I’ve decided that happiness is a dust-free keyboard. This insight happened this week when I took my PC to the CSTA Conference instead of my Mac. The difference between the two? My Mac is truly portable. My PC is more of a desktop replacement. I have it elevated on this desk with a separate keyboard and mouse for daily use (like blogging that I’m doing right now). The mouse and keyboard didn’t make the trip; I just used the built-in keyboard that took a day’s worth of key travel before the keys all worked properly. I guess my keyboard will be on the vacuuming list for the future. My once a day Swiffer job doesn’t seem to do a good enough job.
Fortunately, you don’t need a complete keyboard so I was still able to enjoy some reading while on the road. Here’s some of what I caught from excellent Ontario Edubloggers.
I like the comment that Alan Rickels uses to close the post as his final thought and call to action.
In the post, he shares some of the resources that he uses with his students and his own work. Choosing the one perfect tool and using only it in this day and age is incredibly short-sighted. It’s like going to the race track and putting your entire savings account on Horse #3. You’d better be right or you’re in big trouble. More and more, the correct answer appears to be “web” but there’s a big risk in focussing on just one web service.
Ontario Education: Room to Negotiate
Stephen Hurley offers a different look at what might make negotiations in Ontario work better.
I’ve been on a negotiating team and Stephen’s image rings pretty true to what I recall. The only difference was that both teams had private rooms to go to when discussing the current proposals or modifications on the table. Of course, lots of coffee, as Stephen notes is crucial.
Maybe the answer to an expedited solution is to increase the amount of coffee and NOBODY leaves the room for a washroom break until an agreement is reached. I mean, they’ve tried everything else, haven’t they?
I love the title of this post from Amy Bowker. I would just add “but only if you’re doing it right”.
Read the entire post to catch the essence of her presentation at the ETFO summer institute and, at the very bottom, there’s a nice collection of online resources. Learning on the fly, she was able to add them to her post as evidence of her learning.
ENG 3U Lesson: Creating An Instructional Media Product for the School Drone
If you are looking for inspiration to return to school and pick up the Grade 11 English course that you struggled with, this post by Helena Mesich might be it.
Talk about the need for purposeful reading and production of media…
Interaction Design student teams up to take home second hack-a-thon award
The world needs more hack-a-thons. It’s here where you take your assigned learning and go way beyond the box to create something new, inspired, and innovative.
I found this very intriguing. We’ve seen the traditional approach to this and it’s proven to not be 100% effective so this hackathon offering offers another approach. Follow through to their website at Think Twice for Change.
After writing this post, I’m so impressed with the range of thinking and ideas happening with great educational bloggers. Please take a moment to click through and share their resources with your colleagues. And, of course, check out all of the Ontario Edubloggers collected here. And, if you’re blogging but not on the list, add yourself with the Google Form and you will be as soon as I can get you added.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.