Flying by!!

Blimey!
Is it really over a month since the last posting? Better get my developers butt in gear then. Infact that's probably the main reason why I hav'nt posted for ages. My developers butt has been in top gear!
The Climate Lab project is live and online at last (now with forum & interactive quizzes) & had a really interesting meeting with the staff down at the NMA a couple of weeks ago, when we got to show them where we were at. (Man!)

(The NMA web site)

They were totally knocked out by the whole of our 'Big Climate Thing'. Free trip down to Plymouth in the pipeline for all the students who took part, plus the slim chance that we might be able to take 1 or 2 of then to Brussels next year for the Pencil Project Bash! Woo-Hoo! The most interesting thing from my point of view was the striking similarities between our humble production and the one the NMA paid lots of mars bars for!


The NMA's Climate Lab

The plan is to develop our input further with a new project looking at the environmental impact of climate change on the island of Lundy. Also we have been talking about hosting a Climate Change Conference next year for all local schools and colleges. Encourage some debate. Talking of which, next fun project is a pod cast of the debating societies next outing ' Climate Change - Are We All Doomed?'.

Other stuff taking up lots of time has been......
Operation Wallacea.


The fledgling Operation Wallacea site

Next July a group of staff & students get to go to Honduras for 2 weeks helping out with research in the Tropical Cloud Forest as well as on the Coral Reefs. Lucky devils!!!! Anyway they have to raise an absolute shed load of cash to get there. That's where I come in to the picture.......
1). Build them a web site.
2). Get them to write all about the whole thing. (including a blog)
3). Post it live on the net.
4). Get them to sell advertising space on it to fund the mission.

They hav'nt quite finished task 2 but we are nearly there so it's live now just as a little incentive to get them into gear.
Want to get involved, give them money???? Check out the site for more info.

Admin administrated admin area administration!
Have been slaving away over a hot PC this week migrating all our prospectus files to a different area of the site so they can be updated by the admin staff. Sounds simple in principle but lots of donkey work in practice. (It's a historical problem in all honesty, If ONLY i had known then what I know now!) Suffice to say it took a little longer than I imagined and but I'm about to hand over a chunk of the site for someone else to administer.

Also started my long overdue revamp of the look and feel of the Sixth Form Pages. It's all very provisional at the mo but have a gander HERE.

Content management? Well we decided to use Macromedia Contribute, and although it's early days yet I think it ticks all our boxes. I like the management console, even if it is a little basic.
More on that another time.

On your Radio!
Even been interviewed by local radio and press about the 'Recollections, New School, Climate Lab, Year 6 Info Shop & Wallacea projects. Spent a good morning talking to Katherine Fell from the NDJ, so keep an eye on the local press for details. They seemed keen to help publicise what we (and I) are trying to do here at the College.

What else?
Oh Lummy, errrm. Specialist College Status Year 3 launch do. Write up to follow soon. Helping the Science dept get to grips with thier online homework & assessment software. (Go Mr Day, Go!) Helping Rosie the Catering managerwith her Powerpoint Presentations + Photography of food and food provision at the College. Beware that we a hatching a cunning plan to show photos of all the school meal menus online in the near future. Having a bit of fun with some .swf slide shows as well, check out The College Website front page and our student logon homepage.
After all that when I get home it's ..........
Trips to the chiropractor to sort my ailing back, Stop Motion Animation, Photos for a christmas exhibition, Mountain boarding and completely stuffing up my shoulder with a pathetic bail and a cat with ADHD !

Happy browsing