Welcome to Friday on doug — off the record. It’s time for a wander around my Ontario Edubloggers list and pick seven posts that caught my attention this week. As always, there’s a great collection of good stuff.
Big Building Challenge
- Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
- https://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2023/01/big-building-challenge.html
It comes as no surprise to this reader that Diana has a collection of challenges in her classroom. If you read her regular Monday morning posts, you’ll have read many stories of what active means to her. It’s always good thinking.
This time, she’s faced with a personal building challenge as she tries to assemble a “contraption” to help the youngest of students do a shadow puppet play. I’d probably go with a bed sheet and a flashlight but that doesn’t cut it here. She wants the whole package. The problem is that she has a collection of pieces and no instruction manual.
A good educational blogger brings you into their thought process as they solve a problem and that’s what this post does. Not only are the intermediate students conscripted but in come adults and her own kids.
The only thing that amazes me is that the Queen of STEM challenges is intimidated by hardware stores. I would never have guessed. If you’d asked me, I would have thought that she had a loyalty card.
In my show notes for Wednesday morning, I did have some wonders.
What happens when it comes down? Does all the intellectual property come down with it too? Will it be easier to do next time?
The A+ Teacher Librarian
- Jen Aston – @mmejaston
- https://madameaston.edublogs.org/2023/01/27/the-a-teacher-librarian/
How fitting is it that this post from Jennifer comes out just in time for the OLA Superconference. If you’ve never been there, you need to find some way to go. It’s hands down the most interesting Ontario conference that I’ve attended and I’ve been to many, including chairing a few.
As part of her Additional Qualifications course at Queen’s, she had to create a mindmap documenting her vision of what a Level 4 Teacher-Librarian might be. She constructed an image using Canva.
I enjoyed squinting my way through the graphic – there are some rich concepts fleshed out here. I particularly enjoyed thinking about the “Connects” category and it brought back strong memories of the best teacher-librarians that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.
ChatGPT search – Autotune for knowledge
- Dave Cormier – @davecormier
- https://davecormier.com/edblog/2023/01/20/chatgpt-search-autotune-for-knowledge/
I had to smile as I read this. When Dave writes, I spend so much time reading and thinking and generally it’s because he does write longer posts.
This is actually shorter than most but I spent a whole whack of time thinking about his writing.
He starts with a scenario about what our future workflow using artificial intelligence looks like. I get it although I’ll confess to a smile as to the content that they’re asking FutureGPT to ponder. It’s scary to think that Dave is predicting this process is only a couple of years away.
He turns to the topic of knowledge and what all this means. Of course, there is the extra step that need to take us to wisdom. In our connected world, knowledge is something that we’ve all become accustomed to acquiring. After all, it’s just a DuckDuckGo search away.
I enjoyed his timeline of “the algorithm”. It’s something that we’ve all experienced.
- the librarian
- the search engine algorithm
- the packaged results
His theory is that we need to autotune this artifical intelligence to get the best benefit. That had me wondering whether it was autotuning for the masses or whether it’s personalized autotuning. If the former is the case, is it groupthink?; if it’s the latter, where did privacy go?
This is the stuff that keeps me from falling to sleep at night.
TESL ONTARIO 2022 CONFERENCE: TAKEAWAYS FROM 6 TALKS ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
- TESLOntario – @TESLontario
- https://blog.teslontario.org/tesl-ontario-2022-conference-takeaways-from-6-talks-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
One of the requirements that we had in the Program Department was that we when to a conference, we had to share some of the best things from a conference or other professional learning event with the group. It was a way to leverage the money and time that was devoted to the experience.
It also helped up grow in areas that we might not have otherwise known or even thought about.
In this post, there are short summaries of presentations given at the 2022 conference. There is some great stuff here, along with some links to support further learning.
- A Pedagogy of Belonging Includes Us All – http://bit.ly/howtoinclusive
- Promoting Equality and Inclusion in English Language Classes
- Innovate your ESL Teaching with Accessibility Tools
- LINC Stakeholders – Digital Accessibility Perspectives
- Link to W3C Web Accessibility page – look fors
- Mental Health and Anti-racism: Evolving Curricula for Newcomers
- Empowering Newcomers Through Community Connections
Old Fellas New Music Notes for Episode 39
- Paul McGuire – @mcguirp
- https://paulmcguire1.com/2023/01/27/old-fellas-new-music-notes-for-episode-39/
What would you do to hear more Gord Downie?
You’d head over to this blog post/podcast by Paul McGuire and Bob Kennedy. Like all their other regular posts, it’s a collection of music that I probably would have missed otherwise along with their thoughts. I always, always have music on in the background when I’m working here.
It’s another great collection along with the stories from Paul and Bob.
I enjoyed reading how this came to pass.
and the pandemic story behind this one.
Marc has been on fire for 2023 and dropped three blog posts on his “The 500” blog.
The 500 – #280 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2
- Marc Hodgkinson = @Mr_H_Teacher
- https://the50-20.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-500-280-all-that-you-cant-leave.html
The back story on this post is professional wrestling. I’ll confess openly that I was a fan and watched it every Friday night with my son. I also attended Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome where I thought that I would lose my hearing when Hulk Hogan faced Andre the Giant in the last match. This was back when it was real and not “sports entertainment”. (OK, that’s a stretch…) The ring was set up in the mid-field and the wrestlers were delivered from the dressing rooms via a trolly. Somehow, we ended up on the floor. It was such an amazing event. Thanks for bringing back the memory, Marc.
That wasn’t Marc’s only post for the new year. Like I said, he was on fire. There were some other great posts from his blog.
The 500 – #281 – Folk Singer – My Life – Mary J Blige
- Marc Hodgkinson = @Mr_H_Teacher
- https://the50-20.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-500-281-my-life-mary-j-blige.html
She is indeed “the Queen”.
The 500 – #282 – Folk Singer – Muddy Waters
- Marc Hodgkinson = @Mr_H_Teacher
- https://the50-20.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-500-282-folk-singer-muddy-waters.html
Wow, so many people have recorded this. This is the original.
The 500 – #283 – Can’t Get Enough – Barry White
- Marc Hodgkinson = @Mr_H_Teacher
- https://the50-20.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-500-283-cant-get-enough-barry-white.html
Nobody could ever cover this. White had such an amazing voice.
I know that I say it every week, but what an amazing collection of blog posts! Please take time to enjoy them all.
And, follow these great bloggers on Twitter.
- Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
- Jen Aston – @mmejaston
- Dave Cormier – @davecormier
- TESLOntario – @TESLOntario
- Paul McGuire – @mcguirp
- Marc Hodgkinson = @Mr_H_Teacher
This is a regular Friday morning post around here. I’m glad that you dropped by. Please also check out the radio show This Week in Ontario Edublogs. We’re live every Wednesday morning and the show is available as a podcast later from here.
This Week in Ontario Edublogs
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doug -- off the record 
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