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This week I have been mostly…

Sorting out my presentation for ALT-C

I’ve never been to ALT-C, mainly because it’s:

• Right at the start of the academic year (a difficult time to get out of schools)
• Focused mainly on further and higher education

This year I’m presenting with a colleague on behalf of JISC Advance. I’m really looking forward to finding out more both to aid the mobile and wireless technologies review I’m currently undertaking and my Ed.D. thesis. Lots of top-notch people are going to be there!

Launching a new blog

I’ve been looking for blogs relating to mobile technologies in education and have found there’s a dearth of them. I contacted Nick Dennis who agreed to start a new tumblr-powered blog with me at http://mobilizingeducation.tumblr.com. I’m sure he’ll get around to writing a post sooner or later…

Getting up early

I’ve been up before 5am twice this week (I’m usually up at 6am) to work on my thesis. I’m much better at thinking clearly in the mornings and need not to be disturbed by a certain 3 year-old! The planned regime until I finish my thesis (which wasn’t quite achieved this week) is:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday – work 4.30-6.30am on thesis, do weights in evening
• Tuesday, Thursday – go for 3 mile run in morning, work on thesis during lunch break
• Saturday – go for 3 mile run in morning, work on thesis all afternoon

Feeling like I should be on holiday

Working in the education sector during August is like being in a ghost town. There were only two of us in the office yesterday afternoon at JISC infoNet and almost everyone you email is their Out of Office autoreply on…

Posted: August 28th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: ALTC10, blog, holiday, mobile, presentation, weeknote
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This week I have been mostly…

Buying mobile broadband

I noticed that O2 are offering mobile broadband for £5/month. It’s only 500MB but the important thing is that you get unlimited access to BT Openzone wifi hotspots as well! A bit of a deal if you ask me.

Setting up a mobile blog

I wasn’t going to publicly-promote this until later, but Nick Dennis and I have set up a blog about mobile technologies in education over at http://mobilizingeducation.tumblr.com. The URL (and indeed the name of the blog) may change but we felt that there wasn’t enough that blended pedagogy and practice in this area.

Wondering about Ben’s next computer

We bought Ben an Apple eMac for his 3rd birthday in January. He loves using it, but as he’s progressed to more complex games and activities, it’s become a bit too much for the machine. In fact, one Flash-based video he tried to wach recently was reduced to a slideshow! I’m wondering whether his next ‘computer’ should in fact be a tablet of some description or whether, given that schools are likely to stay with traditional computers in the near future, that would put him at a disadvantage?

Playing with Google Apps

JISC infoNet is testing out Google Apps Education Edition on behalf of JISC Advance. It was super-easy to roll out given my past experience. It’s also refreshing to give access to people who ask higher-level questions (e.g. how to switch between Google accounts) than really basic ones. It reflects our team’s immersion in all things digital.

Posted: August 21st, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: Ben, BT Openzone, Flash, Google Apps, mobile learning, Nick Dennis, O2
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This week I have been mostly…

Travelling

It was time for the annual pilgrimage to the inlaws who live in Devon. We fly the rest of the time (Newcastle –> Exeter) but once a year we go down for a bit longer with the car. This time, instead of doing the 6 hours or so in one day, we stopped off in Doncaster and then again at a National Trust property. It made for an enjoyable journey!

Updating

Whilst there was nothing particularly wrong with my portfolio page at dougbelshaw.com when I came across this free ‘personal branding’ WordPress theme I couldn’t resist updating. I like the result.

Reorganizing

I’ve decided that listening to music mainly by album on Spotify is slightly anachronistic. So I’ve been reorganizing my playlists into ‘Running’, ‘Train’, ‘Deadline’, ‘Working’, etc. I’ve kept the album-focused playlists for the moment, but situational playlists seem to be the way forward!

Considering the future

Whilst I’m only four months into my new job (and greatly enjoying it) I’ve got to think about the future. I’ve got a two-year contract with JISC infoNet. Specifically I’ve been considering:

• What (if anything) do I want to do with my Ed.D. when I finish it?
• Is Northumberland where should we bring up Ben and his sister (when she’s born)?
• Do I want to stay in the FE/HE sector, move back into schools or do something entirely different?

I haven’t made any decisions and, if past experience is any guide, things tend to come out of the blue when you least expect them…

Posted: August 14th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: future, music, National Trust, Spotify, themes, website, Wordpress
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This week I have been mostly…

In the office

I had a rare week where I spent each day in the office. But then it’s August – not exactly busy time on the education and/or conference front…

Helping with #edjournal

I was pleased to be able to connect James Michie and Nick Dennis, who each independently came up with the idea for a learning-focused educational journal. They’ve run with the idea and #edjournal: where’s the learning? looks like it’s soon going to be a reality. I’m delighted!

Setting up a touchscreen kitchen PC

This has been too long in coming, but finally we’ve got a solution for family organization and cohesion. I’ve sold some stuff on eBay and have bought an MSI Wind Top AE1900 touchscreen PC. It fits rather wonderfully in the kitchen. We’re using it for calendars (Cozi.com), news (newsmap.jp), music (Spotify) and  TV/radio (BBC iPlayer). It’s on been in there three days but now I can’t imagine life without it!

Watching the Wrestler

My Dad and I attempted to go and see The A-Team movie on Wednesday. Not a good time to go as Orange Wednesdays meant we couldn’t even get near the box office! We came back to my house and watched The Wrestler in our cinema room. What a powerful and well-written/directed/produced film! Moving.

Being lax on the exercise front

I only ran twice this week and did my weights once. Must. Do. Better. It really does affect my productivity!

Posted: August 7th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: edjournal, family, films, kitchen, office, organization, That-thing-they-call-exercise, touchscreen
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This week I have been mostly…

Travelling
I flew to Cardiff for a JISC Advance internal comms meeting on Tuesday and then went to London and back (Wednesday-Friday) on the train. The thing that seemed to take longest was walking and getting the tube around London. I remain baffled as to why anyone would want to live or work there; I feel like I need to take a shower after travelling one stop on the Underground.

Being inspired
Google Teacher Academy UK more than met my expectations. I’m going to save my reflections for a series of blog posts over the next couple of weeks. Suffice to say, however, that from the first lesson on ‘Search’ I was challenged, inspired and enthused in equal measure. The team that organised #GTAUK were legendary: both friendly and awesome!

Watching Toy Story 3
My thoughts? Great film – probably my favourite action/jailbreak film actually. Still, not as good as Toy Story 2 and I found the attempt to make the audience cry at the end a bit cynical. It was Ben’s first trip to the cinema – he was tired by the end but enjoyed it!

Being reminded of the importance of sleep
I know how much I need to get a good night’s sleep to be productive. That has never been brought home to me more forcibly than this week. Man cannot live on caffeine, sugar and adrenaline alone…

Posted: July 31st, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: Google Teacher Academy, GTAUK, inspiration, JISC Advance, London, sleep, Toy Story 3, travelling, weeknote
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This week I have been mostly…

In hospital

First of all we had a bit of a scare with Hannah’s pregnancy. The risk of the baby being born with Downs Syndrome was elevated from 1/1000 to 1/28. She had an amniocentisis (which means she needs to take it easy for a couple of weeks) but everything’s fine. Oh, and it’s a girl! (due late December)

And then, whilst at nursery on Thursday, Ben decided it would be a great idea to stick a chickpea up his left nostril. Cue my coming home from work early. Two hospitals, three doctors, some pinning down from Daddy and a bloody nose later, it was out! I don’t think he’ll do that again…

Presenting

They say things comes in threes and that no buses tend to all come at once. It’s the same with me presenting. I’ve got three in the space of a week – yesterday I demoed the OER infoKit at the Open International Resources International Symposium.

Next Tuesday I’m presenting to a JISC Advance comms group about the benefits of Google Apps, then it’s Google Teacher Academy on Thursday. Awesome.

Blogging

Whilst I’m no longer committed to blogging every day, it would seem that being free to post every day (and not necessarily with images) means I might as well be!

I’ve also been experimenting with Posterous, importing this blog to http://dajbelshaw.posterous.com. It was mainly an experiment (took 5 days, worked flawlessly) but it actually looks great and works really well. Hmmm….

Running

Well, not since the BUPA Great North 10k, actually, but I was really pleased that I managed it in 49:30. That’s underneath the 50 minute target I set myself! My main target was to get around the course in under that time and at the end I felt I could have gone faster. I’m aiming for 45 minutes for the next one (although it’s a half-marathon next according to the plan)

Many thanks to those who sponsored me. Overall, including Gift Aid, UNICEF received over double the target amount!

Posted: July 24th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: blogging, Google Apps, Google Teacher Academy, hospital, Posterous, presenting, weeknote, work
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This week I have been mostly…

Ill

I wasn’t very well at the start of the week – just a bug but it made me feel awful. I took a couple of days off work.

Camping

With my parents away on holiday and Hannah at work I’d booked Wednesday off to look after Ben. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to go camping, just us two, for the first time.

Ben was really well-behaved, but the rain was absolutely torrential on Tuesday night! I thought he’d slept reasonably well, but he asked to go to bed when we got home and slept for another 3 hours…

Preparing

I’ve got some important stuff coming up:

• Tomorrow it’s my first ever running race – the BUPA Great North 10k in Sunderland. I’m aiming to do it in under 50 minutes. I’m running for UNICEF.
• Next Friday it’s the JISC OER International Symposium in London. I’ll be demoing the OER infoKit.
• On Thursday 29th July it’s Google Teacher Academy (#GTAUK) in London. I’m a Lead Learner running the sessions on Google Earth. I’ve started putting together a wiki and ebook to accompany my session which will be of use to more than just those attending. You can access it (and help build it!) at http://sites.google.com/site/gtaukge.

Writing

I’m continuing the JISC Mobile & Wireless Technologies review I started last month, having some really interesting conversations with some extremely innovative people. There’s so much to learn and synthesize!

My thesis is starting to slightly concern me. Although I’ve announced that I’m no longer blogging here every day I’ve got so much left to do. The trouble isn’t the writing of the thing, it’s the keeping up with such a fast-moving field! I undertook my Ed.D. mainly because I love researching but I have to say I’ll be glad when it’s all over.

An idea went through my head earlier this week about a short, free ebook that would serve as a productivity kickstarter. I couldn’t stop thinking about what to include, how to format it, etc. so ended up spending a few hours writing #onfire: ignite your productivity. Do let me know what you think!

Posted: July 17th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: camping, ebook, GTAUK, illness, JISC, OER, onfire, preparations, weeknote, writing
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This week I have been mostly…
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Posted: July 10th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: blog, dad, JISC infoNet, Kindle, weeknote, work
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This week I have been mostly…
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Posted: July 3rd, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: Chris Brogan, facilitating, JISC infoNet, learnpod10, social media, Weeknotes
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This week I have been mostly…

Out of the office

I spent the grand total of about 2 hours in the office this week due to a combination of travelling, attending a conference, and taking some annual leave. I always forget to put my ‘Out of Office’ autoreply on…

Launching the OER infoKit

I mentioned this week that I launched the Open Educational Resources infoKit at the Higher Education Academy Conference. The launch itself was a bit of a farce. I had no microphone and the other half of the enormous sports hall was being used for badminton. #professionalism #fail

Marking GCSE History exam papers

I mentioned last week that I’m marking again for Edexcel. The standardisation was abysmal, but marking isn’t all that bad. It’s a whole lot more efficient doing it online rather than on paper and being able to take some annual leave to get it done takes the pressure off!

Spending time with Nick

I do enjoy it when Nick Dennis comes up to our house stay for a couple of days. Not only does he avoid rolling his eyes when I get all philosophical about education, but we usually hatch up plans and projects relating to educational technology. He’s up in Northumberland for the Cramlington Learning Village conference. With his iPad. Of course.

Posted: June 26th, 2010
Categories: Weeknotes
Tags: Edexcel, Higher Education Academy Conference, marking, Nick Dennis, OER infoKit, weeknote
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