Got Fleck???

In our WEC class, the next book we are discussing is called The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, by Ludwik Fleck. This gentlemen was a scientist and researcher, who survived the Holocaust. More importantly- he wrote, and his stiff has been translated for all to read. He is considered to be one of the people at the forefront of The Chaos Theory- deep stuff.

Well in response to one question posed by a classmate’s blog “What were Fleck’s purposes in choosing syphilis? As well as underlying themes?”

I think he  all to that wonder-of-an STD Syphilis because he could. he was a research scientist who used his daily work to help with his theories.  He is interested in how facts are developed and notes that facts indeed don’t just exist, they develop in the thought collective, which by the way differs from male to female. Thoughts are all associations- and discovery is what changes thought styles and collectives.

More later..

Somewhat belated Wenger posting..

After much trepidation, I am posting my response to Etienne Wenger, an author responsible for the text “Communities of Practice” which is required reading for our graduate course, Writing for Electronic Communities.

This, for me was a tough read. I did not enjoy trying to make sense of the scenarios with Ariel. I had a hard time focusing in on his main ideas. The notes at the back of the book helped me immnesely. Not fun.

What I got out of it:

Wenger defines learning communities as as coming together in which a joint learning takes place. He is searching for the “spirit” of the group as well.

Additionally, Wenger determines that learning is a really important component to just being human. People need to participate and help buld the knowledge for the group as a whole, as well as for themselves. he is interested in the social construct and decontextualization of the whole learning process. And delves in, and in…

Gripe of the day!

Ok, so we had school today. Not a delayed opening, but a full day of school. Keep in mind, it is late Feb, and we have not had any days off from school due to weather.

I left my house early, and a ride that normally takes my 35 mins took and hour and half(minus 5 minutes for a critical WAWA stop).

My car, a compact, rear-wheel drive vehicle, got stuck, literally stuck, in the middle of a busy intersection filled with slush in which I had to stop initially for another car in front of me that spun out of control. Thanks to the aid of a random stranger who helped save my wheels by pushing as I accelerated, I was able to free my car and continue the journey in, driving like a grandmother…
What a terrible way to start the day! TGIF!!!!

Thank you Humane Society!

Thank you for once again openingmy eyes to another horror of animal abuse. it is easy to forget that animals up for slaughter need to be treated with compassion. The people in the video abusing these sick, defenseless animals deserve equal or worse treatment. In my eyes, crimes against children and animals cannot and will not be forgiven. Excuse my frank nature here, but I feel many in our society are just “too doped” up to really give a damn about much, including animals.

We will see though, after the results of this secret video are viewed.

Shift Happens…

Today we are at a teacher in service regarding technology. This short video from you tube is an excellent view of why teachers need to be connected to the information age.

First McLuhan thoughts…

In our grad. class, WEC, we are currently reading a book of lectures from a dude named Marshall McLuhan. He was a genius, sort of the fortune-teller of new media starting back from the 1950’s and onward. Reading this is totally applicable to someone looking for views that represented those involved with technology at the start of blossoming technology throes. This guy is puzzling. He was an insightful person who was ready to share his views with an unsuspecting (and unbelieving world).

I like how the book is chronologically prepared- you can kind of trace his thoughts and make some connections; at other times he can be a bit wordy and confusing…

Interesting quote to ponder:It is now the task of educators, McLuhan implores, to train “the young in mastery of the new global media”

 

on Marshall…

Taken from his website…pretty cool stuff here. I like quotes, and am working on a list of my own!

IF IT WORKS,
IT’S
OBSOLETE

Marshall McLuhanisms

The story of modern America begins With the discovery of the white man by
The Indians.

Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public
incredulity.

Whereas convictions depend on speed-ups, justice requires delay.

The nature of people demands that most of them be engaged in the most
frivolous possible activities—like making money.

With telephone and TV it is not so much the message as the sender that is
“sent.”

Money is the poor man’s credit card.

We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into
the future.

Spaceship earth is still operated by railway conductors, just as NASA is
managed by men with Newtonian goals.

Invention is the mother of necessities.

You mean my whole fallacy’s wrong?

Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.

The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.

Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?

The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying for it.

People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.

The road is our major architectural form.

Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.

Today the business of business is becoming the constant invention of new business.

The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.

News, far more than art, is artifact.

When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body.

Tomorrow is our permanent address.

All advertising advertises advertising.

The answers are always inside the problem, not outside.

“Camp” is popular because it gives people a sense of reality to see a replay of their lives.

This information is top security. When you have read it, destroy yourself.

The specialist is one who never makes small mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy.

One of the nicest things about being big is the luxury of thinking little.

Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.

The missing link created far more interest than all the chains and explanations of being.

In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.

When a thing is current, it creates currency.

Food for the mind is like food for the body: the inputs are never the same as the outputs.

Men on frontiers, whether of time or space, abandon their previous identities. Neighborhood gives identity. Frontiers snatch it away.

The future of the book is the blurb.

The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially.

A road is a flattened-out wheel, rolled up in the belly of an airplane.

At the speed of light, policies and political parties yield place to charismatic images.

“I may be wrong, but I’m never in doubt.”

—Copyright © 1986, McLuhan Associates, Ltd.

On loss…

Our middle school is dealing with the sudden death of a seventh grade student, Kaela. She died of meningitis, which came on very suddenly (Wed.) and ended her life Saturday morning.

This is the first time in my five years of teaching, that I am dealing with the death of a student. Although I didn’t teach her, I saw her everyday in the hall with her sister who is an eighth grader. It is hard. I had to send three girls from homeroom who were hysterical to the media center for counseling already today. Not a good day.

It is especially hard because I know and understand their pain. When I was 22, my youngest sister was killed in a car accident. She was a senior in high school. I remember thinking at the time about how she would be remembered, commemorated in her high school.

I find today particularly difficult because this is bringing me back to the time of my sister’s death, and now I understand the colored ribbons, shirts of support etc. They do help.

I will be making ribbon pins with my eighth graders today in Kaela’s memory.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/obit/

wikis made easy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

An interesting post in The Courier Post

A story in the Currents section of the 2/3/2008 Courier Post (can go online as well) was entitled “Is English the next Latin?”

This story drew me in because of the title, mainly, as well as the varieties of English in a sub-section. Point is- English is not ours-truly; English on the street can vary from place to place. Another point that drew me in-as an English teacher, I am continually faced with students who are growing further form the plain “English” most adults use , and are headed towards a sort of cyber speak.

I still do not know where I stand on this issue; however, I do understand that school administrations across the country are striving to combat the “wrong” types of English being allowed into classrooms because of blogging/texting.

The pressure is on teachers to help delineate between right and wrong English for students.

This article was a bit interesting- it gives insight into English as a global majority, one of which is shrinking due to the rise in numbers of other nations of people who are not English.

One great point of the article is that “It will not even be necessary for one language to be chosen as ‘the new world language,’ for as computer processing gets cheaper and faster, technology is clearly going to solve the problem of interpreting-even face-to-face or with mass audiences.”

This indeed is something that everyone, not only teachers, will be facing more and more in this century.