A Miscellaneous Monday Mash-up

Wow... so I haven't posted for awhile, and I'm beginning attribute this to my lack of inspiration for one singular coherent topic to write about.  Of course, I also have so many topics I'd like to talk about that the task of covering them all seems monumental. Additionally, I'm a bit unmotivated by the readership stats I've seen since moving here from Edublogs.  My blog at Edublogs had 100's of hits per day from all over the world.  I moved to Wordpress essentially because Edublogs took on ridiculously un-blog-like advertising practices to try to cover costs.  I feel that I am no longer accessible by the education community, but at least all the links in my posts are MY links and not some advertiser's links.

Today's "Miscellaneous Monday Mash-up" is really an attempt to run through a quick list of those things on my mind for this coming week, and whether or not any or all of these topics become full-grown posts depends largely upon my week.

Topic 1: Getting it Wrong Again


Another rant about the comprehensive failures of people in education to "get it" when it comes to technology.

This one comes largely from my online reading this week, which I've been doing a lot more of thanks to the RSS app on my new iPhone (yeah, I finally sold out and joined the crowd).  It's also been partly precipitated by proposed changes at my own school district. More later...

Topic 2: Sheer Brilliance!


Good examples of great design that have me stoked this week.

In the constant effort to improve my own work and provide great examples for students, I find myself often on the look out for good design examples.  I'll be giving a shout-out to everything from my church's new web site to the new Themes and Styles available in MS Word of all places. More later...

Topic 3: Bad hair and Word Art


Drawing a connection between faux pas in fashion and in print design to help kids "Get it" when it comes to their documents.

Microsoft Office for once is not promoting terrible design.  The core applications in suite now contain new Themes and Styles tools that make in easier to use really sound design techniques.  Unfortunately, the majority of twelve-year-olds do not see the value of this and would rather make their documents look like a gypsy's nightmare.  Fortunately, many of our middle school students do have an obsessive concern for fashion, and this has been the key to unlock design greatness.  More later...

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