e-learning thoughts

Institutional Interconnectedness

2011-10-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

MOOCs and blogs have greatly increased my awareness of the interconnectedness of institutions. People with an undergraduate degree in philosophy or History or English and want income security for continuing to devote their life to intellectual pursuits and the common good have had a commonly recognized path - teacher, librarian, professor, clergyperson, journalist, writer, artist,lawyer ...
The web has greatly expanded access to information while at the same time created an environment where the value of universities, libraries, churches and publishing houses are being questioned.
Through blogs and MOOCs, it's easy to see the interconnectedness of these institutions and how if the first domino falls, the others could quickly go down as well with impact down the line on other professions with degree requirements.
I think we have to be watchful of how technology is impacting the intellectual community as a whole and how the various professions are trying to redefine their roles to maintain their value to society. Because there is so much overlap in the skill sets, strengthening the value of one, strengthens the value of all and weakening the value of one, weakens the value of them all. The other issue is that if any of those professions fall, where will those professionals go. It seems most likely that they will try to flow into a related profession or find themselves in the even more crowded retail sector.
Without having an actual revolution as occurred in China in the late 1950 (or perhaps in our interconnected world, the unease in political circles about the effectives of organizing a revolution through mobile devices), we could see a flowering of intellectual freedom followed quickly by a massive devaluing or even supression of thought and culture.
Do we have time for each profession to grope its way into the 21st century or is there a great impetus for pooling the insights gained from the perspectives of each professional grouping and move forward with greater collegiality and awareness of shared interests as well as uniqueness.

The Historian

2011-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting quote in the novel "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova which I think relevant to our discussions about e-learning vs learning on traditional campuses.
..."One of the few pieces of research I'm sure I'll never finish. I have a theory, however, that this ghastly trail of scholarship, like so many less awful ones, is merely something one person makes a little progress on, then another, each contributing a bit in his own lifetime. ...Again he hesitated. 'Scholarship must go on. For good or for evil, but inevitably in every field.'"

In this novel, 4 scholars at various times receive ancient books with blank pages except for a wood carving print of a dragon in the centerfold. If you found such a book, you became an unfortunate successor who would be searching out clues around to world to find the exact location of the grave of Vlad Tepes of Dracula legend. The book comes to the scholar in a library. It wasn't there before he took a break but mysteriously has been left either where he was working or where he will return a book to the stacks. Librarians in this novel are extremely knowledgable about the location of everything ever published on Dracula and more often than not have the bite marks to show that Dracula has taken an interest in them as well.

I suppose if this becomes a movie, the characters would be running around with mobile devices but much of the creepiness would be lost without the musty books and ancient libraries with their most unusual librarians. The story itself reminds me of the movie "National Treasure" with the obsession of discovering the clues spanning generations and aborting whatever scholarship would have happened if the book hadn't appeared in their lives. However I'm not sure an e-book would be as compelling as holding the ancient leather-bound book in one's hands.

diigo.com

2011-02-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

While listening to an Elluminate Session, I capture the back channel links on diigo. Wish I thought of it sooner. Usually the links are quite worthwhile and it's efficient to do it as soon as they are posted

Delicious & CCK08

2011-02-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

A member of the CCK08 (the first Connectivism class led by George & Stephen) put everyone's blogs on Delicious. I opened a Delicious account, put those pages on my account and didn't post to Delicious much after that.
Because of CCK11,I decided to revisit Diigo and Delicious.

Discovered there were some advantages to having the links to class members blogs.

1. They are in a variety of languages. Over the years, one would accumulate a list of bloggers on connectivism writing in languages under-represented in the current class.

2. Most of these blogs are still in use because creating a designated blog for a course was a bit of a strange concept so many of us didn't create a designated blog until after the blog addresses were put on Delicious. It's possible to go from what the blogger was blogging about before taking the course, while taking the course and the evolution of the blog until today. While not pure, it does give a bit of followup as to whether or not the blogger continued to write on the subject, decided there was sufficient interest for a separate blog and the ways he/she is currently connected online.

3. These blogs were put on delicious very early in the course. As in all MOOCs, most of the members were silent lurkers so didn't submit their blogs. But there remains 2 groups: those who intended to post but left or went into lurk mode for other priorities and those who sustained their interest in the course.

Think there is enough to be learned from this to give some of the original bloggers a re-visit. Back in CCK08, I wasn't as committed to transparency so I opened the account under a fictitious word rather than my own name. May have to correct that problem by transferring the information to a new account and closing the original one.

CCK11 Introduction and Map

2011-01-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

In the introduction, I never really said what I do. The easy answer is nothing. But it's not exactly nothing because I can point to something that exists amidst the nothing. There's a photo on the side bar. Son, daugher-in-law, son, me, son-in-law, daughter, husband, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, son. Two grandchildren expected in 2011 - one in March and one in August. That's my legacy. I brought people into the world who are bringing people into the world.

My husband's an Anglican priest which makes me a clergy spouse which is a reflection of something. Here's the parish website http://parishofthetransfiguration The official Diocesan death notice for me will read, "Ruth Demitroff (only Ruth will be about me - everything else will be a record of my husband's career).

I've been advised to say that I'm retired because that's a term that makes sense, is more understandable. The husband, kids, parish still have expectations so I guess I retired at 31 from Human Resources, Salaried Personnel, General Motors of Canada but no one retires at 31 with 5 years service so retired isn't true. I was in school until I was 26 so I'm considered to have done something for 5 years of my life. Is that true? Only to me. What one did 30 year ago is irrelevant - not resume relevant.

So on the map, I described myself as a life-long learner. That's the closest to true I can get.

Rev. Dr. Ellen Bruce - Unusual Credentials

2011-01-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

The Rev. Dr. Ellen Bruce, a resident of Old Crow, Yukon Territories died at 98. She became an Anglican Priest without being academically qualified, received an honorary doctorate and was given the Order of Canada. All were in agreement that she fully deserved every honor bestowed upon her.

So here's the link to her story. If you want to know an alternative way of being acknowledged as a scholar, read on http://www.yukon-news.com/news/20108/

I met Ellen Bruce on at least 2 occasions - once in Old Crow and once in Haines Junction. She radiated love and devotion. Love and devotion to one's people can qualify someone for an honorary Ph.D.

You might also be interested in learning about education in Old Crow - the school goes to Gr.8 http://www.oldcrow.ca/edu.htm

The King's Speech & Lack of Credentials

2011-01-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

The confrontation between the King George VI and Lionel Logue after the Archbishop of Canterbury reveals that Lionel Logue is not a doctor but an actor and teacher of elocution fits nicely with CCK11's pondering about what is a scholar.

Upon meeting Lionel, the future King presumed that he was Dr. Logue. Lionel did not correct him. Should he have done so? Does it always matter to be precise or are there times when it is permissible to not draw attention to the mistaken assumption. I would think it would be fairly common for someone in the academic world to be mistakenly introduced both socially and in introductions as doctor. What do you do if someone has printed flyers for a lecture or conference and without consulting you had them printed with a higher degree than the one you hold?

Lionel did not have any degrees behind his name on his office door. The Duchess and later the Duke came to his office to consult with Lionel and could clearly see that it was in a poorer section of London, the rooms were humbly furnished, Lionel had no staff and that when therapy wasn't happening, the office area was part of the family space. It was clear that Lionel did not intentionally deceive anyone but didn't point out his lack of academic credentials even though this potential client wouldn't have used his services if he'd been aware that Lionel lacked formal credentials.

Lionel was trained in elocution, acting and had been asked to figure out a way to help the shell shocked WWI vets who came back from the wall psychologically unable to speak. He'd had permission to find whatever might work and had experienced successes. Even if he wanted to train to be a speech therapist, no courses existed when he began his work. The men with the doctorates were interested in the physical aspects of speech whereas Lionel also explored the psychological reasons for speech hesitancy.

So how do you acknowledge the expertise of someone who cannot receive it from an academic institution. In Lionel Logue's case, he was inducted into the Royal Victoria Order by the King. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Victorian_Order

Connected Learning & Isolation - CCK11

2011-01-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

In the introductions, Scott Johnson mentioned connectivism and connected learning with regard to living in an isolated area. In 2008 and 2009, I don't remember this aspect ever being discussed.

Canada's cutting edge work on distance education for advanced degrees lies in the history of Athabasca College. There seemed to be a dividing line at the Manitoba/Ontario border with the East committed to bricks and mortar, traditional practices and the West and North more willing to experiment. I think we owe a debt of gratitude to our Canadian Indian people for raising awareness that not all cultures count the days until their kids turn 18 and head for the cities. Some peoples have deep connections to their tribe or clan and value those connections more than city-based educational opportunities.

Perhaps online connectivism is tied to connectivism in the real world. If people are so strongly connected to their communities that they remain with their friends, family and work associates rather than pursuing distance opportunities, then online connectedness is a logical extension and reinforcement of their core values. How important are connections to you and when thinking about the connections that add value and pleasure to your existence, on what ring outward from self does online connections fit?

A major problem in Canada is that we have large, sparsely populated areas and a few major cities. While attracting immigrants and youth to Canadian cities is easy, the flow of population outward into less populated areas is more of a trickle until people retire. Would the ability to remain connected and learn and work online be enough for you to consider moving from a city to a less populated area?

Scholarly Expertise - CCK11

2011-01-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'm a lover of pageantry and processionals. They send shivers up my spine and add another link in a long chain of protecting and passing on what is valued.

Even though I never had the intellect, perseverance or endurance for post graduate work, I believe the progression from bachelor to master to doctorate to lifetime scholarly commitment is worthy of whatever sacrifice it demanded.

In the MOOC world where everyone is expected to create and add to a body of knowledge, I think both more openness and equity can be achieved while acknowledging a debt of gratitude to those who followed an ancient route. At the moment, I think there's tension between everyone having expertise from their experience as human beings and those whose expertise required long years of preparation, examination and being granted rank through a ceremonial process. In a MOOC those taking the course for credit pay fees and have to meet standards of excellence imposed by academic institutions. So what is a dilettante and what is a scholar and what is a traditional wisdom bearer in the tribal sense? Are distinctions irrelevant or do we have a sense of where we would fall in processional order. If one lives and has their being in a Medieval world, everyone knows his rank. Is the same true in the world being created? That's for others to decide. By virtue of my age and my identity, I'm not going to be able to cross into the land of future promise.

Here's a link to Wed's processional at Trinity Wall Street
The short version of the professional starts at 2:33 min to 4:30 min. but if you want the prelude start at 2:09 min http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts/videos/worship/special-services/holy-eucharist-2

Truth As Theme - CCK11

2011-01-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

A new experience in Connectivism for me is taking other courses along with it. On Thursday and Friday, I took a 2 day seminar on a subject that I wouldn't expect to have common themes with CCK11. It was offered by Trinity Wall Street on "Reading Scripture Through Other Eyes"

I was enormously surprised on Wed. Elluminate session in Connectivism that "What is True" became a subject of interest. My philosophical thoughts about "What is True" began and ended with an introductory philosophy course that met at 8:00 a.m. Monday, Wed & Friday and maybe 18 year olds attended on Wed. In the Scripture course, one of the discussion points was whether or not the truth in scripture can be discovered until all voices have been heard including the powerless, the imprisoned, the abused, the illiterate, etc.

One would think that as the world becomes more and more connected, a filtering process would occur that would allow people to concentrate solely on the voices of the world's most respected scholars. While the barriers of access to scholarly lectures has disappeared along with it has arisen a desire in those scholars to actively seek out the voices of the disenfranchised, the illiterate, the oppressed to discover how the material is seen in a wider array of contexts to thicken their knowledge base.

The metaphor for truth in the connected age is more like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. People are searching harder because the discernment of truth is seen as the way to save ourselves from fear, ignorance, mistrust and hopefully global destruction. No matter how elegant individual pieces of truth may be,it's easier to know where the colorful, stunning pieces fit as opposed to the blues of the sky and the sea or the browns of the mountains, animals and soil. Without the hard work of discovering the unique place of all the blue and brown pieces, the picture can't be completed. The puzzle of truth will remain incomplete, frustrating, unsatisfying, of limited value if one person's piece is missing, hidden, tossed aside, treated carelessly. MOOCs are a bring together of the elegant and the common.

I'm a traditional grandmother - a bit of water or a bit of soil. If after reading the introductions you wonder if you belong in a MOOC - yes you do.

Spam on blogs

2011-01-24T08:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging much over the past year and hadn't been checking my comments section either. Fortunately the feature that filters out spam is doing a wonderful job. When I looked at the blocked spam section, there were about 4,000 comments filtered out that would have bothered me enormously if they had been posted. Even though the writer takes a break from posting, spammers don't.
I've wondered why my husband gets daily spam to his email site while I very, very seldom receive any. Looks like they email is the default if it can be sent to a blog site instead.

Intro to CCK11

2011-01-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing I'm saying applies to the students taking this course for credit. They have a lot of work to cover in a set period of time to meet the standards set in the academic world.
Those of us who are non-credit have set a lower priority bar for ourselves. Don't look at the volume of assigned readings and information being created by course members and decide to stop because you can't carve out that much time. Learn what you can and give yourself an open-ended finishing date. People who create content keep on creating content. Methods of connecting keep evolving. Stephen and George like a mix of new class members and returning class members in the MOOC so if you like the structure of being in a course, you can join in future sessions and concentrate on the things you didn't get to before.

So take a few deep breaths, jump into the water and enjoy this opportunity to connect with people from around with world representing a wide variety of disciplines.

Thinking Skills

2010-06-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

In our youth most of us have biological thinking skills - our thoughts go where our hormones lead us. Obviously our genes' highest priority is to not die out so convincing us to reproduce and devote the next 20 years to childrearing dominates. So what happens when all those hormones wane. The older brain want to be the wise brain and therefore needs to figure out how to think clearly. That seems fairly straight forward but I'm collecting a set of links to show just how complex a goal that is.

The Critical Thinking Community
http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/index.cfm

Stephen Downes Guide to Logical Fallacies
http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/General%20Readings/Logical%20Falllacies.htm

Wikipedia List of Cognitive Biases
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Wikipedia List of Fallacies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Cognitive Bias: A Visual Study Guide
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30548590/Cognitive-Biases-A-Visual-Study-Guide

Facebook

2010-05-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

For awhile, facebook became my obsession. Twittering was too short for me and blogging didn't form relationships. Was anyone reading anything I wrote? Did it matter one way or the other? Well it does matter - not to the reader but rather to me. I can post interesting links to facebook and never really think much about them. Only on the blogs do I have to analyze what I'm reading and put it into words. Between my real world friends and my 389 facebook friends, I don't need the blog to be interactive - I need it to be Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs - a way to mark the path of my life which may take me somewhere amazing or may lead me to a place I'd rather not go. Actually I have multiple blogs - one for my real world friends and family, this one for my connectivism friends, one for trying to create a healthier lifestyle and finally one devoted to neurodevelopment/neurodegeneration - the field my high school yearbook says I wanted to pursue but in the end wasn't brave or confident enough to go after. I wasn't one of those high energy people who can have it all and if I couldn't have it all - I wanted the guy I fell in love with and the children we dreamed into existence.

Storing Web links

2009-11-20T22:46:00.000-08:00

Looking for recommendations on how to keep track of web links beyond using my favorites. Not very efficient so far at assigning labels to group web links, blogs, etc under. I seem to assign a label before I've downloaded enough links to know the major themes to my reading.

Igoogle

2009-11-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

As you can see, my postings have become infrequent. It's been too easy to just dip into the river of information flowing through cyberspace rather than being proactive and creating blog posts. I read this blog post yesterday about changing the igoogle home page to keep one more focused on tasks and goals. http://andremalan.net/2009/11/dropping-out-is-sometimes-the-right-thing-to-do/ and I'm rethinking how I use igoogle. I've uninstalled a lot of stuff and am now trying to decide how I want to set up my igoogle page. For sure I'm going to add a timer/stopwatch to the page. Is there anything you've done with igoogle that has helped you achieve your priorities?

Jane Howard quote on network

2009-09-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Jane Howard
(1935-1996)

100 Free Ivy League Literature Courses

2009-09-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-ivy-league-literature-courses-you-can-take-for-free-at-home/
Once an English major, always an English major. The great thing about studying English is that perfection doesn't make a good story. Heroes have flaws - sometimes fatal flaws. All good stories contain conflict and crisis and never knowing exactly where the story is heading and the expectation that the ending will most likely be a bit of a surprise.
I laugh when I hear young guys talking. They'll say, "She's caught my eye but I don't need any more drama in my life. So how crazy do you think she is?" They never ask "How crazy do you think I am. Do you think she's up to the drama I'm going to bring to her life?" And the real interest is what's the chemistry going to be when these two crazy, flawed people get together. Let's face it - if there's no chemistry, no craziness, no drama - well it sounds pretty boring to me.

My Biggest Obstacle

2009-09-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

CCK09 challenges its participants to find out what web tools are available and to plunge in and start using them. I'm more of a reader, an observer, an introvert. So that's the goal - to experiment, to produce, to move beyond my comfort zone.

Organizational Skills

2009-07-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how much more complexity is added to life with the passage of time? When it comes to tools for staying organized, well I'm just not using them. When I go into houses, I'm always curious about how people store their stuff. And when I see people with packed schedules, I can't help wondering how they stay on top of things. So how do you do it? Share a habit that really makes a difference in your productivity. How were you able to carve out the time required to take this course? Did you drop an activity to add an activity or did you become more skilled in accomplishing your responsibilities more efficiently?

Blogs to Facebook to Twitter and Back

2009-07-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

The online world moved from blogs to facebook to twitter in order to increase connections while decreasing the amount of time and energy required. Who even knew the world contained so many online marketers wanting to follow thousands of us? Call me corny but I liked it better when people were publishing their ideas. I suppose it's the difference between watching a movie and reading a million customer ratings of a movie. One great movie has the potential to change a person's whole world view in a way that a million two-sentence reviews of a movie can't.

Reasons to take CCK09

2009-07-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

I've initiated a google alert for CCK09 because it's easier to read a trickle of new blogs as opposed to the avalanche of new blogs on the first week of classes. Mike Bogle created a list of his aims and objections http://techticker.net/2009/07/07/cck09-aims-and-objectives/ which seemed like a pretty good idea to me. I'm following suit because it's an efficient way of recommending the course.

List of Aims and Objectives

1. Intellectual Honesty. Self-learning is deceptive. It becomes crystal clear quickly that dilettantes like myself are a totally different animal than full-time, committed academics. In CCK08, I picked Lisa Lane as the person to measure myself against and it was definitely humbling. As far as Computer Geek skills - well I was definitely the weakest link in that chain.

2. Personal Learning Network. I have an amazing group of facebook friends in a wide variety of fields. Not only do I receive a continual flow of interesting urls to explore but sometimes there's a question that you can't find the answer to on the web. I've found that I am now 2 degrees of separation at most from an expert in anything imaginable.

3. A Calculation of Mental Age. It's easy to know one's grown physically flabby and not so easy to turn things around. Mental flabbiness also creeps up but it's not so obvious. At the beginning CCK08 was exhausting. I still have no idea how people took the course, carried a full workload, traveled, did research/publishing, attended conferences and raised kids. I certainly stopped wondering what I was going to do when I grew up and started seeing myself more as a retiree who skipped the whole career thing.

4. Remaining Current. The course has given me a multiplicity of connections across various generational divides. At a stage where people begin to lose their social confidence, I'm broadening my interests and tastes because it's so easy to further explore whatever people are discussing.

5. In CCK08, I had a lot of firsts but there were also a lot of things I didn't get around to trying. The second time around will be an opportunity to build on what I have already learned and explore new ways of putting information out on the web.

Loose Change Jar

2009-06-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by http://paperbackjack.net/2009/05/20/the-loose-change-jar/
Jack Weaver suggests that random writing ideas should be regarded like the change that disappears from pockets into the recesses of the sofa.

I've been on the receiving end of more loose change than the average kid. My American uncle would bring up a mason jar full of pennies whenever he came to visit. Every night he dumped the change from his pocket onto a tray on his dresser - the pennies eventually were mine. I also learned very young that just about everyone in my family was prepared to part with at least a dime (usually a quarter) if I promised to get lost for awhile. And then there's the laundry. The one that washes the clothes gets the loose change left in the pockets or at least gets to dump the loose change into a jar that no one else bothers with. You'd think with all the loose change flowing my way that I would have developed a plan for it - spent in on something I really wanted. But if truth be told, I have no idea what eventually became of any of it.

The same no doubt is true of ideas - lots of input but not much output. Maybe tomorrow I'll design an idea catcher reminiscent of dream catchers. And maybe the next day, I'll start thinking about having a plan for the ideas that get caught. Perhaps I can create gossamer wings, attach them to the ideas and set them free to fly into the moonlight.

Blogs I Read

2009-06-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't made any changes to my google reader but I have dramatically pruned the blogs I list on my blogger sidebar. It's a bit like pulling all the clothes out the closet and then deciding which to put back. I know which bloggers that influence me enough that I send off the occasional email to them. I'll be slowly putting bloggers back on my sidebar as it becomes clearer which ones have the most impact on my life.

Stand Up Desk

2009-04-26T18:15:00.001-07:00

In theory, I'm quite intrigued with the idea of having a desk where I could world standing up. This sitting while on the computer does nothing for a woman's legs. I saw a small table that would have been perfect at Camp Borden but the stores on Canadian military bases are no bargain. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking the right solution would be to create a broader top for an old bookcase so I can have my reference books near at hand. Next on the dream list is a drafting table. Maybe I'll look around for ideas of what has the potential to be turned into a drafting table.

The Twitter Song

2009-04-23T00:34:00.001-07:00

Hope there are more social networking songs produced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYP-wBaqQAI
It's great to have songs produced that one can identify with. I'm a bit past the love song/hurting song phase of life but I really could use some music to twitter, blog, facebook by.

Men with Codes

2009-02-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

This started with a recommended blog post on Obama's Code written by Geore Lakoff.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/george-lakoff-on-obama-code.html
I live in a world of men with codes. Whether you agree with someone's codes or not, it certainly makes relationships much clearer. Figure out the guiding code and it's the difference between wandering around lost and being given a guidebook. My father-in-law, my husband, my sons all have codes of conduct that they just don't break ever under any circumstance.
I, on the other hand, would go to the depths of hell to save any of my children. That pretty much explains why I didn't get Sarah Palin. She lives by a code. I'd have bent my code and bought my child contraceptives.

A New Kind of Science

2009-02-24T22:45:00.000-08:00

Basically I'm saving this text so I can find it again. It appeared on my facebook page and I'm intending to read it later.

Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science | Online - Table of Contents
http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html
Source: www.wolframscience.com
Complete online version of Stephen Wolfram's 'A New Kind of Science' book

Care of Your PLN

2009-02-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

I've set some rules for myself:
1. I'm going to do the reading. If the people on pln post to facebook, I'm going to follow their links. I'm also going to check in on their blogs.
2. I'm going to give back even if it's just posting comments.
3. If I see potential for collaboration between various facebook friends, I'll introduce them to each other.

So how am I going to do this without it overwhelming my life? I've decided to use the nursing model of checking everyone at the beginning and end of the shift. It's not perfect but it also doesn't let anyone fall through the cracks and it frees up the bulk of the day for my life in the real world.

My Personal Learning Network

2009-02-05T09:37:00.001-08:00

I've been working on creating a personal learning network. So far I have about 200 people but as in anything else there will be some who never post anything. At the moment, they are heavily into education and educational technology which makes a lot of sense considering the purpose of a pln. I'm trying to branch out to include more people from the arts (writers, poets, artists, etc) and more from the health science. It's not like I've ignored those areas - I have a couple of writers, a couple of poets and a screenwriter as well as people in nursing education. I'm also trying to achieve a demographic balance - various ages, various locations, various career paths, etc. A kindergarten teacher and a university professor have different bodies of expertise even though they are both educators. Someone with a lot of experience has a different perspective than someone entering a field. It's very exciting - especially for someone who has mainly lived in very small communities.

Personal Learning Environments

2009-01-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not entirely clear on what is meant by Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Graham Attwell has put together a presentation with the basics.
http://www.pontydysgu.org/2009/01/personal-learning-environments-the-slidecast/
After you have the general idea, go here http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams
for an extensive collection of PLE diagrams.
I'm thinking I won't really understand Personal Learning Environment until I create a diagram of what works for me.

Grandmothers on Facebook

2009-01-27T11:16:00.000-08:00

I'm not a grandmother yet but I'm sure most of the women I went to elementary school and high school with are. With only 10% of people in my demographic group on facebook and with most women in my day changing their last name when they married, it is really difficult to connect with old classmates.
I've been getting pictures posted by moms in my hometown of their "cutest kids" competition. So far none of the cutest kids pictures have also included grandparents Well I've decided that I'm just going to have to convince the moms to get the grandmas into a "cutest grandkids" competition so the grandmothers will start social networking. Hope it works.
I can't think of a faster way of getting a major network of 50 something facebook members than providing an outlet where it's socially encouraged to haul out pics of the grandkids.

Google Notebooks

2009-01-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

If your google notebooks are worth transferring to another site, here are the 4 places that will import them
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10146908-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware
I, on the other hand, will be leaving mine where they are. If I had been creating original work which required collaboration, it will be worth transferring.
In my case it was more like an overflow from favourites and bookmarks and google reader. It's basically a collection of links separated into categories. There's never time to go back to them because so much new information is flowing in on a daily basis. By the time I look at my facebook friends' recommendations and follow my google reader and perhaps twitter, there's no time for the old links that didn't make favourites. Even my bookmarks don't have much of a chance of being revisited.

If I switch to something similar to Google Notebook, I will start clean and with a lot more preplanning. I jumped into notebook because I didn't spend the money to buy microsoft notebook and thought I must be missing out on something. Next time I intend to know the best use for notebook and whether or not I actually will benefit from the application.

Thinkers50

2009-01-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.thinkers50.com
I wasn't into making resolutions at the beginning of the year because all the old ones had been on the list for years and were no more likely to happen this year than any other year.
Finally I found something I'd actually enjoy doing. My resolution is to work my way through the Thinkers50 list. Each week I'll google someone's name and read some interviews or articles. There are a lot of names that are household words - Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Donald Trump, Al Gore - well actually around a quarter of them are people I remember hearing on tv and reading their online articles and some of those are even on my reader feed. I'll save those people for the crazy, busy weeks.
I'm actually very interested in the number one choice CK Prahalad. It's much more exciting to read about someone whose work is a new discovery for me.
I think this resolution stands a good chance of happening because last year I spent a bit of time picking various Nobel Prize winners and reading their acceptance speeches, bios and some googled articles so I'm not committing to a radical change in behavior.
I've noticed that men tend to be big readers of biography whereas women are more into the self-help genre for self improvement. What if the guys are right? Obama reads biographies and it worked for him.

Immigrant community and those with learning differences

2009-01-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

The best thing that ever happened to dyslexic kids was the increase in the immigrant population. Funding for suitable materials for dyslexic kids was practically non-existant. Rather than getting highly trained teachers, taking on a general learning disability or specific learning disability classroom was seen as a sacrifice one made to get back into the system after a long absence from teaching.
With immigration, there was suddenly funding freed up to get older immigrant students caught up as quickly as possible. There were enough middle school children needing interesting material in simple language to make it worthwhile to publish age appropriate learn-to-read materials.
The slower learners formed coalitions with the immigrant students. I'll tell you the words you don't understand if you help me figure out a new concept. Slower learners suddenly found themselves with high achieving, highly disciplined friends.
The government changed the rules on how to qualify for licences. Instead of having to read the questions and possibly failing to receive a licence because you misread a word - it became ok to ask for the testing questions to be provided oralling on a tape.
The status of being a teacher of second languages or a specialist in learning differences took an upswing. The teachers received more status, more respect. Teachers in the specialized classrooms were there because they had a passion for the work. They became consultants to the teachers who formerly had felt superior because they had the higher achieving classes.
Folk wisdom had predicted that lower achieving students and immigrant children would be natural enemies fighting over the same low skilled jobs. If they formed coalitions, they both increased their chances of rising higher in life. The threat was more to those students who thought they had an inherent right to be the best of the best. Suddenly they had competition from the students they had written off as being no match for themselves. And in the end, they all become more because of each other.

Unemployed Looking

2009-01-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

I am unemployed looking - an almost empty-nester woman.
http://unemploymentality.com/2009/01/unemployed-looking-people-in-your-neighborhood/
What will be the trickle down effect of this surge in unemployment amongst the highly intelligent, high achievement professional community?
Here's some things off the top of my head:
1. The unemployed-looking will have fewer people wondering what they do all day.
2. In social situations, saying one is retired or a homemaker or an out-of-work actor won't be an automatic conversation stopper. A truse may be declared in the mommy wars as well as between grunge and suits, and other pairings that have more in common than they realize. The lines separating them will become less clear and the real conversations and problem solving opportunities may emerge.
3. The blogging world will be flooded with information about the transition from being employed to becoming more marginalized, less valued. The unemployed will be taking notes on how the high achievers set up their world to save face, to find opportunities. How will they re-define their priorities to maintain their self esteem and land on their feet. What can we learn from each other?
4. Perhaps all that freed up time, intelligence, creativity will be used to build the 21st century world that everyone is waiting for. Internet networking may lead to informal think tanks - new ideas - new possibilities - new dreams - new visions.
5. I think Obama's slogan, "Yes You Can" will become a greeting. Yes You Can have a meaningful life in whatever situation you find yourself in. Yes You Can be a person the world is waiting for.

Classroom Blogs & New Years Resolutions

2009-01-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

I don't know the rules about classroom blogs so I won't link you to one but I just had the best time reading the New Year's Resolutions of a Grade 3 class. I don't do much talking to children these days so I had no idea what a Grade 3 could possibly think needed changing about himself.

The one thing they all seemed to know is that tv is bad for your brains. That does not bode well for baby boomers. How many baby boomers are making New Years Resolutions to turn off the tv and read more "to make my brain work better".

Another kid is going to save the world by reducing his energy consumption. Did you start any of your New Year's Resolutions with "I am going to save the world by....."?

My resolutions are more like the kid who has resolved to grow 5 inches this year. I too resolve to recreate my genetic makeup to look way less like my ancestors and way more drop dead gorgeous.

But my favourite and I do mean my favourite is the child whose "brain is forgetting everything". She is the most blessed. You won't hear her complaining about baby brain or chemo brain or brain fog or wondering if she's developing Alzheimers. If I were her, I'd sell my list of resolutions to everyone over 50 who is wondering if they have a dementia or not. You were forgetting everything in Grade 3 - this is nothing new. Turn off the tv to make your brain work better.

Relationship with the United States

2009-01-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Canada exists because people made a decision to not follow the bright lights, higher wages and greater opportunities south of the border. Staying was an emotional decision - a love of the soil, family ties, patriatism, emotional ties to the founding nations or maybe inertia and fear of success or the unknown.

To understand the relationship between Canada and the U.S. watch the movie "A League of their Own". The U.S. is Dottie and Canada is Dottie's Sister Kit. Dottie is the beautiful, talented older sister who everyone notices and who attracts opportunities. Kit desperately wants a life - something, anything - one small break but she can only board the train if she can convince Dottie - the one they really want.

No matter how often I watch that movie I can't figure out the beginning or the ending. Why did she call her grandsons over separately and give them different messages on how to play together. Did the younger sister grow stronger or did the older sister throw the game? Which sister made the better choice - going home or staying?

The economic downturn in the States is distressing not mainly because it will inevitably lead to a similar downturn in Canada. It's upsetting because we're sisters. It's upsetting because our whole culture is built around having this older sister that dazzles us as much as, if not more than, she dazzles the rest of the world. It's upsetting because fighting her dominance gave us strength and hope and dreams.

Peter's Courses

2009-01-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

This semester my son is taking Business Math, Statistics, Personal Finance, Micro Economics and Management. Who are the gurus in these areas and what's happening in the e-learning. The only online course is Personal Finance. He has to drive into the city Monday thru Friday - on two of those days the commute takes longer than he's in class. The positives: small campus, small class size, most of the class are locals, he's taken other courses from the same teachers, few community distractions. Personally I would have considered all those positives negatives. The progress Peter is making is absolutely remarkable. In this case, small really is beautiful.

Blog Audience Matters

2008-12-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Basically I've been blogging to an anonymous, possibly non-existent audience. I was pretty content with that. I'd be thinking of university friend searching around for me when I updated Reconnecting and I'd be thinking about my CCK08 friends when writing e-learning thoughts. And then some happened. And because something happened, the future is different.

What happened? My daughter's job allows a certain amount of internet time for personal use. Being an intelligent person, she didn't want to use the company computer for checking email, facebook or surfing the web - just too much disclosure. She's decided to relax with mom's blogs. Actually I should figure out how to market myself under that heading as Lisa Lane says she relaxes with my writing as well. My secret to a long marriage is that I'm like that old pair of shoes that has stretched itself in all the right places to be a perfect fit - not new, fashionable or exciting but dang comfortable.

When Paula left home for educational purposes, we used to watch Grey's Anatomy from our different locations and pretend we were together. It was a discussion starter for phone calls. I couldn't get hooked on the show because I lived in nurses' residence for 3 years when I was young and single and all the buildings were connected by a maze of tunnels and passages so it all felt less interesting than the real thing. But I did seek out and enjoyed the writers' blog which gave me something to contribute to our talks and provided an interesting hook for me
http://www.greyswriters.com/
Her graduation marked the end of my Grey's watching.

This morning when I woke up my first thought was, "Did Paula have a snow day or not because if she's at work, I haven't created anything for her to read and maybe she'll be disappointed." Because my baby girl is reading my stuff and because I don't like disappointing her, blogging has moved from a pleasant, sometimes hard to justify diversion to this is serious mother/daughter high priority bonding time. Hopefully the process will result in my writing posts that don't disappoint you as well.

Response to Driven to Distraction

2008-12-16T23:36:00.000-08:00

http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/531831.html
Driven to Distraction: Notes on Young Adults Living and Learning with New Media by Christopher Sessums challenges a commonly held belief that social media tools used in any way that deviates from the classroom agenda is being "distracted, off task, sidetracked or a waste of time". I agree with Sessums that "self-directed" learning is legitimate learning.
Everyone currently in school knows everything there is to know about attention deficit disorder and too much deviating from the agenda could very well result in being medicated. That's quite the threat to have hanging over one's head.
It all seems very odd to me. We didn't really have labels for kids although a 12 year old who was still in Grade 1 or a Grade 4 who painted his nose green instead of the flower stem was coming pretty close to being labeled slow.
My elementary school was divided into two rooms. In the Junior Room, we were in Gr. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B. Girls tended to get through the 6 levels in 2 years and boys tended to take 4 years. The Senior Room contained Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Do that math. If the teacher divided her time evenly, each grade got 12 minutes of every hour. For 12 minutes, you were expected to focus. For the other 48 minutes, what you did was pretty much your business as long as you weren't disruptive. I multitasked (an unknown term) - combining seatwork, daydreaming, doodling, passing messages and listening to what the other grades were learning.
Perhaps all this hubbub about kids using social media tools to alleviate boredom in the classroom is more natural/traditional than having helicopter teachers so intensely focused on each child.

TeachersShare - Links

2008-12-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
One of the reasons, I didn't consider teaching is that I viewed teaching as a very lonely job - like being a mom alone with the kids all day with little positive adult acknowledgment. That and it requires the organizational skills of an obsessive compulsive to keep track of all the tiny bits of money that flow into and out of a typical elementary school classroom. Plus there's the whole parent/teacher interview thing which requires the tact of Pollyanna. And of course, the work is too important to be entrusted to someone whose performance is as variable as my own.

So imagine my surprise to discover just how highly connected teachers are. The web is packed with great things being published by teachers. They share their lesson plans and what they're reading and photos of where they are traveling and the best links to everything. So today I am providing a link to an amazing number of teacher's sites. My sidebar is growing a bit unwieldy. I have the information for putting it into a scroll bar but I'd like my daughter to be with me when I attempt it because two minds in this case would definitely be better than one.

Twitter Tips

2008-12-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.twitip.com/10-easy-steps-for-twitter-beginners/
http://www.twitip.com/

"TwiTip is edited by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger Blog Tips and is all about Twitter

What's frustrating about joining any social networking platform is publicly exposing that you don't have a clue what you are doing. Personally I appreciate someone showing me the ropes - telling me the best ways to connect.

Canadian Blog Awards

2008-12-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

http://cdnba.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/best-health-blog-of-2008/

What does it say about Canada that the 2 best health blogs were both written by obesity doctors?
What's Ruth doing today? Checking out the blogs of Canadian Blog Awards winners.

Now I've been randomly reading a few, I'm wondering about the nomination process. There are several that have previously come through on my google reader that I eliminated fairly quickly. The problem was their focus was too specific - eg sources of food within one specific city. I have reasons to visit London, Ontario - my daughter lives there and the Diocese is administered from there - but why would a seek out a farmer's produce stand there when I live in rural Ontario?

I suppose Canada likes to reward the small, the specific, the generally overlooked. I don't choose a blog for that reason. I'm not nationalistic when it comes to my google reader list - it's purely about the relevance of the content to whatever is striking my fancy at the moment.

Jurgen Wolff & Motivating Headlines

2008-12-14T23:01:00.000-08:00

1. Introduction to Jurgen Wolff - (See sidebar for link) He's a script writer, script doctor, coach, workshop leader and his books include: "Focus: the power of targeted thinking" (Pearson 2008), "Your Writing Coach" (Nicholas Brealey, 2007) and "Do Something Different" (Virgin Business Books, 2005). I have two more coming out in 2009, "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" and "Creativity Now" (both from Pearson). Previous books also include "Successful Scriptwriting," "Successful Sitcom Writing," and "Top Secrets: Screenwriting" as well as an ebook "Time Management for Writers".

2. Idea from June Brainstorm Newletter - Jurgen suggests:
" Start your day with a headline
Here's a playful but effective way I've come up with to give direction and motivation to your day: before you start working, write a headline about what you intend to achieve. Here are three examples (the exclamation marks add to the fun):

Writer Finishes Chapter 3 of Her Novel!
Taxpayer Adds Up All Receipts for Tax Returns!
Free-lancer Catches Up With Back Filing!

Generally just the headline is enough, but if it helps you can add a paragraph that specifies how you'll achieve it: "Despite the need to prepare dinner for her family and to go shopping, this writer managed to take one hour out of her day to go to Starbucks and finish the second half of Chapter 3 of her novel." ....

3. Email Backlog I went into my gmail and searched for everything I have received from Jurgen's website since June. I've received 16 items which I quickly glanced at while busy with CCK08. My backlog of emails is astounding but rather than flitting from email to email, I'm going to batch them by sender and take my time making notes and actually absorbing what the writer is communicating. I decided to start with Jurgen because something clicks between his suggestions and finding a way around, over, through the block between a thought and an action.

Stepping Stone Education

2008-12-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

There have been many great changes in education since my days on campus. When I was 18, Ontario community colleges were a fairly new phenomenon. Even our guidance teachers weren't too clear about whether a community college diploma would mean anything. For sure we knew that no one would recognize a correspondence education or consider a privately managed college the equivalent of a college financed by the tax payers. When I worked in HR, the older the institution, the more substantial the weight of its name. Brock, Laurentian, Athabasca, York, Simon Fraser were babies offering degrees in weird things like women's studies or Canadian studies or any number of new concepts that seemed trendy - unmarketable, fly-by-night majors for the flower children of parents with too much money or too little practicality or so we thought. Young adults were used to being sorted out into categories - categories that kept you in your place. There were 2 year high school trades programs and 4 year programs that anticipated you'd settle in the area and 5 year university preparation courses with ways to flow down but with no options for late developers to flow upward.
Registered Nurses could get into a 3 year post RN degree program. There was a recognition that bright, poor girls from large families had the option of becoming RNs in order to finance the education that parents didn't want to invest in for a girl who'd probably stay home and raise a family anyway.
And with the arrival of community colleges, there were people like me who got a general B.A. in the arts or social sciences and then enrolled in community colleges for higher paying skills.
Today education is like a smorgasbord. With a little thought, a little research, asking a few right questions, creating a plan, it is possible to reap the advantages of choosing a bit of everything rather than being told if one wants steak and seafood, it is necessary to order the entire steak dinner and follow it up with the entire seafood dinner.
The institutions that are going to win are the ones that offer flexibility - have educational agreements with other institutions - know how to recognize what has already been learned and what is still required - have a plan for people to climb the steps to higher level certifications. The advantages also lie with those institutions which can quickly adapt themselves to the educational requirements for the 21st century - that offer those cutting edge courses which look like trends but are really the future. And the prestige will go to those who are recognizable names because employers can go to their open courses and see for themselves the quality of the lectures, the quality of the courses, the variety of delivery methods and learning tools imparted.
Let's not wax nostalgic about the past - the medieval model. It had a long, great run and I'm proud to have experienced it. Today is a whole new story - one with freshness, promise and choices we could never have even imagined.

What's with "I'm a Fan of"

2008-12-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

I don't get the "I'm a fan of" sites on facebook. It reminds me of Cuban Gooding Jr boarding the bus and discovering that he's hijacked a busload of I Love Lucy fans. If the person is alive, why wouldn't I just contact them. If the person is dead, well why would I contact them - I find all those Elvis Impersonators a bit ghoulish.
There must be something I don't understand. Obviously thousands of people link together over Star Trek so maybe someone could tell me why it is so bonding to be a fan of Greys Anatomy or whatever. I do however get visiting the script writers' blog and reading about the creation process.
Speaking of icons,I read about this woman who decorated her apartment with pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Scarlett O'Hara. She reasoned that she'd be unforgetable to ex-lovers because she was so associated with those ubiquitous images.
And speaking of Scarlett, one of the southern belle sites said that northern women were foolish to sit in a room and weep over lost loves. According to southern wisdom, the thing to do is to buy a fabulous outfit, get a stunning hair style and go to the barbecue and charm the room so the guy who dumped you will realize what a foolish mistake he just made.

Famous Canadian Women

2008-12-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

On my other blog, I've mentioned Canadian Prime Ministers' wives so I decided to search out their images on google images. Basically it had to do with an anonymous reply suggesting that new Liberal Leader's wife isn't stylish enough. My memory only goes back as far as Olive Diefenbaker but I don't remember Olive Diefenbaker or Maryon Pearson being particulary photogenic. It seems to me that before tv, our politicians wives were more apt model themselves after Eleanor Roosevelt than Cindy McCain and being a pioneering people that suited us just fine. In my searching around for images, I visited a website entited "Famous Canadian Women's Timeline". This cannot be right.
http://famouscanadianwomen.com/timeline/timeline2006.htm
In 2006, seven famous Canadian women died and 4 living famous Canadian women's achievements were mentioned.
In 2007, four famous Canadian women died and Hayley Wickenheiser was named Canadian athlete of the year.
In 2008, two famous Canadian women died and no entries were made of any achievements.
This trend does not look promising.
When it comes to Canadian political wives, Margaret Trudeau, Maureen McTeer and Milia Mulroney were widely photographed and brutually criticized. Since them, I won't recognize Geills Turner, Sheila Martin or Laureen Harper if I ran into them in the supermarket. Aline Chretien seems to be the only one who was private enough to escape being pillaged by the press while public enough to be a widely recognized face.
Nobody ever died from being publicly criticized. Women of achievement please come out of the shadows and be mentors and role models.

Google Images

2008-12-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I just discovered google images. It's been sitting there above my gmail all this time and I didn't notice it. When I went to google images, I didn't know what to put into the search box. I saw a suggestion about engravings which took me to an engraving of the widowed Queen Victoria. Don't you think I look remarkably like her? Now I'll have to hunt around for the rules about images of Royalty. Actually I'll have to hunt around for the rules regarding the use of any google image. I've been interested in looking at the Time Life photos but it's late and I'll have to leave that for another day. The thing I really like about google is that it never enters the time I actually post my blogs. I have no idea what time zone they use but it must be half way around the world. I'm thinking maybe Australian time. Usually I'm up until some scandalous hour and the draft is autosaved at the time I actually created it but when I hit publish, this perfectly respectable time appears. I wonder if it works in reverse. Does anyone here publish at a respectable time such as 8 p.m. and have an hour appear such as 11 a.m. when they've entered into the accounts that they were working on a billable project?

Adora Svitak

2008-12-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Visit http://www.adorasvitak.com/ and be impressed. She's a great communicator, a prolific writer, has travelled widely and is media savey.

Now I'm going to do my wicked fairy Sleeping Beauty thing even though I look like and have the sweet nature of Merryweather. Under all that brilliance is a little girl with normal developmental stages to pass through. Joyce prepare yourself for these 3 inevitable events.

1. All kids have a day when they yell, "You've ruined my life. You've made me different from my friends". It's normal. However you parent a child, it is inevitable that you will create a unique human being. Brace yourself for the stage when being unique won't feel like a gift for her or you. This too will pass. Unlike Sleeping Beauty's parents, our kingdom won't go to sleep for a hundred years and only awake when true love appears. Ordinary mortals are awake for the whole thing.

2. At 16, all kids want to leave home. In Adora's case that might not be a problem. She might be completing a Ph.D. program at Yale by then. For us ordinary mortals, when the kid says, "I'm living here but don't think I like it. As soon as I get the money together, I'm out of here", most of us know that we've got about 2 years before they can make good on that threat and that gives us time to get them through high school and into college. I think parenting must be a bit more complex when there isn't a long waiting period between the desire and the necessary cash.

3. The first thing that pops into my mind when I watch Adora is Olivia Newton John and John Travolta in Grease. Watch the movie. Go to the library and read "Stupid Boys Are Good to Relax With" by Susan Swan and don't be too surprised if opposites attract. Most princesses kiss a few frogs that don't turn into princes. As the educational gap broadens between girls and guys, statistically the odds are stacked against Adora's prince being a prodigy as well.

Maybe I'm all wrong. Maybe Adora will sail through all life's passages but hormones have been know to create the occasional storm. The best parenting days are the ones when it's hard and somehow you get it right in spite of yourself.

Food Police - Not Me

2008-12-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

My previous post on Yoni may have given the impression that I'm the food police. Far from it. I flipped pancakes in the shape of the letter P when my son David was in kindergarten. He and his cohort of little buddies had no interest whatsoever in learning how to read. They looked like they were created to work on the docks or more probably to haul a moose out of the bush. When I asked what they liked about school, snack was #1 followed closely by recess or perhaps the other way around. What they really liked was wrestling to see who was the strongest. The one thing you could count on was no matter how much you fed them, they'd always be hungry. It took a whole community to keep their little bellies full. Their kindergarten teacher taught everything with food. It was the only thing that worked and even that didn't create any miracles. I just figured God made food in a multitude of colours for kids like them. Today is orange day so we'll wear orange clothes and eat orange food and play with orange toys and paint orange pictures and carve a pumpkin and if you don't know orange by the end of the day, we give up - knowing orange is probably highly over-rated anyway.
My point was that children come in different shapes but their little hearts are pretty similar. Nobody really knows why kids are getting heavier. My son and his friends were all muscle - strong like little bears. It had nothing to do with virtue or self-discipline or anyone monitoring calories or setting activity quotas. Don't look at the kids - look at what's changed in their environment.

What's the Shelf Life of an Academic?

2008-12-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

A Professor Emeritus can be really ancient. Win a Nobel Prize and your courted well into your dotage. Gwyneth Paltrow in Prime suggests that it's never going to happen if you haven't developed your elegant mathematical theorum before 30. I'm not sure where John Nash and Stephen Hawkins fit - they are outside the box and in their own categories.
Does the brilliant brain stay nimble and is a nimble brain essential?
How physically demanding is thinking, reading, presenting? It was a real shock to me how much stamina it took just to audit CCK08 from my own home. It certainly ended any delusions that it was possible to pick up where you left off after raising a family.
What aspect of teaching finally does one in? I had a professor who said the key to teaching is enthusiasm. So maybe people reach a point where it just isn't exciting anymore. Perhaps it's when your style is no longer in vogue or your name is no longer a drawing card.
Here's a confession. When I'm paying tuition, I google the teacher's name. You'd be surprised how often nothing comes up. How can that even be possible? Even dead people have their obituaries online.

Wordle

2008-12-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

I have a fascination with words and word art. Wordles are very aesthetically appealing to me. So today I gave my husband my Christmas list. I want a head mike for my computer and I want coloured computer ink so I can start playing with wordles. If you've created any wordles, I'd love to look at them. I've visited the wordle blog http://blog.wordle.net/ and now know Jonathon Feinberg is the creator. Send me links to your creations. The ones that especially appeal to me are based on classical writers, musicians and artists. I had an aunt who taught Great books at Redford High School in Detroit who was my own Auntie Mame.

YouTube Orchestra

2008-12-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=qwTiF0HMrog
I found the best explanation of the proposed youtube orchestra on the youtube blog. I'm a huge fan of youtube. It's such a great repository. When I'm reading, there's usually something I need to check out and my two basic choices are whether or not to go to wikipedia or to youtube. If it involves music or dance, a film clip or a visual of how to do something, youtube is the site of choice. I love the movie Casablanca but life is short and the only way I can justify the time commitment required to watch the full version is if I put on the French subtitles and call it a language lesson. If I just want to watch it for sappy emotionalism, I go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_bMFVDu9yo
It saves me a couple of hours and concentrates the romanticism.

Yoni Freedhoff & Childhood Obesity

2008-12-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

http://bmimedical.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-this-future-of-childhood-obesity.html
Yoni Freedhoff is the most important person I can bring to your attention. He is an Obesity Doctor in Ottawa who is one of the few voices out there who attacks the sources of North American obesity rather than the kids. His blog is called Weighty Matters and he'll never run out of things to post. He photographs the food choices offered in hospital cafeterias, publishes video clips of junk food advertising embedded within tv shows, food advertised as healthy choices which aren't, etc.

I wish mankind were evolving into a kinder species but it only changes which group it discriminates against. Young children have only a limited arsonal of ways to self-medicate, to punish themselves, to protect themselves, to comfort themselves. They don't have the option of coming home from a rugged day and choosing from a variety of substances to make themselves feel better or quitting their job or divorcing their parents or firing any professional that just plain doesn't like them. No group faces more play ground discrimination, no group gets a clearer message that people would rather be dead than like them. It's even ok now for professionals to advise parents to not allow their children to be friends with a fat kid and maybe it's even a health risk to be a friend of a friend of a fat kid.

Rather than hurting a fat kid which is really easy to do, think carefully about how much money your school receives from companies that produce junk food and beverages, how many fundraisers involve selling high fat food, and assess what exactly are the food options available in your cafeteria with special emphasis on fat, sugar and salt content. If it comes out of can, the salt content is probably amazingly high and that includes soup. And forget trusting the healthy labels - the organizations that put healthy labels on food are just as dependent on the food industry for financial support as are our schools and the hospitals. Healthy food choices and organized, high quality activities cost money and are rarely available in the neighbourhoods that need them most.

When One Has Two Blogs

2008-12-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

Creating the links to my FaceBook/CCK08 friends took a far bit of time. Because I'd like to invite people who live in more conservative countries, I decide to uninvite the young girl who now works in a bar and posts pictures that might offend. She won't notice because she has thousands of facebook friends. As an aside, she raised as much for the Cancer Society with her sexy Santa party as any charitable, labour-intensive event put on by a whole organization of seasoned adults in this community. When I think of the days of work that goes into putting on and cleaning up after a turkey supper, I am sooo tempted to call Amanda. But I can't because I can't for a million reasons that have to do with respect for another human being.
Anyway, back to the topic - I find that when I separated the educational part out of the original blog, the first blog is becoming more reflective, more about feelings - more about hopes and lessons learned by living.

Blogs of Facebook/CCK08 Friends

2008-12-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

I've done my best at creating a blog list for Facebook/CCK08 friends. If your name is on the list and you would prefer being linked to a different blog, please let me know. If your name is not on the list, I either couldn't find your blog or there were no current postings. If you are not on the list and think you should be added, please mske a request. Alternatively, if you are on the list and would prefer not to be, I will remove your name if you request it.

Blogspot Hyperlink Solution

2008-12-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

Ronald Southern was great but had no concept of how little I know. Either I never noticed it before or he added the toolbar. For sure he gets credit for my knowing I have an editing toolbar. I read everything but was definitely only randomly getting it right. For some reason, a lightbulb turned on in my brain and I checked out youtube. After watching this video 5 times http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22aY7LdNcbU&feature=related and writing a note to myself:
1. highlight and copy url in text you want to turn into a hyperlink
2. then hit green thing in toolbar (if you're over 50 and not wearing glasses, it looks like a crocodile (ok I've been comparing the old Peter Pan dvd to the more modern version - and I really like the old crocodile's eyes a lot so maybe that's why I'm seeing crocodile eyes instead of the whirl/globe/chain thing in the video)
3. A box appears on the top of the screen.
4. delete the http:// part of the template
5. paste in the url you want.
6. hit ok
7. hit publish
TaDa - I could consistently create a hyperlink.
Your reading this post because by tomorrow without the note, I'd be starting at square one again.
It's been a gas doing this. I got really thrown when in html the blog address appears twice (I kept deleting one of them and wondered why I was getting nothing where the hyperlink should have been in the post). Nonetheless, I liked the old way when the hyperlink just appeared like magic. I watch Disney. Magic works for me.

Hyper-link problem

2008-12-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the hyperlink problem. As soon as it's fixed, all my facebook e-learning members will be listed under favourite blogs.
Ronald Southern of http://20stickyposts.blogspot.com is the solver of blogspot problems. After reading how to manually correct the problem which I'll attempt on a braver day, I discovered what JAVA is for. This might actually be where the problem lies as I just updated my JAVA even though I didn't have a clue what it was or how it had been changed.
Once again it is obvious why I think I have a niche in the e-learning blogsphere. I really do begin the journey from the very beginning.

Wisdom

2008-12-05T02:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.wisdombook.org
This links to a video by Andrew Zuckerman of famous people telling what they think wisdom is. Click on "the portraits" and you'll never be afraid of aging again. Time creates much more interesting faces than youth. If you're pressed for time go right to the end and click on the portrait of Andrew Wyeth. That's the most stunning face in the group.
We get so used to Hollywood surgically or digitally enhanced faces. We need expressive faces - faces that say something - faces that have lived.

Finding Edubloggers

2008-12-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

http://edublogawards.com/2008/best-resource-sharing-blog-2008
Best Resource Sharing Edublog is a wealth of examples for beginning bloggers. The site has the nominees and winners going back to 2004. So I'm beginning my journey into blogging about e-learning by visiting a nominated site each day and learning all I can from these committed, talented people. My family/friend blog has been my first awkward venture into blogging but I've been stumbling around with organization. It is good to have a site to recommend to friends who don't know where to begin.

Separate Education Blog

2008-12-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

I have been posting everything at http://ruthdemitroff.blogspot.com. For this blog I just reduced the "ruth" part to "r". The great thing about acquiring an unusual last name is there's never a problem with availability.
Now the connectivism course has ended, I've decided to go back and spend more time on the readings and take a stab at the assignments just for the fun of it. I'm also following the blog/twitter/facebook/delicious postings of some key players in the course and see where they go from here. You'll also find some references to what's going on at SCoPE and anywhere else I take a fancy to.
One of my major observations is that the online learning crowd is very inclusive towards anyone who is committed to exploring what is possible and what can be improved. I've spent my adult life in very tall, hierarchial institutions with gatekeepers and a status quo carved in granite. There's only so many hours in the day and only so many days in a lifetime so why not walk through the open gate. I'm Alice in Wonderland sliding down the Rabbit Hole and enjoying the ride.