I don't know if it's me, the number of students (groups do tend to be larger than TheOldPlace), or the particular qualities of this particular lecture theatre (converted from a large old fashioned type of hall). But this particular group of 100 or so computing project students just seemed to suck the energy out of me.

Possibly not helped either by my having to give 10 minutes at the start over to an academic who'd come to tell them about how and why they might get their work published. This seemed particularly ironic in the face, this week, of being up against a deadline of revising a piece of work I and a former colleague are hoping to have published.

The practical upshot of that was that I took out some of the 'fun' stuff - such as getting them to mind-map, playing with the 'voting' cards, and showing a video clip. So I've only myself to blame for being dull I guess!