Presentation Ideas - Resources

In doing internet research -- one of the major problems how do I keep my research organized. List some social bookmarking tools and give some quick guidance on how to use them. Integrate these tools.

Presentation ideas 6/27

Web 2.0 Tools -- emphasize -- they are tools.

Original idea of the internet was the web 2.0 idea. Basically allowing interaction.

Help focus on student-centered learning. More collaboration.

Use the same principles that are being used by students -- show them how they are using librarian skills in facebook and other sites. Help connect to understanding that those who use those applications best can apply what they do to their academic work.

Remove the fear of using these ideas. If we are looking to have students think about art and design in new ways, it helps to integrate new technologies.

A key is to not make the class about the tool, but to use the tool to enhance what is being learned about.

Also, students are easily able to work together in groups.

With the relationship with faculty, their has to be a structure and an understanding in the library of how to do these things -- to serve as a template for them and to serve as a structure to stand on. The main idea to get across is that their are a lot of ways to use these tools, and not to be intimidated by the amount of them -- or to feel the need to use them all. What the library can do is create different projects as information sources to serve as examples -- this way the information source is there even as we teach students and faculty how to build their own.

Pratt presentation

Incorporate books and reading material into my online catalog -- with the Wiki, showing entries from the books and examples. Use one popular art and/or design book that is in use at Pratt.

Show a voice thread where students comment on different designs within the voice thread.

Let's see if this . . .

Updates quickly

Watching or Reading things in different ways

On my flight home from Paris the plane had an individual screen for each seat. I've seen that before. In this case, the person in the seat could choose their movie, television show, or video game (a couple of other options were available). The choices were limited and eclectic. I think 18 movies were available. But I found two viewable options, and my wife, three.

The new movies that were available were not appealing to me, and I had seen most of the old. One of which is an all-time favorite of mine -- All the President's Men.

Watergate has always been an obsession of mine. It is one of my earliest memories of events that took place outside of the reach of my immediate family. It seemed like Nixon was on television every day and night, inevitably interrupting my cartoons. For some reason I felt a lasting connection with these events. I didn't understand the issues at the time, but my appetite for politics, in general, and watergate, in particular, was whet at a young age.

I have read All the President's Men numerous times, revisiting it two years ago. I have probably seen the movie at least ten times. I made it one more on my flight.

I watched it in a different way. I tried to focus on it as a research project. I want to understand how the movie differs from the true events and delve deeper into the process that surrounded Watergate.

I'm going to try and pursue this, seeing if I can put together some kind of resource that I will continually update as I research this further. In a sense I am looking at how new tools can be used to house and further this information as an education resource. I always try and choose something that is interests me in doing this. It makes the task so much less painful.

Golf clubs

Thinking of buying some new wood woods and blade irons. I'll list some of the companies that offer.

Snake Eyes - very good reviews, lower prices -- available in Golfsmith

Selecting the components. I really like the Snake Eyes 675B

looking up stats

I am enjoying this book immensely in the first few pages. I can see one of my activities during my reading will be looking up the stats of the players that Halberstam is describing. The first of these is Greg Bunch, though his stats are sparse, 12 games with the Knicks. These stats are available at http://www.basketball-reference.com/. It really is like looking at the documentation behind history. So much is different when you really look at what happened. I remember the coverage more then the stats. Many times players were better then I remember because certain columnists had maligned them. Not that stats can't lie as well.

I love looking at these names that I don't remember. This book is written for the 1979-80 season, at that point I am just getting into the NBA, so many names are unfamiliar.

As with so many books, this one sounds like it could be describing today's game. Political books are the same. And yet, experts blather on and on every night as if they possess secret decoder rings. They are truly saying nothing new.

With new technology, everything is more accessible and more pervasive, but the descriptions given then could easily pass for commentary about today's nba game, or presidential election.

Friday Night Lights

I finally got around to reading this book. I had read Three days in august earlier this year. Both were well done. I suppose I like Lights better.

Bissinger is a good writer, and takes you into issues you usually don't get into in a sports book. I was surprised how old the book is. The movie just came out a few years ago. I thought it was a late nineties book, but it actually captures the 1988 season.

Its funny, I read like Halberstam wrote. I like to tackle a book about politics and history, followed by a well-done sports book. Right now, after finishing Manhunt I'm going to start The Breaks of the Game. I've been trying to buy this book for a while. It isn't available anymore, out of print. The only copies I've been able to find are high priced collector's editions. I did the only sensible thing, I checked the MSU library and borrowed it and The Powers that be. I should read these over Christmas break.

Hopefully I'll remember to record some of my thoughts as I read.

Manhunt

Just finished the book Manhunt. Good book, diverting. Not much more. I didn't know much about the hunt for Booth, but to tell you the truth, while I feel like it was a pretty well written crime novel, I didn't get much more out of it.

Readable, but put-downable as well. That is good for my sleeping, but does not necessarily speak well of the book.

Haven't kept up

Well, I haven't done too well keeping up with this blog. I did pretty well with my reading. Never did finish The Best and the Brightest. I need to get back to that.

It seems in a way, that the parallels are too obvious, though I haven't gotten very far to confirm this. I have this problem with the books I've read about Iraq and the reaction to 9/11. While I learn new facts about some of the behind the scenes actions, those facts really only confirm what I already surmise from the news that I read about what is happening over there, and within our government.

In my younger days I would have worked this information into my everyday life. I also argued a hell of a lot more in those days. I cannot work up the energy to do so anymore. It seems all of the pro-war arguments have really been exhausted, but what is left is a reliance on information that is not made public. It is difficult to argue against unseen and unknowable facts. One can cast skepticism on the fact that those facts exist and fight little battles to get at information that has been classified unnecessarily, but it does not seem that as a nation we can stomach exercises that actually require that we engage our attention.

My biggest gripe right now is that those who pose as the protectors against terrorism and terrorists actually sound like the most fearful people in the world. These are threats that we need to take seriously, but I can think of no less serious response then for those who aspire to power to play on a nations worst fears. Eschaton captures this sentiment perfectly. Seriousness does not equal fear.

This is perhaps the best point that Michael Moore makes in Bowling for Columbine, illustrated in this cartoon.

Conventional Thinking

Today I listened to a podcast from Fresh Air podcast of David Talbot discussing new theories of the Kennedy Assassination. I love hearing things related to what I am currently studying or reading, in this case, The Best and the Brightest. I didn't expect it, but it gave me another new reference point to put this book in perspective. Much of Talbot's talk revolved around supicions that RFK had about who killed his brother. While publicly backing the Warren Commision report, he privately felt that certain CIA interests were behind, or at least involved in the assassination.

While I can't vouch for the accuracy of his reporting, I do want to look further into it and if it has not been discredited, I may move to his book next while Halberstam's points are fresh in my mind. It sounded like RFK was positive of a conspiracy very early on. I don't know how long he harbored these thoughts, or if he ever backed off of them.

Realism

The first real profile of the Best and the Brightest is McGeorge Bundy. I've heard of him over the years, mostly as an example of the above, but never really knew anything about him. As will be the ongoing theme of this writing, so many of the issues are similar to our contemporary situation. The realists will guide us through. Let the professionals handle the war. It is a kind of self-protection against criticsm. Appearing serious and describing threats that may or may not be real somehow makes one a realist. I suppose much of it is the fear that this one time they may be correct. Isn't it safer to always be cautious and operate in a world of worst case scenarios.

. . . And yet the battle scenarios and results are seen through a best case filter. Realism only extends far enough to cede the decision making. It doesn't allow one to acknowledge what is really going on. Even when it is agreed upon that the plan is not working, somehow our nation is always told that we are too fragile for the truth, especially those who are facing the worst of it in the actual situation.

I recently watched The Good Shepherd and many of the scenes fit well with the personalities and circumstances talked about in this book. Not a great movie, but a good companion piece to a study of the Best and Brightest.

Revisiting the Past

In reading the Halberstam book and revisiting the beginnings of America's involvement in Vietnam, I am struck by how similar the partisan arguments are to those that go on today. McCarthy scarred the political discourse more then is acknowledged. We haven't really moved beyond those arguments, even though we censured their originator.

Many realized that McCarthy's slurs could be repackaged and cleansed, but still would put politicians on the defensive. The message would be the same, and as it became mainstream, it became more dangerous.

I've read Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign a couple of times in the past year and am amazed at how elections have not really changed, even as the media has become unrecognizable. In fact, because the media has changed so much, they are so self-referential that they refuse to recognize all that has stayed the same.

Apropos of nothing, of course, just rambling

Intro, Best and the Brightest

In the introduction, Halberstam explains how he came to write this book. It really sets up the book well. While he was concerned that his experience in journalism might not translate to book writing, he found that his insatiable curiosity was well served by the book writing process.

His description of thinking in terms of what you produce is trenchant. A journalist who produces 800 words a day, starts to think in those terms. Transferring to book writing requires a different a whole different outlook.

That is why it is so important to have the passion to pursue a book. There are so many impediments to finishing works like these. Four years writing something that you are not sure is wanted by the public. It would be impossible to will oneself through such a process.

The Best and the Brightest

I bought three books yesterday, The Best and the Brightest, The Kingdom and the Power and The Guns of August.

I may hold off on the The Guns of August, having read it before. I also may want to create an online course using it. Possibly integrating it with a geographic tool.

I think I'll start the Halberstam book, seeing if it gives any insight into what is currently going on in Iraq. I enjoy his books, and will try to get a couple of more in the coming weeks. When I get The Powers that Be I'll probably read it as a companion to The Kingdom and the Power.