Crazy MacGuffin

Doesn't it seem unlikely that a coke bottle could survive a drop of several thousand feet?


Even though I haven't participated in DS106 in a long time, I still follow it part time. The MacGuffins got me hooked last night. I hadn't heard of MacGuffin before, so I spent a good half-hour reading examples in a Google search.

I also don't watch much TV nor movies, so I miss the punchline of many of these fine plot-line sabotages. I appreciated the youtube link the Bava posted with his "gangas/badges" alternative. So here's the link for anyone who hasn't seen "The gods must be crazy" - start at 8:15 if you're in a hurry. Broken Coke bottle, courtesy http://www.thimic.net/3d/

The Joy of Reconciliation

Who could have guessed that reconciling credit card statements 6 months later could be so much fun. I'm just going through matching carefully filed slips with the July & August statements. What Memories!

Renovating a closet at Dave & Jen's, Seafood dinner with Jon, Backyard Barbecues and inflatable swimming pool, Trips to DQ with Maryn.

Shopping, shopping, shopping, delightful shopping trips with Jen & Lois.

Maryn's first trip without Mom & Dad - going to 3-Hills with Grampa & Gramma.

This is almost better than looking at a photo album.

And this post has absolutely nothing to do with MOOC - well I guess it tells me a story so I'll tag it ds106 as well.

Try Again

OK: 6 frames, subtle message, minimal movement. Missed it with the music box, too enraptured with exploring the technique. I think I got closer this time.

Many have declared the pod racing from the Phantom Menace to be the only good thing about the whole Star Wars series. The whine of the engines, the speed, the spectacular explosions: enough to thrill any little or big boy’s heart. In lap two of the Boonta Eve Classic, Subalba the Dug casually chucks a (wrench?) into his opponent, Mars Guo’s engine. That’s my favourite minimal-action sequence from the pod race scene. This sequence doesn’t lend itself well to looping, so I threw in a fade and held the last frame for a few seconds.
(Anyone know how to make the animated gif - not the whole page - reload on a click or mouseover?)




The two children, only one of them human, give each other high-fives, celebrating Anakim’s win. This scene is so brief, you have to watch the victory sequences several times before you realize how subtly this little scene comments on racism.




Dick Van Dyke’s clown character does an apparently clumsy dance number for the Baron 's court in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before discovering the girl on the music box. I like the way the “fall” recovery lets us in on just how much agility and coordination was required.




I got intrigued with digital storytelling before I realized ds106 was so seriously artsy. I don’t know diddly about art or music. The only way I can do either is “paint by numbers”. Numbers are digital, so it’s the tools and techniques (and the connections) that hold me for now. I’ve got students with lots of stories to tell, but limited writing ability. ds106 looks like it’s going to seriously stretch what I’ve been able to imagine about techniques of communication.

Bring it on!

My Favourite Music Box

Sally Ann Howes - Truly she's Scrumptious, and never needs to be wound by a key



Animated GIF captured from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBMLpyyZHik

Animated Peek-a-Boo

Quick fingers on Skype's "snapshot" button - images layered into Photoshop CS5, resized and saved "for Web & Devices..."



Can't upload directly to Blogger, but photobucket has the needed code for webpages.

An Interview - sort of

Here's my initial foray into Xtranormal - A staged interview to spout my praise for a course with no professor and no grades.

We're doing SOMETHING right

While Reading Fiedler & Väljataga's paper, "Modeling the personal adult learner", I thought, these five layers (systems) of organization ring true to my own experience. I’m not sure I could have understood this at age 21 though. Besides some well-developed foresight, it requires a degree of hindsight not readily available to college freshmen. I think this model can also provide insight, or at least context, to the questions raised about MOOC engagement drop-off in the discussion forum.

When I got to page eight in the paper I got excited. "Here finally," I realized, "is an area where Adult Literacy and Basic Education (ALBE) is ahead of most HE."

Fiedler & Väljataga say: "Many educators and educational researchers seem to maintain the view that it is quite appropriate to limit their efforts …(to)… learning activities on system one
We hold an alternative view.
…we first need to make an attempt to re-configure learning activities … in a way that allows the individual personal adult learner to actualize and execute control and responsibility … by modeling and actively shaping her own learning activity and its specific environment."

ALBE maintains that its responsibility is as much preparing learners for life as teaching academics. Essential skills to participate in today's world and attitudes for success are at the forefront of shaping the educational offering. This is because the majority of learners in ALBE classes have a history that has led them to regard themselves as failures. It's beyond the scope of this post to examine the legacy of Aboriginal residential schools, but it still informs a certain fearful expectancy that many adults bring to an educational setting. Their need for healing, and complicated life occurrences are some of the major issues that prevent academics alone, no matter how skilfully delivered, from meeting their needs. It’s still necessary to keep things interesting in class to motivate a learner, but it's essential to recognize that most of the drop-out occurs because "life happens", not boredom or difficulty in comprehending. That these students will put formal learning on the back burner, what Fiedler & Väljataga call System 2 and System 3 educational management decisions, is inevitable. That they should be penalized for it by denying them further access to education is unconscionable.

To address this situation we have, at the community level, made innovations that may not be possible at a central campus setting. Continuous intake, individual learning paths, and especially non-punitive attendance policies, all remove barriers to re-engaging with learning after a life event (e.g. childbirth, temporary employment, or judicial intervention) has interrupted schooling. Digital technology makes multiple individual learning paths much easier to manage than in the past, but buy-in on the part of the Institution and the individual instructor is key to allowing ALBE students to shape their learning activities to fit their complicated environment.