I was sitting here this evening actually marveling in the things that I now take for granted. I was reading a free download of The Apology of Socrates by Plato that I got from the Internet and printed at work. At the same time I was (and still am) listening to classical music from Great Britian (on BBC3 Radio). Earlier in the evening I was listening to a podcast of Bluegrass music from West Virginia (The Bluegrass Preservation Society). At some point my oldest son (age 21) asked if he could borrow my cell-phone charger because his was lost.
I was reading The Apology because my two youngest children (11 and nearly 13), whom we homeschool, are taking a couple of classes from an online school (Classical Free). They can study for their classes online and then take and have tests graded online. By-the-way, I highly recommend this school, www.classicalfree.org, for anyone who desires to follow the Trivium approach to education.
In one of the classes I teach at school this semester, I have my students email me their homework on EXCEL, because I can look at their "formulas", grade the work, and email them back their grades. These classes use technology, including software, that makes it simple to do things that I did by hand when I was in college. Of course, I had them initially solve equations by hand and then introduced them to the software so they could "understand" and interpret what they were seeing on the computer printouts (we did simple regression analysis, multiple regression analyis, simple and weighted moving averages, and exponential smoothing -- all for forecasting models).
Much of this has indeed made life easier and has made the world a much smaller place. Neither our local bookstore nor library (didn't check at the college) had The Apology available. No big deal...just a 20 page download and print. We don't have a local bluegrass station (or a station that plays bluegrass) nor a local classical station. I don't think we have any place that regularly plays live music since my favorite place closed down a few years ago (Gatherings). The bastion for culture is our local small college which has outstanding music and drama departments.
I want to enjoy the blessings that technology has given without being overwhemed or consumed by it. Maybe I can find an online quiz somewhere to see if I am doing ok. :)
I was reading The Apology because my two youngest children (11 and nearly 13), whom we homeschool, are taking a couple of classes from an online school (Classical Free). They can study for their classes online and then take and have tests graded online. By-the-way, I highly recommend this school, www.classicalfree.org, for anyone who desires to follow the Trivium approach to education.
In one of the classes I teach at school this semester, I have my students email me their homework on EXCEL, because I can look at their "formulas", grade the work, and email them back their grades. These classes use technology, including software, that makes it simple to do things that I did by hand when I was in college. Of course, I had them initially solve equations by hand and then introduced them to the software so they could "understand" and interpret what they were seeing on the computer printouts (we did simple regression analysis, multiple regression analyis, simple and weighted moving averages, and exponential smoothing -- all for forecasting models).
Much of this has indeed made life easier and has made the world a much smaller place. Neither our local bookstore nor library (didn't check at the college) had The Apology available. No big deal...just a 20 page download and print. We don't have a local bluegrass station (or a station that plays bluegrass) nor a local classical station. I don't think we have any place that regularly plays live music since my favorite place closed down a few years ago (Gatherings). The bastion for culture is our local small college which has outstanding music and drama departments.
I want to enjoy the blessings that technology has given without being overwhemed or consumed by it. Maybe I can find an online quiz somewhere to see if I am doing ok. :)
posted by Mike | 8:50 PM
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