Month: December 2010

Things I Learned This Week #50

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

Please note that this will be last of these posts for this year. I’ll be back in 2011 [why?]

Offline this week I learned that there’s literally two types of people in the world (Dweck was correct!), that ‘female festive frenzy’ is now a term in general use, and that brandy hot chocolate is almost always better without the chocolate… :-p

http://delicious.com/dajbelshaw/TILTW50

Technology

If you go to the ‘Advanced Settings’ for Google search, you can now get readability guidance for each result. You’ll be glad to know that this blog comes up as ‘Basic reading level’. Clear writing FTW!
Dropbox is now available for Teams. Looks like a good deal for small businesses, although I think they’ve missed a trick by not also targetting education. This would be awesome for educational institutions!
Google have turned on desktop editor for Google Docs. GigaOM also has the best explanation ever of why I use Apple stuff.
The GSMA Development Fund has published their mLearning report. Interesting reading! [PDF]
Malcolm Gladwell discusses the ‘affordances’ of paper and why it’s an accident of history that we consider tech in any way superior to it.

Productivity, Inspiration & Motivation

Here’s 7 things you should stop doing at work. I’m pretty good at avoiding them, but it’s always worth being reminded!
Want to leave your soul-crushing day job? Here’s how.
Jason Fried posted this quotation over at 37 Signals this week. Spot. On.

You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they’re unable to work on hard problems at all. (Paul Graham)

Do you feel like you do ‘fake work’? Here’s how to spot it and deal with it.
Your job is a platform for what you do. So sayeth Seth Godin (with my blessing, obviously)

Education & Academic

Really interesting stuff over at SmartMobs about ‘Lévy flights’. Also a useful link to the Cooperation Commons.

[T]here is a class of random walks called Lévy flights, which include occasional long-distance jumps. The distribution of step sizes is described by a power law, which means that there are steps of all sizes and no well-defined “average” step size, at least for one class of Lévy flights. They have been observed in various natural settings, most famously in the search strategy of certain animals when food is scarce. For example, hungry sharks will typically scour back and forth over small areas, but if the search is fruitless, they will intermittently “jump” to new, far-off areas [1]. “People have also [studied] Lévy flights in stock prices, epidemics, and small world networks,” says Ajay Gopinathan, from the University of California, Merced.

Rueben Puentedura, he of SAMR model fame, has posted three recent presentations he’s given to his blog.
Jim Groom is running a MOOC on Digital Storytelling.
Stephen Downes links to Dave Cormier’s videos explaining what MOOCs are (nicely done!)
UNESCO and EU publications. You’ve got to love them. The former have announced a policy framework around ICT compentency for teachers. Which will be ignored by Gove.

Data, Design & Infographics

Google have announced their 2010 Zeitgeist of popular searches. What’s even more awesome is that Paul Lewis, a friend of mine helped code it!
Lifehacker have rounded up their most popular photography tips, tricks and hacks of 2010. Which is very nice of them, really.
Like retro travel posters? Like superheroes? Then you’ll love these:

And whilst we’re on the topic of superheroes, this minimalist poster of well-known characters is just fantastic:

I have issues with the relevance of their data, but MIT don’t half make some pretty visualisations. This one shows the strength of ties between areas of the UK based (I think) on landline phone calls. And who makes those any more?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-hlP8Ql384?rel=0&w=640&h=390]

Miscellaneous

With the imminent arrival of Belshaw Junior Mk.2 this zero-to-ten year timelapse is begging to be replicated:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejbNVWES4LI?rel=0&w=640&h=510]

Everyone’s got to have a business plan. Even a pimp.
I think this may be the most important Wikileak of them all [context]
Check out the Top 10 Weird New Animals according to National Geographic. These have all been discovered in 2010. The Sneezing Snub-nosed Monkey looks interesting. Shame the only known example was shot and eaten…
Why did people stop wearing hats?

Quotations

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. (George Orwell)

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. (Albert Camus)

The people who matter will recognise who you are. (Alan Cohen)

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. (Mary Lou Cook)

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

(more quotations at my quotabl.es page)

Main image CC BY auspices

Weeknote #30

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

Weeknote #30 This week I have been mostly…

Sorting out my workflows

It really doesn’t seem like a year ago that I posted My digital reading workflow but the time had nevertheless come to sort out new workflows in a new environment. When you’re working online all day, every day, things work a little differently.

Regular readers will know how much of an influence Joss Winn’s post Working on the web had on me recently. It certainly motivated me into action regarding ‘clipping’ (and adding my thoughts) to stuff I come across. I’m now using Amplify for that. What I still need to sort out, however, are ways to ensure I own my own data – either via backing-up Delicious and the like or some other method.

I’ve added a Lifestream to this blog at dougbelshaw.com/blog/stream

Struggling with SAD

I was in the shower yesterday when it struck me how the lowest points of my life have occurred during, or as a result of actions during, the months of November and December. I’m fine really, and it’s not in my best interests to go into details here, but suffice to say that whilst everything is OK on the family and work fronts, I really struggle internally at this time of the year. I’m convinced it’s got something to do with the lack of light – something that Josh Rouse sings of in Come Back (Light Therapy).

Presenting and organising presentations

I presented virtually at TeachMeet Oxfordshire this week on Models of Learning which went down well. I’ve submitted my session proposals for the Northern Grid Conference 2011 and bMoble Conference 2011 at which I’ve been asked to speak. I’ll be presenting and leading discussion on The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies, weaving in (of course) all kinds of other things.

The Learning Without Frontiers Conference (London) in January is the only event I’m planning to attend between January and March, given the imminent arrival of Belshaw Junior #2. Even after that, given the huge disappointment of Online Educa Berlin (and general conference fatigue) I may cut things back to just those at which I’m presenting/facilitating/organising.

[INCOMING] Personal digital hiatus.

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Doug Belshaw

Three years ago, at the end of 2007, I took a hiatus. Inspired by Stephen Downes, I realised needed a break from the stream. It’s time I took another one, but for different reasons. This time I’m taking a cue from danah boyd who explains her position well:

Years ago, I realized that there was no way to take a vacation and manage the always-on, always-in-contact lifestyle that technology affords. Initially, I thought that it’d be possible to simply ignore email while on vacation and deal with it afterwards but I realized that this was untenable. It takes months to catch up on thousands of emails and I’d come back and immediately burn out again trying to catch up.

She goes on to add that “disappearing without properly making certain that everyone has what they need is irresponsible and disrespectful.” That’s why I’m giving advanced notice that I’m going on a personal digital hiatus from Friday 17th December 2010 until Monday 10th January 2011.

In practice this means that during this period:

I won’t reply to any email (and any email I do receive will be deleted).
I’m uncontactable via Twitter.
I won’t be blogging or moderating comments.

If you need to get hold of me, there’s two options: phone me (if you haven’t got my numbers already, you don’t need them) or contact me at work (until 21st December / after 4th January)

I’ll keep on clipping the occasional article I come across, but I’m intending to swear off Twitter, email and blogging for three weeks, during which time my wife will almost certainly give birth to our daughter. If that isn’t reason enough, I’ll also be doing the following:

Getting back into shape. The snow has knocked my exercise regime for six.
Producing ‘Best of Belshaw: 2010’
Working on my Ed.D. thesis
Thinking hard about the future.
Spending time with my Dad (back from the UAE for Christmas)

So, if you’ve got something to ask of me, best ask before Friday. Please. 🙂