It’s time again for the Evonline workshops that mark the beginning of the year.

I will use this blog for comments related to the ONE course that I am taking this year.  That is the one about research and web2 tools.  The topic has great potential and I look forward to reflecting on the topic and see how to advance my current understanding.

 For starts, I got kind of hung up on the doing of things the same way…. that is… ok, let’s start with introductions.  This is what I had to say:

Greetings everyone,

I am Karen Garcia in Amherst Massachusetts looking forward to this course.  As a Social Scientist and Educational consultant I keep interested in de-mystifying both the function of the scientific method and the utilization of the web for the creation and dissemination of knowledge.  That being the ultimate responsibility of teachers as learners… Yes?  Much research is needed to help accounting what is floating around in cyberspace as a way to take hold of our social capital and pursue better learning.

I’ve been thinking during this week about this course and wonder about the function of introductions in this setting and the best use of web tools for that.  The use of messages here does help, and forums could be used for sharing initial demographics and contact information… a survey monkey as well as polls could also be used to gather summaries of the information.  Has anybody seen other innovative ways to gather introductions?  I am looking forward to developing a page at gmail (as instructed).  See you there!

Our Heritage

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove
all doubt.”

Abraham
Lincoln (1809-1865)

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Weathering the jet-lag

and crawled to hear her speak at Amherst College.

I could not believe my eyes, at first glance it was a momentous experience… Rigoberta Menchu at this Ivey League.

Healing Communities Torn by Racism and Violence

Awarded a Nobel Peace Price on 1992 for her work in ethno-cultural reconciliation and social justice for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

Humbling to experience her simple ways to address racism as a mental health disease.  How she spoke to the endowed about how isolation, and wealth could feed the social maladaise of our time.  She recommended we meditate, walk nature and set goals.  She also shared her spiritual beliefs in Maya tradition and how we are in the “no-time” era which will turn in the 2010’s into a more gendered balance time.

She asked for support in her running for President of Guatemala.  And of course it would be nice to see her win!  BUT, it is hard to be convinced that such a tender soul could survive the holds of governance — in this hemisphere.

On the way out it was interesting to engage in a comparison between her spiritual and participatory ways with the image that Hilary Clinton is building on her path to the presidency of the USA… an amazing juxtaposition. 

Interesting times indeed.

“THIS” is IT!

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been away for a while

and wanting the comfort of known places, I turn to blogging…. of course, to that place of internal communication with you out there.

today it is grey and rainy, so I don’t so readily walk out the door for the usual walk up the hill and into the temple, and to the park searching for the apple blossoms which are about to pop.  Perhaps before my departure I will be able to witness the splendor of spring colors in Japan!

Been instead becoming familiar with the neighborhood… with being a foreigner devoid of external language and awed by the beauty of customs, food, and ways among people.

this is definitely and ethereal place.

the hawk

how many times have you been this close to a free hawk, and with a camera to take a picture?

I have never been that close, but someone at the office was. 

Beautiful!

the calendar

thinking about the concept of “time” and how we force known paradigms into infinite possibilities to actually squelch them….

there must be SOME structure, I agree.  but then, what if I want to do podcasting and benefit from the coaching and activity offered in this workshop— but later…. how could this interaction be packaged in a manner that benefit could be reaped when the time is right.

And that is my wonder about schooling in general.  whose idea is it to formulate training, programs, courses, hey– even the syllabus iseems confined in the linear structure of education.

and then I gather, that literacy, self directed learning, and education benefits from the development of social skills.  and that is what we really are to gain within the confines f these 6 weeks.

I enjoyed the comments left here… that was the extent of interaction that I received during the workshop.  It would be nice to keep that going.

so about time,,, structure, gains and the like… I say:

that I trust that the best use of it comes up with the art and sciences of life!

at the moment, I have all I can with stabilizing the windows operating system in my laptop which is acting out with the audio device, the dial up switch and the task bar flickering….

so that becomes a priority suddenly

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how to select a reliable online audio stream to broadcast weekly in a community radio show?

I wouldn’t have a clue about how to start on this task.  But it would be an ideal setting for distribution and eventual syndication of audio streams.  There is usually a distribution of studio recorded programs out as streams.  In this case, I am thinking of identifying an online source which could then be played on the local airwaves, which would ultimately become available on that radio station’s stream.

So if you know of such an online resource about Latino issues worth pursuing, please let me know.

stuck

some things are sometimes best left unseen, and untold too.  So I will not say much.  I will only transfer an image that could help move things around.

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literacy of the means, the process and the product

I’ve been looking into the reciprocal impact of language teaching using technologies in the web, and how the English language is instrumental to the use and learning of these tools.  English literacy skills are a tool for gaining information technology competencies.  And that includes both soft and hard ware.  Not only are we increasing our mechanical language and technological skill, we are manipulating large chunks of information and making them knowledge.  My concern with tagging and retrieval parallels vocabulary building.  But, in terms of thought and creativity, I still rely most prominently on my understanding of psychological processes.  No, I am not a linguist… and currently I am extending my common sense”sical” view of culture into realms beyond context.  Quite liberating actually.