Climbing Up the GEEK Ladder…

My transformation from being a ‘granola’-type, anti-tech cell phone hater into a techy geek who wastes too much time on making movies, 360 photo stitches, podcasts and then posts them all to a blog, is almost complete. One more summer of hanging out with Reece, Matt, Jason, and Paul should complete the transformation. (click on it…I dare you)

Sweet.

Anyway, I recently had a chance to bike along the coast in Cornwall, and visit Exeter with my friends as part of a field trip. One thing we’ve learned in class is how to create 360 degree panoramas. Click on the link below, and you should see a sample. If it doesn’t open, you don’t have a Quicktime player.

cornishcoast.mov

Here’s a well in the cellar of an old restaurant in Exeter where they used to drown witches. Creepy, eh?

Left to Right – Paul, Reece, Jason, Matt

GEEK ALERT

Two tech geeks getting excited about Transformers t-shirts…I’m jealous.

More updates to come as I learn even more geeky applications. (I think my return to Manitoba can’t come quick enough in order to salvage what’s left of the un-geeky part of my identity…)

Clash of Cultures

As many of you know, I had the recent privilege of witnessing the Tour de France as it began last weekend in London. Now the idea of the Tour de France actually starting in London seems a little off, given the amount of animosity and outright fighting that has gone on between these two traditional European superpowers. Well, being the investigative journalist (a stretch, I know…) that I am, I decided to find out if the Tour’s start in London would have the approval of the local Londoners. What follows is a 3 minute video that I put together as part of an assignment for my studies here in Plymouth.

London Depart – Tour de France ‘07

I had the awesome opportunity to see the Tour de France this past weekend in London. I had never visited London before, so this was a chance to combine some sightseeing with watching the Prologue time trial of the Tour. The weekend turned out to be fantastic. After 2 weeks of 15 degree weather with rain, the weather in London was terrific. Sunny and in the 20’s. So the stage was set for a great day of watching the world’s greatest race begin.

My day on Saturday was filled with watching the Tour. I had a chance to walk around the team buses and see them setting up their $10 000 race machines. I also took time to interview some British fans as part of a video project I’m doing for school. The stage route that the riders raced on was arguably the most impressive course ever. Riders raced in the heart of London and passed by many of London’s most famous tourist sites. As a result, I was able to take in both the sites and the race at the same time.

 

All in all, I had a great weekend, despite the fact that I shared a hostel room with the world’s LOUDEST snoring machine. I swear, it was unbelievable. 9 guys in one room, and 8 of them were totally silent. How is it that every hostel room has at least one mega-snorer?

Podcast Project

Some of you may be interested in knowing what I’m up to here in England besides seeing the Tour de France in London. One of the web 2.0 technologies that we’ve been focusing is creating and uploading audio files to the internet. These audio files are generally referred to as “podcasts”, as they are often hosted in itunes and are designed to be downloaded to ipods. I’ve included a link below that will allow you to listen to the podcast that I submitted for a project we were asked to do that focused on technology in education. Take a listen, it’s about 3 minutes long, but 1 minute of listening should give you an idea what it’s all about. Keep in mind, (dad this is mainly for you) that you’ll need earphones or speakers plugged into your computer in order to hear it.

test

In case you were wondering, I did all the voices for the podcast.

Stonehenge, Back to Nature

 

England’s National Historic Sites Organization has decided that they wanted to re-introduce native species that may have been an important part of the ecosystem during the time that Stonehenge was created. Somehow the order for gophers got mixed up with Buffalo, and so now tourists have to be careful not to upset the resident bull. His name is Stompy. Here’s a shot I took over the weekend.

As some of you may know, aside from taking my Masters in Ed. Tech, I’m also busy studying German.  So, for those of you who are bilingual, I’ve decided to provide this post in German as well.

Englands hat nationale historische Aufstellungsort-Organisation entschieden, daß sie gebürtige Sorte wieder einführen wollten, die ein wichtiges Teil des Oekosystems während der Zeit gewesen sein kann, daß Stonehenge verursacht wurde. Irgendwie erhielt der Auftrag für Gopher oben mit Büffel gemischt, und so jetzt müssen Touristen achtgeben, daß nicht das Residentbull. umkippen. Sein Name ist Stompy. Ist hier ein Schuß, den ich das Wochenende übernahm. Wenn du verstehen kannst, was du gerechtes gelesen hast, bist du ein Meister am deutschsprachigen, gerade wie mir.