A Short Text

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Posts I must read – note to self

This is from the Online School post on a 100 things to read about the future of online learning:

Full post is here

Online Learning

Find out what direction the relatively new field of online learning might be taking with these articles.

1. The future of e-learning is social learning. Take a look at what social learning is and why it is the future of online learning.
2. The U.S. Department of Education releases a report on online learning studies. Find out what the US Department of Education says about the powerful impact of online learning.
3. Telepresence: The future of synchronous learning?. Combining audio and video technology to simulate a face-to-face meeting may be the future of distance learning.
4. The Future of OCW, and “OCW 2.0″. This post speculates that open courseware will become a source of college credit in the next few years.
5. What’s behind the Explosive Growth in Distance Learning?. Learn why distance learning is growing so quickly as well as some predictions for the future of distance learning.
6. Online courses helping people be tech savvy seniors. The over-55 crowd has begun to embrace technology and are now headed back to school via the Internet.
7. Online Mentoring Programs. Get examples of how and why online mentoring works and discover why this may be a wave of the future.
8. How-To: Engage the Managers of Distance Learning. While this article is specifically directed at management training in the workplace, it is an excellent example of how distance learning instructors may be conducting their classes in the future.
9. Top 60 Jobs That Will Rock the Future. Check out number 41–Distance Education Consultant. According to this post, “the future of college is online.”

Sir Ken Robinson from Fora TV

The more I hear of Sir Ken the more I like what he has to say. Much of what is said here is based on his latest book, “A New View of Human Capacity”.

Vygotsky – spiritual development

Vygotsky, has brought many new insights to the world of education that can be applied to one’s spiritual growth. The foundational premise of Vygotsky’s concept of development is that the formation of the mind or cognition is dependent on the social context in which an individual lives.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach to developmentalism.

The following insights can be gleaned from his writings and it is posited that a integrated application of his developmental principles form a solid foundation for one’s spiritual growth, sustainable ministry and continued attendance to the things of God.

Spiritual growth begins outside the individual. Spiritual growth is not simply an internal process, but is partially an acquisition from the community of faith in which the individual engages. While spirituality is often perceived as an individual or personal quality, it also has a social or cooperate dimension. Most ministers would agree that Scripture asserts one’s belonging to God’s community, the church but its application to one’s personal spiritual growth is uncertain. This dichotomy is expressed by many who preach the need for the church but view the ‘real work’ of spiritual growth taking place privately. Both must be held as true if spiritual growth is to occur within one’s ministry context.

Spiritual growth is holistic. To ensure that one is able to sustain their ministry and guard against burnout requires one to view themselves in a holistic manner. Spiritual growth is not the result of a single factor, but of multiple factors, both individual and social, which coalesce within the individual. Application of a single devotional method or community form does not allow one’s developmental areas to mature. Vygotsky brings a new perspective on the interaction of one’s physical and mental processes that is closer to the Hebrew understanding of knowledge requiring truth to be related to one’s being not merely the presence of rational proofs.

Spiritual growth isnot a linear or unidirectional process. Vygotsky’s use of zones of development, rather than linear stages of advancement, adds a new approach to our understanding of spiritual growth. Instead of viewing maturity as a linear process that has some end goal growth and maturity may be seen as the complete integration of one’s developmental zones. Spiritual growth would require relationships conducive to advancing faith.

Teachers and deliberate instruction are essential for spiritual growth. According to Vygotsky, development does not occur on its own; it requires a socio-historical impetus, which for him was education, specifically schooling or intentional instruction. Intentional and unintentional instruction by the church contributes to the spiritual growth of all its members. This is instruction by a more mature member of the faith community is required for an individual to reach their formative potential. In the Church Vygotsky’s approach requires the church to function as a family, wherein the more mature members are placed in a learning context with younger members of the faith community. This is in contrast to the role assumed in many larger churches were management and organization is the main requirements of the pastor. To remain in ministry for the long term requires the Pastor to listen to elders and be teachable by their experience.

Creativity – How we kill it and How to promote it

When is anger good?

In most of the popular literature today we are told that aggressiveness is wrong and that assertiveness is the way to go. I think that this is because we equate aggressiveness with the negativity of a bullying attitude.

Of course we know that people get angry. We never really get to see this anger because like many other emtions we are told to bury it. And, because it is rarely expressed and we are out of practice we forget how it should be displayed.

Anger is not always bad. It can be very bad if its done in the wrong way. But, anger can be a good thing. It shows that we care and have a vested interest in what is going on around us. That we have desire to contribute to the discussion or the injustice that we perceive is happening.

Anger is mostly bad when it is about ourselves. In many cases anger because of a personal injustice can quickly become resentment and frustration.

Remember the song, “Don’t worry, Be Happy”. A great little tune, catchy punchline but not always true. We do worry, we aren’t aways happy and shouldn’t always expect to be. Of course I would prefer to be happy than to be angry, but, a part of the key to being happy is knowing how to use anger to be motivated to change the things that are causing my unhappiness.

Everyday spirituality

Sometimes I long to sit and reach out to spiritual world. I want to sit and read books and meditate and contemplate life. I want to think about higher things and not deal with the corruption that we face with our physical world. But, I think that I am learning that this will never happen unless I remove myself from all reality. Spirituality must be able to deal with reality and importantly it must be able to deal with our physical reality.

Update on this blog

I quick update on this blog. For a number of months I lost my blog completely. Thankfully I had saved all the neccessary backup files and after some trial and error I was able to recover all my posts.

There is still a lot of work to do. You may notice some formatting errors because of the database upgrade. I will work through these gradually to fix that. This may be a long term project unless I find a script that will go through all my posts and correct them.

Having my blog back makes me feel like I have an old friend return. As I look through it I see my life’s journey over the past three years. I realise again that life can be haphazard. Or maybe that’s more a reflection of my own personality. Anyway I hope that this blog might continue to map my key interests at any given moment. Plus it gives me a place to play around with one of my favourite programs, “Wordpress“

I need to blog more

Not posting any thing over the past few months is symptomatic of a number of things in my life that aren’t right.

• I need to read more – I really haven’t had the chance to read anything in the past few months
• I need to exercise more – I still weigh around 80kgs. Weigh too much.
• I need to spend more time with my family.

So what does this mean for me? My unbalanced life has become even more unbalanced over recent months. Its time to get unbalanced in the right ways.

Martin Luther King Quote

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
-martin luther king, jr.

Say no more.

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