Teaching, Dancing, & Problem-Solving

Books I’m reading today:  The Online Teaching Guide by Ken W. White and Bob H. Weight, The People are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon by Charles Wilkinson, and Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.

The Online Teaching Guide stresses the importance of making the online teaching environment a social environment. I’m supposed to keep the discussion board warm by using humor. Hmmm, have to see if I’m up for that one 😉 Oh, I’m also directed to use emoticons, like \\//_ (think Spock).  The chapters are short and helpful, which I think is modeling how my lecturettes should be.

Charles Wilkinson is an Anglo, asked by the tribe to write the history of the Siletz confederation of tribes. The basic outline of the book is 1) a long period of aboriginal normalcy, 2) promises by the American government followed immediately by 3) treachery by the American people followed eventually by 4) treachery and promise-breaking by the American government, ending with 5) restoration of dignity by forces outside and inside the tribe. One of the largest groups of the “Siletz” tribe comes from the Rogue River Valley, where I grew up, so this is interesting to me on several levels.

Pirate Latitudes includes several examples of solving problems by deciding to look at an unsolvable problem from an entirely different perspective. No one can capture the fortress by sea, so the hero thinks outside of the box and attacks it from land.

This entry was posted in Mark's Blog, Mark's Currently Reading. Bookmark the permalink.