December 4th, 2008, 5 Comments »
I still have a Google Alerts feed set up for the all-too-common title of our ebook, “Getting to First Base”. As you might imagine, the results it generates are quite varied. I’ll be happy when we finally decide on a name for our forthcoming dead-tree edition, so that I can monitor the web for something a little more unique. Fingers crossed on that front.
Yesterday Google Alerts served up a link to this post on a blog entitled My Life. As Impacted by Neve Campbell. From an introductory entry:
Neve Campbell and I were students together for five years at Vista Heights Public School. We were enrolled in a French Immersion program in Mississauga Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, Canada. The following is the story of my life as it relates to her.
Weird, eh? Almost all of the entries were written in April, 2007, and they’re quite exhaustive. They include a couple of class photos and extensive tales of life near Neve. They’re quite detailed:
I remembered her telling me that her younger brother had been diagnosed with asthma. We were sitting in class at the time and she began asking me all these questions about what it was like for me growing up with asthma. As she led me away I had this bad feeling she was going to tell me this brother of hers had died.
When she finally spoke, she told me that she had made arrangements to go to a private school the following year and she wouldn’t be coming back for grade 5. This was bad news, but it wasn’t the kind of ‘end of days’ news that warranted this degree of seriousness.
It’s all a bit creepy, and there’s a certain tone of Penthouse-Letters-Without-the-Sex to the whole thing. There’s no easy way to confirm the veracity of the blog, but if its faked that takes some serious dedication. Also, if it was fake, the author might have done a better job of promoting it.
5 Comments »
February 8th, 2008, 9 Comments »
A reader–we’ll call him Junior–writes with an Apple-related quandary. He wants one, but his bosses don’t want him to have one. He works in an educational institution (which is odd, because usually they’re keeners for the Apple):
As my role expands and changes I’m working on more and more rich media. We have an initiative to get started on podcasting, screen casts, video tutorials, image and logo development and other duties.
Problem is, I’m limited my by hardware and software. We have money in the budget of our department and I want a mac but the head of the tech departments says that without a really convincing argument he’s going to purchase a PC for a new editing suite.
The fact that I’m an experienced mac user doesn’t matter, it’s a moot point as he says that wasn’t the reason they hired me plus what if I leave, no one will use it (i counter you can run it as a PC of course). Both platforms can output the same formats, so that in that regard the platforms are equal. I can’t argue that we need one to help with student support as we don’t support macs.
So, the question is, can you think of any reason why I need a mac? How is it superior? How can I break though to the head of technology? Why will a mac help to keep the department and faculty competitive?
Any suggestions?
UPDATE: Junior has replied in the comments with, well, some comments.
9 Comments »
September 20th, 2007, No Comments »
That’s the question posed by yet another great BBC radio documentary, entitled Top of the Class. There’s a ton of fascinating insights, some of them pretty counter-intuitive, into the devising an educational system that maps to a country’s social structure and policy. A few unexpected facts from the program:
- Finnish students don’t start school until the age of seven.
- There’s only a 4% difference in achievement between the students at the country’s best and worst schools.
- Though it’s above-average, the Finns spend less on education than many other nations, including the US and South Korea.
I know I’ve mentioned a lot of these docs lately, but I’ve been really digging them. They’re exceptionally well done, and–at 22 minutes–an ideal length to listen to while, say, stretching, doing the dishes or sweeping the patio.
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July 3rd, 2007, 3 Comments »
Then join the Facebook group I just started. I know this applies to roughly 0.01% of my daily readership, but bear with me.
I went to Glenmore from grades one to four, from 1981 to 1984 (it’s only three years because I skipped grade one). Because of budget cuts and declining enrollment, and despite the protests of students, teachers and staff, the school was closed in 1984.
It subsequently became a ritzy private school called Collingwood. I added these facts to Collingwood’s Wikipedia entry, and regularly defend them from deletion.
Anyhow, I’m pretty sure I have a few readers who are at least occasional readers of this site. Go forth and sign up!
3 Comments »
March 27th, 2007, 7 Comments »
Kate links to a very worthwhile local project called ChicTech:
ChicTech pairs a three or four person team of young women with a university mentor to create a website for a non-profit organization. The websites are then judged, the teams are rewarded and hopefully these girls are encouraged to stay in a technical field. Or at least see the potential a career in IT has.
ChicTech is currently for Vancouver-area girls, in Grades 9 or 10. This year’s competition is underway. The organizing team is still looking for sponsors and contributions to the final prizes.
Sounds like a great idea, and Capulet’s going to donate a little money to the cause. I’m also going to enquire (assuming the other organizers don’t mind) if they’re interested in some of our leftover Bloggable shirts from Northern Voice.
The cynic in me did leave this comment on Kate’s site:
I’ve gotta say, there’s no shortage of female web designers out there. In fact, the majority of web designers I meet are women. I can’t help but think that a contest for boys would have been around building a program, as opposed to designing a website.
I’m certainly not calling web design a ghetto, but it’s not really IT or ‘computer science’ per se. I know web designers (of both genders) who don’t code at all–they build mockups and subcontract to somebody else for the coding bits.
Regardless, I’m just nitpicking–it sounds like a great project. I’m sure that for some participants web design can function as a sort of gateway drug to web or software development and related, more technical fields.
7 Comments »
