For TMac

Your life will change once you start visiting this site....
Overheard in New York

On a side note...

...Damn Mets!

The Gap

Here's a question, do we actually want to see the technological gap broken down or is it what defines us as a generation?

Alice on the Wall

Does anyone know what the story is behind this and Dark Side of Oz? Were they intentional? I've watched the whole Alice movie with the wall (minus Comfortable Numb) and it's eerie. They are many similarities. Dark Side of Oz is also interesting.

After referencing Indiana Jones...

...and in preparation for the coming release of the new movie....Shia Labeouf at his best:



Also...wikipedia reveals the history of barber's poles...
"The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting.^[1] During medieval times, barbers also performed surgery on customers as well as tooth extractions. The original pole had a brass basin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin which received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure to encourage blood flow.

In the middle ages in France a decree was issued banning facial hair in men.^{[citation needed]} This helped the barber trade to organise. Later, their role was defined by the College de Saint Come, established in Paris in about 1210, as academic surgeons of the long robe and barber surgeons of the short robe.

The red and white stripes symbolize the bandages used during the procedure: red for the blood-stained and white for the clean bandages. Originally, these bandages were hung out on the pole to dry after washing. As the bandages blew in the wind, they would twist together to form the spiral pattern similar to the stripes in the modern day barber pole. The barber pole became emblematic of the barber/surgeon's profession. Later the cloths were replaced by a painted wooden pole of red and white stripes."

One Laptop Per Child

First Post

I haven't had a blog for a while. I started using xanga, (remember that?), towards the end of high school through my first year or two here. I've since given up. I thought it was shallow and full of boring ramblings that I don't know why anyone would actually read. I'm kind of excited to see where these blogs go...I feel like I have a reason to ramble now--which I guess means it's not rambling anymore.

I was thinking about our discussion today in regard to the generation gap and the comparison between moving from pre-literacy to literacy with the invention of the printing press and eventually movable type to moving from pre-internet literacy to internet literacy with the creation of the internet, or at least the space and technology that allows for an internet. I feel like we are stuck thinking, from a pedagogical standpoint, in terms of a very particular way of what it means to "learn". Until this is grappled with on a larger scale, we are stuck in a classroom teacher vs. technology war (this is the article mentioned today http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/education/07education.html). I find this article to be so frustrating.

To learn is not to sit in a desk and be lectured to. Maybe it was, but though it may work for some, we are neglecting the broader student base and need to be aware that in an era where we (as I'm doing right now) can watch TV (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), text message, and do homework, educators need to engage students in all these ways. When students, or teachers for that matter, get lost or distant, it's because we are failing to address all of our needs. Pedagogy needs to change, and the first step to doing this is addressing, problematizing, and reconsidering with all teachers, not just pre-service ones, what it means to "think", to "know", and to "learn".