That title is not to be misconstrued - I'm not condoning 'thiefery' and 'robbing', what I'm saying is - help yourself because chances are no one else is in a hurry to do it for you, and you're probably the person best placed to do so.
I'm not turning into a self-help guru either so don't worry I'm not changing my career from international man of mystery to incense-burning hippy or shouty motivationalist. It's just that I heard something the other day which struck a chord with me and it got me thinking (remember those heady days of youth when you never bothered with all this thinking malarky?)
I was at a learning skills seminar and the speaker said that your learning is down to you, don't wait for someone to come along and offer up a course to you that might progress your career - decide for yourself what you want and go and help yourself (that's where the title came from see... now it's making sense)
Do you believe that one day you will win the lottery? The chances of winning the average top prize of £2 million in the UK lottery is 14 million to 1, so let's face it, you're not going to win are you? I'm even less likely to win as I don't enter... There's a little Charlie Bucket in all of us trying to get out but again that was a child's story made up by Roald Dahl (who was a genius but also a mentalist), and who believes that chocolate factories really exist?!?. Huh? Oh yeah, right - sorry got a bit carried away... ahem. You stand considerably more chance of being hit by lightning - about 1.2 million to 1*
* As an aside if you're reading this and you've ever been struck by lightning I'd say the chances of you doing that AND winning the lottery would stretch to the squillion bejillions to 1 so save yourself a quid, it's not like you're a lucky sort anyway - you got struck by lightning FFS!
Soooo, by hoping that one day 'It could be you' (pointy finger - deep voice), you are again putting your future in the hands of a third party instead of getting on with sorting out your own 'fortunes'. It's the easy option to get someone else to do it for you.**
** There are of course situations when it is pertinent to let someone do it for you - as a woman my wife has done a very good job of giving birth to our two children, I quite simply wouldn't have attempted it.
Have you ever fancied a girl? (if you're a girl reading this please email me details...) you probably have, but what did you do about it? At school, or even in later life, you may have got your mate to drop massive hints, you may have sent a note. More recently a text or a mention on Twitter or FaceBook? There you go again - allowing 'third parties' do it for you - your mate, the note, the phone, the PC - why didn't you tell them face to face? ***
*** I'm not taking moral high ground here, I'm trying to recall if I ever asked a girl out face to face without some 3rd party influence and I think the answer may be no...
We might get there in the end, we might not, but the maxim of "if you don't ask you don't get" is one that seems to have a lot of truth to it, wouldn't you agree?
Thursday 9 February 2012
Thursday 20 October 2011
I'm a miserable old man - it's official
Well, it's a matter of weeks until I leave the ranks of 30-somethingdom (yes, that is a word - I've just made it up) and I'm officially a miserable scrote. I find myself growling at the same things over and over, I'll explain..
The Dettol hands-free soap dispenser - How does it matter that you are getting germs on your hands from your plunger when you are about to squirt juice on them and wash them anyway?!
Dinosaur 'documentaries' - I use the word documentaries to highlight the inaccuracy of the word - "The flibbloraptordyl is green with red spots to scare away it's natural predator the headlice, it eats it's food through a small opening in it's armpit and only uses it's mouth for whistling". Does that sound like cr@p to you? It's not far off the fiction they spew out on the telly. They found bones, they carbon-dated them, the science stopped there, the rest is speculation, guess-work and fiction.
ITV3's day in the life of Z-list celbrity - Wha, fle, tre, pu, li...words fail me. Who gives a flying frig?!?!?
On a brighter note Westlife are splitting up (I thought they had a long time ago as I hadn't heard them release a cover-version of someone elses's song for a long while). In the world of the deaf the one earred man is king - in fact they're all kings because they have never had to endure Westlife standing up from there bar-stools on a key change...
Until next time - love thy neighbour (not literally - that's adultery)
The Dettol hands-free soap dispenser - How does it matter that you are getting germs on your hands from your plunger when you are about to squirt juice on them and wash them anyway?!
Dinosaur 'documentaries' - I use the word documentaries to highlight the inaccuracy of the word - "The flibbloraptordyl is green with red spots to scare away it's natural predator the headlice, it eats it's food through a small opening in it's armpit and only uses it's mouth for whistling". Does that sound like cr@p to you? It's not far off the fiction they spew out on the telly. They found bones, they carbon-dated them, the science stopped there, the rest is speculation, guess-work and fiction.
ITV3's day in the life of Z-list celbrity - Wha, fle, tre, pu, li...words fail me. Who gives a flying frig?!?!?
On a brighter note Westlife are splitting up (I thought they had a long time ago as I hadn't heard them release a cover-version of someone elses's song for a long while). In the world of the deaf the one earred man is king - in fact they're all kings because they have never had to endure Westlife standing up from there bar-stools on a key change...
Until next time - love thy neighbour (not literally - that's adultery)
Thursday 16 June 2011
Is Twitter killing my blog?
Probably...
It's essentially easier to pop out 140 characters of 'content' than it is to create something worth reading with 140 lines...
It's essentially easier to pop out 140 characters of 'content' than it is to create something worth reading with 140 lines...
Learning Skills Group Conference - Olympia
Tuesday 14th June meant a trip on the train up to Olympia for the Learning Skills Group Conference. I made a mental note on the way up of the number of technologies that people were using on the train. Essentially everyone had a mobile phone of some kind, some of whom were using them for using music - others had dedicated music players. The surprise for me was the number of Kindles, I expected one or two but there was a glut of them - I had missed how popular they have become.
At the conference after the opening welcome by the ever-engaging Don Taylor we were treated to the work of Professor Chris Bones. Great speaker - excellent rhetoric in his material about how to manage change. The crux being to lead, but to let the people you have run free in the search for a solution to a problem - let them provide the answer - don't give it to them. As a leader you are there to be allow the collective to succeed, not be the hero yourself.
Thought-provoking stuff, he also provided me with my favourite quote of the day "You can trust me on this - I'm a professor".
Next session was with my new Learning Tech hero - Professor Steve Wheeler. He spoke of the tech of the past and where we're going. A difficult if not impossible thing to predict but it was equally difficult to suggest that his thoughts might be wrong. He spoke of the significance of personalising learning - letting the learner decide how, when and where to learn - the move from Managed Learning Environments and the rise of the Personalised Learning Environment.
The future is to draw on the 'listening culture', augmented reality, visual through 'infographics', and of course the ubiquitous mobile device.
The steps of learning become:
Learn to Learn >> Critical thinking >> Collaboration >> Creativity >> Reflection >> Evaluation
I chatted with Steve in the lunch period and was fascinated by his stories - very inspirational guy. One of the things he said was that 'Intelligent Semantic Technology' has been developed and is coming soon. A device reading your facial expression and reacting accordingly. When it sees confusion on your face it will offer more help and so on - amazing, mind-blowing technology.
My afternoon was spent watching Andy Tedd, formerly of the BBC and now the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, who spoke of the use of Social Media and the right choices to be made in order to use it successfully.
One of the main pitfalls would seem to be to provide your learner with something that is too complete - an "I'm telling you" didactic approach - rather than giving the learner space to think and to go with thier gut. People learn most through conversation.
It was a very well-organised and informative day and I was able to make some interesting connections - which may bear fruit - that remains to be seen but my ever-optimistic fingers are crossed :o)
At the conference after the opening welcome by the ever-engaging Don Taylor we were treated to the work of Professor Chris Bones. Great speaker - excellent rhetoric in his material about how to manage change. The crux being to lead, but to let the people you have run free in the search for a solution to a problem - let them provide the answer - don't give it to them. As a leader you are there to be allow the collective to succeed, not be the hero yourself.
Thought-provoking stuff, he also provided me with my favourite quote of the day "You can trust me on this - I'm a professor".
Next session was with my new Learning Tech hero - Professor Steve Wheeler. He spoke of the tech of the past and where we're going. A difficult if not impossible thing to predict but it was equally difficult to suggest that his thoughts might be wrong. He spoke of the significance of personalising learning - letting the learner decide how, when and where to learn - the move from Managed Learning Environments and the rise of the Personalised Learning Environment.
The future is to draw on the 'listening culture', augmented reality, visual through 'infographics', and of course the ubiquitous mobile device.
The steps of learning become:
Learn to Learn >> Critical thinking >> Collaboration >> Creativity >> Reflection >> Evaluation
I chatted with Steve in the lunch period and was fascinated by his stories - very inspirational guy. One of the things he said was that 'Intelligent Semantic Technology' has been developed and is coming soon. A device reading your facial expression and reacting accordingly. When it sees confusion on your face it will offer more help and so on - amazing, mind-blowing technology.
My afternoon was spent watching Andy Tedd, formerly of the BBC and now the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, who spoke of the use of Social Media and the right choices to be made in order to use it successfully.
One of the main pitfalls would seem to be to provide your learner with something that is too complete - an "I'm telling you" didactic approach - rather than giving the learner space to think and to go with thier gut. People learn most through conversation.
It was a very well-organised and informative day and I was able to make some interesting connections - which may bear fruit - that remains to be seen but my ever-optimistic fingers are crossed :o)
Thursday 14 April 2011
The use of cartoons to engage users
This is work related so it's dry, dry, dry, but thankfully the use of xtranormal movie maker has made it that little bit more engaging.
CIS is a system that we teach (pronounced C.I.S or 'sis')
Course intro
Learning objectives
CIS is a system that we teach (pronounced C.I.S or 'sis')
Course intro
Learning objectives
Love of the mixed metaphor
"If we can hit that bullseye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate"
Okay, okay
I know, I know, I'm slack and lazy and ought to adhere to my blog needs a little more. Lots of stuff happening and no apparent spare time to steer into here. That's not true of course, there is always a few minutes to spare at some time during a day but sometimes those minutes are spent better with a cup of tea or having a quick tweet (that's not a euphemism for something else!)
Since I last was here it's been Christmas - Merry Christmas, the New Year - Happy new year, the death of my father-in-law - RIP Rog', my wife ill in hospital - Get Well Soon K..... It goes on.
I have decided that I will post some of my blog postings from my Open University course (H800 - Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education) - they are on the OU system and I have no way of guaranteeing that I will be able to access them forever, so I'll pop them in here: http://davese-stuff.blogspot.com/ along with other L&D realted bumpf. Some are meandering madness but some are interesting and I hope at least one might peak someones interest....
Some also contain reference to documents that I no longer have access to so apologies for that but it will increase your online literacy if you succeed in tracking them down *silver-lining*
Since I last was here it's been Christmas - Merry Christmas, the New Year - Happy new year, the death of my father-in-law - RIP Rog', my wife ill in hospital - Get Well Soon K..... It goes on.
I have decided that I will post some of my blog postings from my Open University course (H800 - Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education) - they are on the OU system and I have no way of guaranteeing that I will be able to access them forever, so I'll pop them in here: http://davese-stuff.blogspot.com/ along with other L&D realted bumpf. Some are meandering madness but some are interesting and I hope at least one might peak someones interest....
Some also contain reference to documents that I no longer have access to so apologies for that but it will increase your online literacy if you succeed in tracking them down *silver-lining*
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