Below is a list of staff cover, workshops and trainee rep activities for today and the rest of the month. You can click on any event to get more detail about it.
A larger copy of this calendar can be found here
Don’t forget to scroll down for the latest news and updates!
All learners please be aware that a PC has been found with no anti-virus installed. Please remember to keep a wary eye out and if you spot any problems. Report them using the fault logging form.
The Microsoft Security Essential icon should appear in your System tray in green or blue as shown below. If it’s missing or orange, please inform a tutor.
Looking as it should...
All learners please note you will probably see a prompt about updating Firefox to 10.0 over the next few weeks. Please continue to dismiss (version 0 of anything is generally bad news!) We’re waiting until at least version 10.1
For the staff – update if you like to experiment but on your own head be it 
Gower College Open Evenings:
Monday 23rd January 2012 Gorseinon 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Thursday 26th January 2012 Tycoch 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Neath Port Talbot College Open Evenings:
Thursday 9th February 2012 Neath Campus 5pm – 7pm
Wednesday 22nd February 2012 Afan Campus 5pm – 7pm
Please be careful in the handbasins in the toilets – the water heat control has been turned up far too high and is extremely hot!
Please be careful not to disturb the heating unit in the room when washing your hands.
From CodeAdademy a new project will email you a year’s worth of lessons, one a week, to get you started coding.
Just had a look at the first week’s set and it’s a really solid overview based on Java. If you’re serious about coding and ready to get straight into the syntax then this is ideal.
I’ll be doing it to refresh my skills so should be able to help if you’re stuck!
A question for those of you who use a SmartPhone…
What apps do you find the most useful?
As part of our GWELLA Project, we’ll be getting a couple of Android tablets and are looking for suggestions for what we should put on them as a ‘package’.
Leave your thoughts as a reply to this message or directly on the project blog.
Let’s not start the year on a bad foot folks — please keep the kitchen area tidy.
Chips in particular will stink the place up a treat if you leave them all over the tables. Please don’t!
Our colleagues over at JISC RSC Cymru are on a mission to find out which female voice you would most like to listen to. As you know, eLearning software (like ALISON) uses synthetic voices to read content aloud to the learner. This learning method is particularly good for auditory learners or learners with dyslexia. You might also be aware that often the commentary can sound too artificial and computerised and may be difficult to understand 
We’ve got a selection of voice recordings from different ladies and we’d like to know which voices you’d prefer to have reading out your documents to you. We’ve included a good range of regional accents and we hope you’ll enjoy listening to them all and scoring them to see which will be the female voice reading your notes to you in the future!
It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s online and the deadline is 21st December…
There are 7 voices each speaking for less than a minute and you can listen to them all and score them at http://tinyurl.com/jtdVoice2.
Thanks 
A useful tool for procrastination avoidance!
Removes all excess distractions and lets you set a target work count or time limit.
But hesitate too long and you’re treated to a horrendous noise to ‘encourage’ you to crack on, or worst still see your work start to disappear before your eyes!
Go on… build us a giant Robot of Death, we promise we won’t complain…
