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Showing posts from March, 2008

Art Exhibit

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The SBTS student body is having a show, so I put a couple pieces in play to help the turnout- but not this one. "Seed of the Woman Lifted Up"- 2008- 38"x12" Cast Bronze, Redwood, Styrene, and Pressboard.

Card Concert

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This was my fourth or fifth Michael Card concert over the years, and it brought to mind how different every concert has been. The crowd at Southern was larger than some church setttings I have previously heard the artist perform in. It was laid back and included a bit more singalong than usual, I think. The ad hoc way in which he wove the songs together was very effective, I think, and the mix of stories and illustrations brought them together coherently. I enjoy Michael Card as an instrumentalist as well, and he treated us to a real variety along those lines.

Sit. Blog. Sit.

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How to choose a healthy chair.

Awards

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The National Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD) awarded the 2007 Institutional Merit Award to the SLCC Professional Development Council for their five certificate programs –Leadership/Management, Classified Development, Adjunct Faculty, Essential Technology Skills and Office Productivity. I was a lead designer for three of these programs. The fruit of my labor over the past couple of years (along with my very praiseworthy team) has been named a finalist in two categories of the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) 23rd Annual Codie Awards competition- the awards honor outstanding achievement and vision in the software, digital content, and education technology industries. This is two years in a row it’s been nominated (sorry, no win last year)… Voting continues till April 25 and SIIA will announce the winners of the 2008 Codie Awards at a gala dinner in San Francisco on May 20, 2008.

Nominated for another award!

McGraw-Hill Online Learning has been selected as a finalist in the Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution category and the Best Postsecondary Instructional Solution category.

Educational technology links

Participation in an Online Learning Community - discusses the need for a pedagogical approach that relies heavily on social, collaborative and ethical aspects of learning as a starting point for the design of online learning communities. More research supports the idea that the successful traits of a distance learner are similar to the successful traits of an adult learner in traditional educational settings. Problem based Learning research . Athabasca University Elluminate seminars: Case study in Problem Based Learning . And Effective use of context in learning . Research on Fostering equitable University access . Applications to colleges are breaking records - The swelling population of 18-year-olds is not supposed to peak until 2009, when the largest group of high school seniors in the nation’s history, 3.2 million, are to graduate. A Taste of Web 2.0- article A good video on Web 2.0 differences from jutecht on YouTube- Piano Lessons online -This was curiously interesting to see ...

Songs Discovered

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A bunch-o-tunes turned up as I was transcribing some old tapes that predate my digital recorders I carry everywhere I go...some were unfinished so they will get a 2008 date. I'll just post these as separate pages as there are almost twenty of them total... New 2006 songs New 2008 songs

Songs arise

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Trust and Obey When the world’s mountains I cannot scale When I try my very best but still I fail When doubts abide and fears assail I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey. Living in darkness in a hard cold place I will dare boldly to seek God’s face Dreaming to live where despair is erased I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey. When in death’s shadows I must sojourn When justice and mercy are both overturned When the fire that is falling is fire that must burn I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey. We honor our dead as we weep for the light We persevere humbly as we lift our sights I apprehend glory shining through this deep night I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey. Anthony Foster March 25, 2008

Target = new

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After Easter dinner at my Mom's my brothers and nephews fired up the tater cannon. Mom's 40 acres makes a great place to fire it up, skip them across the pond and then they finished up with target practice at the old outhouse. When you can entertain three teenagers for about a buck fifty worth of spuds, your are doing OK. I just looked out and now it is sunny and snowing... This is my Easter Song... Living Redeemer Oh Living Redeemer you rose from the grave Oh Sufficient Savior you are mighty to save Oh Living Redeemer, you make us alive Your will be done till your Kingdom comes And you glory arrives. Our ransom and refuge endures to the end Our living Redeemer is our faithful friend To us He’s the shelter, our Harbor and Home The lost have been sought-And by His blood bought He’s made us His Own. Oh Living Redeemer you transform our minds The visions of dreamers, cant compare to what we find When we find your mercy, forgiveness so free, Oh Living Redeemer-Come and redeem me. I...

Let them eat PEEPS!

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My 97 year old mother in law called out to me last night from her position on the sofa, "It's time to break that bunny's neck!" Which meant, of course, that it was time for a bit of Easter chocolate. We had a full supply of rainbow coloured Peeps and Bunnies as well. You can find the master links page for peeps and their homepage here,

Listen to the Call

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With heart of humble service A heart of deep concern A heart that beats so humbly And with compassion burns Be a messenger and minister To see the good news through A good and faithful servant The chosen and the few Listen to the call Going out to all Going out to you The only thing to do Is to say amen, as on your knees you fall God has raised up a deliverer He will rescue you and set you apart God is able to glorify His name in you And He is lifting up each humble heart Listen to the call Going out to all Going out to you The only thing to do Is to answer yes as on your knees you fall Anthony Foster March 2008

U. S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum

The PDF Nothing too surprising, but we have our work cut out for us. Not a surprise to the Lord Most High either. Question: if half of those of the Jewish faith are over fifty and 72 percent have no children under 18 living at home, what does this mean for the future of Judaism?

Most important Relationships- a new Barna Poll

See the results here. The people most likely to list God (as their most important connection) were 40 or older. Political conservatives were almost three times as likely as political liberals to identify God as their most important relationship (33% vs. 12%, respectively). People in the Midwest were only half as likely as residents of the West and Northeast to say their children are their most important relationship. The only subgroup for which at least one-third said God was their most significant relationship was evangelicals, among whom 70% listed God. Thirty percent of Protestants listed God as their most important connection. In contrast, just 9% of Catholics did so. Blacks were about twice as likely as all other Americans to describe their bond with God as their most important relationship. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to list their children as their most important relationship.

Barna notes

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Read it here. With Americans pursuing a growing number of "church" options, some of the traditional measures of church health are being redefined. Ummm- forgot to say - we went to the Louisville Kennel Club's dog show- it was amazing to see the great variety of breeds- from miniatures that didn't even look like dogs to ones big enough to ride!

Freeware Frenzy

Mindmapping- here Photostory- here Picasa- here Kompozer- here

Political Rhetoric

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Some of it sounds like this.... Prince Charming:You! You can't lie! So tell me puppet... where... is... Shrek? Pinocchio: Uh. Hmm, well, uh, I don't know where he's not Prince Charming: You're telling me you don't know where Shrek is? Pinocchio: It wouldn't be inaccurate to assume that I couldn't exactly not say that it is or isn't almost partially incorrect. Prince Charming: So you do know where he is! Pinocchio: On the contrary. I'm possibly more or less not definitely rejecting the idea that in no way with any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably Prince Charming: Stop it! Pinocchio: ...do or do not know where he shouldn't probably be, if that indeed wasn't where he isn't. Even if he wasn't at where I knew he was [Pigs and Gingerbread Man begin singing] Pinocchio: That'd mean I'd really have to know where he wasn't.

Arise

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Arise, Shine Come out of the darkness Come into the radiance of His light Flee from the shadows, Flee from the shrouding of the night Step into the glowing Brightness of His holy face This light is showing Walk in it now by God’s good grace Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! Enter His presence Come set your heart and mind ablaze Enter with reverence Fall on your knees or stand amazed! Take His revelation Into the world as holy fire Go to the nations Teach them to burn with One desire Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! There is no other sight for blind men walking in the night! No other light can shine so bright by the power of His might! Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come! March 10, 2008 Anthony Foster

Probe Political Resources

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Here we do not define politics as Kinky Friedman does.. polyticks (poly= many plus ticks= blood sucking parasites) ... Check out the Probe resources

Newsongs for March

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Risen Again Christ the Lord of all creation The One who is I AM Was crucified for our salvation The stricken, holy lamb. But now He is arisen And as a fruitful seed Full grown unto the harvest He is risen now, indeed The Lord of the beginning The Lord unto the End As in the resurrection We too are risen again! Anthony Foster March 8, 2008 Relentless You never fail to find The heart that seeks your face Our broken spirits bind Draw us into your grace Your holy hammer sings out Beat by beat it rings out You seek the lost- You are relentless You paid the cost- You are relentless The onslaught of your radiant fire Drives out the darkness- you never tire You never slumber, never sleep And deep is calling unto deep You are relentless. You never cease to amaze Your mercies never end Our never-ending praise Will rise to n'er relent. Your holy hammer sings out Beat by beat it rings out You seek the lost- You are relentless You paid the cost- You are relentless The onslaught of your radian...

100 Ways your iPod can up your IQ

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/18019

Transformative Learning

It is my contention that principles for fostering transformative learning can also be a vital feature of online learning from a Christian perspective. In transformative learning (Mezirow 1991) the most significant learning occurs in the communicative domain which “involves identifying problematic ideas, values, beliefs, and feelings, critically examining the assumptions upon which they are based, testing their justification through rational discourse and making decisions predicated upon the resulting consensus” (Mezirow 1995, 58.) The communication possibilities of the online learning environment provide an opportunity to maximize perspective transformation. Transformative learning offers a theory of learning that in many ways reflects the biblical witness of how adults learn. It is more than a developmental process; it is “understood as the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide fu...

Thomas Homer-Dixon- The Ingenuity Gap

Can we solve the problems of the future? Thomas Homer-Dixon tackles this question in a groundbreaking study of a world becoming too complex and too fast-paced to manage.

Newest Newsy News

Recent research and news • Elluminate Builds Bridge to Moodle-Collaborative technology developer Elluminate has brought its Live! virtual classroom software to the Moodle platform. The company released a piece of software Tuesday called Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which is designed to integrate Live! into the open-source learning management system: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22037 • Sloan-C Report: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning: >http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/online_nation.pdf • Community of Inquiry- >http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p153-168Lim258.pdf • Second Life- >http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2008/Feb/Free/Feb2008.htm and http://www.news.com/Universities%20register%20for%20virtual%20future/2100-1032_3-6157088.html?tag=nefd.lede • Research on positive effects of hypertext on reading comprehension- >http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=21925 (contact Anthony for copy) • Eduventures...

Reviving Old Musical Interests

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As I was giving the garage a much needed cleaning on our sixty degree anomaly yesterday, along with the birdsongs I ran across an old favorite tape and gave it a listen- here are the lyrics from a song that ministered to me long ago, and I was surprised to find it still does! Lord Of The Past Every harsh word spoken Every promise ever broken to me Total recall of data in the memory Every tear that has washed my face Every moment of disgrace that I have known Every time I've ever felt alone Lord of the here and now Lord of the come what may I want to believe somehow That you can heal these wounds of yesterday (You can redeem these things so far away) So now I'm asking you To do what you want to do Be the Lord of the Past (Be the Lord of my Past) Oh how I want you to Be the Lord of the Past All the chances I let slip by All the dreams that I let die in vain Afraid of failure and afraid of pain Every tear that has washed my face Every moment of disgrace that I have known Every tim...