mistrustmusic's posterous

Changes

After acumulating so many blogs on wordpress.com - for my music-making, for personal stuff, e-learning stuff, etc.,  I've decided to start posting anything non-"mistrust music" related on here. So, that means anything I want to talk about, things I come across and want to share, e-learning stuff, will appear on here. Henceforth this blog will be known as "What I have learned today". I'm not closing down my other blogs just yet. Just starting from now, all my "stuff" will go on here, except music-making "stuff". I'm just going to keep the mistrust music blog for things I'm doing with my remixes and other bits of what I'm upto music-wise. So, if you've come here looking for a "mistrust remix" or info about "Half Past One", hop on over to mistrustmusic.co.uk/blog If not, say hello! By the way, I'm on Twitter and Facebook

Filed under  //   blog   blogging   e-learning   education   facebook   music   technology   twitter   wordpress  
Posted July 1, 2011

Up Peel Monument

[caption id="attachment_302" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="View of Peel Monument"]

Media_httpmistrustfil_zijjf
[/caption] Hello, it's been a long time since I posted a new missive on this blog! All of you who subscribe via feed readers etc must be shocked to see me posting again. Well, what have I been doing over the last few months? It seems like not a lot! Actually, I've been trying to keep fairly fit and healthy, doing a lot of walking - mainly taking Paul up to Peel Monument (see the photo - it's near Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester). It's an old folly on top of a hill, 1100 feet above sea level, and a very steep climb. I've also been taking the dog for a walk, about 2.5 miles, three or four times a week in the evenings. It feels like I've lost some weight around my middle, so it's doing something! I've also been trying to get some new tunes written, but severely lacking some inspiration. I've got some ideas in my head, proper ideas, rather than just fiddling with loops from a cover disc. I've been using a vst host called Minihost, which loads a vst plugin and lets you use your computer keyboard to place the vst instrument. It's got a built in chord maker, arpeggiator, and sequencer, which is great for fiddling around with. My 5 y.o. also likes playing with it - saying he's playing Kraftwerk's Man Machine, and the Dr Who theme tune! Expect some new tunes soon...from him, not me! Only kidding.... The Rude Mechanicals remix I did for NZ band Pitch Black is still around on the web and on the band's remix CD, Rhythm, Sound and Movement. The remix is also going to be used to promote a big music and arts festival in New Zealand, called Splore. More news to follow soon. I'm also going to meet Paddy and Mike from Pitch Black at the end of October when they play their only UK gig in London. I'm also supposed to be getting the stems to remix a track by International Observer. Other stuff....been doing a lot of Moodle stuff at work - very busy these days. I've also made a website for Paul's dad and his painting and decorating business, D and S Decorators.  Oh, and I'm now on Facebook, and Twitter, so follow me on there if you're on there....

Filed under  //   audio   blogging   e-learning   facebook   family   moodle   music   myspace   news   pitch black   social networking   twitter   walking  

Ping.fm

I've discovered Ping.fm, which if it works, will allow me to post messages and updates straight to my blogs etc from one service. Here's hoping! ...well it posted ok, but the only problem with services like this is that you have to edit the blog post to add other categories!

Filed under  //   e-learning   education   pingfm   social networking   social networks  

Moodle mania

I've got my e-Learning head on today whilst writing this blog. Anyway - the title of this post - "Moodle Mania": Should really be "E-Learning Mania", as all I can do at the moment is think about the resources and ideas that are cropping up in the "Moodle and E-Learning" Roadshows I'm putting on at College. Today is the 5th day of the roadshows sessions when I've visited one of our campuses, with the intention of getting teaching staff to come and talk about their Moodle and e-learning related issues. Plus, spread the word and get people moodling. So far these sessions have been a success, largely because I've dealt more college staff than I thought I would, mainly face-to-face, some of whom I haven't had contact with before, and who want to start using Moodle. The thing I'm pleased with is that I've had a few people logging into the chatroom I set up for these roadshows, for staff who can't get to the sessions in person. I'm also looking at the idea of using Skype or something similar the next time I do these roadshows. Some of the things I have had requests for, and being able to help with are: getting art students' work online so they can do some evalution - embedding a Flickr slideshow into Moodle; using forums for class discussions; setting up a cross-site music resource area; and getting across the pedagological benefits of using moodle.

Filed under  //   e-learning   education   moodle   music   network   vle  

Jorum Forum E-Learning workshop

In my role as E-Learning Developer at The Manchester College, I visited the "Jorum Forum" the other day. The Jorum Forum was an event to showcase the latest developments of the body known as Jorum. If you don't know them, they're there to develop and promote an online repository of learning objects and materials that can be shared by all HE (and some FE) institutions in the UK. So far, it's been all about contributing and freely distributing materials that institutions have developed themselves, eg a video, or an interactive quiz, stuff like that. Now they're looking at using Creative Commons licences for sharing materials, which means that you have some control over what users can do with them. Up till now, all the objects have been available as being reusable. Jorum has been getting a bit of a bad press recently at our place, along with the NLN materials, so it was good to hear how other colleges in universities were using and promoting them. It's something I haven't really pushed as much as I should here, but all that should change soon as a result of the event the other day. One of the main things I could show our staff is that you can knock up a really quick Powerpoint slideshow using some of the videos on Jorum. Steve Smith, who seems to get everywhere these days (!!!) did one in about 10 minutes - ideal for when you're in a hurry! I think people like Steve really enthuse teachers and e-learning practitioners, and bridge the gap between the techie-folk and non-techie ones. Something I'd really like to be able to do myself...I probably do that a little bit, but I need the right tools and oomph (I'm quite shy and retiring really....). Anyway, I'm doing a presentation about Moodle on Monday, to some of our staff, so maybe it's time to get some oomph going!!!!"

Filed under  //   e-learning   education   jorum   moodle   online   presentation  

A is for Amazon

Not exactly music-related, but some news anyway. I've recently had an article published in a popular e-learning magazine in the USA. I wrote about how young kids are growing up learning the language of the World Wide Web and how we should encourage them to become proficient in using the internet at an early age. The article was reproduced from my own e-learning blog that someone from the magazine found a while ago, and asked if they could publish it. I'm quite chuffed, as you can imagine, and it just adds to the the list of other articles/letters I've had published in the last year or two (eg in Future Music magazine). You can read the whole thing (and the rest of the magazine) online in a virtual magazine reader here at E-Learning Magazine's website (go to page 50 of the NextBook edition.) or see it in its original form on my e-learning blog. Also.... I'm seriously considering moving all my other blogs into one place (here!) as it's easier for me to keep tabs on what I'm writing and who's reading them.

Filed under  //   b2bmediaco   blog   blogging   children   e-learning   family   kids   mistrust   music   web2.0  
Posted June 17, 2008

Everything's gone mobile

I've just launched a new add-on to my blog/website. It's a mobile website, built on something called Winksite. I came across this through my elearning daytime job when I was looking into podcasting. Winksite lets you make webpages that can be viewed on mobile phone, and it's something I've wanted to do for a while, but never got around to it. I've only added a few things to it at the moment, some things are copied directly from this blog, but I'd like to have some mobile-only content. At the moment, it's in it's infancy and I haven't tried it out on many phones, so I'm hoping that a few of you who read this blog and who have mobile phones will browse the mobile pages and let me know if there are any problems with it, or if it works ok. The address for the mobile site is: http://winksite.mobi/mistrust/music or just click the Winksite logo...

Media_httpwinksitecom_pgvgx
Other news: I'm still plodding along with my remix of Pitch Black's Rude Mechanicals. Should have it finished soon, but it feels like it's missing a melody or pad line, so it's that which is holding me up - plus I only get about 10 or 15 minutes a night to do something with the remix because I've started taking Paul for a drive a lot earlier than usual. I got a message posted on my blog the other day from the editor of an e-learning magazine in the USA, asking if he could use one of my posts in the forthcoming edition of his mag. It's something I wrote a few months ago on my e-learning blog about getting young children used to the language of the Web as soon as possible. I said yes to them using the article, so it should appear in ELearning! Magazine in a few weeks, in a section entitled "The Last Word". More fame!

Filed under  //   e-learning   family   pitch black   remix   rude mechanicals   social networking