Category: Thoughts (Page 7 of 19)

I thought that I’d share some of the applications that I use regularly. Most of these are Mac-centric, but many are cross-platform.

Open Source:

• Clipy – ClipBoard manager that builds on the open-source ClipMenu. This is a MUST have for me.
• Maestral – allows you to sync with DropBox – without counting as a device and much more.
• Joplin – Note taking (supports Markdown) and encrypted syncing.
• DarkTable– Photo organization and editing. Completely replaces Adobe Lightroom for me.
• RawTherapee – Photo editing
• Manager – Business Accounting. Terrific for consultants who need to create professional looking invoices.
• NetNewsWire – RSS reader.
• OnyX – System cleaning and “fixing”. Get it before you need it.
• OBS – Advanced screen recording. A little bit of a learning curve, but you can do nice recordings.
• GNUCash – Accounting software. Great for checkbook and financial tracking.
• GRAMPS Genealogical Research Software

Paid Apps:

• 1Password – password manager
• Audio HiJack – Record audio with lots of features.
• BBEdit – Lots of great features for free, but I support the software by purchasing.
• Comic Life 3 – bought it once and use it regularly. Plus, phenomenal support.

Other Things That I use:

• Hypothesis – Social Bookmarking and Annotation. Technically, this is open source. However, I don’t host this myself, I use the public version.
• App Cleaner – Not open source, but free. Removes the dependencies along with the application.
• Moodle – Learning Management Software. I host this on a server.
• WordPress – Web development platform.
• Mastodon – Social Networking site. Currently, I’m on Scholar Social.

I’ve been having conversations about AI text (Chat GPT being the most popular currently). Here is a follow-up to a conversation that I thought I’d share.

Having taught writing in middle school and high school, my first thought was “wow, I’m glad that I’m not teaching 8th or 9th-grade writing“. The AI writing is frequently on par with some of the writing that was turned in to me. 

I’ve been thinking about this for a while though. I’ve lived through the “calculator wars” (where educators argued about whether students should ever use calculators in school).  I also lived through the time of “turning off spell check” on computers. Those have now passed. I also watch adults (and students) type on computers. When the squiggly red line comes up, users (adults and kids), look back and fix those issues. I personally have a tendency to think faster than I type. I frequently leave words out. I know of a district that has purchased Grammarly Premium for all of the administrators.

This technology isn’t going away. I’ve adjusted my thoughts from the original “How would I ever teach writing?” to a much more nuanced view. 

• Are there times when we need to teach writing without AI? Sure. 
• Are there times when we need to teach how to expand writing using AI? Sure.
• Is there value in writing things out longhand? I believe so. 
• Are all kids going to be the same? No.

Writing is a special process. But not all writing is the same. Some kids really struggle with how to write. It isn’t really the way that their brain works. (Temple Grandin has a new book called Visual Thinking which is on my list. If you aren’t familiar with Temple Grandin, she has some fascinating perspectives.) Sadly to me, some people never write for the joy of writing. Some people never paint for the joy of painting. Some people never learn to play music. 

So, what can AI text do beyond providing a thoughtless copy/paste assignment? Well, AI text can provide another avenue to take the writing. Having AI provide some feedback may give the writer something else to think about. AI text could also act like a “peer editor”. AI text can take out some of the monotonous parts of writing. Heck, at a minimum, it may encourage kids to check out the thesaurus (*attempted humor). There are still definitely going to be times to have students write without AI. I will argue though, that we should also teach kids how to write with it.

How is AI text being used now?
I’ve been working with some educators and others, and have found the following use cases:

• Peer feedback
• Rough draft
• Writing test questions
• Reflection
• Lesson plans
• OER Resources
• Writing code
• IEP goals

AI text isn’t going away. It will get better and better. It still won’t replace great writers.

Joplin

Well, hopefully, I have my Joplin sync issue resolved. If you are using Joplin and enable encryption, it is best if you make sure to use the same password on all your devices.

Joplin is how I write blog posts (yes, I could write directly on the blog, but, well, habit). Thus, blog posts haven’t been as numerous lately.

Thanksgiving

The kids were otherwise occupied for Thanksgiving. We had intended upon sharing Thanksgiving with some friends, but, alas, a family emergency pre-empted those plans.

Rm did make a wonderful dinner and we had a lovely Thanksgiving. I’m truly thankful for my life partner. She’s absolutely wonderful. She’s kind, funny, fun, sweet, and gorgeous.

The Lions lost, but at least it was a close game.

Fediverse PD

Mastodon is starting to develop educational PD opportunities. I recently found Brenna Clarke Gray’s Blog through Mastodon. She has some wonderful thoughts about education and leadership. (Tip: she doesn’t have an RSS feed on her blog but adding /feed to her URL works).

Fediverse

There was a discussion about Big Social Media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc, and I found this line:

…think of that old story about the pigs marvelling at how well the farmer fed and looked after them

I think that I’ll leave with that.

ACTEM

ACTEM went pretty well. My presentation was a bit too broad for the group. However, a couple of attendees were inspired to work on creating some materials.

Mostly, it was nice to meet some people and make some connections. It’ll be interesting to see if conferences go “back” to what they were before.

I was also intrigued by the keynote speakers. Personally, I wonder how they ended up with the gig. (This is not a criticism of them, just wondering.)

PixelFed

PixelFed is an open-source site designed to share photos. It is very much like Instagram, without Facebook, sorry Meta, owning it.

The neat thing is that it is very easy to use, very graphically pleasing. The negative is that there aren’t as many as your friends (most likely) on it.

There is no tracking. There is no algorithm to determine what you’ll see. There is no advertising.

There are three basic feeds, Home, Local, and Global. Home is the one of people you follow. Local is all the people on this instance, and Global is, well everyone.

If you are on PixelFed, connect up with me.

PrePandemic Weekend

This weekend was kind of a “pre-pandemic” weekend. Rm and I were able to attend several events. Of course, we masked up for each and every one of these, but still is was wonderful.

Paul Reiser

Paul Reiser may be best known (at least by us) for “Mad About You”. This was one of our favorite TV comedies.

Paul Reiser does observational comedy. He is funny and family friendly. The show included several bits about “getting older”, and was funny and enjoyable.

The venue Waterville Opera House is a nice theater.

Amsterdam

On Saturday, we headed off to see the movie Amsterdam. This was an interesting movie with a few major flaws (like a couple of alternative reality sequences). I would say the movie was good, but not great.

What the movie really brings up is how important knowing history really is. The movie is loosely based on history of a plot to replace Roosevelt. It also brings up the past belief of creating a nation centered on the “right” people. Here it is really important to understand the rise of eugentics.

Violins of Hope

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to the Portland Symphony Orchestra for the Violins of Hope Maine concert. The Violins of Hope Maine is a month long residency program that focuse on playing violins from the Holocaust. The centerpiece of concert is Verdi’s Requim of Hope.

The Violins of Hope Project centers around a private collection of violins, violas, and cellos all collected since the end of World War II. Many of the instruments belonged to Jews during the war. The instruments have been reconditioned and travel the world to share the story with people everywhere.

Producing the Podcast

Every week I do a podcast, well, almost every week. This past week, I made a major oopsie (yep, that is the official term). While putting the show together, which is recorded in a couple of segments, I copied in a segment from the previous week.

Acadia

On Sunday, Rm and I headed to Acadia National Park to meet up with daughter #1 and a friend of hers who is here to visit. We had a wonderful hike together. Rm and I stuck around to watch the ocean for a bit. As the ocean came in, we were close, but safe, that we got sprayed a bit.

York

Our continuing participation in the Maine Yarn Cruise, ok, mostly Rm, but I get to go along frequently to see new places. One of the spots to visit was in York. We explored a bit of York as well. Specifically, we visited the Nubble Lighthouse. The Nubble Lighthouse was a nice visit. Afterward, we headed out for dinner. We stopped at a restaurant with outside seating. The restaurant was technically what you would call a “hole in the wall”. Our expectations weren’t high, but we ordered. The food turned out to be excellent (only surpassed by the company). I had a fried haddock sandwich that was marvelous.

Ari Hest

Rm and I went to see Ari Hest at the The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth, NH. If you aren’t familiar with Ari Hest, check out his music. While he gets some fame for working with Judy Collins, his music stands on its’ own.

The venue was really nice. It’s a really small space, very intimate. We sat about ten feet away. No opening act, just Ari Hest. We had two lovely table mates as well.

I really prefer these shows over the stadium-sized shows. Smaller venue artists connect with the audience in a way that is impossible in large venues. Rather than spectacle, you get connection. Many of these artists, and Ari Hest certainly qualifies, are the modern-day philosophers, poets, and guides.

Portsmouth also has a wonderfully cute downtown. Rm and I will have to go back when more things are open and we can explore.

Matt Mullenweg

Matt Mullenweg was on This Week in Google recently. I was fascinated by many parts of the show. Specifically, I was interested in some of his views on open-source and usability. I need to relisten with specific attention. But here are a couple of things that struck me:

• Social networks have to find what makes them special. Matt recently purchased Tumblr. There was discussion about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more social networks.
• Conversation versus connection. This was interesting as well. Are we looking for connection (Facebook’s default value) or communication?

So, I’ll need to go back and listen again with purpose.

One of the other things that Matt talked about was making the canvases, and brushes of the internet.

Millionaire Dollar Idea

ig Nobel Awards of 2022. The Applied Cardiology Prize is about blind dating and how their heart rate becomes synchronized. Develop a device with a Green, Yellow, and Red light. Each dater wears a finger clip, the box sits in the middle of the table.

Workflows

I had a neat conversation about things that we can do. One example that I shared was when I had overheard a teacher state “This week is going to be tough. I’ve got to read the test all week”. I asked “Why is that?” (I knew the answer, but I really wanted the teacher to process this.).
“Well, lots of kids have an IEP or accommodation where they have the test read to them.”
So, I asked, “Why not read the test once?”
The teacher, “That would be awesome.”
Me: “In Moodle, you can read it once, record it and be done.”
Teacher: “Tell me more.”
So I showed the teacher how it would work. The teacher went and recorded everything (the test was already in Moodle, so it was even more streamlined).
The teacher, who was a Special Education teacher by the way, then showed the cooperating teacher. The cooperating teacher was a bit hesitant. “Would all the students be able to listen to the test?”
Me: “Yep”
Teacher 2: “Hm. I’m not sure about that.”
Me: “How come? What is your concern? Look, honestly, the students who don’t need the test read aren’t going to listen. Also, do you have students who could use the test to be read, but don’t have anything officially documented?”
Teacher 2: “Yea. I’ve got quite a few. Let me think about it and get back to you.”
The teacher got back to me and stated that we were good to go. See, this was just a change. This leveled the playing field. The students who needed the test read didn’t have to be pulled out of class. All the students were told that they could listen to the test.
End result: All of the students were treated with grace. Those that needed the test read, could listen. They didn’t have to be pulled aside, they could stay with their peers. Those that really didn’t need the test read, didn’t have to listen. Plus, we reduced the unconscious bias in reading the test out loud. The Special Education teacher could do work that was more in line with their skills and talents rather than reading a test over and over for a week. The cooperating teacher ended up wanting to read the test. We set him up with the very little bit of training needed and now he reads all the tests for the kids.

There was some interest in this process in my new position. I’m not sure that everyone is ready for the yet, but once they are….

Moose

I’m still working on the MOOSE project. I have a few things that need to get done, but we are still working through the background parts of the project.

House of Cards

I was a fan of House of Cards on Netflix. Who knew just how accurate the show really was. It is now apparent that we have lots of legislators who only care about staying in power. They don’t care about the citizens, what is right, democracy, or justice. They just want to stay in power.

Flow charts

So, this week I learned that you can do flowcharts in markdown. Well, technically, not markdown, but markdown like. Even better, flowcharts are built-in to Joplin through Mermaid integration. I was able to create a quick flowchart, but I need to learn how to style them a bit.

This chart is created with the following code:

” ““`mermaid
graph TD
A[Flowchart] –>|Learn| B(Types)
B –> C{Graphs}
C –>|Possibility| D[Gantt]
C –>|Possibility| E[Flowchart]
C –>|Possibility| F[Left to Right]

Mermaid actually does quite a few different diagrams. You can play around with a live online editor

## Photo Group

I got to attend this weeks photo group. This week was sharing member photos. I’m enjoying listening to the rating and thoughts of others about pictures. I need to develop my eye.