The News and Learning

~ joanvinallcox ~ 2 Comments
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If you don't know the answer to the question in the image above – "But just what does [proroguing] mean?" You are likely out-of-touch with Canadian political news. If you want to learn more about Canadian, or any other politics, just start paying attention. That may initially seem unattractive, but let me tell you a story.

In my mid-twenties I knew little about politics of any sort. But I had a boyfriend, later a husband, who paid close attention to all the news, including Canadian and American political news. When I was with him, I was subjected to radio, television, and even newspaper news, often several times a day. At first, it was boring. But a strange thing started happening. I found myself knowing more about the news. 

At one point early in my career, two older colleagues moved from talking about workplace gossip, which all three of us took part in, to talking about politics. I listened for a while and then I surprised myself by having something to say, and I said it. The three of us continued our discussion, and I enjoyed being part of a conversation with fellow workers whom I liked and respected. Later,one of them stopped me in the hall and told me he hadn't realized I was so knowledgeable and thanked me for my contribution to the conversation. I was thrilled, and it was good for my reputation where I worked, too.

So what does this have to do with learning? Well, I learned about politics without even trying. The thing about learning about politics is that at first you know nothing, so it's boring. But if you keep watching, listening, and reading, everything gets repeated with small changes, over and over again, and some of the stories start to sink in. Then one day, a piece of news gets reported and you'e surprised to notice that you have a question or opinion on it. Without doing anything except hanging around when the news was on, I found myself with a foundation of knowledge, and it became easy and interesting to keep up with the news.

So here's what I suggest if you don't know what proroguing parliament means:
  • Go to Google or some other search engine and see what you can find. 
  • Check the dates on articles or blog posts to see how recent they are. (Check the image above; you might be surprised.)
  • Find a site that appears to explain it – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_session (or a better one).

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  • Even better than looking it up, find someone you know who knows politics and ask them.
  • Start going beyond the headlines and see what different political parties are saying, and try to find out the facts underneath what is being said and don't just fall for emotional one-liners.

Political news can be a great conversation-starter, but be discreet, politics can also be a conversation-stopper if you disagree.

I recommend you just hang around news sources for a little time each day, and see what happens ;->

Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD 
Social Media & Learning

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Finding New Stuff Online

~ joanvinallcox ~ 3 Comments

Everything on the web is changing really fast, and it's easy to feel a bit lost. Nobody knows everything about all the web apps, but a few know where to find web-treasures: applications that are really useful for you and your projects. I call these people Web Guides.

I subscribe to and receive in my email Doug Belshaw's blog  – http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/ – where he describes work he's doing for his Ed.D. degree and how he uses technology in his teaching and training. His current post – http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2010/01/04/mac-osx-apps-i-currently-use/  – contains an annodated visual of the apps he has on his Mac. I was able to review them and choose which ones I wanted to check out (red-outlined) for my possible use. (I like the way resting my cursor brings out a description. He explains how he set it up to do that.)

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So I have some new apps to check out, many of them open source and/or free.

He's not my only Web Guide. I blog on Posterous – http://posterous.com/ – because it's the easiest blog tool I've found, and I subscribe to a number of people whom I find helpful there. I have set it up so I receive a collection of their blog posts in my email too. It's just easier to delete the Posterous email if I'm busy than it is to remember to go to my Bloglines or Google Reader accounts.

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Steve Rubel often mentions web apps he finds useful – http://www.steverubel.com/ – and I enjoy reading his insights.

There are lots of other sources of web information out there; I follow MakeUseOf – http://www.makeuseof.com/ – by having it, too, emailed to me, and they make it really easy to sign up.

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So that's it, the sources of my web information which I have now shared with you! I hope you explore and find your own, and if you know of any really useful ones that I haven't mentioned, please share them in the comments.

Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD – joanvc@jnthweb.ca
JNthWEB Consulting – http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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