I was asked this week: “what’s a MOOC?” by someone who probably should have known by now what a MOOC is. As a professional, I refrained from this behaviour: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5SQQnl4ZJg&feature=youtu.be] If you’re after a description, a look at this video (under 5 mins) gives an overview – albeit from 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc] And more…
Category: Work
management, web development, university life, stuff like that
The Wonderful World of HTML5
A picture is worth a thousand words… Via: HTMLGoodies HTML5 Development Center via The Wonderful World of HTML5.
Does ‘uni app’ usage spike in the evening?
Analysis from Flurry suggests that mobile app usage is active all day, and spikes in ‘prime time’ – i.e. between 7pm and 11pm. How does this affect students? Many universities have created or purchased a ‘uni app’ which provides portal-like information and links. It’s not clear to me whether these apps actually provide long-term benefit to students…
BBC Online showing they’re good at change
When the BBC changes its homepage its likely that quite a few people will notice: they have over 9 million unique browser views per week. So they do it carefully… with a lot of explanation and a beta launch. In the blog they talk about enabling serendipitous discovery, with a link to a talk from…
Data visualisation as a storytelling medium
Visualisation has been around for ages – we all learnt how to do pie charts at school for example… but the current trend of making data open – led largely by the public sector – with large data sets becoming available, combined with the emergence of free and easy to use technical tools, are creating…
Should you use (sometimes) use Comic Sans?
Fabulous piece in the SitePoint Design View newsletter today. Comic Sans is the font that we all hate – right? And yet it won’t die. No school web site or newsletter is fit for purpose without it. It’s used a lot by a lot of people in a lot of places. I trained (years ago)…
Dear Auditors, I present: Charlie Brooker
Want to read this article? Then enter your password via Charlie Brooker | Want to read this article? Then enter your password | Comment is free | The Guardian. Forgotten your password? That’ll be the 58th one you’ve not remembered this year, then. In days of yore, we’re told, people had less leisure time because…
User manuals – don’ts and dos
Sometimes you don’t need a user manual… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk] and sometimes you do… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TSgvS8ASek] I prefer systems like the first one.
Web Sequence Diagrams
Have been following up a tweet from fooflington… yes it does seem rather cool. With <I’m no expert> applied, I’ve been playing too… Here’s the text that generated it: user->form: provides feedback activate form form->form: validate form–>user: request amends alt if ‘content’ selected form->dept: email dept note right of dept left with dept to sort…
Assistant Director of IT Development – University of Kent
I have a new job. Following interviews on the 24th I was fortunate enough to be selected for the new role of Assistant Director of IT Development in Information Services at the University of Kent. This is the first stage of some restructuring for IS. I’m looking forward to working with everyone that will part…