Matt’s Notes
Happy Victoria Day! For those who partake… in Quebec, you might be celebrating National Patriot’s Day… and elsewhere… it might just be Monday!
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This episode is the first in what will probably be a series of investigations on specific tools and applications… We’re leaning into the TECH of the Ed non-Tech this episode… with a look at SPLOT’s… a uniquely Canadian ed tech phenomenon! For our first run at this, please click below… as per your preferences!
Here’s wishing you a SAFE… and, likely, SPLOT-less holiday… #ednontech
So… I don’t necessarily have much to add to what’s in the recordings!
Out of the various tools and applications we were considering… Doug… in his capacity as Director and Chief Executive and Primary Imagineer really felt strongly about pursuing this topic…
I’m along for the ride! Past employment situations aside, I am deeply committed to the Open Web… and particularly WordPress websites… as beneficial to education in all kinds of ways… the mind is staggered by the possibilities… for some, there could be entire careers to be had in teaching and learning vis-à-vis various configurations of WordPress… well thought-out, informed by peer-reviewed literature, white papers, high-level conference proceedings, and other scholarly accounts for development and educational practice…
I mean, I got the WP logo etched into my skin. It’s the most picked at of all my tatts… last numbering at nearly twenty… and it is due for a touch-up… which I will get when I am once more gainfully… even less-than-gainfully… employed in some kind of capacity… beyond SELF-employed…
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All y’all leaders and administrators with your budgets… and all y’all tenured, tenure-track, sessional, unemployed, and/or post-academic-ish folks… we salute you! #ednontech
Will I be the person to re-invent the class website? Probably not. At this point, I’m searching for a landing in a paid situation somewhere in the education sector that lets me feel like I’m doing meaningful work… with soul and dignity intact…
To that end, I’m grateful to have this podcast as a creative way of staying engaged in the field… and for the attendant benefits… from the punk podcast… to the consulting venture… and to the new online publication… unpretentiously and also unironically called The Best New Canadian Writing... and we are accepting submissions!
All of this is manifesting through WordPress. All of it has, if not widespread value… it might not be reaching a ton of people… but it is sincere. There is some kind of plan behind all of it. And you can fill a thimble with all this and all the other good things that go with it…
I think, based on the Excel sheet Doug shared with me, that further episodes of the EnT will include investigations into various aspects of AI… and other applications and tools. Thanks for joining us… and uh… WATCH OUT FOR LANDSHARKS!! (Editor: That’s pretty random, dude…)
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Beware of bumbling academics bearing GIF’s! #ednontech
Doug’s Notes
Tool Investigation – SPLOT or A Very Special Episode of the Ed non-Tech Podcast
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We are back to naming issues…
Definitions
- spot, blot, patch or plot of land
- segment
- an off-split, segment
- to split
- tangle, a tangled twisted mass
- weave, pattern of weaving
- stitch, pattern of knitting
- (anatomy) plexus, cervical plexus
- (mathematics) convolution
- A volume of spilled oil
Names
splot – statistical data tool
s-PLOT- vegetation plot database
SPLOT – model verification tool
SPLOT – Smallest Possible Learning Open Tools
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“The acronym is vague and playfully undefined on purpose”
Clever is not always useful and often demonstrates lack of depth of thought.
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They repeatedly state that they like the lack of thought they have put into this. That should have a trigger warning for educators that think and care about students.
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The lack of academic literature is a warning flag.
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What is useful with this tool?
What educators who care about students would use this?
Can I get some names of these educators?
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This type of thing is exactly what I have been talking about regarding issues with edtech in this podcast.
Lack of critical thought
Lack of clarity
Lack of goals
Lack of usefulness
Lack of reason
Lack of focus on students or educators
Too much self-congratulation.
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When the industry stepped away from a “tool” nearly a decade ago, this was not about education. It must be about something other than education, and this is the Ed non-Tech podcast and we are about education.
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I wished I had one of these when I was trying to investigate this “tool”. I just wanted to hide from this…
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Word of the podcast
Why?
Phrase of the podcast
Lack of depth of thought.
Question of the podcast
What makes a tool or technique worth using with students?
To talk in rhyme
With my chaotic soul
As sure as life means nothing
And all things end in nothing
And heaven I think
Is too close to hell
#ednontech
Thank you so much for spending some time with us!! We appreciate you, and we’re looking forward to the next outing already!
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