Weeknote 27/2017
This week I’ve been:
- Sending out Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely structured around education, technology, and productivity. Issue #265 was entitled ‘Leaf flare’. Don’t forget you can sign up to Thought Shrapnel Live! using Telegram to receive links as I come across them. You can also become a valued supporter.
- Presenting to a symposium session at the World Conference on Computers in Education in Dublin. I spoke on digital literacies, and the importance of not just taking a framework ‘off the shelf’. I recorded my presentation and posted it along with my slides here.
- Wandering around the fantastic collections in the Chester Beatty Library and eating in their wonderful café. I bought a print of Zhou Shengua’s magestic artwork ‘The Winter Journey’.
- Catching up with Mark Brown from Dublin City University, as well as Gavin Henrick from Moodle, Ian Simmons the former Science Communication Director at the Centre for Life, Erica Neve from Freeformers, and Phil Watkins about STEM badges.
- Collaborating with Sarah Horrocks from London CLC on some research around international teacher professional development that we’re doing for the Education Development Trust.
- Recording Episode 86 of the Today In Digital Education (TIDE) podcast with Dai Barnes. This week, we discussed open source in healthcare and education, email productivity tips, why edtech sucks, critical creativity in the classroom, password managers, screen time, iPhones, and more!
- Cheering on my son during his school’s sports day. He won the 200m race and his team came second in the relay, mainly due to some dodgy baton changeovers…
- Planning for next week’s London CLC half-day thinkathon with Bryan Mathers which we’re doing through We Are Open Co-op.
- Writing:
- Why I’ve just ditched my cloud-based password manager (Open Educational Thinkering, 6th July 2017)
- My information environment (July 2017) (Open Educational Thinkering, 5th July 2017)
- The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies (WCCE, July 2017) (Literaci.es, 4th July 2017)
- The trials and tribulations of being a digital parent (Part 2) (Discours.es, 3rd July 2017)
Next week I’ll be getting cracking on creating a scheme of work and resources for Freeformers. I’ll be in London on Thursday for some ideation around that and, apart from running a half-day thinkathon with Bryan for London CLC, won’t have much time to do much else…
I make my living helping people and organisations become more productive in their use of technology. If you’ve got something that you think I might be able to help with, please do get in touch! Email: [email protected]