Jim's Blog

From David Warlick’s blog on teaching and learning — a thought-provoking essay (wait, I am redundant), an essay discussing the utilities of a textbook.  Lots of ideas that may provoke many more essays, hopefully to learn why we use texts, how texts may transform, what we should do about texts whose cost exceed both present and future value….  But, nonetheless, lots of ideas…  like:

The job of the teacher would be to locate (or cause to be located) and attach content (both open-source and/or commercial), in any appropriate format, to that arrangement of scope and sequence-forming tags and constantly filter and refine that content based on changing conditions and newly available content?

What might this process look like as an integral part of teacher education?  Might the act of starting their own flexible digital textbooks be a part of learning to teach.  (Is “Flexbook” trademarked?  How about “flexibook?”)

Seems like yesterday, I lifted Caiti up to place the star on the family Christmas tree.  Now she enters the blogosphere, and writes about her fear of heights and why she writes.

Dave Winer discusses the power of writing as it is an exercise in thinking.  Dave Winer is one of the creators of the blogosphere.  I started blogging 12 years ago using one of his first blog products, Radio UserLand.

Which reminds me of other good readings about why we (should) write:

• On Writing – Stephen King
• Learning a Trade – Reynolds Price
• Thinking on Paper – V.A. Howard and J.H. Barton

Writing is purpose-driven thinking.  Writing is hard work.  Writing can be exegesis for the curious and an occlusion of reality for the escapist.

Here’s to good thoughts, good writing, and a mastery of the outputs of her amygdala!

Good read

Teaching a MOOC: Lessons Learned & Best Balch Practices

no time to talk — bunch of books here you will want to check out

Searls provides arguments supporting the idea that people want lists, not stories.

Are outlines a good way to present arguments, lessons, so that students can see the connection, the logic, supporting the arguments?

Found floating thru my twitter stream, Mr. Boyd discusses  “Speculative Design.”  Worth the read.  Some quotes of interest:

Jeff Hammerbacher’s observation that ‘the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads’.

So, if the best minds of the 90’s created derivatives, shall we expect the same dynamic of calamities from the current focus?

We shouldn’t think about the future as a smooth, comfortable extrapolation of the mundane. We are over that. We have moved into the post-modern, where new norms prevail. Some characterize our new world as VUCA: unsurpassed levels of volatilty, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

Smooth sailing, no?

Is the political chaos and gridlock in the US a function of the liquifying political system? Our systems of governance are based on electing a very small number of people to represent all the rest. Can we cut out the middle man in politics like we have in buying books? What would web-mediated direct democracy work like? Feel like? Smell like? The Pirate Party in Europe is using a platform called Liquid Feedback, which is central to their inner workings, but is a speculative design for the rest of us.

Provocative thought!

Reconnecting people to their food will be huge.

And a means of “grounding” our local economies… Perhaps Boyd should run for office.

Rachel Armstrong said recently that the problem with ‘the future’ is that it’s not the future at all: it’s a version of now. It’s the distillation of predetermined cultural prejudices and preconceptions, it’s not a map, or even a good science fiction story.

But you can design revealing toys that explore our preconceptions, construct ‘imaginary appliances’ to help us trick our way out of the corner we have painted ourselves into. And it might be that the corners with the most paint — the hardest problem spaces — might be the most rewarding areas of exploration.

Enough said — To work!

Interesting read — in this article (Can we save American capitalism?) – author notes

• Allen Metzler says “capitalism’s secret is how well it disperses political and economic power”
• Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto – corporations performing for the expectations of the stock market ignore information from the real market – thus missing long term innovations and gains in value
• Adam Smith “would readily acknowledge that a capitalist system forfeits not only its economic rationale but its moral justification if all its benefits are captured by a tiny slice at the top of society”