mistrustmusic's posterous http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com Most recent posts at mistrustmusic's posterous posterous.com Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:39:32 -0700 Changes http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/changes http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/changes After acumulating so many blogs on wordpress.com - for my music-making, for personal stuff, e-learning stuff, etc.,  I've decided to start posting anything non-"mistrust music" related on here. So, that means anything I want to talk about, things I come across and want to share, e-learning stuff, will appear on here. Henceforth this blog will be known as "What I have learned today". I'm not closing down my other blogs just yet. Just starting from now, all my "stuff" will go on here, except music-making "stuff". I'm just going to keep the mistrust music blog for things I'm doing with my remixes and other bits of what I'm upto music-wise. So, if you've come here looking for a "mistrust remix" or info about "Half Past One", hop on over to mistrustmusic.co.uk/blog If not, say hello! By the way, I'm on Twitter and Facebook

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Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:51:27 -0800 Why Facebook and kids http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/why-facebook-and-kids http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/why-facebook-and-kids Well, I'm certainly getting a lot of hits on here about kids using Facebook. Why's that then? Dunno, really. Maybe a lot of kids go on it, and a lot of parents either want to monitor what they're doing on it or don't want them on it all. I like all this social networking thing. Don't get me wrong. Think it's great. Very useful, very now. Can't see the world going back to a Facebook-less era. However, why are parents still letting their kids as young as six or seven going on Facebook? Why? What reason? Have they forgotten how to talk? Fine - if your relatives are halfway round the world. What about Skype. What about setting up your own family social network on blog thing. Anyway. The debate still goes on and it rankles with me that I still see all my kids' friends on there. So what are the schools doing about it? Not a lot at the moment, but maybe it's finally getting through to the schools that something should be done about it. Take this for example.  Internet Safety for children.  Maybe things will start changing. So, why am I on Facebook if I'm not happy about young  kids being on it? Well, I've been in touch with a few people from school, and I'm using it to plug my music. That's it. That's all. If you're on Facebook and want to become a fan of my music, click here and "Become a Fan". I'm also on Twitter. The gratuitous plug. I did a remix for dub band International Observer a while ago. The track is called "Popcorn Slavery (mistrust remix)" and is out on the band's EP on Monday 22nd February. You can hear previews of it on my Soundcloud and Myspace pages, and it's available to download from Monday on all major music sites, and the band's own Bandcamp page. Spread the word. Here's the soundcloud player for it.... [soundcloud url=http://soundcloud.com/mistrust/international-observer-popcorn-slavery-mistrust-remix]

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Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:09:12 -0700 Young kids and Facebook #2 - Parents strike back http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook-2-parents-strike-back http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/young-kids-and-facebook-2-parents-strike-back More on from my recent post about Young kids and Facebook, where I read on my local school's newsletter that some of the 7-11 year olds were going on Facebook. I decided to take matters into my own hands and send an email to the headteacher, asking if they knew there was information readily available on the internet about the pros and cons of children using Facebooks and other social networking sites. I also suggested that they look at sites like Thinkyouknow and maybe list them in one of the newsletters. To my surprise, I got an email back the next day, thanking me for pointing out what I did, and then got a mention in the next newsletter, in a paragraph telling parents about the Thinkyouknow website. So, a big tick for Parent Power! It's probably the first time I've written to the school about anything - probably because it bothers me so much. We'll probably never know if any of the parents take notice of it, but it's a start. However, I'm now waiting for the backlash from parents saying "how dare you tell me how to bring up my child!" It actually makes you wonder why the Local Education Authority haven't issued guidelines to school about things like using Facebook etc. Surely they're the people who have more influence. I think I'm going to have to suggest going in and talking to the staff and kids about all this.... As you may know if you're following my ramblings regularly, I am a Twitterer as well as a Wordpress blogger. As such, I'm interested to read that Wordpress have finally got round to adding a Twitter widget to the list available to those of us with Wordpress.com accounts. I won't go into details about what the widget will do as there's more information about in Wordpress.com's blog post here - "Bring Twitter to Your Blog". However, I'm still not convinced about having all my eggs in one basket - in other words, will people prefer to follow my tweets in Twitter, and my blogs in Wordpress? And finally - for those people who don't know me, or are just interested in the ramblings about Facebook etc., you might like to know that I also make music in my spare time. In fact, I've been quite busy recently with the music-making. I''ve been making my own tunes for a few years, but a chance meeting with a DJ from the Big Chill organisation put me in touch with New Zealand band Pitch Black. I asked if I could do a remix for them, just because 1. I like their music, and 2. for a bit of experience of doing a remix. I sent it in, and they liked it so much they released it on their EP of the title track of their last album, and it's on their new remix CD out in May. Because of that, I was asked to do a remix for Big Chill band Animat for their next single - that's out early May too. Not bad eh? I'm on the lookout for some more remixes to do, but so far, so good! If you'd like to hear the remixes, please go to www.myspace.com/mistrust The tracks on Myspace are: Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals (mistrust - ambiotik remix) Animat - Deep Space Lament (mistrust remix)

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Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:23:58 -0800 Ping.fm http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/pingfm http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/pingfm I've discovered Ping.fm, which if it works, will allow me to post messages and updates straight to my blogs etc from one service. Here's hoping! ...well it posted ok, but the only problem with services like this is that you have to edit the blog post to add other categories!

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Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:57:37 -0800 Moodle mania http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/moodle-mania http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/moodle-mania I've got my e-Learning head on today whilst writing this blog. Anyway - the title of this post - "Moodle Mania": Should really be "E-Learning Mania", as all I can do at the moment is think about the resources and ideas that are cropping up in the "Moodle and E-Learning" Roadshows I'm putting on at College. Today is the 5th day of the roadshows sessions when I've visited one of our campuses, with the intention of getting teaching staff to come and talk about their Moodle and e-learning related issues. Plus, spread the word and get people moodling. So far these sessions have been a success, largely because I've dealt more college staff than I thought I would, mainly face-to-face, some of whom I haven't had contact with before, and who want to start using Moodle. The thing I'm pleased with is that I've had a few people logging into the chatroom I set up for these roadshows, for staff who can't get to the sessions in person. I'm also looking at the idea of using Skype or something similar the next time I do these roadshows. Some of the things I have had requests for, and being able to help with are: getting art students' work online so they can do some evalution - embedding a Flickr slideshow into Moodle; using forums for class discussions; setting up a cross-site music resource area; and getting across the pedagological benefits of using moodle.

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Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:26:08 -0800 Jorum Forum E-Learning workshop http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/jorum-forum-e-learning-workshop http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/jorum-forum-e-learning-workshop In my role as E-Learning Developer at The Manchester College, I visited the "Jorum Forum" the other day. The Jorum Forum was an event to showcase the latest developments of the body known as Jorum. If you don't know them, they're there to develop and promote an online repository of learning objects and materials that can be shared by all HE (and some FE) institutions in the UK. So far, it's been all about contributing and freely distributing materials that institutions have developed themselves, eg a video, or an interactive quiz, stuff like that. Now they're looking at using Creative Commons licences for sharing materials, which means that you have some control over what users can do with them. Up till now, all the objects have been available as being reusable. Jorum has been getting a bit of a bad press recently at our place, along with the NLN materials, so it was good to hear how other colleges in universities were using and promoting them. It's something I haven't really pushed as much as I should here, but all that should change soon as a result of the event the other day. One of the main things I could show our staff is that you can knock up a really quick Powerpoint slideshow using some of the videos on Jorum. Steve Smith, who seems to get everywhere these days (!!!) did one in about 10 minutes - ideal for when you're in a hurry! I think people like Steve really enthuse teachers and e-learning practitioners, and bridge the gap between the techie-folk and non-techie ones. Something I'd really like to be able to do myself...I probably do that a little bit, but I need the right tools and oomph (I'm quite shy and retiring really....). Anyway, I'm doing a presentation about Moodle on Monday, to some of our staff, so maybe it's time to get some oomph going!!!!"

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Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:10:52 -0700 My stepson has PDD-NOS http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/my-stepson-has-pdd-nos http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/my-stepson-has-pdd-nos I realised that I haven't posted anything on here, so that means no readers. Probably. Or too many blogs to maintain: music, e-learning, and personal (this one). Maybe I should drop this one, as the music blog is important and so is the e-learning one. Who cares about my personal life and what goes on at home? Paul, my stepson of nearly five years, is 14 y.o. He has PDD-NOS, which means he's sort of on the Autistic Spectrum. He's been having major anxiety attacks about school. He hasn't been in school for almost four weeks, until yesterday. The first two weeks were the Easter holidays, but he was too anxious to go in. We've had his psychologist involved, plus the local Special Needs Advisory service, trying to get him to go back. Finally, he's been to the psychology day unit for a visit, and into school for one P.E. lesson. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.... Paul's has a blog here where he's talking about what's happening to him.....

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Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:50:22 -0700 Timothy Blackburn http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/timothy-blackburn http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/timothy-blackburn I'm Tim(othy) Blackburn. This is my third blog. My second one on wordpress. This isn't my music blog.  That one is here at mistrust.wordpress.com This blog is more of a personal site where I can post non-musical ramblings instead of cluttering up my music pages with stuff that the people looking for my music don't want to read.

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