A Silver Sea.

Back up north for a very smooth exam board at Cumbria. I'm particularly impressed with their moves towards using technology as the primary form of communication between staff and students. Staff now post everything from assignments to reminders, to additional reading lists online and the expectation is that students will regularly check the relevant pages.

We're beginning to explore a similar system at St Mary's and from September all our documentation will be published on simmsCAPital, a portal designed to enable an almost encyclopedic amount of information about procedures and module content to be available at the click of a switch. This is a slight change in culture and the real trick to making it work is to persuade all staff to engage. It might also signify the demise of facebook groups - which for the last couple of years have provided an all too public way for staff and students to talk to each other.

Board over we headed out West for a drive around the Bowness peninsula. It was a gorgeous afternoon, the sea glittering silver as we drove for several miles without passing another car. Scotland across the Solway firth to the north, curving round westward as we hit higher ground. Eventually we headed inland and South to have a look at Wordsworth's birthplace at Cockermouth and then East via Bassenthwaite Lake to our overnight stop in Keswick. More of the Coast to Coast in the morning.

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