Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.
Readings
(You can follow my daily readings as they happen here. Here are a selected few from the past week.)
- I think that this is a nice, inclusive addition to Google Slides. I wonder how many people will use it at the Bring IT, Together conference.
- I did quit the QWERTY keyboard once in favour of the Dvorak layout and had a great deal of success. But, it’s not like you can just go out and buy one. They all come with the standard layout. In this article, we find out why.
- I love corn mazes this time of the year. How are they created? Here are some secrets. Of course, once you’ve read the article, they won’t be secrets any more.
- I’m not inclined to use the Microsoft Edge browser and less inclined to use an internal hidden one. According to Wes Fryer, friends don’t let friends use Edge or Bing. This post is devoted to why.
- Google never misses a holiday. This time, it’s Hallowe’en and the software is Google Assistant.
- Trust social media and Apple fanboys to complain about things. This time, they got Apple to fix their bagel emoji. In the process, I got a lesson about bagels from connections in Chicago and New Hampshire about New York bagels.
- You probably don’t need to read this if you’re computer savvy but you might just find it confirming that you’re keeping your Chromebook safe. That’s not a bad thing to do.
- If you’ve had it with the classroom, here are some tips for a job in education that doesn’t include marking, lesson planning, …
- This is my greatest fear of having an electric vehicle but Google has me covered apparently.
- Now that marijuana is legal in Canada, it’s probably good to recognize that it’s not a free for all. Do you know the laws?
- Now it’s a race to see who identifies you being depressed faster – your significant other or your smartphone. (or you, for that matter)
- I like this concept. I stumbled into this blog about Makerspaces and the idea is 26 blog posts from A-Z. Here, we pick it up at D. “Disobedient”
- This was an interesting text of a presentation from Audrey Watters. It will take you back to your university days and psychologists B.F. Skinner and Edward Thorndike. I have a textbook with a graphic showing two boxes. One is labelled “Empty Skinner Box” and the other “Skinner Box containing rat frantically pressing lever”. It’s not a big leap to labelling the second box as person on the computer frantically clicking “like” for gratification.
Blog Posts on doug … off the record
- Sunday – My Week Ending October 14, 2018
- Monday – Your next computer
- Tuesday – A solution to an overblown problem?
- Wednesday –A mathematics rabbit hole
- Thursday – Sticker shock
- Friday – This Week in Ontario Edublogs, Number 329
- Saturday – Bring It, Together Conference 2018
- Sunday – Whatever happened to … percolated coffee?
Blog Post on ecoo.org
BRING IT, TOGETHER 2018 – The complete schedule is now live. Have you registered? It’s also a reminder of the “Bring IT, Together” concept. Why not bring a group from your school?
voicEd Radio
My on demand radio page can be found here. The latest edition features blog posts from:
Technology Trouble Shooting
If there are any developers reading this post, I’ve got an idea.
One of the things that I run hot and cold with is desktop notifications.
When I’m anxiously waiting a reply from someone, I really appreciate being given notice immediately. When I’m working on something else, it is really distracting to get a notification that someone liked something I did.
Notifications seem to be an all-in situation. We have priority inboxes; what would it take to have priority notifications and let us determine what sort of things that we want to be notified about?
Think about it, will you?
Video of the Week
This has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. We know that when we hear the official release that musicians have spent hours, days, weeks in the studio. It’s so good to see a live performance and the musicians don’t miss a beat. The guitar and mandolin solos are just amazing.
My Favourite Photo of the Week
Poor ol’ Jaimie dog-shamed. It was a dark morning so my wife made him wear this glow ring around his neck while we did our wakeup walk. Me, on the other hand, she dressed in black.
Thanks for reading.
dp
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.