A week off

This may come as a surprise to teachers. Teachers in Scotland may well be surprised that the schools on Islay and Jura get a week off for mid term. Teachers elsewhere in the UK may wll be surprised that most Scottish teachers don't get a week off for mid term.

Long before I came to to the Islands the staff had decided to take all the single days that happen throughout the year and roll them into a single week.

This has several advantages.

The biggest is that you get time to do something. Some of the staff are away in sunny places; Portugal, Morrocco...... in my case Manchester!

Some of the staff have taken a group of pupils Skiing in Italy.

The second advantage is that because no one else is off then the flights are cheaper.

So, I want to make this quite clear.

This is our week off! No one elses! Get your own!

PS The academic advantage is that your not disadvantaged for having  a double period on a Monday.

House Technology

Today was a big day. Nothing to do with the project.

I finalised the mortgage to build a new house. I have been working towards this for 3 years now. So the excitmenting moments have generally come and gone.

Over the last year I have been thinking about the technology that I will put in the house.

So many options:

CAT 5/CAT 6, wireless, telephone, Video, audio, control, heating....... the list of options is long.

One of the first decision that was made was the kind of heating to be used. This has lots of options again. We opted for a Ground Sourced Heat pump. This takes heat from a large area of ground and transfers it to a smaller area of the house. This means that for maximum efficiency we will go for underfloor heating.

Next is the important things.........music. Having looked and researched I have 2 options:

- Sonos wireless system

- Cambridge Audio CAT 5 System.

I am planning to put in a CAT 5 system anyway for the telephone and (of course) the pc's. So at the moment cambridge audio in in front.

So, should I also put Sky (Council Telly is very bad here) through the CAT 5 as well? At the moment the answer is no. By the time I buy the kit from Sky and then add in the encoders and decoders at each end of the CAT 5 cable the price goes through the roof.

I plan to run the satellite cable throughout the house and place freesat boxes in the bedrooms. The main room will have the the full sky package playing through a projector.

To cap it all I am planning to use Recycled plastic roof tiles. Made from car tyres, plasic and limestone. To these in use have a look at The Centre of Alternative Technology Web site

Technorati tags: islay, argyll, house, self build, technology

Taking a step back

Tonight I stepped down as director of Islay Energy Trust.

The trust is in place to develop sustainable energy projects to aid the socio-economic development of the island and to develop education and awareness of sustainability issues.

I am passionately committed to these values and will still be involved in a less formal way.

So way did I step down? ..................Time.

With being the PT of a dept, ICT Cordinator, working on developing the School of Ambition programme, planning to build a house and trying to have a life as well. Being a director of a company was too much.

I plan to still be involved in developing parts of the projects but it was a mixed emotion night.

PS I had Nothing to do with the website!

Technorati tags: Islay, sustainability

Wireless Projector

From Blog Pics

I have been playing with a Panasonic Wireless Projector this week.

It is a great piece of equipment. It worked perfectly with our network. Once I realised how to configure it properly (It wasn't difficult, I was a bit slow)

The only problem I have is getting Google Earth to show up over the wireless but I am hoping to have an answer to that tomorrow. I suspect its an OpenGL setting I need to find.

The way the wireless projector works with the internet (I think) is that you use the controlling PC to call a page and that page is sent to the projectors IP Address. It works well.

One question I have at the moment is, if the projector is fixed in place thn can I save wireless bandwidth by using a projector which is hardwired through the CAT5 network?

I suspect, if such a projector exists, it would mean that any media called would be transferred via the hardwire making it much more efficient.

Does anyone have an suggestions, ideas, comments?

 

 

Technorati tags: islay, school, scotland, education scotland, projector, panasonic, school of ambition

Google Sketchup 6

I have just found out that Google have released a new version of its free 3d drawing app, Sketchup 6.

We have been using Version 5 for a few weeks now.

The First and Second Years are investigating ancient, interesting or significant sites and buildings on Islay and Jura.

One example is Finlaggan. Its the ancient seat of the Lord of the Isles. A group of pupils invesigate different parts of the site and different times of history, the build technologies and materials used. They are now redrawing the buidings using Sketchup. Tomorrow they are going to visit the site to speak with an expert. They will be taking photo's, recording interviews, both audio and video.

They will next upload the 3d models to Google Earth and then create web content uing the audio and video files. Editing them themselves of course.

They will be learning so many skills in the process that I am having trouble listing them all.

The best is that they are so motivated

Other groups are looking Islay House, Jura House even a plague village called Solum.

Technorati tags: sketchup, 3d, google earth, scotland, education scotland, Islay, argyll

Stewart McLean Tiree High School

As Andrew Brown has already said about the death of Stewart McLean.

I just wanted to acknowledge the passing of a good friend, collaborator and drinking buddy. Stewart was always able to produce thoughts and actions in equal measure.

His funeral is happening as I type and dearly wish I could has made it over to show my love and sadness for the passing of a great human being.

Apple iPhone

This really does looklike an amazing piece of design and technology. Apple are so great at bring together great designers (ie Ross Lovegrove) and innovative thinking........ oh, and lots of smart marketing.

Link to Apple

Technorati tags: iphone, apple, design