Writing Assignment 4 - Researching the Renaissance

In class we discussed several factors that influenced the explosion of great art works during the period we call the European Renaissance.  Among these factors:

The Plague

The Fall of Constantinople

Maritime Improvements

Rise of the Merchant Class

The Printing Press

Collecting Classical relics

Choose one of these and find something out about it online. It may be helpful to visit one of  the sites listed under Useful Links in the left hand column of this Wiki.  Keep it simple, but keep it really specific to the Renaissance.  Share what you find and where you found it (document your source) with the class by posting a response under "Writing Assignments."

I chose "Maritime Improvements."  I found the following excerpt at http://www.learner.org/interactives/renaissance/exploration.html

"By measuring the distance of the sun and stars above the horizon, the astrolabe helped determine latitude, an important tool in navigation. Another tool, the magnetic compass, which had been invented in the twelfth century, was improved upon during the Renaissance."


Here is another link to a site specifically about the astrolabe:
http://astrolabes.org/mariner.htm

I found this image of an astrolabe on Google images:

QEP ruminations about critical thinking

My first idea about critical thinking and the main focus of the Wiki is to get students to surmise, what does this mean for me, and how is this related to my life?

I think critical thinking is the ability to find and make use of information.  That involves a complex array of skills, the most important, perhaps, being language.  Critical thinking results in some type of articulation.  To know something is to be able to articulate it, to struggle to articulate it precisely.

I really like the ideas about truth and about confidence (self-regulation) that came out of the meetings and articles.  I hadn't fully articulated those ideas, and I am still working on it.  The value of a college education is not the diplomas and credentials; it is the self actualization that occurs.  The peaks of my own college experience always involved me (sometimes painfully) overcoming some bias or predetermination in my mind and finding truth.  Education should be about growing the mind, and it grows as painfully and slowly as the body.  We subject ourselves to this sometimes painful process so that we are not simply driven by our appetites, so that we are not merely leaves on the wind.  Even a mollusk filters something.

We are bombarded with information and facts everyday, none of which are true.  NONE.  One of the most important things we can teach is that a fact is not a truth.  We tend to say "that's a fact" to mean something is true, but the truth is that even if a fact is validated it may have little to do with the truth.  Much like the fast food industry, we are given shovel loads of substance with no nutritional value.  Furthermore, the state of mass media today seems to be completely hapless.  It is not a  "liberal media" or "Fox" conspiracy.  It is clear, though, that the historically constant unethical and unscrupulous methods of the press seem to have been accepted by the industry as the standard.  It is of upmost importance for an individual to be able to arrive at some kind of truth.  

Critical thinking, though, isn't just arriving at a truth.  It is a willingness to arrive at conclusions (deduce, infer, etc.) that challenge a truth one might be comfortable with.  A truth or some truth are very different from the notion of the Truth.  The only Truth I really understand is that there are a whole lot of constantly morphing truths out there, many of which are designed to get my money, energy, vote, or just to get me to repeat things that I hear.  Part of being an adult in the Post-modern world is understanding this.  Critical thinking is the ability to navigate these truths and adapt to the changes.  It is crucial for an individual to arrive at some kind of truth and be willing to change,  but that has to be based on some kind of discernment or objective detachment.

Seeing how something is useful, making something useful, growing mentally and/or emotionally, discerning some kind of truth, a willingness to change internally, navigating external changes.

QEP insights Links from "Dispatches from the Future of Museums"

1) The End of Education is the Beginning of Learning:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662358/the-end-of-education-the-dawn-of-learning-a-conversation-with-stephen-heppell

2) Trends Proposed by Futurists Magazine:

http://www.wfs.org/index.php?q=Forecasts_From_The_Futurist_Magazine

3) Interesting Japanese trends of De-ownership, Demonetization, De-materialization

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/09/japanese_trends.php

4) Laurie Anderson suggests that museums will be put in the same predicament as record companies by applications like Youtube.

 http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE68Q4UL20100927


It seems particular to my generation (or perhaps it is ego-centric of us to think so) to be on the cusp, stuck between the old and new.  I am as afraid of and uncomfortable with change as any human being.  I suspect that these exercises in Personal Learning Environments is symptomatic of much greater trends.  I don't know, as much as I like Laurie Anderson, I just love museums.   I always have.

Notes from QEP Workshop 9/29

Notes:
Critical Thinking Website -- Dr. Rogers
7 habits of highly effective people
Look up CT on Wikipedia.
Defining Critical Thinking  -- Clarification Consensus
Encouraging the right kind of Critical Thinking about the right things.
What does Interpretation look like?
Confidence and Self-Regulation  -- Feeling like their critical thinking is relevant to the subject
Vision Statement
Blogging as a form of critical thinking
Seeing notes
JITT --  Have students formulate a test question.  Ask students to do something creative.
Critical thinking - Thinking for self.  Applying a foundational knowledge.  Making connections between subject matter.  Engaging with material.
Is the "job" to cover material or teach the students.

Draft:

Today's workshop dealt more with critical thinking, specifically with clarifying or coming to a consensus about what exactly critical thinking is.  Certainly, we should know what something is before we try to measure it.  I got some good ideas from the workshop.  The main one being, as Dr. Rogers pointed out, that Self-Regulation or Self-Evaluation, specifically regarding confidence.  Many students do not feel that their commentary or critical thinking is of value or that it is valuable enough to be included in the academy.  I often talk to students about the idea of invention or discovery.

How many of us can really discover something these days?  If I want to break the land speed record, I better have a PhD in physics or engineering.  To discover things at the sub-atomic level, I need expensive equipment and years of know how to even begin to know what it is I am looking for.   There has to be something pleasurable in just discovering something for oneself.   There has to be joy in research and rediscovery.  Excuse me if I have gotten wordy.  Put simply the big payoff discoveries seem so far removed from the typical student's life that it is paralyzing.  We have to realize that long before the IMac, there was a box of parts taped and soldered in someone's garage.  If not for the joy of finding out what happens next, we would have no IPods, IPhones, IMacs, et al.

I will look forward to checking out Dr. Rogers' Critical thinking link.  I also like his idea about incorporating the 7 habits of highly effective people (probably need to incorporate that in my own life, as well).  I also like the idea of creating a vision statement.  Pat had a great idea about asking students to generate test questions and thinking about that exercise as JiTT.  One thing I have enjoyed about the blogging type writing entries on my site is I can see the critical analysis, if there are crossed wires or faulty logic and where I need to explain things better (perhaps).  My students in my QEP and Online class tend to seek my approval.  It is not just that they want my input; they want to know they are being recognized.  As far as reading 60-80 blogs, I'd say keep it short and simple.

Critical Thinking involves discrimination.  Some kind of judgement or evaluation takes place... a prioritization.  The most important part of it is the ability to assimilate ideas from different sources and make that information relative to one's own life.  Overall, as far as a definition of Critical Thinking, I do not think the problem is whether it is critical or not.  The problem is that we want the right kind of critical thinking applied to the right area.  As stated in the workshop, we want students to figure out the material, concepts, and critical discourse, not how to pass the course.  Clearly, one answer is to devalue the grade.  That is a scary proposition.

QEP - Just in Time Teaching

Notes from http://jittdl.physics.iupui.edu/jitt/what.html

G. Novak, gnovak@iupui.edu

Students respond electronically to carefully constructed web-based assignments which are due shortly before class, and the instructor reads the student submissions "just-in-time" to adjust the classroom lesson to suit the students' needs. Thus, the heart of JiTT is the "feedback loop" formed by the students' outside-of-class preparation that fundamentally affects what happens during the subsequent in-class time together.

JiTT web pages fall into three major categories:

• 1. Student assignments in preparation for the classroom activity: WarmUps and Puzzles.
• 2. Enrichment pages. Short essays on practical, everyday applications of the course subject matter, peppered with URLs to interesting material on the web. These essays have proven themselves to be an important motivating factor in introductory service courses, where students often doubt the current relevance the subject.
• 3. Stand alone instructional material, such as simulation programs and spreadsheet exercises.

QEP - Workshop Question for 9/15 - Critical Thinking

I encourge critical thinking skills in my writing assignments by asking students t make associations between the subject matter and their daily lives.  In fact, that is kind of the whole gist of my beta project in its very simple form.  I plan to link more resources and research tools to the Wiki as furthr develop the course as a hybrid, but the crux will always be just that... How does this subject work in and relate to your life?

I feel this involves a great deal of higher level thinking as I am making them view things from multple perspecitves, objectively and subjectively, and I am asking them to draw comparisons across cultural and historical lines and inevitably deaing with the ethical problems of doing so.

I think that the idea of "Appreciation" is critical in and of itself.  We are asking people to discern and discriminate. "I may not like that, but I appreciate its historical context or the work that went into it.  My projects are also designed to reflect traditional rhetorical models.  

PLENK2010 - Notes and Quotes Gleaned from Forums

This is the site, Digital Storytelling that goes into domain names ande web hosting:

http://ds106.umwblogs.org/2010/08/27/assignment-2-domain-and-webhosting/

Apps I need to look into:

Wordpress, youtube, twitter, flickr, StumbleUpon, skype, Del.icio.us, blip.fm, Elgg, SNAPP, Symbaloo, camtasia, Virtual Goods, Second Life

PDF Educause 7 things about PLEs: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7049.pdf

Zaid Learn a list of free learning sites:

http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2009/01/growing-list-of-free-learning-tutorial.html

http://www.diyplanner.com/

Creating an innovation-oriented technology strategy

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1810808&show=abstract

Elgg

http://www.elggcampus.com/

Web 2.0 glossary

http://www.socialsignal.com/blog/alexandra-samuel/web-2-0-glossary

social network pedagogy article:

http://www.socialsignal.com/blog/alexandra-samuel/web-2-0-glossary

Balancing teacher control and student autonomy

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html

“Learning just is the process of making something that is unfamiliar to oneself become familiar. It involves doing something that is not 'natural' and through reflective practice making it natural.

Imagine how useful it would be to be able to just do something mechanical - like, say, take notes - and then not only remember, but be able to create all kinds of new concepts and associations. The whole point about learning is not being satisfied with what is 'natural'.”  Stephen Downes

I also liked the quote about the power of the information designer in coming years.  It made me think of Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind.

Mind mapping software: http://www.informationtamers.com/WikIT/index.php?title=Free_mind_mapping_and_related_types_software

ICT literacies:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf

cool mind map about everything to do with learning on line

http://www.mindmeister.com/27416117/information-and-communication-literacy