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Things I learned this week – #7

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CC BY qthomasbower

Happy Valentine’s Day!

On a personal note, I learned that Ben isn’t over his febrile convulsions and that, if a child isn’t ill then don’t make him so by taking him to have a Swine Flu vaccine.

Apologies for the late posting this morning. We were in hospital from 4am with Ben. :-(

He’s OK now.


Top 3

  1. Always needing to prompt people and follow-up emails? Try this!
  2. Ofsted believes that children who are given more internet freedom are less vulnerable in the long-term to internet dangers. About time! I wonder if it will make any difference in practice?(via @dughall via @teachexpertise)
  3. Can words really account for only 7 percent of the meaning of a spoken message? Hint: no. (via @lindiop)

Tech.

Productivity & Inspiration

Education & Academic

  • Remember California is moving to digital textbooks because it’s got no money? It’s collating Open Education Resources here. Helpful for everyone! (via @akipta)
  • George Siemens reckons/hopes/is-indifferent-about the end will come to peer-review of journals. I’m not too sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
  • This MindSight is worth a look if you’re wondering how some schools apply research in neuroscience to everyday life (via @jamiebillingham)

Data, Design & Infographics

Misc.

[Beaker's Ballad]

Quotations

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. (New York proverb)

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him. (Leo Aikman)

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. (Earl Weaver)

Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Albert Einstein)

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. (Benjamin Disraeli)

Possibly related posts:

Posted: February 14th, 2010
Categories: Things I Learned This Week
Tags: , , , , ,
Comments
Comment from Stephen - 14 February 2010 at 12:12 pm

This is great Doug. I'd love this as a weekly mailout.

Comment from Doug Belshaw - 14 February 2010 at 12:53 pm

Thanks Stephen! Do you mean a *physical* mailout? If not, you could
always subscribe via email? :-)

Comment from Alan Levine - 14 February 2010 at 3:56 pm

I too have been enjoying your recaps (I lost count of how many new sites I just grabbed in a few minutes- but really find the full screen weathermap slick, now bookmarked for my home location). Just curious, what is the process you use here- are you building the post as you go through the week; bookmarking and writing up later? What is the time it takes to compile.

But thanks again!

Comment from Doug Belshaw - 14 February 2010 at 4:25 pm

Thanks for the positive comment, Alan. :-)

I could definitely do with streamlining the process. At the moment I
spend two sessions (Friday/Saturday evenings for about an hour apiece)
transferring links from my email inbox. I subscribe to blogs via email
rather than an RSS reader these days. I also transfer links from my
Twitter favourites, adding obviously awesome and interesting links as
I come across them!

Once the links are on the draft blog post I get up early on Sunday
morning c.5.30am to make it presentable, embed videos, tag it, etc.

This might seem a bit mad, but:

(i) It forces me to learn new stuff every week (and to reflect upon it)
(ii) It means my email inbox is cleared on at least a weekly basis.
(iii) It's my turn to get up with my 3 year-old son on a Sunday (he
usually surfaces between 6.15 and 6.30…)

Hope that helps! If you can think of how I an streamline the process,
do share. :-)

Comment from Stephen - 14 February 2010 at 6:29 pm

This would be quite long-winded as a physical mailout! No, this, as a separate entity, would be great. A filleted highlights package!

PS Re your productivity book, I would heartily recommend “The Mind Gym: Give Me Time” – very well-written, effective chapters on making time, improving time, and common time killers (ie meetings).

Comment from Doug Belshaw - 14 February 2010 at 6:33 pm

Ah… get you! Shall have a think.

Thanks for the book recommendation – shall add to my Amazon
Wishlist. :-)

Comment from James Clay - 14 February 2010 at 7:50 pm

Ref: Ah… remember when we used to use public pay phones?

The other month I was in London, Regent Street as it happens, in the Apple Store and needed to make a call from my iPhone. For some reason the O2 network was not playing ball and despite moving over 200 metres down the street, I could still not connect. In the end I went into a phonebox and used the pay phone… It was a weird experience, the claustrophobic environment, the strange cards, the smell… I'd forgotten how awful they were!

James

Comment from Doug Belshaw - 14 February 2010 at 8:00 pm

How awful. The last time I was in a phone box I was cancelling my parents'
credit card payment to Compuserve at the end of the free trial. I was 15.
;-)

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