Brian Lamb: Open Education

His presentation was terrific. The whole concept that we have students do authentic work is for some reason seen as cutting edge. This is true in one sense, but most people learned this way in the past. They learned by doing work!

One of the items that I thought was really good was the analogy. We fear often that if we send students to post on the internet that legions of Sexual Predators will creep out of their basements and descend on the students. The reality is that the people who creep out of their basements are more likely to be people who really love copy editing, formatting bibliographies or formatting tables and graphs. The point: For the Most part online interactions are positive.

One thing I wonder about with this whole idea though. Brian Lamb encourage adoption of open architecture. Things like blogs, youtube, iTunes University, and others. The challenge becomes for me is on the users end. As a participant it is a frustration to have to learn new sets of tools for every course. My wife is taking a course right now that is a mashup of three different online curriculum tools. It becomes extremely frustrating to have this course with due dates listed inconsistently, with multiple logins and with a f2f component that each sends a different message.

Course management software has it's downsides but there are advantages to it because it provides a consistent interaction for a student in a specific institution. The challenge will be watching students bringing courses from multiple institutions together to create their own learning.

A weekend with the Family

Memorial day weekend was an important milestone in my family. Dad turned 80. This is a particularly big milestone because all during my growing up years, my Dad swore, he would never reach this age. In fact he often expressed sincere and heartfelt desire to be dead before 75. Views on death are a little complicated in our family.

Well, with his birthday coming up my eldest sister decided we should get together in Idaho where Dad and Mom had lived most of their adult lives. That didn't work out. Most of my other siblings couldn't make it at that time and my Dad simply set in his heels and refused to go up there. So, my Sister decided to get herself and her now grown children together and come visit us in Utah. She told my mom to expect her at 10:00 am. Now as far as I know my sister has never arrived anywhere by 10:00 am. I can speak with some certainty that she has rarely ever arrived at a family function on time. She surprised me to no end by arriving right on time with two of her four children. We actually had a really great time. My sister has been much more attentive and respectful of me as an adult in the last couple of years. It really means a lot to me. It has been difficult for me to be the youngest in the family by 8 years. All of my siblings were out of the house by the time I was 11 and frankly, I don't feel like they know me all that well especially as an adult. I bear the blame in that because I haven't done enough to stay in contact with them.

Two important things that came out of this visit. First, my nephew who is only a few months younger than I am was a Marine, and not just any Marine, but a frontline, special forces grunt. He has some crazy stories to tell. He told us about one. He was on road block duty and following all the protocols. They were instructed that if a vehicle approaches to follow these steps:

1. Flag the vehicle and try to get their attention
2. Assertively flag the vehicle and warn the drivers
3. If the vehicle continues to approach fire a warning shot
4. If the vehicle continues to approach fire a second warning shot into the ground in front of the vehicle
5. If the vehicle refuses to slow down or stop fire on the vehicle.

Well, during this particular event a vehicle was approaching at high speed. My nephew didn't have much time and the first 3 steps happened in rapid succession with the result that my nephew fired a shot in front of the vehicle that ricocheted off the ground and bounced through the bottom of the fast moving vehicle and clipped the passenger in the @$$. The passenger was an older gentleman and once he had been shot the driver stopped the car and this older (mid seventies) man jumped out of the car and was dancing around from the pain in his derriere. It was a lot more humorous to see my Marine Nephew acting out both sides of this exchange, but I thought I ought to share. By the way, my older son thought it was the funniest thing in the world to pester and annoy the guy we kept reminding him probably knew at least 5 ways to leave him maimed or dead. Kids are stubborn.

The second and probably more important bit of information I gained from this exchange was the knowledge that I live in the heart of the Jello Belt, which extends along 1-15 from Rexburg, Idaho in the north to St. George, Utah in the south. Never heard that term but I suppose it is accurate.



View The Jello Belt in a larger map

Tithing a principle with Promise

Yesterday in Sunday School we were discussing the importance of Tithing and Fasting. I heard the greatest story about tithing I have heard in a long tme.

One of the men in our Ward told us of a time when he just didn't have enough money to pay his tithing. He knew that if he paid his tithing then there wouldn't be enough for the bills and food. He decided to show his faith anyway, and he prepared his Tithing envelope, filled out the tithing donation slip, sealed up the envelope and handed it to the Bishop. Later in the week he decided to attend the Temple and as he was coming out of the temple he reached into to pocket of his slacks and found $100.00 the exact amount of his tithing. He was immediately grateful for the blessings of Tithing and of attending the temple. He used the money to take care of his bills. On Sunday at church his Bishop came up to him and said,"Thank you so much for your tithing, everything was fine except you forgot to put the money in the envelope!"

My wife pointed out during Sunday School that we all have miracles in our lives but that we forget them and forget the Lord. It's imotant to remember the lord and that all we have comes from him. He just asks that to show our devotion we give back 10% to build up his kingdom here on earth.

Best of the Bull. Part Two???

A while back my friend Jared and I bit the bullet, bit off more than we could chew and bit the bull.

Well recently while I was checking out some of my favorite foodies on www.foodnetworkhumor.com I came across two posts about Andrew Zimmern: This one and this one

I have to say though, the Best of the Bull was a once in a lifetime experience, and I don't think I will be having any of this:

Climbing the walls

I haven't been doing as much personal stuff here, but yesterday my son was climbing the walls....literally.....no seriously!



Of course, I will probably get the bad parent of the year award for this, and it doesn't help that literally minutes before my two boys were burning (not roasting) marshmallows on the grill and then played in the water until 8:00 p.m. Well what are Sunday afternoons for?

Monday Musings: Accepting Service

Yesterday, we had Stake Conference. A combined meeting with 8 or 10 congregations from the area. They were reorganizing our Stake and making some other changes. Well, our Stake is so big they have to do this process of conference in two separate sessions with half attending each session. This is only important because my parents and my family go to two different wards.
Well, I had been teasing my father about not getting up early and not going to the 10 a.m. session. My ward was assigned the 1 p.m. session.

At 10 a.m. I went down to check to see if Dad was ready and assuming he was still in bed. My 10 year informs me: Nope, grandpa left at 9 a.m. WHAT? Now, I need to explain, Grandpa is approaching his 80th year and while doing ok, has not had the best of health and has fallen several times. That's why he lives with us. But he got it into his head that he needed to walk the 5 blocks over the church building for Stake Conference. Well, I went and got him at the end of the meeting and we had a talk. I reminded him that he had told his mother when she was climbing ladders in her 70's that he would have to be the one to pick things up if she got hurt.

Having my folks live with me has given me a greater appreciation that old age isn't for sissies. I think I will take up motorcycle racing and paragliding when I turn 60. But this conversation with Dad also reminded me of an amazing example that Christ set for us. He allowed others to serve him. There are several examples of it through the New Testament, but the one that is always the most touching to me is found in Matthew 27:31-32

31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

During this moment of his greatest agony and in a sense his greatest triumph he allowed someone else to help him carry the cross. This was the literal Son of God and he could have been filled with pride and arrogance and insisted that he carry his own cross, but he didn't, he recognized his own weakness, humility and need and allowed himself to be served. That's a lesson I hope I can remember when I need help.

Monday Musings: Unity vs. Conformity

Last week I posted about the questions I have about whether we have to wear a white shirt to pass the sacrament. I myself find it to be an interesting challenge to encourage unity without mandating conformity. Clearly every organization has a right to define what behavior is acceptable to remain part of that organization. I wonder though sometimes if we are substituting conformity for unity. I have thought about this a lot lately, and really haven't come to any firm conclusion, but it is interesting to me that if you look at the rebellion, it becomes the tyranny. I have written about this before, just briefly. But it keeps coming back to me that whenever a person fights against tyranny, they get others to join them, and immediately form a group that then becomes they tyranny of that group. I think it is a challenging balance to maintain our openess, trust and love of others. To be tolerant and understanding and to maintain our principles.

I am no advocate of rebellion. I am about as conformist as they come. I am a middle age guy who has made his living teaching in the public schools. Yet I see myself, and others sometimes condemned or judged for not conforming in all areas. I just have a strong idea that although the strait and narrow path is still strait and narrow, it isn't single file. Whether I keep my fruit in baskets or bottles isn't as important as whether I love and serve my fellow man.

On further thought, it really isn't about the rebellion becoming the tyranny, just the institution. And don't get me wrong, I am not about refusing to comply. For society as a whole to work and for groups to function we must all comply and agree to allow the institution to hold sway over us, but at least for me it's about the strait and narrow path being strait and narrow but not single file. It's about not condemning other when their actions are well within what the commandments allow.

BTW this is what I wore to church yesterday! (snicker, snicker)