CC-BY-SA Jessica N. Diamond
There is still no cure for the common birthday. (John Glenn)
Usually, when my birthday comes around I’m either ill, disillusioned or frustrated. Well I’m not that ill today, but I’m not too far away from the other two…
If I lived on Mars I’d be celebrating my 15th birthday soon. If I was on Mercury, I’d be almost 117 years old (thanks, Your Age On Other Worlds!)
A move this year to a job which gave me 50% extra pay, propelled me into the Senior Leadership Team of a 10-site Academy for 2,800 students aged 3-18 kind of pales into insignificance compared to what others achieved during the time they were 28:
- Niels Bohr published his revolutionary theory of the atom.
- George Sand published her first novel, Indiana.
- Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof invented the artificial language ‘Esperanto’.
- Thomas Wakley began publishing the journal The Lancet.
- Bob Marley recorded I Shot the Sheriff
Despite not quite measuring up to these luminaries, I’m not feeling as much of an underachiever as I have in previous years. This is partly due to my promotion, but also due to reading an excellent book entitled Ideas: a History from Fire to Freud. What comes through loud and clear is that the genuises whom we immortalise were pretty much the first among equals. People’s fortunes very much depend upon serendipity. That’s not to say it always involves hard work – that’s a given! :-p
I’m not going to list the things I’ve achieved this year – it’s not helpful, for example, to link to a page showing that this is one of the Top 10 Education blogs in the UK… 😉
Instead, I’m going to set myself some targets. Targets for my 29th year were:
- Apply for and obtain a job that means my wife, Hannah, doesn’t have to work. (Hannah’s now doing a few days of supply teaching each month)
- Write half my Ed.D. thesis around the concept of digital literacies. (my ongoing thesis is online at http://dougbelshaw.com/thesis – I’ve written around 17,000 words)
- Start a new project – either through Folens or independently that brings together some of the ideas Nick Dennis and I have been discussing. (I can’t divulge too much, but Nick and I are in negotiations with a major educational publisher…)
Targets I’m setting for my 30th year are:
- To finish my Ed.D. thesis, ready for submission on 1st January 2011.
- To start learning to play the guitar (my parents bought me one for my 21st birthday!)
- To go running at least 3 times per week.
So yes, I’ll be 30 at the end of 2010. No biggie. 😀
I’m delighted to announce that the #movemeon (e-)book is now available! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of the contributors, but especially Stuart Ridout for his amazing help and design skills. 😀
The PDF is available for free download: http://bit.ly/movemeonpdf
The book is available at cost price: http://bit.ly/movemeonbook
Badges to promote the book are at: http://bit.ly/movemeonbadges (no need for CC attribution, etc.)
Quentin Hardy, Forbes:
Your day begins with a wake-up call from your Google Android phone. As you run to the shower, you hit Google News and check headlines, then Gmail. Your first appointment of the day has been moved to a new location; Google Maps will direct you there. Quickly update your expense report–including the printout of that sales presentation using, say, Google Template–and shoot them to the back office in India (in Hindi, if you prefer, with Google Translate). Your boss wants to discuss your group’s contributions to some marketing documents? Lean on Google Groups. You’re not even out the door yet. You have the rest of the day to search for work-critical information on the Web while you’re at the office–to say nothing of snatching a few moments to download a game, check stock prices, organize your medical records, share photos and pick a restaurant and movie for the evening. How convenient.
I love Apple stuff. I love Google stuff even more because it’s free, is often the best solution, and most of the time promotes collaboration and sharing. However, I’m a bit concerned that they could know a little too much about me. Here’s the Google stuff I use currently:
- Google Chrome web browser
- Google Apps (personal)
- Google Apps Education Edition (at work)
- Google Picasa
- Google Product Search
- Google FastFlip
- Google Maps
- Google Dictionary
I wasn’t very far away last month from purchasing AlertMe Energy for our house. This uses Google PowerMeter to show how much energy you are using at home. It’s better than the LCD display we’ve got currently, but I was a bit uneasy about it – for the same reasons that I would be about using Google Health.
It’s all very well using the best stuff, but at what cost? All it would take is a government requisition of the data from one company and, if I used Google PowerMeter and Health in addition to the products I already use, they could know:
- What I’ve been looking at online.
- The names of my family and friends.
- Where I’ve been recently.
- Who I’ve been communicating with and what about.
- What I look like, as well as what my friends and family look like.
- My political bias.
- How much energy I’ve been using at home.
- My health record.
I think that’s too much information to put into the hands of one company, even if there mantra is Don’t be evil.
So I won’t be buying an Android phone. I won’t be buying AlertMe Energy (or any other service that uses Google PowerMeter) or using Google Health either.
I have to say that it’s a potential problem, not an actual one at the moment… I’ll keep you updated.
Further reading:
