The ceribral Luddite

The ceribral Luddite,  So now I get how ignorance can be bliss. Are we really better as man's (women's) natural inquisitive nature has sought out the revealing of "truth" Techno and the development of techno industrial creativity? I found the 'interview with the Luddite allowed me to wonder and re evaluate the value of staying in a  Tribal environment. The idea of post birth, birth control was disturbing, but isn't that the "global Village" current reality. The technologically advanced societies allow crops to rot in the fields, pollute drinking water, consume energy poison the atmosphere, destroy the bounty of nature and use even more resources and technology to "fix" the environment. While tens of thousand of children die everyday for lack of even the basics. We have been short on thinking about repercussion of invention and have been short sighted in hoarding discovery. We are so fearful of failing or falling behind, we lay waste to our responsibilities to each other. We may be a global village, but we are not all equal contributors or benefactors. Many have been sold a bill of goods of what constitutes the meaning and purpose of our existence on the planet. Are we a Big Bang fluke of random occurrences with limited hope ability or purpose or have we lost our way? This whole departure reminds me of man's (women's) quest for the "good" life as revealed in the following story.

The Tale of the fisherman and the TouristA tourist looks on a most idyllic picture: a fisherman dozing in the sun in his rowing boat that he has pulled out of the waves which come rolling up the sandy beach. The tourist's camera clicks and the fisherman wakes. The tourist asks: “The weather is great and there's plenty of fish, so why are you lying around instead of going out and catching more?”
The fisherman replies: “Because I caught enough this morning.”
“But just imagine,” the tourist says, “you could go out there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as much fish! And then you know what could happen?” The fisherman shakes his head. “After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,” says the tourist. “After two years you could buy a second one, and after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .”
“And then?” asks the fisherman.
“And then”, the tourist continues triumphantly, “you'd could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking at the beautiful ocean!” The fisherman looks at the tourist: “But that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!”
(slightly abridged from an original story by Heinrich Böll)

The Myth of the cave (The Republic, Plato)Has clearly foretold The state of the North American prisoner chained via technology to experience a life portrait cast in the shadow and nebulous images of a life to be obtained and the apparent right of every prisoner observer, but like shadows has no real substance. Advertising illustrates a model of normality and expectation that keeps the prisoner in a constant state of desire, but no ways and means to actually experience this untruth in their life. One must ask why are the prisoners so content to observe, than to pursue reality. Are the minds now so (playdoe) as to be quite happy to endure their own suffering as it relates to the sufferers of 'reality" TV and pinning there hopes to a lottery or some other get rich scheme, so far beyond their reach, yet not beyond their dreams. They are continually settling for less and less not once telling themselves the truth of the reality that might exist off their couches. Plato is correct when revealed in the light of reality it is too painful for the dim eyed (dim brained) and they prefer to descend back into a cave. Being the arm chair quarterbacks that will never play a game.

Here‟s a quote, from a speech Shirky gave in April 2008:
And this is the other thing about the size of the cognitive surplus we’re talking about. It’s so large that even a small change could have huge ramifications. Let’s say that everything stays 99 percent the same, that people watch 99 percent as much television as they used to, but 1 percent of that is carved out for producing and for sharing. The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year … One percent of that is 98 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation.

From You are not a Gadgets.

What a revelation as this is becoming my reality, less and less TV (for what purpose) the numbing of minds and thought and value as a contributor to society. Have I discovered a real life matrix???

I wonder about the true intent of the MOOC. If this is a sustainable model or not, if education is given freely to all, where will the elitists go and what will they fund next? what will happen to privilege, hierarchy, advantage, perception, and capitalism? Where is the governing body for quality and relevance for the MOOC? Will MOOCs just become a super advertisement to educate people to pursue a flawed "great American dream?

If we were all to become a society of great Greek thinkers and philosophers is our future the current Greek economic model? Would we, in fact, live just outside and on the poor side of the tracks of the "Global Village"?

I am thankful for the opportunity to take time through these formal courses to ponder and enter a realm so foreign to my previous thought process that  I can compare it to summer coming to a frozen lake. Before I only scratched the surface finding deep thought cold and thick and lifeless with little value to my existence, However, with spring and summer coming I am becoming immersed in a, before unknown, world of wonder and intrigue, that doesn't follow any of my preconceived values. I had wondered in the past can the world, as I know it, afford University Education, as the current model seems to only graduate debt laden individuals directly into a welfare system.

My first introduction to training and teaching occurred during the early years of my military career. It wasn't until much later that I even understood operant conditioning and how to manipulate people into acting and reacting in predictable ways for a very specific goal. Following the Dewey model of thinking for a purpose of solving or at least anticipating technical problems and using critical thinking allowed me to become a recognized expert in a number of technical disciplines. I particularly enjoyed that through effective story telling I was able to seemingly explain difficult concepts in an entertaining way that others good understand.
After the military I joined civilian industry and as a result was invited to apply for an instructors position at Stevenson Aviation, Teaching Gas Turbine Repair and Overhaul eventually led to my move to Notre Dame Campus to teach to the trades. I discovered that being a visual learner with ADHD allowed for a closer relationship with the trades apprentice. opportunity arose to attend Ferris State University and I received a BSc in Technical Education. This sojourn into official Academia with a cohort model did a lot to validate life long learning. Sometimes being under the tutelage of less than adequate instructor can teach you what a good trainer educator should be. It was there I learned the real meaning of pedagogy and for me the death of Operant conditioning. I continued and expanded into EADDI E apprenticeship Design and Delivery Initiative, Which really involved a cradle to grave experience in development. From this an opportunity to pursue a Masters in Adult ED and further to present to a national and international forums through MadLat and CNIE.
I believe that I live vicariously through the accomplishments of my students, that every student is a ten in something and that all who come to me deserve the very best I can possibly provide.
Of course I want my students to learn fundamentals of the discipline, but even more that learning is exciting and has value.
Teaching is exchanging an idea in such a clear way that a person can understand own it and improve and adapt it.

I am understanding more and more the gulf that is being developed between thinking and doing and how the global panic of insecurity in whatever a materialistic society we are evolving into may grow like an ugly rash on the uniqueness of the Human intellect along with what may be considered wisdom. How thinkers are being wooed by the dark side of pragmatic problems solvers. In consideration of what Dewey supports as thinking for "troubleshooting" as you will, after the fact, as opposed to what he believed the harmful act of deep thinking just helps people retreat from the reality of everyday life and has no real value to society. He calls them irrelevant speculations, fantasies and dreams. I never knew how closely I followed his idealology until I read " The function of reflective thought is, therefore, to transform a situation in which there is experienced obscurity, doubt, conflict, disturbance of some sort, into a situation that is clear, coherent, settled , harmonious" As a problem solver I have never actually considered the down side of giving up careful considerate thought to an artificial intelligence that contains facts but no actual reason. This course will be an interesting trip down the Rabbit Hole.

It was a very interesting read from Ellen Rose about the value and definition of Reflection, a much more arduous endeavor than I have ever experienced before. I resonated with the definition of light being reflected back and was considering that to be effective the surface must be smoothed and worked over and refined and without contamination. Much like the mind must be polished and refined and devoid of distractions of the business of everyday life. I find that solitude and meditation can not control the many voices that vie for my attention and so reflection as identified by Rose is not a place I often go to.

Comparing Ellen Rose to Asimov The Feeling of Power I found them both fearful and a warning of what happens when we surrender The human intellect to the quick and easy demands of an economy driven global village. I particularly enjoyed the return to the value of the human mind, and that was given up to technology. It reminds me of "There is time to do things twice, but never time to do it right the first time. I find that with new technology I can make mistakes at the speed of light and that an auto correct function can completely change what I had hoped to communicate clearly. I have discovered that apparently I am a closet follower of Dewey and was mistaken that scientific critical thinking and true reflection were the same thing. Being retired military Reflection could not really be expected to be a desired skill

This is my first attempt to blog