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.
- Some advice if you’re asked to provide online teaching while schools are closed.
- Thunder Bay‘s library was ahead of the Premier and closed its doors before the mandate for all to close down.
- This is something that everyone should read and understand. Not just now when we’re living in fear, but soap is the best at any time.
- I like that Larkspur Learning Commons sent out a reminder on social media that their collection of resources is publically available. Hopefully, people will take advantage.
- Scholastic is seen to be doing good by doing good and putting some courses online for free.
- Google, Adidas, and soccer shoes? Hmmm. Interesting. Get back to me when they get skates doing the same thing.
- My first thought was that this was a crappy takeover move. Why not reach out with resources and build a partnership instead?
- Around here, it’s another example of individual companies getting out in front…The Bay closed before the Mayor of Windsor shut down Devonshire Mall.
- In addition to sharing this infographic comparing COVID-19, Colds, and Influenza to my Twitter timeline, I shared it on my Facebook feed. Facebook has been overly aggressive about content and actually removed it saying that it was against its community standards. I challenged it and got a “sorry” and it was restored. I don’t know if it was a real person or an algorithm. Apparently, there’s been a lot of this going on.
- This is a nice collection of News reading apps. In the mornings, I use Flipboard and News360. The acid test for me has to be the ability to configure it to the type of news that I want to read and provide both sides to a discussion.
- Visual proof that you can’t just hop on an airplane and get away from COVID-19.
- And, if you were thinking you’d brave a flight out, don’t plan on taking Porter.
- Rather than coming out with four new models of tablets, why not put production efficiencies into one product and bring the price down?
- If you believe in any of the spy theories, you had to know that this was coming. On the other hand, why not do tracking for good instead of evil?
- Closing the border between Canada and the US is a good idea. Even in our segment of the virus world, there are differences between how Ontario and Michigan are handling things.
- A reasoned speech from Angela Merkel. Something that you know who should observe and try to match.
- I don’t really care but I’ll bet there are a lot of people who are wondering why Ariel’s hair is red.
- What a great concept from Canada’s Wonderland. Take a virtual roller coaster ride. It will let you know that there are other ways to make you feel sick!
Blog Posts on
doug … off the record
My daily contributions to this blog. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.
- Sunday – My Week Ending March 15, 2020
- Monday – Learning resources
- Tuesday – A second opinion
- Wednesday – Watch life going on
- Thursday – Real Leadership
- Friday – This Week in Ontario Edublogs
- Saturday – You’ll find this puzzling
- Sunday – Whatever happened to … FTP?
#FollowFriday – March 20, 2020
voicEd Radio
This week on voicEd Radio, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Podcasting, Fair Dealing and New Rules of Twitter Engagement.
This week’s show – https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/march-18-podcasting-fair-dealing-and-new-rules-of-twitter-engagement/
Intro Song: (it’s the second one they play live)
All of the podcasts are archived here.
Blog posts this week came from:
- Jennifer Casa-Todd – @JCasaTodd
- Peter Beens – @pbeens
- Ramona Meharg – @RamonaMeharg
- The Umbrella Project – @umbrellapjct
- Sheila Stewart – @SheilaSpeaking
Technology Troubleshooting
My Chromebook saga continues for yet another week!
One more update this week and, upon rebooting, my Chromebook started to work fine. But, sadly, one time when it was wakened from sleep, it elected to switch over to tablet mode.
I’m starting to get used to Chrome in tablet mode. But, it is annoying to see it load a webpage in a small space and then expand to take up the full screen. Or to have the menu bar scroll off the top.
One thing that I have found is that if I connect a mouse to my Chromebook, the switch to tablet mode goes away. So, I have a new use for my Magic Mouse. It’s connected via bluetooth so I just turn it on to connect and then turn it over and let it sit on my table.
I’ve started to experiment with alternatives. Since it’s going to run Chrome like its Android equivalent, I’ve installed the Brave browser and am using that instead of Chrome at times.
Can I shame the development team to fix this problem?
Video of the Week
It’s kind of a big deal for celebrities to be invited to appear on The Muppet Show. We lost Kenny Rogers this week. This video is from his appearance on the show. It may have been the only time that we saw a Muppet die.
Photo of the Week
Jaimie were out on our regular first-thing-in-the morning walk. You don’t have too many options when you live on a country road! When we got to the corner, there were lights everywhere. At least two firetrucks and an EMS vehicle. We normally walk by the elementary school but elected not to this time. There were too many gawkers also wondering what was happening. It’s dangerous enough at the best of times when distracted drivers on their phones and eating breakfast, etc. But I did take a picture from the corner. Bizarrely, for all the lights that were flashing, I managed to catch most of them off!
Next to the school is the fire station. I did drive by it later and counted 11 cars and trucks from the volunteer firemen who responded. It was a great reminder that, despite all that’s going on in the world, we’re fortunate to have first responders answering the call.
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 
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