My world on the web
It can sometimes be hard to see the possibility of blogging and the web. For me it is about continually joining the dots and making the connections. As Amy Burvall highlights, In order to connect dots, one must first have the dots That is the power of Webmentions. My little callout to say, “Hey, interesting…
What are the most popular digital tools for learning and why? Source: VOTING 2024 – Top 100 Tools for Learning 2023 by Jane Hart I have not reflected upon my top tools / workflow(s) for a few years, this therefore was a good excuse to stop and take stock. As requested, here is my list…
I cannot remember the blog posts I’ve read any more than the meals I’ve eaten; even so, they’ve made me. It’s a good reminder to be mindful of my content diet — you are what you eat read, even if you don’t always remember it. Source: You Are What You Read, Even If You Don’t…
You’re having trouble writing not because you can’t find the right words, but because you don’t know what you’re trying to say. You don’t have the right facts at hand.
So the solution is to gather more facts. You need to step away from the keyboard, stop trying to write, and do some more reporting: Make phone calls to some new sources, consult new experts, read a relevant book or article. Once you have the facts at hand, the words will come.
Or to put it another way, when you’re writing nonfiction, the words flow from the research. If the words aren’t flowing, usually the problem is the research isn’t there. To say something, you have to have something to say.
Clive Thompson reflects upon the feeling of writer’s block and suggests that the answer is more research. This reminds me of something Amy Burvall once wrote: In order to connect dots, one must first have the dots @wordpressdotcom https://amysmooc.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/rawthought-on-ditching-the-dangerous-dichotomy-between-content-knowledge-and-creativity/ It also feels like it could be a lost chapter to Austin Kleon’s book Keep Going.
I like the idea of grooming my reference material but I can barely find time to do laundry. I think one of my biggest problems is over-saving. Stars, favorites, reading lists,bookmarks, notes, playlists, and the whole mess of podcasts, is exhausting to keep track of, let alone keep alive and healthy. I recently looked back over my collection of Pinboard bookmarks when I moved to Raindrop.io. It was a nice walk down memory lane but most of it has very little value to problems I am now dealing with.
I enjoyed this reflection Gabe, in particular your comment about who you want to be. I want to be the person that reads these long heady articles “later” but life has different plans for me. I don’t read anything later. I read now or I don’t read it. http://www.macdrifter.com/2021/06/on-digital-gardening-blogs-and-knowledge.html I feel that it is continual…
I have a ton of material that never makes it online, and I need to get it out of my notebooks and into an indexed and fully searchable system. I think this will be easiest if I do it as I go, and keep it simple: the minute I finish a notebook, go back and type the whole thing into a .txt file and save it. (And back it up.)
I suspect that rather than being totally dreary, this transcribing step can also be a creative step, and I will see patterns of thought, generate new ideas…
Austin, I really enjoyed this reflection on various indexes. It reminded me of Amy Burvall’s suggestion that to connect, we firstly need something to connect: In order to connect dots, one must first have the dots Amy Burvall https://amysmooc.wordpress.com/2017/08/06/rawthought-on-ditching-the-dangerous-dichotomy-between-content-knowledge-and-creativity/ Personally speaking, this is the one reason I persist with my newsletter, because as a habit…
In A More Beautiful Question, Warren Berger talks about the power and potential of different types of questions. One type that stands out is the simple strategy of asking ‘What If?’ Here then are my thoughts on what if the web were different? #pcPopUp2020 What if people had some sort of ownership and control of…
I think that it is fair to say that the new school year brings fear for those inside and out of education. I have been flat chat in getting everything in place for the schools we support. This feels strangely different to the rush of being in a school. I think what makes it hard…
[caption id="attachment_4535" align="alignnone" width="816"] Background image via JustLego101[/caption] My Month of June I moved departments and subsequently desks. It is interesting how the space you work can influence you. It has provided me a totally different perspective on the project, as well as feel more at home as I was the only one in my…
The inconvenient truth is that students don’t need ‘experts’ the way they used to. Knowledge is ubiquitous. Any teacher that thinks that they don’t need to change as a result of this truth is doing their students a disservice. Make no mistake: the real learning revolution has already happened, it just doesn’t involve those of us who teach. Because they real revolution is in the phenomenal growth in informal and social learning — as practised by the Beatles and, now, all of us.
David Price responds to criticism that creativity is dependant on a cache of knowledge. Referring to his experiences with Musical Futures, Price explains that it is creativity and passion which lead to an interest in knowledge and theory, not vice versa. Something he also discusses in his book Open. This reminds me of a post…
My Month of May This month I realised the limitations to using a priority matrix to organise my work. It was not capturing the different facets of my work, such as reporting, online portal, attendance and timetable. I am still organising my work around priorities, I have just taken to representing this in a spreadsheet,…
Setting aside the importance of hobbies and the amateur spirit, what worries me the most is this faulty idea that you should only spend time learning about things if they have a definite “ROI.” Creative people are curious people, and part of being a creative person is allowing yourself the freedom to let your curiosity lead you down strange, divergent paths. You just cannot predict how what you learn will end up “paying off” later.Who’s to say what is and what isn’t professional development? (An audited calligraphy class winds up changing the design of computers, etc.)
Austin Kleon responds to the challenge associated with ‘learning for learning’s sake’. He suggests that we need to invest in hobbies and curiosity, just as much as we focus on ‘return on investment’. This is the trouble we often have with schools, of course: When education is seen as an investment, we decide what students…
My Month of April At work, I have continued the development of a flexible reporting solution. A part of this has involved trying to streamline the user interface, as well as testing out various scenarios. I also went to the #EdTechTeam Summit in Canberra and presented on Ongoing Reporting. On the family front, I have…
Many musicians who use recording technology as a compositional tool refer to their studios as gardens. It’s an interesting contrast to Motown, which was conceived as a factory, or Warhol’s studio, which was actually named The Factory.
Austin Kleon discusses gardening as a metaphor for creativity, referencing artists such as Prince and Brian Eno. I have written about gardening in regards to learning before and the way in which a garden never stops growing, even if you stop caring for it. Michael Caulfield uses the metaphors of the garden and the stream…
Amy, your presentation captures succinctly many of the dots you have collected and curated over time. It brings together so many posts that I have loved over the years, including: There’s No Copyright for Cookies What If We…Ditch “Best Practices”? Just Make Stuff Make Du Jour Plus Ca Change It is so easy to overlook…
Rushton Hurley Keynote Rushton Hurley: “We do not spend enough time on the pedagogical implications of ‘fun’ and ‘cool'” “Don’t worry if it doesn’t work, it happens all the time. Have a go at something different.” “Our job is to inspire our students … having fun is an important part of that.” “How often do…
My Month of August Another month has flown on by. In regards to work, I have continued to explore reporting, this included being lucky enough to attend a collective looking at ongoing reporting. Biannual reporting is such an intriguing area and seems to be a barometer of innovation and change. I was also lucky enough…
This month, I have continued on with my work on communities of practice, exploring the intricacies of making an online course. I also attended the GAFESummit in Melbourne, where I got to spend time with a few Twitteratis (see above for my picture with Jenny Ashby and John Casanova). In regards to learning, I finally…
flickr photo shared by mrkrndvs under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license My Month of February Thank you for reading. This month my daughter has grappled with the exhaustion with being a Prep student. While school has really kicked into gear. This year I have been put in charge of ‘intervention’. It has included organising…
