Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Monday, September 26, 2011

Back To Blogging... and Slogging!!

I'm baaack!! With a little push from my friend bitdepth (check out his blog it's very cool!). Seems like forever since I have posted anything and turns out it has - no real excuse, I haven't run out of things to say or thoughts that make me go hmmm..., just never seemed to get around to it. Plus there were those whole Twitter and Facebook distractions - but I'm back - really, I am!...

So tonight thought I'd post about something I've been up to - as I sit here dripping on to the keyboard - I'm just in from what I affectionately call (well, not so affectionately when I'm actually doing it...) slogging - think of it as periods of walking interrupted by periods of very slow jogging (slow + jog = slog- elementary!! :-)). The good news is that I slog now more than I walk and I'm out about 45-60 minutes a slog - my city is a good one for slogging - pretty, with lots of hills and flat bits (I'm really good at finding the flat bits and downhills). I feel great and I know I'm fitter, so I'll keep it up until the snow flies and then I'll head to the gym for the winter...

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A new feature here is that I plan on ending with a link or site that I find useful or interesting or one that just makes me go Hmmm.... Today's site is Ron Berks's - Ron is Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics and Measurement at The John Hopkins University and a master of the use of humour in the classroom and of all things PowerPoint - check him out at LinkedIn too. Ron is amazing and very generous with amazing stuff (stuff is a technical term) and lots of wisdom for educators and presenters. Hmmm...

Monday, June 07, 2010

Back Up Out Of The Twitter Rabbit Hole And Other Musings...

Hard to believe that it has been almost six months since my last blog post - I truly did fall down the Twitter rabbit hole - was (and is) to type out that quick and witty (well I think they are witty) 140 charcter stream of consciousness than it was to sit down and think of something almost sensible to say...

Another advantage of Twitter is that with TweetDeck, I could kill two birds with one stone - tweet and post to Facebook (in fact other than Birthday greetings, I have not used the Facebook interface since I installed TweetDeck almost a year ago...).

While I find Twitter a good way to stay in touch and to get info - depending on who you follow it's almost a "headline" RSS feed - there is still very much room in my life for a blog and for other folk's blogs too (although I must confess I have not looked at Netvibes in months either - something I must get back too.

We're nearing the end of another full and busy academic year here at the College - convocation is next week and we are already in next year mode - seeing prospective students, looking at enrollment numbers (ours are great!), and all in all getting sorted out for another academic year - there is no longer any "down" time...

The two big pieces of tech news for me over the last few months are all Apple related - the release of the iPad and today's announcement of the new iPhone 4 - there is definiteky an iPhone 4 in my relatively immediate future, as for the iPad we have oredered some to try as teaching and learning platforms and to become more informed about their capabilities as we know students will strat showing up with them this fall.

I see the iPad as primarily a consumption machine, not a creation machine - Ira David Socol on his SpeEd Change blog has an interesting post on the iPad - check it out. I think the jury is still out on if the iPad can be successfully used as a learning tool in PSE - I suspect that in some programs it can and in some it cannot. I plan on using one this summer and fall as my " go to meetings" machine - note taking, file retrieval etc. I'll post on how it goes.

My cross Canada virtual trek continues - I think I'm somewhere in Saskatchewan I'll be updating those posts shortly - I did the Bluenose Marathon 5 KM walk/run this year for the third time - my goal was sub 50 minutes and I finished in a chip tine of 50:07.9 (shouldn't have tweetd at the 1 Km mark :-)). You can see my hard-earned medal above...

Well it is so good to be back up from deep in the Twitterverse - I've really missed that 141st character and all the ones that follow. Time to think and muse on what will be here next. Hmmm...

Sunday, November 08, 2009

And He Is Back!!...

Hard to believe that it's been three months since my last post - where has the time gone? It's been a busy Fall in this part of the World, lots going on, but I'm back and ready to post on a more regular basis - here are some of the things I'll be updating and commenting on in the next while:
  • My Virtual Cross Canada Trek - now over 2000 KM in, not sure where that puts me exactly, but I'll update as I hit major milestones and cities
  • Things educational including information literacy, new skills for learning professionals, meta skills for learning professionals, and informal learning...
  • Must "read" audio books (or is that must "listen"?) Hmmm...
  • And anything else that makes me go Hmmm...
Stay tuned...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Vacation Blogging - My 21st Century Summer Reading List

Remember getting those summer reading lists when you were in school - titles to be read for the next school year? Spent summers doing almost anything except reading what was on that list? Then later, after school was over, making up lists of bookd you wanted to read for pleasure while on vacation or just sitting outside enjoying the weather?

Well, my summer reading list has morphed into vacation blogging. I'm on vacation for the next few weeks and have a list of things that have been making me go hmmm... for a while. Now that I have time, I plan on getting these things posted. Here's the list:
  • New skills for learning professionals
  • Meta skills for learning professionals
  • Informal learning
  • Twitter signs of success - business and adult entertainment
  • Can Community Colleges Save the U.S. Economy? (or any national economy for that matter)
  • Twitter in the classroom - twitter clickers
  • OS X plug-ins
  • Sarah Palin's rant
  • Version numbers
  • Canadians and Traffic Shaping
  • Wal-Mart and the Environment
  • Must "read" audio books
And I'm sure there are more, but that's my list for now. Better get started, but I see the Sun - maybe a walk first. Hmmm...