Miaow: Students bemoan 'unhip' lecturers

OK, I'm not "hip", cannot say "safe" in a convincing way, dislike the use of "mate" and have no idea what other "modern" slang I'm missing out on (ouch -- I'm mid-thirties and no-longer modern ;-) but this report from the BBC seems a bit sour-grapes: Students bemoan 'unhip' lecturers.

It's pretty funny that the BBC's CMS also brings-up a related article under "See also", now 3 years old, where lecturers were getting image consultants. "Give a firm handshake and look them in the eye" that'll solve all the problems we have with today's students? Well, you let me know how that goes ;-)

Choosing your subject: Avoid facts at all costs!

Stumbled upon this whilst checking-out MIT's amazing open courseware ... jolly nerdy fun :-) Sadly it seems to reflect the apparent trend towards A-Level subjects like Sociology and away from "hard" subjects like Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology!

@media 2006

Thanks to my mate Andy I heard about @media 2006 even before the email went out to those who attended @media 2005 and so I hope to go again this year :-D ... hope to convince the Dean that it's a valuable "curriculum development" opportunity (I learnt loads last year and am teaching a new module on standards-based, accessible web design in the coming term as a result.)

Firefox 1.5

Yippee! Firefox 1.5 supports SVG natively ... at last I'll be able to add SVG to my web technologies module next year (2006/7) :-D

Yes, I appreciate I'm slow off the mark ... it's a busy time of year! As penance, here's a link to a blog post stating that SVG is dead (on the desktop) ... and be sure to read the follow-up article ;-)

No more pathetic excuses...

Sorry, I've had no free time to blog recently :-(

Continuing my rant about unbelievable excuses for late assignment submission, here's the latest story from "the unluckiest student in the world", biggest liar or just plain lazy person:

1. Thursday (after the initial deadline, which was Tuesday)I've been unable to do the work as my parents are getting divorced and it's been very difficult ... I have a note from my mother! (A first for me!) My response: OK, I'll cut you some slack in response to your mother's impassioned plea, you can have an extension until Friday 5PM.
2. Later that day: I lost my USB stick on the way to Uni so will have to start again. Can I have an extension until Tuesday? My response: No, but as the assignment will take less then 2 hours to complete & to cut you some slack, you can have until midnight tomorrow rather than 5PM.
3. The following day (early Saturday):I tried real hard to do the assignment but I had a family party from 6-10PM on Friday and wasn't able to do it. Can I have an extension until Tuesday? My response : No. No more excuses, late penalty is 1%/hour after midnight Friday.
4. On Tuesday: I injured myself in the gym on Saturday & have been to hospital and my doctor's so can I have an extension? My response: If your doctor will write a note explaining that you were unable to work on Saturday and you hand in the work today then I'll apply a 1%/hour penalty minus the incapacitated period.

What a shyster! Always out to negotiate a deal rather than do the work (probably spent more time on the phone calls than on the work.) Why can't they just do the work rather than try to get out of it? (This particular guy is in his fifth year enrolled at this University!) Argh!!!

Is this very funny, or is it just me?

The rather difficult to read Bee-dance GPS by Doctor Fun.

Opera is free?!

Double-take ... wow!: Opera removes ad banners and licensing fee. I was obviously asleep on 20th September 2005 ;-)

Cheat Sheets - ILoveJackDaniels.com

I vaguely recollect blogging these before ... but can't get enough! Excellent, useful, informative, just plain useful!

Mobile Dr Who and Red Dwarf

Interesting idea from the BBC: Can we sell video on a (presumably read-only) MMC card in a format suitable for mobile phones? Let's try it out on Dr Who and Red Dwarf fans! �16 for one or two episodes seems a little steep, however, and I'm not sure I'd be tempted by any of the proposed episodes at that price. Nokia only? Hmmm... not sure about that at all (automatically incompatible with my PDA, for example.) I wonder how many takers they'll have?

Clearing

It's clearing time for us here in the UK -- the process whereby people who applied to study at university who didn't meet the required grade have the opportunity to re-apply. At the fabled institution where I am a lecturer we academics spend a few days glued to telephones answering queries, supposedly screened by other trained personnel, but the majority of which could be answered by an automated system:

Press 'C' on your phone for computing courses ... Press '1' for the Computing With Bungee-jumping degree ... The entry requirements are a minimum of two A-levels at grade C or above and GCSE grade C or above in Maths and English. If you meet those requirements, which will be verified through UCAS, and have no outstanding offers from other UK universities please key in your UCAS or UCAS Clearing number followed by the pound/hash button now ... Thank you. You will receive notification of any offer via the UCAS web site within 24 hours. If you have any other queries please press pound/hash now.

The reason that this could so easily be automated is that there aren't that many judgment calls to be made at this time of year and those applicants that need intervention can easily be called back. Why do we do it manually? One thing's for certain: It's not so that abusive parents can accuse us of racism when we reject an applicant because he or she does not meet the minimum requirements (I kid you not! But her school says she's within 2% of a C so why is her D not good enough? You're just being racist in rejecting her... No, we're being selective in rejecting people below the minimum requirements and if you have a problem with selection then please feel free to apply to the University of Bums on Seats. It is you who is prejudiced. Trying to play the "race card" only works for Johnny Cochrane!) No, it's done manually because <cynical>academics are cheaper than IT systems or expensive administrators</cynical> or, possibly, we're old-fashioned enough to think that the personal touch matters when dealing with the future of these applicants ;-)