester I have another brand new module to teach: "Business Analysis", though I have taught a similar module in recent years.

The best part of each year is graduation where you see the results of each student's own efforts, and take a little bit of pride in our own role in getting them to this ceremonial end to their College days.

Here's to the next 10 years!

Back To Work with a Sharpened Axe!

It's lunch time on my first day back to work after holidays and time for a quick blog post. I have also not being posting very much during the holidays, so hopefully this will mark my return to regular blogging. The great thing about being a Lecturer is that we get longer holidays than most people. In my previous job with SmartForce we got a standard 22 days off per year, currently I get 31 days per year. Some Lecturers in the IoTs get even longer! Do we deserve this? Perhaps a topic for discussion before the end of the summer?



I have just spent the entire morning going through 5 week's of emails - there were over 800 to check through. Most were the various subscriptions that I simply deleted after a quick glance at the subject header. Most others were for news and events which have already passed by the time I read about them today. In the end there were only a few dozen that needed to be read and answered. College is fairly quiet anyway over the summer, so there was not too much to deal with.

The late Dr Steven Covey wrote about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His 7th habit is called "Sharpen the Saw" which he described as meaning "preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual". One simple interpretation of this is that people take their holidays to recharge their batteries. Many people claim to be too busy to sharpen their saws, but it is vital do do so so that you can remain effective and productive. You can read about Covey's Sharpen the Saw story here.

My Axe being sharpened! Image source: AxeSpecialists.com.

4th Year Project Showcase at the National College of Ireland (@NCIRL)

Today at the College we hosted a Showcase for the School of Computing 4th year students. For them it was their last event in the College as undergraduates. There were over 100 projects on show, and there were also over 30 representatives from industry - many who were looking to recruit. It was a very busy two hours where we heard keynote speaker Patrick McLaughlin of Oracle congratulate the students. He also told them it was a great time for IT students to be graduating, and also that they should continue to learn. He also mentioned that it was a good idea to move around different companies to get more experience!

We had some fantastic research projects, mobile apps, web sites, applications, and games on view. Our students can be very proud of their achievements - we are very proud of them at the College. While some have already secured employment, many are now setting out on the job hunting road - I wish them all the best of luck!

New Higher Diploma in Data Analytics at NCI

Today the Minister for Education Ruarí Quinn announced "760 ICT graduate skills conversion places" for graduates who wish to upskill in technology. These are level 8 Higher Diploma courses and range in subject areas from software development to cloud computing, details are available at www.ictskills.ie. The courses are free and will be run by higher educations institutes across the country. This is good news for both the HEIs and graduate students who are seeking employment. This is also good news for the National College of Ireland as we have been approved to deliver a Higher Diploma in Data Analytics for 50 students as part of this programme. It is a new programme that I have been involved with in developing over the past year.

The Higher Diploma in Data Analytics at NCI will include subjects such Statistics, Business Analysis, Programming for Big Data, and Data and Web Mining. "Big Data" is a term that has been around quite a while now and it is defined by Wipro as "data that is too large, complex and dynamic for any conventional data tools to capture, store, manage and analyse". The infographic below from Wipro is a nice summary of "big data" in healthcare. The figures on the map below are in petabytes (1,000,000,000,000,000 or a million gigabytes). Google alone processes about 24 petabytes per day according to Wikipedia - so there is a lot of data around!

I'm looking forward to meeting and maybe even teaching to the new students who will come onto this programme. It is a new area for NCI, and a new area for me.

Image source: Wipro.com.
Click image to enlarge for better view.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by @brianlucey #cornflakesandcommerce @MetroHMarketing @NCIRL

This morning's well attended Business Breakfast at NCI was presented by Professor Brian Lucey of Trinity College who spoke about the state of the Irish economy. Prof Lucey is an accomplished speaker and a well-known economist, and I (as a non-economist) was looking forward to hearing an informed State-of-the-Nation presentation (i.e., not one from a politician).

Image source: IMDb.com.

Prof Lucey got straight to the point and said that the biggest problem facing Ireland is "jobs". Though he suggests that we have reached the "bottom", we will still "bounce along the bottom for a while" yet.

The Good:

Exports, muted inflation, and the fact that the banks are not any more "rancid" than before. He called the banks the "rotten corpse" of the Irish economy. He suggests that to improve on these "good" things that Ireland should focus more on the SME sector rather than FDI. He even pointed out that the Greek economy is in a better shape than ours (if you forget their enormous debt). He also points out that Ireland has not yet experienced "austerity" (are you watching Sinn Féin?) - simply because we have exported it. I couldn't agree more.

The Bad:

The domestic economy is "on the ropes" and making very slow progress. The ugliest thing about the Irish economy is the unemployment level. Prof Lucey got really annoyed when talking about this as he sees a massive waste in educating and exporting our best people - he called this an "unspeakable economic crime". He also showed us some evidence that "HiTech" won't solve the problem - this was disappointing for me to hear as I had assumed that this sector was thriving and was the bright spot in the jobs market.

The Ugly:

As if we were not depressed enough by now, Prof Lucey spoke about the promissory notes to Anglo. I didn't know this, but he told us that this was basically "destroying money" instead of using it for other purposes. He also made the point that the problems in Ireland are not "just about the banks", and that the European Union cannot do a lot if we simply "walk away" from the Anglo debt.

Overall this was both a very interesting and a depressing talk, and very informative for less-knowledgeable people (like me). Prof Lucey was a passionate speaker, even mentioning "independence" and "1922". I had to leave before the end (to deliver a class), but I'm sure he got a great round of applause at the end. Well done also to the NCI Marketing Department for putting on such a great event.

Teaching and Learning in Further Education

Today I attended a short Conference at NCI on teaching and learning in the FE sector in Ireland. It is not a sctor that I am very familiar with, so I was keen to learn more about the sector and meet some of the teachers and practitioners that are the educators in this space.

Image source: The Hindu.

The first presentation was by our own Dr Leo Casey who got us thinking about learning as participation. He also decided to to talk to us about theories of learning, but instead of boring us to death with a re-telling of the established theories he spoke about the fact that "we all have theories of learning", and gave his his own take as a "lifelong stance" where we learn to remember, think, act, and participate. He also gave us an interesting thought about how "Alienation" and "Participation" actually feels, and how prior knowledge can help and/or hinder education. He finished up with discussing Communities of Practice, with a desire to set up a CoP for the FE sector.

The next speaker was Rory O'Sullivan from Killester College of Further Education who was both entertaining and informative. He gave us a great insight, backed up with s loads of statistics, about how the sector is structured and provided a fascinating look at the breakdown of student profile. He also spoke of the "language of unemployment" and how it must feel for the unemployed going "back to school". Rory was followed by Dr Arlene Egan who got us thinking about "Thinking", and who asked the question "How much space is available for thought to happen". Key to her discussion on participation was "mastery" and "autonomy" over a subject. Arlene is also an excellent speaker who did not use any notes or PowerPoint slides throughout. She also gave us a good tip at the end where she suggested we never say "but", say "and" instead.

The final presentation was a series of four short sessions on "Innovative Approaches" to T&L, in which I participated myself. First up was Tina Reddin who gave us some great ideas for using augmented reality (AR) in education. Frances Sheridan summarized a great initiative that she is involved in at NCI with first year students, and getting them to cope and participate more in their transition to third level education. I spoke about YouTube, and the session was brought to an end by Susan Duggan who told us about Service Learning, and in particular emphasized that we should look for evidence of "Reflective Learning" in student feedback.

Overall a very enjoyable half-day.

Reflections at the end of Semester I

Today is the last day before the Christmas break and it is the end of the first semester of the academic year. This was my tenth first semester since I joined NCI full time in August 2003 - modules taught were IT Project Management, Business Systems Analysis, Management Support Systems, Business Data Analysis, as well as some classes on 4th year projects.

The Business Data Analysis (statistics) class was the most challenging as I took this module over from a colleague who had left the College. I decided from the outset not to use other lecturers' notes as I prefer to create my own. This helps me get to know the subject a lot better and makes it easier to teach. It has not been since I was studying for my PhD in the 1980s that I had used statistics in any meaningful way. I also used marked weekly exercises in this class instead of tutorials and it seemed to work fairly well. It helped that the class were final year students who are keen to do well.

Each year I feel that the semesters are passing by quicker and quicker. While there is a lot of work preparing for classes and assessments, this too is getting easier for me. I have almost all continuous assessments for the semester graded (excellent results all round!). Students will be back in January for exams, so they will have a busy Christmas (hopefully) studying. I wish them all well.

President's Award for Innovation in Assessment

At the National College of Ireland Graduation ceremony on 22nd November last, I received an award for Innovation in Assessment from President of NCI - Dr Phillip Matthews. This award recognised my method of assessment in Project Management modules where I use the weekly tutorials for marked open-book exercises which assess student's knowledge of the most recent work covered in class. The tutorials are supported with my video channel, and I am available in class to help students through their work. This is a popular method of assessment with students as they prefer it to projects, essays, and presentations. What is not popular is that I don't tell them in advance which of the three hours a week I will hold the tutorial - this has a remarkable positive effect on attendance.

Yesterday I finally got my hands on a photo of the occasion - below I am receiving the award from Dr Matthews:

(Yes I know - I forgot to tuck my tie under the front of the gown!)

Graduation at NCI

Yesterday was Graduation Day at the National College of Ireland at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) and it was great to see former students dressed up in all their finery and academic gowns. The CCD is a super location for the ceremony which can be a bit stiff at times with all the Latin and formality, but it is one of my favourite occasions of the academic year.

Image source: gradireland.

Graduation comes at the end of a long road for most students. It is a proud day for all graduates as they accept their scrolls in front of their families. All have worked hard to get their degrees and diplomas, and to reach the end of this particular road on their life's journey. I wish all my former students the very best of luck with the rest of their lives, I am glad to report that almost all students I met yesterday had found jobs or were in postgraduate study.

Graduation Day is also a proud day too for all the staff of NCI. Seeing our students graduate makes me feel that the work we do is worthwhile, and that we live up to our Mission Statement:

To change lives through education.

Some Good Advice from James Caan about Job Interviews

Looking for work and taking part in interviews is one of the toughest things I've ever had to do. I don't think I ever felt 100% happy with my performance and in many ways I didn't see too much difference between the last two successful job interviews I had (here in NCI in 2003, and in CBT Systems/SmartForce in 1989), and other interviews where I did not get the job. In my time I have been the interviewer on many occasions and have seen people perform great in the interview, as well as others who were dreadful.

James Caan (not the actor!) offers some tips and advice on job interviews, especially to graduates - I wish I had his advice when I finished College, I might be Professor of Zoology in a University by now? In the video below, Caan gives us "Two killer questions to close the deal on a job offer", and some other advice. 

His videos are a must for any graduate seeking employment.

Keynote Lecture at NCI by Dr Jeff Ullman

Yesterday I attended a lecture entitled "Algorithm Design for Map-Reduce" by Dr Jeffrey Ullman, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University held in NCI. There was a very good attendance and Dr Ullman discussed (among other things) how mappers, reducers, joins, inputs, outputs, computation costs, communications costs, algorithms, and matrix multiplication work (covered in 62 slides in 60 minutes). All very important stuff I'm sure you'll agree.

Dr Jeffrey Ullman.
Image Source: www.ncirl.ie.

As I had no idea what "map-reduce" was before I went to the lecture I should have anticipated that there was a possibility that I might not know what the subject matter was all about and struggle to understand it. However, I had hoped to find out about this as I had been told that Google use this for PageRanking in searches and that I might get an insight into how it works. 

However, I am slightly embarrassed to report that I did not understand a word that Dr Ullman said during his lecture. I should have walked straight to the corner and put on a Dunce Hat.

I stopped taking notes after about 15 minutes as I had no clue as to what I was writing down. I'm sure that the content of the lecture meant a lot to many of the audience, but without actually explaining what Map-Reduce was I was lost within seconds of the start. Clearly this lecture was meant for a more specialist and knowledgeable audience than me. I am even more embarrassed to say that I Googled "map-reduce" after the lecture and found my true level with MapReduce for Dummies, after which I understood it a little bit better.

Today I attended part of the official opening of NCI's new Cloud Competency Centre. Dr Ullman delivered the keynote speech and this time was most interesting in discussing MOOCs and on-line education. Unfortunately I had to leave after about 15 minutes to go to a class, but the lecture was much more interesting to me than yesterday's one. 

National College of Ireland's new blog

NCI has recently launched a new blog - see blog.ncirl.ie. The by-line reads: 

"Welcome to the Faculty and Staff Blog at the National College of Ireland. Get to know us better through our posts, and join the conversation – we welcome comments and discussion!"

Image source: www.ncirl.ie.

Already there are interesting articles about Cloud Computing and Digital Marketing, with lots more to come. So bookmark/follow the NCI blog and learn more about us.

Adding a blog to an organization's web site is a great way to dig a little deeper into the organization. While the posts for the most part are not personal, they are of course written by individuals within the organization. Many organizations are now doing this and often invite guest posts from people outside the organization. It's a great way to see what customers really think, rather than the normal selected quotes and endorsements that we have seen in press releases. Real user experiences can be described in a bit more detail, and they also lend an air of authenticity to what is written. I'd like to see items like "A Day in the Life on an NCI Student" or even one for a Lecturer in the future on the NCI blog.

Keep on blogging!

Back to work...

The first day back at work is always a day to endure rather than get much done, no matter if it's one week or six. I spent most of the morning deleting emails - I do have far too many subscriptions to newsletters and web sites. 

Photo link to Irish Independent.

The best thing about today was watching Katie Taylor win her Olympic semi-final in the staff canteen (which was packed). Great support for Katie and we will all be rooting for her in the final tomorrow. Olympic Gold for a Wicklow girl coming up!

I also got a new laptop computer today! Pretty powerful 3D Intel i7 processor with 1TB of hard disk space. I had a lot of software to install, and data to copy over from my old laptop (which has served me almost 7 years). But....I have already got a Blue Screen of Death - hopefully that will be the last one for another 7 years?

Cork person holding my book

At work yesterday I was preparing a short presentation for next week's DIT e-Learning Summer School and I needed a graphic representing NCI. I'm sure there is a sample of graphics somewhere on the College's network, but I decided to try a Google image search instead. Looking through the search for something suitable I recognized Phil Chambers of the Business Analysts Association of Ireland in one of the images where he was featured in an article in the Cobh Edition On-Line Newspaper - NATIONAL COLLEGE OF IRELAND SAYS YES TO CORK. 

Image link to The Cobh Edition.

In 2010 we had planned to deliver the Certificate in Business Analysis (I teach one of the three modules) in Cork. Unfortunately we did not get enough students to run the course.

Anyway - I did not recognise the other two people in the photo which was taken in Cork for the May 26th 2010 edition of the Cobh Edition. However, on closer inspection I recognized the cover of my book An Introduction to Business Systems Analysis which is being held by the lady in the photo. I had not heard about this and missed my 15 seconds of fame in Cork.

The book has not sold well - about 400 to date since it was published in early 2010. However, I am pleased that it has raised just over €2,000 for the NCI Foundation in that time as I have donated all proceeds from book sales to the Foundation. This has mostly been from the College's allocation from the publisher (The Liffey Press), which is now sold out. I noticed recently that at the start of a new module that the Amazon Bestseller's Ranking of the book jumped from about 600,000 to about 74,000. It has fallen back to 478,122 today. Hopefully the course will run again next year and a few more will sell.

A Busy Week, but...

This week has been the busiest so far this Semester - and it was Reading Week in NCI! Reading Week is a peculiar time for me. Formally it means no classes, but in my case the College took the opportunity to get me to deliver an extra two day course for a Government Department (which was incidentally a very enjoyable experience - the reason why I am in this job).

Image link to redengine.ie.

Yet - I spent quite a bit of time this week checking the social media for reaction to Dr Paul Mooney's provocative article Inside third level from last Tuesday's Irish Times. Needless to say - this article provoked much conversation and anger at NCI's former President. His attack on the profession of Lecturers was felt personally by my colleagues and I, as his only time (that we are aware of) spent working at third level was as President of NCI. His article was a major talking point in the corridors of NCI all this week. As Professor Brian Lucey of UCD tweeted today "Haven't yet seen a single person come out saying they think Paul Mooneys allegations on universities is correct" - yet as I write this Dr Mooney's article has received 783 Facebook likes, 98 tweets, 18 Google+, and 278 shares. Clearly some people like his vitriol against us?

While thinking about Social Media, I am more concious than ever that people are watching. For example - I rarely have Twitter or Facebook on during working hours. I also am careful to post only education related blog posts during these hours. I have chosen to do this after a student complained that I had posted a "detailed blog post" while she was waiting for a response to an email. I fear being accused again of dossing.

Anyway - enough of this, I will write no more about what a bitter ex-president thinks of my profession. It's time for the weekend and some welcome rest after what I consider a busy week (even if PM accuses that this is a light workload).

A lecturer rejects the idea that his is a cushy job

Continuing on the theme of repudiating the bullshit emanating from Dr Paul Mooney, I read recently an item in The Irish Times "TO BE HONEST: An unheard voice in education" column where an unnamed lecturer writes A lecturer rejects the idea that his is a cushy job. This is apparently in response to a parent who complained about her son's lecturers. This lecturer felt "both angry and embarrassed" at our profession being "impugned as a cushy number". The author goes on to tell the uninformed mother that her son and other students should "be able to learn for themselves" and that "students to work without being spoon-fed". He/she also describes the hours that go into preparing and delivering lectures, and also grading assignments and marking exams.

Image link to University of Queensland.

In my own case this semester my largest class is just short of 200 students, while my smallest is just 19. This week (a four day week) I have marked over 200 continuous assessment tests/labs, prepared for next week's classes, answered several student queries, worked on a plan for a new programme, advised a student on his project for next year, and delivered 14 hours of teaching. This is what Paul Mooney calls a "light workload".

Professor Karl Whelan, a Lecturer in Economics in UCD, also responded to Paul Mooney this week in a blog post Paul Mooney: “Inside” Third Level? - he finds it "odd that an article with such a title can provide a description that is grossly at odds with even basic facts about how universities work". He could have been reading my mind as we have both posted similar articles on this subject. He also asks the question "How can someone claiming to be an insider produce such a misleading and distorted view of what happens in universities?". Unfortunately Prof Whelan describes NCI as "somewhat grandiously-named National College of Ireland" - however, he has made amends on Twitter when I challenged him on this:

Strong feelings all around - Paul Mooney wrote that it was his hope to be "controversial". He has certainly achieved that.

"a philistine mind at work"*

Former NCI President Dr Paul Mooney has a provocative and pretty vicious go at third level lecturers in an article "Inside third level" in today's Irish Times. In the article he says that "lecturers have light workloads, research pet projects that have no benefit for Ireland Inc, and management is poor". Of course he is entitled to his opinion, but I as a lecturer take grave exception to his unjust statements**.

Image link to Tandem Consulting.

Dr Mooney does accept that some lecturers are "brilliant teachers", however he does state that "lecturers are lazy and don’t update their material" (I understand that he has used the word "lazy" before in relation to lecturers). Dr Mooney has form in this - today's Irish Times is not the first time he has had a go at lecturers. Two years ago I reviewed his book "Accidental Leadership". In this review I wrote:

"I didn't know either what to make of the description of Academics as being either Minimalists or Status-Ticians (pp 74-75). As I was first reading this I turned the page to read what the next/third description was as I (honestly) didn't recognise myself as either of the above two - to my surprise there was no other type!".

Academic research comes in for particular attack. Dr Mooney claims that a "percentage of university lecturers are actually completing their own research for a PhD during work hours" - he forgets that a big majority of university lecturers already have PhDs. I suspect he is targeting Institutes of Technology and other Colleges where the percentage of PhDs is a lot lower. The funny thing is that I distinctly recall a staff meeting when he praised a certain NCI academic staff member who had just started a part-time PhD. Dr Mooney even supported the introduction of a "research day" for academic staff as part of an NCI submission to HETAC for a new PhD programme (which was approved). You can't have it both ways! He rubbishes research in Ireland as "not even close to reality".

Dr Mooney was President of NCI for three years - in the article he had a go at management in third-level. I do partially agree with his stance on performance management at third level (I have written about this before on this blog), however - I do not recall any attempt by him to initiate reform in this in NCI. He wants to increase the amount of teaching from 24 to 36 weeks - forgetting that students will also be opposed to this.

I am wondering about the motive for this diatribe against lecturers two years after he left NCI - read the full article and judge for yourself. I am a Lecturer, so naturally I will not like what he has written. Clearly, this has been a bug-bear of his both during and after his time as President of NCI. I feel personally insulted by the article, in my opinion it also insults NCI, and finally it insults the hundreds of Lecturers in Ireland who do a good job.

* this post title is a direct quote from Dr Mooney's article in today's Irish Times
** all opinions expressed in this post are my own, and are not intended to represent the opinion of anyone in NCI

Corn Flakes and Commerce with Damien Mulley at NCI

This morning I attended a very interesting breakfast event at NCI which featured Damien Mulley - Ireland's best known social media expert. 

Damien Mulley.
Image link to Mulley.net.

He talked to us mostly about digital media in relation to advertising. I have attended a few talks by him and he always strikes me as a person who is bursting to tell you stuff about what he does.

The main theme was that current advertising on the likes of Facebook and Google is "cold" and very "numbers driven". It lakes the creativity that TV and radio advertising has - being mostly text based advertising. He showed us some neat tools such as the Google Keyword Search tool to find out what is being searched for, and more importantly - what you would use this information for. He also showed how Google Analytics can show us lists of keywords that can be beneficial to a business. Overall his message was that there is a lot more room for creativity in advertising.

This was also a significant event for me in that it was the first time I took notes with my iPad using Note Taker HD. Earlier this week I bought an iPad compatible stylus and I used it to write notes rather than using my finger. It's a little awkward at first, but I found it useful and will continue to develop my skills in writing with a stylus. No more paper?