"I'm sorry but I'm your professor, not your friend" via @globeandmail

Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail in an article by Janni Aragon, published an article on September 9th last entitled I'm sorry but I'm your professor, not your friend. First, I am not a "Professor" - I am a Lecturer, but if I worked in the same role in America I would be called Professor O'Loughlin (I like the sound of that!). I have heard from a colleague about research that getting to know your professor/lecturer could be worth up to 15% more on your grades, however, when challenged he could not remember the source of this research. 

I have wondered myself if it makes any difference when grading assignments and exams, if I know the student well. Many of my classes are small, so I do get to know the students quite well. I certainly believe that I am fair, and in 11 years in this job I have never had a grade queried by second markers or external examiners. In that time, some students have requested reviews of their grades, but so far none have been altered after review.

It does make it a little easier to decide on borderline cases if you do know a student well - these are the ones who turn up for class/tutorials, participate in class, submit assignments on time, and generally behave well in an academic environment. In many cases I can't put a face on a name, and also when students are absent it is almost impossible to know them, and how much effort they have put into their studies.

It is a serious matter to us as a profession if the level of acquaintance with a student affects marks in any way. Therefore we have to continue to put aside any personal relationships in dealing with students and retain a strict code to not let this interfere with grading or give precedence to any student.

Image source: www.someecards.com.

The 4 Things Modern Students Must Understand by @Sugatam - I agree 100% with this!

Professor Sugata Mitra of Newcastle University, he of the "Hole in the wall" experiment with children in India, lists four things that students must understand and be good at. These are (list via Eric Patnoudes):

• First, they should be adept at finding information quickly and easily on the internet.
• Next, he says they have to comprehend what they are reading.
• Third, students will have to organize the information they have discovered in a manner that makes sense.
• Finally, decide which information they will use to make a decision, solve a problem, or accomplish a task.

When I ask my students in class to use a computer to find information on the World Wide Web, I never have to show them how to do it. It comes natural and in the main, most are quite good at this. Typing stuff into a Google Search is easy, knowing what to do next is not so easy, there is no pointer after a search to say that "this is the answer you need..." - hence the skills above need to be developed and improved. Hear Professor Mitra explain all this himself in the following video:

What's it like to teach to 10,000 learners in one day? #HDSDA #Analytics @YouTube

I never asked myself this question before as it would have been a hypothetical question. However, on Tuesday this week I managed to reach 10,163 learners on my YouTube channel - the first time the channel has breached the 10,000 views/day milestone. Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not shy about self-indulgently sharing this type of information - below are some of the analytics for views by region. Major English speaking countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia account for almost 70% of views. Other interesting locations near the bottom of the table (not shown below) are for three views each from Angola, Panama, Georgia, and Morocco. 

On the same day (Tuesday) I had three classes at which about 60 students attended. Reaching out on-line via YouTube to so many other learners in one day is a tremendously satisfying experience, though not as good as the vibe I get in the classroom. While there may be a few views from my own students (there were 164 views from Ireland on Tuesday), almost all of the 10,163 learners are of course unknown to me. I'd love to know how and why they ended up viewing my videos. Just over 60% of traffic sources are from Google or YouTube searches - so I'm guessing that learners are just looking to figure out how to do stuff or solve problems, and go to Google to find out. A growing source of traffic is from YouTube suggested videos - these are "Views from thumbnails appearing on the side of the page of other videos or on the end screen of a video". Google/YouTube are very clever at this.

I'd also of course like to know if the viewers actually found the videos beneficial and useful - did they learn what they needed? Feedback via comments is good, but only a tiny fraction of learners make comments. Unlike my classroom students, my on-line learners will not be tested at the end of a semester! 

As always, a HUGE THANK YOU to all who viewed the videos - it inspires one to keep going and create more videos.

Experimenting with Twitter in class #HDSDA #analytics

This semester I am using Twitter as part my Business Analysis and Problem-Solving Techniques classes on the Higher Diploma in Data Analytics. I'm doing this for sharing information only, and it is not compulsory for students to take part. Some of my colleagues have done this and I know from others that it is now becoming a popular tool for learning. In my class we agreed to use the hashtag #HDSDA - about half the class said they used either Twitter and/or Linkedin (my tweets automatically go to Linkedin). From time to time I will tweet about Business Analysis as well Data Analytics, and hope that students will benefit from and share the tweets.

I have also added the Twitter feed to my Moodle course page, but not after encountering some problems. Twitter provides a widget to generate the code, but for some reason it would not work for me yesterday (I tested it again today and it does works - I suspect a temporary glitch on Twitter side). I put a call out on Twitter for some help and Moodle genius @ghenrick responded, created the code for me, and talked me through the fix via Skype. This is a wonderful way to connect and solve a problem!

I'll be sure to survey the students and provide some analytics about the use of Twitter in my class after the semester is complete, and report my findings here.

Tweets about "#HDSDA"

Can YouTube be the new eBay? #HarleyDavidson @YouTube @eBay

I'm sure that there are some very clever highly paid folks in Google/YouTube right now figuring out how Google can make more money using the video platform that YouTube provides. I came across the ad below for a 2003 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic (including very pretty girl) from Tampa Harley, and thought "Why didn't I think of that before?". Now regular readers of this blog need not worry that I am about to sell my own bike which (apart from the white-wall tyres) is the very same model. But it did occur to me - why don't YouTube/Google use their platform to sell stuff on-line? Maybe they are doing it already, but it seems to me that others are using their platform to sell products. I like the idea that a seller can show a product (such as the coolest bike in the world) working - nothing beats the sound of a Harley-Davidson purring.

So - can YouTube take over from eBay? I think so - YouTube can provide the means for buyers to review a product. I know this is happening on eBay already, but YouTube should be in this market.

How To... Embed a YouTube Video into a PowerPoint 2010 Presentation [WORK-AROUND]

Sometimes the old way is best! As I've written elsewhere in this blog, since the early summer there have been lots of difficulties embedding YouTube videos in PowerPoint 2010 and 2013. Since Google changed the YouTube API from version 2 to version 3, embed code just does not work as well, or not at all, any more. Many comments on my YouTube Channel are from frustrated users who, like me, just want the bloody thing to work. Microsoft are obviously either not able or are not willing to fix this problem in PowerPoint, and have pulled the feature to allow embedding from both 2010 and 2010 versions.

There has always been a slightly more awkward way to embed YouTube video in PowerPoint and that is through the Developer Tools. I have created videos to show how to do this in both 2010 and 2013, and both are already getting lots of views. Below is the one for PowerPoint 2010, this is also the first time I have used a Snowball microphone which I think has improved the sound quality.

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. 

A selection of photos from Flight Fest Air Show over Dublin #FlightFest

Today I was one of over 100,000 people who lined the banks of the Liffey for the Flight Fest air show, which is part of The Gathering experience this year. My vantage point was close to the East Link bridge where the massive traffic jam was almost as spectacular as the air show. Lots of air lines showed off their air-crafts, I liked Ryanair's message "U NEVR BEAT D'IRISH". The highlight for me was the Flying Fortress - I can't imagine the terror that people in Germany must have felt when these things flew over them during World War II. Thankfully today it came in peace! Despite the very blustery conditions, all pilots did a great job in flying low over The Liffey. After about two and a half hours I had had enough and decided to head home without seeing the massive British Airways Airbus A340, but when I got home it flew close to my house and I got a few shots - below is a selection of the photos I took today:

Irish Air Corps.

Great formation flying by the Irish Air Corps.

The B-17 Flying Fortress under attack from two seagulls.

The B-17 Flying Fortress.

The traffic jam at East Link.

Airbus A340 over my back garden.

Look out Ulster, there's an O'Loughlin coming! #StartingCollege

This morning I waved good bye to my youngest daughter Vicki, who set out to start college at the University of Ulster. She is going to study Culinary Arts Management at the Belfast Campus, and today is the first day of a new adventure for her. While we'll miss her here in Dublin, we know she is doing exactly what she wants to do in a subject she is passionate about. Go for it Vicki!

All loaded up and ready to go!

I'm trying to recall how I felt about this time 35 years ago when my Mum and Dad brought me to Dublin when I was going to Trinity. I know I was nervous, worried, and fearful of going to College, but did my best to hide this in front of my parents. I wonder do I feel today how they felt 35 years ago? I was certainly a lot less informed about College than Vicki is today - I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for and that it was the first day of eight years as an undergraduate and postgraduate in Trinity. I didn't know it then, but College changed my life and I wouldn't swap a day of it for anything.

If you're Irish and have an apostrophe in your name - does anyone care? @google #rant

Today I notice that Google have mangled my surname as follows:

You can see that Google has of today replaced the apostrophe in my surname. As an apostrophe is a regular ASCII character just like the other letters in my name and I don't see why this should be a problem. I'm not saying that Google are anti-Irish, just that they are careless in how they display names. Google is available in many languages with many different symbols - I'm sure this is not a problem elsewhere.

Image source: Celtic Crests.

However, Google are not alone in this. Recently I received a new email handle at work (Eugene.OLoughlin@ncirl.ie) which does not include an apostrophe - I was told "the system can't handle it". In the past some websites would not allow me to enter my proper name, only by removing the apostrophe was I allowed to continue. I should say it has been some time since this happened to me. Lotus Notes email systems could always handle apostrophes.

The apostrophe is part of my surname, just like  O, L, o, u, g, h, l, i, and n. I hate it when my name is misspelled and I do not think it is beyond the capabilities of a giant like Google to get this simple thing right.

8,311 viewers in a day - new @YouTube high #analytics

On Monday of this week the Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin YouTube channel had its best day ever with 8,311 views in one day. This is also the first time it has broken the 8,000 views per day barrier. As always, I am both thrilled and humbled that so many people have chosen to view my videos - a big THANK YOU to them all!

Just under half (3,989) of the views were from the United States, while there were just 56 from Ireland (my own views are not counted), and one from Nicaragua. The analytics for the day's views are interesting - especially to see from what countries the viewers are coming from, the numbers of views from each, the estimated minutes watched, and the average duration of the views. The total (estimated) minutes watched for the day was 25,860 minutes which is the equivalent of almost 18 days!  Below is a summary for the top 25 countries for the day:

There's my Dad Joe in the paper!

The Enniscorthy Guardian published an article on Carnew throws open windows to past during Heritage Week featuring a photo of my Dad with organizer Noelle Keogh. Dad is 82, still going strong, and has lived all his life in the parish of Carnew. We attended the "Carnew, A Town of History and Heritage" exhibition together (I previously wrote about that in this post). We were both fascinated by all the memories and he especially liked the references to his own father PJ. Carnew is indeed a town full of history and heritage, and my Dad has memories of the town and surrounding areas going back to the mid 1930s!

Joe O'Loughlin Snr with Exhibition organizer Noelle Keogh.
Image source: The Enniscorthy Guardian.

New Academic Year at NCI

Today is the first day of Semester I at the National College of Ireland and there are plenty of both new and old faces around the college this morning. Some students are of course new and they are starting out on a new adventure that will hopefully result in a certificate, diploma, degree, or a masters at the end of the year. Some final year students may wonder how come their previous years went by so fast, others might wonder how they made it to final year in the first place!

The first day is a time of optimism. Exams and assignment submissions seem so far away today, but they will come around quicker than you think. So get ready to study, but don't forget to party as well.

Welcome back to all NCI students - have a great year!

Image source: National College of Ireland.

"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" #nostalgia

Here's one for my 1970's buddies - do you remember Bachmann-Turner Overdrive and their hit "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"? It was a No 1 hit in 1974 and I remember in the pre-MP3 days when I listened to David Hamilton on BBC Radio 1 in school that I hoped and prayed that he would play this song. As I didn't have the single or a record player (if you've no idea what I'm talking about, Google it!) I along with my entire generation, was totally dependant on radio playlists to hear our favourite songs.

"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" is a symbol of my generation - it was "our song". Nothing reminds me of the 1970s more than this - enjoy!

Repeating in College

In September 1980 I thought my world was in serious sh1t. I had to repeat my second year Science exams in Trinity. I well remember the day when I headed off to the Chemistry building to look up my repeat results on a notice board (no email or on-line lookups then). I was so confident that I had passed that I was already looking forward to third year. I got a huge shock to see an F1 grade for Biology I, and an F2 for Physical Sciences I. I was devastated and dreaded the trip home to tell my parents. However, both my Mum and Dad were very supportive and wanted me to repeat and continue - me too. The advice from Trinity at the time was that I was totally unsuited to College and should consider doing something else. To make matters worse, Johnny Logan had just won the Eurovision Song Contest with "What's Another Year" - many people used this to try to make me feel better. To cut a long story short, I repeated and went on to eventually graduate with a PhD from Trinity.

Round about now, many students will be receiving the results of their repeat assessments. Most will get through to progress to the next year, but others will get the bad news that one or more failed subjects will mean that they have to repeat. If this happens to you, the first thing to get into your head is that you are NOT a failure - though you might feel like one right now. You will recover from this and learn from this experience. In my case it was only when I repeated 2nd year that I really began to "get" College. Students fail for a variety of reasons. But it is important to get over it, absorb yourself in your repeat year, get to know your new classmates as quickly as possible, and move on with your life.

Though it will not make anyone who has to repeat a year in the least bit better, here is Johnny Logan with "What's Another Year" (fast forward to 50 secs):

Dublin 3-18 Kerry 3-11 #GAA

Another O'Loughlin family day out at Croke Park to see the All-Ireland football semi-final between Dublin and Kerry. The seven point margin flattered Dublin in the end, but for me they were just about the better team throughout. Kerry were brilliant at times in the first half, but could not keep going for 70 minutes.

A huge crowd of nearly 82,000 enjoyed six goals in a thrilling game. I thought Kerry were hanging on and some of their players indulged in a lot of fouling and spoiling the game. For long spells Kerry made a lot of mistakes and didn't really seem up to the challenge. Yet somehow with just a few minutes to go the game was level. Two late goals won it for the Dubs.

Dublin well deserved the win and will now meet Mayo in the All-Ireland Final. This will mean divided loyalties in our house as my two daughters will be up for the Dubs, Roma of course will be supporting Mayo. I'll be up for Wicklow, despite the fact that they will not be in the final.

Now - how to get tickets for the final?

Careful with that saw, Eugene

There's nothing better than getting out into the fresh country side for the afternoon. Today I went to the family farm in Ballingate near Carnew, Co Wicklow to help with cutting logs for the winter. I felt a bit like a "hunter-gatherer" as my Dad, brother Joe, and myself sawed up four small trees for firewood for the coming winter. This is quite heavy work if you're not used to it, and I'm already beginning to ache!

Careful with that saw, Eugene!

Careful with that saw, Dad!

Careful with that saw, Joe!

Middle Age Begins at 53 says New Survey #SameAgeAsMe

The Daily Mail Online in a report today When does middle age really begin? On your 53rd birthday tells us that in a new survey that "Rising life expectancy means it no longer hits when you're 41". 53 is now the new middle age! Since I am 53 I thought I'd read on and see if there is any truth to this and if I am now officially middle-aged.

Below (from the Mail Online report with a slightly British twinge) are the "tell-tale" signs that you are middle aged - and I must confess to seeing myself agreeing with most of these points (though it usually takes more than one glass of wine to put me to sleep!):

Image source: Daily Mail Online.

For me, middle age strikes when you:

• Look at a beautiful young woman and wonder what her Mum looks like
• Dry your hair gently after a shower in case rigorous drying with a towel uproots some of your few remaining precious hairs
• Know the theme tune to The Monkees TV Show
• Still think George Best is the greatest footballer of all time
• The expression you say most often is "Where the f**k did I leave my glasses?"
• Put on a jumper instead of turning on the heat in cold weather
• Think that Fawlty Towers is still the best comedy ever
• Listen to RTÉ Radio One more than any other radio station in Ireland
• Remember when Offaly were good at both football and hurling
• Still cheer when you see replays of Packie Bonner saving a penalty at the Italia '90 World Cup
• Bore the pants off people by telling the same story again that you told them five minutes ago
• Think that there should be a separate sound-proofed area for crying kids on airplanes
• Drive by your primary school and think "I'll be dead when those little feckers reach my age"
• Think that everybody on the road drives faster and more carelessly than you do
• Think it's a tough call to decide between a nice cuppa tea and a lie in
• Insist on proper punctuation and grammar in text messages
• Finally throw out clothes that fitted you 25 years ago
• Your favourite TV channel is GOLD
• Turn off light switches around the house like your Dad used to do
• Think that someone in their 60s is really not that old
• Can't believe that John Lennon is dead almost 33 years and that he would be 72 if he was alive today
• Put on a replica football shirt and think "There's still a chance"
• Know the words of all The Beatles songs, but don't know the words of any song written after 1979
• Bore the pants off people by telling the same story again that you told them five minutes ago

Yes - I am officially middle aged!

A Face in the Crowd #FanPic

Eircom and the GAA have teamed up to provide an interactive photograph of fans at last Sundays All-Ireland Football Semi-Final between Mayo and Tyrone. If you were there, as I was, you can find and tag yourself with your Facebook ID. A bit of fun, or is it?

Below I reproduce a screen shot after I tagged myself (yes, I am wearing a Wicklow jersey at a Mayo vs Tyrone match!) in the Hogan Stand - you can do this at www.experiencemore.ie/fanpic. At the time of writing this post, nearly 5,000 people have already done so. None of the people in the photograph gave me permission to reproduce the image below, and many will be unaware that this photo (and screen shot) was taken. Is it an invasion of privacy? In the future will the police or intelligence agencies be able to match up all the faces regardless of whether they were tagged or not to a Facebook profile? What about employers watching out for employees skipping work? What about people cheating on one another? Can it be used to identify football hooligans? Could this technology be applied to any crowd? 

Expect more of this sort of thing!

One thing I will say - everybody in the photo above was enjoying the match, though Tyrone fans did not go home happy!

Carnew Heritage Week

Last week I visited Coláiste Bríde in Carnew, Co Wicklow to see the "Carnew: A Town of History & Heritage" exhibition with my Dad Joe. I grew up in the town land of Ballingate which is three miles outside Carnew and I attended Carnew National School, though curiously I had never set foot the Coláiste Bríde secondary school before. I looked forward to seeing reminders of my youth and some interesting things about Carnew - I was not disappointed.

The exhibition featured material about Trades, Military matters, Carnew Castle, Businesses, Religion, Famine, the World Wars, 1798, and Emigration (among lots of other subjects). There were an awful lot of posters to read, and a dearth of photographs and memorabilia. While there I heard other visitors saying things to each other like "I have a photograph of that..." and "I have one of them...". I'm certain that if the organizers of future exhibitions made an appeal to locals for the loan of memorabilia, that it would be met with a positive response. There are lots of brilliant memories of "The Town", both text and audio based, and I particularly liked material from the 1960 & 1970s which was closer to my time there. 

My Grandfather PJ O'Loughlin features in the exhibition where he is described as "the man who started the milk round he also started a hurling team in Tomacork" and he was also Chairman of the organizing committee for the 1944 Ploughing Championships. We also learned that he moved to Carnew in 1928, my Dad had thought it was 1929.

Congratulations to the organizers and I look forward to seeing future exhibitions or a book based on what was shown.

Image Source: "Carnew: A Town of History & Heritage" leaflet.

Is it Mayo's Year? #GAA

Today the O'Loughlin family descended on Croke Park to support Mayo in the All-Ireland Senior Football semi-final against the men from Tyrone. Along with a crowd of over 65,000 we enjoyed some great football, and of course a win for Mayo. Roma is a native of Mayo, so she proudly wore her the shirt of her native county. Not to be out done, I wore my Wicklow jersey!

Mayo were deserved winners, though did not play well for most of the first half. In the second half battle of midfield, Mayo's O'Shea brothers dominated Tyrone's Kavanagh brothers. One sad thing to see was the great Stephen O'Neill of Tyrone leaving the field early on - will we see him in Croke Park again?

Next Sunday we will go along to see the opposition in the final when Dublin face Kerry in the other semi-final. Whoever wins that will have a serious challenge from the Mayo men who were victorious today.

A really enjoyable day out when once again team followers from each county mixed with each other in the ground. We had some passionate and noisy Tyrone fans behind us, and some (large) Mayo men in front of us. Where else would you get such a mix and not feel intimidated?

100th YouTube Video on Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin

Today I have added a new video to my YouTube Channel: "How To... Add an Image as a Background to a Chart in Excel 2010". This marks a new milestone for the channel in that it is the 100th instructional video that I have uploaded since I first uploaded a video on 11th September 2007. That first video: "How To...Convert PowerPoint to iPod Movie", was the only one on the channel for just over a year, so really the uploads have been over 5 rather than 6 years.

This new video shows viewers how to add a graphic as a background to a chart in Excel 2010. This often improves the look of a chart in a presentation, and if you've never done I'm sure you may have wondered how it was done. Here's the video...

GroupThink, and Would You Fall For That? #WYFFT

For the past several years in my Project Management classes I have played a Candid Camera video to demonstrate GroupThink using an elevator experiment - many of my PM students will remember this:

I came across a more recent version of this video today on ABCNEws.com article entitled "Would You Fall For That? Elevator". It's amazing that even with the test of time that the same idea works. Check it out, and notice that a more modern idea to replace wearing a hat is using a phone to play music:

Enniscorthy Castle Museum, and a Surprise #FCA #Dad

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Castle Museum in Enniscorthy which has been renovated over the past few years. We used to go there quite a bit when I was a youngster and I have to say that there seems to be a lot less material on display from what I remember in the past. I do recall the dampness and I'm sure that the renovation works will make the building last another few hundred years. While I was there, some of the rooms were closed due to floors being re-polished. Even the 1916 room seemed to have very little on display, and overall I was very disappointed with my visit - there is not really a lot on view though the dungeon and its medieval graffiti, was fascinating.

However, I was in for a surprise when I stopped by to check out the room in the round tower dedicated to 1916 commemorations!

On the 14th September 1958 there was an unveiling of a statue to Seámus Rafter, one of the leaders of the 1916 uprising in Enniscorthy. Part of the ceremony was a parade by the local North Wexford FCA (reserve defence forces), and there are a few photographs of the event in the Castle Museum. In one photo, I noticed a long line of marching FCA men, and decided for the hell of it to see if my Dad, who I knew was in the FCA at that time, was in the photo. Much to my surprise, I spotted someone who looked like him, can you see him in the photo below (click to enlarge)?

Photo taken with my iPhone in the Enniscorthy Castle Museum.
Copyright of Ger Carty. 

My Dad has confirmed that the guy under the "O" in the Joseph Doyle shop sign is him! What a surprise for us both! He had not seen this photo before, though guessed that it might have been in The Wexford Echo newspaper at the time. In another photo, my Uncle Pat is featured, and in another my grandfather PJ O'Loughlin may also be present. I have ordered copies from Ger Carty Photographers of Enniscorthy who own the copyright and I'm guessing whose ancestors were also responsible for taking the original photos.

A dull visit ended up to be quite exciting!

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!

Frustration with embedding @YouTube videos into PowerPoint - but there is another way

Over the past few months I have been getting emails almost on a daily basis about people having problems getting YouTube's embed code to work in the different versions of PowerPoint. It seems to be OK now in version 2010, but it is still not working in version 2013 - I understand that this has got to do with Microsoft connecting to YouTube's API (currently at version =3). It is hugely frustrating that a simple change to an API can cause problems for so many people.

In PowerPoint 2003 there was no option to embed YouTube videos into a presentation, but you could use PowerPoint's Developer Tools - see my video here about how to do this for PowerPoint 2003. This method is still available in later versions of PowerPoint - so today I have uploaded a new video to show how this work around works using the Developer Tools.

Digital Natives Go to College - a Baby Boomer Reflects

Most of this year's Leaving Certificate students were born in 1995, also the year that Web browsers were first introduced to the then very basic and small World Wide Web. So - all their lives, these students have been browsing the web, they can only know a world without browsing the web from the history books. They are the first generation of real Digital Natives (a term first used by Marc Prensky in 2001) to go to College. When I was 18 it was 1977 and I had never seen a computer in my life. The only computers that I knew about were the ones on TV programmes like Star Trek, I wonder what's ahead for the children of 1995?

A Digital Native.
Image Source: Psychology Today.

I suppose the first thing is that going to College will not be that much different for the 1995s than for the 1994s. Nevertheless, they will enter institutions far more technically advanced than in my generation. Some things will be the same. Lectures will still be delivered in lecture theatres by a lecturer standing in front of a class who talks for 50 minutes. And of course the lecturers are almost all born well before 1995 (1959 in my case) - these are what Prensky called the "Digital Immigrants". Throw in the Generation Gap (between today's Generation Z, and the Baby Boomers in my case). This is a problem without a solution. Now there is nothing I can do about my age, so even if I pierce my nose, pull on a hoodie, wear the arse of my trousers down at my knees, I will never be able to close the Generation Gap. Let's not forget, today's young people are tomorrow's old people - this gap will always be there. Their turn to look at the generation gap from the other side will come!

The technology gap can be narrowed. During my recent holidays I listened to talk radio a lot and I was surprised to hear many people worrying about what their children are doing on the Internet, and at the same time moaning that they "don't know anything about computers". Well LEARN! It's not rocket science, and it is people's own responsibility to keep up with technology. Take a course, there are a lot of free on-line courses available. For our seniors there are the wonderful (free) Age Action Getting Started with Computing programmes for the over-55s.

For today's new College entrants, the world could be a very different place in the four short years until they graduate. They may get jobs in companies that do not exist today, or use technologies that have not yet been invented. Even the job that they do might not yet exist. This Baby Boomer (someone born between 1945 and 1960) is very envious of them, but wishes all new entrants to College the best of luck.

The Leaving Certificate - not the most important exam in your life

Thousands of families, including mine, are today celebrating Leaving Certificate results. Many are counting up points, and while the stress of waiting for results is now over, the emphasis now moves to next week's offers of College places.

Many students have already made their minds up about what courses they want to do in College, and they will get them. Many more will have to settle for 2nd, 3rd, or lower choices - this should never be seen as a failure. Neither is it a failure to not have achieved the result or number of points desired. There are so many options available for further study, and equally it has to be said, there is a plethora of advice of TV, radio, online, from Colleges - there is a danger of information overload. So choose carefully who you listen to.

Trinity College.
Image source: tcd.ie.

I sat the Leaving Certificate exam in 1977 (two honours for 8 old-style points), and repeated it in 1978 (5 honours for 17 old-style points) achieving a place in Natural Science at Trinity. At the time they were "the most important exams in my life", but I quickly learned that my 1st year exams in Trinity then became "the most important exam in my life". A year later, my second year exams became "the most important exam in my life". In short, it is always the next exam that is the most important one.

So my message to Leaving certificate students today is to enjoy the day, but already it is time to move on to the next phase of your life. College is a fantastic experience and you will love it.

Following 1,000 Twitter Accounts, and Working at the Same Time

Today I have followed my 1,000th Twitter account when I clicked to follow @irishmammies. One thousand accounts - that's a lot. I know some people follow a lot more and it must be hard to keep up. I'm sure that just like everybody else on Twitter, I follow friends, colleagues, academics, celebrities, news feeds, education feeds, newspapers, sports organizations, and a lot more. I find it is a great way to keep up with topical discussions, and several times during the day I will check in on Twitter to see what the folks and organizations I am following have to say.

Image source:
Twitter.com.

Some business have often asked "How do you make money with Twitter?" (and Facebook). Quite often the best answer might be to "Turn it off". Twitter is incredibly addictive. Today I read the article "5 Grammar Points You Don’t Have to Care About Anymore" which I would have missed if it not for someone else that I follow having tweeted about it. Should I have been doing something else? Twitter takes a lot of the work out of keeping up-to-date with subject areas that I teach in, but many people might regard using Twitter as a waste of time. 

Me - I intend to be a bit more active on Twitter during the coming academic year, and post tweets about topics that I think my students should know about. I will be recommending accounts to follow at the start of the year and encourage students to tweet and retweet items of interest.

Twitter is also an incredibly powerful tool when you want to complain about something. Putting your complaint in a public domain like Twitter makes companies sit up and take notice much quicker than they might if you make a call to a Support Line and speak to just one person. I've got Eircom to fix my broadband at home in the past, and more recently got free stamps from An Post when I tweeted about their stamp machine not working in Dublin Airport. A tweet can trend so quickly that companies are using Twitter to address things quickly and address customer concerns and complaints.

3,000,000 @YouTube Views #Learning

A BIG THANK YOU to all the learners who helped my YouTube Channel pass the 3,000,000 views mark last Tuesday (6th August). I continue to be astonished and humbled that so many people find the videos useful. Most comments on the videos are positive or are enquiring about how to do something else with what viewers have learned. Over the summer there have been a lot of comments about embedding YouTube videos into PowerPoint which seems to work on an on/off basis.

Below as a screen shot (click to enlarge) of the views over the lifetime of the channel. You can see that there are definite trends and patterns in the chart. At the moment the daily view figures are starting to grow again after the usual summer slump. If past trends continue, the views will continue to climb until early December. The figure for Estimated Minutes Watched dates only from 1st September 2012, the figure shown is the equivalent of 10 years and 179 days.

As you can see, it took a very long time for things to get going. The first 1,000,000 took from 5th November 2007 to 29th April 2012 (2,365 days), the second 1,000,000 was from 30th April 2012 to 13th February 2013 (290 days), while the third 1,000,000 was from 14th February 2013 to 6th August 2013 (174 days).

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.

A Day Out in Kilmore Quay

Roma and I headed to South Wexford for much of Sunday and decided on lunch at Kilmore Quay. In glorious subshine we walked around the harbour which was packed with holiday-makers. There was a very clear view over to the Saltee Islands, and we also explored the Memorial Garden to those lost at sea. So many names.

 

We had lunch at the Silver Fox restaurant - pricey, but delicious seafood. We stopped at Our Lady's Island on the way home. This is a place of pilgrimmage in the Diocese of Ferns that I always remember being mentioned at Mass growing up in Carnew. We also took a short spin down to the end of Rosslare Strand - not terribly exciting, but there are some smashing looking holiday homes down there.



With Roma at Kilmore Quay, with Saltee Islands in background.

It takes a long time to ride around Donegal #100corners

I have completed a ride around the coast of Donegal which took two and a half days to do. Setting out from Dunfanaghy at about 09.00, I crossed the border into Derry at Muff eleven hours later. In between I had seen fantastic beaches, though there are so many of them that it does get a bit monotonous after a while just looking at them. I stopped at Doe Castle near Creeslough though it is disappointing not to be allowed enter the castle. I crossed over Mulroy Bay on the Harry Blaney bridge and rode to Fanad Head and its lightnouse at the end. I could see Malin Head across Lough Swilly. It is a long ride around through Letterkenny where there was a torrential rain shower. I went into the Errigal Hotel for lunch and to sit out the rain. I had thought about giving up and coming back another day to ride the Inishowen Peninsula, but thanks to met.ie I could see that the band of rain would soon pass and I decided to keep going.

The most interesting part of the ride up the western side of Ininshowen was at Drumree Fort where there is a museum in the old fort and barracks that still stands here. Lots of old guns and tools for fixing them are well laid out - this is a most interesting location nand was well worth the break to see. I alos passed through the fantastic Mamore Gap and Amazing Grace country. I reached Malin Head at 6 o'clock and had a nice expresso served from a van located there in this, the most northerly point in Ireland. It's much like the dozens of other heads and points that I had stopped at on both this trip and my ride from Dublin to Sligo via the south coast last year.

After Malin Head I set out for Inishowen Head after which I enjoyed the coast road down towards Derry. After this it was time to head for Dublin, though a diversion through Armagh was required because the N2 was closed at Augnacloy. After so much riding on winding narrow roads, I let the bike rip on the M1 to get home to thunder and lightening over Dublin.

I had only ever been to Donegal on two occasions before: once for a diving trip to Mulroy Bay, and once to visit Kate in the Gaeltacht . It is a beautiful county, and I'm sure there are many beautiful sights and places of interest inland from the coast. But riding the coast is a great way to see this county, which is bedecked in green and yellow flags in support of the current All-Ireland football champions.

Looking northwards at Malin Head.

The Coast and Hills of Donegal #100corners

Today I started out in Killybegs and ended up in Dunfanaghy in North Donegal. With the exception of a heavy thundery shower in Burtonport, it was a pleasant day for riding. M y first major port of call was at the Slieve League Cliffs, the highest in Europe. Though not quite as sheer and spectacular as the Cliffs of Moher, they are still very impressive. After this I moved on to Malin More and Malin Beg - nice views, but not a lot else. In Glencolumcille I stopped at the well and church of St Columcille. Just before Ardara I stopped at a fantastic view of a valley leading to the town. Naran and Portnoo were not so interesting, by now I am fed up of looking at the beaches on the Wild Atlantic Way.

I rode on towards Dunglow and Burtonport when the clouds suddenly burst open with heavy rain and thunder. I stopped at The Lobster Pot for a late lunch and to get in out of the rain. The photo below gives an idea of how heavy the brief shower was. In the iPhone screenshot from Met Eireann, I was under the yellow bit over Donegal.

I stopped in Bunbeg to check out the small harbour and continued on to Bloody Foreland. By now the rain and clouds had disappeared and my last port of call for the day was to Dunfanaghy and the wonderful Horn Head. In what was not a particularly interesting day for points of interest, Horn Head turned out to provide fantastic views and scenery. I am staying at the Forest Lodge B&B which is about a 15 minute walk from the village. My post this evening is from Patsy Dan's Bar on Main Street.

I should finish my tour of Donegal tomorrow and head into Derry City where I have never been, before riding back to Dublin. Hopefully the weather will hold up!

Back on the road #100corners

This time last year I abandoned an attempt to ride around the coast of Ireland - I had called the trip "The 100 Corners of Ireland". I set out from Dublin in a southerly direction making it all the way around Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, and to Sligo. The rain got the better of me and I gave up in Sligo town, returning to Dublin. Today I have had the chance to continue in much better weather and returned to Sligo to continue the trip around Leitrim and Donegal, finishing in Derry. I don't plan to complete the trip around Northern Ireland - perhaps next summer.

I am following the proposed Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) and stopping off at the points of interest suggested by Failte Ireland. I plan to deviate from the route as I see fit, following signs to any place that sounds interesting. First port of call was Rosses Point after which I stopped at Drumcliff to see the grave of W.B. Yeats. The WAW has a lot of beaches as so-called "points of interest" and I certainly saw my fair share of these today. I stopped at Streedagh Point, Mullaghmore, Tullan Strand (in Bundoran), Rossnowlagh, and Murvagh. In Ballyshannon I stopped at a statue to Rory Gallagher who was born and raised there. A man, calling himself "The Fiddler", introduced himself to me as one of the three men who placed the statue in its position. 

Donegal was my initial destination for the day, but after stopping in the Tourist Information Centre, which by-the-way is staffed by the most helpful people in Ireland, I decided to continue on the Killybegs where I am as I write this post. I am in the Tara Hotel overlooking the harbour, below is my view which includes a Dutch Tall Ship. I have booked into the Seawinds B&B in the town centre - small, but very comfortable.

Tomorrow it's on to northern Donegal - I don't know how far I'll get, but that's part of the experience of what I am doing. Some time tomorrow around 6.00 o'clock I will start my search for another B&B. THere are some spectacular sights ahead of me!

A fix for the embedding @YouTube videos into PowerPoint Problem @Office365 @Adobe

Over the past few weeks my email Inbox has been filling up with enquiries from frustrated viewers of my "How To... Embed a YouTube Video into a PowerPoint Presentation" (both versions 2010 and 2013). Initially the problem could be fixed by changing "version=3" to "version=2" in the embed code, but recently this fix did not work. Somehow PowerPoint stopped being able to embed the code provided by YouTube.

 

It turns out that another fix for the embed code is needed. A viewer on my channel posted this fix today - all it requires is that "http:" should be added at the beginning of each of the two instances of YouTube URLs in the code. the embed code now needs FOUR changes from what is provided in YouTube to work in PowerPoint, highlighted below in yellow:

 

Some holiday snaps

Overlooking Keem Bay at the end of Achill Island, Co Mayo.

Cycling the Greenway from Westport to Newport.

On the Seven Arches Bridge in Newport, Co Mayo.

At Keel Strand, Achill Island, Co Mayo.

On the Atlantic Drive, Achill Island, Co Mayo.

Revisiting Newport Church, Co Mayo, where Roma
and I were married on 13th September, 1986.

At Old Head, Clew Bay, Co Mayo.

A Blog Break

It's summer holiday time and I am taking a break from blogging to enjoy the good weather. Be back soon!

Cheers - enjoy your summer!

DIT e-Learning Summer School Presentation #elss13

Below is my presentation at last week's Summer School in DIT. It is strange watching oneself after a talk like this. I was happy with how it went, and very much enjoyed presenting and chatting to people afterwards. It's an hour long, so you probably won't watch it all, but do watch out for the 1970 Brazilian football team and a description of installing a satellite dish at the beginning.