A good read...

I’ve just finished reading Alan Johnson’s book about his childhood up to the age of eighteen. Alan Johnson is a Labour MP who held senior cabinet positions in the last government, including Home Secretary. He was born and brought up in Notting Hill in West London in the 1950s.

Nowadays Notting Hill is home to several senior politicians, and indeed David Cameron had a house there prior to becoming prime minister. An average family home there would probably set you back around £5 million so people understandably think of Notting Hill as a very well-to-do area. What many people won’t realise is that 60 years ago the area was a slum. Johnson lived in abject poverty with very little support from a feckless father who abandoned the family. Living conditions were apalling by modern standards, with damp rooms, no heating, no proper sanitation and shared cooking facilities. His mother, who battled constantly against ill-health, worked at several jobs to scrape together enough to feed him and his older sister.

Despite the sadness, the story is ultimately about love and perseverance in the face of adversity.

Given the choice between a prime minister who lived in Notting Hill in the 1950s and one who lived there in 2010 I know which one I’d choose.

Alan Johnson - perhaps the best prime minister we never had.

Five things I've learnt on my Revit training course

This week, along with several colleagues from the Dept. of Property & Construction at the University of Westminster I’ve had three days of training in Revit, an architectural 3D modelling package. The training has been provided by Cadassist, and our trainer, Aaron has been superb - he is clearly extremely knowledgeable and experienced, not just in this software package, but also in many other relevant packages which often run alongside Revit. He presents the course in a very clear manner and is very patient with those of us who don’t quite grasp the concepts immediately.

The course has been a real eye-opener for me. I was aware that Revit (and similar packages) offered a whole new approach to the design process and the management of the information associated with a building, but this week I’ve had a glimpse of the real potential of this technology.

So here’s the top five things I’ve taken from the course:

1. This technology has the potential to genuinely change the way the industry operates. When used effectively it will not only change the design process but will also integrate production, cost control and built asset management and will facilitate real collaboration between all the parties involved.


2. Our students have to become proficient in this technology. It is them who will have the power to change the industry.


3. All construction professionals should develop a good working knowledge of this technology, not just those involved in design.


4. The technology has massive potential to change the teaching of built environment disciplines. For example, I teach construction technology and I can see fantastic possibilities for making the subject easier to understand for students.


5. Regular use of the technology will be essential to retain and develop proficiency. I am going to have to keep working with Revit otherwise I will simply forget it.

Looking at the screenshot below, it will be apparent that I still have a great deal to learn!!

30 things that make you second-generation Irish - The Irish Post

Link: 30 things that make you second-generation Irish - The Irish Post

This might be a lighthearted piece by @RobBrennan82 in the Irish Post but it’s amazing how many of these resonate with me. What I find particularly funny is that most people who aren’t 2GI (second generation Irish) probably won’t understand them at all!

Orla’s first visit to Loftus Road

John and I made our usual trip to QPR yesterday but we were accompanied by some friends, including my Goddaughter, Orla who was attending a match for the first time, despite having broken her wrist last week. She really enjoyed it and she brought us some luck as we beat Birmingham City 1-0.

Interesting perspective on LinkedIn

Came across this (very lengthy) article about LinkedIn via a tweet from @jjn1

It’s adopts quite  a cynical tone about LinkedIn and I must confess that, to some extent, this chimes with my own view. I’ve always been sceptical about the value of LinkedIn for those seeking to boost their career prospects. I particularly dislike the recent trend of ‘endorsing’ people for particular skills or talents. I have a whole stream of notifications in my LinkedIn inbox informing me that someone has endorsed me for this or that.

The one valuable thing I use LinkedIn for is staying in touch with our graduates and keeping up to date with the progress of their careers.

Learning with 'e's: New wine, new wineskins

Link: Learning with 'e's: New wine, new wineskins

A timely blog post from Steve Wheeler @timbuckteeth in which he uses the biblical metaphor of new wine in old wineskins to highlight the problem of trying to provide an education for students who learn in new ways and with with new technologies, whilst still clinging to traditional pedagogies and practices.

Why We Need Digital Wisdom

Link: Why We Need Digital Wisdom

I picked up on this article via Nik Peachy’s Tumblr Blog. The article is written by Marc Prensky in November 2012. Incidentally, it was Prensky who originally developed the metaphors of ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrant’ back in 2001 - a concept which has since been challenged. 

Anyway - this is an interesting piece. I find it quite useful to think of technology in terms of how we delegate portions of our mind, whether that be our memory to external devices, or our navigation skills to GPS devices.

I like the final paragraphs, which summarise the challenges for education:

For our students to get the maximum advantage from technology, we must view such enhancements not only as positive, but as essential. We need to reevaluate what “the basics” are for students’ technology-enhanced minds, and we need to revisit all our former notions of “age-appropriate.”

Some things—human passion, empathy, or yearning—may never be outsourced to technology. But we need to learn to combine these human traits with technology in order to make the wisest decisions in our 21stcentury context. For skills we choose to retain in our heads—such as logical and critical thinking—we need to turn to technology-enhanced ways of learning them, such as programming and online communities.

To do this, we need digital wisdom. The unenhanced human is no longer the smartest thing on the planet.