📰 Read Write Respond #056

Welcome back again.

I attended a webinar this month presented by Steve Brophy. The focus was on leadership and looking after yourself during times of stress. I was in the middle of a breathing exercise when Ms 4 decided to interrupt and ask what I was doing. I explained I was in ‘a meeting’ so she went back to playing. I rejoined the session. The discussion had moved to another technique. This time Ms 8 interrupted with a question or complaint about her sister. I feel that this captures the current context best. There is little deep work, no Pomodoro timers, it is all about making do. I believe that the current round of lockdown has made us more resilient (well I am at least hoping it has), however I fear I have just become far too pragmatic. Doubt you will find this in any published parenting manual.

In regard to work, there has been another change to my email signature. With the latest restructuring I have gone from being a ‘subject matter expert’ to a ‘functional consultants’. However, at the end of the day, I continue to provide technical support and guidance with reporting and attendance and seemingly everything in-between.

On other matters, I have continued dipping in and out of James Michener’s Space. I signed up for a few other webinars, but seemed to get lost in the busyness of everything. I have found some solace and escape in music though. Whether it be exploring VCVRack and modular synthesisers, as well as listening to The Killers, Washington, AJ Cook, Washed Out and Jacob Collier.

Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:

Education

Evaluating Assessment

Jon Dron compiles a list of principles associated with feedback and assessment.

Sir Ken Robinson Obituary

Stephen Bates reflects upon the life and legacy of Sir Ken Robinson.

4 Ways to Teach You’re (sic) Kids About Grammar So They Actually Care

Brett Healey discusses some strategies for teaching grammar, including showing students how grammar works within texts, use authentic examples, provide room for discussion and encourage play.

The Screens that Ate School with Anna Krien (TER Podcast #153)

Anna Krien speaks with Steve Kolber on the TER Podcast about her piece The Screens that Ate School.

WindowSwap

WindowSwap is a project that users randomly click between different videos taken from people’s windows. It is useful provocation on so many levels.

Technology

A Tale Of Two Ecosystems: On Bandcamp, Spotify And The Wide-Open Future

Damon Krukowski takes a look at the differences between Bandcamp’s music marketplace with Spotify’s audio-first strategy. This also led me to listen to Krukowski’s podcast from a few years ago Ways of Hearing.

What Windows 95 Changed

Anil Dash reflects on 25 years since the release of Windows 95 and how things have changed.

Machine-enhanced decision making; and clapping, flapping drones (RN Future Tense)

Antony Funnell explores the world of machine learning and the way that it can provide efficic

MP3 is 25 Years Old

Lewin Day discusses the history of the MP3. Progressing from various compression formats, to a business model build around codecs to an open format that broke the model.

The Endless Doomscroller

Ben Grossner has created a lens into the way in which social media can lead us into a world of despair.

General

We Won’t Remember Much of What We Did in the Pandemic

Tim Harford discusses the association between memory and place, explaining why remembering the quarantine will be so hard.

Patient Zero (RN Presents)

In this series, Olivia Willis leads a discussion of what constitutes a ‘patient zero’. She explores four particular case studies of outbreaks, including cholera, AIDS and COVID-19.

The city is a lie – From Ancient Egypt’s deltas to Edinburgh’s crags and peaks, the city pushes back against the dream of human separateness

Sam Grinsell argues that the notion of the city being somehow separate and contained from the world beyond is a lie.

Trump’s History of Racism and the Reckoning It Has Forced

Ibram X. Kendi argues what Donald Trump has done more than any president before him to highlight the racism inherent in American society. The question is what will happen next.

Forest Fires Are Setting Chernobyl’s Radiation Free

Jane Braxton Little discusses the forests that surround Chernobyl and the purpose they serve in stopping the spread of radiation and the dangers of forest fire. At least there was one positive to the Australian bushfires.