What teachers should make

I'm sort of on an education buzz a the moment (as I try to inhale manuals again, mashup camp has me hitting the books) which following the Science Week posts make sense. So congratulations Kevin Breathnach, Brian from atrier.com, Pedro Monscooch, Poetbloggs and Johnny Keyes who won.

However things haven't completely stalled on that front. Sinead Cochrane asked what changes would you make to an existing piece of technology? and yes, I do want to see my suggestion made (flashing gnomes are optional).

Of course, combining things would improve an existing technology, so the after effects of the first European Mashup Camp will effect my thinking as well as meeting interesting people and presenters. Also being surprised by some large companies joining the fray.

And speaking of large companies, David Berlind (who set up Mashup Camp) has an interesting wrinkle against the existence of the Kindle, a kind of Fahrenheit 1981.4. Sounds far fetched, well I know one Apple advocate who has turned anti-Apple due to the DRM and legal disputes with iTunes so she can't get music she paid for back. Scary how knowledge could be destroyed.

Going back to education when Adam Beecher posted the the Impotence of Proofreading by Taylor Mali I did a looking searching.

Mali created a poem about what teachers do. About how they inspire and alter the way you think (spot the trend here). Of course, he got something wrong. The video is not what teachers make... its what GOOD teachers make.



and if you're still looking, go see how teenagers talk and should be talking also by Mali.

take care,
Will


tags : mashupcamp, Science Week, Sinead Cochrane, Joseph Johnson, John Herren, Microsoft, David Berlind, Kindle, Fahrenheit 1981.4, Apple, Adam Beecher, Taylor Mali

Take note of the venue

On Thursday I was planning to go to the Irish Microsoft Technology Conference in Dublin, but given that I'm currently listening to the podcasts generated at the Reboot (human) conference in Copenhagen, (and asking Clare Dillon for access to the slides and recording from the conference) I think I might be able to pick up the necessary.

And saying the word conference a lot.

The reason I couldn't go was because I'm doing some voluntary work for the Cork Midsummer Festival. Most of this work involved heaving boxes of event flyers and books to stops around the city (mostly libraries and shopping centres). The energy level in the offices (administration and box) are high... the events and gigs start in about a fortnight.

Tips for distributing these around...
1)Don't hit between Thursday and Sunday. The weekend is fairly busy but the free sheets arrive on a Thursday so space is limited. If the venue asks for more however, ignore this tip.
2)Take note of the venue. If it's a library with a large children's section, then they will actually want the kids information. Obvious but its easy to miss.
3)Take note of the venue. If there isn't a information point in the shopping there isn't really a chance of getting stuff in there. In general however, Tesco's information point, which is also a shop counter, is more accommodating than the customer service desk in Dunnes, which is purely an office point.
4)Take note of the venue. If there aren't any other flyers, or if there are a handful which look like the are related to the centre, chances the centre isn't going to be interested in them.

Now I'd like to ask, is there anywhere else (on the North side of Cork in particular) where these flyers should be going?

Tags : Microsoft, podcast, Reboot, Clare Dillon, conference, Cork Midsummer Festival, library, Tesco, Dunnes, shopping centre, Cork