Blink... blink...

Well, hello again. Ten years it's been? More than that. Hmmm...

Root and Fruit

I love it when ideas take root and bear fruit.

A history teacher I work with ran with my suggestion to, "have students experience history, not just read about it." In his WWI-on-the-home-front unit, he had his students create a weekly menu, and list out the ingredients.

Then he posted the ration points available, based on a wartime document from a typical midwestern town one week in March, 1943. Flying eyebrows and colorful language ensued. One group had decided to keep chickens in the yard; no points spent on eggs or chicken. That prompted a family-lore recollection: During the war, the family kept chickens on the vacant lot next door. Each day, the hens were lifted. If there was an egg, it went into a pocket. If there wasn't an egg, the bird got its neck wrung and went into a basket. Produce, or else - there's a war on, buddy!

Another group blew two months' worth of points for a single week's menu. "Enjoy the feast, because you're going to be mighty hungry in a couple of weeks."

Student: "How come there are no points for bread?" Instructor: "There are points for flour. You can bake bread."

Bottom line: They "got it."

Mbele Tse’ Tse’aar - The African Wise Man

Background: This Christmas, my church will donate mosquito netting to a village in Africa to help prevent malaria. The worship coordinator decided that an African theme to the service would be nice. She wanted to have the children come up and be told an African Christmas story. The problem is, of course, that the Christmas story isn't African. But there is a lgendary tie-in to Africa....

Mbele Tse’ Tse’aar - The African Wise Man

Many, many years ago, in the east of the vast land that is now called Africa, there was a great kingdom called Ethiopia. Their rulers were noble and wise, and they built great cities. The stories were told of how Tse’ba, an ancient Queen of Ethiopia, had won the heart of the great King Sh’lomo of Yi’isra’al, far to the north. Egypt, the glory of her Pharaohs and pyramids long past, bowed to the East African Kings. The Romans, who had conquered so much of the Known World, left Ethiopia alone. The people of Ethiopia lived in plenty and peace.

It was into this world that Mbele Tse’ Tse’aar was born. From an early age, Mbele was taught how the heavens direct the hands of men, telling them when to plant, when to expect the rains, when to harvest. He learned how the stars and moon wheel in the great dome of the sky, how the Wandering Stars (the ones the Greeks called "planets") move among the constellations, and how to use their motions to predict the change of seasons. He also learned to watch for signs and portents, unusual happenings in the sky, portents of change.

Mbele grew wise in the ways of his people, earning great honor for his ability to read the stars. A learned man, he knew of the prophecies recorded by the people of Yi’isra’al, whom Queen Tse’ba had adopted as her own. These prophecies foretold the birth of a great King, a King of Kings, who would rule the whole earth. Mbele hoped that he might one day see the heavenly sign of this King’s birth, but he did not really expect to live so long.

One night Mbele was holding his hands up to heavens to measure the distance between the White Wandering Star (the one the Romans called Venus) and the Red Wandering Star (the one the Romans called Mars), when he saw something new!

A faint, fuzzy spot of light had appeared where nothing had been before. Mbele took careful note of its position.

The next night, he looked for the fuzzy light. It had moved! The Wandering Stars were where he expected them to be, but this new, fuzzy star... was not.

The next night the fuzzy star had moved yet again. When day came, Mbele spoke with the elder sky-watchers. Together they consulted the records of their people. Fuzzy stars were rare indeed, sometimes taking on terrifying appearances. And more, they always seemed to appear at times of great change.

Mbele did not sleep well that night, nor for many nights thereafter. The new star continued to move across the heavens in a steady northward path. By the time of the new moon, Mbele had decided that this new star heralded the birth of the Great King predicted by the ancient prophets of Yi’isra’al. He resolved to travel to meet the new king.

At that time, the greatest and most knowledgeable of the sky-watchers lived in the ancient land of Ur, between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the land where civilization itself began. Mbele arranged a to join a caravan of traders to that distant land, where he hoped to consult with sages even more wise than he. After many weeks’ journey he came to the sun-baked city, built around a tall, stepped tower. At nightfall he climbed the steps and greeted the sky-watchers there, who were taking their measurements of the heavenly bodies, including the new star. They listened with interest as Mbele told of his observations and his travels.

Mbele was chosen to be part of a delegation to travel to Yi’isra’al to greet the new King. The journey by caravan was long. They traveled by night, following the star as it grew into a flaming arrow pointing to the west. They came into the land of Yi’isra’al and sought the King, Chah’rod. Chah’rod was a jealous king. He was alarmed that a new king had been born, and especially that the birth had been announced in the heavens. He inquired of his own wise men where the King was to be born. Consulting the ancient writings, they told Chah’rod that the King was to be born in Beit Le’chem. King Chah’rod asked Mbele and his companions to find the newborn King, and then return and tell him where the child might be found.

Of course you know the rest of the story: The Wise Men found and worshipped the baby Y’Shua, the new-born King, giving him princely gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned by a dream that Chah’rod meant harm to the Child, they returned to Ur by another path.

You might think the story ends there. But decades later, Mbele traveled even farther east, to the land called India - as ancient as Ur, and as learned in the ways of the stars. There he met a man from Yi’isra’al, called To’mas, who told him an amazing tale: How the child Y’shua born in Beit Le’chem many years ago had grown into a great teacher and healer. How he had angered the religious rulers and had been put to death, and how he rose again after three days. To’mas had doubted the story until Y’Shua appeared to him in the flesh.

To’mas carefully explained to Mbele how Y’Shua had fulfilled all the prophecies of the ancient prophets about the King of Kings. He explained to Mbele that if he trusted in Y’Shua, that all his sins would be forgiven and that he would spend eternity in the presence of the Creator of the Heavens. Mbele received this Good News with great joy.

The tales record that Mbele T’se T’aar, later called Balthazar, was baptised by Thomas the Doubter, who brought the Gospel to India.

Where the heck have I been?

On Twitter, mostly (just passed 21,000 posts).

There, I'm talking to nearly 1700 folks. (Not necessarily talking WITH them, mind you...)

Here, I'm mostly talking to myself.

Not that that's a bad thing.

And in my defense, August and September were VERY busy. Still, six posts since the beginning of the year is pretty pathetic. Am I unable to think more than 140 characters at a time?

Refudiation

Some folks want to build a mosque on the 9/11 Ground Zero site. While we're at it, why don't we also:

• Give the Alamo to La Raza to use as a training center
• Erect a Shinto shrine to Emperor Hirohito over the U.S.S. Arizona
• Put up a statue of General Sherman in Atlanta
• Build a Biergarten at Auschwitz
• Use the Kabba as the cornerstone for a new Temple on Temple Mount
• Turn the Dublin General Post Office into a vacation home for the British Crown
• Build a US Army base at Wounded Knee

What part of insult don't these people understand?

My most popular post, by far

I'm pleased that I keep getting comments on my February 2009 post, "The Upside-Down Pop Quiz". I am curious, though, what route people take to it. Is it turning up in search engines? Under what keywords? Did some influential edublogger link to it? I wonder as I wander...

Here's wishing you a happy voyage home, Dad.

Dad passed away Saturday morning.

Considerate of others to the end, he hung on until I arrived Friday night, (weather delays be damned), and then kindly gave me and my sister all day Saturday and Sunday morning to "do stuff."

Through the wee hours I sat as his bedside reminding him of the good times we had fishing, cooking, camping, Scouting. I chuckled that not a day passed that his voice didn't come out of my mouth. I reassured him that "the kids were alright" and that all would be well. He'd done his job. Several times I looked into his eyes and I know that he saw and heard me. On a couple of occasions as I just sat next to him I looked up and saw him looking at me. I met his gaze and he gave me a slow blink, as if to say, "Ya done good, Aggie."

Around 6:30, his breathing pattern changed. At the suggestion of the nurse I called my sister and held the phone up to his ear. He took a sharp deep breath and closed his eyes. I sang "Anchors Aweigh" to him as he sailed, just as he used to sing me to sleep.

Later, dozing at the hotel, I had a flash of an image: Dad dancing with his beloved Kathleen, his wife late in life, and then with my mother, who passed away decades ago. He was in the prime of life and had that mischievous look in his eyes. Mais oui, he was surrounded by family and friends at the biggest fais do do you ever did see, cher.

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Lost Nation Airport

Remarks delivered at a public hearing before the Lake County Port Authority and the Commissioners of Lake County, regarding this report.

Lost Nation Airport is an irreplaceable part of the business transportation infrastructure of this area. While the study looks at the profit & loss and payroll of the airport itself, it's not clear whether it examined the secondary economic impact - the increase in productivity for local businesses who use the airport. More than 80% of general-aviation flights are business-related, carrying line managers, technicians, and salespeople.

Here's a typical scenario: You're an account manager for a Painesville manufacturer. Eight o'clock Monday you get a call from your customer in Dekalb, IL. He needs you and an engineer on-site as soon as possible. If you drive, you get there at the close of the business day. Work into the night to solve his problem, drive back the next day. You're gone two days and with IRS milage rates, it's a $500 trip.

You could fly commercial. But by the time you drive from Painesville to Hopkins, park, and convince Security that you don't have a bomb in your BVDs, you've missed the last direct flight to Chicago. Your best option connects through Cincinnati. You get to O'Hare at 3:30. By the time you rent a car and drive out to Dekalb, it's the close of business. You don't save any time flying commercial, and the trip costs $1200.

But if you can rent a plane at Lost Nation, you're off the ground by 11:00. You fly direct to the Dekalb Municipal airport. The airlines only serve 250 cities, but there are five thousand local airports across the country. By 2:30 you're solving your customer's problem, instead of cooling your heels with a Cinnabon in Cincinnati. At the close of business, you're wrapping up instead of just arriving. You fly home that evening and you're back at work Tuesday morning. You've saved an entire business day for two key employees, and the cost of the trip is half of what it costs to fly commercial.

Business aviation means business productivity, which means jobs. Now more than ever, the Lake County economy needs the Lake County Airport.

So now I'm a music reviewer

De-metaling after taking DrummerBoy to a show at Peabody's. Scale the Summit, Devin Townsend, Cynic, and Between the Buried and Me. We were right up front, and I mean RIGHT up FRONT. We used the first moshing to get up to the 2nd row and I braced against the stage for the next three hours. DrummerBoy sat on stage for the last set.

I liked Scale the Summit. Soundscapes of prog-metal. They'll never headline an arena, but in 20 years they'll be co-billed on the Dream Theater reunion tour.

Devin Townsend... imagine Lord Voldemort as a (really talented and REALLY happy) metal singer with a big mourth full of large teeth and a rubber face. Devin loves his job, it really shows. During one song he yelled, "I WANNA SEE A MOOOSSHH PIIIT FROM THE FROOONT TO THE BAAACK!!" then said, "No, just kidding. Group hug." Seems like a really fun guy, and he's got amazing vocal chops. Two octaves plus demonscream, I have to give him the props.

Cynic is psychedelic yoga prog-metal. Yes, really. They had the crowd do a basic yoga stretch mid-set, then played a song to "take you into your mind" and "let you focus on your breathing". Far out, man. Good music, but please lose the Vedic/Zen tutorial voice-over between songs. I do overtly religious music, but only in venues where it's expected (i.e., church, Sunday morning.) I expected them to end the set with "Across the Universe."

BTBAM was... impressive. Incomprehensible, mind you, but very impressive. Baritone screaming alternating with lyrical guitar work. I liked the bluegrass bit they did 2/3 through. That shows confidence. The band members stuck around after to shake hands and be nice.

All in all, it was an interesting evening, and I was very glad to have had the earplugs.

A musing on mathematics and the existence of God

Either humans are capable of understanding everything in the universe or we're not. Given the facts of our fallible, fragile, and finite conciousness and comprehension, "we're not" is far more likely.

Just have a look at the Euler formula: e^ipi+1=0. It's a beautiful mathematical expression that contains all the fundamentals of mathematics: the fundamental constants e, i, pi, 1, and 0; and the fundamental operations addition, multiplication, exponentiation, and equality.

The constants in this elegant equation are all vitally important for describing and understanding reality. One is unity - existence iteself. Zero is nothing, except that it's not really nothing. (I had an interesting discussion a week or so ago with a very smart friend who noted that zero actually carries more semantic meaning than one. In a digital signal, no-voltage can mean Zero, or it can mean Off. Which is which makes a big difference.)

Pi of course is the ratio of the radius of a circle to its circumfrence. E is the natural logarithm, which is useful in all sorts of calculations involving real-world phenomena such as fluid flow. And note that both e and pi are by defintion irrational numbers - in any base number system (except base e or base pi), their decimals repeat *infinitely*.

And then there's i, which again is very useful for describing real-world phenomena, especially fractals, which shows the similarity between the jaggedness of the cost of Norway as seen from space, and the jaggedness of a pebble in a fjord when seen under a microscope. i is defined as the square root of negative one, a number that cannot exist in the real world. It's called "the *imaginary* number."

So... if the infinite, the irrational and the imaginary are so valuable in describing the reality that we *can* understand, why is it so difficult for people to accept the existence of an infinite, trancendent, and unseen God that we *cannot* understand?

Bleg for the Big Apple

My son has the chance to go to New York City with his Honors Social Studies class.

To raise the $500 he needs, he's selling candy bars for $1 each. (We buy them wholesale, he makes about .50 on each one.)

If you'd like to buy a few, please click the PayPal button and send me your sweet tooth preferences and shipping info. (We get charged a 3% fee for credit card payments.)

Thanks in advance for your support!

An AUP for kids

For your consideration...

-------------------------

Parent-child agreement regarding the use of electronic communications devices and services

A. Definitions

1. The terms us, we, and our refer to the parents.

2. The terms you and yours refer to the minor (under age 18) child or children.
3. The term electronic communications devices and services (ECDS) is to be interpreted as broadly and inclusively as possible, including (but not limited to) laptop, computer, desktop, netbook, iPhone, iPod, cellphone, mobile device, internet, web, web-based service, website, online, social networking site, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, email, IM, AIM, SMS, texting,IRC, chat, etc.
4. The term data is to be interpreted as broadly and inclusively as possible, including (but not limited to) documents, files, MP3s, photos, pictures, movies, videos, texts, messages, posts, programs, applications, plugins, etc.

B. Assumptions

1. We love you and want the best for you, now and in the future.

2. We expect the best from you, now and in the future.
3. You're a Good Kid and worthy of our trust.
4. We recognize that the 21st century is a different place than the age in which we grew up, and that the world you will inhabit as an adult is one that we can scarcely imagine. We have the responsibility to prepare you for that world. We hope that you can see what a daunting task that is for us.
5. The fluent and correct use of ECDS is an important skill for the 21st century. In learning these skills, you will make mistakes. Our job is to help you learn from them.
6. The digital footprint you create is global and permanent. You can expect potential dates, friends, coworkers, employers, and customers to look you up online.
7. As your parents, we are legally responsible for you and for your actions.
8. The application of law as regards ECDS is still evolving. Teenagers have faced lifelong branding as felony sex offenders for sending racy cellphone pictures to their friends. Others have been sued for downloading music.
9. As your parents, we have the legal authority and responsibility to impose appropriate discipline for misuse of privileges.
10. We have a legal and moral responsibility to notify the appropriate authorities if we have knowledge that a minor is (or might be) in danger.
11. You have no expectation of privacy as regards the use of ECDS. We have the right to access your websites, hard drive, cellphone, iPod, etc. at any time.
12. Your access to ECDS is a privilege and not an entitlement, and may be revoked by us in part or in whole at any time, for any reason, without recourse by you.

C. Terms

In order to have continued access to ECDS while a minor child living at home, you agree to:

1. Provide us with a correct and complete list of all websites, services, subscriptions, devices, etc, together with username and password for each
2. Keep that list updated in a timely fashion.
3. Remove data that we deem inappropriate.
4. Cancel memberships or subscriptions that we deem inappropriate.

For our part, we agree to:

1. Not eavesdrop unreasonably on your conversations with your friends.
2. Not reveal personal confidences unless a person's safety is in danger. (See B.10.)
3. Not post under your name without clearly identifying ourselves as your parents posting under your ID.
4. Not remove material posted by you without notifying you.
5. Not permanently cancel, revoke, or delete accounts or data without your agreement, unless we deem it necessary to protect you.
6. To listen to your reasonable arguments regarding our decisions and actions.

----------------------

Now, I think this is a pretty reasonable agreement. When I proposed this to my teenage son, he protested that that this would give us access to his friends' Facebook information that they had agreed to reveal to him, but not to us.

Interesting argument.

What's your take? (I have my own opinion, but I'll reserve it pending comments.)

The "New Normal"?

This was originally posted to an email list of educators who are ruminating on the future of educational technology in the light of Blackboard's acquisition of ANGEL.

Riffing on Neil's #5 (you only make one major change like this in your career / no one ever got fired for choosing IBM) and Joe's note re long-term company viability....

The comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" had a story arc (still ongoing) involving a character who developed terminal cancer. When she entered hospice, she remarked to her husband, "So... this is the 'new normal'."

"New Normal"...hmm.

I'm creaky enough to remember a startup company (a spinoff of the implosion of Control Data) that marketed a cool little CBT authoring application for the Mac called "Course of Action." For developers of interactive multimedia computer-based instruction, Authorware was *not* the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It beat sliced bread hands-down.

Partly as a result, Authorware was soon purchased by Macromind, Inc. (a larger company that had a world-beating animation program for the Macintosh called Director); the merged company being called Macromedia. Macromedia was HUGE. They OWNED the market for interactive multimedia.

Then Tim Berners-Lee and a few friends came up with HTML and HTTP.

Authorware and Director did not do well over HTTP.

Anyone here still use Director or Authorware?

Now, most of us are used to the idea that Things Change. We're pretty much okay with that, and we're pretty good at explaining changes - that's why we went into this business, right? (Okay, it's why *I* went into this business. YMMV.)

But we went into this gig expecting the changes to be incremental, not fundamental. We did NOT expect the world to turn upside-down every few years (Howard Rheingold and John Perry Barlow excepted).

But look what's happened:

The World Wide Web

cellphones

broadband

iPods

wikis

blogs

VOIP

RSS

YouTube

iPhone

UStream

Twitter

Skype

Wordle

et cetera, et cetera, in saecula saeculorum, ad confusium eterna...

Stop.

Take a deep cleansing breath.

Nothing has changed. Nothing (really important) will change.

Really. People are still people. We all have the same basic physiology and psychology as the ancient Greeks. We all have the same basic hopes, fears, and aspirations. Our tools are different than those of our forebears. But like all tools, they're just tools. They let us do some things (affordances) and don't let us do other things (constraints). But regardless, they are merely tools. It's what we do with them that matters.

The tools we use for learning still let us:

* Examine and explore content,

* Communicate and collaborate, and

* Assess and report our understanding.

We need to remember that the differences betwen tools we used a few decades ago, and the tools we use now, are superficial. We (and

faculty and students) need to focus on the processes of teaching and learning.

But as we know, people tend to have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees.

So how do we get the folks we support to stop panicking over the beetles in the bark, and lift their heads up above the forest canopy to note that the sun still rises in the east?

As I see it, that's the real challenge.

An observation about the Maersk Alamaba incident

Reports indicate that the Navy did not act immediately against the pirates - even when the boat containing FBI negotiators was fired upon - because President Obama had made it clear that only a "peaceful resolution" to the incident was acceptable. He later amended that to indicate that deadly force could be used if the Captain's life appeared to be in imminent danger.

The way the situation ended should make it clear that the U.S. Navy does not deliver ransom to hostage-holding pirates unless it is authorized by the President.

But when so authorized, the Navy delivers it quickly: At 2,900 feet per second.

Business Aviation gets the JetBlues

Small commercial carrier JetBlue jumped on the "Flying CEO" zeitgeist with a series of clever YouTube ads that poke fun at the image of CEOs who don't want to mingle with the hoi polloi. You can see them here, along with the unamused reaction of one self-decribed flying CEO.

The alphabet groups that promote business aviation seem to be taking a dim view of the ads. That's an entirely understandable, perfectly predictable response.

And it's dead wrong.

It perpetuates the popular image of CEOs as whiny rich men who are only interested in their money and their toys, with the business aviation industry being the chief toymakers.

Might I suggest something such as the following:

Scene - outdoors, general aviation airport. Middle-aged man in suit (carrying jacket, tie loosened) is walking across tarmac to an airplane, speaking to camera.

"Hi. I'm a corporate CEO. That means I make decisions every day that affect the people who work for my company. If I make a bad decision, they suffer the consequences. So, I try to make smart decisions - and wasting time is not a smart decision."

*looks directly at camera*
"That's why I don't fly on JetBlue."

*gestures at aircraft behind him*
"This little airplane gets me into more than five thousand small airports across the country. That's where my customers and suppliers are - nowhere close to the big airline hubs. And when I need to get someplace right away, I don't have to wait around for the next available flight. As a matter of fact, a customer in another state called me early this morning with an urgent problem. If I had to fly commercial, I'd be lucky to get there before noon, and really lucky to get home in time to put my kids to bed tonight. Most of my day would be wasted at the airport. But with this business tool, I can see my customer this morning, and be back in the office this afternoon. That's a smart decision."

*boards steps, looks back at camera, shrugs*

"I get to keep my shoes on, too."

Hat Tip Benet Wilson, via Twitter

Links at LinkedIn leave me a little sad

I recently realized that the professional SN site LinkedIn has discussion threads.

So today I was looking at this discussion about this article, and in the course of the discussion someone asked about this study, which she described as having "debunked reading and math software."

Now, five years of my career was spent making reading and math software for schools and para-schools. Really good reading and math software. Software we worked extremely hard on. How hard? In the project plans, I budgeted forty-five minutes for each multiple-choice question. Why so much time? Well, each individual incorrect answer choice was designed to tease out a specific misunderstanding of the topic at hand. Further, each incorrect answer choice was specifically remediated in the wrong-answer-feedback, without giving away the correct answer. After being written (a tough job in its own right) the question text had to be tagged, coded, compiled and tested. 45 minutes each.

We also developed an umbrella-sort mechanism using the magic of Regular Expression text-string comparison to do a reaonable job of analyzing free-entry text responses, going far beyond the typical exact-match of text-entry items. (Did I mention this was done on DOS on a 386 CPU, not using semantic cloud computing or neural networks?)

As I said, really good educational software, not just PDFs of worksheets or arcade-game drill-n-kill exercises.



So when I read that some study had supposedly "debunked reading and math software" my hackles stirred enough to send me to read the executive summary of the study. I read a lot of educational research. Not counting the journals I read tyrying to keep up in my field, I'm a reviewer for an international journal of education technology, and over the past several years I've reviewed more than fifty articles submitted for publication. SO I think I'm at least competent to read a piece of research and tell whether its any good.

The ED study is pretty good, though it has some major limitations, which the authors themselves note. It certainly does not "debunk" educational software.

Here's what I wrote in reply:

"Debunking" is rather a strong, and IMO inappropriate word. At worst, the survey reports no significant difference in learning outcomes. That's not necessarily a bad thing. As it happens I also have open on my desktop the site http://nosignificantdiffernce.org , which provides a meta-analysis of hundreds of comparative-media studies. The bottom line is that comparative media studies *usually* report no significant difference in outcomes.

And why should that be surprising? If Medium A and Medium B are both *designed to help learners achieve the same learning objectives*, we should *expect* to see no significant difference.

That said, the ED study reports a good deal of trouble in data collection. There was a serious lack of continuity from year one to year two - over 70% of the teachers dropped out of the study. There were no classroom observations in year two. The survey team administered their own tests where the districts did not, and it is not immediately clear whether the software that was evaluated was aligned to those tests, or whether the instruction given to the control group was tailored to the test.

In other words, is the software taking a hit because it didn't teach something that was on the test? Many of these software packages are highly modularized and can be adapted to fit state or local standards. If the software wasn't set up to teach the content that was going to be on the test (assuming it could have been), it's hardly the fault of the software developers.

In addition, the study authors issue some strong caveats about the limits of their own research. The summary notes: "Characteristics of districts and schools that volunteered to implement the products differ, and these differences may relate to product effects in important ways."

It concludes, "Products in the study also were implemented in a specific set of districts and schools, and other districts and schools may have different experiences with the products. The findings should be viewed as one element within a larger set of research studies that have explored the effectiveness of software products."

If the study authors themselves issue such caveats, it's a little over the top to call it "debunking." Just because it's not a magic bullet doesn't mean it's of no value.

Successful implementation of learning technology does not seek to replace the teacher (except in situations where there is no teacher to replace). Rather, it seeks to free up the teacher by assuming the role of content-provider. This enables the teacher to do what a machine cannot - to connect with the student as a person, to coach and encourage, and when necessary to admonish and correct (can we even do that anymore?)

The commentor to whom I had responded thanked me for my response and replied that she had gotten her information from a comment on a post on the liberal multi-author blog Huffington Post. I followed the link and found her reference in the comments section, which was filled with vitriolic partisan ignorance that is beyond my ability or desire to attempt to remediate.

I really feel sorry for people who are filled with fear and hatred for ideas that are different from their own. Can we not disagree agreeably?

The Upside-down Pop Quiz

Remember pop quizzes? "Class, take out a sheet of paper. I assume you've all read Chapter Three. So let's play the Read-My-Mind Game, also known as Gotcha! Bwahahahah...." Even if you'd done the homework and read the chapter, you never knew if what *you'd* gotten out of the chapter matched what the teacher thought was important. Oh, how we hated them.

A couple of years ago I was designing a new course with a History professor, and inspiration struck. Instead of punishing students for not reading the book (or not getting the "right stuff" out of it), why not provide a positive incentive? We want them to read the book. What do they want that we can provide? Grades! A simple transaction, really: You do what I want, I give you something you want. It's worked for generations of parents and corrupt government officials (until they get caught, anyway). It's called BRIBERY: Read the textbook, and it's worth a letter grade to you.

So we turned the pop quiz on its head. We created untimed, open-book online quizzes for the text chapters we assigned. The questions came directly out of the book, and were designed to be answered while looking at the text. (After all, life is an open-book test.) The quizzes were posted on the class website (Blackboard) the week before the discussion of the readings. Students could take the quiz as many times as they wanted. The feedback to incorrect answers directed students to the appropriate page of the text. We did not give the correct answers. The sum of all the quizzes amounted to 10% of the final grade.

Questions were a mix of high-level, conceptual, big-picture items that required students to integrate ideas across an entire section, and nitty-gritty detail questions that could not be answered apart from the text. Case in point: The text contained a passage from an original source document listing government jobs in Massachusets in 1690. The list included baker, brewer, collector of tithes, person to keep dogs out of church, rebuker of boys, and so on. So we put this question on the quiz: "According to the text, all of the following were government jobs in Massachusets in 1690 EXCEPT..." and then we listed the jobs above, inserting the red herring, "Admonisher of young ladies." Sounds reasonable, but it wasn't listed in the text. (I suppose colonial girls were better-behaved than their brothers.)

Now, I guarantee you, if you ask a question like that on a closed-book test, the students would be lighting torches and sharpening pitchforks, and with good reason. Expecting students to memorize a list like that is completely unreasonable. But it's perfectly reasonable to ask them to read that paragraph closely at least once, in order to kickstart a class discussion of colonial attitudes about the role of government.

Ok, fine, sounds great. Innovative teaching strategy, hoo-hah hurray, golf-claps all 'round. But does it work?

Yes. Emphatically so.

The data showed that most students took the quiz more than once, some up to four times in order to improve their scores. The time-stamps on successive quiz attempts showed how students were driven to the text, forcing them to ferret out the answers. The instructor could see which questions the students had missed, showing which concepts needed extra attention in the lecture and discussion.

In class, the discussions made it very clear that the students had read the assigned chapter, and read it carefully. And since the quiz questions reflected what the instructor thought was important, they were all on the same page regarding both the big ideas and the details. The instructor didn't need to spend time rehashing the chapter content; it became a starting point for the discussion.

So, I commend the upside-down pop quiz to you. Give it a try, and if you'd be so kind, let me know how it works for you.

Yak Shaving Razors - Take Two

List five useful things you know that others might find useful, but might not know. #yakshavingrazors

I got waylaid in my attempt to finish the earlier post, which lead Tojosan a bit off the path I'd intended. The idea wasn't to detail our own struggles with unshaven yaks, but rather to share ideas, tips, and tools that make the yak shaving - or any other activity - a little easier.

Think "Hints from Heloise" or the "lifehacks" tag in delicious.

So... My Five Useful Things to Know:

1. A dash or two of Tabasco improves almost any sauce, soup, or stew. It brightens the flavors. This is especially true of rich, creamy sauces such as alfredo.

2. Saliva is a remarkable cleaning solution. In reading about the recovery and resoration of rare artworks, you sometimes see the phrase "a mild, aqueous enzymatic solution," as in, "centuries of grime were carefully removed from the priceless painting with a soft brush and a mild, aqueous enzymatic solution." That's not magical mystery mix, but good old fashioned spit. Saliva is mostly water (aqueous) but contains lots of enzymes that break down and soften all manner of organic compounds (aka "pre-digestion"). So before breaking out the tolulene or MEK, rub a little spit on that spot. (Unless of course, you dip Skoal.)

3. Stretch out your guitar strings when you change them. The pitch of a guitar string depends on its length, unit mass, and tension. When you're tuning up a new string, the length and unit mass (.55 low E vs .10 high E) are constant, so the only variable is tension. Problem is, when you tighten the string up, it stretches. It literally gets longer, which reduces the tension, making it go flat.
Most materials (including guitar strings) stretch when they are under tension. You can graph the stress (tension) versus the amount of stretch (strain). At first, the stretch is like a rubber band - when you let off the pressure the string returns to its original length. But at some point, the "set" becomes permanent. The string will continue to stretch up to a point, then it won't stretch any more. That's the point you need to get to in order for the string to stay in tune.
So here's how to pre-stress your strings. Tune the new string up to pitch, then pick it up at the 12 fret (the midpoint). Pull it out an inch or so so you can feel it "give" a bit. Waggle it back and forth, then tune it back up. The stretched-out strings will stay in tune.

4. Experienced cooks know this, but here's how to make a nice pan gravy by "deglazing" the pan. Say you're browning some chicken, or pan-frying steaks. By the time the meat is cooked you've got some stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. (We're assuming it's not burned, just browned.) I used to scrub it out with a scrubbing pad - such a waste of effort AND flavor!

Remove the cooked meat - it needs to rest for a couple of minutes before you serve it anyway. The pan probably still has some fat in it; drippings from the meat. If it's really dry, add some butter or oil, about a tablespoon. Heat the pan till it just barely starts to smoke, then pour in about a quarter-cup of liquid - enough to cover the bottom of the pan about 1/4 inch deep. You can use water, broth, wine, whatever. Use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan - the browned bits will come up easily and dissolve in the liquid.

Now you have several options. You can toss the pan in the sink, having saved yourself some elbow grease with a Brillo pad. (Booo! as the CommonCraft folks say) Or you can:

• Serve the pan sauce as is and call it "au jus"
• Boil the liquid down to concentrate the flavor (this is called "reducing").
• Mix a tablespoon of flour with some warm water, then add that and cook until the gravy thickens. You might add more broth for volume or to thin it. (Note - adding dry flour directly to the hot pan tends to form lumps - the hot broth cooks it up into little dumplings before the flour can get dispersed.)

5. Write offline. Whenever you're going to write a lengthy post for an online forum, do it offline in Word or Notepad. Because if you're typing right into Blogger or WP and your network connection crashes, you'll lose everything.

Twitter Tag Meme - Yak Shaving Razors

Today my postcard-sending pal Tojosan got tired of the "Several Things About Me" Twitter-tag meme that's been going around. He asked for a more useful topic. I replied, "OK, how's this: List five useful things you know that others might find useful, but might not know. #yakshavingrazors"

Yak Shaving Razors?!?!! Say WHAT?

Yes, Yak Shaving Razors. The term isn't my own, I first ran across it years ago on Joe Carter's old Evangelical Outpost blog. Yak-shaving is something that you have to do in order to do the thing that you actually need to do. For example, I want to move a study desk from the garage into the boys' room. But before I can do that, I have to clear out the back of the van. Why? Because the desk is going where the dresser is now, and the dresser is going to move into the closet, where the old TV is now, and there's a bunch of recycling int he back of the van where I plan to put the TV to take it to get it fixed so it can be used as a dedicated game console... you see where this is going?

So a Yak Shaving Razor is a tool or a tidbit of information that helps you get things done.

With that introduction out of the way, here's my list of Yak Razors.... dang. Lookit the time. I need to call in an order of Chinese takeout so we can eat before taking the kid to basketball practice...

Hey, who let that yak in here?

I'm nearly famous on #TCOT

So I signed up at Top Conservatives on Twitter. Much to my shock and dismay I started out ranked in the 50's but as more folks joined I've moved down, currently 159. Out of over 1600, tough, that's not bad. Plus, I gained over a hundred followers on Twitter. Whaddya know...

They've put up a Drudge look-alike site (http://206.130.122.75/ - the DNS isn't resolving yet) and lo and behold, I'm on the blogroll. (Just for the record, @michaelpleahy, I've never liked the look of Drudge's site. IMO that Courier-bold font is just plain ugly and hard to read. YMMV)