Why can’t I dislike something?

Facebook dislike 1024x336 Why can 8217 t I dislike something

When I was a school, we had a simple merit / demerit system to help improve behaviour.

Each child in the school was a member of a house (I was Owls), and good deeds or work earned you merit points, bad behaviour earned demerits for the house total.

At the end of each term, the merits were added up for each house, then the demerits subtracted and the house with the most merits won the house cup – yes, a bit like Harry Potter.

Some classes had weekly or monthly prizes for the child with the most merits as well. Read More ...

Gamification: Learning from our kids that the Task can be the Reward

Gamification 300x56 Gamification Learning from our kids that the Task can be the Reward

Let me just start by saying, I am not an expert in the subject of gamification nor am I trying to be. These ramblings are just my opinion.

This opinion is based on the following experience. 10 years in the IT industry, a life time of playing games, running a games review website, writing about and reviewing games for 5 years, teaching martial arts and working in the education sector for a few years helping to develop learning materials.

People learn and develop in different ways, but one thing has become clear over the last few decades of education. Fun makes learning easier. Just look at how your children are taught their ABC’s. We all were taught the song. Some of us were shown flash cards – C is for Cat. Read More ...

Can the UK keep up with demand for the Cloud

1282932 57855282 Can the UK keep up with demand for the Cloud

Data. Not the chap from Star Trek the Next Generation. No, I am talking about that invisible stream of information that we all rely on day to day. It lets us browse the web, check our emails, watch films and much, much more.

However, are we coming to the point where our need for data is going to overtake the available infrastructures’ ability to deliver?

Just recently two things happened that have made me question the UK’s readiness for all of this new demand for data. One to gamers the other to tech heads everywhere. The first was OnLive. This brave venture into cloud gaming has met with mixed reviews. The thing is, most of the things that have been criticised actually seem to have been caused more by internet speeds than any fault with OnLive itself. Read More ...

If the Internet came to an end tomorrow…

1359575 fire 3 If the Internet came to an end tomorrow 8230

What if, the Internet came to an end tomorrow? What would you do?

I keep in contact with lots of remote friends via email, twitter, forums and messenger. If the Internet ended, I would have to actually talk to these people over the phone. I would be limited to just dealing with people one at a time and giving them my full attention.

All of a sudden I would go from having hundreds of Facebook friends and Twitter friends to just a handful of people whose phone numbers I actually have. Less if you asked me which I had addresses for. Read More ...

Positively negative.

A negative comment is only really negative if no one learns from it.

People will always be more likely to point out what you are doing wrong than what you are doing right. It is human nature to seek the errors in others.

For some this is because they truly feel they are being helpful by pointing out your flaws and they may well be. In these cases, the individual will be approachable, but often hard to convince from their opinion – right or wrong.

For a few, it is because they actually do know better than you do and are trying to educate you. These are usually very polite and open to constructive discussion. Read More ...