The blog posts I didn’t write in 2017

My laptop is full of text documents for blog posts I started writing on the train and didn’t finish because I chickened out or didn’t have enough time. Instead of the ‘new year, new me’ post I’m going to do a quick run through of the posts where I couldn’t quite make myself coherant enough to justify a click of the publish button.

1. Self-pleasure in eLearning:

A post about how eLearning blogs are a form of self-pleasure for the authors. How blogs such as my own are not much more than an exercise in making us feel good about ourselves and how social media sharing culture can add to it. I wrote a little about how disagreements can be a good thing and how we should get better at disagreeing with one another.

Didn’t post because: Became too vulgar.

2. Open assessment?

A look at openstax and pondering what the role is for OERs are when assessment isn’t open. I was thinking a bit cynical here, along the lines of them just being a way to make sure institutions keep control of assessment. Yet more ponderings about the meaning of Open and the difference between open vs free in the world of educational resources.

Didn’t post because: Felt like a minefield.

3. Toys for girls:

I wrote this when that guy from Google said boys and girls are different and should be treated differently. The gist of this post was that if a field says “we want more women”, the respondents won’t act the same as males in that field because their life experiences are different – for one there had to be a call in their field to get them in there. Some thoughts about how we might have better luck thinking about how we treat our children and the opportunities we provide for them

Didn’t post because:  Did not feel qualified to comment

4. Ted sums up everything that is shit about academia

I wrote this after seeing an inspiring Ted talk and releasing that all ted talks are inspiring because there is nothing to disagree with. The ted talk was on how we should care about our children. Why the hell wouldn’t you be nice to children? Why does that need a ted talk? Turned into this post I made at a punk conference which was the least punk thing I had ever been to. The post was just gibberish about how academia and academic conferences have sold out in a similar manner to the Johnny Rottern now supports UKIP and does butter adverts.

Didn’t post because: Want to do a Ted talk to put it on my linkedin. Posted the one at the punk conference instead.

5. 7 Posts about pro-wrestling

I wrote no less than 7 posts exploring the link between pro wrestling and politics. The sheer number of republicans who have links to wrestling is crazy. This includes Donald Trump who had his head shaved at a Wrestlemania. These posts explore odd goings on such as Hulk Hogan being used to bring down left wing news websites by using the defence “Hulk Hogan is a different character to me in real life” and how this was funded by Peter Thiel who went on the campaign trail with Trump shortly after. There are loads of these interesting facts including WWE CEO Linda McMahon being 25th Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Trump. Seriously the Republican Party and pro wrestling has some really weird links. I only came across this stuff doing linked data stuff on wikipedia and it is crazy. If there is one use for network graphics I am sure it is uncoving this massive wrestling and politics link, I’m on to them. This tin foil hat is itchy.

Didn’t post because: Don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but seriously what about all that money Vince McMahon donated to trump and…