No More Memorizing

I came across this article at Wired that talks about how a new concept mapping tool that they hope will preserve scientific knowledge, and will serve to help students learn.

My favorite quote from the Wired article; "We need to move education from a memorizing system and repetitive system to a dynamic system,"

Amen to that.

My favorite quote from the mapping site: "The CmapTools client is free for use by anybody, whether its use is commercial or non-commercial. In particular, schools and universities are encouraged to download it and install it in as many computers as desired, and students and teachers may make copies of it and install it at home."

So refreshing...

Another free concept mapping tool is Freemind. It can be found here.

Jeeves and Wooster

P. G. Wodehouse is one of those great authors that would be more widely known if only there weren't all these pesky copyright laws around, and folks could get access to his books (though there are some of them online).

His Jeeves and Wooster books are great, and if you like Stephen Fry and Hugh Lauire, of Black Adder fame, they have brought the magic of the books to the small screen.

I was reading one of Wodehouse's books and came across this quote that just tickles me in all the right spots.

"He's like one of those weird chappies in India who dissolve themselves into thin air and nip through space in a sort of disembodied way and assemble the parts again just where they want them. I've got a cousin who's what they call a Theosophist, and he says he's often nearly worked the thing himself, but couldn't quite bring it off, probably owing to having fed in his boyhood on the flesh of animals slain in anger and pie."

Behold, The Educational Power of Video Games

So I just purchased a copy of Rome Total War. I can't give you a review because I haven't played it quite yet, but I was flipping through some strategy guides and came across the notions of 'flaming pigs' (which, as Dave Barry would say, is an excellent name for a rock group). Technically they are called incindiary pigs, but I can't determine which name is funnier...

Apparently the problem in ancient Rome was that your enemy often had elephants. These elephants liked to squish your infantry, which generally made the infantry grumpy and flat. This can be a real problem for an aspiring Roman general. What to do? The ancients solved it in an ingenious way.

They would route "the besiegers’ elephants by dousing pigs in oil and igniting them and then turning them loose against the elephants"

You read correctly. Live pigs, doused in oil, on fire, scaring elephants. Maybe the same thing could have been done with hobbits against those woolly mammoth things in LOTR.

When you think about it, for the Romans, it was killing two birds with one stone. Not only do you win the battle by making the enemy's elephants turn tail and trample their own troops (how emarrasing for them is THAT?), but now you have a the workings of a killer BBQ to boot. Simply have your light infantry or Phalanx bring up the rear with hard rolls and marshmallows, a bit of brown sugar and ketchup (onion, garlic, a bit of liquid smoke and a pinch of mustard) and the conquering army can have after the battle.

I never learned this little piece of history in any of my 20 years of school, but thanks to the makers of video games, I now know what to do if a stampeding elephant herd ever wanders my way. Give me some charcoal lighter fluid, give me a bic, and stand back!

I'll be the Moron Sitting at the Table...

I just heard from my publicist. Ok, she's not really MY publicist, I share her with probably 70 other authors, but 'my publicist' sounds better than 'the communal publicist'.

Anyway, she has me set up for 6 book signings up and down Utah. She said we should have a schedule by the end of the day. She is very nice, and very efficient.

When a reader thinks of a book signing, they probably imagine going down to the local book store, standing in line for a bit, buying a book, then getting it signed by an author. Nothing difficult about that, no stress.

That is how I used to picture them. Let me tell you how I picture them now.

I'm sitting at a little table, surrounded by stacks of my books. People walk in the doors, spot me looking all pathetic at my table, they pretend to become very interested in something on a shelve that allows them to enter the store without having to walk by me (which probably means they need to climb over a few mannequins, through a display window), and then go about their shopping. Every once in a while the wind will blow a tumble weed past my table. Grown men will be embarrassed for me, and little kids will kick me in the shins.

I'm really not looking forward to the signings, because I'm just not a salesman. I feel like just the fact that I'm there in the store, I'm supposed to accost everybody, and convince them to buy my book. That's just not my style. Hey, if you want a book with a chicken on the cover, great. If not, great.

I also feel quite silly about signing my name to something. I always hated signing year books. “Stay cool, don't change, have a fun summer.”

Maybe that's what I'll put in the books, instead of my signature.

Who Owns Ideas?

You can read Lawrence Lessig's opinion over at Technology Review. It's a good article.

My favorite quote is from the Brazillians, ""We're against software piracy. We believe Microsoft's rights should be respected. And the simplest way to respect their rights is for Brazilians everywhere to switch to free software."

Back in the Day...

Back when I was but a lad, I used to do a lot of reading. I bet almost one in three books I read had something in common. I would be reading along when suddenly I would spot a message written in the margins.

"Turn to page 49."

My heart would skip a beat. Somebody was trying to send me a secret message. It was too important to write on page 8, so they had to send me to page 49 to read it. Maybe somebody was in trouble! Maybe they needed help!

I would flip to page 49, only to find a message that said, "go to page 36". Ahhh, the message was of such importance that they needed to weed out all the little kids who didn't have the patience to turn to multiple pages, or were not smart enough to follow directions.

Flipping to page 36, I would find a message pointing me to page 118, then to page 93, then to page 25. Faster and faster I would flip, following the directions closely.

Finally, I would reach the last page in the thread. There, in the margins, rather than sending me to another page, was the message.

"You are a dunder head."

The final message wasn't always mean. Sometimes it said simply, "Good job", or "I like butter".

Regardless of the message, I always followed the trail. It was detective work without all of the hassle of research, heavy thinking, or getting up out of your chair.

I haven't seen a message like this in a book for years and years and years. I don't know if kids just don't do it anymore, or maybe it's because people who read the books I'm currently reading (game theory, instructional technology, etc,) just don't have any imagination.

When I was little I didn't dare write in books. I was convinced that desecrating a library book was a one-way, express ticket to hell.

Maybe I'll have to pick up Von Neumann's classic book on game theory and economic behavior, and set up a trail of pages for the next lucky reader to follow.

What to Get Uncle Charlie Who is in the Slammer.

Hey, we are a humane society. If Women get it, and teenagers get it, and golfers get it, then by golly, so should prisoners.

I want a Chicken Soup for the 6 foot (ok, 5'11''), instructional designer's, Ph. D. student's, white boy's, soul.

My favorite is if you scroll down you will see what other people who have purchased this book have bought (all part of the long tail).

Customers who viewed this book also viewed

• We're All Doing Time by Bo Lozoff
• Life After Prison by Al Wengerd
• How to Love and Inspire Your Man After Prison by Michael B. Jackson
• Family Arrested: How to Survive the Incarceration of a Loved One by Ann Edenfield

No, you saw correctly. That book really is by Michael Jackson. Hopefully not THE Michael Jackson.

And how cool of a name is Bo Lozoff?