A profound statement

Exclusive Lifehacker Interview: Debunking The Myth of Multitasking

Dave Crenshaw: This is a bit like an amateur carpenter, who, after hitting his thumb with his hammer, curses the tool and tosses it aside. Was the pain caused by the tool, or by the lack of skill of the person using the tool?

This tickled my fancy somewhat. Mr Crenshaw was responding to the suggestion of avoiding technology to improve attention and focus but neatly responds to blockers that are commonly encountered in education systems. It can even be applied individually in the classroom if you think about it. In fact I resolve to trot it out next time someone whines to me about having to use a different operating system or an updated application (we have just moved to the latest iteration of Office and the ribbon is causing some anxiety…)

Kneel at the robes of ‘The Edublogger’

How I Use RSS To Make My Life Easier | The Edublogger

I’m really into RSS — a RSS power user may be an appropriate title since I grab every RSS opportunity to make my life easier and maximise my ability to interact effectively with others.

This is where it’s at. In fact I would go further than The Edublogger and say that if it doesn’t have RSS I am not interested. You don’t have to become an RSS ninja but if you work on some basic moves it can allow you to keep track of things that you thought wasn’t possible. The power of digital content for me as a teacher is in the filtering and retrieval of the information. Can I search it quickly to find what I want? If you have RSS feeds for each class showing wiki and blog contributions (posts, comments, edits etc) that you can filter by name, sort by keyword or even embed somewhere else (and have it update automatically) gathering “evidence of learning” is not such big deal. You just have to get the tasks right. But that’s another post. Probably a series.
Invest some time, learn some “RSS kung-fu”. You won’t regret it.

What do you really need to know?

Beyond Test Taking: Learning to Handle Information – Lifehack.org: “All of the tricks I have for learning new information when I was still in school just don’t work out in the real world. So many learning techniques focus on a test or classes where you have a clear chance of how to build on specific ideas. We need more practical solutions.”

I thought this site had some useful tips. I totally get the “pass on information” thing. I have made a conscious effort to do this more consistently and it pays off. Outsource the info ala Timothy Ferris. The task thing I need to improve on. Got to get sharper edges, got to get more ruthless. The quest continues!

Tell me what you think, leave a comment.

(Visit Thursday Bram’s site)