Blogs, Wikis and New Media

"Blogs, Wikis and New Media" is an open course from the Utah University taught by Associate Professor David Wiley.
http://newmediaocw.wordpress.com/
I've been scouting around for links that would be useful before taking the Connectivism Course from the University of Manitoba.
My daughter's boyfriend is going to Nascar this weekend so she's coming here for a visit. I have a bunch of stuff I want her to teach me while she's here. I recently bought a digital camera and am especially interesting in the various ways to share pictures.

Top 10 Psychology Videos

PsychCentral has posted its list of the ten best psychology videos available on the web. When I was in Grade 13, I thought I wanted to become a psychologist and I took as many psychology courses as I did English Literature courses but opted for the English degree because I was more interested in how people construct their lives than in mice experiments. Then I entered nursing school partly to acquire some discipline like a guy joining the army and partly because of hormones and my social group. It was during my Psychiatric nursing rotation that I realized that the mid-life women who were hospitalized for depression had every reason in the world to think their husbands were toads rather than princes and their children were no prizes either. But you can't say, "If I had your life, I'd want to kill myself too", so immediately after graduating and passing my RN exams, I switched to business and started working in Human Resources for General Motors.

Visual Thinking

My husband is very much a visual thinker. He thinks in terms of pictures. Tonight I found a slide presentation called 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking. It is the lost chapter from a book The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam. In it he lists the 6 basic questions when trying to draw a solution and suggests what to draw to represent each question. For example, a when problem needs a timeline whereas a where problem needs a map.
http://www.changethis.com:81/pdf/44.03.TenCommandments.pdf

Freedom Writers

I bought the dvd of Freedom Writers but no one would watch it with me because they thought it would be like Dangerous Minds. Freedom Writers begins a bit slowly but then it hooks you in. I found the breakdown of her marriage especially interesting. Is it possible for a woman to be intensely passionate and committed to her work and have that commitment supported by her husband? The problem wasn't the time or the expense or even just plain not being there. Although he never did anything wifely, he left because he couldn't be the wife. What would have happened if he had driven a carload of kids or if he had joined them at the restaurant? What would have happened if they communicated with each other rather than making their decisions independently? Would choosing to be an active participant in her vision make them a dream team with a transcendant purpose? Would pursuing his own passion have created a sense of equality and mutual self respect? What would have happened if their characters had been reversed - would she have walked out if he had been obsessed with his work? Were their priorities wrong? What were we supposed to feel? In the plot summary on Wiki, there is no mention of her marriage whatsoever. Did he unilaterally end the relationship or had the relationship ended earlier in the movie or was it a premature ending - was there still a spark of life in the relationship that could have been fanned? The movie didn't remind me of Dangerous Minds but it did make me think of The Way We Were.

Pre-Marital Counselling

To be honest, Stephen and I didn't have pre-marital counselling. I phoned the clergyman who was marrying us and asked if we should meet before the wedding. He said, "I know Stephen and that's enough." At the time I thought I might actually be a factor in the success or failure of the marriage but the truth is Stephen could have married anyone and not waivered.
You can do a google search and pick your favourite bloggers on just about any topic - finance, communication, relationships, healthy living, etc., etc. Nobody believes that clergy have any more general knowledge about marriage than anyone else. The statistics for clergy marriages surviving are no better than that of the general population.
The only area that clergy know a bit more about is the theology of marriage but head knowledge without heart knowledge is straw not gold.
Do you know what a sacrament is? Do you know what a covenant is? Do you believe that God made you to be a blessing to each other and to the world? Will you both remain faithful to your vows? If either of you know of any reason why you should not marry, will you honestly state why the vows shouldn't be taken? Can you forgive and reconcile? Do you both want this marriage more than all the temptations and addictions with the power destroy it? Is your love greater than your personal ambition - if life gets too full and something has to go, will you keep the marriage and the children? Will you seek marital advise from the old and the wise rather than your peers? There will be a day when you stop fighting about the little things and start focusing on keeping each other alive because that person has become your life.

Christian the Lion

This video is so amazing. In the church, clergy are encouraged to leave a parish and not retain emotional bonds as it is consider an interference to the parish bonding with the new rector. Transferring never gets easier and in talking to clergy wives it actually gets much harder with each move. It's impossible to do ministry if you don't give your heart away and it's unethical to form deep emotional bonds with people you know you will be expected to dump a few years down the road. The reason it gets harder the older you get is you can't create a lifestory you are proud of if all you have are fragments of a life. It's like viewing a video where there is damage to the images at predictable intervals. Right when you get to a really great part there's distorted images and then a new storyline without a transition that makes emotional sense. This youtube clip makes me cry because this Lion has more freedom and depth of expression than I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U

Indaba Groups

Following the story of Lambeth Conference was mesmorizing. Who was going to control the conference agenda - the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Presiding Bishop of the United States. The U.S. bloggers complained about a medieval, undemocratic administration ignoring the fact the representation by number of parishioners attending service on an average Sunday would enhance Africa's power and decrease American representation. No we weren't talking about democracy, we were talking "He who can pay the piper, gets to call the tune" which I am sure is an even older concept than feudalism.
The Indaba Groups gave all the Bishops a chance to tell their story and be respectfully listened to. It also assumed that all Bishops had some vital truth to contribute that all could learn from.
And then there is the Millenieum Goals - a commitment to the rights of even the poorest children of the world to a chance for survival, a chance for an education.
And so to the Archbishop of Canterbury, I say that far from being a medieval fuddy duddy, you are a revolutionary and so here's a link to Tracy Chapman's song "We're Talking About a Revolution". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi6Tj6E