Weeknote 19/2017
This week I’ve been:
- Sending out Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely structured around education, technology, and productivity. Issue #257 was entitled ‘Jetlag’.
- Walking among the bluebells with my wife in the aptly-named Bluebell Wood near our home.
- Recording and releasing Episode 81 of Today In Digital Education (TIDE), the regular podcast I record with Dai Barnes. This episode was entitled ‘Surveillance, Hacking, and Democracy’ and we discussed Mastodon, Dai’s new Linux machine, smart cities, Amazon’s new Echo device, privacy-invading apps, Chinese classrooms, Brexit, two-factor authentication, and more!
- Planning with representatives from the David Ross Education Trust, including Guy Shearer. I’m keynoting and helping with their upcoming elearning conference.
- Asking various people for some advice about what I should do next. Everything going fine, I just want to get my teeth stuck into something a bit ‘meatier’…
- Interviewed by the Innovation Unit for upcoming work they’re doing around the future of edtech.
- Finishing the first draft of an article for Stir to Action magazine. I’ve entitled it You Can’t Be What You Can’t See: digital employability for the new economy and you can add comments/thoughts/suggestions here.
- Attending an important call run by the Open Recognition Alliance around the future of the Open Badges community, now that IMS Global Learning Consortium are stewards of the standard.
- Catching up with Keiron Kirkland and meeting Rob Brown for the first time. Gentlemen both.
- Reading Psalm 139 at my grandmother’s funeral. It was obviously a sad day, but it was such a great send-off for her, and a sunny day to boot.
- Planning my next two ‘Quality Mountain Days’ (of the 20 I need to get under my belt) to get on a Mountain Leader course.
- Finishing, and then immediately flicking back to the front page of Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine to read it again. I may have to install a footnotes plugin on this blog in homage to Baker’s genius. Once I’ve re-read it, I’ll be moving on to HHhH by Laurent Binet.
- Sending out Issue #10 of Badge News, a bi-weekly newsletter for those who want to keep up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of Open Badges (on behalf of We Are Open Co-op).
- Securing sponsorship for a new ‘knowledge repository’ that We Are Open will build to ensure the continued growth of the Open Badges movement. More on that when we announce it properly next week.
- Writing:
- Some thoughts on Keybase, online security, and verification of identity (Open Educational Thinkering, 12th May 2017)
- In what ways does the web and new technology make you feel optimistic and hopeful about the future? (Discours.es, 10th May 2017)
- The ‘S’ in Smart Cities really stands for ‘Surveillance’ (Discours.es, 9th May 2017)
Next week I’m up mountains in the Lake District on Sunday and Monday, and then collaborating with my co-op co-founders on Tuesday morning before heading to a workshop on Tuesday afternoon (run by Christian Payne, aka Documentally). I’m attending the Thinking Digital conference on Wednesday , and Thursday/Friday will be devoted to research for London CLC, and spinning up the new Open Badges ‘knowledge repository’.
I make my living helping people and organisations become more productive in their use of technology. If you’ve got something that you think I might be able to help with, please do get in touch! Email: [email protected]
