For accommodations, I was referred to the Union Jack Club, a private facility for members of the Armed Forces. Members of other specified organisations are also welcome; hence my opportunity as a member of the International Police Association. We are here for two nights, and then we return for another two nights at the end of our trip before returning to Canada.

Our first day’s primary activity was an aerial view of the city on the London Eye. The second day took us to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, followed by a visit to the Tower of London and taking photos of Tower Bridge. Linking to this, I just realised that Tower Bridge Exhibition is something to visit, another time. We ended the day meeting socially with PhD student #phdchat colleagues, Michael Cowen (@kiwicito) and Caroline Cage (@c_j_cage). Mike flew in from the United Arab Emirates on his way to his university in Scotland.

In need of sleep now, photos and more comments will follow.

There were reasons that the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) at Athabasca University requested the name change. While I, as an alumnus, am proud of the MDE, we would now be faced with less recognition of it, particularly since it would no longer be awarded. ‘MDE’ on a business card needs explanation, while MEd is more readily recognised. Then we can explain our specialty area of distance education!

It has been known for some time now that a further request was made by the CDE to allow MDE alumni to convert to Master of Education in Distance Education if they wished to do so. Well, this morning I was pleased to note an update on a feed from the CDE website. The process to submit for the conversion has been announced. There is a relatively short period of time to apply, with July 31, 2012, as the deadline.

It is an individual choice, but my application goes in today. Click here for the AU information.

It was a pleasure to attend this once in a lifetime celebration with my wife, Guadalupe. Dignitaries included The Honourable Ken Kowalski, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, as well as government ministers and members of the legislative assembly. We were treated to dinner music by the Royal Canadian Artillery Band, and after dinner selections were provided by The Edmonton Opera Chorus. They presented Zadok the Priest (Coronation Anthem), I Vow to Thee My Country, and The Maple Leaf Forever.

Congratulations to the organizing committee. Proceeds from the dinner in amount of $10,000 were presented to Valour Place. Well done, Master of Ceremonies, Sir Francis Price.

On this occasion, accompanied by my wife (we had different schedules on our way to Italy last time), we will spend a couple of days in London upon arrival and prior to departure. We will visit my relatives for a day and overnight stay, and we will take the train (2 hours, 15 minutes) to Paris for 3 full days. As of today, all of our travel is booked, along with a booking for the Eiffel Tower. With bookings available in advance, and quickly filling up, this is understood to be a way to avoid the long lines. When we visited the Vatican Museum, people were lined up for blocks. With our tickets purchased online, we walked across the road from our hotel and into the front door. A good lesson to know, taught to us by the hotel staff at the time.

A few other highlights will staying at the private Union Jack Club in London, a couple of academic related business meetings, and a social meeting (tweetup) of doctoral students connected through #phdchat on Twitter.

I’m looking forward to sharing blog posts and photographs once the mid-February start occurs! And thanks to members of the International Police Association whom have already made contact in relation to social activities.

Let me propose meeting at the Union Jack Club, or a close by alternative if it doesn’t work out, at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 17.

Please let me know if this works for you and if you might likely attend! Comments on the blog or on Twitter to @aeratcliffe and #phdchat would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Edmonton school encourages smartphones in classrooms

The story addresses one school that is encouraging the use of technology in the classroom, with students bringing their smartphone, iPads, Blackberries, and more. There are reasons why many people responded negatively to the poll about technology being in the classroom, but I’m going to stick with the positive use. It made me think of a video that I would like to share, “Pay Attention.” It is linked from a previous blog post, Pay Attention – Video. I think it is worthwhile to watch the news story and to view this video which was produced by a school district in the USA.

I’m using a MacBook Pro with the Lion OS. I was connecting to a webpage to hear the podcast, and I clearly had the URL showing the mp3 file. However, I was not sure how to download the file and listen to it offline. My thought of opening it in Audacity proved wrong (unless I’ve missed something). Some web searching indicated that I might need Quick Time Pro to do this, but that was not necessary! I opened Quick Time player. I then clicked on File/Open location and entered the URL for the file. Then clicking Open, the file is playing. From the Quick Time player menu, I chose File/Export to save it to my desktop. I then dragged it into iTunes and synched to the iPhone.

There are likely other ways to do this. Please share, so others can learn!

Edited: Okay, I should have known this was not so difficult. From the page listing all of the recordings, just right click on the link there and then on ‘Download Linked File As…’ I was looking for this in the first place, but my mistake was trying to do it from the link contained in an email message.

The latter is an e-learning conference for European company participants. Since my research relates to informal and self-directed work-based learning, with a particular interest in personal learning environments used in continuing professional development, it is a conference at which to look a little closer.

There is no doubt that abbreviations and acronyms are used in different contexts, so this confusion is not a surprise. However, relating to e-learning, it did catch me thinking they were one in the same!

#phdchat on Twitter has proven to be a great tool for networking with doctoral students and others worldwide. I look forward to the days when I meet some of these colleagues in person at conferences and other events. It is also nice to meet those whom are in the same community, and that has started to happen here in Edmonton.

Marguerite (@mkooleaday) and I have met previously through our respective affiliations with Athabasca University. She is studying through the University of Lancaster. Next to be added was Kari, studying at the University of Leicester. We were joined this time by Tristram (@pigironjoe), faculty at the University of Derby, and Sarah (@exigneresurgam) from the University of Alberta. I had the pleasure of meeting Tristram when I visited Leicester, and Sarah while attending the Teaching Development Week at the University of Alberta. Of course, I am from the University of Leicester.

What a lovely day it was, eating on the patio at Hudsons Canadian Tap House on 104 Avenue, also accessing their free wifi. Tristram is touring Canada on a study related visit, and others took time away from work, studies, and other activities to join.

Our meetings are being held every month or so, and we welcome others as our group grows. It is a chance to share what we are doing informally while building relationships in the academic community. I hesitate to use the terms ‘meetups’ or ‘tweetups,’ as we have not registered the group as of yet at meetup.com, and not all are necessary active on Twitter. Perhaps that is a topic for our next get-together.