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. Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.
- Way too much bandwidth was given this past week about a comment from an Apple representative as to why Apple products are better in education than Chromebooks. He missed the whole point of teaching. You can spend all the money you want on technology but if you have no idea how it can work with a child, it’s just money blown away.
- We need a champion to talk about the role of Linux on the student desktop. Oh yeah, there’s the Chromebook thing and the fact that the only app used on a Macintosh is the Chrome browser …
- I’m fearful about the banning or at least restricting of adblockers in the future for Google Chrome. I like an advert-free experience. So much faster; I never paid attention to advertisers anyway.
- Because it’s the essence of education and the reason why we have a highly paid professional in the classroom.
- Personally, I never liked Windows 7. It was slow and clunky and convinced met that Linux needed to be my main operating system. Then, Windows 10 comes along and I’m changing my mind.
- I’ve heard about this legendary drink but kind of doubted that it was available anywhere. But, if you hurry, you can get one.
- This is great news if you’re looking for something new to listen to. Maybe something you haven’t listened to for a while?
- I’m surprised that we’re not seeing lawsuits about the cutting of classes and programs across the province.
- This is a sad story for journalism. Locally, our newspaper has one reporter who is everywhere with his camera. Sadly, it doesn’t give him the time to dig deeper before publishing.
- This is a good collection of “essential free” apps for Windows. They typically have Linux and Macintosh counterparts. Finding the same functionality for Chrome OS can be done with a little work.
- OSSTF is going to move to work to rule in the next step in negotiations. I think it’s too bad that they just don’t go to a general strike. Unlike their elementary school counterparts, it will be less of a political problem since secondary school students don’t need day care.
- Happy time at Huawei. I can’t help but think that we lose just a bit though. If they had to develop competitors, it might have raised the bar.
- I’ve never really had the desire to own a pickup truck. But, I’d oddly intrigued by Tesla’s offering. I’m pretty sure I don’t need bullet-proof glass so take that off the list.
- I will have the pre-game show on starting early this afternoon and will be there for the final seconds. How early? According to the guide, the pre-pre-pre-pre game show starts at 1:00pm. My only regret is that the Allouettes won’t be there.
Blog Posts on doug … off the record
My daily contributions to this blog.
- Sunday – My Week Ending November 17, 2019
- Monday – And then the trolls came
- Tuesday – New .new stuff
- Wednesday – AI fun for the classroom
- Thursday – Grapes is back in the media
- Friday – This Week in Ontario Edublogs
- Saturday – Schedule me a tweet
- Sunday – Whatever happened to … ribbon cables?
#FollowFriday – November 22, 2019
voicEd Radio
My on demand radio page can be found here.
This week’s show – https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/this-week-in-ontario-edublogs-november-20/
Intro song:
Blog posts this week came from:
- @TCHevolution
- @LisaCorbett0261
- @misterwashburn
- @jprofnb
- @MrSoClassroom
Technology Troubleshooting
One of the interesting features of the Samsung MAX VPN is the ability to take a look around the network you’re connected to.
At home, I always give it a look every now again. Despite the fact that we’re kind of rural and there’s no chance to catch someone trying to poach our internet, it’s interesting to see just how many things that are on the network.
We were on the 401 over the weekend and stopped into an ON Route where I attached to the network and looked at the connections. There are a lot of people glumming wifi at the place the signs call a “text stop”.
I’m always interested in the names of the devices that people choose. The advice that you get is to change your name for security. I had to smile when I thought that a generic name would blend in and not stand out like some of the names chosen.
Video of the Week
This will be important for the uninitiated in about an hour…
Photo of the Week
One of the gingerbread house offerings on display in town. Definitely not made with a kit.
Thanks for reading. Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting.
dp
This blog post was originally posted at:
https://dougpete.wordpress.com/
If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.