Friday, September 19, 2008

Connectivism & Connective Knowledge

Connectivism & Connective Knowledge

Stephen Downes and George Siemens, along with Dave Cormier have an interesting project going on... the more I know about it, the more I like it. These dudes are the smartest in the room - because the 'KNOW' more? No, because there are creating the biggest networks.

boom!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

(Video) Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do : DivineCaroline

(Video) Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do : DivineCaroline: "Tinkering School"

A great short video about raising kids in a modern overly safe world.

Why I think it's cool: It made me think of a few things actually. 1) I'm reading a book by Mel Levine in which he talks about spoiled, over protected children who can't deal with adult non-parent mediated life. You can't deal with it b/c they were never taught about it. I think problem based learning can fix this - meaning setting learners/users/students/kids loose on a problem and let them make mistakes/get cut or bruised/break something - the key is not a safe physical environment, it's a safe emotional environment. The teacher/parent/designer says I'll protect you when you get hurt, not "I'll protect you from getting hurt".

okay 2) I thought about my Grandfather. He taught me to do dangerous things safely. He taught me to shoot, gave me pocket knifes constantly. He taught me to drive (that was tuff on him) and he taught me about gasoline and fire. All of this was done in the context of his farm and with such reverence and care for the dangers of life, that I'm forever grateful.

3) Millennial students are moving farther away from this type of experience and are become risk averse AND careless/ reckless at the same time. The aren't learning the lessons from grandpa on the farm. If they carry a pocket knife - they might use it to stab someone, or if they carry a gun...

Why I think you should watch the video: I think we all have to do our part to help childern we interact with to understand dangers and learn the lessons of safety... learn by doing, not listen to adults lecture or reading safety labels.

To find out more about the speaker, Gever Tulley and "The tinkering school", check out the blog - http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Hello 2008

Bathroom Sink Popup and Stopper Problems from the Natural Handyman Home Repair and Do It Yourself website




Without going into too much detail, this site and this graphic helped me out tremendously this morning. ... It's a good thing. hehe - I clogged the drain when I shaved off my beard on the day of the epiphany which happened also to be the day my Grandfather, John, died.

He was a good guy. He may have been a Taoist - Christian Taoist.


yep