Basically I've been blogging to an anonymous, possibly non-existent audience. I was pretty content with that. I'd be thinking of university friend searching around for me when I updated Reconnecting and I'd be thinking about my CCK08 friends when writing e-learning thoughts. And then some happened. And because something happened, the future is different.
What happened? My daughter's job allows a certain amount of internet time for personal use. Being an intelligent person, she didn't want to use the company computer for checking email, facebook or surfing the web - just too much disclosure. She's decided to relax with mom's blogs. Actually I should figure out how to market myself under that heading as Lisa Lane says she relaxes with my writing as well. My secret to a long marriage is that I'm like that old pair of shoes that has stretched itself in all the right places to be a perfect fit - not new, fashionable or exciting but dang comfortable.
When Paula left home for educational purposes, we used to watch Grey's Anatomy from our different locations and pretend we were together. It was a discussion starter for phone calls. I couldn't get hooked on the show because I lived in nurses' residence for 3 years when I was young and single and all the buildings were connected by a maze of tunnels and passages so it all felt less interesting than the real thing. But I did seek out and enjoyed the writers' blog which gave me something to contribute to our talks and provided an interesting hook for me
http://www.greyswriters.com/
Her graduation marked the end of my Grey's watching.
This morning when I woke up my first thought was, "Did Paula have a snow day or not because if she's at work, I haven't created anything for her to read and maybe she'll be disappointed." Because my baby girl is reading my stuff and because I don't like disappointing her, blogging has moved from a pleasant, sometimes hard to justify diversion to this is serious mother/daughter high priority bonding time. Hopefully the process will result in my writing posts that don't disappoint you as well.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Response to Driven to Distraction
http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/531831.html
Driven to Distraction: Notes on Young Adults Living and Learning with New Media by Christopher Sessums challenges a commonly held belief that social media tools used in any way that deviates from the classroom agenda is being "distracted, off task, sidetracked or a waste of time". I agree with Sessums that "self-directed" learning is legitimate learning.
Everyone currently in school knows everything there is to know about attention deficit disorder and too much deviating from the agenda could very well result in being medicated. That's quite the threat to have hanging over one's head.
It all seems very odd to me. We didn't really have labels for kids although a 12 year old who was still in Grade 1 or a Grade 4 who painted his nose green instead of the flower stem was coming pretty close to being labeled slow.
My elementary school was divided into two rooms. In the Junior Room, we were in Gr. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B. Girls tended to get through the 6 levels in 2 years and boys tended to take 4 years. The Senior Room contained Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Do that math. If the teacher divided her time evenly, each grade got 12 minutes of every hour. For 12 minutes, you were expected to focus. For the other 48 minutes, what you did was pretty much your business as long as you weren't disruptive. I multitasked (an unknown term) - combining seatwork, daydreaming, doodling, passing messages and listening to what the other grades were learning.
Perhaps all this hubbub about kids using social media tools to alleviate boredom in the classroom is more natural/traditional than having helicopter teachers so intensely focused on each child.
Driven to Distraction: Notes on Young Adults Living and Learning with New Media by Christopher Sessums challenges a commonly held belief that social media tools used in any way that deviates from the classroom agenda is being "distracted, off task, sidetracked or a waste of time". I agree with Sessums that "self-directed" learning is legitimate learning.
Everyone currently in school knows everything there is to know about attention deficit disorder and too much deviating from the agenda could very well result in being medicated. That's quite the threat to have hanging over one's head.
It all seems very odd to me. We didn't really have labels for kids although a 12 year old who was still in Grade 1 or a Grade 4 who painted his nose green instead of the flower stem was coming pretty close to being labeled slow.
My elementary school was divided into two rooms. In the Junior Room, we were in Gr. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B. Girls tended to get through the 6 levels in 2 years and boys tended to take 4 years. The Senior Room contained Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Do that math. If the teacher divided her time evenly, each grade got 12 minutes of every hour. For 12 minutes, you were expected to focus. For the other 48 minutes, what you did was pretty much your business as long as you weren't disruptive. I multitasked (an unknown term) - combining seatwork, daydreaming, doodling, passing messages and listening to what the other grades were learning.
Perhaps all this hubbub about kids using social media tools to alleviate boredom in the classroom is more natural/traditional than having helicopter teachers so intensely focused on each child.
TeachersShare - Links
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
One of the reasons, I didn't consider teaching is that I viewed teaching as a very lonely job - like being a mom alone with the kids all day with little positive adult acknowledgment. That and it requires the organizational skills of an obsessive compulsive to keep track of all the tiny bits of money that flow into and out of a typical elementary school classroom. Plus there's the whole parent/teacher interview thing which requires the tact of Pollyanna. And of course, the work is too important to be entrusted to someone whose performance is as variable as my own.
So imagine my surprise to discover just how highly connected teachers are. The web is packed with great things being published by teachers. They share their lesson plans and what they're reading and photos of where they are traveling and the best links to everything. So today I am providing a link to an amazing number of teacher's sites. My sidebar is growing a bit unwieldy. I have the information for putting it into a scroll bar but I'd like my daughter to be with me when I attempt it because two minds in this case would definitely be better than one.
One of the reasons, I didn't consider teaching is that I viewed teaching as a very lonely job - like being a mom alone with the kids all day with little positive adult acknowledgment. That and it requires the organizational skills of an obsessive compulsive to keep track of all the tiny bits of money that flow into and out of a typical elementary school classroom. Plus there's the whole parent/teacher interview thing which requires the tact of Pollyanna. And of course, the work is too important to be entrusted to someone whose performance is as variable as my own.
So imagine my surprise to discover just how highly connected teachers are. The web is packed with great things being published by teachers. They share their lesson plans and what they're reading and photos of where they are traveling and the best links to everything. So today I am providing a link to an amazing number of teacher's sites. My sidebar is growing a bit unwieldy. I have the information for putting it into a scroll bar but I'd like my daughter to be with me when I attempt it because two minds in this case would definitely be better than one.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Twitter Tips
http://www.twitip.com/10-easy-steps-for-twitter-beginners/
http://www.twitip.com/
"TwiTip is edited by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger Blog Tips and is all about Twitter
What's frustrating about joining any social networking platform is publicly exposing that you don't have a clue what you are doing. Personally I appreciate someone showing me the ropes - telling me the best ways to connect.
http://www.twitip.com/
"TwiTip is edited by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger Blog Tips and is all about Twitter
What's frustrating about joining any social networking platform is publicly exposing that you don't have a clue what you are doing. Personally I appreciate someone showing me the ropes - telling me the best ways to connect.
Canadian Blog Awards
http://cdnba.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/best-health-blog-of-2008/
What does it say about Canada that the 2 best health blogs were both written by obesity doctors?
What's Ruth doing today? Checking out the blogs of Canadian Blog Awards winners.
Now I've been randomly reading a few, I'm wondering about the nomination process. There are several that have previously come through on my google reader that I eliminated fairly quickly. The problem was their focus was too specific - eg sources of food within one specific city. I have reasons to visit London, Ontario - my daughter lives there and the Diocese is administered from there - but why would a seek out a farmer's produce stand there when I live in rural Ontario?
I suppose Canada likes to reward the small, the specific, the generally overlooked. I don't choose a blog for that reason. I'm not nationalistic when it comes to my google reader list - it's purely about the relevance of the content to whatever is striking my fancy at the moment.
What does it say about Canada that the 2 best health blogs were both written by obesity doctors?
What's Ruth doing today? Checking out the blogs of Canadian Blog Awards winners.
Now I've been randomly reading a few, I'm wondering about the nomination process. There are several that have previously come through on my google reader that I eliminated fairly quickly. The problem was their focus was too specific - eg sources of food within one specific city. I have reasons to visit London, Ontario - my daughter lives there and the Diocese is administered from there - but why would a seek out a farmer's produce stand there when I live in rural Ontario?
I suppose Canada likes to reward the small, the specific, the generally overlooked. I don't choose a blog for that reason. I'm not nationalistic when it comes to my google reader list - it's purely about the relevance of the content to whatever is striking my fancy at the moment.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Jurgen Wolff & Motivating Headlines
1. Introduction to Jurgen Wolff - (See sidebar for link) He's a script writer, script doctor, coach, workshop leader and his books include: "Focus: the power of targeted thinking" (Pearson 2008), "Your Writing Coach" (Nicholas Brealey, 2007) and "Do Something Different" (Virgin Business Books, 2005). I have two more coming out in 2009, "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" and "Creativity Now" (both from Pearson). Previous books also include "Successful Scriptwriting," "Successful Sitcom Writing," and "Top Secrets: Screenwriting" as well as an ebook "Time Management for Writers".
2. Idea from June Brainstorm Newletter - Jurgen suggests:
" Start your day with a headline
Here's a playful but effective way I've come up with to give direction and motivation to your day: before you start working, write a headline about what you intend to achieve. Here are three examples (the exclamation marks add to the fun):
Writer Finishes Chapter 3 of Her Novel!
Taxpayer Adds Up All Receipts for Tax Returns!
Free-lancer Catches Up With Back Filing!
Generally just the headline is enough, but if it helps you can add a paragraph that specifies how you'll achieve it: "Despite the need to prepare dinner for her family and to go shopping, this writer managed to take one hour out of her day to go to Starbucks and finish the second half of Chapter 3 of her novel." ....
3. Email Backlog I went into my gmail and searched for everything I have received from Jurgen's website since June. I've received 16 items which I quickly glanced at while busy with CCK08. My backlog of emails is astounding but rather than flitting from email to email, I'm going to batch them by sender and take my time making notes and actually absorbing what the writer is communicating. I decided to start with Jurgen because something clicks between his suggestions and finding a way around, over, through the block between a thought and an action.
2. Idea from June Brainstorm Newletter - Jurgen suggests:
" Start your day with a headline
Here's a playful but effective way I've come up with to give direction and motivation to your day: before you start working, write a headline about what you intend to achieve. Here are three examples (the exclamation marks add to the fun):
Writer Finishes Chapter 3 of Her Novel!
Taxpayer Adds Up All Receipts for Tax Returns!
Free-lancer Catches Up With Back Filing!
Generally just the headline is enough, but if it helps you can add a paragraph that specifies how you'll achieve it: "Despite the need to prepare dinner for her family and to go shopping, this writer managed to take one hour out of her day to go to Starbucks and finish the second half of Chapter 3 of her novel." ....
3. Email Backlog I went into my gmail and searched for everything I have received from Jurgen's website since June. I've received 16 items which I quickly glanced at while busy with CCK08. My backlog of emails is astounding but rather than flitting from email to email, I'm going to batch them by sender and take my time making notes and actually absorbing what the writer is communicating. I decided to start with Jurgen because something clicks between his suggestions and finding a way around, over, through the block between a thought and an action.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Stepping Stone Education
There have been many great changes in education since my days on campus. When I was 18, Ontario community colleges were a fairly new phenomenon. Even our guidance teachers weren't too clear about whether a community college diploma would mean anything. For sure we knew that no one would recognize a correspondence education or consider a privately managed college the equivalent of a college financed by the tax payers. When I worked in HR, the older the institution, the more substantial the weight of its name. Brock, Laurentian, Athabasca, York, Simon Fraser were babies offering degrees in weird things like women's studies or Canadian studies or any number of new concepts that seemed trendy - unmarketable, fly-by-night majors for the flower children of parents with too much money or too little practicality or so we thought. Young adults were used to being sorted out into categories - categories that kept you in your place. There were 2 year high school trades programs and 4 year programs that anticipated you'd settle in the area and 5 year university preparation courses with ways to flow down but with no options for late developers to flow upward.
Registered Nurses could get into a 3 year post RN degree program. There was a recognition that bright, poor girls from large families had the option of becoming RNs in order to finance the education that parents didn't want to invest in for a girl who'd probably stay home and raise a family anyway.
And with the arrival of community colleges, there were people like me who got a general B.A. in the arts or social sciences and then enrolled in community colleges for higher paying skills.
Today education is like a smorgasbord. With a little thought, a little research, asking a few right questions, creating a plan, it is possible to reap the advantages of choosing a bit of everything rather than being told if one wants steak and seafood, it is necessary to order the entire steak dinner and follow it up with the entire seafood dinner.
The institutions that are going to win are the ones that offer flexibility - have educational agreements with other institutions - know how to recognize what has already been learned and what is still required - have a plan for people to climb the steps to higher level certifications. The advantages also lie with those institutions which can quickly adapt themselves to the educational requirements for the 21st century - that offer those cutting edge courses which look like trends but are really the future. And the prestige will go to those who are recognizable names because employers can go to their open courses and see for themselves the quality of the lectures, the quality of the courses, the variety of delivery methods and learning tools imparted.
Let's not wax nostalgic about the past - the medieval model. It had a long, great run and I'm proud to have experienced it. Today is a whole new story - one with freshness, promise and choices we could never have even imagined.
Registered Nurses could get into a 3 year post RN degree program. There was a recognition that bright, poor girls from large families had the option of becoming RNs in order to finance the education that parents didn't want to invest in for a girl who'd probably stay home and raise a family anyway.
And with the arrival of community colleges, there were people like me who got a general B.A. in the arts or social sciences and then enrolled in community colleges for higher paying skills.
Today education is like a smorgasbord. With a little thought, a little research, asking a few right questions, creating a plan, it is possible to reap the advantages of choosing a bit of everything rather than being told if one wants steak and seafood, it is necessary to order the entire steak dinner and follow it up with the entire seafood dinner.
The institutions that are going to win are the ones that offer flexibility - have educational agreements with other institutions - know how to recognize what has already been learned and what is still required - have a plan for people to climb the steps to higher level certifications. The advantages also lie with those institutions which can quickly adapt themselves to the educational requirements for the 21st century - that offer those cutting edge courses which look like trends but are really the future. And the prestige will go to those who are recognizable names because employers can go to their open courses and see for themselves the quality of the lectures, the quality of the courses, the variety of delivery methods and learning tools imparted.
Let's not wax nostalgic about the past - the medieval model. It had a long, great run and I'm proud to have experienced it. Today is a whole new story - one with freshness, promise and choices we could never have even imagined.
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