Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Writers of the World, Unite!

Here's a nifty little video explaining the Writers' Guild strike. For more information , visit United Hollywood. And for some interesting videos in support of the strike, visit Speechless. I've never wanted to read lips so badly as when I viewed the Sean Penn video.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Diversion

Here's a diversion to eat up 10 - 15 minutes of your day.

FYI: The comments posted to the page in linked above includes a link to the following web site, which includes an article written about this spinning silhouette: http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/sze_silhouette/index.html

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Teaching with Exigence

NPR recently broadcasted a story (available via podcast) about Soldier's Heart: Teaching Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, a new book by Elizabeth Samet. I haven't read the book, but listening to the podcast and Samet's comments about teaching young officers-to-be, many of whom will likely be going to war, I couldn't help wondering how the exigence supplied by an active war might shape the transaction of reading, the exchange that takes place in the classroom, the instructor's choices about texts, topics of discussion, etc.

For most of us teaching in higher education, there is simply little sense of exigence. This is true of both teachers and students, both of whom are too easily isolated--temporally and spatially--from the contexts and challenges our students will experience once their schooling is finished. This isolation is generated by all sorts of factors: the abundance that surrounds us, our priviledged place within that abundance, the variety of contexts our students will encounter upon graduation.

How would our teaching change if we had a more immediate and concrete sense of the challenges our students would confront? How would levels of student engagement change with a greater sense of exigence? Can such exigence be framed or generated with authenticity?

Thursday, November 08, 2007

I'm A Loaner

In the last year, I've become a podcast junkie. Well, not a junkie, but I do have a handful of podcasts that I listen to regularly: the New York Times Book Review, NPR Books, Slate.com, Dave Ramsey, the Academy of American Poets poetcast, and sermons by friends and former pastors.

The Slate.com Daily Podcast recently included Bill Clinton's address to the Slate 60--a collection of the 60 most giving philanthropists over the last year. In his remarks, Clinton referred to an organization called Kiva, which provides individuals the opportunity to participate in loaning money to small businesses in developing countries (a.k.a. microfinancing). The idea intrigued me, so I visited the site. Loaners get to select the borrower they want to support, so I'm now contributing $25 toward a loan for a barber in Lebanon. Why did I select a barber, of all things? I suppose it's another Wendell Berry thing. Looking at the profiles of all these folks seeking a loan, I saw "barber" and thought of Jayber Crow. Who wouldn't want to support Jayber Crow?

I'm still trying to decide whether I'm comfortable with being a loaner rather than a giver. If anyone knows of a Kiva-like means of giving, let me know. Perhaps I'll revisit this issue when I've taken more time to think it through.