When we leave the classroom, or the school, or the job and no longer are in touch with those who our words affect the most.
I enjoyed this. When I left the classroom I was pretty determined to keep in mind what it is ‘really like’ when giving advice. Coming back to teaching I find that I had managed that less well than I had hoped for. The biggest difference in being out of the classroom is the blue sky thinking time that can permeate your day. I keep that for commuting nowadays.
Some rather belated thoughts on returning to classroom teaching.
Featured Image: My own, my class is under the parachute.
As I watch the sleet come down I think ‘On this day’ is taunting me.
With the move to platforms like Patreon, it leaves me wondering about the impact on the wider community. I opened my feed today to find Doug Belshaw has made the move from Gumroad to Patreon. After the recent glitch involving fees, it seems that there is a growing move to the platform within the g...
🔗. I’ve kept coming back to this post so it must have touched a nerve. I am not exactly sure why. It is an interesting read.
I love the idea that folk, and folk I ‘know’, can make part of there living publishing on the web. I guess once someone adds Patreon, or the like, to their blog I fell a wee bit of guilt when I read without paying. I also maybe feel a bit more separated from these writers than before1.
This is strange as I like paying for some software or services. If I use a service I like, inoreader or micro.blog for example, I pay. I don’t need inoreader’s paid features but I hope the service keeps running. I could use IFTTT or the like instead of micro.blog‘s publish to twitter but I hope that my $2 a month will help keep the service going.
Victoria Park Late Afternoon.
Hot Cross buns. Just out the oven. Started making then 6 hours ago! Now I remember why I only made them once before (20 odd years ago).
After years of letting algorithms make up our minds for us, the time is right to go back to basics.
👍 Another good sign. I’ve been using inoreader for a couple of years, really like it, have a paid account although free would do.
ViperCard is an open source rewrite of 1987’s HyperCard.
Hmm HyperCard plus gifs, unbeatable technology 👍
#pressedconf18 run by @nlafferty & @patlockley was inspiring, 12 hours of organised #WordPress in EDU tweets. Starting holidays head a buzz, best fun I’ve had on Twitter for a while. Much better use of twitter than news feed. Blog posts popping up archiving presentations too.
This is a summary of my presentation for PressED – A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter. I’ve pasted the text from the tweets, without the conference hash tags below.
I am @johnjohnston a primary school teacher in Scotland. I acted as ‘Product Owner’ for Glow Blogs from 2014 to 2016 & continue the role on a part time basis.
Glow is a service for to all schools & education establishments across Scotland.
Glow gives access to a number of different web services.
One of these services is Glow Blogs which runs on WordPress.
All teachers and pupils in Scotland can have access to #GlowBlogs via a Single signon via RMUNIFY (shibboleth)
#GlowBlogs developed & maintained by Scottish Government considerable amount of work going into dev, testing, security and data protection. This differs from many edu #WordPress set ups as changes developed relatively slowly.
Major customisations include shibboleth signon, user roles & privacy. Teachers/Pupils have slightly different permissions.
Blogs can be public, private or “Glow Only”
There is also an e-Portfolio facility added via a plugin.
Glow Blogs are currently used for School Websites, Class Blogs, Project Blogs, Trips, Libraries, eportfolios. Blogs By Learners, Blogs for Learners (Resources, revision ect), collaborations, aggregations.
ePortfolios supported by plugin, custom taxonomy. ‘Profiles’ print or export to PDF. Pupil portfolio blogs can have sparkly unicorns or black vampire styles but the profiles that come out look clean and neat.
Pupils can learn to be on the web but with <13 we have duty of care.
Pupils can create blogs. Cannot make blogs public.
A member of staff can make pupil’s blogs public. Pupils can be members of public blog and post publicly.
Only scratched the surface of the potential of #WordPress the tools are in place, Scottish teachers and learners are exploring the possibilities but it is early days. We are tooled up for the future.
