Home Lockdown Update

So here I am, at home, keeping out of everyone's way. The University is closed, so no travelling back and forward on crowed trains, plus I am saving a shed load of cash, no mid-morning breaks, two or three trips to the coffee machine and that odd chocolate bar mid-afternoon.

But I have never been so busy at home, first, the University may be closed, but only for face to face teaching, we have moved to the cloud and that means holding lectures online, getting students onto the preferred sharing platform, ie Microsofts Teams, and to a very small extent Zoom, plus whats app, text and mobile.

Next, it's the slides I use, most are great for general lecturing but needed to be updated to account for presenting online, so a lot of lecturer notes and individual video's for each slide, plus a complete video of the lecture. I am also sending out mini-blogs organising the lectures and in my case organising the linked lectures related to my module IDD or Integrated Digital Design.

I am also quite busy updating mt slides, I intend to retire at the end of this semester, and want to hand over to my successor a well-formulated and complete module. so lots of thinking, and updating to be done.

Next comes the usual University group meets, Teams is incredible for this, do you notice I have not mentioned Skype, it does not come close to the services Teams offers, and the ease of use.  OK there is a learning curve, but the more you use it, the more you learn and use. The Uni team meets are essential as we venture into this new way of teaching, and the group meets are essential for sharing experiences and lecture methods.

Students are also demanding, and time has to be put aside for one to one meets to help them understand or use the lectures in their module and course work. so I am booking time slots for over 200 students all within the built environment. Then there are research students, who just by there very nature, need a lot of conversations to discuss a paper or theory of a new paper.

Its a long day in front of a screen, and although its once working from home it's also tiring. I spent a long portion of my career, working from home being a tech guy for Dow and I should know how it works, but this is so different.

I am also reviewing my web site Scays.co.uk and updating the layout a little, plus writing notes for up and coming papers, oh and walking my dog Barley. and it's here where I can indulge in my love of blogs. I listen to about a dozen different producers, on a range of topics and walking Barley is my blog time. I have also begun buying my books as Audible files, yes I still order the paper version, but so often I am taking offers to get the Audible file, it's part of my dog walking experience now.

But walking and listening, does not allow the making notes, so I get back and try to make notes, not easy and certainly not the best way, but it makes me rethink a little. Plus I have made Sunday afternoon a time to reflect on these badly written notes and try to correct and update. Kindle does have a great way to highlight a passage and retrieve that text, Audible has a clip feature that I have found so intent to test it out.

I have just finished "The order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli, and have just started "21 Lessons for a 21st Century" by Yuval Noah Harari. It's too late for the Order of Time and I will make use of the clipping in 21 lessons. Both books I have added to the Scays.co.uk web site book list.

Saturday and Sunday, have always been my days for buying the weekends papers. I started doing this in my early teens and never really stopped, except for the times I live abroad and English papers were very expensive. I started clipping articles and adding them to my little blue book, a ring clip binder I used. But now I tend to use an app on my Pixel mobile to scan as a pdf article the item I want to clip, far more efficient way to clip as I save it to my Google Drive and the article is OCR'd so searchable.

So there we have my update on home Lockdown, stay out of the way, and keep up with Uni life. Oh and try and get a Tesco or any other slot for home delivery, almost impossible, so might have to visit the local store.

Today's photo is my loan Brompton I have from the University, so good to get back into the sale, and on such a nice bike, I am now looking for one to buy.

CIAT CPD Officers Meet 20-06-2016

In about five weeks, or on the 20th June 2016, all the region CIAT CPD officers will meet in City Road, London, to discuss CPD. As yet I have seen no agenda, but you know me, thats not going to stop me making a list of things I want to talk about, from manufacturers presentations, to real study time, to reading lists, to note taking to building up some sort of personal archive of information. to just an electronic record system.

I also want to discus the way BIM seems to be taking hold of CAD, not that thats a bad thing, just the way the "CAD" bit is being dropped and I hear only I am going to BIM this up, not CAD or draw it up. Yet BIM surely should be on the list as it will and is affecting the way we draw, and also with it huge potential for data rules base, or internal / external algorithms, and how it will be shared via IFC.

Evernote, or anything similar, is there anything!, should surely be discussed, as the personal archive I mentioned before.

Is there a place for online lecture, or hangouts, I attend several and find then just as good, with no travel time.

I wonder if the way academic papers are written and viewed, might be discussed, its a major way to learn and research a subject, but for many its a system that might be unknown, thinking its only for academics, yet its not, and so many of the AT universities might well help is reading and advising on a papers format and subject.

So there it is, if you want to add to my list,  drop me a line and  will raise it, or contact your local CPD officer.

Todays photo is of the old Queens Hotel that was built onto the side of Curzon Street Station Birmingham the subject of much discussion as HS2 becomes more of a certainty,  and pulled down as part of the saving of the main station entrance building. I have never seen any other photos of the hotel building, one of the other lecturers who was heavily involved in the work says there are some, so watch this space to see if they turn up. This shot was from the rear of the site looking south West wish.

Is CPD just attending trade lectures

I have for a while, in fact I may well have written about this on my old site, But I am a little frustrated with the current thinking on CPD, most seem to think its just a matter of attending some free trade shows, and racking up a few hours listening to sometimes very biast lectures from a trade manufacturer. Don't get me wrong, I have learned a lot from one or two very good manufacturers, Marley Roofing for one, and Leaderflush as another, but so often you leave with no involvement whats so ever, and I question if you have even listened, any learning taken from sparse notes or hand outs.

My thoughts on this are not to test your memory after the lecture, this does nothing for you, but drive the attendees away, my thinking on this is going in the direction of perhaps the research, of proper subject lists and research gathered about that subject, rather like a university, PhD research student, producing a reading list, and pulling together thoughts on the current materials that might fall into that material. This makes you think, and explore, the mind is now active and learning.

Currently I am researching brickwork, now you might say, I should know all there is to brickwork detailing, but sadly I don't, take for instance why we started to use a cavity, brick sizes and how they evolved, the effects of insulation in that cavity, weep holes and how lead flashing has evolved. I also want to add here, life span of brickwork. weathering, now you can see why learning this way opens the mind and makes knowledge so much more useful.

I would then like to see the research published online and the time taken awarded as CPD, not only is it going to enhance the knowledge base but change our attitude to learning, and make it more usable.

My own CPD list is already geared up for this, I add subjects I need to know about for current projects, or I want to know about, and I add notes or information to this in the way of research,  reading, talking and actual site visits. The only difference is I award myself time I have spent of learning. Perhaps publishing the work in a research journal or site, is a next step, and peer review to gain or verify the hours spent. I experimented with this recently within a small private group using a Wordpress theme, and it worked well. Perhaps it's time to open it out.

I can easily see Universities, gaining much needed revenue by offering to peer review, charging a small fee, say £25 a paper, but it would be well worth it. verified CPD perhaps adding to some sort of qualification not just time.