Weeknote 04/2020
This week has been one of things coming together. That’s happened on a number of fronts, including: studd that I recorded at the end of last year being released; MoodleNet now actually working; and a real breakthrough during my fifth CBT session.
Dealing with them in order, the audio I recorded for the Digital2Learn podcast back in November has now been released as two separate episodes. In them, I discuss my work on digital literacies, but also cover a wide range of other issues. In addition, the video recording of my presentation and Q&A session at the ITHAKA Next Wave conference in December is now available.
I’m pleased with both of these, particularly the ITHAKA recording, as it pulls together threads of things I’ve been thinking about over the last year, primarily over at Thought Shrapnel.
Talking of Thought Shrapnel, this week I wrote an article about management, organisations and emotional intelligence entitled How you do anything is how you do everything. The microcast this week riffed on a conversation featuring Chris Dixon from the a16z podcast. And the link roundup was the usual mixture of the serious (parenting, screentime) and the not-so-serious (birbs).
I also wrote a rare post directly on LinkedIn entitled To My Network: the ABCs of how we can help one another in 2020, inspired by seeing others do something similar. I also wrote a post on Decision-making and ambiguity at my ambiguiti.es blog.
Although there’s still plenty of work to do, this week things really came together with MoodleNet, the federated, resource-centric social network for educators that my team is building.
We’re planning for enough functionality to be ready to demo next Wednesday when I meet with Martin Dougiamas (Moodle’s Founder and CEO) in Barcelona. Joining us remotely will be Mayel de Borniol (MoodleNet Technical Architect) as well as representatives from the Moodle LMS team.
The focus of the meeting is to ensure that we have MoodleNet integration in the upcoming Moodle 3.9 release, which is scheduled for May 2020. That involves both a simple link from the LMS to MoodleNet, and the ability to send a resource from a MoodleNet collection to a course in Moodle LMS.
In terms of my ongoing CBT, what was particularly interesting was how we’re circling in on something very specific. We’d previously discussed and reflected on my tendency to turn everything into a competition, and avoid situations where I know I can’t ‘win’.
Interestingly, it appears that there’s something even deeper underpinning that which we’re currently chiselling away at. I’ll be happy to share that when I’ve got a better understanding of it and given it a name.
My experience of CBT has been like my experience of Pilates. Something that was highly recommended to me by several people but, for whatever reason, I decided wasn’t for “people like me”. Obviously I was completely wrong about both, although I need to get back to doing Pilates. The difference it makes to my core muscles is a bit like the difference CBT is making to my mental outlook.
This past week it’s been my son’s 13th birthday, which means I am now the proud parent of a teenager. I’m not saying that flippantly, either: I am incredibly proud of my son, who continues to surpass me in every way when I was his age, and with a poise I could never quite muster.
Unfortunately, after pushing his body through the Northumberland Cross-Country Championships, despite his coming down with a cold (and being sick half-way through the race) he was actually off school on both the day of his birthday and the day after that.
That meant that we punted some of the celebrations to Saturday, which included going to see the latest Star Wars film at the cinema, and having a chinese takeaway. Given that we’ve got a pescetarian, flexitarian, and two carnivores in our family, it’s always interesting making sure that these things satisfy everyone!
I’m composing this on Sunday evening during my flight over to Barcelona. I was originally going to just go for the day, but due to the vagueries around the pricing of flights and accommodation, it was actually pretty much the same price (if not cheaper) to be in the office Monday to Wednesday.
On Thursday I’ll be in London for a We Are Open co-op meetup. It’s incredibly important for us to meet in person at least a couple of times a year, even if it’s only for one day. Laura is in town anyway, as she’s been nominated for an award, so it’s a good excuse for us all to hang out at Bryan‘s house and get some planning done.
I’ve submitted a couple of proposals to inbound requests for work this week, so I’m hoping that something comes of those and I can share what I’m up to on the consultancy front soon!
It’s exciting times at the moment as split my time between Moodle and the co-op. I’m re-reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Antifragile at the moment, as the book’s title is part of my mantra for this year. For those wondering, it’s ‘A-OK’, so Antifragile, Optimistic and Kind. Well, I can try….
Finally, on Friday Eylan Ezekiel led tributes to the inimitable Dai Barnes at TeachMeet BETT. I couldn’t make it, and feel like I have made my peace, but it was my pleasure and privilege at last year’s BETT to introduce Dai in person to a bunch of people he’d only previously interacted with online. He was always the focal point of any room; I’ve rarely come across such a warm, personable, and interesting person. I still miss him.
Photo from a four-hour walk I did from my house on Monday, exploring parts of the local area I’d never seen before — including a dismantled train track!
