By Any Other Nerd

So about a month ago, I got an interesting request.  Some folks from  South Carolina Technical Colleges  reached out to me to see if I would be interested in presenting at their 2-day institution on my work with hybrid  flexible  pedagogy.  I was a bit surprised and wondered if they thought I was more local than I was, but upon confirming they wanted me there physically (I even offered virtually), I accepted the opportunity.   For those that have been reading this blog for years (yes, all three of you), you'll probably recall that this is what I focused on for my Master in Instructional Design and even blogged about running the actual course ( Post 1 ;  Post 2 ).  The topic is never far from my mind and I've continued to think about what it means to run a hybrid flexible course and the implications for higher education to attempt to do so.  Even though it's been a few years since presenting or getting to teach it, it still resonates...

Odysseus: A Life by Charles Rowan Beye My rating: 4 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is of both the book and the audiobook. Steeped in oral tradition, any story from ancient Greece needs to be told and not read which makes listening to “Odysseus: A Life” all the more engaging. Anyone with a high school education will have heard of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” These great epic poems of ancient Greece have been appreciated for their military strategy, used as the basis for college courses, retold through scores of literature and movies, and translated numerous times. While “The Iliad” gives us a wide array of characters both mortal and immortal, it never truly focuses on an individual. “The Odyssey” is something altogether different. This epic story revolves around Odysseus and his family. It expounds upon Odysseus’s ten-year adventure of wandering and the re...

It's been another full month of reading; I'm listening to audioboks on my daily runs and bike-rides to and from work, so I'm getting in more listening.  I also went away for a weekend in early September where I got a bunch of graphic novels read (had to catch up on some Buffy!).  And while I'd love to talk oodles about the amazing trifecta of books on race ( Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Karen E. Fields;  Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie;  Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music by Ann Powers), I cannot because they're still in reviewing status for where I reviewed them.  But if you want the best of this month's reads go to them.  I'll write more about them in the future as I'm starting to carve out a section of posts on race and racism.  But moving along, here's what this month had to offer.   Introducing Walter Benjamin...

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett My rating: 3 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is of both the book and the audiobook. Meet Tiffany Aching; her hobbies include making cheese, tending sheep, babysitting her two year old brother, gallivanting about with pictsies (the male version of pixies), learning the fine art of witchcraft, and saving said brother from the evil clutches of the Elf Queen. Yes, this endearing and intelligent nine-year-old does it all. “The Wee Free Men,” is another novel transpiring in Terry Pratchett’s alternative universe, known as Discworld. And like almost any other Discworld novel, you need not read any of his prior works to understand and appreciate this story, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Indeed, Pratchett keeps true to form with his usual wit and humor in this fun and light-hearted adventure. Unbeknownst to dear Tiffany is that ...

The cohort has many advantages and I've increasingly grown to appreciate how it has positively impacted my learning.  Having always been in a program by myself, I did not realize just what kinds of opportunities happen when you are part of a community of learners engaged in a seriously challenging task.  Of course, I should have realized this given what I do know about learning, but not having the chance to experience it first hand left me out in the wind about how powerful it can be. As the cohort solidifies and members learn more and more about one another, we've become a place of sharing a lot of different things.  We have limited time and yet, we take time to share--a lot.  Some of the things that we share? Job leads Humor we can commiserate in. Relevant research & news for each others' interests Celebrations (birthdays, new jobs, promotions, progress in the program) Learning strategies Learning resources Writing strategies Strategies for appro...

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 by Dave Eggers My rating: 3 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is of both the book and the audiobook. When the great books and hottest picks of the year are chosen, what happens to all the rest? Are they just tossed to the roadside, forgotten and left to gather dust on a bookshelf in a second-hand bookstore? While these books may not contain the next George Orwell, Victor Hugo, or Charles Dickens, it doesn’t mean they are devoid of literary value. “The Best American Non-Required Reading, 2003,” sets out to prove just that. But with a label like “Non-Required Reading,” this book begs the question, “With everything that is published in a year, how can you arbitrarily pick the ‘best American non-required reading’?” No matter how one tries to rationalize this title, it still sounds like it’s the second place writing. But instead...

Idlewild by Nick Sagan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Note: This review was originally written in the early 2000s and published for a no longer running website: AudiobookCafe.  This review is of both the book and the audiobook. This review is of both the book and the audiobook. This is not your average Halloween—in fact, it’s not even a holiday, but a death-obsessed eighteen-year-old boy who awakes to find his memory has been rebooted and his body is immovable. While his thoughts are scrambled, he slowly regains some memories. Suddenly, he realizes that he was attacked and someone is out to get him. Halloween knows he cannot trust anyone, but with holes in his memory, he is hard-pressed to figure it all out on his own. It’s the 22nd century, and Halloween and his classmates attend a high-tech school that prepares them to be the leaders of tomorrow. It is a physical school but much of the education and training transpires in a virtual reality simulation where the students use...