Background In 2012, or thereabouts, I sat down with my boss, Dr. Kit Wesler. He didn’t really have an open door policy in spite of leaving his door open. Usually, an open door simply meant he was venting heat from his office into the hallway. Happens when one works in an old building with south-facing…
Assessment / Education / ESRI / Geographic Information Systems / Geography / Higher Education / STEM / Teaching / Technology
education is supposed to be about nurturing thoughtful creativity, yet we are often forced to “stay on script.”
Once a year, for about a week, San Diego becomes home to thousands of geeks, nerds, technophiles, and other creative people who seek out each other to share, collaborate, network, eat, drink, and run around the Gaslamp District. No, I’m not referring to the San Diego Comic-Con, the most important event in pop culture geekery.…
Many years ago I worked on a mapping project for our local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Some people may remember the U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service (SCS). The SCS no longer exists; it’s duties and responsibilities being folded within the NRCS. Another fellow and I managed a team of undergraduates in the mapping of county…
Education / Geography / Higher Education / MAKE / STEM
One can never tell from where inspiration arises. The Maker Movement is one of the best, most inspiration movements to have arisen in the United States since the Boy or Girls Scouts. The Maker Movement draws inspiration from circumstances and people from all walks of life, is not limited by race or gender, and is…
I’m afraid I’m must apologize in advance. Usually, I try to avoid using expletives in my writings. Expletives tend to decrease the impression of a message, I think. Can be off-putting and limit a person’s credibility when expletives are used in a forum where a higher level of decorum is the goal. Last night, Saturday,…
Fall 2015 my university commissioned one of our on-campus engineers to design and build not one but two Lightboards. If you aren’t familiar with what a Lightboard is you’ve come to the proper blog. On Tuesday, March 1st, I gave a mess of lecture about the size and shape of the Earth, and double-down on…
The Book of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe, author. “The Shadow of the Torturer,” “The Claw of the Conciliator,” “The Sword of the Lictor,” and “The Citadel of the Autarch,” were published from 1980-1983 by Simon & Schuster. Paperback. For literal decades The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator sat on…
This is not my TEDTalk by any stretch of the imagination. In my wanderings and associated interactions around campus I’ve met a few people involved with teaching and technology. These individuals associate teaching and technology with me, too. Our local faculty development center IT manager asked me last week if I’d like to do a…
The Chinese New Year began on Monday, February 8th, which was yesterday. Sorry; I should have posted an announcement on Sunday so people could have planned parties and what-not. This is the Year of the Monkey, but not just any monkey. No, this is the Year of the Fire Monkey. Chinese culture has it’s own…
I am a constant Twitter user. I began using Twitter in March 2009. My divorce was causing me to shed friends like glaciers calve icebergs and I needed a way to connect with people. Many people I run across don’t understand Twitter and I spend time trying to educate them about appropriate Twitter use. Twitter…
In 2007 I began working for a nearby community college, my third such institution in Kentucky. In Kentucky, the community college system operates by a set of guiding principles and policies yet each institution also operates as a sort of franchise. The best way I can describe this is the application process. A person must…
