ThistleUpcoming workshops

March is round the corner so I’m starting final preparations for the following Netskills workshops running in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Newcastle:

There are still places available

CSS

I’ve taken my first steps in to the world of cascading style sheets, thanks to Chris Young. It’s one of my goals this year to get to grips with it and this was a good start. Even though my knowledge of HTML is pitiful I was still able to keep up with most of it and I’m beginning to see how powerful CSS is.

The next step is to actually put some of it into practice.

ePortfolio Amplifier

I’ve had a 2 month review of the ePortfolio Amplifier project. It’s just a light touch review (the big test will be at 6 months or so). Overall, I’m pleased with the way it’s gone. It hasn’t set the blogosphere alight but I’m happy with the posts I’ve written, the number of RSS subscribers and just generally blogging in an official capacity.

March will be interesting as we’re running a workshop on eportfolios in Newcastle and I want to find lots of ways of amplifying the event.

Changing Twitter identity

I’m no longer tweeting as @electricchalk. I’m now @cbthomson.

Here’s a few reasons why…

  • I started @electricchalk when I was working in schools. The name seemed to make more sense then.
  • Initially I was coy about being me on Twitter. Having a pseudonym was handy. Not so sure now.
  • It means I don’t have to look as much of an idiot when I meet people and have to say “hi, I’m Chris but you may know me as Electricchalk.”
  • I’d ended up following too many people on electricchalk which meant too much noise and not enough signal.
  • The thought of unfollowing large numbers of people felt awkward. I’m sure it wouldn’t bother most people a jot but actively unfollowing someone felt like I was making a value judgement on that individual.

On a personal note…

It’s 6 Nations time again; the only sporting event I get really excited about.

Although Scotland came away from Paris without a win in the 6 Nations I’m feeling a lot less depressed than I though I would. It was actually a creditable display (if you forget the fact that most of the French tries came from Scottish errors). Andy Robinson looked like he was chewing a wasp in the post-match interview, though. Glad I wasn’t in the dressing room after.

Fingers crossed for the Wales match.

And we’ve booked our holiday. We’re having our main break at Easter this year and we’re off to Gozo. Woop.

Image: Flower of Scotland by waɪ.ti on Flickr – By-NC-ND