Sometimes it's all about showing up...for others, for ourselves. I am about to show up in my own life for some difficult work, that "heartbreakthrough," I think, that I mentioned here. I am acknowledging and "containerizing" my sadness, rather than pushing it down (as has been my habit), in order to feel and deal with it at times when I can. So Iris's "No Time To Cry" will become "time to cry later" for me. I'm certain that I'll do this work imperfectly (as we all do everything, after all), but it does feel good to finally understand on a gut level that it's what I need.

That may be another post entirely--the lifelong attempt I've made to understand everything intellectually, even those things we can't figure out that way, like emotion. The only way out is through. Grief cannot be rationalized away. So I will show up when I can and let it be.

What do you think about feeling? Feel about thinking? How do you show up for life?

Some homeschooling parents continue to do educational things through the summer. Others follow the public school schedule.

The shift in education easily moves to more hands-on learning such as exploring nature trails, star gazing at night, camping trips, day trips to the zoo, or science experiment in the kitchen. Learning doesn't need to be 'work', but encompassing games and activities instead of the book work you would use during the school year.

I see the sales for school supplies hawking wares and preparing the youngsters for school. For myself, its a relieve knowing I won't have a list to fill that the school demands. For the past two years I had to rush out to find the specifics drawn out by the teacher, which included No. 2 pencils (yellow not any other color), and a black and white composition book (because the other colors weren't allowed).

I won't see the rules laid out where I'm told my son isn't allowed soda or sweets in his lunch (which I tend to leave out anyway but I have the RIGHT to give him a treat now and then if I want to). No more worrying about being late 5 minutes, or sitting in the rain for the bus to show up. No more stress of getting homework done the night before, or frustrations with the amount of homework when clearly its obvious my son understands the answer.

I'm enjoying just basking in the carefree homeschooling world of flexible schedules, a happy child who prefers to be taught at home, and the perks of the situation.

An interesting tradition some homeschoolers do is a "Not Back To School" party or picnic is held. Kids gather to enjoy an outing to play in celebration of not having to go back to school- because they're already there.

Well, quite a bit, actually. Videogames are often viewed as an enemy of learning – just ask my mom. But brace yourself for this bit of news, Mom, because contrary to everything you may have told me as a child, videogames can actually be good.

Think about it. Mastering a videogame requires a time commitment for learning how the game works, but people keep coming back to play more. A few years ago I attended a webinar by the Ohio Learning Network that discussed the children’s game Pokémon. The object of the game is to collect miniature monsters and put them into battle against other miniature monsters. There are hundreds of these monsters (a current count was 493) with each monster possessing different abilities that react differently to the other monsters. Sound familiar? That’s because the game has the same complexity as a college chemistry course, with each monster and its group representing an element and its corresponding place on the Periodic Table. Yet despite this complex system, young children can remember and master the game. So why were children clamoring for more Pokémon games while I was skipping Chem 101?

In 2007, two librarians, Chad Boeninger and Christopher Guder, presented a session at the Ohio Digital Commons for Education called, “What’s Your Game Plan? What Librarians Have to Learn from Video Games.” I learned a few things there that help me to answer the question I posed above.

1. Videogames are engaging. The more the player accomplishes, the better the player becomes. The player is then allowed to accomplish or explore even more.
2. Tutorials are generally presented as needed. The player isn’t inundated with all the information required to play the game at one time. When the player approaches a situation that can’t be solved with the current skill set or knowledge, the tutorial begins. Then, while the information is still fresh, the player immediately gets the opportunity to practice and apply the skill or knowledge.
3. Skills and knowledge are compounded and reused. After completing a task, the needed skill is not forgotten – it remains pertinent to the player’s future success. Sometimes more than one skill or piece of knowledge is required, forcing the user to apply an arsenal of learned skills and knowledge to forge new solutions.
4. Gratification is instant. When a problem is successfully solved, the player knows it immediately and is further rewarded by a prize or advancement in the game.

So – can these principles be applied outside of the video game context? Of course. In fact, they should! Strip away any reference to gaming, and you’re left with some solid principles for learning:

• Grab attention and engage the learner.
• Present information as needed.
• Allow the learner to practice that information immediately, preferably in a safe environment.
• Ask the learner to apply that concept to solve problems to gain mastery.

Don’t forget to reward and encourage the learner along the way. How you implement these principles is up to you, but the possibilities are virtually endless. Stay tuned for my next post – I’ll share some examples where these principles have (or haven’t) been demonstrated in learning environments.

Resources:
http://www.teachuohio.org/resources_06/TeachU_1-19-06.ppt
The webinar is no longer up; the PowerPoint used when the webinar with the core concepts can be found on the link above.
http://www.oln.org/conferences/ODCE2007/pdf/ODCE2007Program.pdf
Unfortunately, the materials for the “What’s Your Game Plan?” session are no longer on the site, but this .pdf contains the session abstract under the “What’s Your Game Plan?” heading on page 5.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y-fwZnPvzus&feature=related
This is the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Watch how the game captures the player’s attention, and then how the tutorial interface occurs in certain spots where current skills can’t solve a problem. (The tutorials begin around 2:20.)

]]> http://groovytemple.wordpress.com/?p=16 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:51:24 +0000 americandreamtime http://groovytemple.wordpress.com/?p=16 Oh wow, I've been away longer than planned. First of all I want to thank the kind comments I've received on my posts. I never thought anyone would ever read them let alone have nice things to say about them! It means alot and I'm thrilled to have your comments on my blog. However I haven't yet figured out how to comment back so I'm adding it here. The learning curve is incredibly huge and I'm learning as I go. Thanks for being patient with me.

I was blind-sided by the death of my baby brother, who committed suicide after Father's Day weekend. While I was happily writing my post about overcoming my depression, he was suffering more than I can know. Be at peace, my brother. I love you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you. That's all I'll say about that here.

I find that I have little time for anything because all that I do with my extra time is read, read, read! Of course, much time is spent with family on summer activities (I am fulfilling the promise to my kids to spend more quality time in nature, camping, etc.) and school ( I take classes online, and the summer session, since it is compacted into two months, is brutal), but I've embarked on an incredible inner journey that is all-encompassing. Outside of massive lifestyle changes, I am devouring information and books about consciousness, quantum mechanics, earth issues and space-time/time/space.

I especially love the positive messages about the year 2012 at David Wilcock's site, DivineCosmos.com (I don't know why the link button is disabled,sorry). His down to earth style gives me a good feeling about him (I'm usually skeptical about things I read on the internet). He backs up his way out ideas with good solid science, and he gives references. And he really does try to downplay the Edgar Cayce reincarnation stuff, for the most part, because it takes energy away from his message, which is, simply put, that our species has begun to go through an evolutionary transformation, ie: that we are about to experience an evolutionary 'jump'. When this happens, we will wake up to who we really are, and we will realize that we are NOT seperate, beings, that we are in fact all the same. Yes, black, white, native, gay, straight, catholic, muslim, republican, democrat, etc, etc...... anyhow it's worth checking out. I'm not tremendously impressed with the site design (sorry, David), there are some dead links and it took me a little while to find the material. I recommend going to the 'start here' tab, and just going down the menu from there.

If you are wondering about the major lifestyle changes I mentioned, for starters I'm changing the way my family and I eat. This is not an easy task. I am meeting some resistance, and I have much to teach my family (and alot to learn my own self!). It will be a tough switch, we really ate alot of bad food! I've planted a small garden and I will expand it dramatically next spring. Meanwhile I'm learning all that I can about gardening, consuming mass quantities of myspace bulletin posts and youtube videos like this one.

Starting your own garden is the best way for each of us (and for the planet) to know exactly what we are eating. I want to take this farther in the next few years by also adding some livestock. Chickens, a goat, a cow, and bees, too. Yeah, it looks like I'm turning hippy!

Also, in honor of my brother whom I did not stay in close enough contact, I have vowed to stay in touch with the important people in my life. This is difficult for me because I have reclusive tendencies, I'm rather anti-social. It's so easy to let our families and friends drift away as we become absorbed in our spouses and our children's lives, and then when we lose someone we think of all the times we should have been in touch, the things we should have said. I want to take the shouldas, wouldas, and couldas out of my life and just stay close to those who are close to me, from this day forward.

Making conscious changes in our lives requires taking a stand, and sticking with it. It will change everything in your life, but in a good way. I haven't felt this alive in many years, and I'm not about to let it slip away this time!

So I probably won't be around too much for the next couple of weeks with all the summer fun, but after finals are done I'm going to start posting more regularly with fresh ideas about love, about food, about us, as a species. Who knows where it will all go, but I'm so looking forward to the journey!

Of course for some kids I know there is no other option- they may be ill, they may have special needs, they may be in a location where regular school isn't an option.

''Q: What is homeschooling?
A: Homeschooling is the most flexible and diverse educational option available today. The variety of homeschooling styles reflects the diversity of the people who choose this method. Some families organize their homeschool the same as a traditional school, with the children studying the same subjects the same way as public school students. Some families use the opposite approach and "un-school" their children-a far less structured approach where the children’s schedule is determined by their interests and readiness. Most homeschoolers, however, use an eclectic approach that is partly structured and partly interest-based. This method allows parents to pick and choose the classes and materials that meet their children’s needs. These may be college or co-op classes, pool teaching, charter schools, independent study programs, apprenticeships, volunteering, and a host of options. Homeschooling is as unique as you are.''

http://www.homeschool.com/

So what I have decided to do for my final reflection is split it up into four sections according to the following themes we discussed/went through in class:

1.  Technology as a change agent—How do we define ICT? How does it mediate society?

2.  ICT as curriculum—How do we define the new literacy? What do we want and/or need to learn?

3.  Technology as a teaching and learning tool—What can ICT enable? What are we losing?

4.  Planning for technology and change—What must we consider?

One of the features of humankind that has long been thought to be unique to us is the theory of mind.  This is our ability to deduce what another might be thinking, a critical base for such behaviors as for empathy, socialization, even battle and strategy.  It is so prevalent and so innate that we often do it without realizing it, anthropomorphizing machines, televisions, the computer, animals, even the clouds and the waves.  Imagine a world where no one did this.  Imagine for a minute not even realizing that the people you interact with daily have their own minds inner workings and dealings.  This is the world of Asperger Syndrome. 

   Asperger syndrome is the very high functioning end of the Austistic spectrum.  By definition their intelligence is normal, usually even well above normal, but their capacity for reading nonverbal cues, socializing, and empathizing is severely impaired.  We don't understand the basis for this entirely and certain different theories abound, but it appears Asperger individuals lack the firing of what is known as the mirror neuron.  This is when a part of the brain usually responsible for movement or planning  movement activates just by watching the same movements.   We recognized what another is doing and actually activate our brains as though we were doing the same thing ourselves.

    Patients with Asperger's are terrible at reading faces, recognizing nonverbal cues, or recognizing figurative language.  Patient's will say that when in a conversation, they see everyone else as Robots.  In addition, they tend to have very single minded ability to focus and will delve deeply into figuring out a phenomenon that interests them.  They can talk at length to anyone about their interests, even while boring the audience completely to tears.  They aren't great at human interaction and therefore much prefer reading on a subject to being taught directly.

   They seem to have difficulty ignoring sensation of any type.  They can be very disturbed by ampient noise or by trying to talk with more than one person at the same time, shirt tags will drive them crazy, outside noises are a problem and they can be very inflexible and develop stereotyped behaviors they use when overwhelmed by their environment.  They are extremely sensitive to texture and are picky eaters.  The stress of overstimulation causes them to withdraw into what they can carefully control and may lie behind their repetitive, self calming rituals.  Interacting with us unpredictable standard human beings can actually be stressful because of our seeming randomness.

     This makes Asperger's syndrome and Social anxiety disorder look very much alike, even though internally and mechanically they are worlds apart.  As a social phobic, I care too much about what everyone else thinks, to the point it can be paralyzing.  Nevertheless, I crave human connection and company.  It's a curse.  There are many days Asperger's would seem to me to be so much better.

  They are typically first class researchers and likely overrepresented in the scientific field.  Emotions do not typically interrupt their inquiry.  They often describe themselves as strictly logical, and appealing to logic is critical in teaching them social skills.  They have to understand why it is important to interact and have to be given detailed instructions regarding nonverbal cues, manners etc. that they learn by repetition in order to function with other people.

    In a very real sense patient's with autism are irremovably at the center of their own universe.  They lack capacity to be anything other than self centered.  Yet they can undoubtedly can make very important contributions to society.  They are true explorers of knowledge and when something strikes their interest they have an unbroken focus in learning all about it.  This is uniquely human.  It separates us from the animals, which also have sociality, nonverbal communication, and hierarchical societal interaction, after all. 

     At the same time they challenge my entire conception of what it is that makes us human.  A complete lack of empathy, if found in all of us would quickly cause society to disintegrate.  It is central my job as a competent (patient seeing) physician.  I do wonder about many of my neurosurgeon and pathologist colleagues however.  ;)   So many of my central spiritual ideals, compassion, mercy, understanding, are foreign and possibly beyond the grasp of these individuals.

    Saying this, I can't believe that Asperger patients are psychopaths.  They are quite peaceful, pragmatic, and conscientious.  They are the picked on, not the bullies.  I am not entirely sure why this is, but my experience tells me it is true.  They tend to feel very strongly that they are fine the way they are, and disability advocate that I am, I agree.  Like any of us, they have strengths and weakness, with focus, curiousity, and concentration being incredible and empathy and human understanding being much weaker.  I think the bottom line is that they can learn, and learn well, and that covers all manner of weaknesses by leading to growth and development.

Mr. Demonic doesn't want to play with me. He thinks I practice scales too much. He plays the piano, but I have to beg him to accompany me. Ms. MiniD played the flute, but now that she is 18, she has fulfilled her obligation to music lessons and playing music, and she has retired. Mr. Demonic Junior, starting his fourth year studying piano at a prestigious West Coast Conservatory, says I still can't count worth a darn.

This leaves me with my teacher. She's nice enough, and competent enough (her husband was 1st violinist at our local symphony before he retired about 30 years ago), but I never see any of her other students. We also don't have any opportunities to play in front of others, which I thought was helpful for my own children.

I've now progressed to 6th and 7th position, which means I am way, way, way high up on the neck of my violin. If I thought the instrument was tough before, now it's practically devilish. It's taken me two months to do four pages of exercises. Part of my problem is that my elderly brain is not able to comprehend a lot of this all at once. I know what's right, but making my fingers do it is nearly impossible without hours of practice. The other thing is that I only have an hour or so a day to practice. I wish I could do more. (When I go on vacation, I bring my violin and find I can practice for hours at a time.) Being old, I'm also not as fearless as the little four year olds I know who can play circles around me.

My teacher speaks quickly. I am great at puzzling looks, so she takes the hint immediately. I know what she is saying, especially when it comes to relating my fingers to each other, but it seems to take me forever to put the theory into practice.

You can teach an old dog new tricks, but you have to be prepared to outlive him.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

I can become optimistic or positive in my way of thinking every now and then.  Surely, I have negative feelings - I often troubled by so many things. But, I overcome these due to the way I see things - I move forward regardless of the "what is" and the "what ifs".

These are my perception, I use the "what ifs" wisely in such a way that I do not linger on things that cannot be changed, and accepting that it passed and just accept "what is", what now, the present situation, and what should be done.

To become aware of the reality of this world, I hold on to the things that can explain the reason why this world is acting the way like today.  I use the Holy Bible as my reference.

1 Corinthians 2:

6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught…

Us, the people living now, have information of the past. These information surely helped us a lot.  But we do not just live to be spoon fed of what the past witnessed.

Daniel 12:

9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.

10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

I believe that we go on living, so that whatever information not known to the past and learned by us now, will be helpful in the future.

Romans 10:2-3 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

The Holy Bible is intended for man. Even the angels surely wants to know what the Holy Bible says because they believe that whatever the future brings to them, is dependent to the future of the Christians.

1 Corinthians 1:
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—

6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.

7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

I learned, so I know. There is a limit in what my material body can do, except my spirit and my heart where the faithful and most helpful of all resides.

Acts 3: 

15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

How about you, are you limited by time and space?

I'm an unabashed generalist. A near novice in any field. Now that I've left my teaching position, I'm no longer qualified for it--I couldn't even apply, wouldn't make the interview round. No joke. A bona fide outsider. After all, the theory goes, you wouldn't want a non-degreed, non-licensed doctor to operate on you. So if you are shelling out $50,000 a year on college, you don't want anything but a certified expert in the classroom. And I'm no Doctor.

Don't get me wrong. I know many spectacularly gifted PhDs who do fabulous teaching and research, who push my own thinking every time I encounter their work, who are incredible, imaginative learners. We need specialists. But not only specialists.

I could never imagine myself studying any one thing exclusively--I majored in art history, did a Masters in English, am deeply interested in creative expression, Irish Studies, multimedia narrative, 21st-century learning, gardens, architecture, digital art, food in culture, sustainable communities, the history and theory of education, photography--all kinds of subjects. I wanted it all, fluidly, simultaneously. I never wanted to teach the same course semester upon semester (in spite of agreeing with Gardner Campbell that every semester opens as a tabula rasa). Increasingly, I didn't want to teach with a syllabus at all but to wander about a subject as a group of learners needed and wanted, exploring from as many angles, histories, perspectives as possible, veering off topic altogether when that was what we needed to do.

I even proposed to the college that I would be happy to continue teaching from the new center I was designing, as long as students could be released from the semesterized, campus-ized model, coming down instead to the center in intensive bursts when relevant collaborations, mini-courses, projects presented themselves there; when not at the center, they would graze freely on the myriad open-course opportunities on the Web, pulling together a mosaic of study: reading, conversing and reflecting online, creating, working in tutorial and/or in small groups, taking whatever time (within reason--deadlines have their use) made sense to complete that "course." Some students could get the credit fast, in a few weeks; others might take a year or grow a single course into multiple credits. That idea went over...well...not so much.

Which makes sense because whereas the ability to work and learn and live this way has once again become possible (in a newly rich, global-as-well-as-purely-local way), the fear of the miscellaneous and anarchy and chaos--loss of control--has led to our time out of school looking more and more like school and our neighborhoods no longer about neighbors at all.

I was quite aware of breaking the rules of the Academy, and that I was a puzzlement to my students--who was this odd duck with neither PhD nor string of important books? No books? How did someone like me get to a place like this? (Well, I was only sort of in "a place like this"--a lecturer, never a professor, I inhabited the margins of this place.) I'd explain that I was lucky, an anomaly. Couldn't be pigeon-holed. Couldn't be known. And for a long time, I couldn't see how it could get any better: I could be in school but not of school. I could hang onto my rebel cred WHILE reaping the benefits of a life in college.

So, why ever would I leave if I'd never be able to return?

Hypocrite hypocrite.

Reading Illich, hooks, Rose, Greene, Arendt, Gomez-Pena, Sontag, Freire, and more recently Gee, Wellman, Levy, Hawisher & Selfe, Tuan, and Weinberger and, well, so many others, and right now some fantastic bloggers engaged in continuous, dynamic conversation of the now in the now, made me uneasy about staying. I was troubled when I read what string theorist Brian Greene wrote in an op-ed piece for The International Herald Tribune:
"We rob science education of life when we focus solely on results and seek to train students to solve problems and recite facts without a commensurate emphasis on transporting them out beyond the stars."

And when he said that "America's educational system fails to teach science in a way that allows students to integrate it into their lives." Integration and imagination take time and opportunities to speculate, to dream, to play with what-ifs.

Of course in 1970, Ivan Illich wrote (once again in Deschooling Society): "...the deep fear which school has implanted within us, a fear which makes us censorious." (p.18 ) How can learners dare reach beyond themselves, beyond the stars if they are blocked, bounded by fear?

Michael Pollan gets at the same dilemma of over-specialization and fear--in his case, as it pertains to how and what we eat--in his new book, In Defense of Food, (you can read the introduction on his website). He shows us the promise of this particular moment: "We are entering a postindustrial era of food; for the first time in a generation it is possible to leave behind the Western diet without having also to leave behind civilization. And the more eaters who vote with their forks for a different kind of food, the more commonplace and accessible such food will become. Among other things, this book is an eater’s manifesto, an invitation to join the movement that is renovating our food system in the name of health—health in the very broadest sense of that word."

But is the answer to go back? Or to go forward in a new way?

In spite of my growing unease I stayed. For years. I complained a lot, sometimes loudly, mumbling something about the importance of working from within the system, about influencing the next generation of leaders. To ask them thee questions. To point at these dilemmas.

And anyway, go where?

Everywhere. Anywhere. Both back to very old ways of doing things and forward into cyberspace. Post-industrial?

Into town. Downtown. Back into town. AND wherever in the world we need to go.

Now that we can harness the creative and connective powers of the Web and the open education resources of some of our great universities, why ever stay within the confines of a single school? Why shell out up to $50,000 a year for fancy digs when for no money at all we can reap the full benefits (sans credit) of such courses as the one George Siemens and Stephen Downes are offering? How long will the cachet of a degree from elite institutions and the attendant uber-important connections be enough to trump the limits of single-school-in-place-with-limited number-of-course-offerings-and-departments-and-majors? It was time to make the leap.

The community digital learning centers I am planning (slowly) are being conceived in the spirit of the miscellaneous, of emergence, of collective intelligence, of de-schooling, of edupunk, of slow-food (slow communities now too). Yup. All of those.

With my merry band of cohorts I'm exploring how to marry collaborative Web practices to the lived-in, traditional community to open our notions of learning--when and what and how. Right now we're thinking about four-five pilot sites across the country, ranging from small rural communities, to suburbs to small cities. These physical centers will be places where people from across a community's spectrum gather in person to discuss and learn and explore and share the connected and expressive practices of the Web. Within this neutral non-school people can shuck their fear of trying out these tools and practices within the workplace. People with no computer or internet access at home can hang out in the lab. Kids and the elderly can swap stories as they teach one another invaluable lessons about life. Nonprofits and agencies can gather to learn from one another and help one another both online and in person. Individuals can avail themselves of the computers, the space, the mentors to engage in hybrid learning.

Is it possible that these Web practices, instead of potentially polarizing us into affinity groups and spaces as some contend, can be used to ease community divides? To help solve community problems? To engage children and adults together in deep learning that is contextualized, shared, and personally relevant? To give people a chance to experience the power and joy and fun of the creativity and storytelling and feelings of belonging unleashed by some of these practices? What does the new digitized community learning center look like? Who is there? Why? How is it sustained? How do the practices of de-schooling, online learning, and informal f2f learning inform one another?

These aren't new ideas. Hardly. But there are so few initiatives in rural places, at least, that are fusing the online and off, bringing people together into contact zones within a center and then moving out into the world online. We have few community computing centers, few internet cafes, even, and fewer centers seeking simultaneously a return to the slow while rejoicing in the fast. Rather, we have roaming workshops and consultants blasting in and out--a great, bonding time online or off, and then you're on your own. Is that sustainable? Does it actually work? I'd rather work from inside communities to ease the participatory gap, one along the lines of what 826 Valencia or The Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center or The Purple Thistle Center are modeling (funny that these are all in intensely urban areas) but in smaller communities, and with a decidedly Web bent and with an open, generalist's slate of offerings--each center will be of that community for that community and so will, I imagine, function quite differently from other centers.

I'd love to hear about initiatives/centers from which I could learn--I am in the gathering information, writing vision statements & strategic plans (and grants) stage.

Even from you doctors out there. ;-)

For the last two weeks we were challenged to create game about the political environment here in the US.  My group chose to make a game about the 270 Electoral Votes needed to win the election.  A couple of things to note about our game.  When you open it up and look at the map (game board) you'll notice the states are not all sized to the same scale.  Our group made a design decision to scale up those states with more electoral votes, and downsize those with fewer electoral votes.  We also used the 270 to Win website for a lot of our research. From this site we gathered lots of information regarding past voting in each state for the last 10 presidential elections, as well as what the current leanings of the state are.

I've posted  a zipped version of our game here, http://www.p4games.org/node/699 .  You will need to have Greenfoot downloaded and installed on your computer to run the game.  Also on the DU-Blog post above I also tried an export to HTML from Greenfoot.  At this time I'm on a lab computer and can't make changes, so I'm unable to troubleshoot why that export isn't working.

I spent a fair amount of time the last two weeks working on curriculum for a semester class in game development.  I'm still not done with this project, but here is a link to what I've got so far.  At this point I'm to week 12 in an 18 week semester.  My thought was to plan 16 - 17 weeks.  This would leave room for adjustment during the semester, and allow for missed days such as Pep Assembly days, etc.  Also at this point (Week 12) my plan is to move into a major project, and have the students develop a Humane Game that will require research and most of their class time for the remainder of the semester.

If you're interested in this program, please feel free to ask me questions, or check out the University of Denver, Teacher Game Institute web pages, off of this page you can link to examples used during the Teacher portion of the program, and if you follow the links to Game Camp, you'll see all the great things they did with the 9th and 10th grade girls who participated.  If you have a chance to participate I encourage you to do so.  The team here at DU has been fantastic.  My niece, who was a Game Camp participant, has informed me it was great fun.

This morning, Collen McCreary from EA games, will be in to speak to the girls about all of the different careers available in the game industry.  I'm really looking forward to this talk too!  It should be a good close to this program.

I am now looking forward to about 2.5 weeks of holiday until I report back on August 6 or 7.  I'm still not certain I've got a new position, although I've been told to hang in there, they are still waiting on the paperwork from the US Department of Education....so I am trying to be patient, and wait!

Some things end up feeling like a huge mistake, or some weird universal joke you aren't in on. And it is very easy to bask in your self-pity and/or heartbreak. But between crying jags, it's important to ask yourself, is there something to learn from this? For instance, don't lend friends money. I learned that the hard way. You'll never see either one of them again.

I recently met someone who had more to teach me than I realized. It didn't end well. I regret that, because it was my fault. But I think I came away from it with a much better understanding of myself. I learned how easily someone can hurt me, if I let them. I learned that I should keep my guard up in the future. I learned that I should SLOW DOWN. I learned that certain people can bring out the best, or the worst, in us all. And I learned that sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

Of course, some memories have nothing to teach us. They just are: a once happy memory, maybe tinged with regret and thoughts of what could have been. Memories of loss. Nostalgia. Sentiment. Memories of suffering we will never understand. Wrongs we can never make right. Memories of people we will always miss.

But it is only human nature that we try to get answers. Without trying to gain some insight, it would all be for nothing. After all, our experiences are but tiny stars in the sky for us to gaze upon and wonder.

So who's this Ira Glass? If you're from the US, you might know him from his program "This American Life" on National Public Radio. His program does an awesome job showcasing slices of life in America, and is quite a hit here.

He talks about the need to persevere at the beginning when you clearly know the vision in your head doesn't match your results. This is definitely a problem when starting photography, and even many years into it. I've been shooting for over two decades now, and I'm still amazed at what how bad many of my shots are. I read that if you have a keeper for every roll (36 exposures), that's good, but I have a hard time seeing shooters like Arte Wolfe or Galen Rowell doing wrong.

Another point Ira brings up is how some people know that they're not good enough and some people are oblivious to that fact. Ira is referring to the process of recording the radio shows, but it also applies to other creative arts. With more people shooting due to commonality of small cameras, cellphone cameras, etc., the amount of mediocre photos out there also increased dramatically. Unleveled horizons, out of focus subjects, large patches of burnt out highlights all bother me a lot, but is par for the course for others. As more bad photos float around the web, the acceptable quality level of the subsequent photos might fall due to indoctrination. But then again, it allows your photos to shine in the sea of mediocrity.

OK, enough of my rambling. Enjoy the video.

Kohlberg's stages of moral development . . . explain the development of moral reasoning. . . inspired by the work of Jean Piaget and a fascination with children's reactions to moral dilemmas.

. . .Expanding considerably upon [Piaget's] groundwork, it was determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice, and that its development continued throughout the lifespan, even spawning dialogue of philosophical implications of such research.

Kohlberg used stories about moral dilemmas in his studies, and was interested in how people would justify their actions if they were put in a similar moral crux. He would then categorize and classify evoked responses into one of six distinct stages.

Obedience to authority on pain of righteous punishment types will reject this, no doubt, but they are reasoning like little kids. As adults, the reasoning stage our majority politics seems obsessed with is the fourth, Authority and Social Order Maintenance.

School, State and Church too, all seem Very Authoritarian these days, as playing out in the UCF Catholic communion controversy, for example.

Level 1

1. Obedience and punishment orientation
(How can I avoid punishment?)

2. Self-interest orientation
(What's in it for me?)

Level 2

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
(The good boy/good girl attitude)

4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
(Law and order morality)

Level 3

5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles
(Principled conscience)

Dana at Principled Discovery thinks through some high level reasoning imo, about the different moral arguments for homeschooling, in "Homeschooling is Not the Gospel:"

For the most part, the true “evangelists” of homeschooling make me nervous.
. . .I think part of the problem is a sort of disconnect between those speaking at conventions and the “modern day” homeschooler. Even those homeschooling more or less for religious reasons are not necessarily of “the same stripe” as those who pulled their kids from the public school back when homeschoolers feared leaving the house during the day and prayed they wouldn’t be fined or jailed.

We don’t necessarily view public education as inherently evil. We don’t necessarily view homeschooling as the only possible way of rearing Christian children. We don’t necessarily equate advancing the Kingdom of Christ with reforming the nation’s laws to suit our beliefs.

And yet it seems to me that most of us, most of the time, either haven't earned or neglect to use the truly HIGHER education with which we'd advance our moral logic and reasoning to the top level. I mean this both personally and professionally, privately and socially.

I was a professional school policy administrator and never mind K-12 and NCLB for the moment, I am presently riveted by the low-level moral reasoning of UCF and UM, and how FSU justifies selling individual student information knowing most students don't know they're doing it, and knowing it will enslave some of them with debt. My professional educator ethics wouldn't allow that; it seems like some twisted free market mentality that conflicts with public service and real educational values imo, and doesn't it belong on the very immature "what's in it for me" selfishness level two?

Hmmm, wouldn't it be constructive discussion here, to examine the 2008 election candidates and issues in light of Level Three Moral Thinking? -- which party's candidate and platform is more focused on our social contract and universal ethical principles?

I wonder if the original FDR idea of "social security" was ahead of its time, way up there in the fifth or sixth stage of moral human reasoning, and whether we've kept it up or just corrupted it? What about "war" up and down the ethical reasoning levels, such as urinating on the Koran to protect your own people's freedom and religious values?

And how does compulsory public school look to us as a moral social contract?

Frisky cock of the snook to Dale for this Thinking Parent connection, very educational!

Is there a unique way of how we see things? And the things that we see? I believe there is.

It has been some time that I have been on Flickr; suffice to say I have many buddies there who are excellent photographers. During my Flickr Life, I have learnt a lot about photography, much more than I would have learnt in a formal setting.

When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

And nearly as long as I have been on Flickr, I have had a RSS reader. And I have a feed that updates all photographs from my buddies on Flickr. Since I started, with about 7 - 8 contacts, I have 97 contacts. You can imagine that the feed gets updated very fast and becomes voluminous. Sometimes I have more than 300 posts (photographs) unread (unseen).

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

All things become interesting after a while and you hope to read everything that you add to your feed. The feeds just pile up and you wonder if you are asking too much of yourself or you aren't reading enough.

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
Brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match
My sweet imagination
And everything looks better in black and white

Coming back, is there a unique way of how we see things? And the things that we see? I believe there is. And I have learnt it because of my feed reader and my Flickr contacts. With more than 300 posts piling up. I usually quickly skim through all of them. The finger on the down arrow key works with the speed of sight (light?). As i scroll quickly, my eyes are fixed on the area where the photograph is to appear; adjusting for orientation of landscape, portrait, oddly cropped, and badly cropped photos

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

I can almost always identify the photographer without having seen the name of the photographer in the feed. Perhaps it is a style issue. I doubt it. Many photographers I know vary their styles. I think it is just the way people see things, what they see, subjects, and their point of view. Many of the photographers take photos of flowers, for example. I can, yet, (almost always) identify who it would be.

Is it about signatures?

Do we always know what we sign? Do we know that we sign?

Text in Italics, Kodachrome, by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel.

One of the principle reasons for embarking upon this present series of posts emanates from a belief that as human beings we have inherited a tremendous potential, particularly when acting together, either for the benefit of over all human well-being, or indeed, to its determent.

A basic tenet of Leadership and Learning Pathways (LLP) is that neither the personality of the individual, and certainly the overall character of society is a fixed entity, both can, in general, be changed either in a positive, or negative, way.

LLP maintains that necessary and successful change is best achieved via shared contribution and investment by all concerned.  It is also achieved through the acknowledgement that each reasoning person has an important role in helping to shape the future of their society and their organization.

Living in a rapidly changing environment we need to learn new and coherent ways of seeing and understanding the world in which we all exist.

At the heart of LLP's philosophy is the belief that each person - and not just those in overall charge of things, or indeed those honoured by the state, academia or the media - is in many respects unique.

That each person has something to offer.  That people in general are concerned about others, that love is more productive than than indifference, that knowledge is more fun than ignorance and that the world can be a better place than that so often depicted on our television screens, or written about in the newspapers.

You can visit LLP's soon to be finished website at:

http://www.leadershipandlearning.org

I'm still learning about how and when to use Gesso, how much stuffing the dolls' faces need. Even with her cracked face I decided to make some arms and legs and finish off her dress... I couldn't bear to put her into a box in a dark corner.

So, she'll sit and remind me of the things I'm still working on, but I think that she'll be a good Muse, I love all the things that went right with her too.