Infinite Thinking Machine

Infinite Thinking Machine: "I'll frequently ask my audiences of educational technologists why Apache, MySQL, PHP, and/or Python--all current building blocks of the Web, and which can be obtained for free and run on older computers--aren't being taught in schools"

Oh yes!

Sorry about the long Hiatus (sp?) from posting but I'm been busy (! /smile)

Anyway, I'm all about educational paradox and FOSS. The paradox is that this stuff is free and useful, yet school continue to teach with stuff that's expensive and pointless.

phenomenal genius guy - Lin Yutang

Like LinYuTang, I am a reasonable nudist. He is a really pretty cool
and I think ready for a surge in popularity. A friend recently said she only skinny dips in her bath tub and it reminded me of this essay.

16

ON BEING NAKED

NUDISM has come to America, I am told. Let it come! I

just fail to see what harm it can do. I have been a nudist all

my life without my knowing it.

Now it should be clearly understood at the beginning that

I am a reasonable nudist, as against the doctrinaire and fa­

natic nudists, as I always am a reasonable vegetarian as dis­

tinguished from the fanatic vegetarians. Like all Chinese,

and following the old doctrine of the Golden Mean, I am all

for nudism at certain hours and in certain circumstances, in

the bathtub, for instance, but I am dead against going down

Broadway in the native garb my mother gave me. I can hon­
estly
tell you that it is beautiful to feel naked in one's bath (that's all
I could find online) It's in the book "with love and irony"

His famous book is "The importance of
living". He is 'phenomenal genius guy' of mine, because for all his
smarts he still lives as he pleases. He wrote this about wisdom‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

The Idler » Idle Idols: Lin Yutang

On Wisdom: ‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

It's August, Ya'll

WALT WHITMAN, LEAVES OF GRASS

I know I am solid and sound,

To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.



I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt
stick at night.



I know I am august,

I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,

I see that the elementary laws never apologize,


I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.

My Future Job

IT Development and Training Specialist job in Durham, NC: Technology and Pharmaceutical/Biotech careers - Yahoo HotJobs

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

.Bachelor's degree in Education, Computer Science or related area or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that provides the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities
.Two - Five years experience in the development and delivery of IT training
.Or equivalent combination of education, training and experience that provide the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

.Ability to Design and development of learning and training materials
.Excellent verbal/written communication skills
.Ability to apply adult learning theory
.Model building skills
.Problem-solving abilities
.Ability to understand and apply project management skills
.Performance observation skills
.Ability to understand and apply job tools/aids techniques
.Ability to interact successfully in front of large groups
.Strong presentation skills
.Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to motivate and coach others
.Ability to work independently
.Ability to prioritize well
.Ability to multitask
.Positive attitude and ability to work well with others
.Advanced computer skills

I think the MIT program can give me these skills. Which ones will I focus on? Which need work?

Ernie Cline's NerdPorn

Dance, Monkeys, Dance - Flash animation

From the guy who brougth you the Dance, Monkeys, Dance animation:

Nerd Porn:

A silly video

Doug Noon and Stephen Downes write about future education and classroom reform

Good Morning HiFives Readers...

Doug at Borderland pulls together and explains his thoughts after reading Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society and others School 2.0 ideas and resistance to systemic change in schools. The spawn event was working on a committee to rewrite his school's mission statement. Where the idea for a Wiki to complete the work was shot down by a ... reactionary colleague.

I had a similar experience with a volunteer at a Non-Profit, where I volunteer. Without going into detail, when I suggested a blog and wiki to handle some of the admin communication and scheduling, this guy said "I've had this same conversation many times before." My Dad says this to me as well. I think that's a problem of over generalization and wrong headed. However, not being defensive and being very Edward de Bono, I took his perspective and tried to figure out what the real objection. I think I convinced him that, indeed, things have changed since 1999, when he had "the same conversation". The very next week, the org started a new schedule blog. Change happens.

Doug is great about spreading around the good links. He linked this Downes article and I found the following quote

Half an Hour: To The School or Classroom 2.0 Advocates

We need to stop employing students as fast-food servers and sales clerks. They are capable of much better than that, and an exercise in corporate demeaning is probably not the best way to introduce them to society.

We should begin offering students full-time employment in certain fields as alternatives to their formal studies. Such a program should logically begin at the higher grades (grades 11 and 12) as well as being brought on-stream as an alternative to college and university.

Most such employment involves the creation of some sort of content or another. The ranges of possible employment are covered in my diagram:

- students could provide ultra-local news, entertainment and sports reporting
- students could provide up-to-date surveying and inventories of civic property
- students could conduct scientific field-research such as bird-counting, ecosystem sampling, pollution-measuring and the like
- students could help supervise younger children

and more - the possibilities are limited only by our imaginations.

I feel this is exactly what Sandra and Mr. Meador are trying to do with Topsail High School here in Pender Co. They are making a Project based curriculum around a school new production. And it reminds me of the project at St. Martin De Porres High school in Cleveland (Thanks Karen Nestor) ... And it is exactly what I want to do with the MIT program in UNCW.

The trick to making this attractive is to present it, not as the dog-eat-dog struggle for survival that characterizes our existing economy, but rather as a large and complex game, played partially on the computer and partially in RL, in which they play an increasingly important role.

Now here is the Edu-Gaming part - Thank you Stephen Downes. YES! This is what I think of when I play WoW (the famously popular World of Warcraft) hmmm... enough for now.. Thanks for the inspiration.

I'm back!