Author Archives: David Truss

World Markets and Apps

Two apps have made me realize how the world is changing. These apps are very popular, but not here in North America. Here, a very popular app for connecting with others for business (as well as socially) is Slack – a messaging app for teams.

However, pop over to India and WhatsApp is the cool tool that everyone is using. “Simple. Personal. Real Time Messaging.”

And hop over to China (as I did just recently) and WeChat is the tool that is already ‘Connecting a half billion people’… A HALF A BILLION PEOPLE!

Slack-whatsapp-wechat

One of my students, Brandon Mayhew, was invited to the Facebook F8 Developer’s conference, and he wrote about Mark Zukerberg’s opening presentation and an ongoing theme he heard, “4.1 Billion was repeated several times at the event and that’s the number of people that aren’t connected to the internet, over the next few years facebook plans on investing heavily on infrastructure to help connect these people in these remote regions of the globe.”

As an interesting aside, Facebook bought WhatsApp… for 19 Billion Dollars!

When over 1/3 of the world’s population lives in just two countries, and when those countries are on a fast track to get everyone connected… it is easy to see that if you were building an app, you’d want it to be used in other countries beyond North America, and specifically in China and India.

Soon, you are going to see some of the top apps start in other countries and the American/Canadian market will be an afterthought. In fact it has already happened… WeChat was ‘Made in China’!

Challenging myself to write

I consider myself a blogger, but in the last year and a half to two years I’ve been writing very little. I realize that in my 10th year of blogging that I’d go through times when my writing would ebb or decrease, but this seems to be a slump that I’m not getting out of.

What’s weird is that I still think in blog posts. I come up with ideas, and I start writing them in my head… But they never get to ‘paper’, or rather, they never go digital.

So here is my attempt to change that. After being untouched for a long time, my daily-ink will go daily… For the month of May.

If I’m truly inspired, I’ll write something to share on my pair-a-dimes blog, but I will put something here daily.

I’m doing this because I believe that I am most enthusiastic and passionate about my job when I’m blogging about education, and I miss the ‘me’ that used to blog regularly… I hope this process helps get that ‘creative-thinking’ part of me back! 🙂

Blurred but not yet Blended

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[ Source: http://www.digitallearningnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/BLIG-2.0-Infographic.jpg ]

Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path or pace. …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning

Just making a simple point that blended learning is not about ‘adding’ digital media and digital tools.

I’ve said before: The future of education will be open and distributed.

Go to Wikipedia FIRST

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I hope that the 2012 statistic that 73% of teachers prohibit Wikipedia for research is wrong! For years I have told students (and my own kids but they don’t necessarily listen to me) that Wikipedia should be the FIRST place to go. It’s amazing how many people buy into the idea that ‘it isn’t accurate’ and then not only believe this, but propagate the message too!

I don’t think only going to Wikipedia qualifies as comprehensive research, but I do think it is a great place to START. Wikipedia is a great place to go to learn background information and learn about related terms and topics.

It’s also fun to link-hop too. Pick a random subject, read about it, follow an interesting link, and repeat 5 or 6 times and you are off on a learning adventure with a mystery ending. For example, where else could I go and get from Pythagoras to Pearl Jam in just 5 clicks! 🙂

The Socratic Process ~ 6 Steps of Questioning

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…And on that note:
Truly Questioning Everything
How much of what we do at school is done because TTWWADI (That’s The Way We Always Do It)?
What ‘norm’ can you question and challenge in school? What ‘practice’ bugs you about the way things are done, that you have the courage to change?
The questions in the image above are great for students… And if we are honest with ourselves, for us too!