In Defence of IT

Modern smartphones have ever improving cameras and can be a valuable tool in taking 'spur of the moment' pictures not just of your friends doing silly things but of plants, invertebrates, or in this case a grass snake either for identification later on or just because you can.
This picture was taken with a the camera from a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone.

I recently blogged on the topic of the use of IT and expressed my elation at finding that in an age where the smartphone and tablet have largely replaced the penknife and string in the pockets of  young people that a group of students were more interested in being outdoors than watching a video. However I have found that a group of students I have been involved with this year have been using their phones to great effect and are demonstrating a commendable level of enthusiasm. Just today I have been asked to identify pictures of fungi and seen another student talking animatedly with another lecturer about the picture he had taken on his phone of what he thought was a privet hawk moth.

Picture Courtesy of countryside management students Brady Chabot and Joe Noble of some fungi they had seen.