Keep Running!

Historic Content:
- Posts show an increased focus on historical content. Trending to more focus on historical content.
- Sometimes blogs only reflect historical readings that have been assigned. Might want to incorporate different sources and ideas.
- The post about the atomic age was really good about bringing in historical content from many different sources. I liked the list of movies.

Computing Concepts & Digital Culture
- Reports well on new digital tools used.(example) Would be beneficial to incorporate some of those tools into the blog. Not possible to do with all of them but some could be.
- Great job connecting with people in the class. Most posts reflect a 'conversation' with other people in the class.   Good job also with bringing in people outside of the class.(example)

Self-Directed Learning:
- Makes good connections with other material other than that covered in class. I like the post about LeBron James and how it was related to Adam Smith.
- I like how the thought process that lead up to many ideas is show. Shows the learning process.(example)

Random Stuffs:
- I like the digital tools are presented in the context that they were learned in. Gives good example of how the tools can be used and applied.
- Might consider switching up the post format more. Continuous paragraphs become monotonous.

McCarthyism: Past, Present, or Future?

So to start off a quick explanation of what McCarthyism is and when it happened.

During the Cold War there was a period of time called the Red Scare. It was a time charaterized by a wide spread of fear of communism in the Untied States. Many people were afraid that communism would take root in the United States and end the democracy that many of them supported and loved. They were afraid that communist already in the United States would use nefarious means to over throw the existing government. This fear was not necessarily inspired by any single group but was definitely fueled by many groups with in the States.

So during this period Joe McCarthy was elected to the senate. He then went on a crusade to 'exterminate' communists from the government and from prominent positions in the American public. Not all of his actions were what we would call today 'constitutionally legal' but many people went along with the witch hunt supposing it to be a necessary evil. Eventually people did come to realize that what McCarthy was doing was, to say the least, too extreme. Not everyone went right along with McCarthy though and there were many good people whose opposition put an end to his actions. Edward R. Murrow was one of those individuals. He was a famous journalist and used his influence to expose many of the inconsistencies in McCarthy's actions.
    Good Movies about this era:  The Majestic, Good Night and Good Luck

So I was thinking about this time period and I was wondering whether there were any other times like McCarthyism. I made a quick list.

The Inquisition
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Salem Witch Trials
Japanese Internment Camps
Arrest of Kevin Mitnick

There are many more but I am sure that you get the idea. So the next question is whether this still goes on today. I can think of many things that might fall into this categories but I will be the first to admit that they are mostly my opinion.

The real thing that we need to do as citizens is to pay attention to the things that are going on and decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. Even more than that we own it to our fellowmen to protect them if they are placed in that situation. So its up to you; is water-boarding justifiable?

PS Read 1984.

Why Politicians would make Horrible Parents

So lets talk politics. Better yet lets talk politicians. My favorite that relates these two words came from my neighbor Mike that I grew up next to. He explained the word politics very easily. The first part of the word poli (poly) means many and the second part of the word tics (ticks), which we all know are small blood sucking creatures. So politics simply means many bloodsucking creatures. Of course all of this is a little exaggerated and I am not trying to say that politicians survive by sucking the life out of their hosts but you can make your own decision on that.

So later on in life I was talking to one of my friends who is actually a politician herself. She lives in a town in Central Jersey and serves in city government. We were driving along one day and I mentioned to her a little bit about my friends joke which sparked a very interesting conversation about politics. We discussed many thing and some where along the way I asked the question what a politician's job really is. Her answer was simple and informative. She said that a politician only has to do one thing. All they have to do is be reelected. That is the primary job of a politician to make sure that they are in favor with the public so that they are reelected when their position is put up for grabs.

So what do you think that implies? My most optimistic side hopes that means that politicians do what is in the best interests of the people they serve and that the people then recognize their efforts and reelect them. Unfortunately, I am sure that you can come up with just as many less-than-ideal scenarios as I can as to how this mentality could be abused. So what does this all really mean? It means that a politician can never be the bad guy.

For all of you that have seen the movie The Dark Knight this is a perfect tie in to that point. Why was Batman the best hero for Gotham? It was because he wasn't the hero, he was the bad guy. He did what would be best for the city by taking the blame for everything. He was not the knight in shining armor. He wasn't given an award with Han Solo by Princess Leia in the closing credits. He was the bad guy. He was the dark knight.

He is a quick practical example of how politicians repeatedly fail to take on that role. Fiscal policy in government is highly influenced by Keynesian economics. This school of thinking states that government using deficit spending to stimulate the economy during times of economic down turns and that during times of economic boom the government increases taxes to pay back the debt that they incurred and create a surplus for the next down cycle. It is a little more complicated than that should suffice for the discussion. We have all seen this happen. The government spends money and gives out money to help during economic distress. But how many of us have ever heard a politician use the phrase 'we are going to raise taxes to pay off our debt and took make sure that the slump that is right around the corner is avoided'?  No one hears that because it would make the politicians the bad guys and that is a situation they cannot afford to be in or else they would be facing an 'economic slump' personally.

Now to jump topics briefly. So what makes good parents good at parenting? There are many things but I would say that one of them is that they are great at being the bad guy and in the long run it helps their kids. I never wanted to have a curfew when I was in high school  but I did have one because my dad was really good at being the bad guy. Now that I look back on it I am really grateful that he had the guts to be the bad guy. Was I grateful then? No, and I probably complained more than I choose to remember. Our parents did things that were not popular with us as kids, but they did it to help us out.

So to wrap everything up, the reason that politicians would be horrible parents is because they cannot be the bad guy. They just sit on your skin and get what they want.

Interview Q's for Class Documentary

So Jake, Maggie, and I are working together to make a documentary about the experience of the students in the Digital Civilizations class. We are going to focus most of the short film on interviews with people. So in this post I am going to put up a tentative list of questions to ask. We NEED feed back on this. Please add more questions that you think would be good to ask or comment on questions that you think would unnecessary, redundant, or in any other way just not good questions.

Questions to Ask Students:
What did you think after the first day of class?
Prior to attending the first day of class, what where your expectations?
How is this different than a normal history class?
What was the hardest thing about this class?
What has been the most useful thing you have learned?
How did you personally fufill the learning outcomes and Consume, Create, Connect?
What digital tools did you use doing the class?
What was your favorite historical content from the class?
How did you take control of your own learning?
How was keeping a blog?
       Had you done it before?
       What did you learn about blogging?
What did you find most valuable in this class?

Questions for the Professors:
What were your expectations at the onset of the course?
How did you come up with the idea?
What are your individual backgrounds?
What do you hope the students will take from this class?
What challenges did you see the students face?
What good stuff did you see the students accomplish?
What would you change if you were to do it again?
What did you learn?

These questions are meant to give an overview of the class and to help someone outside of the class see the benefits of this class. There can also be more questions that deal with the draw backs of the class but the documentary is not supposed to be a review of the class. It is meant to draw people into what we all experienced.

Thanks

Panoramic Pics

So I just wanted to put up a quick thing on a neat tool that I found the other day. Its a tool to make panoramic pictures from a series of digital shots.

I really enjoy hiking and I usually bring my camera along with me. The only thing that frustrates me about taking pictures of hikes is that I can never really capture the scenery around me. I think that it should be that way and that is one of the reasons I continue to hike because you can't get the full experience just from the pictures, but I have been looking for some way to make panoramic photos from some of the pictures that I have taken.

So I searched the web to find some type of free software to do that and this is what I found:
Panoramic Plus Starter Edition
It is free software provided by Serif. It is mainly free so that you will buy the better edition. This video is for the newest edition. The starter edition does not have this many features but it does have the same basic set up.


I shared in class how the starter edition works. It walks you through everything which is nice.
Here are some pictures that I stitched together:

The Abacus

So I am pretty sure that most of us have used or at least seen an abacus before. I had one when I was growing up and I mostly just played with it. I don't think that I even tried to make any type of calculations on it. I just used it as an imaginary prison for my little brothers or a futuristic weapon of my imagination or one of many more variations that I could come up with.

Recently the discussion we had about computing in my history class went way over my head. We were talking about Turing machines and whether problems are computable or not. I had been doing a little bit of reasearch before class and I even went to one of my friends who is a math major but none of that really seemed to help me get my mind around the concepts. Talking about it in class did help me understand the general concepts a little better but I decided that I needed to get a better foundation to be able to understand.

So that is when I thought back to the abacus. The abacus as we know it today actually originated in Asia around 1200 AD. There were many precursors to this device the first one around 2700 BC in Mesopotamia. That device was based off of a sexagesimal number system. It uses 60 as a base number as opposed to our decimal system which uses 10 as a base number. These devices aided in calculating large numbers. All though they do not compare to modern computers and calculators they helped dramatically in simple arithmetic operations.

So after I looked up some of the history of the abacus I decided that this my chance to learn how to actually use an abacus for it's intended purpose. I found this great site that explains fairly clearly how they work. It is very simple and can accomplish some very cool things. Also, check out this video


So I learned a little more about primitive computing. Maybe this is what my parents had wanted me to learn when I was a little kid. Well I guess better late than never and I think my childhood use of this intrument was probably a little more entertaining.

From Philosophy to Psychology

Psychology ids the study of the human mind and behavior and even though psychology as we know it today has not always existed the study of the mind and behavior can be traced back to many ancient civilizations and especially to the writings of the ancient Greeks. Their writings are typically thought of as philosophy but really modern day psychology is based off of philosophy. So what is the difference between the two? It is the use of empirical data. The shift form thinking about human behavior and the human mind to the actual use of empirical means to study it marks the creation of modern psychology as we know it today.

So who is the first historical person that comes to your mind when you think of psychology? I think that most would probably say Sigmund Freud; which is a perfectly fine answer. I think that most people bring him up because he had some crazy ideas that are way out in left field. I will come back to why I think he was important but first I would like to draw some attention to Wilhelm Wundt.

Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to set up a experimental laboratory in psychology. He was the man who applied the scientific method to psychology. He ran experiments that focused mainly on the conscious experiences of people and many of the modern psychological fields sprang from his research. He used introspection and asked people how certain stimuli made them feel. He recorded his observations and provided a model of testing for others to follow him.

This is a great timeline of some of the major events in psychology and this gives a great description of a few of the key players in its early development.

So now back to Sigmund Freud. What was his greatest contribution? He was the first to try to apply what had been learned in the field of psychology to help people with mental disorders. He might have been wrong about many things but he got us going.