You are feeling sleepy

Sleepy, original image uploaded to Flickr by Trinity.

One of my favourite comedy films was much maligned at the cinema. It is called 'The Big Bus' and you have doubtless never heard of it. Its type of humour predates Airplane, and there must be something wrong with me 'cos I like the former much more than the latter. It's been my son's feelgood move ever since he took ill after eating an over-cooked pizza I made him - this film made him forget his queasiness.

Anyhow, amongst many great gags, is that surrounding the co-driver of the nuclear powered bus. We find out that this man's nickname is 'Shoulders' - not on account of his broad frame, but rather because he is narcoleptic and keeps driving on the hard shoulder! The scenes of him fainting at the wheel need to be seen to be appreciated but are the cause of great mirth in this household.

Anyway - why am I mentioning this film? Well, when I saw this story which followed hot on the heels of Vista's launch, a vision of that narcoleptic bus driver sprang immediately to mind! The very idea that the fact that speech recogniton software is built-in and automatically set up, into the Operating System spells a recipe for mischief and mayhem.

It seems there is a worry that audio received through the microphone saying such words as 'delete' and 'shutdown' might cause any Vista-enabled PC's to do just that! This is just what Jack Bauer's enemies have been looking for, or Gene Hackman and his cronies in The Firm - where just saying 'delete all files' would have the desired reaction rather than having to physically click a mouse. Now it doesn't take a genius to realise that this could be exploited in a big way by malicious people - say the sending of a virus with an attachment in the form of an audio file, or an instruction on a website that might be played out of the speakers and then picked up by the microphone - a most interesting case of a feedback loop.

Now lets transport the scenario to a classroom and the potential for disaster would be everywhere - it's just unimaginable what could happen when Tommy tells his hated classmate Bob's computer to delete all his files merely by whispering into the microphone when Bob has gone to the toilet. I can see a scenario where I am telling a class how to do something and upon saying, 'and of course if you want to DELETE your files.....' cue tears and distress as work disappears before their eyes.

Although it seems there really is little to worry about this happening in reality, according to Microsoft, I still find it an interesting concept.

Now, speaking of methods of inputting instructions, here is something I prefer infinitely more than voice recognition software. It is called Dasher and it really is the most incredible (and incredibly useful) program I have come across in a long time. This really is a groundbreaking piece of software that makes you re-think all of your preconceived ideas about the methodology of entering text using a computer.

I had the honour of using this package a year or so ago after Ian Usher showed me it. I still believe it has the potential to transform the use of computers by all users, but particularly those with severe disability. For one thing, there is no need for software to come to terms with the vagaries of our accent, pronunciation and speech impediments. Also, imagine how this program could have assisted with this dreadful case.

I liked Dan Geer's scenario of an aiport concourse with people making use of the free Wifi - when suddenly a voice comes over the PA 'Paging Mr Reese Sett. Paging Mr Reese Sett'. I chuckle to myself again as I think of Shoulders fainting at the wheel of The Big Bus again.

What is Inspiration?

Buscando inspiracion , image taken from Flickr, originally uploaded by Girard Girbes.

I was having a chat with a friend last night during which I thanked her for being one of the sources of inspiration for the restarting of my Blog. She maintained she'd been nothing of the sort and suggested I might be grossly over-exaggerating her role. So I began to wonder - what exactly is 'inspiration'? Is there an 'Inspiration Quotient' that has to be reached before it can be said to influence or inspire an individual? Or, as I maintain, need it only be a brief comment, wink of an eye or a wee word at just the right time?

I thought I'd explore this topic by looking at the factors, events and individuals that have inspired me recently. A veritable mixed bag they prove to be too.

Here's an interesting little exercise that serves to illustrate the diversity of origins for our inspiration. Take a moment to load up Google and type in the phrase "Be inspired". Then just feast your eyes on the resulting hits you get. If your results are anything like mine were, then the first 50 or 60 hits (that's as far as I looked) you get are all from different websites, without repetition. Now I don't know about you, but such a search (using any other keywords) usually results in bunches of hits from the same site or repetition, but I found not one repeated site in the first 60 or so hits I got.

So what's my point? It is this. That it seems only fitting that when inspiration can come to us from many different sources, that searching for the phrase should result in a similarly diverse selection of web sites. This is particularly noticeable when you see the nature of the websites that prepare you to "Be inspired" - images from the north west of England, a manufacturer of scrapbooks, Oxfam, BBC's digital work in the community and taster days at Imperial University.

One of my most poignant personal stories of inspiration comes from a dearly departed friend and mentor, Lesley Reading. She was Deputy Head at my school and her assemblies would not come parrot-fashion from a book or a website, but would be inspired by her walk to school through the avenues of blossom-covered trees. She would marvel at such beauty, or the birdsong that she would hear and this would seem to create a text all of its own that she would read to the girls. So she would be inspired by the world around her, and in so doing, inspire her audience to go out and enjoy things that they took for granted.

In the educational ICT world it is hard to find people more inspiring than Professor Stephen Heppell and Richard Millwood, formerly of ULTRALAB. Their magnificent work has been the spur for many educationalists like myself to follow their lead by embracing technology and making it do fantastic things. Ian Usher is in this mould too - one only has to hear him give a presentation and one wants to experience what he has experienced. He can be one of the best motivational speakers you can ever meet.

A recent addition to my pool of inspiring individuals is Adam Burt - a truly humble yet innovative ICT developer and although different in character to the other people I have named so far, he inspires by example, notr least because of his dyslexia. He has a gift to show users such exciting possibilities using ICT as a tool, such as his new project which converts lecture notes, into podcasts via networked photocopier. What an awesome tool that is! My friend Dale Jones continues to inspire me through his words and deeds - he is everything an ICT Co-ordinator should be - knowledgable, cutting edge, exciting, friendly, supportive, challenging and innovative. I was lucky enough to attend a podcasting seminar run by Ewan McIntosh and his inspiration was clear to every person in the room - the 'buzz' the looks on faces, the excitement and the way he made it look so darned easy! That's a gift that is.

I am proud to be a fellow of Mirandanet, founded by Christina Preston, an organisation jam-packed with inspirational people all working collaboratively to make the world a better place. And there can surely be no one who would not want to take that lead. Take a look at their Etopia and World Ecitizens projects and see that these are people that want to inspire others. In a similar vein, my good friend Bernie De Koven aka Major Fun wants to make the world a better place and I believe he succeeds in doing so by encouraging others to have fun with whatever tools are available - such as evidenced by his Junkyard Sports.

These are people who have shown me how to use ICT to make a difference. These are people who have inspired me and changed my life for the better.

But this story sprang from a discussion with someone who is not ICT-centred. My Liverpool-supporting friend's inspiration to me was merely to say she might be starting a blog. That planted the seed - it was all I needed to get going. And special Eve - she's always there with a word or two to keep my feet on the ground, and sometimes makes suggestions that in their own way make me think I should get out there and do what she says.

These people all play a part and without them (and many others) my life would not be half as fulfilling as it now is.

With so much INspiration in my life, I have a lot of PERspiration to do if I am to become a genius, if Thomas Edison's maxim is true.

Walking on Glass

At long last this Blog sees the light of day - haha. After a somewhat turbulent year in my life, it has taken a collision of some unrelated events (reminiscent of both the fantastic film Amores Perros or Iain Banks's 'Walking on Glass') to focus my mind back to the Blogosphere. So it's a joyful moment for me to be back blogging again.

Firstly a trip to the wonderful, but ever-expanding Bett Show, reminded me of this blog's title. For it was there, at the Bett Show last year, that the irrepressable John Davitt referred to a group of 4 fellow teachers and Moodle users, and myself, as being 'DIGITAL MAVERICKS' because of our HUGToB project. At the time, and even now, I take this title as one of the greatest honours anyone has ever paid me.

Well my spirit for 'maverickitude' has not diminished, but rather it has been sidetracked a little by some events in my personal life. Still the enoucouragement of friends (you know who you are) and a recent upsurge in my reading of other people's Blogs (such as Ewan McIntosh, Ian Usher, Miles Berry and Josie Fraser) and just the inspiration that some individuals have given me (such as Dale Jones and my very good, Liverpool-supporting friend - sometimes the little prods are all you need), has fed a need in me to get Blogging again. Also my son Euan is inspiring me with his wonderful new Blog.

I'm involved with a few projects in school and out of it and I felt re-establishing a Blog would ensure that I could write about those too.

I have had a paper accepted for the forthcoming CAL 2007 conference which I see as really exciting. At the last CAL conference (in 2005 at Bristol) I was joint winner of the Teacher Poster competition, which was all the more amazing given that Miles Berry and some other notable educationalists were also involved in that event. So I am chuffed to have been accepted again this time.

Anyway, enough blathering for now. I'm away to think about my first meaningful post for this Blog.