My last post described some of my reasons for ungeeking. The more I reflected on it, the more reasons I could come up with. Rationalizing? Perhaps, but the ungeeking proceeds nonetheless. One more reason that I did want to add is that when I am asked (or explain without provocation – that happens a lot) how a teacher can get involved in this bloggy-wiki-ey-twittery melange that is the habitat of the networked teacher (see picture below), I describe how blogs and wikis and twitter accounts can be set up for free. This elicits gasps of jubilation tinged with disbelief. Any teacher can stake their claim on a few megabytes of the intarweb-tubes for absolutely no cost, with the added bonus of someone else doing all the hosting and maintaining. And for a very minor cost, they can have it all … Continue reading »

I’ve been hosting this and many other sites from a reseller web hosting account I have with Varial Technologies, which is (unpaid endorsement) a great web hosting company based in Saskatoon. At some point I think I had a grandiose vision of running a web hosting service to bring in at least enough money to at least cover the cost of my own hosting. I never really followed through on that very much, offering hosting for a few friends and quite often I would barter free hosting for the year for something they had or could do for me. Consequently, the dreamed of  financial offsetting of my web sites never really worked. Another reason for downsizing my hosting duties is time. There was a time in my life during which I loved the chance to geek out for several hours … Continue reading »

On Remembrance Day, I think of my grandfather who, having only been 16 at the time, lied about his age in order to get into the Great War (the first one). It seems like a strange thing to do that but after a trip to England in 1990, I think I might have a better understanding why. One of my destinations during my 4 month ramble around the UK was Mathon, England where Grandpa came from. [googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mathon,+england&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Malvern,+21+Church+St,+Great+Malvern,+Worcestershire+WR14+3,+United+Kingdom&t=h&ll=52.109879,-2.390471&spn=0.018449,0.036478&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=425&h=350] I looked at the gravestones just outside the church and found it a little bit strange to see a few stones that shared my surname. (Interesting tangent – I found out a while ago that the surname Wall from that area is actually from a group of members of the Scottish Wallace clan who ended up down there when the Scots/Picts invaded … Continue reading »

Before twitter, we would actually use our blogs for short messages with links.

Wise words from Voltaire, which translate as “The best is the enemy of the good”. As I work with some students as they develop their video projects for the semester, I want to have them chant this 20 times at the start of each class. Consider the following scene: ME – Hey, Joe. I’m wondering about this video project proposal that you’ve given me. JOE – What about it, Mr. Wall ME – Well … I’m wondering if some of it might be a bit more than we have the time, equipment or budget to actually do. Like the scene at the end, for example. JOE – The musical scene? Oh no, I couldn’t get rid of that. ME – I’ve just been wondering where we would find a marching band and two dozen breakdancing monkeys. I honestly don’t think … Continue reading »

Strange things occur to me late at night while I am at the school marking (grrrrr – stupid report card marks). The last time (and I hope it was the the last time) I had a seizure I was alone at the school so maybe that’s what started me thinking about it. Having a seizure is basically like a sudden blue screen or whirling beach ball, depending on your operating system of choice, followed by a slow, groggy reboot. Any input that is currently in the short term memory buffer gets lost when the system freezes up. It is strange and a bit spooky to realize that at any particular moment, I might lose all memory of that moment. I guess this is what alleged UFO abductees are describing when they talk about lost time or gaps in their memory … Continue reading »