I’ve been interested in 3d graphics for over 12 years, and have finally found the time to make use of Blender.

I was originally interested in learning Maya, and started building learning resources (this was about 6 years ago) but I’ve since become interested in open-source and Blender produces amazing results.  I’m currently designing a new garden office for us at home, and I’ve been able to overcome all the design problems before I go out and order any materials.  I’ve got lots of 3d work in the pipeline too…

• Create a fairy character for my wife’s beautiful poem about a fairy at the bottom of the garden.
• Build a virtual set for an upcoming pantomime production.
• Create a video tutorial animated character to support the School IT Expert tutorials.
• Finish the garden office.

I’ll publish some of my work in the near future!

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I’ve been developing elearning strategies for some years now and I’ve provided a tutorial website at School IT Expert.  Now I’ve started a Moodle site that will allow visitors to join a course and interactively engage with other students and teachers!

This is a lot of work, but a very exciting development for me.

I’ve also acquired the domain elearningplatforms.com, so once I’ve worked it all out I can tell the world how I did it!

Watch this space!

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Although I’ve been developing the use of video in education for some years now, it was only recently that I decided to take advantage of the YouTube platform.  This is a cool way to do things and it’s opened up a whole new audience for me again.

I’m now publishing all my educational videos using YouTube, and linking to them from my learning platforms.

Exciting times ahead!

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Picked up some useful info…

• Becta have finally given me proof that there is no UK Government objection to the application of Cloud systems for schools
• Netgear have updated their managed wireless switch and cut the price by 50%
• Open Source Schools share my passion for encouraging schools to use… well… open source!
• Microsoft have a cloud offering called live@edu

So all in all a worthwhile day out!

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I’ve been fascinated by all things Google for some time now, everything they touch seems to turn to gold.

I wonder what is in store with Google Wave?

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I added some different music, and you can now see the new login interface.

I’m looking forward to rediscovering this excellent product, with it’s revamped user interface.

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The latest version of Ubuntu was recently released and I really like it!  It boots up in about 15 seconds and overall it certainly feels slick.

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I can use Amazon servers instead of having to buy new hardware.  Looks pretty cool.

I’m going to work out what the difference in cost is so watch this space.

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Huru Helpdesk

Huru is swahili for “freedom” which is quite appropriate seeing as it’s an open source solution.

It’s an excellent helpdesk that is inspired by the work done with Liberum, another open source helpdesk.

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I built an Openfiler iSCSI box about 2 years ago, to support an ESX Server implementation.  It worked well, and we left it to it.

Openfiler is now at version 2.3 and I’ve rediscovered what a brilliant SAN/NAS solution it really is!

It’s not only got iSCSI, but there’s also SMB / CIFS, Software RAID, Quotas, Snapshots and you can even join your Active Directory domain.  They’ve also cleaned up the interface to make it even easier to use.

The software is free to use and distribute, and there is an excellent Administrator guide (even if there are a few spelling mistakes) to download for about £38.00.  The guide is a useful reference that gives good coverage of the protocols at work here and is certainly worth the donation to this awesome project.

This is an excellent free open source SAN that I’ll be using for all my future deployments!

Thank you Openfiler!!

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