Contemplating Crap

I seem to keep spinning my wheels. For every task I accomplish, I find or remember 3 more that need to be done. I don't know that I will ever get ahead, but I do have a suggestion for the future MEIT courses with this class - offer it during the summer when we have more time to play with the toys. Some of this stuff is really cool (I don't know about using it in high school education, but . . .) but I don't have nearly enough time to play with it and learn more about it. Disappointing really. But I figure we will get a vacation sooner or later. LOL

My flickr badge

I am trying to upload my photos from Flickr, but I seem to be having trouble. Maybe someone out there can help me by explaining what to do.

Memories of my loved ones gone . . .

She would have been 46 today, but instead she past away. I still miss her, and sometimes I still cry. I know others do, too. I once wrote a poem for her, but I can't seem to find it now. So instead, I will share part one that will still fill the bill.

Shady Lane

. . .

And on this path I walk alone, with memories at my side,

The memories of my loved ones gone, of how I've laughed and cried. . .

Revisiting a prior post

My brother-in-law finally found the article from the Scientific American Mind about multitasking has how it really doesn't happen. (Thanks, Pete!) Here is the link:

http://csecacademics.info/braintraining/limitsofmultitasking.html

I read this and I think about the topics of our classes lately (podcasting, video streaming). Yes, offering a variety of media from which to capture the information may help this information stick in the minds of our students, but can they really process all of it in the time that we allow? I like the idea of reaching various types of learner (auditory, and visual, and tactile) with a single lesson, but are we allowing enough time? The article mentions that multiple tasks (like audio/video streaming?) can take up to one and half times longer to complete than if you concentrate on one task at a time. So I guess the big question is: is it really that much more efficient?

After careful consideration . . .

After careful consideration and endless daydreaming (and prompting from my professor), I think I have come up with a plan (or two) that will use blog-type assignments. I have to say blog-TYPE because our district blocks blogs and forums, and so I have to be a bit more creative. One thing we do have is a subscription to Blackboard(R), and I will use it to the fullest extent. 

The first blog-type assignment that I would like to do involves finding chemistry in the world - or should I say, "their" world. They will need to search online weekly to find something somewhere that is linked to chemistry. Then, in a blog type entry on the Discussion board on Blackboard(R), they will have to link the articles, and explain where they see the chemistry. 

I fully expect to get more science-related entries than chemistry-related entries in the beginning, but I expect it to go smoothly once everyone gets used to the assignment. Just think, I am giving them an excuse to cruise the web, and they can claim it as an assignment! That and the fact that I can link anything to chemistry makes this a jewel. (I actually had a teacher when I was in high school who did a similar assignment in Biology, so I refuse to take credit for this one.) 

Last weeks insights

I read some more of the "A whole new mind" by Daniel Pink this week and realized that I see myself as a lot of what he describes as "whole minded". I also realized that I see a lot of the "whole mind" mindset in my world. My brother-in-law got his most recent job, he feels, in a large part because he spends time and is interested in music. This seemed to strike a cord with one of the interviewers. After reading about 'symphony' in the book, I began to see how this interest in music may actually have helped his career. (And if he reads this blog, thanks for letting me use you!)

Interesting reading

I got the book required for class (something like Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts for the classroom) just about the same time that I got the book "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink, and I have been in a quandary as to which book to read first. I need one for class, which starts on the 8th of September, but I am really interested in the other. So I am trying to read them simultaneously, and in a strange way, they fit together. 

When I read the one, it talks about students collaborating to produce a complete, well rounded project. Then I read the other, and it talked about how society is moving more to the "big picture" and a complete, well rounded vision. Interesting.