News From Nowhere

To me internet and technology are indispensable tools in teaching. They allow me to make my lessons more creative and they allow me to interact with my students on a rational and creative basis. Most of all though, I see the winnings of internet and technology as a means for me and my students to learn and develop in unison. Together we will ask questions and together we will find the answers. Almost all our classrooms are now equipped with an internet connected projector. Those are in constant use and a fantastic resource for all of us.

Last week I had two of the most fabulous days of my life. I attended the convention “Framtidens lärande” (possible translations: “Future learning”, “Futures curriculum” or ”21st Century Learning”) which was arranged by a number of organisations promoting the idea of internet and technology becoming important parts of education.

Apart from all the lectures and workshops being immensely interesting, the whole convention was very competently arranged when it came to practical matters. The technology worked wonderfully. I loved the fact that we were able to post questions and comments in a twitter-like manner throughout each lecture. (They can all be read here). The food was good, the wardrobes and toilets worked excellently, as did the wireless internet, the sound was great, the seats, the timetable; well in fact everything was top notch.

Important issues raised at the convention were:

- The fact that we are in the middle of a paradigm shift. People are communicating and learning in alternative ways. We have to change the way we look at learning and teaching and we need to review our roles as teachers and students.

- The implementation of aids for internet and communication needs to be speeded on by central/national directives. The one-to-one perspective has to be what is aimed for.

- Finding the resources for technological development is more about budgeting than about funds available.

Below are videos and slide shows of some of the lectures:

Bruce Dixon “Future Learning Today and Tomorrow

Bruce Dixon, Framtidens lärande 2009 from diu redaktion on Vimeo.

Thomas Fürth from Kairos Future “I möjlighetmaximerarnas land”

Thomas Fürth, Möjlighetetsmaximerarnas land, Framtidens lärande 2009 from diu redaktion on Vimeo.

Stephen Heppel “Be Very Afraid”

Among his quotes: “Every turned off device is a potentially turned off child “

Stephen Heppell, Framtidens lärande 2009 from diu redaktion on Vimeo.

A link to some of the slide shows.

Former evangelical christian Daniel Florien has put together a list of his favourite atheist/agnostic/skeptic blogs. Those being his top five:

1. Pharyngula
2. Friendly Atheist
3. Cynical-C
4. Debunking Christianity
5. Atheist Media Blog

His own blog unreasonable faith is an interesting read. In the About section he describes his change from devouted christian to passionate atheist. One can also read about this in an interview on the blog Weird Things.

And now for some Richard Dawkins quotes:

“It is often said, mainly by the “no-contests”, that although there is no positive evidence for the existence of God, nor is there evidence against his existence. So it is best to keep an open mind and be agnostic. At first sight that seems an unassailable position, at least in the weak sense of Pascal’s wager. But on second thoughts it seems a cop-out, because the same could be said of Father Christmas and tooth fairies. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can’t prove that there aren’t any, so shouldn’t we be agnostic with respect to fairies”

“Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one.”

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where’s the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let’s now stop being so damned respectful!”

Yes! Let’s now stop being so damned respectful!