Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Value of Wiki and GoogleDocs
I have been rather negative recently about some of these tools, but in all honesty I am so happy to have learned about Wikis and GoogleDocs. Both of these tools are incredibly valuable to the teaching profession as they help us to be more efficient. I hear it said all the time that as a musician one of the utmost personal goals should be to become more efficient, as almost everybody is going to want you to do something. The same is true of an educator. How do you balance doing so many things at once? Partly I'm sure it's due to some sort of neurosis, but I am happy that the other half is in strategizing your work. These tools help tremendously.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wiki working
Now that I have worked and helped complete a webquest on Pbwiki, I feel confident in this new technology. However easy this service is to use, it is also severely limited and not very powerful of a publishing tool. While the actual page has limitless potential for the experienced programmer (as there is opportunity for open source--there are a few publishing tools that do not allow open-source editing), the format around the page seems unalterable. Perhaps there are tools in templates that I haven't looked at, but it was very frustrating to be limited in this way.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Uploading a Web Page
Today I uploaded my webpage for the second time. It is amazing how much easier it is to work with this program than working directly with HTML and FTP servers. My dad spent so much time "training" me to work with all that stuff, and I couldn't tell you the first thing right now. After much poking around, it all made sense, but this is so much faster and easier.
Monday, February 2, 2009
How can I twist words?
I hope to somehow manage to twist this discussion into something to say about technology. We shall see...
I just listened to La Boheme. It's been quite some time since I heard all of it with the libretto. I was a Freshman in college and a very young one at that (even for a Freshman). I love how real it is. What may look like a foul attempt at juxtaposition is no more than showing what rare way of life is the Bohemian. I have friends who live like that. I never pretend to understand them; just allowing them to fill my day with something new and exciting. I think they like it that way.
La Boheme deals with love, loss; love with levity (and levity leaves Marcalo cuckolded...at least for a time), and love with depth unknown. Breif love, long loves; distant loves; loves ended, loves about to end are all filled in by friendships and fun. What a twisted story! Nothing wrong or horrible happens, but certainly there is an element of amorality and complete non-judgement.
As with all Puccini, there is no surprise at the subject material. All his operas are about a heroin that *tragically* dies. It's never a secret. Sometimes it's so overt that it's a little gruesome. La Traviata hits that nerve for me. Yet listening to Mimi die was different. It's so gentle, so unexpected in its timing. And ever so quiet. Like most of the opera, it's the timing that twists things more than anything. As one love is being doomed, another falls apart. There is no balance. The foils are not typical opposites. The other love is left open at the end--no one knows if they will be together again. And that is what makes this so special. It's the timing. It's always the timing.
Perhaps that is what we do as teachers. As a student I have had plently of badly timed and well timed classes. Life goes on around subject material, oblivious to the frivolities of learning. Philosophy, music, history, literature--that is deep learning. Even science has a depth beyond the details. Details are cumbersome, but fascinating; and also the greater part of our lives is nothing more but the day-to-day. I have been told I'm not a day-to-day person. I do not know whether that is a compliment, a put-down, or a great warning. I fear for the day to day and do not know how to traverse the untrod ground of a new day. I enjoy the fresh snow and wonder what travesty it is to spoil it with my footprints.
But I have no romantic notions of being the first. All of this is done before. Nothing new under the sun and all that. Blog, wiki--it's all a repeat, and a bad one at that. And, even knowing that it is fresh for me, I cannot help but feel like my life is all the more mundane in some way. In good conscience can I truly repeat what someone else did simply for the novelty of the experience?
And again--it goes back to the day-to-day. I rebel against the day-to-day. And each morning when the sun rises as it did the last thousand mornings, the force of nature wins. And I am reduced again to subordinate. I may create, but I shall NEVER surpass the creator for the splendor and the completeness of what He has made. If all my rebellion does nothing but point me stronger to the surpassing greatness of my God--then it has all been worth it.
The devil is in the details indeed.
I just listened to La Boheme. It's been quite some time since I heard all of it with the libretto. I was a Freshman in college and a very young one at that (even for a Freshman). I love how real it is. What may look like a foul attempt at juxtaposition is no more than showing what rare way of life is the Bohemian. I have friends who live like that. I never pretend to understand them; just allowing them to fill my day with something new and exciting. I think they like it that way.
La Boheme deals with love, loss; love with levity (and levity leaves Marcalo cuckolded...at least for a time), and love with depth unknown. Breif love, long loves; distant loves; loves ended, loves about to end are all filled in by friendships and fun. What a twisted story! Nothing wrong or horrible happens, but certainly there is an element of amorality and complete non-judgement.
As with all Puccini, there is no surprise at the subject material. All his operas are about a heroin that *tragically* dies. It's never a secret. Sometimes it's so overt that it's a little gruesome. La Traviata hits that nerve for me. Yet listening to Mimi die was different. It's so gentle, so unexpected in its timing. And ever so quiet. Like most of the opera, it's the timing that twists things more than anything. As one love is being doomed, another falls apart. There is no balance. The foils are not typical opposites. The other love is left open at the end--no one knows if they will be together again. And that is what makes this so special. It's the timing. It's always the timing.
Perhaps that is what we do as teachers. As a student I have had plently of badly timed and well timed classes. Life goes on around subject material, oblivious to the frivolities of learning. Philosophy, music, history, literature--that is deep learning. Even science has a depth beyond the details. Details are cumbersome, but fascinating; and also the greater part of our lives is nothing more but the day-to-day. I have been told I'm not a day-to-day person. I do not know whether that is a compliment, a put-down, or a great warning. I fear for the day to day and do not know how to traverse the untrod ground of a new day. I enjoy the fresh snow and wonder what travesty it is to spoil it with my footprints.
But I have no romantic notions of being the first. All of this is done before. Nothing new under the sun and all that. Blog, wiki--it's all a repeat, and a bad one at that. And, even knowing that it is fresh for me, I cannot help but feel like my life is all the more mundane in some way. In good conscience can I truly repeat what someone else did simply for the novelty of the experience?
And again--it goes back to the day-to-day. I rebel against the day-to-day. And each morning when the sun rises as it did the last thousand mornings, the force of nature wins. And I am reduced again to subordinate. I may create, but I shall NEVER surpass the creator for the splendor and the completeness of what He has made. If all my rebellion does nothing but point me stronger to the surpassing greatness of my God--then it has all been worth it.
The devil is in the details indeed.
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