I think I can safely speak for the majority of us. I have constantly consider what we have all gone through in the last couple of years and how hard it has been for us all. It’s been a strange shift towards everyone expressing their opinions and thoughts on ‘doing the right thing’ in a time where the world is gripped in a pandemic. I have thought about how I’m going to deal with the last year or so without dwelling on all the negative energy. So, here is the way that I have chosen to put all of that aside.
I’ve been indulging in my new jam for the last 100 days… and that jam is Wordle! It’s great to have something to focus on for five minutes a day. (Or longer if the word is particularly awkward…) It’s great that it is the same word for everyone and that everyone around the world is doing it in unison. It’s great to share the results with friends and followers on social media. The small drawback is my mates living in the UK have to play catchup as our time zones mean that they are half a day behind me! But, most importantly, it’s harmless fun and I love it!
Wordle is one thing that has united the world in a way that no natural disaster, public protestor, peddled of misinformation or unfit for purpose political leader could ever do in the previous few years. But Wordle has also switched a lot of people off. Timelines filmed with black, yellow and green squares have also bought out the naysayers. It has made me consider, do I stop posting my results just to make a couple of people happy that they don’t have to see coloured squares on their feed anymore, or do I continue to post for the next 100 days? My response: I’m definitely in the ‘You do you and I will do me’ frame of mind. It’s a bit of fun, so feel free to mute, unfollow or unfriend me if Wordle really messes with your sensibilities. I’ll enjoy the fun. You can enjoy the silence…
So, here it is. We are in the 21st Century. It’s time to ‘get with the program’.
I’ve relented and bought in a new digital clock into my classroom. I’ve done this because every now and again I have students that ask me for the time and I always point to the wall at the analogue clock and say “There you go, the time is right there.” I would often get a bewildered look from some of these students, but I thought nothing of it.
Last week, another student ask me the time and I dutifully showed them where to find this out for themselves. I was not prepared for this out loud response: “But Mister, I legit don’t know how to read that clock!”
Now, some of you might not think telling the time on an analogue clock is an important thing to learn as ‘they all have mobile phones and they are all digital anyway.’ Here’s the thing: We are in the digital revolution but there are analogue dials everywhere in the form of car dashboards, pressure gauges, meters, town hall clocks… We are not suddenly going to get rid of them all overnight.
Learning the time on an analogue clock is just one of those things that I call a ‘basic life skill’. Just like learning how to count change out in a retail establishment, even though most people ‘payWave’ their purchases. Or learning how to use a dictionary is important, even though we can now ‘ask Siri’ to spell a word out for us. Or learning your Times tables and fractions as this is a foundation for working out problems involving numbers. Or learning to tie your shoelaces, even though some kids might only wear slip on shoes or Velcro trainers. Or learning how to punctuate and be grammatically correct is also important, even though we actively encourage students to ‘Bring Your Own Device’ and use Google Docs has that ‘funny red wavy line’ that tells you there is an error but most kids just click the ‘Ignore’ option without reading the pop up message. Or learning how to use a pen for the same reasons as my previous point…
So, I’m opening up this conversation and my thoughts to you all to consider and comment on. What do you think? It’s important for me to point out that we don’t have to agree on this, as the world would be boring if we all did. However, I personally believe there is still a place for these things for life!
#FoodForThought
UPDATE: 01/06/2019
It appears that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! One of my students pointed something out to me that I had never thought about before. They told me that they work out the time by simply looking at the number where the minute hand is and then multiply that number by five. I instinctively just know the time by sight. Maybe this is the result of rote learning? Who knows…
Coincidentally, a friend sent this link to me on Facebook. I thought I’d share it with you… Enjoy!
This is my take on the FB trend where you’re asked to do a thing and you nominate a person to do a thing. I normally decline these requests but as this was about posting B&W photos for a week. This challenge was gonna be easy for me as I’ve done this for a year already…
So, seven days and seven black and white photos have turned into seven photos plus another 24 in ‘full colour’.
Here for you to enjoy!
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From this point, I decided to up the stakes and post some ‘full colour’ monochromatic shots…
To quote a line from Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S, “This is a journey into sound…”
I’m continuing on from last month’s musical journey with some more classics and personal musical favourites. These are selected for the pleasure of the music. Plenty of good vibes intended to brighten up any social media timeline… Enjoy!
7 August: The Monday Throwback Edition Robert Howard (Blow Monkeys) & Kym Mazelle – Wait!
7 August: The Monday Throwback Edition Prefab Sprout – The Sound of Crying
8 August: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
8 August: The Christians – Forgotten Town
8 August: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Enola Gay
8 August: Always On My Mind by Tiki Taane
9 August: RIP to the Legend… Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman
9 August: Tracey Ullman – They Don’t Know
10 August: #ThrowbackThursday: Blondie – Atomic
10 August: #ThrowbackThursday: Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something`s Gotten Hold Of My Heart
10 August: #ThrowbackThursday: Eurythmics – You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart
11 August: #FeelgoodFriday Edition: Lily Allen – Smile
11 August: #FeelgoodFriday Edition 2: Vanessa Paradis – Be My Baby
11 August: #FeelgoodFriday Mashup: DJ Earworm – Summermash ’17
11 August: #BlastFromThePast: Soho – Hippychick
11 August: #BlastFromThePast: The Cardigans – Erase / Rewind
11 August: #BlastFromThePast: (With the war of words between USA and North Korea, I’m hoping this isn’t about to happen…) Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes
I’m really enjoying listening to my iPod on my commute to and from work lately. Here’s a selection from the last month or so… It’s a lot more pleasurable than a constant feed of ‘repeat news‘. Enjoy!
30 June: The Friday Edition – The Beloved – Sweet Harmony
30 June: The Friday Edition 2 – Talk Talk – Living In Another World
30 June: The Friday Edition 3 – Prefab Sprout – If You Don’t Love Me
It has taken me the best part of a month to write this post. There have been a few major news items that have dominated the headlines and made this difficult for me to be neutral. No doubt, there will be something I have overlooked. I have probably overthought this but I *think* I’ve now got the wording right… Oh well, here goes!
On the morning of Friday 9th June, I quietly made the decision to stop following all ‘news’ feeds on Facebook. This means I’m saying farewell to ‘reputable’ news outlets like BBC and the Guardian from the UK and the NZ Herald and Newshub here in NZ. (You can forget the other extremist ‘news’ outlets like ‘The Pun’ or ‘Daily Fail’ which I have never followed.)
My rejection of news sources on Facebook is about ‘having a rest’. I have had enough of the media rhetoric. I don’t want to have to endure the sensationalist ‘clickbait journalism’ anymore. I’m also over the effects of the echo chamber that social media has now become.
It’s been over a month now and I have to say Facebook is a different, more pleasant experience for me. I’m relieved to not have to troll through endless versions of the same story fed to me by the ‘distorted algorithm’. I’m now viewing far more posts from real people. Life through the lens of FB is good again.
I get the impression that people don’t want to see the news stories that I repost as I don’t get any ‘likes’ for them. I also don’t want to repost them as this contributes to the information overload. By not reading the news in my FB feed, I’ve found out my likeminded friends actually have a voice and I’m even enjoying reading the opinions of my not so likeminded friends.
But to come back to why I’ve typically had enough of reading the news for now, take a look at the following example of what has become of the ‘neutral’ press:
It’s not for me to tell you how to think. I leave you to draw your own conclusions on this. For me, the above article by Five Filters speaks for itself. For me, this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back. For me, it highlights just how wrong the media outlets have been with recent events in the US and UK. It also leaves me to ponder on where do I now go to read unbiased news stories easily and for free?
At some point in the future, the news outlets may make a return to my FB feed. Maybe this enforced ban is here to stay. I’m inclined to think that at least for now, I’m better off without the white noise…
I’m going to keep this post as short and as simple as I can.
Whilst I know the intentions of all the ‘Please share for the awareness of…’ memes that occupy social media space are of good intentions, I have to agree with the sentiment of the above screenshot.
This is just my opinion. I’m going to use the following analogy to illustrate it. Facebook statuses of this nature are like wallpaper. One ‘pattern’ or message is repeated and ends up blending into the same pattern (or another one) and the good intention the message is conveying just gets lost.
Please read the message in this screenshot. It was written by a friend of mine who lost someone dear to him not so long ago. The message could easily apply to any number of other illnesses or diseases or states of mind. If you can, where you can, you should donate your money or time or unwanted goods to charity if you want to help out.
I’m happy to be put straight on this matter. Please let me know if you disagree with what I say here.
If you know me well, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of the concept of Twitter. I like how I’ve made professional connections and that I can use the networking capabilities I’ve experienced for professional development. I like how interactions can grow organically and how personal connections can be made without ever meeting who you connect with. But lately I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with how social media in general, has recently taken over the ability for everyone to freely express their own opinions without undue criticism or unpleasant ‘trolling’.
For me personally, Twitter used to be informative and a bit of fun and a place of discovery and connection. It’s now an echo chamber of opinions and misinformation that I don’t seem to be enjoying anymore.
So, many months ago, I decided to sign up for curating the ‘People of NZ’ Twitter account. I thought it would be a great way to get a snapshot of the different people that occupy this online space. I have a bit of time on my daily commute to and from work, so what better way to while away the journey…
Now, I’ve kept my sign-up to this as a secret from mostly everyone I know… My week at the helm of this social media experience has just finished. I made this small announcement beforehand: https://twitter.com/mfcuk2/status/861115488515932161
I was quite nervous of being the custodian of the account for the week. I didn’t want to stuff up the experience for the regular followers of @PeopleofNZ.
My aim for the week was to be honest and fun and light hearted. I did have a loose idea what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, but I didn’t want to meticulously plan the week out either. A reassuring tweet from the administrator and words of support put me at ease…
.@PeopleofNZ I have thought about how I'm gonna 'do this' this week. After some deliberating, I've decided I'm just gonna go with the flow! 😊
I’ve nearly finished my second stint at curating this Twitter feed.
I’m proud to have been the kaitiaki of this account. Most of what I said above is still valid. It’s been fun. I’ll probably document my progress in a separate post… Or maybe not?
This may be the perfect antidote to the current funk that is currently attached to many social media posts over the past year… A sudden urge to drop this on Feb 1st albeit with some slightly different rules. I was partly inspired after seeing this Jamie Livingston ‘Photo of the Day’ video on a recent Facebook post.
Enjoy the 2017 season. Who knows, I may decide to continue this indefinitely…
So, here it is. We are in the 21st Century. It’s time to ‘get with the program’.
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To quote a line from Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S, “This is a journey into sound…”
I’m proud to have been the kaitiaki of this account. Most of what I said above is still valid. It’s been fun. I’ll probably document my progress in a separate post… Or maybe not?
mfcuk2 