Tag: Education

Categories
Design Education Reading

Latest read: Catching the Big Fish

It was great to see David Lynch’s new book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity with a eye catching cover to match.
As a fan of his work going back to Blue Velvet (Special Edition) and Twin Peaks…I could not get by without mentioning Wild At Heart, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and of course Eraserhead.

It was also nice to see a NYTimes article about his latest work, Inland Empire.

The focus is his experience of transcendental meditation and its effect not only on his films, but his paintings too.

He gives artists the opportunity to dig deeper and “catch the bigger fish in the river” — applying those lessons to their work. It was an opportunity to get David’s view of his own creative process including how he came up with the red room in Twin Peaks.  A must for anyone finding David Lynch creative.

Categories
Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest read: The Gulag Archipelago

I am not sure why this title The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 came to my reading list…other than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as author. In college August 1914: The Red Wheel 1: A Narrative in Discrete Periods of Time was on my reading list. The story of his own family and Imperial Russia’s role in WWI.
The Gulag ArchipelegoWith the holiday break at MIAD almost over I found time to finish this work’s first volume and re-examine my interest in Soviet history. For the better part of the 1900s – all too often – it delt with this type of control by the communist party in Soviet Russia.

Solzhenitsyn’s writing is so powerful. Soviet oppression beginning after the 1917 revolution and extending into Stalin’s post WWII Russia is one of the most horrific periods of the 20th Century. The amount of suffering and the power of the Checka was overwhelming to read story after story. And reading how many ways the Soviets could torture people…made me think about the amount of suffering and torture that occurred in “break away” Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact nations in 1968. Czechoslovakia and Poland come to mind.

So is it actually possible to torture someone by forcing them to standup for four or five days? Solzhenitsyn clearly proves this was just one of so many terrible treatments people faced for not supporting the communists. His writing provides too many details of the number of vivid examples…all based upon his own stay in a Gulag and the interview with hundreds of fellow prisoners. Solzhenitsyn wrote this in volumes and multiple sections. This is only Volume I Section I “The Prison Industry, Perpetual Motion.” As much as the first section is horribly depressing, his writing in section two is even more compelling.

I must now also acknowledge that Volume II has been to difficult to read. The detail’s provided by Solzhenitsyn too intense, depressing and horrific. The details of torture by the Soviets… A Russian ship carrying prisoners that breaks down at sea, is offered assistance by a Japanese boat — only to be waived off. Dead prisoners were then pushed overboard. Many unknown deaths by systematic torture how all too well the horrors of the Soviet Gulags.

Categories
Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest read: The Life of Mozart

It was a real joy to read Edward Holmes work The Life of Mozart based around a series of letters by the Mozarts. This is really a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about Mozart’s communication with his family and his amazing life.
life of mozartDon’t judge this book The Life of Mozart by its cover — especially if this book was published in 1845! From touring Europe and the excitement his operas, to his father’s wish not to raise his young children in London — a city lacking the influence of God.

I was amused to learn of a gift given to Mozart by a Polish count in exchange for a composition (when Mozart had “free time”) to feature violin.

After a year the Count wrote Mozart asking for his composition…only to receive a reply which indicated Mozart had no free time to compose! The Count’s reply: since Mozart had no problem holding a gift of gold for a year maybe he should consider returning the gift…and surprisingly Mozart did…while he continued to struggle financially with his wife and children.

Another example were two letters written by Mozart at age 22 to his father and sister while he was touring Paris with his Mother. After she suddenly died he wrote a letter home to prepare them for her death. Then four days after she died he wrote a second letter announcing her death…just before he departed Paris for Saulzberg with her body.

Edward Holmes work is wonderful. Please consider at the time (1845) of this release Mozart’s fame was not fully realized. A wonderful book worthy of a second read.

Categories
Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest read: Mozart’s Wife

I picked up a couple of books including Mozart’s Wife after a long period (maybe a year) when I spent more time listening to his music than reading about his interesting life.
Mozart’s WifeIn my previous Mozart book post it was great to learn more about him from a scholastic point of view….building upon previous reads….but I came across Mozart’s Wife by Juliet Waldron. Historical fiction and romance?

Giddy sugarplum or calculating bitch? Did I miss author Juliet Waldron on Springer?

Providing a fictional account of Constanze life. Some parts more interesting than others.

Not really compelling enough for me. I may consider Anges Selby’s “Constanze, Mozart’s Beloved” but today I picked up Mozart and the Enlightenment (again) and re-read a chapter about his opera Cosi fan tutte. It is truly a great opera!

Categories
Cyberinfrastructure Design Education Innovation Milwaukee Rich media Technology

Smartboards are just plain dumb

While leading a college IT team at a private college in Wisconsin I painfully learned Smartboards are just plain dumb.  Our Provost was interested to explore funding Smartboards in eight classrooms.  In securing a full “kick-the-tires” evaluation over two weeks from Smart Technologies’ regional reseller — our college took a full, no-holes barred test drive.  The reseller delivered the smartboards right to our doorstep.

Smartboard

Smart Technologies a Canadian company manufactures a series of interactive whiteboards targeted for the education and healthcare markets.  They have a large marketshare in K12 school districts yet a very small share in Higher Education.
SMART Technologies has a simple marketing message: SMART Boards represent the latest advanced in high-tech classrooms.  And by the looks of sales in K12 they believe they get access to state-of-the-art technology to teach more effectively. Students “feel” more engaged with high-tech gadgets.  Parents believe their children are recieving a better, quality education because their school has expensive smart boards installed.

Their products like other manufacturers permit anyone (holding a custom pen with touch recognition) to control/interact with an application’s software menus and windows. This will enable some level of handwriting recognition. Depending upon the type of camera configured, projection can be front or rear facing.  The important feature is the ability to capture digital ink — or handwriting recognition. It’s the “smart” part of their product — as their trademark would imply.  But for the prices that range from ($3,000 to $12,000) you should be getting 110% of your school’s investment. Right?

I have witnessed shifts towards “smartclassrooms” in K12 and Higher Education around the Midwest for almost 20 years.  If you have not personally configured and kicked the tires of a SMART Board PLEASE make sure someone on your IT Staff has this experience. The results should fundamentally change your view of smartboards and ’emerging’ technologies in the classroom.

Just one very important observation before jumping into my experience: In today’s branded world of smartphones, smartcars and even smart appliances, SMART Technologies holds the trademark to the word “Smart” and believe me …. there is marketing power when holding this trademark when selling technology products.

Okay….call them whatever you want: smartboard, digital whiteboards or even toss in the term “interactive” into the mix.  What should shock you is the degree of software compatibility for the price schools pay for these boards.

My goal was simple: obtain a solid understanding of this technology to justify our Provost’s initiative.  I kept a close eye on the purchase, installation, design and (most importantly) delivering empowering training to faculty and staff.   In order for me to meet these objectives the following three tasks were outlined for the Provost:

1. Tour a successful university installation with a team from our college
2. Confirm reseller demo on campus in-front of key decision makers
3. Successfully test drive all campus site licensed software

I was fortunate to secure a tour of Marquette University’s SmartClassrooms with their Associate Vice President for Educational Technology.  Joining me was our Director of Instructional Technology, Dean of Continuing Education and two members of my IT support team.

Several installations around Marquette’s campus successfully demonstrate a range interactive smart boards.  Marquette’s total costs for installing a “smartclassroom” cost about $40,000 per classroom.  The highlight of our visit was a behind the scenes tour of their smartclassroom in the new Raynor Library.

However SMART Technologies was not well liked by staff responsible for maintaing classroom technology.  As a result our group walked away realizing Smart’s products were not the right solution. Their reputation was poor, the total cost of ownership and training were much higher than anticipated and most importantly their product did not work as advertised.

In order to fully utilize a SMART board’s touch pen you must install or program custom code for ALL applications to be used on their SMART boards.  Yes, your school needs special code-modified versions of EVERY software application installed on every machine that will be connect to their SMART board.  Our college provides faculty with laptops and have laptops on mobile carts.  Our existing fresh out-of-the-box site licensed software from Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and every other vendor on the planet DOES NOT recognize SMART’s pen!  That’s a big problem.

Continue reading “Smartboards are just plain dumb”