Weeknote 28/2016

15 July 2016 • 1 min read • Weeknotes / weeknote / work

This week I’ve been:

Sending out Issue #223 of Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely focused on education, technology, and productivity.
Recording and releasing Episode 57 (‘Unpleasant Pokémon’) of Today In Digital Education, my weekly podcast with co-host Dai Barnes. We discussed the new UK Prime Minister, the development of We Are Open Co-op, digital strategy, the future of work, unpleasant design, blockchain, Pokémon Go, killer robots, akrasia, willpower, and more! You can discuss TIDE in our Slack channel.
Working in London with City & Guilds. I wrote several blog posts off the back of the June 28th Digitalme event around Open Badges for employment, worked with an intern (showing them how to use badges and GitHub, and made a slide deck of who’s who in the world badges.
Creating a new banner/header for my Twitter account and updating the theme for this blog.
Buying all kinds of things as a result of Amazon Prime Day (e.g. Exploding Kittens)
Preparing for our August camping trip.
Getting feedback on our ISTE pre-conference workshop, Beyond the Badge Graphic. We average 4.5 out of 5 across the various indicators, with an 80% response rate. I’m happy with that!
Proud of my children and what they have achieved at school this year. Their reports were, to quote one teacher, ‘exceptional’.
Meeting with Philip Veal from Silbo about co-ops and alternative ways of working, Chi Onwurah (MP for Newcastle Central) about concerns around DWP use of blockchain for welfare, and Tim Riches about some work we’ll be doing together when I get back from holiday.
Writing:
- [INCOMING] #BelshawBlackOps16 Pt.1 (14th July)
- New blog theme (12th July)
- From tethered capitalism to tethered communism? (1oth July 2016)

Next week I’m in London from Monday to Wednesday, doing some critical friend work on Thursday and Friday, and then flying to California on Saturday for some work the week after.