Back to Uni - and even more determined to help. :)

Hi all,

I just thought I'd update you on a few things that are going on with the blog. I tend to do this fairly frequently (a lot changes), it might not happen so much in the next few weeks, though.

There are also two polls at the bottom of this post, too (one that Mr. P may not particularly like), that are fairly important, and would be really appreciated if you could vote on them.

Ok, so in blog news...

University is back. Which is AWESOME, of course. But, it could possibly mean that this become a little haphazard in posting. I'll be posting as often as I can, and I promise you'll, I'll endeavour to do my best, but if Uni starts to slack, and I need to catch up, I'll do so. Hopefully not for too long, though. I love working on this blog, making fresh materials, and seeing what you think.

Going back to Uni reminded me of exactly why I started up this blog. I had two lectures today, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. I'm sorry if this is a little off track for anyone, but I think talking about it will help you see where I'm coming from.

The first lecture I had seemed ok. Nice lecturer, I could understand him. But the lecture that he wanted to run for two hours only lasted for twenty minutes. Technical difficulties. Understandable, but horrible.

We won't fall behind in the coursework, but it reminded me that if there are difficulties (and not only technological), students suffer as a result. I was really keen to start today, but now I've been delayed until they come up onto Blackboard (a file system for students). Students shouldn't have to put up with that, and that's one of the reasons I'm running this blog. (:

I got to my second lecture, and that wasn't much better. I could understand the lecturer, but he wasn't that great. It was a tough subject to teach, and he kept making mistakes (which I can understand), but he couldn't keep us occupied with a problem for long enough, before one of the students picked out his mistakes.

Students should have access to high quality materials, where they aren't going to suffer because their lecturer/teacher can't interpret the material, or struggles to understand it themselves. I'm hoping one day, when this blog is complete (if it is complete), students can be able to use these files to help refresh their skills, or to understand concepts that aren't understood by their lecturers.

In other news, I'm working on a plan. More like a map for the future of this blog, defining all the posts that I will try to attempt to cover while this blog is around. It might take years, but I will endeavour to put every single topic that I put on the list up as a tutorial on the blog. We'll see how it goes, and if you have any questions, or suggestions, feel free to chuck me a line. It should be up at the end of the week, it'll link off of the About? tab.

Now, here's the two super important questions I have for you.

Question 1: Is it ok if I use publically available data (just country), to help me highlight a global map of where my readers/subscribers are from? The Guestbook hasn't been really successful, and I'd really like to do something like that.

Question 2: What maths do you have trouble with?

This one is a bit tricky, because I've categorised it, which some bloggers don't agree with. I don't really either, but I'd like to get a rough idea of what my readers are having trouble with, so I can help them out. Even if you don't have trouble with maths anymore, thinking back to the times where you had a lot of trouble with a certain type of maths really helps.

If you have any other topics you have trouble with, use the 'Other' response, or you can leave a comment. (:

As always, I'd like to thank you all for your support. It means a lot to me, that I have such awesome followers, who put up with the somewhat random posts, the constant email updates, and the constant updates on what's going on with the site. Thanks for taking the time out to see what's going on, and you should really know that your support is appreciated.

Well, for the moment, I'll be off, but I'll be back later on with a fresh new post,

If you need help, we got it!

All the best,

Josh.