As I have been reflecting more and more on how technology is changing not only how we teach, but also what we need to teach students, and train students to be able to do, I have found myself considering phasing out exams of the traditional sort, in which I essentially test what they have been able to remember. Information is available with a few clicks of their thumbs, and so it seems better to instead test students’ ability to find reliable information... Read more
Here’s a video clip of Rick Wakeman that starts with the most phenomenal segment of the keyboard solo: And here’s a transcription of the whole thing on Scribd: ABWH – Rick Wakeman Solo Live (Piano) http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf Once again I am amazed at the resources available online for musicians! Read more
Today when I was mowing the lawn, I noticed once again that there seemed to be several butterflies, which appeared to be black, spending time in the shadow of our pear trees. This time, however, I took a closer look. The first thing that I discovered was that, far from being plain and black, these butterflies were mostly blue, with the color ranging from a deep purple to a light, almost iridescent blue, but this was not apparent when they were... Read more
I always find these lists fascinating. Several blogs pointed out that the latest Beloit College Mindset list is out – highlighting things that have always or never been the case during the lifetime of this year’s incoming freshmen. This made me think of the scene I was told about from the show Wizards of Waverly Place, where Alex knows that “Tom Sawyer” is a song by Rush but doesn’t know it is a book. And it also made me think about this... Read more
The U. S. News and World Report rankings of colleges and universities for this year (actually for 2011 to be more precise) have just been released. Butler University has ranked #2 in the category of Regional Universities in the Midwest. We also ranked #1 on the list of up-and-coming regional universities in the Midwest. Read more
Rev. Michael Dowd has a new blog post up entitled “Biblical Christianity Is Bankrupt.” Whether you feel that statement is obviously true or offensive and false, I would encourage you to read his post, since he has a lot of interesting things to say – even for those who spend a lot of their time pondering subjects like this one. This post is the latest in a series in which he interacts with Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention. For... Read more
One of my favorite quotes from the Chinese sage Chuang Tzu is this one: When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets — He is out of his mind! His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting– And... Read more
You can bookmark this post and see scrolling text every time you come here! 🙂 [Alas, it requires Flash] http://widgetserver.com/syndication/flash/wrapper/InsertWidget.swf Read more
I’ve tinkered once again with the formatting on the blog. I know at least some readers found the title bar a bit too much, and I kept feeling frustrated with the tendency of content to overflow the main post area into the right sidebar. And so I’ve moved everything into two sidebars on the left. Feel free to voice your opinions about this, as always. For what it’s worth, I’m not entirely satisfied with the way it looks now either!... Read more
I have yet to read it (since I just saw this mentioned on Ben’s blog only moments ago) but anything related to blogging and the academic study of religion in any form is of interest, and so I thought I’d immediately pass this on. Ben Myers has an article out entitled “Theology 2.0: Blogging as Theological Discourse” in Cultural Encounters 6:1 (2010). Read more
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