Independence Day

Last year the place I work was restructured and my post as a learning technologist was made redundant. However, there was a post in the new structure with more responsibility and more money, which I applied for. So since January 4th of this year, I’ve been working as a Good Practice Adviser  – a brand new post and one I’ve been able to make my own.

As it was a new post, that meant that after all these years working for the UofG I was back on probation for six months, and my director noted that this would end on July 4th – how apt. This week he told me that he’d signed the forms to confirm to HR that I’d passed my probation, so that’s me now with my L plates off and ready for our official service launch on July 12th as the Learning Enhancement & Academic Development Service (LEADS) when we’ll be running drop in sessions throughout the day. All UofG staff and students are very welcome to come along.

So here’s my submission for today’s Daily Create – a milestone I have just passed.

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I am Creatorist

My June 2017 30-Day The Daily Create Challenge Art

Phew – done. 30 daily creates in 30 days (well, nearly – I actually did yesterday’s this morning).

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Ampen, Don’t Dampen

Ampen, don't dampen

A week of reflection. Finding that friends were hurting and we didn’t know. Knowing that I’d been hurt as well. What to do? What to think? What to say?

A slogan from Terry jingling around in my head resulted in the above poem.

A conversation yesterday to help others with their research gave further chance to pause and reflect on some of the highs and lows of some of my more recent online interactions …

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So is it worth it? Well, it’s not  a cost-benefit analysis, but I am happy to have all of the friends that I have, and I will try to ampen, not dampen – to celebrate all the wonderful things I see online, and ignore those that I think are less wonderful. Here’s the poem again as hieroglyphics for today’s Daily Create.

Ampen, Don't Dampen

 

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Who owns a hashtag

twitter gaolWhat are the status of hashtags? Are they things that can be owned by individuals or groups of individuals? Once I have laid claim to one, can I request, or even demand, that other users follow whichever rules I have decided apply? Can a group  (explicitly or implicitly) come up with a set of rules or conventions that apply to tweets containing a particular hashtag? I was prompted to think about these questions during a Twitter conversation that begun after a discussion about whether remixing a stranger’s words, or images, was something we’d do. A tweet by Wendy left me thinking of tweets to a hashtag as being a signal that a person might be open to a conversation. I wonder what others think.

Image stolen from @dogtrax

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Find 5 Friday songs

It’s Friday, I am alone on the office, and it’s that time of day. Here’s five songs that I like for #F5F

The Damned Smash  It Up

The Members The Sound of the Suburbs

Jeff Beck  Hi Ho Silver Lining

Terry Jacks  Seasons In The Sun

The Monkees  Daydream Believer

What are some of your favourite songs?

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Changeling cats

I was going to do something clever for this Daily Create, but as I was working it out I looked around and saw both cats posed perfectly in my study. So I grabbed my camera and quickly took these photos – see how Cagney turns into a cushion and then into Lacey?

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Who are you looking at

A wander around our local park earlier to use my new fancy camera

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A lot of the birds seemed to be staring and asking who the heck we were to be in their space.

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Funny Fallacies

I know clever and funny people. Today’s Daily Create asked us to illustrate our favourite fallacy.  I chose this – note my use of Wikipedia as a source:

And got the following two responses:

Which Karen elaborated on:

Both very funny responses to my original fallacy and use of Wikipedia 🙂

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The Lion and the Unicorn

lion and unicorn staircaseIt’s a funny old day … in a not funny at all sort of way. A weak and wobbly bigot is teaming up with some truly awful abominations, and all we can do is sit and watch. It looks as if a second referendum is off the table, at least for now, and I’ve had a nursery rhyme knocking around in my head all day:

The lion and the unicorn
Were fighting for the crown
The lion beat the unicorn
All around the town.
Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum cake
and drummed them out of town.*

So at lunchtime I wandered over to the main building and took some pics of my old friends there.

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Lion and Unicorn Staircase

Watch out, England. This unicorn is not giving up yet.

* The Lion and the Unicorn are  the heraldic symbols of England and Scorland

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Solidarity, comrades

After I wrote my post yesterday I read a comment on #digciz by Stephen Downes, and this bit struck me:

We need to base society on voluntary cooperation, rather than involuntary collaboration.

Exactly. That’s what’s wrong, imo, with talking about digital citizens. I know not everybody shares my bleak view of the state and what it is to be a citizen (though some do), and I had a long chat with folk about it on Twitter, which Sheri mentions here in a very thoughtful post.

So how should we refer ourselves when we interact online? Terry provided me with food for thought in a Vialogues comment, saying:

I am thinking more lately that citizenship is just a form of solidarity and mutual aid.

So, I disagree. I still think being a citizen is about being surveilled, and taxed, and that nation states are things that we didn’t invent and we now don’t know how to get rid of because:

A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably. Wittgenstein, PI, $115

But I agree, in some way, with Terry’s idea that how we interact online should include mutual (where wanted) aid – in the sense that we have each others’ backs. So, on the eve of what could be a very bleak day for UK politics, I offer you solidarity, as a comrade. If you want it, that is. As one member of the human race to another. Not as a citizen – digital or otherwise.

friendship” flickr photo by CONNIE….  shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

 

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