Monthly Archives: June 2012

Some go up and some go down?

A response to the question posed in the previous post: We had a brief moment when we were moving toward social literacy in computing. At St. John’s, it occurred thirty years ago, and I remember it clearly because it was … Continue reading

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Dumbing down?

Here’s an email from a colleague that got me thinking about “people as a tool-using species.”  My response follows in the next post. —————————– This is an interesting blog post.  The full article referenced is here.  This came to me from an … Continue reading

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Religion and science (a somewhat simplified perspective)

I have been thinking of what to talk about when I next speak at the Unitarian Fellowship, which occasion is coming up in about 5 weeks. Dodie suggested Chet Raymo or William Hamilton, so I looked them up on Wikipedia … Continue reading

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Restorative interlude

I am reading Marylinne Robinson’s essay on altruism while sitting on my front porch. The noises around me are the syncopated symphony of dove calls, the dull noise of a distant freeway that sounds, from this remove, like a water … Continue reading

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Quantum mechanics has macroscopic analogs

If modern physics (that masterpiece of complexity, abstraction, and imponderability) teaches us anything, it points out the impossibility of severing the link between the observer and the observed. Yet even in a very simple piece of chemistry or cooking, we … Continue reading

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Gentle integration of technology into a basically traditional course

That was one of the points of the Summer Spark talk I gave on Thursday: A Marriage of Equals: Supplement, not Replace I started with the most important thing: why we (should) be teaching what we teach. Habits of mind … Continue reading

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Einstein and Education — Interlude

While preparing for teaching US Lit next year, I came across an essay by Einstein (actually a talk, I think) from 1936.  It was superb–I think this, of course, because it expresses many thoughts I have independently come to embrace … Continue reading

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Summer Spark 2012 — Day 1

A most enjoyable day.  Spoke with colleagues from other schools and got to exchange ideas with some people I hadn’t met before.  My presentation this morning seemed to go well, and I quite enjoyed the discussion on creativity in the … Continue reading

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