Month: March 2014

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School’s out Friday

OK. I am prepared to admit right here, right now, that I was 19 years old in 1984 when the original Footloose movie was released, and that might have something to do with why I find this Jimmy Fallon segment so appealing. If you’re from my era, I’m sure you’ll find it appealing too, and if you’re not from my era, I’m laying odds that you’re going to enjoy it even if you don’t know the context it is derived from.

And to help you with the context, here was something that was prepared a little earlier, in 1984 to be exact. The final scene from the original Footloose movie, where Kevin Bacon  shakes up the dance floor with his smooth moves. Compare it to the Jimmy Fallon segment, and you’ll see that Kevin hasn’t let 30 years affect him too greatly. I’d like to say that I can still shake up the dance floor like I did 30 years ago, but I don’t get all that many opportunities to test that theory out. Unless, of course,  you count dancing in my kitchen without an audience as proof of concept. I can lay testament to the fact that I’ve kept up with the times and could give Beyonce a run for her money, but I think my kids (who sometimes are my unwilling audience) would contest this.

Enjoy your weekend. Find a dance floor and shake your booty – even if it’s in your kitchen. The world needs dancers. 😉

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School’s out Friday

‘If Google was a guy‘ was a video I shared a while back. Here’s the follow up vid – it’s worth watching for the last 20 seconds. You’ll understand why when you get there. 🙂

End of a big week and I can feel my throat swelling. What’s the bet I’ll be laying low over the weekend then find myself feeling good on Monday morning! Always the way.

Enjoy your weekend. Hope it’s a good one for you. 🙂

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Is your school missing the future?

“The main thing that has caused companies to fail, in my view, is that they missed the future.”

Larry Page at #TED2014

Screenshot 2014-03-20 20.47.08

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/larry-page-at-ted-2014-3

Apply this statement to schools.

Is your school missing the future?

Are your students being exposed to the notion of cloud technologies and anywhere, anytime access? Or is that reserved for their personal life?

If it is, then maybe you should be asking questions of your school administration, IT Directors and Teacher Librarians.

We can’t afford to let our students find the future outside of the school experience. There’s a fair bit of guidance necessary to help them navigate this future and our schools should be leading the way, not impeding access.

If you’re not giving this some thought, then you should be.

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School’s out Friday

Are you one of the 46,089,523 (as at 9.45pm Melbourne time March 14th) who has seen ‘First Kiss‘? I saw it for the first time today when my students said I should watch it after we’d watched ‘Good looking couple sing Frozen’ as a bit of fun and exploration of a viral video at the end of class.

Did I take it at face value and think it was an interesting concept that held mass appeal?

Yes, I did.

Was I surprised when I discovered tonight it was clothing advert starring actors for the brand Wren Studio?

No, not really.

I’m getting used to clever videos that appear to be genuine turning out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They aren’t insidious, but they do leave you feeling a bit cheated especially when you’ve made an emotional investment while viewing them and have perhaps then gone on to share them with others in good faith. The lesson in all this is to not take things at face value and to investigate further.

I’ve spent a little (not a lot!) of time tonight looking into ‘Good looking parents sing Disney’s Frozen‘, and I can’t detect anything insidious behind this one, other than wondering who on earth would include ‘Good looking parents’ in the title of their uploaded video. It seems that Samuel and Nia Rader of Terell, Texas are just the kind of people who do that. Here’s a bit more about them from the description accompanying the video on the Youtube page.

Just a little about us. We’re high school sweet hearts, been together for the past 10 years, married for the past 4.5 years. We have TWO children, our five month old baby man is sitting behind me. My wife is a stay at home mom/wife, and an amazing one at that.She creates decorative wreaths in what little free time she has. I’m a full time ER nurse and do wedding photography on the side…

Lovely. But would I be at all surprised if in two days time something surfaced that demonstrated an underlying intent behind the posting of this video? No, I wouldn’t. I’ve come to expect it, especially considering that YouTube is to teenagers today what television was to me as a child.

Anyway, enough of the speculation. Enjoy it as you contemplate the weekend ahead. I’m thinking about buying a Go Pro and taping it my windscreen so I can record myself singing Pharrel Willliam’s ‘Happy’. I’ll upload it to YouTube and call it ‘Middle Aged Woman kidding herself’. 🙂