A Waste of Money by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council?

A new bicycle counter has recently been installed by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) on the Rock Road in Booterstown. This morning I was the 206th cyclist to pass by this gadget (and the 5,650th this year!). So I naturally I stopped to take a photo and ponder the value of this gadget to me, to DLRCC, and to Society as a whole.

I'm #206!

The country is nearly broke, but yet there's money for cycle counters? What do the rate payers, and the soon to be household-charge payers of Dún Laoghaire, think of this use of their money? Would this money not be better spent on something more urgent (eg - everything else in the Council's budget)? DLRCC's website states that the council seeks to: 

"cultivate a cycling culture, through the implementation of appropriate infrastructure and promotional measures, that positively encourages all members of the community to cycle at all life stages and abilities as a mode of sustainable transport that delivers environmental, health and economic benefits to both the individual and the community"

So that's what it's for! There's another one outside UCD - perhaps a competition between the Stillorgan Road and the Rock Rock will promote cycling even further. But this could lead to cheating - I bet those folks up in Stillorgan would cycle around the counter a few times to get the numbers up!

Seriously - while this might in some way promote cycling, I think the money could be better spent elsewhere. For example, just past this counter the lead up to the Merrion gates is very dangerous for cyclists who want to turn right (as I do) over the railway. Perhaps a painted cycle track would be useful? This morning, despite me signalling with an out-stretched arm in plenty of time to turn right, a woman in a big BMW refused to let me cross to the right lane and kept on driving. The inevitable happened as seconds later I passed her out (resisting the temptation to give a 2-fingered salute) as she had to queue for the Gates while I cycled up to the top of the traffic.

The most valuable information to me from this gadget is that it was a balmy 14C and 8.45am - meaning that it was warm and that I was running late for work!

"Chatterbox" by The Irish Times

I discovered yesterday that I got a mention on the Irish Times' Chatterbox feature in Tuesday's paper (13th March)! Chatterbox is a "What’s the talk of education" series, and on Tuesday it quoted from one of my recent posts: How Qualified is your Lecturer. It's nice to think that someone in the Irish Times office read my post and found it suitable for publication (or maybe it was a bot doing a Google search?). Small little things like this keep me going!

As a result of this I have been invited to debate this topic in an upcoming Seminar in DIT - more about this when it happens.

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?

The "Candy Woman" at Junk Kouture

Junk Kouture is an all-ireland competition for second level students, where they are challenged to create High Fashion Couture outfits from old every day junk. My daughter Vicki has created an outfit called "Candy Woman" which is modelled by her friend Maria below:

Screen grab from Junk Kouture.

This is a fantastic idea that is sponsored by ERP (European Recycling Platform) this year. I understand that there are 80 finalists in Leinster alone - the East Regional Final takes place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown on 18th March next.

You can vote for Vicki here - I have already voted (twice!). All support for her efforts is gratefully appreciated - every vote counts!

Cycling in Dublin on my "Motherfucking Bike"

I usually alternate between taking my bicycle or my motorbike to work. The distance is 10km and it usually takes about 25 minutes on the bicycle, or 20 minutes on the motorbike. As either a cyclist and/or a motorcyclist, I get a great view of the road behaviour of my fellow two-wheelers - this is because I get right to the top of the traffic lights every time. I rarely see motorcyclists breaking red lights (I never do this), but I see cyclists doing it all the time (I sometimes do - especially pedestrian-only lights). According to a survey of cyclists conducted by Semperit Tyres, and reported on in The Journal, "21 per cent were using footpaths, 19 per cent broke red lights and 14 per cent went against the flow of traffic". I laugh at that "19 per cent" figure for breaking red lights - clearly a high percentage of cyclists lie as well! I'd say it is closer to 19% who DON'T break the lights. Dublin cyclists are very good at wearing high-viz jackets, and most are also using flickering front and rear lights - but there are still many who do neither.

Attitude among cyclists is clearly different from everybody else - as far as many are concerned, the rules of the road do not apply to them, and they won't be caught anyway doing wrong. No wonder it seems like a war between car drivers and cyclists, every morning and evening. I see parents taking great care with their young children who are on bikes going to school - wearing helmets, waiting for traffic lights, etc. But this does not translate into good behaviour when the kids grow up, or for the parents after they have dropped off the kids to school.

Here's a YouTube video called "Motherfucking Bike" by the Sons of Science - it's funny, but clever. See if this reminds you of any cyclist on Dublin's roads...

New YouTube videos this week

Earlier this week I posted four new videos to my YouTube Channel - all are related to Time Series Analysis, and the use of Moving Averages to "smoothen" data and to predict future behaviour. This is the first time I have posted four videos together - two are in my Problem-Solving Techniques playlist, and two are in my How To... playlist.

Apart from sometimes teaching it in class, I have only ever used Time Series Analysis once - it was for my final year project as an undergraduate student in Trinity in 1983 when I studied tidal rhythms in the shore crab Carcinus maenas (L.) - I self-published a paper on this in 2008 (see here for details). My supervisor, Dr John Alrich, suggested using time series analysis on data I had collected for Oxygen consumption rhythms  in the shore crab, and he also pointed out that my charts would look "smoother" - here's an example of the results of one of my experiments using a three point moving average:

Percentage oxygen decrease over time

I don't expect these videos to attract as much attention as some of my others (they have 90 views so far between them in a week), but hopefully some people will find then useful.

Playing Cricket

Yesterday I played cricket for the first time ever. Currently there are many Indian students in NCI and they, along with some others, have set up NCI's first ever cricket club. They challenged staff to a cricket match which took place today at Pembroke CC in Sandymount. Having not ever played cricket before, but having played rounders, softball, golf, and hurling - how tough could hitting a cricket ball be? After all - I have seen it on TV! Ian "Beefy" Botham makes it look easy, so I fancied myself to have a go.

Not Eugene O'Loughlin,
but Ian "Beefy" Botham.
Image link to the Daily Mail.

The students batted first, and I was sent out to the boundary to field. The match was a 10-over each game, and while I was fielding the ball came to me twice. The students ran up a score of 68 for their 10 overs and I was bored. However, I did get to bowl for our last over. Following a quick lesson from the wicket keeper, I was Shane Warne for a few minutes. I bowled "two wides" and two "no balls" for four runs, but I was pleased that I only had three runs scored off the other six balls. So I was "7 for 0" - as we cricketers say!

It did not take long for the students to demolish our batting. I was eight in the order and at last my moment came. I picked up a cricket bat for the first time ever and went into the nets to practice. I did OK, hit most balls that were bowled at me, and I thought - here comes my "Beefy" moment. I walked up to the crease hoping to give a good account of myself. The first ball that was bowled at me I missed by the width of the Indian sub-continent. Luckily it missed the wicket and I had another go. I missed the second ball by the width of the Indian Ocean, but was still "not out". But the third ball hit the stumps smack in the middle, and I had missed by a margin only just wider than the bowler's smile as he dismissed me for a "duck". My 15 minutes of cricket fame lasted about two minutes! I was so disappointed to be out without even hitting the ball.

The Indian students were great sports and helped us a lot. In the end we were all out for 40 runs, but I can safely say that all had a good time - for most of us it was our first time playing cricket. The students sportingly gave us some practice with the bat after the game and this time I managed to hit a few balls. And it felt good.

How qualified is your lecturer?

This is not just a question for NCI students, but for all third-level students in Ireland. Gráinne Faller writes in yesterday's Irish Times and asks the question: How qualified is your lecturer? In the article, she summarises some of the statistics for the percentage of Masters and Doctorates among the Universities, and Institutes of Technology (IoTs) in Ireland. 

Image link to Management Scholars Academy.

It turns out that the Universities have a high percentage of Academic staff who have PhDs, ranging from 92% in NUI Maynooth, to 61% in UL. In IoTs the figures are much lower - eg, 30% in DIT and 14% in Limerick IT.  Are you shocked by these figures (read more in Faller's article)? In NCI there are 13 full-time academic staff with PhDs (that I am aware of) - this is over a third of total full-time Faculty. As far as I know nearly all the rest have Masters.

My PhD was awarded by The University of Dublin (Trinity College) for my research into the biology of molluscs - not ideal preparation for teaching Project Management and Business Analysis you might say. So is a PhD necessary to teach at third level?

My answer to this is "Yes, but...". There are a lot of postgraduate students coming out of the Colleges - they have spent many years preparing for a career in Academia. People teaching on honours degree programmes should have at least a Masters, preferably a PhD. Anyone teaching at postgraduate level should have a PhD. But... there are not enough to go around - Ireland needs to educate more students to PhD level. A PhD does not make you a good teacher, but I believe it is a good starting qualification to work in this sector. There are also excellent teachers who do not have a PhD and are doing a great job - many have a lot of experience outside of Academia that will add greatly to a learning experience for students. The trick is to get the mix right.

So it is not an easy question to answer, but if "Ireland Inc" is to have a better education sector, then the percentages will have to go up - and by a lot.

At the Dentist

There's always a nervousness when going to the dentist. I had a slight dart of pain in one tooth and decided to check it out. I have been attending the wandering Frank Dillon for several years now - first in Monkstown, then Henry Street, and now in Clonskeagh. Frank has just set up at 105 Clonskeagh Road (beside Bombay Pantry), and is open for business. 

Image link to fddental.net.

Frank is an Apple Mac mad dentist - he loves the shiny white computers, they match the shiny white walls, and shiny white furniture. Everything is really white. Thankfully he did not get a chance to use his shiny white drill on me!

Frank also loves to talk computers and technology, and I finally felt that I was on a par with him by owning an iPhone and an iPad. He did show me a new application for dentists called Tooth Suite - this is based in the cloud and is designed to save dentists a lot of money. I never would have thought it - Cloud Computing comes to the dental surgery!

Davy Jones, The Monkees, and Nostalgia

Sad news this week of the death of Davy Jones of The Monkees. I can't say I was a fan of his after his Monkees days, but he, Mike, Mickey, and Peter were very much part of my growing up in the late 1960s. The Monkees TV show (1965-1968) was a must for the O'Loughlins to watch every week - we never missed an episode and laughed at every corny joke and stupid play-acting that the boys got up to. Because of their TV show, I was more aware of The Monkees than The Beatles. I didn't have a favourite (only girls did that!), but Davy was often the funniest. At that time I didn't know the difference between Americans, English, and Irish - so I didn't notice that he was the "English guy". I searched YouTube for a good quality video of The Monkees TV Show theme, but this was the best I could get:

At only 66 years of age, he died before his time. I watched a biography about him on the Biography Channel (made in 2008) last evening. At the end of the programme he says "You're going to have to give me a shot to put me away, I'm going to be bothering you all for a long time yet" Sadly, this is not to be.

Ten seconds into the above video is the scene where The Monkees run towards the sea, but turn around when they reach the water. I, and am sure millions of other kids at the time, used to do this at the beach just like The Monkees. Great fun!

Davy Jones RIP.

How would you like to go to MIT – for free?

Well - you will be able to later this year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be offering free on-line courses to anyone, anywhere in the world, through its new digital arm, MITx. Margaret Wente writes in Canada's Globe and Mail - We’re ripe for a great disruption in higher education. MIT expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world (see press release from MIT about this here). MIT leading the way again!

Image link to Wikipedia.

Wente writes about the "disruption" that what MITx is doing will cause in a time of reduced resources at higher levels of education. She asks: 

"...do we really need 10,000 professors in 10,000 classrooms lecturing on the same subject? Why not let students watch the best explainer in the world explain calculus or physics – online, on their own time – and use local professors to work in smaller groups with students?".

In other words, choose your courses from different locations in your own time, and get the best learning experience possible. I'd certainly be all for this as a student, but perhaps not as an educator - mostly because it could cost me my job. However, Wente proposes that we have reached the "end of the line" with the old model of third-level education as funding cuts everywhere bite harder. She finishes her article by stating that Colleges "need to disrupt themselves, or be disrupted, to survive". I couldn't agree more - I do believe that there will soon be a class of qualification that is separate from our regular degrees, perhaps an "International Degree" that might ultimately be more useful to employers than a locally sourced full-time degree.

What Will They Think of Next?

Today I was checking out ticket availability on Ticketmaster for tomorrow's football match between the Republic of Ireland and the Czech Republic (turns out I will not be finished work on time to go). Ticketmaster are experimenting with a neat new "Choose your seats with the interactive seat map!" tool which is still in beta. It lets you know what seats are available in each section of the ground so that you can book any of the free seats. Nothing new in this - theatres and cinemas have been doing this for a long time.

Click to enlarge.
Screen capture from Ticketmaster.ie.

But what's really cool is that they have included Facebook. If a Facebook user books a seat (and they agree to allow Ticketmaster to access their information) they will be flagged a Facebook user who has bought a seat - you can see who is sitting near you, or if any of your "friends" are in the ground. In the screen shot to the left I can see that there are 7 Facebook users in block 522. AND - you can see their seat numbers! So you can choose to sit near a "friend" (or not).

Down with this sort of thing!
Image link to feck-yeah-fatherted.tumblr.com.

But do we want "this sort of thing"? This is a clever use of Facebook, and no doubt we will be seeing lots more of it - before you know it there will be Facebook users all over the place. You can't even go to a football match to get away from it now! There's bound to be people "agin' it".

But I'm all for it - great use of technology. I'm not to worried about any privacy issues that might arise - think about it, you'll be at a football match with 40,000 other people. It doesn't get more public than that!

How Will Web Learning Stack Up?

Alan Jacobs, writing in The Atlantic, asks the question: MIT Online vs. Your Local College: How Will Web Learning Stack Up? This is a thoughtful article that poses the question at a time when more and more Colleges and Universities are making their courses available on-line for anyone to view. Excellent classes, but no course fees, and crucially - no certification. Will employers value such education?

Image link to Atomic Robotics.

Is a potential employee, who claims to have completed a free open course at MIT, better/same/worse than a graduate with a parchment representing a degree in their hand? 

Jacobs also questions whether current practice of "universities that have sought an online presence have tended to put their best lecturers online -- the people with the most dynamic personal presences" is wise. Are we going to get the best teachers all the time? If a lecturer or teacher is crap in the classroom, they'll likely be crap on-line too? Will people learn from on-line lectures? The National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine, state that average student retention rates for lectures is just 5% after 24 hours. Unless you take notes and revise, you will forget 95% of what you hear! This may be true in the on-line environment too?

However, I do think the day will come when students will be able to take modules from different locations on-line - and get accreditation for it. Imagine a degree programme today with 30 modules all delivered in the same College changing to 30 modules from 30 of the best teachers from the 30 best Universities?

Potentially - 30 people could teach every student in the world, for a computer science degree! Imagine that!

Singing in the Rain - Palace Theatre

Yesterday we brought my sister Kayo to the Palace Theatre in London to see the musical "Singing in the Rain" for her 50th, 40th, 30th, 21st birthday. This was of course made famous by Gene Kelly in the 1952 movie of the same name.

What a show! Fantastic dancing and singing throughout. Highlights were the wonderful ends to both the first act and the show. Real water falling onto the stage made for a wet dancing sequence - the first few rows got splashed. Great performances all around - especially from Adam Cooper as Don Lockwood (the role made famous by Gene Kelly). Kayo loved the evening and it was great for me to see her enjoying the show so much. 

As a flavour for what we saw - check out the following official trailer on YouTube:

Chelsea 3 Bolton Wanderers 0

Saturday in London and what better way to spend the afternoon than going to the pub for a few scoops and then going to a football match with my brother Brian and Chris F. Today I went to see only my second ever Premier League game in England - Chelsea against Bolton at Stamford Bridge. Before the game we had a few beers in a local pub called The Pelican. We had been refused entry to another pub closer to the ground because our match tickets were not for "Home" supporters. Nevertheless we enjoyed our beer in The Pelican before heading up to the game.

First half, which ended 0-0, was a bit boring. Not much happening, and the crowd were also quiet. We were with the Bolton fans - awkward for Brian and Chris who are both Chelsea fans. It's impossible not to take sides at a football match and I was impressed by both Brian and Chris's ability to stay quite each time Chelsea scored in an easy 3-0 win. For a day we were Bolton fans - a place I have never been.

Goals by Luiz, Drogba, and Lampard secured Chelsea's win. A highlight for us was seeing Torres coming on for the last 15 minutes or so during which he did very little. Best for Chelsea were Lampard, Essien, and Drogba. Bolton were outclassed and are surely bound for relegation on this form. 40,999 were at the game, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Quizmaster

This evening I was quiz-master for Killiney Lions Club who were raising funds for a local school - in total the quiz raised just over €1,000. There were 15 tables, with the winning team scoring a brilliant 92/100 - a group of teachers who clearly found the quiz very easy. The lowest score was 42/100. I thought the quiz might have been a bit hard, but I think it hit the right mix of sport, gossip, history, geography, politics, and news.

Most people found round 2 to be the most difficult - here are the ten questions, see how you get on:

1	By what name is Great Britain Street in Dublin now known as?
2	In January 2005 a landmark was reached when a song called "One Night" became the 1,000th song to reach number one in the UK singles chart. Who was the singer?
3	Which two GAA clubs, one in Kerry and one in Dublin, are named after the same Archbishop?
4	In which song by The Beatles would you find the following lines? In a couple of years they have built a home sweet home, With a couple of kids running in the yard, Of Desmond and Molly Jones
5	Name any one of actress Elizabeth Taylor's husbands OTHER THAN Richard Burton.
6	What part did Irish actor Devon Murray play in the "Harry Potter" series of movies?
7	How many pieces are there in total on a chequers (draughts) board?
8	What city is the capital of Peru?
9	Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants - by what common name do we know this better as?
10	In the human body, where would you find your Pituitary Gland?

My Author Page on Amazon

Today I discovered that book authors can set up their own Profile Pages on Amazon - so I did.

My (only) book - An Introduction to Business Systems Analysis, now has a Visit Amazon's Eugene O'Loughlin Page link to which I've added my photo, a short Bio, and my Twitter (@eoloughlin) feed. 

Interesting that Amazon allows this - of course I had to log on and authenticate that I am the author. This is a good idea in my view as it gives more information to potential buyers about book authors. Personalization of the web takes another step forward!

Over-coming tough times at College

In August 2009, I wrote about climbing a mountain and comparing the experience to life in College in my blog post Climbing a mountain - reflections on Croagh Patrick and going to College. In the post I described how I felt as I climbed the mountain and how I felt when I reached the top - I compared reaching the top to graduation.

An exhausted Eugene on top of
Croagh Patrick, August 2009.

What I really didn't articulate is how tough it can sometimes be to get to the top of the mountain. Nobody tells you that College is easy - if they do, they did not go to College themselves and you would be foolish to listen. Today - many Colleges are approaching half-way through the second semester. This is a tough time - it's still a long way to the end of the year, and it is also a long time since the semester 1 exams which can be forgotten very quickly. In NCI - this week is #4 - still along way to go. It is a particularly tough time for first year students who may be wondering if they made the correct decision to take the course they are on - suddenly, an "easier" course may have been a better choice?


Sure - there are tough times to overcome. A difficult lab, boring lectures, continuous assessment, deadlines, studying - all get in the way of shag week, rag week, and bag week (OK - I invented "bag week"), and a game of pool in the Student's Union (table football was my game).


But....


...that's part of College - the lab that you haven't a clue what's going on, the lecture that is not in a language that you can understand, the class you missed because the bus was intercepted by aliens, the 5,000 word essay that you have to write by 5 o'clock tomorrow, the group project that your team-mates are wondering if you will contribute to, the "My parents know shit" feeling, the Java programme that just won't compile without errors, the file that you saved but can't find again, the calculation in Excel that just won't work 'cos Excel is stupid, the fecking dog that keeps eating your assignments, the fact that your friends in class seem to be breezing through everything, the lecturer who refuses to explain to you what next week's test is about (you missed the class when he/she already did this), the exam hint you missed 'cos you were late for class, the book you want from the library has ten other people in the queue ahead of you to borrow, the "Shit - I'm going to fail" moment, the "WTF was I thinking when I put Computer Science as my #1 CAO selection" moment. Nobody said it would be easy - it's not meant to be.

Image link to Sweet Caroline Blog.

But then there are the good days - you get your assignment in on time, suddenly Excel "understands" what you want to do, at last a Lecturer makes sense, the "Maybe Mom was right after all" moment, the smile and relief on your parents faces when you tell them you have passed your exams, you miss a lab but attendance wasn't taken that day, a lecturer gives you a hint for the exams, a class actually makes sense, the book is available, you understand what's going on, lab work is not so tough, the "maybe I got the CAO selection right" moment, the "WTF - I might pass this year" moment.


Another course or another option might look great right now, certainly easier. But is it the right thing for you? We all have to overcome tough things in life at some stage - just like climbing a mountain, there are easy bits and hard bits. There are no short cuts, and there is no way to the top without hard work.


Don't give up.

"Analytics users: We love you" - YouTube

Over the past couple of weeks, YouTube has been posting messages in the Analytics page about difficulties they are having with the processing of data. I have noticed that they have been up to a week behind in displaying data - they have always been at least a day, sometimes two, behind. This just shows that even YouTube, which has the power of Google behind it, is having difficulty processing the massive amounts of big data that are being accumulated by YouTube on a daily basis.

Here's today's message, and note in the chart the gap in the line for missing data:

Analytics users: We love you. We are just going through a bit of a rough patch. The missing data for the 13th will be restored shortly. It had some irregularities so we temporarily skipped it to get you the rest of your data faster. Thank you for your continued patience.

Interesting Post by George Siemens (@gsiemens)

Most of us know the feeling of not getting a job that we had applied for - especially not nice when you know you could have done the job very well and would have had a lot to offer. In Academia, you cannot hope to get anywhere unless you have a publication record - if another candidate has 100 peer reviewed journal publications, and you have only a handful, you have no chance - no matter how good a teacher you are.

George Siemens.
Image link to Jay Cross blog.

I have been "following" George Siemens for over 10 years - in fact I started when I was still with SmartForce. My first ever Skype call was with him! Last week, George wrote a very personal post Rejected: On being disappointed, sorta. This followed his unsuccessful bid to get a senior academic position in another College - he writes that a reason for his rejection was that his "profile doesn't include sufficient traditional peer-review journal publications". George has not been active in research publications, preferring instead "conference presentations, blogging, open courses, and interactions online" - I regard him as world-class at this. When I grow up I want to be like him!

As NCI is mostly a teaching College, I am not under any pressure to publish research papers in journals or anything else. My modest list of 18 publications (including Conference papers) is located here. I have no research papers in the pipeline, this is because I am not engaged in any research. I have not applied for any research funding for some time, even when I did, I was never successful. Like George Siemens - my focus is on the on-line environment and my two main activities - this blog, and my YouTube channel. These activities actually take up a lot of time, both inside and outside of work. Sadly - output like 800 posts on my blog, and over 800,000 viewers on my educational channel, does not count at all in Academia. I have heard in the past that the average number of readers of academic published papers is 2 (yes TWO). I'm certain that George Siemens has thousands of readers - so I hope he keeps this up rather than start to work on research papers that hardly anyone will read.

I have not applied for a job for some considerable time. In fact recently, I had to dig out my CV so that it could be included in a new programme development document at NCI. I once applied for a Lecturer in Computing position in my alma mater Trinity College. I got the rejection letter within two days of applying - no doubt screened out immediately as not suitable due to a very poor publication record. For the last job I applied for - a management position in an Institute of Technology, I actually made it to the final short list of three. Publications mattered not a jot - I lost out to another (who I know, and is doing a great job) who at the time did not have a PhD. Go figure.

As long as I can hang on to my position in NCI, I will not worry too much about peer-reviewed publications. But this lack of research activity will almost certainly prevent me from getting another academic position in another College where the measure of performance is the number of papers published - not teaching ability.

My Dad on RTÉ's Mooney Show

On Thursday last my Dad Joe was a quiz contestant on the RTÉ Radio 1 Mooney Show which was broadcast live from Kilkenny. Before he got to answer the quiz, Derek Mooney and he had some banter during which Dad was persuaded to sing. He obliged with the first line of his favourite song "The Mountains of Mourne", for which he got a deserved great cheer. He was unlucky with some of the questions and didn't win - but he got a nice runners-up prize of a €150 voucher. The full radio show can be heard here, and the section with Dad is about 1 hour and 9 minutes after the start. 

Below I have extracted the 3 minute and 20 second section that features Dad. I did this simply by playing the podcast of the show and recording it (probably illegal) using Audacity through my microphone - hence the slightly poor sound quality. Dad's great sense of humour shines out - enjoy!

I Have a Harley - Come at me Bro!

Just heard about Facebook "meme" and that NCI "has" a meme page. Some funny stuff here - check it out. Perhaps this could take the place of feedback?

Anyway - there is a picture of me (Me Me?) on this Facebook page, I "liked" it earlier this evening. Fame at last?

I enjoy this ripping the piss - I make no secret of the fact that I am a Harley rider and I boast tell my new students about this as part of the introduction to new modules. Perhaps it is an effort to score some "cool" points with my students before I get boring with syllabus content.

Well done to the student who managed to take my Blog photo and paint out the background using transparency to put my mug shot on the image - must have being paying attention at multimedia class! This photo is also hanging in the College Boardroom as it is my "formal" photo for the Governing Body of the College.

I believe that "Come at me bro" is an expression from a TV programme called Jersey Shore - a programme I have never watched.

I genuine "LOL" moment!

Smurfit Business School, and eBay

Today I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at two events outside NCI. The first was at mid-day in the Smurfit Business School where I was invited to speak to a class of MSc students. The purpose was really about eliciting requirements - a key part of what a business analyst does. There were about 25 students in the class and they seemed to enjoy the lecture, and participated well in the tasks I set.

In the afternoon I visited eBay in Blanchardstown to take part in a video conference about business analysis. On-line were folks from Salt Lake City, Delhi, London, Prague, and Zurich - as well as about 15 analysts from eBay and Paypal. The role of the Business Analyst was a central theme to the conference.

Visiting eBay was exciting - they have such fantastic gear for video conferences. Smurfit have Apple TV boxes in their lecture theatres. How the other half lives.

Valentine's Day

Public declarations of love are a bit naff - so I'll not do it here. St Valentine's Day (SVD) is named after a saint that nobody knows anything about - except that he was born on February 14th. According to Wikipedia, there were several St Valentines and that is is "uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name".

Antique valentine's Card.
Image link to Wikipedia.

I think my most memorable SVD was the first one that I bought a card for someone (Roma!) in 1981. I had been preparing her with proclamations that I didn't believe in this shite, it was all invented by Hallmark, and sure it was just a racket to get us to spend money on cards, roses, and chocolates. I also probably felt that it was not a macho thing to do to be spouting declarations of love, though it was most likely that I was just too shy to do it.

My sister (Kayo) persuaded me that I should stop this nonsense and go and get her a card, roses, and go around to her place to give them to her. She was very persuasive and after some thought I went out and bought a card and a single red rose (all I could afford). At that time I had a Honda CD 175 with a carrier box on the back. I put the card in, but the rose wouldn't fit without breaking - so I left it at an angle and placed the lid of the box on top without shutting it fully. Feeling a bit of an eejit I headed off to Roma's flat. When I arrived, to my horror the card was gone - blown out of the partially opened box. The rose was still there. To this day Roma  jokes about the card blown away in the wind - thankfully she didn't dump me on the spot. I also hope that somebody picked up the card from the road and made good use of it.

Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) has published some new reports and announcements today that could potentially affect everybody in the higher education sector. The main headlines are that they want institutions to merge and for regional clusters to be set up. While there is no specific mention of the National College of Ireland, it is clear that the future for all third level colleges and universities, including NCI, will be different from what it will be now.

The Economist (1994) takes
a dim view of mergers.
Image link to Educated Nation.

Where does all this leave NCI? Well - the first thing is to respond to the HEA, they have given all colleges six months to come up with a plan. After this they will no doubt implement what they intended to do anyway. They have even gone so far as to suggest what some regional clusters should look like. They are warning that they will not continue to fund Colleges which fail to act. NCI has a unique mission in providing access to education in the city centre of Dublin - but this may not be enough to save us if what the HEA is saying is to be believed. We could end up merged with DCU or DIT, or be forced to go our separate way as a private College without state funding. Who knows? My own sense is that the College will exist for many years to come, but the landscape in which it resides may dramatically change.

From my own point of view, the mention of the word "merger" sends shivers down my spine. I have been though one before - SmartForce and SkillSoft in 2002, and it sucked. What was billed as a large company (SmartForce for whom I worked) taking over a small company (SkillSoft) ended up being the reverse. In 2002 I was a company man who wanted to stay in SmartForce for ever - leaving never entered my mind. But when the SkillSoft "executive team" took time off from their world tour (using a private jet) to speak to the SmartForce staff for 60 seconds in September 2002 - I knew it was time to leave and I did. One asshole person called "Checky" (not real name!) - even had the effrontery to tell us all how much he admired us and how great we were, right before jobs cuts were announced a few minutes later. If there are any ex-SmartForce folks reading this - sorry if I offend, but this was how I saw it. 

Mergers will not be easy - some people are "protected" by the Croke Park agreement (I am not). Closing down campuses and ending courses for efficiency and non-duplication reasons will cause trouble. Unions won't take this lying down, and there are a lot of people already worried for their jobs. Students shouldn't worry as they can be reassured by the last paragraph from the Letter to Presidents on National Strategy from the HEA:

We all share a common objective – a high quality higher education system that puts the interests of students first, meets their needs and the social and economic needs of the country.

A tough time for the Greeks

Though we are moaning a lot in this country about cutbacks, higher taxes, fat-cat salaries, emigration, and anything else we can think of, I'm instead thinking of the Greek people again today as their Parliament debates whether to accept the latest austerity package and bailout terms.

The Greek National Flag
(Image link to Wikipedia)

Much is being made of the role of Germany in the Greek crisis. A Greek newspapers has (unfairly) depicted Angela Merkel as a Nazi - see here for a look at an article and photo from the Washington Post about this. Nasty stuff! Equally, there are probably people in Germany wondering why they are paying to bail out the Greeks.

But it is the ordinary people of Greece who are suffering most in this fiasco. They are being made to pay for the grievous sins of their politicians and bankers - no wonder they are letting their anger out on the streets. I recall my first ever visit to Greece which was in late 2004 after the Athens Olympics and their football team had won the European Championship - they were on top of the world and I'm sure it was a great time to be Greek. While it must be tough to be Greek now, ordinary Greek people must never give up - they are a very resilient people who will rise again.

At Mass today there was a mention of the "Greeks" during the second reading:

Never do anything offensive to anyone - to Jews or Greeks or to the Church of God; just as I try to be helpful to everyone at all times, not anxious for my own advantage but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 1O:31-11:1).

Think about it.

My third iPhone

Got my new iPhone 4S today - it's my third iPhone! I have been looking forward to this for some time. On 22nd September 2008, I got my first one - a freebie from O2 (and of course I blogged about that here).

Apple iPhone 4S.
Image link to HotHardware.com.

I'm looking forward also to use the new features - particularly SIRI. My first effort was to try to write a text message by voice - I said "Text Message" and it played "Across the Universe" by The Beatles. Cool, but wrong! I then tried "Hey Jude" and it started Facetime with my home land line. Next I tried "Reminder - 10 o'clock, John" and it dialled my wife's niece Emma! Either this is a piece of crap or it doesn't understand a Carnew native? Work to do.

It is also a lot faster than the old iPhone 3GS that I have had for the last two years - I'm certain that Solitaire was a lot quicker.

Not much bother setting it up, but it was a bit of a drag waiting 15 minute to get through to O2 to activate the new SIM card that came with the new phone. Should have an on-line option to activate.

Clint Eastwood - always a hero to me

Actor Clint Eastwood has always been a favourite of mine - I even tried to copy him in his cowboy with no name days as I smoked some long thin cigars like he did. I must has seen every film he starred in - Hang 'Em High being my favourite.

Image link to HollywoodYesterday.com.

My favourite Super Bowl ad this year has to be Eastwood's “Halftime in America” ad for Chrysler - it has received a lot of press. Yes - it is easy to see the political overtones. Detroit's auto industry saved by President Obama's bailout, and the fact that Obama is seeking a second term (half time for him). It is definitely "half time" in America, later this year Americans will decide in one of democracy's greatest moments who will be President for the second half.

But I love this ad for Eastwood's voice - there should be a preservation order put on it. There is passion, aggression, toughness, re-assurance, common-sense, and hope in his voice. The script-writer here should write speeches for Obama's re-election.

Judge for yourself:

I haven't a clue if lecturers are doing their jobs, says minister

Barry Duggan writing in yesterday's Sunday Independent reports that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn says I haven't a clue if lecturers are doing their jobs. Well I have a simple answer to that - why doesn't the Minister find out?

Image link to www.ruairiquinn.ie.

Minister Quinn, speaking in the University of Limerick, told students that it was "solely up to them to evaluate those who are paid to educate third-level students and provide feedback on their performances". I don't agree 100% with this. Student evaluation of lecturers is a vital part of performance measurement - but only a part. I have had spectacularly high ratings in the past, only to discover that only a small fraction of the class completed the evaluation survey. If only 5 students out of 50 respond - how useful is this as a measure of performance? (Students who are reading this - make sure you fill out the evaluation forms - we do pay attention!).

So how can the Minister discover if "lecturers are doing their jobs"? First - student feedback should continue to  be included - though I do feel that this should be more regulated and maybe even made compulsory, or only counts if a certain minimum percentage responds. Secondly - I believe (like the minister) that there is a responsibility on third-level College management to find a way to measure performance. The Minister refers to "anecdotal evidence" that would continue "to emerge" unless Colleges implement a "structured alternative". Anecdotal evidence is not enough, and neither is it fair to lecturers - I'm certain that it is not beyond the capabilities of Colleges and the Department of Education to come up with a better way. What I would hate to see would be one College doing one thing and another taking a completely different approach. 

Research carried out by Gabedi Molefe (2010) of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, in South Africa (paper available here), shows that "a lecturer’s performance can be measured on the basis of seven performance dimensions". These measures (based on Robbins et al, 2007) are:

1. Knowledge (subject knowledge)
2. Testing (assessment) procedures
3. Student-teacher relations
4. Organisational skills
5. Communication skills
6. Subject relevance
7. Utility of assignments.

Molefe concludes that these dimensions be used as a "guiding framework for development of policies and as an instrument for measuring performance of academic staff at universities". These measures should in turn take account of agreed "goals" and "workload considerations" of lecturers. It's only a suggestion, but maybe Molefe's ideas could form a starting point to satisfy the Ministers needs - otherwise he should lay off lecturers!

References:
Molefe, G.N. (2010). Performance measurement dimensions for lecturers at selected universities: An international perspective. SA Journal of Human Resource Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), Art. #243, 13 pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.243

Robbins, S.P., Odendaal, A., & Roodt, G. (2007). Organisational Behaviour – Global and South African Perspective. South Africa: Pearson Education.

The Jennifer Burke Award 2012

The call for nominations for the 2012 Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning is now open. The award is in memory of Jennifer Burke who the Irish Learning Technology Community lost in June 2007. I was a finalist last year, but sadly did not win. The award is co-sponsored by DCU and ILTA.

Jennifer Burke.
Image link.

I had great fun doing this last year and would thoroughly recommend that learning and teaching innovators from Ireland should consider nominating themselves or getting a nomination. The award is going from strength to strength and this year the finalists will get to show the learning technology community their innovation at the EdTech Conference which is being held at NUI Maynooth on 31st May/1st June. The call for papers for this conference is being issued in the next week or two.

There is so much innovation going on at all levels of education in Ireland and it is great that it is formerly recognised in memory of Jennifer.

Thieving

On Tuesday evening last Roma's hand bag was stolen from our kitchen - we were in the house at the time. We did not discover the theft until Wednesday morning - we had to cancel credit cards, get new keys to the house, new keys to Roma's business and set about getting new keys to Roma's car. At 2.00 on Wednesday morning our house alarm went off - this was before we knew the bag was stolen and thought perhaps it was our new cat that had set the alarm off.

A scumbag.
Image link to the Playing it safe blog.

Last evening the Gardaí called us with the news that they had the handbag - found about two miles away from our house. Nothing but cash stolen. But - we already had our house locks changed, Roma's business locks changed, and just in time prevented the locks on Roma's car being changed. Much expensive inconvenience thanks to the bag snatcher.

The expense has not stopped here. I intend to change the light at the side of the house to one of those sensor type lights, and may also change the gate so that it is more secure and less easy to get past.

Is there anything move suckish that the realization that some scumbag has broken into your house and violated your home? More security vigilance required.

I wish I could do this - Professor quits Stanford to teach online

Nadine Arendse writes in the IT Web Innovations web site on Professor quits Stanford to teach online. Professor Sebastian Thrun appears to have given up a good position at Stanford to teach on-line at Udacity.com. Udacity is a free online university with a mission to “change the future of education” - now there's a novel thought?

Image link to udacity.com.

Nevertheless - the idea of a university education being provided on-line with the best possible lecturers and content being available is a very appealing idea. Who would not like each module to be delivered by an expert in a particular field who is also an excellent teacher. Better that your average College lecturer (like me)?

According to Arendse, Professor Thrun had an audience of 160,000 for a class on Artificial Intelligence, making use of 2,000 volunteers to translate the class into different languages. As Arendse also states - "Thrun also proudly pointed out that he was teaching more students than all the students of Stanford.

Professor Thrun is a lucky guy who can give up such a prestigious position as a lecturer in Stanford University to do this - I envy him. I'd love to expand my own YouTube channel to do more on-line teaching. The trouble is, I am too scared to give up my own position to do so - Thrun must have some money behind him.

Anyway- I wish this venture well, and I confidently expect that this will be the third-level version of the Khan Academy. Watch out for Udacity!