-------- MANTEX NEWSLETTER --------
Number 128 - May 2007 - ISSN 1470-1863
Online Learning - Design - Literature - Film
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0--- 'the Online Learning ideas book' - new book
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/shank.htm
Studying or training online is a booming
industry right now. People want learning
packages they can access whenever they
feel like it.
This presents a challenge to course designers.
How do you teach skills and deliver information
in a way that's interactive AND entertaining?
This book offers 95 different answers to
that question. It's a wonderful collection of
ideas for puzzles, tests, projects,and
techniques for learning which cover everything
from word games and 'visiting' lecturer podcasts
to full-on interactive physics.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/shank.htm
0--- Pub quiz - Question #1
Who is the patron saint of music?
0--- 'Very Interesting People' - Charles Dickens
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/slater.htm
Oxford University Press have just brought out
a new series of pocket-sized biographies of
major cultural figures.
Each book in the series focuses on one individual
from history using material taken from the Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography.
First out of the blocks are Shakespeare,
Isaac Newton, George Eliot, Benjamin Disraeli,
and John Ruskin, amongst others.
There's an account of the life and the
major achievements, plus details of the
subject's reputation to date.
Our review of the Charles Dickens title is at -
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/slater.htm
0--- Pub quiz - Question #2
How many children were there in Enid Blyton's Famous Five?
0--- Blog News - Digital Futures - News Blog
http://adrianmonck.blogspot.com
I went to a seminar on digital futures recently,
which was addressed by Adrian Monck, professor
of journalism at City University London.
He's a news media pundit who knows very much
wherof he speaks, and he blogs prolifically
on print and broadcast news, the politics of
broadcasting, new media, and just about
anything else related to journalism and news.
http://adrianmonck.blogspot.com
0--- Pub quiz - Question #3
Which city has the largest population?
0--- 'Design Management' - new book
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/best.htm
This new title from publishers AVA deals with
the business aspects of design projects.
I imagine the ideal readers would be students
of design who were taking a serious interest
in applying their theoretical skills to the
practical demands of applying them in the
world of commerce and manufacturing.
It's a very handsome production - stylishly
designed and produced, printed on thick matte
paper stock with colour-coded pages, bound in
an attractive paperback A4 format, and elegantly
laid out throughout.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/best.htm
0--- Pub quiz - Question #4
Whose ship was the first to sail round the world?
0--- F.r.e.e novel writing software
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html
Do you think computer software might
help that novel inside you see the light?
Writer and software designer Simon Haynes
offers a buckshee piece of kit which will
help you to organise your novel using
'projects', summary cards, log files,
storyboards, and visual layout schemes.
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html
0--- Pub quiz - Question #5
Who invented the fountain pen - and when?
0--- 'Digital Filmmaking' - new book
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/figgis.htm
Two of my favourite film makers have recently
switched over to digital production. It's cheaper,
and it allows the director complete control over
what goes on.
David Lynch ("Inland Empire") and Mike Figgis
("Hotel") have both gone down this route after
disenchantment with the Hollywood system.
Now Mike Figgis has written a book about digital
film production which will be of interest to
anybody who wants to know how films are made -
and how they *can* be made with equipment you
and I can buy off the shelf at a local shop.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/figgis.htm
0--- Pub quiz - Question #6
Which instrument usually has 47 strings?
0--- F.r.e.e Content Management System
http://twiki.org
TWiki is a flexible, powerful, secure, yet
simple and effective web-based collaboration
platform. You can use TWiki to run a project
development space, a document management system,
a knowledge base or any other groupware tool
either on an intranet or on the Internet.
You can edit any TWiki page.
As the name implies, it looks just like a Wiki
http://twiki.org
0--- Pub quiz - Question #7
Who slew the gorgon Medusa?
0--- Mobile phone technology
http://tinyurl.com/2xkyq7
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/7771.html
I recently had my mobile phone stolen, and
in my researches to find a replacement I came
across the amazing new N95 from Nokia.
If ever the concept of media 'convergence'
needed a concrete example, it's here.
The device is a phone, but it also takes
pictures, plays audio and video files,
has built-in GPS mapping, synchs with
your PC, and does just about everything
except clean your shoes.
The bloke who pinched mine will have to
locate his local mobile phone museum
just to get that one working.
http://tinyurl.com/2xkyq7
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/n/7771.html
0--- Pub quiz - Question #8
What is the popular name for the auracaria tree?
0--- 'Harold Nicolson's Diaries' - book review
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/nicolson_4.htm
Harold Nicolson was a writer, a politician, and
a diplomat - but he is best known as the husband
of Vita Sackville-West, and thus by proxy a figure
on the fringes of the [whisper] Bloomsbury Group.
He was quite a complex character, and one of
the few examples I have come across of someone
from the upper reaches of society whose political
opinions moved from right to left during the
course of his life, rather than the other way round.
His diaries span an amazingly long period -
from 1909 to 1964 and he knew just about
EVERYbody. Marcel Proust, Winston Churchill,
Noel Coward, the royal family, James Joyce.
Some of his opinions and attitudes are
guaranteed to get right up your nose, but
as a set of memoirs it's hard to put down.
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/nicolson_4.htm
0--- Pub quiz - Question #9
How many edges does a cube have?
0--- Digital life - F.r.e.e courses
http://www.sony101.com
Sony have just gone down the route of online
training to support their products. F.r.e.e
lessons in everything from digital photography
to starting your own business. Give it a go!
http://www.sony101.com
0--- Pub quiz - Question #10
Who composed the opera 'Peter Grimes'?
0--- Happy Birthday Helvetica!
http://helveticafilm.com/index.html
Helvetica is an independent film about
typography, graphic design and visual culture.
It looks at the proliferation of one typeface
(which is celebrating its 50th birthday this
year) as part of a larger conversation about
the way type affects our lives.
Helvetica will screen at film festivals,
museums, design conferences, and cinemas
worldwide, followed by the DVD release
this autumn.
http://helveticafilm.com/index.html
0--- Reader's Letters and Corrections
Dick Hardwick writes from Befordshire to say:
"My favourite part of each Newsletter is the
Pub quiz; usually interesting, challenging,
relevant and a useful source of general knowledge.
I use Newsletters generally as a source of
interesting information, new (to me) websites
and 'did you know that' questions/answers ...
rather like the snippets parts of newspapers.
So, keep your material broad, topical and
concentrate on the unusual."
0--- Pub quiz - ANSWERS
#1 Who is the patron saint of music?
ANSWER: Saint Cecilia
#2 How many children were there in Enid Blyton's Famous Five?
ANSWER: Four - one was a dog
#3 Which city has the largest population?
ANSWER: Tokyo
#4 Whose ship was the first to sail round the world?
ANSWER: Ferdinand Magellan
#5 Who invented the fountain pen - and when?
ANSWER: Lewis Waterman, in 1880
#6 Which instrument usually has 47 strings?
ANSWER: A harp
#7 Who slew the gorgon Medusa?
ANSWER: Perseus
#8 What is the popular name for the auracaria tree?
ANSWER: Monkey puzzle
#9 How many edges does a cube have?
ANSWER: Twelve
#10 Who composed the opera 'Peter Grimes'?
ANSWER: Benjamin Britten
0--- COMING SOON
The Handbook of Good English
Virginia Woolf - illustrated
CSS The Missing Manual
Hyde Park Gate News
Frances Partridge Diaries
E-Learning
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News-128-May-2007
ISSN 1470-1863
The British Library