iGoogle has proven to be a handy tool this year. I mainly use it to keep tabs on the blogs that I read via its Google Reader widget.

I have some news services piped in and I embedded a Wikipedia widget as well. I have always had an interest in astronomy so the Astronomy Picture of the Day and the Moon phases get a look in as well. Google maps are there too.

I added the Christmas theme to iGoogle last week and I do feel it is quite nice. Australia does not often have a white Christmas but it has been known to happen when a blast of cold air from Antarctica reaches the southern states such as Tasmania and Victoria.

Would be nice to embed a similar banner or theme that dynamically alters during the course of the day within a blog or web site . Would not alter the functionality of the blog but would certainly add a touch of lighthearted fun to the process.

Do you have a favourite iGoogle theme? Do you think that they reveal something about our personality?

Read a nice post by Graham Wegner just then. Graham was blogging about a productive mathematics lesson created by Dan Meyer. I shared the post with my mathematical colleagues. I commented on Graham’s blog as I was amused by Graham’s reference to the age difference between he and Dan. I am intrigued by this and I now wonder what is the average age of teachers that blog?

It seems that there is a number of baby boomers present when one considers a stream of edubloggers in a Twitter line-up. What is a baby boomer? A Google search uncovered the suitably titled Aging Hipsters web site. It defined baby boomers as those individuals born during the time period that stretched from 1946 to 1964. Wikipedia qualifies that further with a prequisite that a baby boomer was born in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada or Australia.

I was born in 1958. I was one of seven children. Six of us are teachers. My sister is a librarian. All of us are baby boomers by definition. Am I also an aging hipster?

So, what is the average age of an educator that blogs? I know I am not a digital immigrant and I am not a digital native. Perhaps I am an aging digital hipster?

Sean Aiken did not know what he wanted to do after he graduated. He set up this web site, One Week Job, to invite employers to give him a job for one week. Sean travels to the job, does the work, conducts research and blogs the experience with a very entertaining and insightful video. His wages are donated to charity. This is inspiring. Share it with your students. I have emailed the link to all our seniors.

Blogged with Flock

Attended the launch of Leopard, the latest version of Apple’s OS. It was held at Mac1, Wollongong, this evening. I had pre-ordered a copy. Receieved a free T-shirt as well. All of the usual suspects were there.

David, Ken and David.

Bernadette, myself and Julie

Ken and myself

Ken and I posing for the camera… pathetic.

The T-shirt and the packaging.

Well, I am on the bandwagon now. Promoting videos left, right and centre. TedTalks presentations are always good. Lifehack.org has gone to the trouble of selecting ten videos that could change how you view the world.