Life is often our struggle, lose or win.
Evil knows no bounds thus nothing is barred.
Good sets limits, deems otherwise a sin.
All make exceptions: Repute's never marred.
Let's admit Evil's scores are always high.
escaping what Good says they should deserve.
The Good stand tall without concession's sigh,
believing strong in defeat this does serve.
So goes the contest till we'd quit the field.
Good would have both be as they themselves are.
One walks off; Good remains without a yield.
Fortune or no, who is the shinning star?
Evil's glory will not in justice end.
Care less for Good its power to amend.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
Good vs Evil
S&*t happens*
I choose to laugh than shed a tear
for that which happens that I feared.
What I can manage, trust I do;
if not, I find no cause to sue.
Mistakes and errors we do make
regardless heaven's goodness sakes.
So imagine not for what can be.
Wait with patience and say, 'Let's see'.
Meanwhile accept the lot I got,
for nothing more there is this plot.
Try as might that things are not so.
In the end with what I have must go.
Rest in love, understand the few.
Look there, they're sitting in our pew.
__________
* On the occasion of a difference in perspective with a loved one.
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Tailoring Learning for International Students
[I wonder if anyone by this time (2026) would take, or need, such a college course. I kinda doubt it.]
Tailoring Learning for International Students
© 2008 John Kevin Mactavish
Abstract
A unit of instruction that uses the Internet in a variety of ways needs a context. The context in this discussion is a traditional college course and how it is designed for students coming from different countries. What follows is a sketch of the course and its units of instruction. These center around classroom and computer laboratory meetings. The meetings have a structure, or process, and the instructor has a limited number of roles to play. Student learning is based on choices in objectives and computer learning activities. The sketch concludes with an example learning objective and some different types of Internet activities to help meet that objective.
Introduction to Computers . . .
is a beginning college course for intermediate level English students. The course takes place in the classroom and the computer laboratory with the instructor acting as a meeting facilitator, content presenter, and tutor. Although the course is documented online and uses the Internet, it is traditional face-to-face pedagogy (Wuensch, Aziz, Ozan, Kishore, & Tabrizi, 2008).
Because students come from different national educational systems and they have different computer skills already, the course has to make room for these differences. Giving choices of which learning objectives to work on accommodates these differences and helps students develop their computer literacy as well as demonstrate practical skills.
The course has ten three-and-a-half hour classroom-lab meetings. Each meeting is a three-step process. The process gives the instructor the roles above and looks like this.
1. What have you discovered? This is a review of required readings and what
students have been working on so far.
2. What do you need to know? This step introduces new material and gives time for discussions and student presentations.
3. What do you need to be able to do? This step is about discovering and
demonstrating skills in the computer laboratory.
The topics for the class meetings show the general scope of the course. The student chooses one or more of the objectives for each meeting. If the objectives and their learning activities for a meeting do not give the student something new to learn , he or she can work with the instructor and decide what is best.
Here are example objectives students can choose for the first five class meetings.
1. Course Overview, Computers and the Internet: The learner should be able to
design a directory structure for a student taking three courses, or for an office worker involved in three projects. The design should include folder and file naming, the types of files included, and sample content for each.
2. Hardware and Software: The learner should be able to analyze a recent version of MS Windows and report on what it should have to be an operating system.
3. Word Processing: The learner should be able to create and print or upload a one-page, double-spaced text document showing as many features of the program as possible--fonts, point size, tables, columns, pagination, and so forth.
4. Presentations with Media: The learner should be able to produce a simple outline of a presentation for school or work with at least five PowerPoint slides.
5. Spreadsheets: The learner should be able to create two original spreadsheets, one showing a personal or project budget with monthly and annual sample numbers and one showing the formulae for the calculations.
These are the rest of the topics for the meetings: Mid-Course Exam; Databases;
Sharing Information on the Web; Current Issues and Review; Final Presentations and Exam.
To show how this course uses the Internet to meet learning goals or aims for different students, the first thing to remember is that the course’s approach already tells the teacher what to do. When a student selects an objective for a topic, choices of what the student does in order to learn opens up . Here is an example from meeting three. The learning objective is that the student should be able to list five Internet applications for school or work. The list should include why each application is helpful.
Computer lab activities to help learn or demonstrate meeting this objective include
the following types and examples. A student would work on one or more of these.
Search: Search for "computer operating system" using Google and define what it is.
Quest: Go to the Web sites for two different operating systems and find what
applications come with them and what each does. Afterwards, open the programs menu on your computer and find out if you have these applications.
Message Board: Go to the university learning server and leave a message on the
Newbie forum about programs students find most useful for their school work. How many different programs do students list? Are any from the Internet?
OCLC: Go to the university library catalog online and find this article: Pierre
Dillenbourg (2008). Integrating technologies into educational ecosystems. Distance
Education, 29(2), 127-140.
E-mail: Copy and paste the abstract of this article into an e-mail and send your
instructor a copy.
Reading: Read the article. Does it say anything about Internet application programs?
Self-archiving: Put a short bibliography for a paper on one of the free bibliography
Web sites. Then retrieve it in print or document form.
Document Storage: If you have a Gmail or Yahoo account, go to the document
storage area and upload a document, maybe a draft of one of your papers.
Reference: Look up APA style guide online. Can you use any of the information
presented to complete assignments for this course?
If one sees these activities as part of the design of teaching a lesson, the above fall into place in the process. First is in the classroom. The teacher talks about two or three things you can use computers and the Internet for. Then the teacher leads a discussion. Step two is also a classroom activity. It might be to hear and watch a PowerPoint presentation on how to access some online resources like the ones in the lab learning activities. The instructor would make the presentation. Finally, the students work out their own list of applications to help them in work or school. The instructor circulates in the lab helping and tutoring to make sure students are learning and completing the work each chose.
__________
Reference
Wuensch, K. L., Aziz, S., Ozan, E., Kishore, M., & Tabrizi, M. H. N. (2008). Pedagogical
Characteristics of Online and Face-to-Face Classes. International Journal on
ELearning, 7(3), 523-532.
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Brut(us) wisdom
Julius Caesar
"Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this."
I would run the race fettered but by me,
not lose myself and thus my life should miss.
To each his own differs to what we be.
The crowd this way and that blindly steers,
of choice one's robbed--the power of the wave.
Never thoughtless thought elsewhere leads or veers.
Onward where the masses say what is safe.
Grant me space to find what to me will sate.
There I will compete in that precious place.
To hell with what they say is destined fate.
I'll err or triumph 'gainst self determined space.
Dear noble friend, I know you wish me well.
Rest easy. I will thrive as any inflated swell.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Form obscures meaning?
History of Henry IV, Part II
"Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains."
Your line, dear Bard, or -ess, no iamb ist,
contorts the scheme and spawns for me fountains
of ideas and notions--no single gist.
Poet or play-write, you betimes ruse me--
'bout what is meant, so thus fully escapes.
Any peace that one scans is hard to see.
Is there more that's written in your fools-capes?
Your peace or not, up sans iambs are pent,
as this line so hides that which's certain.
Thus yours and my insights are truly rent
as stage and play's import's lowered curtain.
Rocky mountains portend the going rough.
Our peace here stands--to reach is truly tough.
__________
Lord Mowbray. There is a thing within my bosom tells me 2390
That no conditions of our peace can stand.
Lord Hastings. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace
Upon such large terms and so absolute
As our conditions shall consist upon,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
Friday, August 14, 2026
In search of an hypothesis
Exhibit A
When the older boys were standing around looking cool, I copied them. Their weight was on the right foot.
B
Twelve years ago I discovered I had slight arthritis in my right hip.
C
I
have driven a car since I was sixteen. I am now past eighty. Most of
those cars were stick shift, which is to say I relied on my right foot
and leg mostly. (Ref. Dr. Russo.)
D
I batted in baseball right handed. I am left handed.
E
A
few years ago I limped favoring my right hip. I quickly developed a
pain below my left ribs. I took a strong pain pill and hip and side
pains disappeared after walking again normally, even after the pain reliever dosage wore
off.
F
As a senior I practice balancing on one foot and then the other.
Question
With which foot is my balance better?
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Run with Shakespeare
Injunction: Select a line from Shakespeare and run with it.
Richard III
"He hearkens after prophecies and dreams";
therefore, too many short forms he does glean.
As for the goose goes same for a gander:
He, she, it and they--we're prone to meander.
One and another it is all such fluff.
Many with bias while others try bluff.
A great deal today, media's simply pure slop.
To consume then act on preludes? You'll flop.
Text and pictures, whether moving or not,
research has shown you get yer brain rot.
Now listen, dear friend, you want to e-mend?
Curate your stuff--some music too, please rend.
No prophets will stem the tide of their profit.
With good 'nd pure dreams, we scoff--'Get off it.'
__________
Note on allusion:
signifies a jibe to cease acting like one are better than others, perhaps a know-it-all. This reminds us of Richard's most famous line from the play.
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