Weeknote 46/2016
This week I’ve been:
- Missing my Kindle Paperwhite, which I left on a flight last week. I was so keen to get home, I left it in the pocket of the seat in front of me. That’s really thrown out my daily reading regime, which has had a knock-on effect on the rest of each day this week. It just goes to show the power of routines!
- Reading, writing, and thinking about things that aren’t quite ready for public consumption yet.
- Meeting with various people, including a representative of the Education department in Jersey, Sarah Horrocks from London CLC, Wayne Skipper of Concentric Sky, my We Are Open colleagues, and Steve Regur from Educators Co-op.
- Sleeping more than usual. I’m tired. It’s that time of year. I prefer the weather in the UK during British Summer Time, to be honest. I’m looking forward to my December hiatus.
- Pitching a newsletter to potential sponsors. I’m either retiring, or re-imagining my Thought Shrapnel newsletter in 2017 as I want to focus in on key areas rather than provide one ‘general’ newsletter.
- Recording and releasing Episode 69 (‘Liar, Liar, Facebook on Fire’) of Today In Digital Education, my weekly podcast with co-host Dai Barnes. This week we discussed Facebook, the US election, and algorithms (main topic) as well as encrypting your life, Elon Musk, co-operative schools, and Finnish education. You can join the community to discuss this episode of TIDE in our Slack channel!
- Sending out Issue #237 of Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely focused on education, technology, and productivity. It featured, among other things, taking election results like a Stoic, and competing with yourself. Many thanks to Makers Academy for sponsorship!
- Setting up a Google Hangout for our Why badges? webinar next Tuesday. It’s We Are Open’s first collaboration with Educators Co-op!
- Leaving Facebook. I’ve had enough. Again. I’m also looking at moving my personal email to ProtonMail and generally protecting myself in the wake of Trump’s impending control of the NSA.
- Writing:
- Fake news: US vs. China (Discours.es, 18th November 2016)
- We’re running a webinar next week on badges, and you’re invited (Open Educational Thinkering, 16th November 2016)
- I left Facebook (again) yesterday (Discours.es, 16th November 2016)
- Submit Your Expense Receipts Via Dropbox Right from Your Lockscreen (NewCo Shift, 15th November 2016)
- Money can’t buy happiness (but you knew that already, right?) (Discours.es, 14th November 2016)
- [INCOMING] #BelshawBlackOps16 (Part 2) (Open Educational Thinkering, 13th November 2016)
- Little things and future fortunes (Discours.es, 13th November 2016)
Next week looks like this: On Monday I’m drafting my monthly posts for DML Central and The Nasstarian, as well as writing posts for the management section of NewCo Shift. Tuesday is ‘co-op day’ for We Are Open, so Laura, John, Bryan, and I will be collaborating all day on projects and plans. We’re also running the webinar mentioned above. Then, on Wednesday, I head to Jersey, visiting a school on the island that afternoon. On Thursday and Friday I’m working on digital strategy stuff with Victoria College.
I’ve got some availability week beginning 12th December for workshops, writing, and coaching. Get in touch if I can help!
