Don’t Trust A Blog Advocate With Less Than 1000 Posts

 


observationcarJasper

Originally uploaded by grabe

Just made it home. The last leg was a little tough. Approximately 24 hours sitting on the train from Jasper to Winnipeg. Some folks can sleep anywhere. Not me! However, the view leaving the Rockies was great.

Those who follow my blog for the emphasis on educational technology may wonder about this series of “off-topic” posts. For example, I have not written anything that on the surface may appear to have educational relevance for several weeks.

If you care, here is a justification.

I have a habit of reading over people’s shoulders. I admit this to be completely inappropriate, but I cannot help myself. While on this trip, Cindy has been reading Rafe Esquith’s ‘Teach Like Your Hair is On Fire”? Catchy title! Anyway, the last paragraph in the Prologue reads as follows:

There are so many charlatans in the world of education. They teach for a couple of years, come up with a few clever slogans, build their Web sites, and hit the lecture circuit. … I hope that people who read this book realize that true excellence takes sacrifice, mistakes, and enormous amounts of effort. After all, there are no shortcuts.

The point? If you believe in something, you practice it first, continue to engage in the activity as part of your normal routine, and talk about it as a by-product of this commitment.

I have been just been practicing in what for me is a little different setting.

As the title for this blog indicates, blogging is a way to learn through the processing of personal experiences. There are all kinds of learning experiences. There were some “traditional educational experiences” during this past week. I exhausted my supply of podcasts stored on my iPod. I also listened to “Looking for Alaska”, “The Search”, and “Earth: The Sequel”. There must be 20+ hours of content in the collection so getting through 3 books in less than two weeks would exceed my normal reading load. I also had the opportunity to take several hundred pictures and about an hour of video. Some have been uploaded to Flickr and more will end up there. For an old biologist, the setting was nearly ideal. I have a collection of material for a podcast I want to do on making Fireweed jelly, but it is back to the office tomorrow and working up the material on making jelly will require a little more research,.

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Life is an Adventure

I have taken a cross-country trip on a train before so I assumed I knew what to expect. The “Empire Builder” comes through Grand Forks daily and I have taken it to the west coast. Actually, I took it almost all of the way to the coast. It was a -20 or so December day and we were on our way to Southern Oregon to visit relatives for Christmas. The train had to travel slowly because the tracks were brittle. At some point, the train folks decided it was going to be faster to bus us than keep us on the train and we made the final part of the trip on the bus.

I have known about the Canadian train for some time. I had heard you could buy a pass and get on an off as frequently as you wanted within the time period covered by your pass. This may still be true, but the seats are filled so I do not understand how the system is supposed to work. There were other surprises. When the train left Prince Rupert this morning, there were three cars for passengers. One “fancy” car for the foreign tourists and two cars for the rest of us. No observation car and no dining car. Cindy thought there was Internet access. We don’t even have cell phone access most of the time. I guess things change as you move east.

The trip from the coast to Winnipeg will take 5 days. The trip on the Empire Builder took about a day and a half (although it did seem much longer). This train takes breaks. We stop and get off and walk about for 10 minutes. The whistle blows and everyone gets back on. The train also stops for the night. We have one lay over in Prince George and we take two days off in Jasper. Fine with me. No need to get back for a little while longer and a little more time to take pictures.

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John Muir Would Have Been a Blogger

I take reading material with me on all trips, but I have abandoned the topics for Muir’s Travels In Alaska. I have read several of John Muir’s works before, but I can’t remember if this title was among them. I don’t recognize the content to this point. While afield, Muir kept copies journal notes and wrote his books later relying heavily on his journals (with sketches).

Today’s picture is from the Totem Bight rain forest. I like the light.

Tomorrow we are fishing for halibut and salmon. It is also the commercial opener for “dog” salmon so the view (hopefully with some interesting pictures) from the boat should be spectacular.

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More bears


Brown bear

Originally uploaded by grabe

Today we took the Misty Fjord cruise on the boat (the St. John) Kim is working on for the summer. It was a sunny day and I managed a sun burn – not an easy feat to accomplish in Ketchikan.

Midway in the trip a brown bear was spotted on the shore. I was using a video camera at the time and have some video, but it is difficult to watch because of the movement. It is difficult keeping a camera trained on a distant object when the object and you are moving.

In the evening, we returned to the spot from which we had previously viewed black bears. We watched a bear that was obviously hurt in some way. The bear was limping badly and seemed to have to rest after moving a short distance. A State Patrolman showed up and after viewing the bear for some time had to kill it with a shot gun when the bear started to move back into the woods. I did not film the final scene.

Sometimes reality can be a little tough.

I can’t claim this final picture. My daughter took it with my camera – her tribute.

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Ketchikan Bears

I have had the opportunity to view and sometimes photograph bears on several occasions. I don’t count dumpster bears. The Ketchikan experience is at an entirely different level. The habitat is ideal and the salmon in the streams brings the bears into the open.

In this setting, bears and fisherpersons sometimes mix.

Last evening we were watching bears fishing in a stream (first picture) and I was taking pictures. I turned in the other direction and I saw a bear moving in behind several fishermen. I estimate the distance here at 300-400 yards and I have my 200 mm. telephoto lens cranked out to the maximum. The fishermen did not see the bear coming and I considered shouting but just watched.

The bear took a fish they men had caught and headed off. One of the men then headed after the bear and it appeared he was trying to exchange one fish for another – perhaps a post-spawn fish for a pre-spawn fish. The bear was not interested. Then he started throwing rocks at the bear. Not smart. The bear just headed back into the woods.

I have added some higher quality bear photos to my Fickr account – see badge to the right for access.

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Ketchikan


View from across road

Originally uploaded by grabe

We slept in this morning after a very long day of travel. The day began with fog and rain, but according to the brochure (160 inches a year) this would be typical. No bears last night.

This is the view across the road.

Our daughter is at work. They are not coffee drinkers so I am stranded 6 miles from town with no coffee. This problem was not covered in the survival handbook.

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Reading books vs. reading online

In a book, “they go through a lot of details that aren’t really needed,” Hunter said. “Online just gives you what you need, nothing more or less.” (comment of Hunter Gaudet)

The New York Times intends to offer a series of articles examining how the Internet is changing the way people read. The first offering in this series examines whether online reading is a positive or negative influence on the development of reading skills.

The facts are that children are spending less time reading traditional content, i.e., books, and scores on tests of reading proficiency are stagnant. My interpretation is that researchers have yet to relate these two trends in a way that would argue for a causal relationship, but some early data and the opinions of some are leaning toward pointing to the Internet as a negative influence. A potentially independent and much more optimistic observation notes that online literacy (locating and processing online information) may represent a different and valuable form of literacy. Some organizations are urging that this proficiency be developed and also evaluation. Perhaps both sustained reading and online scanning are valuable.

At present, positions range from the nature of online reading is rewiring the brain to process information in a different fashion, to the nature of online searching rather than thinking has resulted in the loss or failure to develop sustained thinking/reasoning strategies (see earlier post – Has Google made us stupid?), to the opportunity to explore and search has resulted in the development of additional strategies.

The Times article offers a nice overview of the alternative positions.

As an aside – I hate the way the Times makes use of linking. Rather than linking to a related article, the link is to a themed collection (articles about the Organization for Economic Development, articles about the University of Michigan, etc.). Perhaps I am missing the point – the link is to the organization and there is no article on the specific issue – but what would be the point of making such a link?

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