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Blogs for Christmas

I read and scan many blogs every day, and I continually add more to my list.
The latest entry in Seth Godin's Blog contains an eclectic list of blogs that has been apparently been making the rounds in the blogosphere lately. Seth suggests that we might wish to add to the list and pass it on, so do so if you wish.
One of the very strange comments one gets about the internet is 'There's too much information and knowledge out there. I just can't keep up with it.' True: but that's the wonder of knowledge online. There's so much out there, just as there is so much knowledge in libraries.
Lists of recommended blogs help us to find some of the best writing online. Many blogs have their own lists so that we can continue our search for useful knowledge – and serendipity.
My first click on this list took me to The Tom Peters blog and his recent photo of a winter sunrise in Vermont. I have Peters' books on my shelves, but he continues to write and create ideas using the web and e-books. His blog includes access to at least one free e-book which I'll add to my desktop as soon as I finish this entry.
Enjoy browsing and sharing these blogs.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Harvard Reconsiders Core-Course Requirements

NPR : Harvard Reconsiders Core-Course Requirements:
Harvard University is rethinking what future graduates should be required to know. The latest plan stresses general knowledge about "how the world works," rather than academic methodology. The idea is to make classes more relevant to the modern world.
In this podcast Tovia Smith discusses Harvard's plans to design a core-course curriculum about life after Harvard, focusing on four areas – Culture, Science, The World, The United States – rather than on what some students feel are obscure courses on narrow topics.
Harvard, like some other educational institutions, is dealing with the question: Should we prepare students to be academics or should we prepare them for the outside world? Most institutions feel that they are doing both, but students may not agree.
This podcast was part of NPR's Story of the Day series, one of many series that NPR produces.

End Of The Med School Lecture

End of the med school lecture | The Nation | The Australian:
"The traditional university lecture will be scrapped by the nation's (Australia's) biggest medical school and replaced by online learning programs.
Partly prompted by a swell in student numbers expected in 2008, the University of Queensland's School of Medicine is developing an interactive web program to deliver the information now given in a lecture."
George Siemens mentioned this story on his blog elearnspace.
Dr. Ken Donald, head of the School of Medicine, said: 'The question is not what knowledge is best; the question is how to get students to use that knowledge. It's better to use your staff's time to teach students how to use that knowledge to be doctors; to teach them clinical skills, clinical resources, professional and personal development and interaction with patients.'
Lectures have some advantages according to Dr. Kerri-Lee Harris of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at Melbourne University: 'There's value in the lecture irrespective of the discipline or the number of students or resources.' She also said that 'It's the value of having students learning together, it provides an opportunity for students to hear and engage with the same material at the same time and question it during the lecture and after.'
I've been to hundreds and hundreds of lectures as a student. I've taught hundreds as well. Some that I've attended and some that I've given, have been effective and worthwhile, but many have not. I've sat with up to 300 other science students, so far from the lecturer that I could hardly see his or her face. There was no time for questions. Most of us never spoke to our lecturers and they certainly did not have time to get to know us. We memorized our notes and hoped for the best.
Classes in the arts and social sciences and those in grad school may be smaller and more appropriate to the lecture mode of teaching. But innovative teachers in these areas have used new technology such as podcasting through iTunes U to allow them to spend more time discussing material than writing notes on the board.
No instructor should spend entire class periods standing in front of a class and writing material on the board – or showing PowerPoint slides – while students copy that material into their notebooks so that they can simply reproduce it during the exams at the end of term. If we can provide that material through podcasts, blogs, websites, interactive software or textbooks, electronic or paper, let's do it.
The Australian medical school's decision is both courageous and responsible. Let's use technology where we can and make the best use of our teachers by allowing them to inspire their students and to learn with them.

Witness to a Country: a podcast by Roy MacGregor

I'm listening to a podcast of the 2006 Dalton Camp Lecture given by Roy MacGregor, one of Canada's finest journalists. It's part of the CBC Radio Best of Ideas podcast series.
MacGregor speaks passionately about rural and remote areas and the people he has met there.
He's a captivating story teller. He tells us about Billy Diamond, a former Grand Chief of the Cree Nation of Northern Quebec and how Diamond helped develop the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement for the Cree People. This is a poignant story, one that could be told only by someone who was an integral part of the process.
Roy MacGregor knows this country as well as anyone. He says that in many ways Canada shouldn't work: 'It's the bumblebee of nations: it defies all logic, but it flies.'
He flies too.
Don't miss this podcast. It's a fine vision of the soul of this country.