Weeknote 43/2016
This week I’ve been:
- Sending out Issue #234 of Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely focused on education, technology, and productivity. It featured, among other things, links on fixing education, the future of work, and advice from Steve Jobs. Many thanks to Makers Academy for sponsorship!
- Recording and releasing Episode 66 (‘Fixing education’) of Today In Digital Education, my weekly podcast with co-host Dai Barnes. This week we discussed whether it’s possible to ‘fix’ education (main topic) as well as returning to the theme of meritocracy, ways to rebalance our relationship with technology, Microsoft’s Surface devices, small talk, and… Facebook. You can join the community to discuss this episode of TIDE in our Slack channel!
- Postponing the masterclass and workshop I’d planned to hold in London on December 7th due to RMT strike action. By next week, I should have a confirmed date for January, so watch this space!
- Catching up with Graeme Boxwell from Newcastle University. We had a great conversation about Open Badges, blockchain, and learning analytics.
- Spending time with my family as it’s half-term for my wife and children. We had a great time searching for Great North Snowdogs around the Tyne & Wear Metro system on Thursday! In true Team Belshaw fashion, we walked over 10 miles — including our five year-old, who’s a proper little trouper!
- Facilitating sessions with my We Are Open colleagues at the Mozilla Festival. It’s my first MozFest since leaving the organisation in April 2015, so it’s been good to catch up with people. Dai Barnes kindly took the photo accompanying this post after the session I ran with Sarah Horrocks and Bryan Mathers.
- Writing:
- All of the stuff I’ve written for other people should finally be published next week.
- A new dawn for Open Badges (Open Educational Thinkering, 28th October 2016)
- The Unexpected Benefits of Working Open (The Nasstarian, 28th October 2016)
- What should we measure in education? (Discours.es, 28th October 2016)
- Where I’ll be at MozFest 2016 (Open Educational Thinkering, 27th October 2016)
- Blockcerts are friends of Open Badges (Open Educational Thinkering, 25th October 2016)
- More proof that ‘meritocracy’ (as we currently understand it) doesn’t work (Discours.es, 25th October 2016)
- Sailing through the monotony of oneself (Discours.es, 24th October 2016)
- #StoicWeek: Day 7 (Discours.es, 22nd October 2016)
Next week, I’ll be recovering from MozFest on Monday and then working out of Campus North in Newcastle on Tuesday, catching up with things. On Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be finishing off Chapter 2 of #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity and writing for a publication which I should then be able to tell you about. On Friday, I’m leading a We Are Open thinkathon for Sunderland City Council.
I’ve got some spare capacity up to Christmas. My consultancy, Dynamic Skillset focuses on edtech strategy as well as digital skills and credential. It’s part of We Are Open co-op. If you think I or we can help you, please do get in touch!
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
