Category: Blogging

Absence, Priorities, Focus and Reflection

Some of you will have noticed that my presence online, both here and on Twitter, has been significantly sporadic since September last year. This extended absence (for want of a better word) has been a choice. One that was predicated by my need to prioritise specific jobs, projects and interests over others.

While I will not be naive and proclaim that I am back full time blogging and tweeting, it is my intention, over the next couple of months, for normal service to resume. In light of this I felt it pertinent to give an overview of how I have been spending my time and what you are likely to be reading about in future posts.

The main reason that I have not been blogging and tweeting regularly is that I have been putting a significant amount of my time, outside of the classroom, into the MA in Education that I am studying towards. I am currently editing my final Module Assignment on Independent Learning, and have begun in earnest the preparation for my dissertation.

The current modules I am working through will be familiar to any of you who have completed an MA in Education.

As I plan to write my dissertation publicly online, I have also opted to write the multiple assignments (related to each of the above modules) publicly as well. The documents at the moment are in very rough form with ideas, notes and links being gathered as I research and complete reading.

I am thoroughly enjoying my studies. I did believe that I was already a highly effective learner in terms of research, reflection and criticality however the academic process has opened up a number of new approaches to learning for both myself and by proxy for my students. The impact my studies have had on my students is something I definitely plan to write about in future posts.

Moreover, I am particularly excited about the prospects of completing my dissertation and the depth of academic study that it is going to involve. I have tentatively begun to work on drilling down my research question. Currently it is too broad but as some of you may be interested, here it is in its current form:

Are schools (as physical spaces) necessary to facilitate learning in the 21st century?

In addition to committing more time towards the MA, I also felt that I needed to focus on two specific areas of my teaching. I am both Leader for Media Studies and Key Stage 4 English. Balancing the two roles can be quite difficult. They both demand my time cut come with very different levels of pressure.

While our A2 Media Results were excellent again, they were not up to the standard that I have come to expect. Having completed closer analysis of the results I found that the exam module was the weakest area. I decided that I would take on the teaching of this year’s A2 group on my own, in order to re-develop both the content of the exam module and to re-evaluate the learning structure that we have had in place for A2 students for over five years now.

The most significant change has been the development of the new exam module. I decided to move away from ‘Media Regulation’ and tackle something a bit more theoretical in the shape of ‘Postmodern Media’. While it has been time consuming, it has been a throughly enjoyable process completing the necessary reading and research before piecing together a scheme of work and resources. You can get an insight into how this is going (as well as copies of various resources) at: Media @ CCC.

I also wanted to focus on the continued development of the new KS4 English curriculum. It has been a significant (and welcomed) change for the department. Not only due to new texts and the introduction of the much discussed ‘Spoken Language’ unit but also, due to some restructuring in terms of Controlled Assessment and the timing of exam modules. I now feel that we are coming out of the back of that process far wiser and ready to develop it further in the future.

Finally, I am an avid reader of Patrick Rhone’s writing:

As a Minimal Mac patron, I have been fortunate to get a direct insight into writing of his upcoming book: Enough. As part of the research process for the book, Patrick would spend time evaluating his use of various tools and services – sometimes by not using them at all. I wished to get some perspective not only on my blog but how I organised/used my online life and the impact it was having (positive and negative) on my day to day life. To do this it was helpful to stop/tinker with the various facets of my online self. I am still reflecting on this and drawing conclusions. Sufficed to say that this will be something I will be writing about in future posts. One thing I am certain of. Blogging (reflecting) as a process is very important to me and is something that I plan to continue to evaluate my use of in the immediate future.

The time away from blogging/tweeting has been useful and allowed me to re-align my time and energy with what I believe to be my priorities. With that I will close. If you questions about anything I have discussed above please don’t hesitate to comment below or get in touch via Twitter @jamesmichie.

Perfect ‘Simple’ Note Making – Revamped

nvALT, my preferred text editor, has been the constant tool in my writing and note making setup for more than a year now. There have, however, been a few changes to both the way I write blog posts and the way I create and sync notes with my Android phone. Therefore, I felt a brief update was in order.

Syntax

While learning HTML syntax has helped me to build and customise this blog, it is not particularly easy to use when writing blog posts. What I prefer, is to write in plain text. To avoid writing out lots of HTML, I would write posts in nvALT and then add links, formatting and images in the WordPress browser-based editor. This was not the worst workflow but it was not ideal.

Over the last three months I have been learning to write using Markdown. Markdown is both a software tool and a simple syntax, created by John Gruber, that allows you to maintain your focus on writing. It works by converting plain text, formatted with the Markdown syntax, in to valid HTML.

nvALT has Markdown support built in meaning that I can write a blog post using the syntax, quickly open up a HTML preview to check that everything looks as it should, then simply copy/paste the HTML source code directly into the WordPress browser-based editor. After adding a title and tags all I have to do is hit publish. A far more pleasing workflow.

If you are interested in learning Markdown quickly, this video by Eddie Smith is definitely worth watching:

Epistle

A couple of months into learning Markdown I decided that I should find a text editor for my Android phone that supported it. Being a very specific search I quickly came across Epistle by Matteo Villa.

Epistle

Like nvALT, Epistle has built-in Markdown support. Which means I can write fully formatted blog posts on my phone, using the Markdown syntax. It has an elegant and minimal user interface. Note creation involves a single click and they can be organised alphabetically or by date. Also, you can select from serif, sans-serif and monospace fonts. After a couple of clicks, I had Epistle working in exactly the same way as nvALT. I was completely sold.

Getting in sync

However, there was a problem. Epsitle does not sync with Simplenote. Instead it syncs with Dropbox. Fortunately, I remembered reading a blog post demonstrating how to sync your notes in nvALT with Dropbox and Plain Text for iPad. Re-reading the post it was clear that I could do the same with nvALT, Dropbox and Epistle.

In short I switched to saving notes in nvALT as plain text files. Then I created a folder called “NV” and moved all my notes to this folder. Next, I synced the folder with Dropbox using MacDropAny. To complete the setup, in Epistle, I changed the Dropbox folder it was syncing with to the “NV” folder I had created. And that was it, my notes were synced across both devices.

Perfect and ‘Simple’

It’s almost a year since I first shared an insight into my note making and writing processes. In essence not much has changed. My setup and work flow remain perfect and ‘simple’; revamped but much the same.

Google+: A Space In-Between

Thin Blue Line

What Google+ is and will become, remains largely speculative. There’s a lot of missing features and functions that need to be addressed. And for some of us, there are a number of arising questions, such as: What does it mean to add another stream of information to my busy life? In it’s early iteration though, I am enjoying the liminal space that Google+ is currently inhabiting.

As I have discussed on Google+, the platform sits somewhere between ‘social network’ and ‘blog’. It is this that I have found so gratifying during my early use of it.

Twitter has become fundamental in helping me to develop as an educator; engaging me with other educators, ideas and tools that I may not have come across so easily. However, my one grievance with the platform has been the 140 character limitation. I understand, that this very feature of Twitter is the fundamental principal on which the platform was built. Nevertheless, I feel inhibited by it, particularly in those moments where you are involved in a detailed discussion and need to express yourself more fully.

This blog on the other hand, clearly offers me greater freedom to write, reflect and explore topics in greater detail generating discussion in the comments. However, I am quite the perfectionist and it has become the pattern that blog posts tend to gestate and evolve over time so the opportunities for these more meaningful discussions become dispersed. Additionally, I have not mastered the art of the short blog post. It is something I struggle with; yet I know that long tomes are not always conducive to driving readers towards your blog.

My approach to my blog and the limitations I feel are self-created: I have (IMO) spent a little too much time, cultivating the image of the blog, increasing its importance and value in my mind… therefore I find it difficult to square away the idea that I could publish concise, punchy blog posts.

Google+ on the other hand does not have the limitations of Twitter or a Blog. Firstly, there is no character limit. As such I can write more than a tweet. This does not mean that I have found myself writing massively long posts. Due to the social nature of the platform, I do not feel compelled to do so. What’s more, the ensuing discussion becomes more detailed and involving, and as such, arguably, more meaningful. Something, which many blogger crave to achieve.

Secondly, as it is new and not yet fully formed, it also free of many limitations usually found within social networks. Unlike Twitter, Google+ has no set rules, be they self-imposed or community created.

Thirdly, Google+ is not as formalised as a blog can be. Writing feels very natural; sharing thoughts and ideas with links and images, free from constraints.

My response to Google+ is highly idiosyncratic but nevertheless I believe there is something valuable about the in-between space that the platform currently inhabits. Hovering between blog and social network, Google+ is something else entirely. While it remains undefined it will I believe continue to hold an appeal for me… a space for connecting, writing and sharing ideas. Whether, this continues to be the case as the platform grows and evolves, I will just have to wait and see.

What I would like, is to feel the same way about writing here on my blog. The question I’m left pondering then, is this: How do I quell the perfectionist inside and establish the same liminality on my blog?

Image courtesy of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

#writewell – A Gifted and Talented Writing Project

On Tuesday afternoon when the majority of students were making their way home, 15 dedicated Year 11s remained behind to take part in a project that I am leading with five colleagues from the English department. The short term aim is to improve on these, already, talented writers skills, hopefully helping them to achieve A*s in English. The long term aim is to help them become better and more critical writers, oozing with confidence whenever they put pen to paper or finger to keys.

100 Words

The project is running for ten weeks and includes a variety of facets. One of which is teachers, parents, writers and others offering 100 words on why being able to #writewell is important.

Here’s a flavour of what has been shared so far:

“With a talent such as writing well, it allows the reader to feel your passion, feed off your enthusiasm or understand your reasoning which all help in your path to success.” (Corrie Fenner, Teacher of PE)

“From my perspective, if a candidate can’t write their CV and covering letter well, how can I trust that they will accurately “proof read” a press release, direct mail piece or html email?” (Liz Wilkins, Senior Marketing Manager for Education, Adobe Systems Europe, Ltd)

“My favourite meal consists of a glass of milk, crisps and egg sandwiches.

If it wasn’t for the comma you might think I had invented something called “milk crisps”, which could be the dried up flakey bits just around the rim of a plastic bottle of milk – but that would be disgusting!” (Julian Smith, Leader for Drama and Performing Arts)

140 Characters

I also asked my awesome PLN to get involved via Twitter and offer 140 characters on why being able to #writewell is important. I loved this one:

#writewell tweet

Student Blogging

The students involvement centres around a series of taught sessions, seminars and individual tutorials; input from professional writers, including: an author, editor and professional copy-writer; and most importantly it includes the student’s writing which will be produced on their own blogs – putting their words out in to the public sphere to be praised and scrutinised.

It is our hope that the public forum combined with a range of creative exercises and experiences will help these talented writers to fully realise their potential and also eradicate some lingering inaccuracies that find their way into the students work. It is our hope that we will help them to see that being able to #writewell is vital to their futures.

For ease, a lot of the material related to the project is being collated and managed via our schools VLE so I am unable to share all of it with you. However, the students’ blogs (the heart of the project) can be found in the sidebar on the right of the English department blog. If you are an educator, parent or fellow student, please take a moment or two to read some of the students’ posts and perhaps even leave a comment. Please offer praise where it is due but also offer some advice and guidance on how the student could further improve the quality of their writing. This I believe is integral to the success of the project.

Each week the students will be given a specific writing activity. The opening task asked them to write about an object that has significant meaning to them. Here are the first three posts that were submitted, I think they have gotten off to a great start:

As the project evolves the writing activities will be supplemented by reflection and evaluation activities. We also expect the students to comment on each others writing. And we hope for there to be the opportunity for some collaborative writing to occur as well.

If you are on Twitter you can follow the project via the hash tag: #writewell. And if you have a few minutes perhaps you could tweet about ‘why it is important to #writewell’?

We hope that you enjoy reading the students’ posts as well as watching the project grow as much as we expect to.

—

This was an edited version of the post I submitted to English @ CCC.

Redesigning jamesmichie.com(blog) – CSS FTW!

I’ve been tweaking and redesigning aspects of my blog ever since I started it, attempting to balance clean/minimal design while trying to provide visitors with an enjoyable reading experience and straightforward navigation. I feel that I’ve finally achieved this and in doing so learned a lot about CSS. Completing work on my blog resulted in me redesigning my homepage from scratch, creating a greater sense of uniformity between the two. As I’d done before, I called upon the excellent site: w3schools.com for help in figuring out padding, margins, borders and floats, amongst other attributes.

jamesmichie.com/blog

blog 26.02.11

My blog is built upon the ‘Plainscape‘ theme. It is a very simple, two-column theme with very few unique features which makes it highly adaptable. I have made some minor edits to the layout and have completely overhauled the header and footers to suit my needs.  This included moving my sidebar buttons and search box into the header. From my research this seems to be a more common place for them to be. While I was making these adjustments I also added a new photo to my about page, tidied up my categories and moved the Evernote, Delivr and Instapaper buttons to the top right of my posts, a position that I feel is more intuitive for their purpose. Also, I have made significant changes to the css of the blog creating a strict colour scheme. I’ve added borders around menus and the different sections of the sidebar to improve navigation. Overall, I am more satisfied than I have been for a while, feeling that the blog has a far more consistent/professional look.

jamesmichie.com

home 26.02.11

To bring my homepage up the same standard as my blog, I began by deleting Concret5 and installed WordPress instead. I then looked for a one column theme and settled on F8 Lite. Being fairly confident in editing html and css it didn’t take me long to match the css of my new homepage theme to that of my blogs. I then went about stripping many of the features from the header and footer sections. I made use of the themes widget placement being at the bottom to add my blog feed, tweets and lifestream. In the settings I changed the front page from ‘latest posts’ to a ‘static page’ and went about creating one, adding the same photo I had selected to use on my about page. I matched the buttons from my blog to direct people to the parts of my web footprint that I feel they would be most interested in visiting. And with that I was done. I now feel that my homepage does a much better job of representing me and gives a much clearer picture of the key parts of my web footprint.

Understanding and taking control of css was the biggest win during this process. It made a huge difference as it allowed me to make design changes with greater ease and far more consistency. I have included, below, the css attributes which are consistent accross both my blog and homepage. If you would like to know about specific aspects or features, feel free to ask me in the comments.

CSS attributes:

background:

  • color: #f8f8f8

header, hmenu, sidebar header text:

  • font-family: ‘helvetica’, arial, sans-serif
  • font-weight: bold
  • text-transform:uppercase
  • color: #000000
  • a: #000000
  • hover: #34c48f

body, sidebar, footer text:

  • font-family: ‘helvetica’, arial, sans-serif
  • color: #333333
  • a: 34c48f
  • hover: #9a9a9a

meta text:

  • font-family: ‘helvetica’, arial, sans-serif
  • color: #9a9a9a

borders:

  • weight: 1px
  • style: solid
  • color: #9a9a9a