In the midst of a very wet and windy February a wee bit of hope.
When I write for Waxy.org, I write directly in WordPress's new Gutenberg editor, which is now on par with Medium as a best-of-class writing environment for the web. (And unlike Medium, I own my work.)
https://twitter.com/DrAWebster/status/1230123232235282433?s=20
Middle England
Read: Middle England by Johnathan Coe ★★★★☆ Almost like a series of sketches played very much to my liberal values. Enjoyable rather than thought provoking.
... and the true history of the flat white.
Enjoyed this and the previous episode. Many coffee rabbit holes.
I’d love to hear the speciality espresso vs Italian espresso episode.
Watched The Farewell ★★★★☆ not sure if comedy was the right description it I enjoyed the sadness. Nice performances. 🎥
“State of the comment saying creativity was stifled because they had to paint the same bird. Same with music. Only once you’ve mastered the foundations can you then start to break the mould and get creative. https://t.co/jgh7Eu859s”
Speeding Up Mobile Glow Blogging
Here are some tips for speeding up the process of making simple posts to a Glow Blog
Preparation 1. The Post Editor
One of the nice things about the WordPress Post Editor is you can customise the elements that you see on the screen.
To make my posting simpler in mobile I’ve removed some elements and dragged the Featured Image section to the top of the right hand column. This makes it appear right under the post content in the mobile view.
You can also collapse section of the editor you don’t need all the time, I’ve notice my pupils do this when using their e-Portfolios.
Preparation 2. Bookmark New Post
On my phone I’ve bookmarked the New Post Page on blogs I want to post to.
Im my case I’ve saved it to my home screen so I don’t even need to open my browser and go through my bookmarks.
This means that I can go straight to the new post page. If I am not logged onto Glow I am taken through the RM Unify password screen first. I use the save password facility on my phone to speed this up.
Featured Images
Editing a post with images and text can get a little messy, and therefore slow, on mobile. If I want to make a quick post, I don’t put the images in the editor, but use the featured image feature. This adds an image, typically, to the top of your post, and keeps it clear of the text.
Putting it All Together
Using my home screen icon, saved password, simplified new post page and a featured image means I can post a twitter sized post and picture in around 90 seconds.
Twitter too
In case you are missing the interaction and publicity of twitter you can of course auto post your blog to twitter using several free services, dlvr.it, IFTTT and Microsoft Flow (using your glow account.)
Learning spaces need to create environments where self-direction thrives, not rely on a myth of self direction to avoid designing community.
“ Tried to get educators to adopt @Declara in 2015/16 and @Giveandtakeinc since last Christmas. ...In my experience It's a challenge moving edu folks to other platforms.”
I don’t want to move educators. I’d like to spread the understanding that platforms that you pay for with your attention, and then that attention is manipulated, may not be the best place to direct our pupils data and attention.
A start along that path might be to think of a blog that you either own and control or is owned by a benevolent entity (Scot Gov in this case) is the best place to store your data, memories etc. From there, they can be sent out to social networks.
Ideally, IMO, there would be a benevolent network or system that would eventually work well enough to replace commercial but free, services.