It was a pretty quiet morning here Wednesday. Stephen was on the road so we didn’t have the opportunity to have the voicEd Radio show. If we had, these would have been the blog posts that we would have talked about.
Using Python To Quickly Open Multiple Websites In Your Browser
I had to smile when I read about Peter’s problem. As I type this message, I have 21 tabs open and OneNote and a couple of other things. I never used to be this bad but I have 16MB of RAM in this computer and I’m going to use every byte.
Peter claims to have a problem when he opens a dozen bookmarks at the same time in his Brave browser. He ends up getting a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable. That’s a web error so goodness knows why it gets thrown at him.
Using Artificial Intelligence, he writes a solution using AI that slows down the opening of the tabs to avoid the error message. It was an interesting solution to a problem that I wouldn’t have predicted.
I had to smile because the solution wasn’t easy in coming. Imagine arguing with an Artificial Intelligence engine – and eventually winning.
The solution came after a bit of debating and tweeking. It was also kind of sad that his chatting partner didn’t know about the Brave browser. Geeky me loved the part where he had to teach the AI about what he was thinking. Hopefully, it got smarter as a result of solving Peter’s problem.
I would never have thought of doing this; I would have just refreshed the tab that was causing the problem. Or, to be honest, I never close my browser so the problem just wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Thanks for an entertaining post, Peter.
Build in 2024
- Sue Dunlop
- https://suedunlop.ca/build-in-2024/
I’ll use this opportunity to congratulate Sue for moving on to a new adventure. Go to her web site for details.
Many people take part in the “OneWord” challenge every year and Sue’s one of them. She starts by giving us a look at her 2023 word and you can go back even further in her OneWord posts to this challenge.
I liked her thoughts about 2024 and it seems that “Build” is a very appropriate word for the year. Her plans …
I’m building: business, new routines, relationships, interests and passions
Having taken leave of education myself, I see her perspective. Education is undoubtedly the greatest, most noble profession you can be in. But, and it’s a big but, you lose control over your schedule. Even leaving the classroom where bells control everything, your time is not flexible.
I wish her the very best in all the building that she’s planning.
Whimsical Confections: Wonka’s Guide to Transformational Leadership
- Anthony Perrotta
- https://aperrotta.com/2024/01/01/whimsical-confections-wonkas-guide-to-transformational-leadership/
Anthony’s setting is so appropriate here this past week. It’s been so cloudy, foggy, and dark. Even dog walkers lose that skip that can come with a bit of sunshine in their lives.
In education, it’s a fun and exciting (and very tiring) trip to the Christmas Break. You return to the gloom of January. I think you get an even greater appreciation for Christmas lighting and decorations when they go away.
I didn’t realize this:
In Ontario, the previous year marked the province’s gloomiest winter in over 80 years
Anthony draws inspiraton and shares it with us through the life and action of Willy Wonka. I never would have thought of that and thoroughly enjoyed his reflections.
There’s hope after all!
Self-cloning crayfish in Canada! (#157)
Stephen and I had a private chat back and forth about this post from Doug. It would have been interesting to have had a random conversation on the radio show to see where it would have taken us.
The topic this time was about a self-cloning crayfish found in Burlington. Doug’s wisdom paraphrases something we all have heard.
“Give a man a crayfish and he can have a nice light snack. But give a clumsy fish enthusiast a self-cloning crayfish and you have an environmental disaster on your hands!”
Whenever I read a post from Doug, I do have to do some research to find out about the real news story that he takes for a ride.
This really is a thing according to a news source other than Doug, our own CBC.
Gulp! I had thought at one time that it would be nice to have a teaching job there. After all, the school I practice taught was on a New Street. Not a new street, but a New Street.
Despite the fun of reading this post, it is a very serious situation. Quite honestly, I hadn’t heard about it until I read Doug’s post and then dug even deeper.
How Do We Find And Nurture Unexpected Leaders?
This post was a bit different than Aviva’s work. It’s actually kind of short but still full of images to document her thoughts.
It also felt a bit like a bait and switch. I thought that it was going to be about teacher-leaders and maybe tied to her adaptation of Laura Wheeler’s Learning in the Loo series. But it wasn’t.
Instead, it was her thoughts about students as leaders. That hit a warm spot for me. If you’re a teacher, I’ll bet it does to you as well. With all the students that you reach, who is that unexpected leader? I suspect that the quick answer is that every student should have the opportunity to lead and that would be the best answer.
Aviva takes us on a trip learning about one student. It is a feel good story.
Please take some time to click through and enjoy these wonderful posts.
I’m happy to say that the updated list of blogs that we’ve featured on This Week in Ontario Edublogs has passed the first test and the blogs that are non-existant and corrected links are in place.
You can check out the complete and updated list here.
This is what I build now, Sue!
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.