Category: technology

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Coping with flying

I have a fear of flying and have sadly turned down some great opportunities to see the world and meet great people. Eventually I decided that the risks paled in comparison to the regret I would have in later years.

I started off quite enjoying flying, my first flight was in 1996 from Bristol to Ghana (6.5hrs) via Amsterdam (1hr).

After that I did the USA (6hrs) and Canada (7.5hrs). Then I had a shocking flight returning from the Caribbean and decided a white-knuckle ride wasn’t my thing.

so I then turned down some amazing trips (so my family keep reminding me) to visit Portugal, New Zealand (twice) and some other spots.

I can’t pin point why I have this fear as I am a passenger in cars, bikes, trains, buses and all sorts of vehicles quite easily.

My brothers were going to Amsterdam and although I turned it down they booked me a seat anyway…. a short huff (under 1hr) they said with family would ease me back into the travel.

Needless to say I was petrified and drank like a fish as that’s what you’re supposed to right? (more on this later).

After surviving this I got brave and we went to Italy (2.5hrs) where I was just as scared.

I decided to list what I didn’t like and then investigate further – the result of which is now I am still scared but I can tolerate many of the things that trigger my fear. I thought i’d list them in the hope this brings some relief to others:

  • I struggle to sleep days before a flight – acknowledge little can be done but that you aren’t the only one laying awake thinking about it either
  • drown out the sound of other people, put some music on in the waiting room – somebody always has a bad plane story so just drown others out
  • the plane looks odd compared to others – stop looking at the darn thing, just follow the person in front. Do not look at the plane except maybe to glance at the pilot
  • take something to read as you can use this during take-off and it at least gives me a distraction from trying to look out the window
  • That large knock shortly after take-off is the sound of the wheels returning to the carriage – this used to freak me out so much
  • other people annoy me so listen to some music instead or watch a video
  • I accept that I will have highs and lows during the flight – i focus on my breathing and the reason that I am travelling
  • Talk to a pilot – within 1-3 people I bet you’ll know a pilot who will be happy to chat about the bits you hate the most
  • Drinking doesn’t help at all i just need to use the toilet more which involves getting up so i have ditched this method
  • those herbal things are useless

All of the above have helped me in the last 2-3 years cope with flights and these have evolved to allow me to fly to New Zealand, Asia and other part of Europe.

I am still a sweaty, grumpy mess but trust me the other end is worth the hassle. See you in the sky!

 

 

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Podcast: I have no idea where this podcast is heading…

After listening to one of his podcasts at the weekend I contacted Craig Taylor to see if I could be on it. He kindly accepted and thus ensued a series of tangents around e-learning, how us FE/HE types and corporate folks converge (measuring success and ROI).

I super briefly met Craig earlier this year at the Plymouth e-learning Conference and via twitter/podcast felt like I knew him enough to cheekily ask to chew his ear off!

I suggest you subscribe to his podcast and stalk him on twitter.

Listen to our podcast

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Speaking: Mobile learning at Bath Spa

In my talk today at Bath Spa I set out to touch on key aspects of mobile learning, what is mobile learning and why we might be taking the time to care. Below are my supporting notes:

What is mobile learning

  • If you read nothing else, the JISC Mobile Learning infokit is a great body of work to get you started
  • It isn’t just about wheeling out devices, it is about seeking ways to enhance our teaching and learning by taking advantage of the opportunity and constraints
  • Mobility of people with devices opens new doors
  • Context is king
  • There are 100s of devices (demo’ed 3 tablets) and there can be social pressure on students to get the devices everybody else has
  • Mobile learning is leading to transformation in the classroom AND institutions are having to address this. Many institutions are are starting to address this with steering groups, research and initiatives such as “mobile clinics“.

Why Mobile learning?

Further signposts

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A New Perspective on Crime Scenes

Over at the NYTimes is a great piece “A New Perspective on Crime Scenes” about crime scenes that make use of a panoramic camera (Panoscan) to capture the scene.

What really caught my attention was the audio descriptions for each scene that really bring the scenes to life. The images are used in court and also to preserve a crime scene for years to come.

Found via Kottke of course.

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Black Leakage for the walls

Black Leakage is a new product from one of my favourite studios Design Chapel.

I haven’t seen this kind of wall art on sale before and it reminds me of my painting days and when I used to ‘F5’ the Design Chapel site before I discovered RSS!

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Notes from Weelearning

Weelearning held the first event on Wednesday and I was in attendance in bristol. Dan and Sam are hoping to build a regular following for us e-learning types in the commercial and public sector. I really enjoyed the night and not just because I won a prize of e-learning books from packt.

What made this really enjoyable in addition to the two talks was that we had plenty of time to kick it with fellow folks. I attend plenty of formal rigid event so it was cool to almost have the other end of the spectrum.

We talked about the differences between commercial/public sector approaches, terminology and value of e-learning to traditional workshop models.

If weelearning can attract a regular following and keep the essence of a relaxed and diverse crowd then I look forward to meeting you at a future event.

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Enabling webgl in Firefox

Earlier today I was attempting to view an example of 3D in the browser that makes use of webgl but the browser kept insisting webgl wasn’t enabled.

Initial web searches indicate that webgl, which is used to get the 3D working should be running on Firefox (im using 6.0.2) but it clearly was not!

Instructions

To enable webgl simply type “about:config” into the browser address, promise to be care and then type “webgl” into the filter at the top.  The second option should be “webgl.force-enable” and you’ll need to double-click the value of false changing it to TRUE.

Reload the 3D example page and you should now be up and running.