Posts from 2008

In a past life I used to teach Java as a first programming language to Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Information and Communication Technology students so I was interested when news of this article (published in java.sun.com /developer) was received via Geertjan Wielanda of the Netbeans Educational Resources site.

Two pieces of advice that I’d pass on are: 1. Knowledge of a subject doesn’t end when the exam finishes: a soup tastes better if the pot is left simmering for a long time after the meat is added! 2. Be open to the opportunities that letting the boundaries between modules fade away can bring. You’ll be suprised when that piece of obscure set theory suddenly becomes relevant.

A lesson I’ve learned is that you’ll never know everything, there will always be new things to learn and others to learn from. I’m still learning, and I hope to continue to do so. And I have probably learned more from my students, than they have ever learned from me.

At midnight the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) released the results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). All the newspapers will be busy analysing the results (although only the Guardian and the Times Higher seem to have gone to press with any great detail today) and will be publishing new League Tables and University Vice chancellors will be busy putting the best spin on the results.

The key issue will be how the research ratings will affect funding and most University’s have been desperately playing the transfer market over the last five years (to the detriment of teaching perhaps) in order to get the best possible score. However, the result is likely to be a net reduction in funding for most institutions, a slight increase for the lucky few, and a redistribution of funds for the rest. There’s no Champions league in Academia so I suspect that a lot of cash, time and energy has been expended to maintain the staus quo. Mathematicians call this sort of thing a zero-sum-game: it’s a pity that we’ve all been forced to play it.

For interest, here are the Guardian results for Swansea and our nearest rivals Cardiff, Bangor and Aberystwyth. Here’s my subject, this is education research and and here’s my Alma Mata.

Jumping on the bandwagon, I though I would share this picture taken last year of the Eich Mühle, on the Regen in Regesnstauf in a very Christmassy Bavaria. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a safe and prosperous New Year!

 Today it was foggy. Possibly the first fog of the winter. I was too late out of bed to capture the best of it, but this shot over the lake in Brynmill Park, added today to my Autumn and Weather collections on Flickr, was the most authentic “Foggy” picture that I managed to get.

Day 100: A Linear Perspective
Originally uploaded by Chris P Jobling

On day 100 of my 365 photos project and it’s getting harder all the time! Short days and long nights make it especially tricky to find interesting subjects! Still I quite liked this view of the Swansea University campus that I spotted on the way in to work this morning. I cropped it quite severely to emphasize the lines and shapes. The autumnal bus in the middle ground is the only thing that has any curves although you can just about see from the shadows that the post in the right-foreground is a cylinder. See the rest of the first 100 shots here.

The annual Guy Fawkes celebrations went off with the usual big bang with a fantastic display from St Helen’s Rugby/Cricket ground. We watched from across the road, on the promenade above the beach. And plenty of people had their fire, mini fireworks display, wine and baked potatoes on the sands. I had my camera and many more pictures have been published on Picasa and Flickr.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

From this traditional rhyme (the last verse of which I discovered today on Wikipedia), it seems clear that bonfire night was originally established to celebrate the foiling of a 17th century terrorist atrocity. Still, it seems paradoxical – and perhaps rather British – that with all the fires that are lit and the tonnes of gunpowder in the millions of fireworks that are let off every year in the UK, we make more of a bang than the terrorist Guy Fawkes did in 1605!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=61927

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p>I’ve been taking a photograph a day to post on Flickr for 66 days now, and to celebrate I thought I’d post the slide show. Rugby, Rain and the views on the way to and from Work are the recurring theme so far. I wonder what’s to come! There are a number of these 365 photo a day groups on Flickr, but if you want to join the group I’m in, head over to Project 365.

 Today’s 365 Photos Project choice came down to this abstract view of the new student accomodation and an autumnal view of fallen leaves taken in Singleton park. The leaves won out today, but I liked this too and thought it was also worth sharing.

 The Indian Summer ended today when high winds and torrential rain arrived. Within minutes, there was minor flooding on my path home across Singleton Park to Brynmill. It was also nearly dark at 5.00 pm so winter’s almost with us.

Since I discovered them a month or so ago, I have been tuning in to the webcasts of Brian Harvey’s course “61A Introduction to Computer Science” from the University of California Berkeley. A couple of things struck me. First, the breadth of this introductory *course which seems to take in the whole of computer science from functional programming through to logic programming and seemingly all types of programming in between. Second, the length of the semester in the US: from August 27 through to December 10 (about 5 weeks longer than the *Michaelmas term in Swansea). That’s forty-odd lectures and seperate lab sessions! If we had the same length of time, we could really give some depth to our teaching.

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p>”When do they do research?” I hear my colleagues cry out in alarm. I don’t know, but I suspect that to be a lecturer at Berkeley, research activity is still a requirement1)! Is the work ethic indicated by this level of student and staff commitment part of the reason that the USA suceeds were other countries fail?

It’s even more amazing when you consider that the students are paying really serious tuition fees for the privilege!

1) It turns out that Brian is actually employed by UC Berkeley as a full time teacher now, but he has a pretty impressive CV nonetheless!