A comment about strategic design.

My preference, which is supported by Computer Supported Collaborative Learning theory of instructional design, is that the quality of the material take on a more prominent role than the quantity of material. Our tendency is to find out so much interesting information that we take our students, viewers, and readers down the same path where we learned, but that has become less necessary with the emergence of vast amounts of accessible digital information right at our fingertips. A conversation yesterday with my son reminded me of how digital natives learn, much differently than digital immigrants.

We were having the ubiquitous discussion about his schoolwork. He was griping about the workload and such, when the conversation led to what he enjoys learning. He brought up his love of anthropology and anything to do with ancient history. It wasn't a class he took or normal school project, prompting Matthew's interest in middle age Scottish culture or to ask to visit Hadrian's Wall on our summer vacation. The impetus for this academic passion was a game called Civilization.

While playing this online, turn-based game, Matt began searching for information in other areas. When he caught the Celtic bug, he read feverishly. Today, a couple of years removed from his Civilization days, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the early Scots and many cultures that interacted with them.

The point of this story? Matthew was inspired to learn about something and learn it he did. No educator or classroom were directly involved. Yes, a foundation was established through lifelong family, community, and educational support systems. But the young man chose the topic, made the effort, and learned through his own devices and access to the digital world. It took those other systems to get him to this level, but it was time for him to move on. The student becomes the teacher, don't they call that independent learning?

Bombarding him with homework didn't work, it works with some kids, but not this one. Inspiration was the key. Once he was motivated, he did all the work and thought he was only playing. Guess he was right. Learning is a game when its fun.

Internet Archive in the News

We have received some more positive publicity from Monsieur Anderson and the folks at Wired.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/multimedia/2008/03/gallery_internet_archive

Irish Lent

An Irishman moves into a tiny hamlet in County Kerry , walks into the pub and promptly orders three beers. The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man three beers, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone.


An hour later, the man has finished the three beers and orders three more. This happens yet again. The next evening the man again orders and drinks three beers at a time, several times. Soon the entire town is whispering about the Man Who Orders Three Beers.

Finally, a week later, the bartender broaches the subject on behalf of the town. "I don't mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order three beers?"


"Tis odd, isn't it?" the man replies ... "You see, I have two brothers, and one went to America , and the other to Australia . We promised each other that we would always order an extra two beers whenever we drank as a way of keeping up the family bond."


The bartender and the whole town were pleased with this answer, and soon the Man Who Orders Three Beers became a local celebrity and source of pride to the hamlet, even to the extent that out-of-towners would come to watch him drink.

Then, one day, the man comes in and orders only two beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening. He orders only two beers. The word flies around town. Prayers are offered for the soul of one of the brothers.


The next day, the bartender says to the man, "Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know-the two beers and all...."


The man ponders t his for a moment, then replies, "You'll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, meself, have decided to give up drinking for Lent."

Maszlow’s hierarchy of needs

Save mankind;
watch this video.


http://www.archive.org/download/Male_Restroom_Etiquette/MRE_640_256kb.mp4

back in the saddle

Welcome back! Coursework, moving to a new house, and beginning my work with Internet Archive (IA) are the suspects of the foul play angle concerning the missing blogger report file on me. Given the lack of audience, it will be sometime before they bother with a follow-up.

I was thrilled to hear about the public domain reprints project. It was doubly exciting to see IA as one of two primary resources for public access to open source books. Google Books is the other source, not sure if that should be considered as good company, but it can't be argued that we are grouped in with successful company.

See you in a couple of days.

The unconference

this one is interesting; don't you think?


THAT Camp!
May 31 - June 1, 2008
The Center for History and New Media
George Mason University

The Humanities And Technology Camp is a BarCamp-style, user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities. THATCamp is organized and hosted by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants (generally day-by-day during the course of the event) rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event. The term is primarily used in the geek community. Open Space Technology, however, is an unconference process that has been around since 1985 and is now in widespread use. Open Space Technology is an energizing and emergent way to organize an agenda for a conference. Those coming to the event can post on a wiki ahead of time topics they want to present about or hope others will present about. The wiki can also be used as an attendee list.

There are parallels with science-fiction fandom, in which a low-key convention with less structure is called a Relaxacon.

By any other name the recent rise of unstructured learning and occupational socializing is a sign of the times. There appears to be rise in Educational Techno-Anarchism in America. My instinct tells me it's the equal and opposite reaction to No Child Left Behind. I once heard it referred to as No Bureaucrat Left Behind; made me chuckle and want to cry at the same time. Paulo Freire has been trying to tells us for decades to release our grip on the teacher-student dichotomy and begin to understand the how we learn in all environments. It's tough being ahead of your time; the results of your work become apparent to the following generations rather than your own.



that's my sense

scooby snacks

The dangers inherit in sharing a domicile with a hippy are numerous.
Some daze they are a little scary.

Tuesday evening I returned to the house, where my landlord/roommate's brother (Nathan) is staying with us for a couple of weeks until he returns to Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

There was a frantic aspect about him.

When I walked in the door,

Nathan, "Something is wrong with Sweetie."
(Sweetie's the 10lb dog in the house.)
"What do you mean?"
"She's falling down and acting strange."

I checked her out and she had little, if any, muscle control and kept falling over, whenever she tried to move. My roommate was out of touch, so we took her to the emergency room. After my roommate, Fern, arrived, I went home.

Next day, she informs me that Sweetie got into a box of chocolate truffles. Oh yeah, they happen to be medicinal truffles too.

Medicinal - A term coined in California to indicate the presence of large quantities of THC in your food.

Nothing like getting your dog baked!

Ahh, the literary opportunities provided by living in Fairfax, California.

Mayberry on Acid

Peace Out

we need to talk

She said so, during a phone call on Monday.

The night suckled my soul;
by morning the feeding had ceased.


Is it age truncating this sorrow
or
is it experience?

I know. No need to say so.
These digital monologues are the quintessential rhetorical question.
At least my writers aren't on strike.

Reluctance

OUT through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

-Frost

Spermbots! - I swear; there's no way I could make this shit up

Scientists look to sperm to power nanobots

MSNBC, Jan. 2, 2007

A tiny assembly line using ATP, which powers the whip-like tail of sperm, could be harnessed to propel future nanobots or other tiny medical devices inside the human body, Cornell University scientists report.


For their research, the scientists used mouse sperm proteins as templates so the proteins stuck to the surface of a tiny gold chip covered with nickel ions.



If circumstances go awry, this could get messy. It's all fun and games until someone's eye gets...well, you know.

A Society of Authorship: Blissfully Leaping he Divide

Are we taking back control? Did we ever have it to begin with? The latter is a question for another day; let’s stick with the first for now. A bipartisan group of former –well, mostly former- politicians are producing ripples across the surface ofstatus quo’s idyllic setting.

Their immodest goal: To end divisive partisan polarization, create bipartisanship and bring the country together after the 2008 election.

Leading the charge are David Boren, Oklahoma University president and a former U.S. senator, along with former Democratic Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia, Charles Robb of Virginia and Gary Hart of Colorado, also a former presidential candidate.

Republican sponsors include former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Sens. Bill Brock of Tennessee and John Danforth of Missouri, and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

And yes, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be there, but he's not running for president.


Other formers expected to participate include Bill Cohen, former secretary of defense, and former U.S. Sens. Alan Dixon of Illinois and Bob Graham of Florida. Also, Jim Leach, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa, and Edward Perkins, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
(kathleen parker, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/4/2008)

Political activism has taken a similar form in Tallahassee, Fl. The Village Square , where a local group is attempting to soften the deafening roar emanating from the of the talking heads who dominate the airwaves, is offering the shocking alternative of respectful discourse.



Meanwhile back in wet NorCal, the City, Earthlink, and Google were unable to establish a wi-fi network to serve the citizenry. Enter a small company with an audacious vision. Meraki is stepping into the void to test its low-cost, community-powered system in this little techcentric village we call home. Since March, Free the Net has been employing a mesh system supported by solar-powered, wireless repeaters installed on rooftops in select neighborhoods throughout the city.

As of this article, up to 15,000 antennae are planned for encompassing the remainder of the city. The resulting non-linear web has great potential. Meraki’s mesh draws a comparison to Google’s use of multiple digital platforms to create expanding, self-modifying, clouds of infobots.

These three examples, covering the national political culture, local discourse, and digital access, serve as prime examples of the ongoing collaborative revolution and its ability to fundamentally change how and for whom our societies function. The web is rapidly transforming in an attempt to attain a semblance of human parallel cognitive structure; both information retrieval clouds and wireless mesh technologies are simple, early adaptations of an evolving cognitive digital matrix.

Each peace(sic) of information accessed empowers us all. Every query for controlled information undermines an oblivious, but deeply entrenched power structure. On the headstone we shall write

And while the they remained blissfully unaware...

their network was compromised.


Can I get an Amen from my brothers and sisters?

Truth Out

Benazir Bhutto - another casualty in ghandi's nightmare

In 1947 the abstractly named country, Dominion of Pakistan, was formed. The name was changed to the more appropriate monikerthe Islamic State of Pakistan by the Muslim League political organization. The league was established as a response to a British administration decision in the largest Indian state, the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), that acceded to Hindu demands and made Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, the official language. This aggravated Muslim fears that the Hindu majority would seek to suppress Muslim culture and religion in an independent India. A British official, Sir Percival Griffiths, wrote of "the Muslim belief that their interest must be regarded as completely separate from those of the Hindus, and that no fusion of the two communities was possible."

On October 16, 1951, the initial Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, had been scheduled to make an important announcement in a public meeting of the Muslim City League at Municipal Park, Rawalpindi. Liaquat was shot twice in the chest during that meeting by a man sitting in the audience only fifteen yards away.

On December 27, 2007 former Prime Minister and current leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party was assassinated in Municipal Park, Rawalpindi. In the interim her father, keeping with family and political tradition, managed to get himself hanged in Rawalpindi in 1979.

While Pakistan has employed the technique of political assassination many times in the years between there has been a significant rise since 1987. Coincidentally, 1986 marked my final visit to Karachi. As you can see by the list below, it was a good time to depart the country.


* Meena Keshwar Kamal, (1987), Afghan founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

* Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq,(1988), 10-year President of Pakistan and 12-year Chief of Army Staff in a sabotage-induced aircraft crash.

* Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, (1989), militant Islamist, near Peshawar

* Fazle Haq, (1991), former governor of the Northwest Frontier province, Pakistan, from 1978 to 1985

* Iqbal Masih, (1995), 13-year-old anti-child labor activist, in Rakh Baoli

* Siddiq Khan Kanju, (2001), former foreign minister of Pakistan from 1991 to 1993

* Benazir Bhutto, (2007), former Prime Minister of Pakistan, by unknown assassins

The British Empire's legacy? Destruction, upheaval, and war.

merry xmas ya'll

A Florida State Trooper pulls over a pickup on I-75. The trooper asks, "Got any I. D.?"
The driver replies, "Bout whut?"

Thinkgs to do when you're dead

Rituals - Click on this image. → ← yes, that one.

And we wonder why people believe strange things? Cause and effect might represent reality, but friggin' reality left the building awhile ago; right about the same time ideology pranced on the stage.

When you find yourself plopped down in a new cultural pot, try to keep this recipe for survival "It does not require a broad education to function as a social and
economic animal... as long as you know when to rub blue mud in your
bellybutton. But a mistake in local customs can get you lynched."

Point in case. In Saudi Arabia, the punishment for adultery is death. The definition of adultery is being alone in a room with unrelated member(s) of the opposite sex. Nice trick, eh?

Speaking for the Trees

Howz it!?

Took a hiatus to deal wif dem blues, some well timed advice helped me mount back on the literary horse; here I are. In the vernacular of Monsieur Franti, I know I'm not alone.

Wandering the rock, playing the role of modern day nomad, provides constant opportunity for some lovely, lovely introspection. Next thing you know, you're unpacking baggage and a wee little bit of memory slips through the elaborately constructed defenses. The flavor of your response has little bearing on the intruder's fate, though it might affect dinner.

You may sing out, Leave me Alone! Or, perhaps tender the grand fellow a seat at the sacred table. Be most assured; tonight's menu will delectable servings of pain and suffering. Save room for dessert? We're renowned for our chocolate betrayal. Mmmm, scrumptious. Don't you think?

Merry Christmas


The Lorax

A week of contemplation

Back from a seven day hiatus spent ruminating on the vagaries of employment and life its ownself.

The hierarchal management at the Center is well entrenched. In an interesting twist, however, the philosophy of the parent organization is much more enlightened. This dichotomy creates an infinitely entertaining existential comedy, with Sisyphus simultaneously raising her incline all the while plastering layer upon layer to her burdensome load. And her third eye is blinded to the absurdity of situation.

The subplot to this little drama is the rise of a new choice. A possible vantage point to review life's options and move ahead once more. An position has arisen in that seductive bay side city. More to be discovered in the coming week(s).

Ah, the joys of vagary!

The corporate vampyre

The director made a comment, during his team building workshop (yeah, I know), that "we are all employees."

He attempts, with a mere modicum of understanding, to transform the center into an inspiring space. Aren't we inspired by the reinforcement of the current hierarchical regime!?

...satiated in his lust for life's force; he sinks into the soft creative flesh with his whispered words, "We must all respect the rules."

...and in everlasting agony, their carcasses withered.



thank god it was Friday

happy conception day!

Tell me,

when do we get to be free?

After this task or the next?

Respect yourself. Respect, respect, respect.

Gimme a break; just be honest tonight.

Where have you gone Frank?

I can smell you, but you don't talk anymore.