Martin Pluss

Hi all,

Recently I have been thinking about the world  my son and daughter have been born into.  My daughter does not mind me using her name  on the web though I am under strict instructions from my son – no names and definitely no photos.  So to adopt from a trend of others who blog  family,  my kids are  hereafter are  known as @15b and @12g.

Let me say  first there are no original ideas.  Other more learned people than  myself have touched on this issue such as @trib in this post  and @markpesce in this post which Mark described in Twitter  (as he was writing it) as one of his best pieces of writing. 

My work,  life and our family life have changed immeasurably in the last 15 years. 

Introducing @15b and @12g

@15b was born bang in 1993 as was the WWW and @12g  three years later when I finally managed to construct a way to get on to the web. 

I.  A typical night

At this very moment.  I am an the computer in the living room of the house.  This is the one which we fight over.  If the remote for the TV or the computer is unattended someone jumps.  @15b is on a laptop to my left on the lounge pretending to do work for Jenny  but is multitasking.  @12g in in the room straight ahead which is set up with two computers.  She is writing up a science experiment while checking with her friends online about what she has to do.  Jenny is on the oldest computer probably checking email  – and hopefully saving a copy of her reply  in case it times out before she sends it.  As for me I have just had a skype call from Moodleman  @jsridden where we discussed embedding  videos into Edublogs, loudtwitter and twittering from phone.  Now I am writng this monitoring twirl on the right hand side of my large screen  dreaming of the day when I can have two monitors.  I digress. 

This is a typical night in the Pluss household.  The computer is in the living area due to my firm conviction that the “comput” needs to be in the living area.  Many an argument was had with late adopters in the 1990s about how the study was dead.  I have also noticed something else.  Initially I used to watch the TV and play on the web now there has been a shift.  The focus in now on the interaction on the web and TV is second fiddle.  I do believe I am watching less and less TV - that is a big thing for me.  @15 and @12 have never really been into games on computs but have been exposed to pay TV since I got Galaxy in 1996.  I do believe they too are watching less of TV.  I suspect this is a society wide  development- well for those engaging in social networking anyway.  

II. Digital Natives- not

 @15b and @12g though they are known as digital natives their skills  are still sometimes left wanting.  They have skills in certain areas and not others. What I am interested in is what defines the nature of the skill set.  

 III. They want to use the technology not wanting to understand how it works. 

@15b and @12g and their peers just want things to work, serve their purpose of connecting and if it fails they go onto something else until it is fixed by @47. 

Things on the horizon for @15b and @12g

I. Digital Footprint

They will have to be aware of their digital footprint and how to manage it.  It is not high in their thinking now but it will become more of an issue as they get to the workforce. 

ii. Managing their online presence

They will need a system to keep track of and  manage decades of  usernames and passwords.

iii. They too need to be flexible

They need to be not stuck in the world they were born into because when they reach the age of @46 and @47 they will have to understand the world that their @’s are born into.

cheers  Martin

Hi all,

This time last year N.. gave me a number 3 with the clippers. I pretty well went through to February without a haircut. Once I got to December I let it go wild in the Xmas holidays. This is a hangover from teenage years in the 1970s where longer hair was the norm and I had quite long hair. Longer than this photo which was last Friday.

I normally go to the barber for a cut but don’t really cope with the shearing when the hair is medium to long. So in January I found this nice hairdresser Michael also in Penno. He has a modern looking, slick, spartan salon and is an interesting guy to talk to. I get a good half an hour discussion and haircut for $35. I have been to him twice and each time the family say how much did that cost and it does not look like you have had a hair cut. So I am attacked on two levels – cost and the amount of hair removed.

Now to just backtrack a bit. I have been feeling a bit grotty of late. Hair a bit wild and I have been adopting my old Bowral habits of just ironing the collars (if that) of my shirts because the shirts tend to spend all day under a jumper. So on the way home from work yesterday I went to the barber paid $15 less and half the time in the chair. The conversation was not as good and when I picked N… up he assumed I went back to Michael and he would not talk to me. Things got better when I said what it cost and it looks like I have had a haircut.

My Cool Running Cap will fit on better now at the Gold Coast Marathon.

The point I want to make. Last year almost shaved head no comments.  Two $35 haircuts some comments by the observant. Now at work today – saying it looked good and even my clothes looked good – it felt like I had had a makeover.

Whether it looks good or not is not the issue. What was unsaid before is more formative – suggests that I needed a haircut and people were being polite.

Extrapolating

1. Maybe my blog needs a haircut as well.
2. Hard to know what absence of comments in a blog means – no one reads it, no one notices it, people look and don’t comment, there are things they don’t like and say nothing and there are things they like and say nothing.
3. When comments come on your blog you feel better about what you are doing.
4. This makes you feel like you are valued and you keep blogging.

Hi all,

Well it stopped the school today with people finding computers and TVs at 8:55am.

Pretty impressed he pulled it off and I thoroughly agree with saying sorry. I cannot sit on the fence on this one. Sure it is complex but the fact remains some Aboriginals were taken from their families and they should be apologized to.

In fact it is more than the government being responsible it is us letting the government do what they did. It serves as a reminder to me, to keep an eye things in which I am involved and not let some things happen.

One of the comments to a story in news.com.au:

“I’m not sorry, I’ve no reason to be, my family had nothing to do with it.”

If you vote the government in you do have something to do with it. We still have to look after all Australians.

If we have to say sorry for other things – well so be it. If it costs us so be it. Sometimes the right thing needs to be done and at least on this issue the right thing was done.

The story of the 80 year lady made it for me.

Meanwhile talk back on 2GB is providing both sides of the argument and lots of emotion.

Now I want to see how it has spread around the world. It is on the front page on CNN now and BBC.

Let’s see if I can find a few links that tell the story

News.com.au Rudd moves to heal the nation

CNN Australia Apologizes to Aborigines

BBC Australia Apology to Aborigines

Thousands say sorry in Facebook 

It has been really interesting to see how the story has spread and how people have offered their opinion on blogs and how quickly.

cheers Martin

Hi all,

I know it is into the second month of the year but I take January for time at the beach, family and exercising.  In this case mostly riding and walking.  It is my Google Time that takes up 12.5 % of the year.

I continued my running and life blog when I could get access to the internet and at one stage had well over 1000 feeds in Google Reader to process.  I quickly headed back to the beach

I want to share with you the Maxine McKew Month.  January 2007 Maxine was on holidays on the Central coast where I holiday.  While at  at Pretty Beach she was approach with the idea of running against John Howard in the 2008 election and in January 2008 she won and had a seat in parliament and pushed out a sitting Prime Minister.

January now is my Maxine Month where I am open to all sorts of possibilities and I just go with all that comes up.  So what happened in this year’s Maxine McKew Month.   So what happened?

I have wanted to do some theological reading but I have find the Bible to be boring.  I cannot pronounce the names, nor can I identify with the situations and the language.  while on a ride with Barry, whom I worked with for 5 years and is now the Rector of the Darling Street Anglican Church, he suggested to read two books and they have made a difference. Though I still don’t see the point of 4 Gospels which essentially tell the same story.

Next I checked my email in the video store at Avoca Beach and there was  an email from the Editor of the ACER  Publications and they have offered to publish a paper I wrote on Social Bookmarking.  This keeps me on track of publishing at least one article a year – which I have managed to do since 1985.

Last year I was a slave to my goal of running 100km a month or 25km a week.  In January I just decided to walk and ride.  I recorded how long I was out for each week.  I began to notice that I was actually spending more time exercising  even though I was doing less km running.  This has become my focus this year.  I feel half an hour a day is the benchmark so 3:30 hours per week.  As it turned out i did 30 hours of exercise in January.  I won’t keep those hours up but  the focus on hours seems to be better for my over all fitness as I have to cross training more.

We committed to improving where we live with the intention of staying where we are in Pennant Hills for a longer time frame.  Plans have been approved.  Some assets have to be sold to do it  but generally it has been a good decision for the family.

No great relevation or solution but on the professional front I have been spread a bit too thin and juggling a few balls.   In January I was remind my core is teaching.  I am a Social Science teacher who dabbles a lot in ICT.  I am going to keep reminding myself this through out the year when things get too busy.

On the ICT front with the social booking marking work published I want to pull together information on Social Networking.  I don’t want Web 13.0 to be a blog just linking to other websites.  Google Reader does this for me.

Well that is all from me for now.

cheers  Martin

cheers  Martin

Hi all,

I normally try and keep my running and life blog away from Web 13.0 but in this case the Web 2.0 tools I use provide a useful overlap as I describe in my YouTube presentation.

cheers Martin