Jonathan Davies

You’ve got to love them. The day I get on holiday (over 9 weeks!) our home network starts to fail. We have a pretty complicated one which involves several wireless routers and bridges.

It seems that the source of the problem is the BT Home Hub which is failing. Every so often I am able to restore it - bit it is very unreliable.

That is pretty much why there has been a lack of content lately, i have been busy which various projects and things that frankly took precedence over the blog. In the near future I will be talking about some new software I have purchased, The best ways of running Windows on your Mac and a bit about my experiences with web design.

As with the last Apple Event its that time again for another quick round-up of my predictions for what we may, or may not see at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s conference. I’ll be watching Engadget and Macrumors Live’s coverage. And as soon as they open up the store for orders of the 3G iPhone, I’ll be placing mine.

I’ve been pretty tapped into the rumors - mainly because I’m looking at buying an iPhone as soon as they are available, but I am by no means sure as to what they will talk about. it just seems that there are to many things that could happen to fit them into one keynote.

• As I’m on the topic of the iPhone I’ll start there: Slight design changes, nothing to big, I’d be pleased with something like this. 3G (obviously), GPS and more coolness on the whole. I really, really want it to ship within a week of the announcement - if it will is another thing entirely.
• I’m sure there will be a big focus on some on the new iPhone Apps, as neat as they probably are… this will be the time where I go get something to eat, it doesn’t really interest me at all in a keynote speech - I want to hear more Apple stuff.
• Lets talk about Mac OS X. Maybe a preview of “Snow Leopard“, or at least it will get a slide or two. I’m hoping they’ll talk about the future of Mac OS on a whole. Michael has a great post here with what he thinks about that Snow Leopard stuff.
• Mobile Me - sounds cool but I won’t buy it. Or at least until I get a second Mac. Its a long time coming though - but Steve did say that himself.
• New Cinema Displays? Why not? Thinner, faster, bigger(?). They’re only two years due.
• Don’t see anything happening to laptops at this point. I think there are far more important things to talk about this time - how about a special event in Autumn (Fall, for you US folks).

There you have it… There are a couple other things that I could touch upon but most of them I don’t expect to actually flourish. Macrumors has a good summary here.

What would you like to see at WWDC (if it hasn’t already happened)?

I’ve always “wanted” an iPhone, but have never really come up with a reason that is strong enough to over-through what is a very hefty price tag. In fact, over 18 months, with the cheapest contract, costs you £900.

If you hadn’t noticed. That’s a lot of money for a phone.

But now it’s gotten to the point where I think (obviously, when the 3G iPhone is released) I am going to give in and say yes. But why, what has changed since the release of the iPhone to make me realize that I need one.

The biggest reason was the actual iPhone itself, before there was nothing to gauge a good and bad phone, they were all rubbish. But now you can see how good phones could be… It’s a lot harder to put up with them now.

The problem that I currently face is as to whether I am going to end up using the phone enough. Currently I don’t really use my phone very much. It’s a catch twenty-two situation. I want an iPhone because I don’t use my current phone, but I am hesitant in buying a new one because I don’t want to waste money on something that I may find out I don’t need.

But it’s not really the phone functionality that draws my towards it. I like the simplicity, the user interface, the iPod, the web browser. So even if I don’t find myself using the phone functionality, will the unlimited data plan balance things out?

I’m not sure yet, any thoughts?

My previous blog post was about the use of technology in schools at the moment and I didn’t really touch on how school’s could improve learning in the digital age as much as I could have, I had a lot of thoughts, more than what warranted a simple update to the post - so here is a brand new one here for your enjoyment

So we are at this point where there is a gap between accepting computers as a mainstream learning tool and those who still prefer the good old pen and paper. Of course writing is an incredibly important asset, but it is getting to a stage where typing is going to be just as, if not more important. So, I suggest the following pieces of action to be taken:

• Write everything on the computer - by doing this you are forcing kids, from a level where they are (hopefully) all the same. Therefore they can build up there skills and abilities with each other and learn things from each other. Of course, they should be pretty capable in writing before they move solely over to the computer for writing.
• Teaching online - my own school’s site has a source where they can enroll in online courses that work separately, or in union with a scheduled lesson. One of the advantages to this is that students can work at their own pace and don’t have to wait for others to catch up.
• School Bulletins - Imagine logging onto your school computer to find a page telling you your time table, preps that need doing and any other school related notifications. My school has this on a limited basis, but the possibilities that can be gained from this are amazing.
• Homework by email - Now there is no excuse to say you forgot. Send out a mass email to all your students giving them the work that is needed and the course on the learning site that they need to reference. All they simply do is, put the homework into a reply and send it off.

The problem that we have with these is that they require a few other steps that need to be made first before they could reach their potential:

• Educate students and teachers - on day one they should be given a demonstration of how to use everything and have a chance to ask questions. There should always be a support email that people can go and ask questions.
• A standard system - a lot of schools have hobbled together a system that uses a lot of different technologies that haven’t been designed to work with each other. Chose a system and stick to it!
• Make it mandatory - The one thing that is letting down the online learning site at my school is the fact that teachers don’t have to put up content for it - or even use it. Before it can be used properly it needs the whole school community behind it.

This is simply what I think a school would need to put into place before they can expect a fully functional, online learning experience. What would you like your school to do?

Technology plays a large roll in my daily activities at school. For some lessons I write my notes on my MacBook Pro, I do a lot of video recording and editing for school events. In fact I am going to be editing a whole load of footage over the next few weeks.

Why do I write a lot of my notes on my computer? To stay organized really. All my notes are arranged specifically to the subject and lesson that I am studying. Most importantly; I know where everything is. I am not very good at manually organizing things. I tend to loose pieces of paper and it can take a long time for me to find stuff. If I can’t find something on my Mac, then I simply use Spotlight and get to it in seconds.

The problem with schools and technology at the moment is simply that teachers don’t seem to trust them as a learning tool totally yet. In all the lessons that I do - only a handful am I allowed to take notes for on my computer.

Why are they like this? I think it is simply because of the situation that my school’s network used to be in. There was a point where files could go missing or magically become deleted. This caused a lot of mistrust about the school’s network that I believe is still present today.

Luckily, things are changing, slowly, for the better. Teachers are becoming more educated and IT is becoming a bigger part of learning at my school. Interactive white boards are in a lot of classrooms and projects are more commonly requested to be presented on a computer.

They are small steps, but it’s still progress non the least.

How is technology treated in your learning environment?

I have never been very good at making targets, big nor small, I just never seem to be able to accomplish them - or at least as well as I’d like to.

For instance, only spending a limited amount of time “browsing” the internet - a massive time waster, or reading a book for a few minutes a day. I can write them out and plan doing them - but when it comes down to it, all I am really good at is procrastinating.

So I’ve put in a few measures lately to try and curve this problem and so far it seems to be working fairly well. One of the biggest hurdles was admitting that I am not (though some believe me to be) a superhero - who can do anything. Once this boundary is overcome you can just accept that what you have managed to do is enough, and should be enough to satisfy you.

By setting myself, small, doable targets I am able to slowly complete a whole large tasks. Because, after all, one large tasks simply a lot of small ones.

Organizing my life through one quick small step has increased my productivity ten fold.

What do you do to be more productive?

Up until recently JonathanDavies.org.uk was the only place that you could really find content from me. Well, from now on, you can find me also creating content for Desktop Vibes, Glenn Wolsey’s new blog which I mentioned in a previous blog post. You can expect an article from me, in different forms about once per week.

I just want to make it clear that this new outlet will be an extra blog post that I write every week and will not affect the writing that you see here. In fact, I hope that the extra writing that I do will only strengthen my ability to create content.

My thanks go to Glenn for giving me this chance to increase the amount of people I will be able to reach on the web - this really is a fantastic opportunity.

My first blog post was published the other day and I covered the free app Dock Library. Check it out and leave a comment on Desktop Vibes telling me what you think!

Since the advent of the blog there has been a new kind of journalism, that in which the words of a nobody can reach thousands of people. Even personal blogs where all they talk about is what they had for lunch seem to have an attraction. Be it family members or random strangers who just want to know that there is still innocent things happening in the world. (FYI: I don’t do this!).

It is for this exact reason that podcasting is such a revolution - you don’t need much, you can even get away with paying nothing for your blog - you can just write. Journalism in the last few years has evolved on the internet, the gap between the old media journalist and new media journalist is closing. But there are still some things that have yet to change, and for the public to realize how similar these two forms of journalism are.

It seems that though internet journalism is encroaching on print journalism, old media are continuing to ignore that fact that soon, they will have a problem on their hands. People won’t go to the newspaper to get their news, or watch TV. Instead they will watch on-demand videos and read the news that interests them in their feed reader. All that currently needs to happen for this to take effect is for RSS to reach a wider audience.

Is this a good thing though? Is choosing the stories that you read limiting the wider stretch of the news that is given to you by having random stories you are at least aware of the current state of affairs - you could become shortsighted. Not something you want to do in a world like this.

Sure, baby steps have been made, they have a website where all the articles are published, but they still lack two things: community and personality.

I don’t think that bloggers get the respect that they should either, do you see Apple giving people who are solely bloggers iPhones early? No, instead the big newspapers. I find this interesting when certain blogs probably get more “readers” than some newspapers.

Will this change? I think it should; the facts are showing us that less and less people are buying newspapers and the only real thing that can be associated with it is the rise of the internet.

Do you think bloggers are given enough respect?

A big teen blogger in the blogosphere has made a massive change to the way his online life operates. Glenn Wolsey has decided to alienate his name from his original blog, GlennWolsey.com and move to a new, impersonal blog DesktopVibes.com. I think it’s a pretty interesting, yet risky move to make - though if pulled off well could have major benefits for both him and his readers.

Why did he do this? In his own words:

…the ability to bring in guest writers into the fold, an easier and more structured path to building a brand, and the ability to write abut things I wouldn’t have normally done with the site attached to the GlennWolsey.com domain name.

It’s true, and these are all valid points, but this may come at a price. A “possible” loss of readers. Lets face it, a lot of Glenn’s readers are going to be more casual. Even lazy and will probably never switch to the new feed. The thing is though, starting a blog for a second time is obviously a lot easier. you do have a following - even if you do have a few losses. And of course, you’ve learnt a lot, less mistakes will be made, I sure know this; there are many changes that I would have otherwise done. You’ve got to way up the pros and cons and see if you feel it will be for the better.

And what will happen to GlennWolsey.com?

Moving to Desktop Vibes for technological content and leaving this weblog for personal based entries

I just hope GlennWolsey.com doesn’t become stagnant, even if it does not remain necessarily technology related it would be nice to see an insight into what Glenn is up to. Would I do this myself? Maybe. If I felt that my blog was getting to the point where to add a new angle I would have to separate my personal branding.

What do you think of Glenn’s choice, and would you do it yourself?

They say content is king, but what if you don’t have anything to write about? Since starting this blog I have developed a few select sources that I use for information that I thought I would share with you. Just remember, the point of these sources is mainly to inspire you, to help you along - most of the heavy lifting should be done by you.

Twitter

If something big is happening, it’s bound to be on Twitter. People are continually posting links to cool stuff. A lot of the time people link to interesting or “outrageous” in some cases articles that you might want to add your opinion to that of the blogosphere. Be warned, if does become very popular, then the chances are the “big blogs” will be covering it and might have a head start over you.

The Archives

Sometimes I read through other blogs’ archives and come across what is now old and not so relevant. There is nothing wrong with taking that basis and rewriting it to suit the changes that have been made since and adding your own opinions to the mix. If it’s good quality and isn’t a total rip-off then you shouldn’t have any trouble.

Life

No matter what you blog about, the topic is very likely to be intertwined with your daily lifestyle. Take your daily experiences and talk about them. What went wrong, what went right. If it happened to you it can happen to others - there may be that one Googler looking for your post. In my case I have done this a few times here, here and here.

Where do you find inspiration for your blog’s content?