Meditation article
Okay, okay, so I feel like
such a little hypocrite even posting this. I'm always bowing out of my mediation practice, even though I know in theory that it really does help me. Why is it that everything that's healthy, I end up railing against? (That includes things that are good for me academic- or professional-wise.) I find myself fighting to try to maintain balance (when naturally, I seem to be a very unbalanced person--I think I have a little diva imp just wailing to get out! I never let her scream like a bean-sidhe at work when she really wants to--well almost never). Anyway, in talking to others around the department, I've found that I'm not the only one in this predicament (the trying to find balance part, not the bean-sidhe within part). That said, every time I bring up meditation or visualization, they seem to get that "oh-God-she's-gone-new-age-metaphysical-again" glaze over their eyes. (Do I talk about Mercury going retrograde screwing up communications
that much?)
Anyway, I dug up this article and wanted to post it as a reminder to me to keep up with my meditation schedule.
Meditation to Relieve Stress
By Anna Dorbyk
The Connection between Mind and Body
The ancient practice of meditation has long been known as a way to heal the mind and body. In times of mental or physical stress, human beings have turned to the powers of meditation to quiet the mind and repair the body. There is a strong connection between the mind and the body, and when one is in pain, the other suffers also. Meditation can help establish a balance. Research has shown that meditation can have a beneficial impact on the health of an individual, and these positive effects are not limited to the body. When practiced regularly, it can greatly contribute to the health and well-being of not only the body but also the mind.
In today’s fast-paced world, the use of meditation to relieve stress is common. In fact, as the practice of meditation gains in popularity, an increasing number of people from the jet-setting executive to the weary housewife are incorporating the exercise into their lives. In addition to using meditation to relieve stress, people practice it to combat the many concerns affecting the mind, and there is solid physiological evidence to support its success in doing so.
With the regular exercise of meditation, you may experience some of the following positive effects: a decrease in anxiety, depression, irritability and moodiness, an increase in happiness and emotional stability, feelings of rejuvenation and vitality, and greater creativity. Many people have also reported a significant improvement in their ability to learn new things and retain information. You may find that with continued practice, meditation greatly improves your mental state and contributes to a profound sense of spirituality. The spiritual person often sees the world in a uniquely positive way and is well-equipped to handle life’s challenges.
Though meditation is commonly known for its positive relation to a person’s mind and spirituality, the practice can also have beneficial physical effects. Most likely, the first effect you will notice after repeated practice of meditation is an improvement in your flexibility which keeps your body responsive and functioning. There are other equally significant changes to your physical self that you might notice such as the following: improved air flow to the lungs making it easier to breath, a decreased level in blood pressure, lowered levels of cortisol and lactate (two chemicals associated with stress), a lower heart rate, reduction of free radicals which can cause tissue damage, and a drop in cholesterol. The regular practice of meditation can also slow down the aging process - especially noticeable in the elderly who often report major changes in their vitality.
Stress relief is not the only benefit you will experience with consistent practice of meditation. Meditation also has a profound effect on the mind and body by creating a balance that better prepares you to handle challenging situations. Meditation is easily exercised and requires little preparation or knowledge. To benefit your overall physical and mental health, take some time out for meditation and feel the power of a strong mind/body connection.
About The Author
Anna Dorbyk is a writer for Tune Yourself DVD (www.tuneyourself.com) a site about meditation benefits and techniques.
Article source
It's that time of year again...
...the end of the academic school year is never easy, especially for those of us who are in education. Growing up with a principal as a father, I learned early on to step softly come April each year. It was the most stressful time for my dad (usually around this time, not only was there the typical wrapup business and planning for the upcoming year but folks generally figured out that there wasn't much hope of little Johnny or Janey to move up to the next grade--and some of them would apply a lot of pressure on the "boss"--read my dad--to break the rules--he never did, but that didn't make it any less hard on him). Good ole dad's been retired for a few years now (at least from that job), but since I've been in higher ed, this time of year brings up a whole different area of stress. I'm horrible at procrastinating and, generally, it winds up catching up with me about this time.
Just today, my group and I spent the majority of our day working on a website (a final project for the very class this blog was originally set up for). As we were finishing up, I couldn't help but stand back and think "Damn, if we could do this kind of job now, just think of what we could've done if we'd started at the beginning of the semester!" Of course, if we had, the design probably wouldn't have been very good. I don't know that much about my groupmates (I feel like I'm just now beginning to get to know them), but I actually perform better under pressure. Even taking into account the insomnia issues (long story, but it's plagued me enough to make me do some truly stupid things this semester), my senses seem to be much sharper when I'm under stress. And yes, I still say that even when I clearly remember many a chilly morning in the dungeon of
Fulton Chapel, my fingers thick with bandages from my trying to make a few too many adjustments to some set model or another with an X-acto knife at 4am. And, of course, the worst was always those end of semester final projects.
...and thirty minutes later...
Somehow that last train of thought made me nostalgic over the old days and I felt the need to look up my "old" mentor and boss, Bert--yet one more person to vouch that I'm the poster child of what NOT to do when preparing for major projects. Thankfully, he was an extraordinarily patient man--uh, five years worth!
This post is really starting to ramble.
Back on track...I was sent the announcement below by one of my listservs. It's going to happen after the time of usefulness as far as this semester, but I may pop in and "steal" information to use in the future. That kind of stuff doesn't exactly have a short shelf life.
The end of an academic year is a very challenging time for educators.
Faculty who are feeling run-down and burnt-out need to find ways to renew
their passion for teaching. The following webinar, presented by a professor
who for 15 years has devoted all of his time and energy to the classroom, is
a great way to end the year!
Preventing Burn-Out: Strengthening Your Passion for Teaching
2 May 2006
On-line webinar
1-3pm EDT
At one time or another we all face the daunting question, Do I have that
passion for
teaching? At these times, when we no longer feel the satisfaction in our
day to day
professional work, when we've lost touch with our passion and dreams, we
feel that we're
either in the process of losing or have lost that fire or need to ignite
that fire we call
passion in our professional lives. Although difficult, it is essential to
find or renew that
energy, creativity, and commitment to teaching, as well as your ability to
inspire others and
make a difference.
Louis Schmier will help you recognize the often quiet signals whose impact
is so
incremental you may miss them. Then, he'll help you interpret these signals
and offer strategies
to help you see how you can make minor adjustments or major changes to
revive your
passion and give your teaching renewed meaning and purpose.
Louis Schmier received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and
currently holds the rank of Professor of History at Valdosta State
University and is a Danforth
Foundation Fellow. In October, 1991, Dr. Schmier stopped historical
research and
publication, and has devoted all his time, energy, and learning to the
classroom. He has
also given several keynote addresses, presented numerous workshops, and has
written articles,
book chapters and books on the subject of teaching with passion.
Enquiries: pam@ieinfo.org
Web address: http://www.innovativeeducators.org
Sponsored by: Innovative Educators
pjrana67@msn.com
AncientWorld's SpringFest
I can't believe it. The aforementioned
AncientWorlds is celebrating the fifth anniversary since its beta "resurrection." (Geez, could it have been
that long?)
In keeping with their sense of community, they're celebrating
"SpringFest"--I guess you could call it their online version of Mardi Gras (since several of the members hail from the New Orleans area).
There's also a
Santa Fe conference being planned for the fall (unfortunately, I'm already obligated that weekend, or I'd love to see a few old familiar faces). And the
Acta Diurna, the site's newsletter, has now gone to pod! (I think I might have mentioned that in the earlier post, but it still wows me to be able to hear voices I haven't heard since the New Orleans conference so many years ago.)
I can hear you saying something like "yeah, this is great, but its really just a bunch of role players out for entertainment." Maybe. But there's also a lot of information being passed around. Most of the site is constructed by people donating their time and effort just for the purpose of building an online community. What little I know of HTML came right out of "AS" and "AW" as they're affectionately known. Also, there's a core group within the community who truly are passionate about ancient history--many of them are professors at universities from around the globe. While the main push of the site may be for entertainment, I think there's a lot that online academic classes could learn from efforts such as these. When you make the effort to build the community, the people involved tend to perform even more and better than what you've asked of them.
IDD competencies and standards
Competencies and Standards for Instructional Design and Educational TechnologyThe above paper is being discussed currently on the ITForum listserv.
I'm not quite sure what the fuss is all about. I mean, sure, having to deal with comps and tests to be accredited is certainly nervewracking (trying to remember everything you've ever heard in a class or read in a book for a single set of tests), but it seems like we owe it to our possible employers to show that we have at least reached a certain standard in our field. Lawyers have the pass the bar. Doctors must pass their board exams. Why should our field be any different? Who are these people who are the naysayers? Who is it that are standing in the way? Right now, it seems that accreditation (unless you are a university program) is optional. Why wouldn't anyone, if it means opening employment doors for them, want to be accredited by passing competencies? If they're scared of not having adequate field instruction, maybe the major accrediting agencies need to look at the programs that are providing training.
Getting past the 13th post
Okay, so I'm a superstitious sucker. It's bugging me that I've got 13 posts so far, so I'm putting in this "buffer" to get me past the hump!
My response to "Are Colleges Failing?"
I've given it time, but this is still going to sound like a knee jerk response and a lot of people would disagree with me. However, I'm going to say it--Bok's stance and suggestions seem to miss the big picture, at least from what I've experienced and seen personally.
Colleges and universities are only part of the educational problem in this country. When I taught Freshman Composition, I could not believe the level at which some of my students were writing. I had students who claimed to have graduated with honors (two who said they'd graduated at the tops of their respective classes) who could not put a structured paragraph together. When the public schools are putting this level of students out into the realm of higher academia, how are we at the college level supposed to correct in four years what they haven't learned in the prior 12 (or more, if they attended pre-K and kindergarten)?
While I believe everyone CAN learn, I think that all too many students on these levels enter college because its expected of them or because getting the piece of paper (degree) will further their employment opportunities. What they don't see is that education is a process, not a product. This "wrongsightedness" can easily be witnessed in the level of plagiarism running rampant on our campuses. For students who use this method as an "out," it's not about learning to write correctly, but getting the grade they need with the least possible effort. For students with this mindset, I would suggest that a four-year college is not for them. Technical schools are designed to get the training people need for solid careers with the least amount of time and effort (or at least that's what their commercials lead one to believe).
I think, as universities, we do a disservice by accepting those who obviously are not "cut out of the academic cloth." This makes me sound as an elitist, but hear me out. When its obvious via test scores, class ranking, HS course loads, grades, interviews, etc. that a perspective student may not be prepared for university level coursework, why is it that so many universities are willing to take these students in, fully knowing the high probability that these students will fail? Is it money? If the universities truly believe that they can bring these students along, why are there classes that are known as "gatekeeper courses," usually at a freshman or sophomore level, with coursework specifically designed to "weed out" the weakest students? Isn't it time we stopped talking out of both sides of our mouth?
And isn't it time that this country actually changed its education system so that those students who do not have a penchant for academic subjects had the opportunity to learn a trade before leaving high school? What has happened to our vo-tech and trade schools? When I graduated in 1990, the school I attended was quickly dismantling the vo-tech center, program by program. The 4-H club and ag classes had been disbanded four years prior, replaced by courses on psychology, communications, sociology, etc--and this in a community whose main sources of income were farming, trucking and lumber! The department of education has to get real and match the public school offerings to the local community needs.
Otherwise, what ends up happening is a lot of students who aren't trained well enough to take over the family business but never really thought about going to college until they had to. They're ill prepared, both academically and mentally for the challenge put before them and, all too often, fail before they've really gotten started. As university-level educators, we can put in place all the programs we want to, but until the broken lower rungs of the ladder are fixed, these "high risk" students are not going to reach the same level of achievement in the same numbers as their counterparts.
Just my two cents...
Are Colleges Failing?
Apparently, there was an interview with this author this morning on NPR (I missed it, but the audio can still be listened to
here.) because he's doing a press tour or whatever to promote his new book. Several of my listservs have picked up on it and are discussing it now. Looking at their posts, I find myself feeling like such a little newcomer. That said, I think sometimes the newbies are the ones who have the clearest picture of what's wrong.
After reading this article, I'm still processing it. Part of me wants to give it a kneejerk reaction, but I think there's more to it than that, so I'm going to post the article first and my response a bit later.
Are colleges failing?
Higher ed needs new lesson plans
By Derek Bok | December 18, 2005
A remarkable feature of American colleges is the lack of attention that most faculties pay to the growing body of research about how much students are learning and how they could be taught to learn more. Hundreds of studies have accumulated on how undergraduates develop during college and what effects different methods of teaching have on improving critical thinking, moral reasoning, quantitative literacy, and other skills vital to undergraduate education. One would think faculties would receive these findings eagerly. Yet one investigator has found that fewer than 10 percent of college professors pay any attention to such work when they prepare for their classes. Most faculties seem equally uninterested in research when they review the curriculum.
Apparently, empirical studies command respect only when they are used to investigate institutions and professions other than those to which professors themselves belong.
It is unfortunate that college professors pay so little heed to the research about undergraduate education. If they did, they might encounter some provocative findings, such as the following.
-Despite the hours spent debating different models of general education, the choices faculties make rarely lead to any significant difference in the cognitive development of undergraduates.
-Most college seniors do not think that they have made substantial progress in improving their competence in writing or quantitative methods, and some assessments have found that many students actually regress.
-Students who start college with average critical thinking skills only tend to progress over the next four years from the 50th percentile of their class to approximately the 69th percentile. Most undergraduates leave college still inclined to approach unstructured ''real life" problems with a form of primitive relativism, believing that there are no firm grounds for preferring one conclusion over another.
-Although most colleges require students to take classes in another language, fewer than 10 percent of seniors believe that they have substantially improved their foreign language skills, and fewer than 15 percent are enrolled in an advanced class.
-Substantial groups of students, including African-Americans, Hispanics, and recruited athletes in major sports, perform well below the levels one would expect based on their high school grades and SAT scores. Although a few colleges have developed successful programs to overcome such underperformance, most do not even try, despite the commitment expressed in many college brochures to ''help each student develop to his or her full potential."
Further studies indicate that problem-based discussion, group study, and other forms of active learning produce greater gains in critical thinking than lectures, yet the lecture format is still the standard in most college classes, especially in large universities. Other research has documented the widespread use of other practices that impede effective learning, such as the lack of prompt and adequate feedback on student work, the prevalence of tests that call for memory rather than critical thinking, and the reliance on teaching methods that allow students to do well in science courses by banking on memory rather than truly understanding the basic underlying concepts.
Critics of American colleges typically attribute the failings of undergraduate education to a tendency on the part of professors to neglect their teaching to concentrate on research. In fact, the evidence does not support this thesis, except perhaps in major research universities. Surveys show that most faculty members prefer teaching to research and spend much more time at it. The problem is not that faculty are uninterested in their students but that they do too little to explore new and possibly more effective ways of teaching and learning.
One reason for this neglect is that professors are rarely exposed to research on teachingduring graduate school. Doctoral training is devoted almost entirely to learning to do research, even though most PhDs who enter academic life spend far more time teaching than they do conducting experiments or writing books. To most faculty members, teaching is an art that is either too simple to require formal training, too personal to be taught to others, or too innate to be conveyed to anyone lacking the necessary gifts. Freshly minted PhDs typically teach the way their favorite professorstaught. This pattern introduces a strong conservative bias into college instruction, a bias reinforced by the tendency of many faculties to regard the choice of teaching methods as the exclusive prerogative of individual professors rather than a fit subject for collective deliberation.
Another reason for ignoring educational research is that such work is often threatening to a faculty. Once investigators start assessing how much students are learning, they may conclude that familiar methods of teaching are ineffective and need to be replaced. Such findings are doubly disquieting. They cast a depressing doubt on the value of countless classes that cannot be done over. Worse yet, revising courses will undoubtedly force professors to spend many hours of additional time on top of already busy schedules.
College faculties have long been able to ignore educational research and avoid discussion of teaching methods because they risk no adverse consequences as a result. Students will rarely know whether they are learning less than they might or whether they could learn more at another institution. So long as colleges do not charge excessive tuitions and keep abreast of their competitors, offering popular degree programs, providing financial aid, and building facilities, they can continue to attract applicants and graduate satisfied students.
There are signs, however, that colleges may not be able to continue paying so little attention to improving student learning. Changing demands in the economy are forcing employers to pay increasing sums to remedy deficiencies in the writing and computational skills of the college graduates they hire. In addition, more and more work normally performed by college graduates is now being outsourced to other countries. Already, tax returns for several hundred thousand US citizens are being prepared in India; CAT scans are being analyzed in Poland; Microsoft is employing scientists in China; Boeing has engaged the services of engineers in Russia. As this process continues, American graduates will no longer be competing only with themselves but with hordes of ambitious, hard-working young people from countries such as India and China intent on claiming a piece of the world's most prosperous economy. In this new environment, American students can no longer afford to graduate without the best possible education.
Other organizations have become accustomed to this kind of competition. They have responded by becoming effective learning organizations -- that is, organizations that constantly assess their work to identify problems, look for new ways to overcome weaknesses, evaluate these innovations with care, and adopt the methods that work while discarding those that don't. Colleges urgently need to follow this example.
Properly done, such a process can be rewarding for everyone. The principal beneficiaries will be the students, but professors stand to benefit as well. Experimenting with new and better ways to help students learn can be as engrossing for a teacher as experimenting in a laboratory or undertaking an empirical investigation in the social sciences. For academic leaders, trying to initiate a process of enlightened trial and error through continuing self-scrutiny and research may well be the most important challenge they face. Those who succeed will not only gain the lasting satisfaction of helping to improve the lives of their students, but lead the way toward higher-quality undergraduate education. Few educators could aspire to any greater achievement.
Derek Bok, a former president of Harvard University, is the author of the just-published ''Our Underachieving Colleges."
The article on Boston.com taken from the Boston Globe can be found here
Article on Coping with Fear
Since we now have less than three weeks left in the semester, I've noticed that every time I begin to think about how much I still have to do, this overwhelming sense of horror and foreboding begins to surround me. I thought this article was pretty timely.
From
"Success Consciousness"Our Fears and Worries Can Distort The Reality Of The Situation
By Stanley Popovich
At times, our worries and anxieties can overwhelm us. In addition, our worries can distort our perception of what is reality and what is not. Here is a brief list of techniques that you can use to help gain a better perspective on things during your anxious moments.
When feeling anxious, stop what you are doing and try to do something relaxing. A person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off of the problem. A person could get some fresh air, listen to some music, or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things.
Remember that our fearful thoughts are exaggerated and can make the problem worse. A good way to manage your worry is to challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking. When encountering thoughts that make your fearful or anxious, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense.
When overwhelmed with worry, a person may encounter a lot of scary thoughts coming at them all at once. Instead of getting upset, remember that these thoughts are exaggerated and are not based on reality. From my interviews with various professionals, I’ve learned that usually it is the fear behind the thoughts that gets us worked up. Ignore the fear behind these thoughts and your worry should decrease.
Be smart in how you deal with your fears and anxieties. Do not try to tackle everything all at once. When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, break the task into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.
Remember that all the worrying in the world will not change anything. Most of what we worry about never comes true. Instead of worrying about something that probably won’t happen, concentrate on what you are able to do. Everything else you can leave in the hands of God.
In every anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a walk to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around.
It is not easy to deal with all of our fears and worries. When your fears and anxieties have the best of you, try to calm down and then get the facts of the situation. The key is to take it slow. All you can do is to do your best each day, hope for the best, and when something does happen, take it in stride. Take it one step at a time and things will work out.
Biography
Stan Popovich is the author of "A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods" - an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to:
http://www.managingfear.com
How valuable are "free" online classes?
My earlier post about AncientSites/AncientWorlds got me to thinking. The only reason that site works is because of the level/sense of community for the participants. With university online courses, that sense of community should also be fostered by the instructor and by the students feeling that they are part of the university, even if they may never step foot on campus physically.
In the last few months, some free online interactive classes have come to my attention--specifically those offered through
Barnes and Noble University. I, myself, signed up for a few since the fall, mainly drawn in by the topics listed. However, I found out that there was no way for me, with my schedule, to keep up with the class. Because the courses are free, there's no cut-off as far as number allowed in each class, so student responses are rampant--too many to possibly read through. Such a large group, I think, actually diminishes the sense of community, simply because there's just too big of a crowd. (Think of it as cyber-social anxiety disorder.) For those of us who have a "real life" and do not have the time to sift through massive amounts of posts every day to catch up with what's going on in the class, we find ourselves on the outside of the circle, looking in. This, combined with the fact that there's no "grade" to acheive upon completing the class, makes for very poor motivation. For myself, I simply ran through the syllabus and each week's lesson plans and printed them off so I could do it on my own--which seems to be the very antithesis of what Barnes and Noble claims that they've set out to do.
So, what can they do?
I think since they've set up the system so that each class already has a "technical advisor/assistant" to the instructor, maybe they should expand this idea. They could have a topic "umbrella" with different class "sections" of, say, forty to fifty students each. The author/instructor would still be in charge of the entire topic but would be aided by several technical advisors or "teaching assistants" in charge of each section. I think this would make the posting level more manageable, increase real participation and lessen the dropout rate of participants. Just my two cents.
E-book sales up
Publishers Report Increases in eBook Sales and Revenue
------------------------------------------------------
eBook publishers reported a 36% increase in eBook units sold in
Q2 2005 compared to Q2 2004, and a 69% increase in eBook revenue
earned over the same period. They also reported a 24% increase in
eBook titles published. Publishers reported 484,933 eBook units
sold and $3,182,499 in revenues for the second quarter of 2005.
They also reported 1024 eBooks published during this time. The
report was commissioned by the International Digital Publishing
Forum (IDPF). The International Digital Publishing Forum,
formerly the Open eBook Forum (OeBF), is the trade and standards
association for the digital publishing industry and is supported
by its members. For more information visit: http://www.idpf.org.This little snippet is intriguing to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a paper-based book junkie, but as an instructional designer, ebooks have a certain
je ne sais quoi. For one thing, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities, especially with graphics (maybe some interactivity?) and then there's the notion that ebooks could be taken to the next level with podcasting. Could there be textbooks offered in the future as downloadable podcasts with supporting materials available through the "publisher's" website? I think we're well on the way to that happening.
The Ancient World Online? Are you kidding?
I have a long relationship with a particular site online. When we were talking about CSS a couple of weeks ago in class, I realized that the whole site is built upon it--there's no other way they could keep up with it all!
The site I'm referring to is
Ancient Worlds.
I discovered the place while I was pulling my short stint as an art history major. I was taking a classics class (Ancient Greek architecture, to be precise) and working graveyard shift in the art department's computer lab. Those two things combined with boredom around the 2am point of a extremely quiet shift, I wound up stumbling upon a column in Archaeology magazine online. Following a link, I found what I thought at first was a really cool three dimensional historical interactive online game set in ancient Rome (SPQR) with a few message boards about the game turned out to be a fully functioning online community. Of course, I signed up as a patron and spent *way* too much time in online "classes," storyplay, building my personal pages and generally helping to build some of the interactive "neighborhoods."
We even had a conference in New Orleans with several classics lectures presented by professors who also happened to be members as well as a lecture and reading by author Steven Saylor (he writes historical mysteries set in ancient Rome). The conference wrapped up with a costume ball after which we hit Bourbon Street in full regalia. We kept losing our Romans--tourists thought they were just locals who liked walking around in togas and kept stopping them in order to have their picture taken with the "toga guys." Some of the "academia" types on the site also used it as an opportunity to create online ancient history journals. These were short lived, but not before I managed to have one of them publish a paper I'd presented at Ole Miss's graduate symposium (on Herod's ancient seaport of Sebastos). Back in 2000/01, there were at least three grad students that I knew of who were toying with the idea of doing their thesis/dissertations specifically on AncientSites. We really felt like we were breaking new ground in creating such an online world.
Alas, much like many products that are riding the cutting edge of interactive technology, the site grew too quickly and, in trying to cope with the beginning of the .com bubbleburst, the "demigods" or founders spread their resources much too thin and CyberSites, Inc.--the parent company--went bankrupt.
For a couple of years, AncientSites was dead. The members moved on and began their own interactive sites--
PanHistoria being the most successful of these. However, one of the founding "deities" of CyberSites, Inc. managed to purchase the old databases and resurrected "AS" as "AW" or AncientWorlds.
For me, I was skeptical at first. I'd spent too much time on the old site only to have all of my work vanish into thin cyber air. That said, the fact is that there are a lot of people as members of the site that I've known (albeit some only online) since 1998, there is a certain "homey" feel to it that draws me in, if only to catch up with others.
I noticed last week, however, that AncientWorlds is quickly changing formats (again pushing the envelope of an online community). A new social group called
MediaPhiles is encouraging its members to communicate via online video and audio conferencing, podcasts and videocasts (They're already doing the site's news in podcasts). Considering the subject's right in line with what I've been learning in the OLL at South, I jumped at joining. I figure its a great way to learn and hone my craft while having fun at the same time (and paying homage to my fascination with ancient history). Is that cool or what?!?
Officer Down Memorial Page
I know this doesn't necessarily "fit in" with the theme of this blog, but I wanted to have it for future reference's sake.
All of us in the instructional design program here at South have learned about how online and distance learning through interactive websites can assist in training for military, police, etc. What I've learned in the last week, however, is that such websites also offer a way to reinforce community--that thin blue line that I was gently reminded last week that those who aren't a part of it can never truly understand. The World Wide Web allows those in uniform to celebrate together, share news and warnings and, in the case of the site mentioned here, mourn together. After talking to several local officers, I learned that websites like this one help them tremendously in building and maintaining a sense of community with officers from all over the country and the world. My impression from them was that this is as important to them as using the web for training (partially because many training ideas are spread through these websites as well).
As for ODMP.org, I would just as soon not found out about it at all, considering I learned about it and talked to the officers about the web (and a lot of other things) while we were all waiting in line at a friend's wake. Mikey's page starts
here. Having seen it grow since the evening I first learned of it--with posts from people from all over the world, many of whom knew Mike well and many who didn't--I think I can understand in a small way how online organizations such as this one helps the family left behind--both the blood family and the "blue" one.
