its back to 'the hub' >> I am still trying

I haven't given up on 'the hub', I have mentioned it on this blog a few times.
it is a silly idea really, not because it wouldn't work as I believe it would but it would be just too expensive, and unless created in its entirety it would not have the same impact.

I don't now why but it has continued to make me think about the use of space in an educational situation and will still for a long time yet.
I have clearly seen that students or learners of any age react to their surrounding in such different ways but one thing they all do it respect something that had been designed with their use and only their use in mind, rather than something that just looks good.

futurelab have some really good stuff on their web site but it still follows the classroom model, in the original sense. however I like their (now unfortunately closed) invitation for ideas to create a better working and study space for learners.

I think what I am trying to say is that students are led to believe that a classroom must be quiet and the teacher speaks and the students listen the process is then repeated over and over for an hour. then they move on to someone else (another teacher) doing the same thing in another room that looks the same. in the later years of education I believe it is not really preparing them for employment or further vocational study because the situation is so different to the work place.

I know when I am studying I usually like it to be quiet but I well remember not to far from the college I graduated from there was a pub full of books looking as much like an old book shop or library as it did a pub.

it did get very lively in the evening yet within that environment some of us read books, often books we would not have even given a second chance in a way that was alien to us but good fun.

that said I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not advocating student of any age drinking alcohol in classrooms.

I do think that consideration to different solutions has to be found. just consider most of the larger waterstones book shops have a costa coffee shop in them to encourage browsers to spend more time thinking reading and in the end buying, a result as far as retail.

here are some current educational space practitioners web sites to have a look at if you are interested further.
ncaltd.com
tq.com
jisc.ac.uk

to be continued....................

today went to fast >> sunshine and thoughts of summer

today went too quickly I only had a short time it seemed until I was eating lunch with maria and jules. I couldn't resist taking this picture. It was of part of my lunch, it looked so good in the spring sunshine. after that the day simply flew past.
we had sunshine pretty much all day today. just spoken to gabes he was full of the joys of a spring day he had got down to the beach even had a skate as well. specially for him I thought I would add this publicity picture for the 60's film endless summer a surfing classic. it says a lot about how things have changed but even gabes at nearly 14 can relate to parts of the surfing lifestyle or his perception of the that lifestyle, any way it is a great picture.

whilst on a nostalgic theme I have to include a picture of a man that I hold in particular high esteem, george greenough (pictured here in about '73) who was and still is a phenomenal surfer and photographer and if that wasn't enough a very creative designer as well. surf boards, it was george who really brought kneeboarding to the notice of other surfers and non-surfers in the late 60's early 70's.
he is responsible for designing the 'spoon' the board he is holding in the picture. as well as camera housing equipment, and inspired many through his use of film images set to music. echos (pink floyd) at the end of the classic surf film crystal voyager being his most famous film. It is amazing how different a day can be just because it is bright and sunny, I was busy all day but don't really feel I produce much of the things I wanted to do.

I did finally get my podcast to work check it at dgthekneelo.podbean by going round in circles but eventually sorting it out. then after that davidthedesigner left me a very welcome message telling me about some audio software audacity (I had not heard of) I also downloaded an extra patch in addition to audacity enabling me to export to mp3 LAME no excuses now.
already I have had a play with and it seems it is an answer to making the audio podcast bursts I have been trying to create for the past couple of weeks, at what is good is that it is free! thanks for the tip davidthedesigner.

any way must get on I have too many projects on the go at the moment and to really need get back in to the design for 'the hub'.

just having a look round >>

it is strange that it is so easy to become stuck in your own blog world and look at the really good blogs/websites that you usually look at. I had some time this afternoon an exam was going on in my teaching room so I had an hour of complete silence to browse around looking at as many different sites as I wanted.
I am normally either too tired or too busy to have this opportunity and the themes for each days blog just come to me while I am teaching or driving or talking.
I very rarely get time to just look. here are just a few blogs amongst many that I found interesting enough to want to share.

notes by cati vaucelle
yasmine abbas
the landscape blog
design observer
society of illustrators of los angeles



these are just five to have a look at whether they are to your taste or not I like them, I have also been looking at some french blogs. it seems that there is some great design and text driven stuff.

sunny saturday >> pics >> lunar eclipse

had a good day (Saturday) much of the evening was spent running in and out of the house watching the moon. the day was sunny and bright I'm still only using the camera on my phone so I didn't manage to get any lunar eclipse pictures. no worries check this link partial lunar eclipse for a really good picture taken from trinidad by caribbeanfreephoto's and while your there have a good look round as there are some beautiful pictures to see.

I am just posting a couple of pictures from Saturday the light was great and I played about a bit with some colour and flowers. we are so lucky in cornwall as the flowers peak earlier than east and north of us, but as you can see the daffodils in these pictures are past their best. I now really like flowers when I was at art school (as anyone who knows me will remember) I refused to include them in my I work in any form, strange how we evolve / mellow over the years!

photography >> surfing

I am going to make this a short post returning to a passion that I have. I must have taken hundreds and hundreds of pictures of the ocean and surfing and the beach. I never can quite capture the
way it was.

rob machado

joe curren

as with most things there are people who provide inspiration perhaps aspiration but whatever the reason I just like their work for no other than because I do.

paul kennedy

it is not the just technical quality of the photos/imagery but the feeling they project. some day I will be able to capture it but until then I will (as is so often said) 'just keep looking'.

lazy day >> papers and non-achievement

hardly done anything today, a long (well sort of long) look / read of the newspaper this morning and watched the rugby this afternoon.
so many ideas that I have been thinking of don't as far as design stuff and software stuff have been moved aside by other stuff but they are still in there.
had a nice chat with gabriel today "go with what you will be interested in for two years and remember there will be many boring bits!"

I will have to make some time to get the work stuff done tomorrow.

I have played around with the Firefox browser a bit downloaded/updated some of the new add ons. I like it, really useful stuff (it's cross platform so works as well on Linux, Mac and Windows) oh dear! I am even beginning to a bit too geeky even for me. must remember that it is the design and usability that is important. I will just have to think 'cow gum', to make me get things back it to perspective!

late again >> dress it up >> coffee >> colour

I have been giving myself a deadline to get this blog finished by 12 o'clock midnight each day as I have my surf forecast site to do and other work stuff as well. I am writing this is for Thursday so I missed it once again, hey just checked the clock and I made it.
nice day if a bit long, no real work done whatsoever another day in the city (with ben and carol). as you can see I have not been using a real camera just the mobile. do you believe the quality is in the photographer or the photographer and the camera? I think I need all the help I can get so I will try to use a better camera when ever possible. I have been looking up and walking slowly as usual and noticing that is matters so much how things are dressed up. maybe it's country wide I am not a McDonald's fan but the branding / I-D for one of the branches has changed / changing it's not my area if specialty so I might be way out of date. I think it is still selling the same stuff, I didn't go in but it looks nice especially the chairs. Starbucks has a better image and is a comfortable environment very soft sofas even space to work sometimes, sells fair trade coffee and usually my coffee stop of choice. however today I took a risk and tried a different (coffee) cafe. not somewhere I would like to think to be aimed at people like me but I found out the coffee was really very good indeed, can you guess the cafe just from the colours outside (the last picture) hardly difficult but still. after so many years of looking (up) at colours shapes and stuff, working in the industry, even currently teaching business and enterprise trying to get students interested in the importance of colour in selling an image, product or service is not easy. unless you are one of us many people don't seem to realise or care what is happening to them every day.