Work

This was the first time in a few years where I actually took time off during the christmas break. Last year, it was in the height of LMS implementation and transition. The year before that, writing up the LMS RFP report. The year before that, another Big Important Report™ that I don’t think was actually read. Anyway. Took 2 weeks off over Christmas, and did almost no official work. Wow.

I did do some more testing on our Canon G30 video camera, to prep for a brief shoot next week. What an amazing camera. Deeply impressed, and hoping to put it to lots of use this year. Also, tested out the mini-boom-mic, and the wireless lapel microphone.

I snuck into the office for the afternoon on New Years Day, to work on the edits for episode 2 of Reclaiming Educational Technology - this one focuses on the DTLT group at University of Mary Washington, and looks into their long history of serial awesomeness and innovation and awesomeness. I honestly don’t know how to classify this project. Is it work-related? Extra-curricular? Some funky hybrid? It feels like the most important thing I’ve done in awhile, regardless.

Anyway. Episode 2 is online now. 28 minutes of UMW awesomeness.

Read

Mostly just channelling Stephen Downes. Highlights:

• Google’s Philosopher - “The idea of an identity that is not simply the body has a long history, and in today’s networked and digital age, it makes more than merely spiritual sense.”
• When it comes to Education and Technology, “Efficiency” is not the point - “The course was inefficient, and so is the online course, but what tech allows us to do is to get away from the course entirely.”
• http://www.downes.ca/post/63245 - “David Wiley takes a look at MOOCs (well, xMOOCs) and concludes that the are really no different from traditional online courses, except for the branding. And the significant change, he argues, is that the platform not takes top billing while the institutions are second fiddle.”

and, in non-Downes-OLDaily-ness:

• Tony Bates - The foundations of educational technologies: a brief overview - [section 8.8](8.8 Understanding the foundations of educational media) of his live-open-book-authoring project, Teaching in a Digital Age
• Jason Kottke - Living in the future: the view from 2015. Man, I feel old. “These movies came out closer to World War II than to today: The Empire Strikes Back, The Shining, Airplane, Caddyshack.” ouch.

Other

Not much. Wound up being too cold to do much skiing this week. Yeah. Wussed out. Got out for 1 day, but it was unbelievably crowded, and the main lift went out of order. So we left after 1 (awesome) run. More ski days asap.

Spent some time pulling the 2014/365photos set together and publishing it with the rest of them.

Movie marathon of the week: Terminator 1, 2, and 3.