Weeknote 51/2017
It feels weird to be writing a 51st weeknote of the year, as usually I’ve gone on ‘Belshaw Black Ops’, forsaking social media and blogging for the last month (or two) of the year. This time around, I haven’t felt that I’ve needed to, which I suppose is a good thing.
Anyway, this week I’ve been:
- Recording and releasing Episode 94 (‘Distraction-free Festivities’) of the Today In Digital Education (TIDE) podcast, which I record with Dai Barnes. This week, we discussed what we’ve been up to over the last month, laptop use in lectures, mobile phones in the classroom, ‘distraction-free’ writing machines, coding, Net Neutrality, and the future of coding in schools.
- Finishing off a complete draft of the Project MoodleNet whitepaper I’ve been working on. I’m pretty pleased with it, and hopefully I’ll get some useful feedback from Moodle HQ and the wider community. There’s already been plenty of comments on the Google Doc, which is good.
- Joining the Moodle ‘Culture Club’ (new name coming soon) which has formed under the guidance of Holly Barnes with the aim to ensure the organisation becomes a Great Place to Work.
- 3D-printing lots of different things on our new Flashforge Finder. I was going to unveil it to my children at Christmas after experimenting with it, but my son stumbled across it in my office, so we just started using it. We’ve made all sorts!
- Messing about with an original Raspberry Pi and my spare monitor, trying to make a distraction-free writing machine.
- Meeting (online) with Ilona Kish, Director of the Public Libraries 2020 project. We met when I was over in the Netherlands, and there’s some scope for us doing some work together through the co-op.
- Planning a new format for Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter. I asked Bryan Mathers to put together a logo for me, and I think he’s done an excellent job! You can see a sneak peek of the kottke.org-like approach I’m plotting at thoughtshrapnel.com/live.
- Another year older. It was my 37th birthday on Friday, although we’re celebrating it on Saturday.
- Playing Star Wars Battlefront II on the PlayStation 4, which is pretty epic.
- Receiving Christmas gifts through the post from Laura Hilliger, Gavin Henrick, and Eylan Ezekiel. Thanks all!
- Writing:
- Draft Project MoodleNet white paper complete! (Project MoodleNet blog, 22nd December 2017)
- White paper update: first draft of ‘Access to openly-licensed resources’ and ‘Crowdfunding’ sections (Project MoodleNet blog, 20th December 2017)
- Creating a ‘distraction-free’ writing machine (using whatever you’ve got available) (Discours.es, 19th December 2017)
- White paper update: further work on ‘Scenarios’, first draft of ‘Messaging’ and ‘News feed’ (Project MoodleNet blog, 18th December 2017)
Next week it’s Christmas! I’m not working until Tuesday 2nd January, when I start my new four day a week role with Moodle. I’m still available for consultancy one day a week, most of which I’ll be doing through We Are Open Co-op.
Featured image of a 3D-printed Christmas decoration taken by me earlier this week!
