Clint Lalonde's Comments

ClintLalonde.net : Trends that will impact education in the next 5 years

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:18:58 +0000

Good, and important, questions Eugene. I think there is a lot of toying with various business models out there. Udacity, for example, is a for profit company so the people there are expecting to make money of their model of massive open courses. But I wonder if we won't start seeing more instructors go out on their own - the rise of the free range faculty. No longer tied to a single institution, with other avenues for a teaching career. Perhaps they will move from one intermediary to another - offering a course on Udemy (also for profit), or maybe forgoing the entire system and doing it fully on their own. For some, especially those who have some technical skills and understanding of online pedagogies, that may be a reasonable alternative - eliminate the university "middle man" and offering their courses directly to students for a fraction of the cost that it would cost at a post-secondary environment. Now, this won't work of all disciplines or subjects, but it might for some. I mean, if you are an English scholar, how many resources do you really need to teach an English course? And I do believe there is still a role for publicly funded higher learning opportunities. Those of us who work in higher ed are already producing courses and content and getting paid pretty well for it by the public. Why couldn't we just open those up?

ClintLalonde.net : Frog in a pot

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:05:50 +0000

To true. It does take courage (and a bit of energy) for learners to push beyond the mentality that the uni and college are the only way. But I wonder if everytime a potential learner sees a site like The Edupunks Guide (http://edupunksguide.org/) or reads a book like DIY U (http://www.amazon.com/DIY-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-Transformation-Education/dp/1603582347), they get a little more courageous. I think resources like that are at least open eyes to the possibility that there may be another way.

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 13:43:05 +0000

...and what is it with the fashion accessory glasses with the girls, eh? Or has that always been a fashion thing with girls that I just haven't noticed before?

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 13:40:12 +0000

I wonder if daughters hear those phrases "you look pretty" or "you're beautiful" differently depending on whether it comes from Mom or Dad? Some of what I have read about the dad/daughter relationship indicates that her sexuality and the future relationships she may have with men are greatly influenced by the type of relationship she has with her father and (basically) how she sees her father treat women. That's the message that she gets about how she should be treated by the men in her life. Which is why I think I tread extra cautiously here with all the beauty and self-image stuff. But i wonder what she hears when the message comes from Mom?

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 13:33:34 +0000

Thanks so much for the lead on Carol Dweck, Doug. Been checking out some of her stuff on the web really like what she has to say. It makes so much sense re) praise and what we say vs what kids hear.

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 13:23:57 +0000

"Take a shower, pig-child!" = awesome. I need to remember that. I work hard at the general "good" comment as well. Doug's comment below has a reference to Carol Dweck, whom I had never hear dof before. But since he posted it, I've searched out some of her stuff and it's very good - related to what you are saying about praise and praising in general terms & what kids here when we praise vs. what we would like them to hear.

ClintLalonde.net : Annotate Jing videos with ZoomIt

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:46:23 +0000

That works, too :)

ClintLalonde.net : The Information Diet

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:48:11 +0000

Ah, Sylvia. I knew this would resonate with you! Seems like this convo pops up between us every once in awhile in various spaces :). Yes, there is something quite magical and mysterious about those serendipitous discoveries at the other end of the rabbit hole, I have to say. And agree completely about the people we choose to connect with being more important (as evidenced by the good ones I'm connecting with right here :). I think I need to do some social network pruning in the new year and fine tune my networks a bit. Especially Twitter. I have this feeling (oh, crap - here we go with the FOMO again) that I am somehow missing the conversations from the people I really want to connect and converse with. I am finding that I am spending more time consuming, and less time conversing. More time grazing, and less time interacting. I'm also thinking of setting aside some time - literally booking it into my schedule - to interact with my network. I always love that Alan Levine has this week each year where he does nothing but comment on blog posts. Seems like a really good practice. Less loose ties and more stronger ones. Might be a good new years resolution.

ClintLalonde.net : The Information Diet

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:35:23 +0000

I like that you have emphasized the word NEED. It's such an interesting word that we use, isn't it? I NEED to do THIS THING. I've been thinking about that word, and the word quick for some reason, a lot lately and how I use it in my everyday speech. And I am beginning to realize that whenever I use the word "need", I am actually surrendering a bit of control - and the power I have to control - my own life. What is it I really need? When i say I need to read this article, do I really "need" to? What do i lose when I think/feel like I "need" to do things? Just babbling at this point, but I have a half baked blog post about the words "need" and "quick" (as in, I'm going to have a quick look at that in a minute) and how that colours our perceptions that is joggling around in my mind. Maybe not for this blog, but seems more appropriate for my Dad blog.

ClintLalonde.net : Skype as disruptive educational technology

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:29:04 +0000

Testing comments and ability to edit comments

ClintLalonde.net : From Google Reader to Kindle via klip.me

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:09:04 +0000

Thanks for the lead. I'll look into it. Since writing the post I've also discovered that Readability also has a send to Kindle feature and there is the service crofler which will send items from my Read It Later list to my Kindle. So, apparently, lots of options out there.�

ClintLalonde.net : 5 Features of Moodle 2 - Infographic

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 18:47:03 +0000

And thanks to you for making it available! It's been a handy resource for our faculty.

ClintLalonde.net : Google Docs does a lot of things well, but...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:51:16 +0000

I wouldn't think it would be a difficult feature for Google to add, but it's not a dealbreaker to using it for sure. GDocs has so many other features and does so many other things really well that it is still a much used tool in my online toolset, and useful for both academics and educators. But with this one little task (APA formatting) it's a bit of a bust.

ClintLalonde.net : 5 Features of Moodle 2 - Infographic

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:48:36 +0000

Glad you found it useful. One of the major new features of 2 that i didn't add to the graphic was conditional activities, not because I didn't think it was important or useful, but for the particular audiences I had for this graphic I wasn't sure that would be something that would be useful for them at this point. But certainly conditional activities is a great new feature.

ClintLalonde.net : MIT Launches New Center for Mobile Learning

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:56:03 +0000

Ha! Too true..

ClintLalonde.net : Informal learning for kids circa 1976

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:43:04 +0000

I'm hearing from more than a few people who had these as well, which has dashed my hope that these might somehow be rare and valuable enough to bankroll my retirement :)

ClintLalonde.net : What can Wikipedia do to encourage new contributors?

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:07:29 +0000

"if I choose to rework it, how will that be perceived by the previous contributors" I have this feeling often as well, and I wonder if a novice wiki user (let alone a novice Wikipedai editor) feels this, too. I have seen examples of students who are reluctant to edit a classmates work in a wiki for fear of upsetting the original author. There can be some power dynamics at work and I can see situations where changing someone's work could be perceived by the original author as meddling instead of improving or contributing.

ClintLalonde.net : Thereâs something happening here

Wed, 8 Jun 2011 20:08:24 +0000

Great points and well said, Stan. It's really too bad that we tend to consider a climate that enables the kind of vulnerability that you allude to as a "special" or"exceptional" environment instead of the operating norm. Imagine how much more innovative we could all be if we all felt like it was safe to take those risks and expose ourselves without the fear of rejection, failure or judgement.

ClintLalonde.net : Serendipity in action

Wed, 8 Jun 2011 13:11:05 +0000

Yeah, at this point I am feeling like you, and am content to let my own experiences speak for themselves with regards to using social media as a tool for my own personal learning. But I wonder how we move the conversation to the point where it is no longer about \"the promise\" social media holds for learning, but rather the realities? I suppose things like continuing to tell our own stories out here in the open about how these tools work for us is one way (he say, answering his own question :).

ClintLalonde.net : Serendipity in action

Wed, 8 Jun 2011 12:45:03 +0000

You're so right. There is no guarantee that this little moments of connection will happen when you are both open and willing to invest the time and effort to create a learning network, but there is a 100% guarantee that it won't happen if you don't. Trying to convince people to take that little leap of faith (and I think there is more and more evidence around that it isn't just faith) can be a tough sell. But the first time you experience some seemingly-random-yet-completely-natural-given-the-conditions-you-have-set-up-for-yourself connection, you're hooked and immediately get it.

Clint Lalonde's Comments

ClintLalonde.net : Trends that will impact education in the next 5 years

ClintLalonde.net : Frog in a pot

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

dadventure.ca : How do I tell my daughter she looks nice?

ClintLalonde.net : Annotate Jing videos with ZoomIt

ClintLalonde.net : The Information Diet

ClintLalonde.net : The Information Diet

ClintLalonde.net : Skype as disruptive educational technology

ClintLalonde.net : From Google Reader to Kindle via klip.me

ClintLalonde.net : 5 Features of Moodle 2 - Infographic

ClintLalonde.net : Google Docs does a lot of things well, but...

ClintLalonde.net : 5 Features of Moodle 2 - Infographic

ClintLalonde.net : MIT Launches New Center for Mobile Learning

ClintLalonde.net : Informal learning for kids circa 1976

ClintLalonde.net : What can Wikipedia do to encourage new contributors?

ClintLalonde.net : Thereâs something happening here

ClintLalonde.net : Serendipity in action

ClintLalonde.net : Serendipity in action

ClintLalonde.net : Thereâs something happening here