Sunday, November 9, 2014
Janux and the History Channel
Although I don't actually talk about Janux in this post, the way that Janux is all about lecture-quiz-discuss is, sadly, a big problem, one that could not be overcome even if they really did want to make class immersive... so, I thought it worth crossposting the link here:
Friday, August 22, 2014
Day 5: Done. Sigh.
Well, I guess this class is over for me in an even shorter time than my last Janux attempt. I logged on tonight just to see if the class was still flatlining, and I see a big blue thing there, the first sign of life directed at me as a person... but when I click on this, I find out my "Janux Course Features Verification Quiz" is past due... even though I filled out a survey at the start of the course in which I indicated I had no interest at all in doing quizzes of any kind. So I can just see it now - starting with this quiz, I will pile up an endless, ever-accumulating list of "past due assignments." Ugh.
Meanwhile, in the discussion space there are 9 students who introduced themselves, but no one has commented on anyone else, and neither the instructor nor the teaching fellow have posted anything there. There are a couple of comments in the other discussion forums, but no actual discussion person to person, and I'm not really sure I am interested in discussions that start with provocative but incredibly vague questions like: "Tell us what you think about the use of drones. Are they worth it or not?"
I'll check back in a month or two just to see if anything is happening here, but it seems like a pretty sad business. Personally, I don't think it's right to invite students to participate in a course when there is not going to be any instructional dimension of any kind. If I am just going to learn on my own, I'd rather learn on the open Internet with a real learning network rather than this non-network.
Meanwhile, in the discussion space there are 9 students who introduced themselves, but no one has commented on anyone else, and neither the instructor nor the teaching fellow have posted anything there. There are a couple of comments in the other discussion forums, but no actual discussion person to person, and I'm not really sure I am interested in discussions that start with provocative but incredibly vague questions like: "Tell us what you think about the use of drones. Are they worth it or not?"
I'll check back in a month or two just to see if anything is happening here, but it seems like a pretty sad business. Personally, I don't think it's right to invite students to participate in a course when there is not going to be any instructional dimension of any kind. If I am just going to learn on my own, I'd rather learn on the open Internet with a real learning network rather than this non-network.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Day 4... more silence.
Quite by accident, I discovered a hashtag for the Janux course I enrolled in, and I added a Twitter widget to the sidebar. Sadly, no Twitter activity on the hashtag all day today.
Even more sadly, it appears that the information about the hashtag has not been shared with the students in the open class; I guess it is just for the students for credit. I just logged in and went to see; Janux strangely does not have any place for the instructor to make announcements or communicate directly to the students in an ad hoc way (???), and of course there is no Twitter widget in there (???)... I just see "required resources" and videos to watch when I log in. Nothing about the hashtag...
So I decided to look at the Discussion Board where people are supposed to post introductions. That is also very sad: 9 people, very interesting-sounding people, all took the trouble to post introductions ... but nobody has replied to anybody. So much for social. And no replies or comments from the instructor or teaching fellow.
I guess the content itself is supposed to be self-teaching...?
And, of course, I still never received an email to even let me know the course is, in fact, ready to go.
Sigh...
Even more sadly, it appears that the information about the hashtag has not been shared with the students in the open class; I guess it is just for the students for credit. I just logged in and went to see; Janux strangely does not have any place for the instructor to make announcements or communicate directly to the students in an ad hoc way (???), and of course there is no Twitter widget in there (???)... I just see "required resources" and videos to watch when I log in. Nothing about the hashtag...
So I decided to look at the Discussion Board where people are supposed to post introductions. That is also very sad: 9 people, very interesting-sounding people, all took the trouble to post introductions ... but nobody has replied to anybody. So much for social. And no replies or comments from the instructor or teaching fellow.
I guess the content itself is supposed to be self-teaching...?
And, of course, I still never received an email to even let me know the course is, in fact, ready to go.
Sigh...
Day 3: hashtag!
Because I happen to follow the instructor at Twitter, I guess I have discovered the hashtag for this class, #IAS2003, along with some helpful tweets. Although it's not clear to me how students in the open course would know about that... Anyway, now there's hope! I'll embed the widget in my sidebar.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Day 3: more silence...
Since I'm so busy I guess it's a good thing that the open Janux class is flatlining.
No, I never got an email to tell me when the class opened (just an email when I enrolled).
No glimmer of life at Twitter for this class. Although there are some pretty funny tweets from people who like the Janux interface even less than I do (here and here). I guess these are OU students required to use the system. Me — I'm just lurking.
And, as I said, I am not going to go chasing this class. If the instructor or T.A. or the system itself cannot bother to send me an email or tweet a tweet (how hard would it be to create a little social presence for these supposedly social open classes?), then I'll just continue to enjoy the silence...
No, I never got an email to tell me when the class opened (just an email when I enrolled).
No glimmer of life at Twitter for this class. Although there are some pretty funny tweets from people who like the Janux interface even less than I do (here and here). I guess these are OU students required to use the system. Me — I'm just lurking.
And, as I said, I am not going to go chasing this class. If the instructor or T.A. or the system itself cannot bother to send me an email or tweet a tweet (how hard would it be to create a little social presence for these supposedly social open classes?), then I'll just continue to enjoy the silence...
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Silence...
As I said, my participation in Janux this semester is going to be very much driven by notifications from the system. I'm not going to go seeking it out; instead, the course needs to involve me (the way the other social networks I participate in involve me). So, I received a welcome email when I enrolled... but there was no email when the class actually opened on Monday (it had been closed until Monday because, well, that's how Janux does things) ... and now it's Tuesday. Still no email. Still no real communication from the instructor (the welcome email was generic, I suspect the same formula as for all the Janux classes).
As it happens, I follow the instructor at Twitter where she shares all kinds of great stuff, but I don't think she even mentioned the class in her Twitter stream yesterday.
Well, so much for Janux and social media.
This is looking like it is going to turn into a total non-event. I guess I will just follow this bit of "keep calm" meme advice:
As it happens, I follow the instructor at Twitter where she shares all kinds of great stuff, but I don't think she even mentioned the class in her Twitter stream yesterday.
Well, so much for Janux and social media.
This is looking like it is going to turn into a total non-event. I guess I will just follow this bit of "keep calm" meme advice:
Monday, August 18, 2014
Task list... with no mention of updating profile...? Sigh.
Sigh. Janux features list does not inspire, and the list of tasks (see bottom of post) does not even include UPDATING MY PROFILE. How are people supposed to build presence? How am I supposed to figure out which classmate(s) to add to my "social group" if we do not fill out our profiles? (Not that the profile is very inspiring... it's pretty lame; see screenshot below).
My motivation to introduce myself at the discussion board is low. I'll check back later and see who's there.
Meanwhile: EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS. Not a word about whether they exist or how to configure them. That's worrisome. Do they really expect me to just log in and log in and log in to see if I have any notifications with the little bell thingy in the right-hand corner...? Not a realistic expectation.
I'm still feeling a big blah about this sofar, so I'm going to stop for now and check back in later. Will I get an email today reminding me that the class has started? I wonder.
Here's the "task list" ... do they really think dictionary look-up is more important than updating your profile??? Apparently so.
Meanwhile: EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS. Not a word about whether they exist or how to configure them. That's worrisome. Do they really expect me to just log in and log in and log in to see if I have any notifications with the little bell thingy in the right-hand corner...? Not a realistic expectation.
I'm still feeling a big blah about this sofar, so I'm going to stop for now and check back in later. Will I get an email today reminding me that the class has started? I wonder.
Here's the "task list" ... do they really think dictionary look-up is more important than updating your profile??? Apparently so.
About the course
I can't say the "About" page of the class really got me excited one way or the other. And as for a sense of the online presence of the instructor and teaching fellow... nothing yet. Which is again too bad: you can never have too much presence in an online course (IMHO), and this was an opportunity lost.
And... no hashtag to be found; the assumption is discussion (see below) can and must take place inside the walls of Janux. That's disappointing. I've heard from so many people (and it's been my experience also) that these open courses are far more likely to succeed when they take place of REAL places for discussion and sharing - Facebook, Google+, etc. But without hashtags to find one another in those spaces, we are stuck. Hashtags are ENORMOUSLY powerful... baffled but not surprised (since this was problem last semester too) that a self-proclaimed social learning system doesn't put a huge emphasis on a dedicated hashtag for this course.
And... no hashtag to be found; the assumption is discussion (see below) can and must take place inside the walls of Janux. That's disappointing. I've heard from so many people (and it's been my experience also) that these open courses are far more likely to succeed when they take place of REAL places for discussion and sharing - Facebook, Google+, etc. But without hashtags to find one another in those spaces, we are stuck. Hashtags are ENORMOUSLY powerful... baffled but not surprised (since this was problem last semester too) that a self-proclaimed social learning system doesn't put a huge emphasis on a dedicated hashtag for this course.
Textbooks: the prices really are crazy!
Hmmmm. 300 pages. $56. Textbooks: I just don't get it. How can they really get away with prices like that? The cheapest possible option is Kindle for $16.32 ... but that is on the other side of my $9.99 default limit on how much I'm prepared to pay for a book I don't really even own. So, I'll be doing this course without the textbook. :-)
Survey
I completed a detailed pre-course survey which asked a wide range of questions (no free response though). Will the results be shared with people in the class? I certainly hope so! I am sure people would be curious to begin the process of getting to know just who the class cohort is by being able to see the results of the survey. If the results do become available (???), I'll update this post. The question that made me laugh out loud was: "Are you now, or have you ever been, an instructor?" :-)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that this was not available last semester. I am glad they are collecting data to find out just what is going on in the open courses.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that this was not available last semester. I am glad they are collecting data to find out just what is going on in the open courses.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Trying again: Fall 2014
So, in order to see if the Janux software is improved from last spring semester (when I enrolled in and sadly dropped the History of Science class), I enrolled in a Fall course. History of Science is not being offered again, and the Native American class that I would have liked is not offered either, so I enrolled in Understanding the Global Community. I'm taking a different approach this time. Instead of proactively seeking things out as I did with History of Science, I am going to depend on notifications from the course to let me know when to do things and what is going on. I got an email welcoming me to the course, totally generic as you can see below.
The email promised information soon as we get close to August 18. I would say August 17 is pretty close to August 18 (you cannot really get closer), but no information has come in the email. Maybe at the site? I logged on, but the course is still closed and does not open until tomorrow. Notice that the email urges me to share my enrollment in the course through social media... but is there a hashtag provided...? Uh, nope.
Also, as you can see below, the instructor shows up as a grey-head... that does not bode well for the course, does it? Generic email, generic avatar. Ouch. Online presence for both the instructor AND for the students are ingredients I consider essential. But here the instructor is just a generic avatar, and there is no clickable link to learn more (I tried clicking on Course Instructor to the left there, and I clicked on Suzette's name, the avatar... nothing).
This lack of presence is especially regrettable because Suzette has a wonderful presence at Twitter which would be great to share with the students. In fact, it's her dynamic presence at Twitter that motivated me to choose this class. I checked her Twitter stream to see if she is using a hashtag for the course, but there is no mention of the course in her stream. And as for a live Twitter widget bringing her Twitter presence into the course space... uh, nope.
Sigh. I feel obliged to do this to see if the Janux software and course design have improved from last year, but this is not off to a good start.
Sigh again.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
The Imperative of Open: Give and Take
As what will probably be my last post in this blog, I wanted to say something about my Latin sundial project, which is my main takeaway from the class and for which I am very grateful. Even though I am not carrying on with the class (as explained here), making it the second MOOC I have dropped out of (more on that here), I am very glad to have started the sundial project as a result of this class, and it is something that I hope I will be continuing for a long time into the future.
THE OPEN INTERNET. As I will explain below, this Latin sundial project is possible thanks to the content that people have freely shared on the open Internet, and in turn I will be giving back the content that I create, sharing it on the open Internet and hoping to make my discoveries useful to others. A lack of openness, I would argue, is the biggest problem with Janux and its so-called open courses: even if the Janux software did work as promised, I would still find it extremely frustrating to be creating content inside a closed space, content which few people (if any) are likely to see.
To give a more concrete sense of just what openness means to my sundial project, let me explain how the project evolved... and that begins with a clock tower in the town of Conegliano, Italy.
PUBLIC SPACE. Back in what must have been 1998 or so, I was a grad student studying at the University of Siena in Italy. Alberto, one of the other grad students, kindly invited me to come visit him at his home in Conegliano, north of Venice. I had never been to that part of Italy before, and I accepted with pleasure. As we strolled around the town, Alberto pointed out to me the motto on the clock tower of the campanile: VULNERANT OMNES, ULTIMA NECAT (They all wound; the last one kills). He asked me if I got it, and I had to confess that I did not; I had never paid attention to the inscriptions on clocks and sundials before, so the riddling language was new to me. The feminine gender of ultima in Latin is the clue: "they" are the "hours" (Latin horae): VULNERANT OMNES (HORAE), ULTIMA (HORA) NECAT. A "memento mori" message, perfect for a clock. And it is the ultimate public domain: a public monument, there for all to read and learn from... those who know the secret code anyway!
BLOGS AND FREE BOOKS. In the 15 years or so since I saw that clock, I have spent a lot of time studying Latin proverbs and mottoes (see my Latin blog, Bestiaria Latina), and the mottoes found on sundials have been among my special favorites. Like the motto on that clock, the mottoes on sundials are often enigmatic while also expressing profound notions about life and the passage of time. For my Latin Via Proverbs book (free PDF here), I was able to harvest a great many wonderful Latin sundial mottoes from this public domain book: The Book of Sun-dials by Mrs. Alfred Gatty [Margaret Scott Gatty] which you can see presented very nicely in the Celebration of Women Writers project, one of Mark Ockerbloom's Digital Library projects at the University of Pennsylvania.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING. Fast forward to the Janux History of Science class, 2014. In a video about Stonehenge for the first week, Kerry Magruder, our instructor, discussed various theories of how the ancient builders of Stonehenge might have used the stones to observe the path of the sun in the sky and other celestial phenomena. That got me thinking about sundials, so for the "online resource" assignment during that first week, I collected sundial materials and bookmarked those sundial resources with Diigo. That, I thought, would be a good way to share those resources with others, while also introducing other people in the class to the use of Diigo. Nobody in the class except for the instructor read my post, though, so I did not really accomplish much in terms of the class, but I also published the assignment as a post here in this blog - Week 1 Online Resource: Sundials - where perhaps it might be read by others. Meanwhile, those Diigo links will be useful to me, and possibly to others too, as I continue to develop the sundial project.
BLOGGING SUNDIAL IMAGES. Also during the first week of class, I started blogging about sundial photographs that I found online, searching specifically for images that were labeled for re-use, thanks to all those photographers who make their photos available in this way at Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, and elsewhere on the open Internet. I have eight of these sundial posts so far, and I have now begun to include Latin sundials in the weekly cycle of content that I share in my Bestiaria Latina round-up posts.
PINTEREST BOARDS AND WIDGETS. Finally, to increase the different ways I can share the Latin sundials and my blog posts about them, I created a Pinterest Board of Latin Sundials, and I learned how to create widgets of individual pins which you can see in the sidebar of this blog. Pinterest is a tool that is still pretty new to me, so learning about the pin widgets was a fun discovery. I was able to create pin widgets for all my posts and then randomize them with RotateContent.com, an amazing tool that Randy Hoyt (genius programmer) built many years ago... and it's still going strong! The result of the randomizing widget appears below: if you have javascript enabled, you should see a Pinterest pin widget at random whenever this page reloads. (Want to make your own javascript widget with randomized or date-based content? RotateContent.com awaits you!)
This open process by which existing content is discovered, re-created, and then shared, hopefully to be discovered again (and again and again) stands in sharp contrast to Janux, where all you can do is post something in a discussion board that might (or might not) be seen by someone in the class, and which is then not likely to be seen by anyone ever again. I far prefer to create things and share them on the open Internet, a space where others can find those things, enjoy them, and perhaps even use them to create new content of their own to share. So, while I won't be posting here any more, I will keep adding sundials to my collection... and I'll update my randomizing widget so that as my sundial collection grows, you'll be able to see it growing here too!
THE OPEN INTERNET. As I will explain below, this Latin sundial project is possible thanks to the content that people have freely shared on the open Internet, and in turn I will be giving back the content that I create, sharing it on the open Internet and hoping to make my discoveries useful to others. A lack of openness, I would argue, is the biggest problem with Janux and its so-called open courses: even if the Janux software did work as promised, I would still find it extremely frustrating to be creating content inside a closed space, content which few people (if any) are likely to see.
To give a more concrete sense of just what openness means to my sundial project, let me explain how the project evolved... and that begins with a clock tower in the town of Conegliano, Italy.
PUBLIC SPACE. Back in what must have been 1998 or so, I was a grad student studying at the University of Siena in Italy. Alberto, one of the other grad students, kindly invited me to come visit him at his home in Conegliano, north of Venice. I had never been to that part of Italy before, and I accepted with pleasure. As we strolled around the town, Alberto pointed out to me the motto on the clock tower of the campanile: VULNERANT OMNES, ULTIMA NECAT (They all wound; the last one kills). He asked me if I got it, and I had to confess that I did not; I had never paid attention to the inscriptions on clocks and sundials before, so the riddling language was new to me. The feminine gender of ultima in Latin is the clue: "they" are the "hours" (Latin horae): VULNERANT OMNES (HORAE), ULTIMA (HORA) NECAT. A "memento mori" message, perfect for a clock. And it is the ultimate public domain: a public monument, there for all to read and learn from... those who know the secret code anyway!
(Photo by pink floyd)
BLOGS AND FREE BOOKS. In the 15 years or so since I saw that clock, I have spent a lot of time studying Latin proverbs and mottoes (see my Latin blog, Bestiaria Latina), and the mottoes found on sundials have been among my special favorites. Like the motto on that clock, the mottoes on sundials are often enigmatic while also expressing profound notions about life and the passage of time. For my Latin Via Proverbs book (free PDF here), I was able to harvest a great many wonderful Latin sundial mottoes from this public domain book: The Book of Sun-dials by Mrs. Alfred Gatty [Margaret Scott Gatty] which you can see presented very nicely in the Celebration of Women Writers project, one of Mark Ockerbloom's Digital Library projects at the University of Pennsylvania.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING. Fast forward to the Janux History of Science class, 2014. In a video about Stonehenge for the first week, Kerry Magruder, our instructor, discussed various theories of how the ancient builders of Stonehenge might have used the stones to observe the path of the sun in the sky and other celestial phenomena. That got me thinking about sundials, so for the "online resource" assignment during that first week, I collected sundial materials and bookmarked those sundial resources with Diigo. That, I thought, would be a good way to share those resources with others, while also introducing other people in the class to the use of Diigo. Nobody in the class except for the instructor read my post, though, so I did not really accomplish much in terms of the class, but I also published the assignment as a post here in this blog - Week 1 Online Resource: Sundials - where perhaps it might be read by others. Meanwhile, those Diigo links will be useful to me, and possibly to others too, as I continue to develop the sundial project.
BLOGGING SUNDIAL IMAGES. Also during the first week of class, I started blogging about sundial photographs that I found online, searching specifically for images that were labeled for re-use, thanks to all those photographers who make their photos available in this way at Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, and elsewhere on the open Internet. I have eight of these sundial posts so far, and I have now begun to include Latin sundials in the weekly cycle of content that I share in my Bestiaria Latina round-up posts.
PINTEREST BOARDS AND WIDGETS. Finally, to increase the different ways I can share the Latin sundials and my blog posts about them, I created a Pinterest Board of Latin Sundials, and I learned how to create widgets of individual pins which you can see in the sidebar of this blog. Pinterest is a tool that is still pretty new to me, so learning about the pin widgets was a fun discovery. I was able to create pin widgets for all my posts and then randomize them with RotateContent.com, an amazing tool that Randy Hoyt (genius programmer) built many years ago... and it's still going strong! The result of the randomizing widget appears below: if you have javascript enabled, you should see a Pinterest pin widget at random whenever this page reloads. (Want to make your own javascript widget with randomized or date-based content? RotateContent.com awaits you!)
This open process by which existing content is discovered, re-created, and then shared, hopefully to be discovered again (and again and again) stands in sharp contrast to Janux, where all you can do is post something in a discussion board that might (or might not) be seen by someone in the class, and which is then not likely to be seen by anyone ever again. I far prefer to create things and share them on the open Internet, a space where others can find those things, enjoy them, and perhaps even use them to create new content of their own to share. So, while I won't be posting here any more, I will keep adding sundials to my collection... and I'll update my randomizing widget so that as my sundial collection grows, you'll be able to see it growing here too!
A Tale of Four MOOCs
Although it's probably not fair to call the Janux History of Science course a MOOC, it's clear that Janux aspires to offer MOOCs (as in the beer course), so I'll include it here in this list of my four MOOCs.
Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success (no university sponsor). This was a MOOC taught by Curtis Bonk (of Indiana University) on the Blackboard CourseSites platform in May of 2012. It was my first MOOC, and I only completed a few weeks of the course. Admittedly, I was not the right student for the class; it was aimed at K-12 instructors not already using the Internet. I was curious about Blackboard CourseSites, however, which proved to be very disappointing in every way. The most memorable experience for me was a discussion that took place at Lisa Lane's blog (always a great place for discussion) in which some people from Blackboard also participated, along with Curtis Bonk, the course instructor. Note that such a discussion could never really have happened inside CourseSites itself; we needed an open space, like Lisa's blog, for that to happen. I did not create a dedicated blog of my own for the class, but this Google+ post provides a good summary of my experience.
Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World (Univ. of Michigan). This was a MOOC taught by Eric Rabkin on the Coursera platform; I participated in the first iteration of the class during summer/fall of 2012. I completed the full ten weeks of the course, but my initial eagerness was gone after just a week or two. Overall, I would rate the course a disaster. I read some good books and made some good friends, but I also developed an antipathy to MOOCs that I doubt I will ever fully get over. I blogged about the experience in detail at my Coursera Fantasy blog, and there were also lengthy discussions at Google+ among the course participants who connected with one another there. The course claimed to be the online equivalent of one of Eric Rabkin's undergraduate course at Michigan, and it seems that at least some of the features of his campus-based classes also haunted the MOOC version. Based largely on my experiences in that class, I wrote an article about the Coursera software, "Fifty Ways to Fix the Software," that will be coming out soon in a book about MOOCs edited by Steve Krause and Charlie Lowe, Invasion of the MOOCs: The Promises and Perils of Massive Online Open Courses (Parlor Press). The book will be CC-licensed, which is why I participated in the project: the book really is open, even if many so-called MOOCs are often not very open at all. (On MOOCs and openwashing, see Audrey Watters on "The Battle for Open.")
Designing a New Learning Environment (Stanford). This was a course taught by Paul Kim on the NovoEd (then called VentureLab) platform in the fall of 2012. I completed this MOOC, and overall it was a very positive experience. The course was not really the equivalent of a college course; instead, it was more like an ongoing professional development workshop for educators and educational technologists, and I was exactly the kind of student that the course anticipated. Participation in the class was very international, and I made some good new friends in this course from many different countries, people with whom I am still in touch at Google+ and Twitter. The software was not great, but it was good enough, especially compared to the Coursera software. In particular, NovoEd offered a blogging tool so that our blogs were both public on the Internet while also being integrated into the NovoEd system. We had teams, too, and the teams also had blogs. While I would have preferred a more truly open course (something like ds106), the programmers at NovoEd were making a real effort to build a community space that was not entirely cut off from the rest of the digital world.
History of Science to the Age of Newton (Univ. of Oklahoma). This is the course taught by Kerry Magruder on the Janux platform that I have been blogging about here. Sadly, while this course had the best content of the four MOOCs I have participated in, the Janux software has made it impossible for me to continue. I am very disappointed that the programmers at NextThought did not take the best of the MOOC software out there (ds106, gRSShopper, NovoEd, etc.) and build on that to create something excellent. Instead, they have created something that does not seem to work well at any scale, small or massive. For details, see the posts labeled "diary" in this blog.
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
Day 14: no notifications, no way to continue
It's Saturday (three cheers for the weekend!), and last week was a more normal week for me, with student writing assignments and practice websites to respond to. It kept me busy all week (which is the norm), and now I will check back in at Janux History of Science, knowing that unless there they have built a notification system, this is not going to work for me. Even when I was able to hover over the course for the first two weeks, checking for interaction, it was extremely frustrating to not have notifications. Now that I am able to work only on weekends, without notifications it seems impossible. But I'm going to check in and see.
[Aside: I should note that the first thing I see when I open my browser is the handy Google+ notifications bar which appears at the top of the Google pages which I use; Google search is my homepage, so I know I have 8 notifications for me in Google+. That can wait, and I know it can wait - the notifications system in G+ is not perfect, but it works very well for the erratic way in which I am able to find time for G+ both during the week and on weekends.]
So, using Chrome, I am logging in to Janux. The "recent activity" stream shows 22 items, but, as usual, I have no way of knowing which items are "connected" to me, either by being replies to my posts or replies to my replies. There's also no way to clear the stream by clicking things off as read even if I were motivated to try to use this stream to find items relevant to my course activity.
So, my only alternative is apparently to go through the discussion boards one by one, looking for replies to my posts, and also hoping to find replies to my replies (you know... dialogue).
I posted in the Week 2 online resources board. A nice reply from Kerry, and I replied to him. The odds of him ever seeing that reply seem low indeed, unless instructors perhaps have a notification system different from the student system. There is also a good suggestion from another student in the class about a resource that would benefit the class next time around; the odds of Kerry having seen his suggestion are low (even though it is a reply to a board in which he is participating; normally, a discussion board would allow you to request to be notified of such an event). I left a reply for that reply too, although the odds of the person ever seeing it seem practically zero.
Since activity is so low on this board (I don't think there are more than a dozen people even participating in the open side of the course...?), I was in fact able to easily find the reply I left for another student on his post; no reply to my reply.
Another board where I posted last week has another long comment from Kerry (although I feel badly; he should not be having to take time to do this with all the rest of the work he has to do). I added a reply to Kerry, not knowing if he will see it or not, and I almost feel badly about that since I really don't want him to take time to relpy. The idea with an open course like this is that the students, not the instructor, should be sustaining the discussion.
I had also posted in the origins of ancient astronomy board last week; no reply to my post. Of the 8 comments there, 4 have no replies at all, 3 have only 1 reply (probably unread by anyone), and 1 has 2 replies, but not a back-and-forth dialogue; the original poster did not reply to the reply. Probably that person has not read either of the 2 replies. We need some kind of "interactivity rating" to apply to discussion boards; the interactivity rating here would surely be extremely poor, almost non-existent.
Finally, I had also posted in the starting assumptions board last week; no reply to my post. Again, 8 posts, 5 with no replies at all, 1 with 1 reply, and 2 with 3 replies including, glory hallelujah, a reply to a reply I had left on someone else's post... an actual conversation: my first and only almost-conversation here at Janux in two weeks of dedicated participation. So, I left a reply to that reply, but in the absence of notifications, I suspect the person will never get it - but it would be a dialogue very much worth continuing, if only the software actually facilitated dialogue.
So, those are the boards for last week. There might have been something back in the boards from Week 1 where I also participated in multiple boards (four or five; I can't remember). But I have no motivation to go through those boards, digging around wondering if maybe there was a reply to a post or a reply to a reply. It's futile: either I will discover no replies (which is depressing) or else I will discover replies, knowing that if I reply to those replies, the person will surely never ever see what I write (even more depressing).
In sum, a discussion board system like this really cannot promote interaction without notifications, and what a shame that NextThought apparently devoted no thought to that at all. I had complained about the lack of notifications to a NextThought staff member some months ago, way back in September, but now the NextThought webpage does not list that person on staff anymore. Maybe she was in charge of notifications, ha ha. Anyway, she is gone. I wonder if anyone at NextThought is working on notifications now.
For now, anyway, the Janux platform will not work for me. If I am going to just be writing for myself, I would rather do that in a blog, so that I can easily share what I am writing with others and also link to the blog posts in conjunction with the other teaching and learning that I am doing online. But that's it - I'm done here, just another MOOC dropout.
Meanwhile, I will carry on with the sundials, a project I never would have started without this class. In a separate post, I will explain about how my sundial project depends absolutely on the world of open knowledge and sharing on the Internet... a culture that apparently the folks at Janux do not understand very well at all. Even within their closed-off space, they have not built a system that supports sharing and conversation, much less making connections with the world outside their closed space.
I'll also write up a post comparing this MOOC experience to my other three MOOC experiences. Janux was both the best (content) and the worst (software) of those four MOOCs. Of the other three, I finished two and dropped out of one. Dropping out of Janux now brings my MOOC drop-out count to two and two. Which still puts me above the MOOC drop-out rate average, ha ha.
[Aside: I should note that the first thing I see when I open my browser is the handy Google+ notifications bar which appears at the top of the Google pages which I use; Google search is my homepage, so I know I have 8 notifications for me in Google+. That can wait, and I know it can wait - the notifications system in G+ is not perfect, but it works very well for the erratic way in which I am able to find time for G+ both during the week and on weekends.]
So, using Chrome, I am logging in to Janux. The "recent activity" stream shows 22 items, but, as usual, I have no way of knowing which items are "connected" to me, either by being replies to my posts or replies to my replies. There's also no way to clear the stream by clicking things off as read even if I were motivated to try to use this stream to find items relevant to my course activity.
So, my only alternative is apparently to go through the discussion boards one by one, looking for replies to my posts, and also hoping to find replies to my replies (you know... dialogue).
I posted in the Week 2 online resources board. A nice reply from Kerry, and I replied to him. The odds of him ever seeing that reply seem low indeed, unless instructors perhaps have a notification system different from the student system. There is also a good suggestion from another student in the class about a resource that would benefit the class next time around; the odds of Kerry having seen his suggestion are low (even though it is a reply to a board in which he is participating; normally, a discussion board would allow you to request to be notified of such an event). I left a reply for that reply too, although the odds of the person ever seeing it seem practically zero.
Since activity is so low on this board (I don't think there are more than a dozen people even participating in the open side of the course...?), I was in fact able to easily find the reply I left for another student on his post; no reply to my reply.
Another board where I posted last week has another long comment from Kerry (although I feel badly; he should not be having to take time to do this with all the rest of the work he has to do). I added a reply to Kerry, not knowing if he will see it or not, and I almost feel badly about that since I really don't want him to take time to relpy. The idea with an open course like this is that the students, not the instructor, should be sustaining the discussion.
I had also posted in the origins of ancient astronomy board last week; no reply to my post. Of the 8 comments there, 4 have no replies at all, 3 have only 1 reply (probably unread by anyone), and 1 has 2 replies, but not a back-and-forth dialogue; the original poster did not reply to the reply. Probably that person has not read either of the 2 replies. We need some kind of "interactivity rating" to apply to discussion boards; the interactivity rating here would surely be extremely poor, almost non-existent.
Finally, I had also posted in the starting assumptions board last week; no reply to my post. Again, 8 posts, 5 with no replies at all, 1 with 1 reply, and 2 with 3 replies including, glory hallelujah, a reply to a reply I had left on someone else's post... an actual conversation: my first and only almost-conversation here at Janux in two weeks of dedicated participation. So, I left a reply to that reply, but in the absence of notifications, I suspect the person will never get it - but it would be a dialogue very much worth continuing, if only the software actually facilitated dialogue.
So, those are the boards for last week. There might have been something back in the boards from Week 1 where I also participated in multiple boards (four or five; I can't remember). But I have no motivation to go through those boards, digging around wondering if maybe there was a reply to a post or a reply to a reply. It's futile: either I will discover no replies (which is depressing) or else I will discover replies, knowing that if I reply to those replies, the person will surely never ever see what I write (even more depressing).
In sum, a discussion board system like this really cannot promote interaction without notifications, and what a shame that NextThought apparently devoted no thought to that at all. I had complained about the lack of notifications to a NextThought staff member some months ago, way back in September, but now the NextThought webpage does not list that person on staff anymore. Maybe she was in charge of notifications, ha ha. Anyway, she is gone. I wonder if anyone at NextThought is working on notifications now.
For now, anyway, the Janux platform will not work for me. If I am going to just be writing for myself, I would rather do that in a blog, so that I can easily share what I am writing with others and also link to the blog posts in conjunction with the other teaching and learning that I am doing online. But that's it - I'm done here, just another MOOC dropout.
Meanwhile, I will carry on with the sundials, a project I never would have started without this class. In a separate post, I will explain about how my sundial project depends absolutely on the world of open knowledge and sharing on the Internet... a culture that apparently the folks at Janux do not understand very well at all. Even within their closed-off space, they have not built a system that supports sharing and conversation, much less making connections with the world outside their closed space.
I'll also write up a post comparing this MOOC experience to my other three MOOC experiences. Janux was both the best (content) and the worst (software) of those four MOOCs. Of the other three, I finished two and dropped out of one. Dropping out of Janux now brings my MOOC drop-out count to two and two. Which still puts me above the MOOC drop-out rate average, ha ha.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Day 13 (again): Janux at large scale
Just out of curiosity, I enrolled in the Beer course since that is the course that has gotten the most publicity. I figured it would have a lot of students in it, so I would get to see how Janux works scaled up. Well, there are indeed hundreds of people in there... but social? Apparently not.
There is a "What is Beer?" discussion board which has 312 posts in reply to the instructor's prompt... all just in one big list. The posts are not dated (?), but it looks like the oldest posts are at the top because the post at the top of the list has 22 comments in reply; presumably it was first. To see the most recent comments you would have to scroll (and scroll and scroll) on down to the bottom of that list.
And for interactivity? Well, there are 312 comments here. How many have "0 comments" in reply? That would apparently be 297 of them, 95% of the total. (I am basing this on doing a Control-F search in the browser window, since I certainly do not have the patience to scroll through the comments and count them one by one.)
How many have 1 comment? 8
2 comments? 1
3 comments? 4
4 comments? 1
22 comments? 1 (that would be the first/oldest comment at the top)
The crucial problems of how to distribute activity throughout a large discussion board is a topic that many online educators have discussed, and there are various solutions. It doesn't appear that Janux has taken any of that into account. At least Kerry is urging people to comment on each other's posts in his course design. Here - with 297 out of 312 comments apparently (?) having no interaction - I would guess both the course design and the software are working against the social interaction. I read somewhere that over 5000 people signed up for the open beer course. So, it looks like the usual MOOC hype: lots of people signing up, but hardly anybody participating in the social parts of the class (although they might indeed be watching videos and taking quizzes).
There is a "What is Beer?" discussion board which has 312 posts in reply to the instructor's prompt... all just in one big list. The posts are not dated (?), but it looks like the oldest posts are at the top because the post at the top of the list has 22 comments in reply; presumably it was first. To see the most recent comments you would have to scroll (and scroll and scroll) on down to the bottom of that list.
And for interactivity? Well, there are 312 comments here. How many have "0 comments" in reply? That would apparently be 297 of them, 95% of the total. (I am basing this on doing a Control-F search in the browser window, since I certainly do not have the patience to scroll through the comments and count them one by one.)
How many have 1 comment? 8
2 comments? 1
3 comments? 4
4 comments? 1
22 comments? 1 (that would be the first/oldest comment at the top)
The crucial problems of how to distribute activity throughout a large discussion board is a topic that many online educators have discussed, and there are various solutions. It doesn't appear that Janux has taken any of that into account. At least Kerry is urging people to comment on each other's posts in his course design. Here - with 297 out of 312 comments apparently (?) having no interaction - I would guess both the course design and the software are working against the social interaction. I read somewhere that over 5000 people signed up for the open beer course. So, it looks like the usual MOOC hype: lots of people signing up, but hardly anybody participating in the social parts of the class (although they might indeed be watching videos and taking quizzes).
Day 13: Janux no longer working in Safari?
So, I thought I would give Safari a try this morning since I never really figured out which browser was best overall... but apparently Safari doesn't work anymore at all. I logged in, and was able to navigate through a couple of screens, but my Interpretation essay seems to have disappeared. Screenshot:
That is, the browser knows my essay is there (I can click on the link in the discussion list and go there), but the screen is all white where the essay should be.
So, I pressed refresh. That made the screen go all grey, and now I cannot navigate to anything anywhere - there is no functioning link or button of any kind on the page. Screenshot:
So I pressed refresh again. I got the little green loading man. And it's loading. And loading. And loading.
And still loading. So I'll try refresh again. Still just the little green guy loading. Since the only address I see in the browser address bar is https://janux.ou.edu I cannot try forcing it back to the home page or anything. So, I give up on Safari for today.
Let's try Chrome. Okay, I'm in. Recent Activity still broken on my profile page (last activity showing is January 19). No comment on my Week 2 Essay (and no reply to the comment I left for the only other person who did an essay), and no comment on my Week 2 Resource (and no reply to the comment I left for the only other person who did a resource). No other essays for me to read and comment on, and no other resources.
From the "recent activity" stream for everyone (which does seem to include comments and replies, because I see our valiant T.A. replying to people's Introductions from back in Week 1), I noticed that someone whose name I don't recognize posted this comment: "My previous thoughts and notions of previous historians and explorers have been reinforced these past two weeks. Like I stated, I have always greatly admired these beginning scientists' bravery, but throughout this short time we have been in class by admiration has TREMENDOUSLY grown because of the new knowledge and information I am learning about them. Learning the specific details of their discovers, inventions, and processes to achieve these has already changed my perspective. History is certainly transformative and the more I learn about it, the more transformed I become----I look forward to the transformations this semester will bring!"
Wow, that's some enthusiasm! I haven't seen any other contributions by this person so far. This person's recent activity consists of "so-and-so joined NextThought January 13 2014," and nothing else, but of course we know Recent Activity is broken, so that means nothing - her comment is listed in the recent activity stream for "everyone," but does not show up on the recent activity stream for her profile. What is "recent activity" supposed to be I wonder...? I am glad this other person is having such a transformative experience, and I would have enjoyed reading her posts about that. I checked the "about" part of her profile and found only this: "Empty Profile :( This user has not filled out their profile." So much for social.
But now I really am wondering what is going on: it sounds like this person is participating in the class, although I have seen none of this person's contributions anywhere, so I cannot comment on them (not that the person would ever know I commented...). Am I just somehow not seeing the things that people post? Oh wait, I think I get it: this person is probably a student in the for-credit class, and somehow this post ended up over in our not-for-credit area. I know it is possible for them to get here because the only other student who posted an essay and resource for Week 2 here in the not-for-credit section is actually a for-credit student who is cross-posting on purpose. So I'm guessing this person ended up over here by accident somehow, and maybe things really are going great over in the for-credit version of the class.
Anyway, I really do have to decide what to do this weekend, since this frustration is just not worth it. I guess I'll check back tomorrow one more time to see if anything happened in the essay or resource areas for Week 2. If there are no new essays or resources to read and/or no replies on my essay and resource, I'm going to stop wasting my time here and just read the books for class plus some more books in the history of science. And collecting more Latin sundials of course! As this Victorian sundial warns us, there is no time to waste: TEMPUS EDAX RERUM, "Time is the devourer of things."
So, I pressed refresh. That made the screen go all grey, and now I cannot navigate to anything anywhere - there is no functioning link or button of any kind on the page. Screenshot:
Let's try Chrome. Okay, I'm in. Recent Activity still broken on my profile page (last activity showing is January 19). No comment on my Week 2 Essay (and no reply to the comment I left for the only other person who did an essay), and no comment on my Week 2 Resource (and no reply to the comment I left for the only other person who did a resource). No other essays for me to read and comment on, and no other resources.
From the "recent activity" stream for everyone (which does seem to include comments and replies, because I see our valiant T.A. replying to people's Introductions from back in Week 1), I noticed that someone whose name I don't recognize posted this comment: "My previous thoughts and notions of previous historians and explorers have been reinforced these past two weeks. Like I stated, I have always greatly admired these beginning scientists' bravery, but throughout this short time we have been in class by admiration has TREMENDOUSLY grown because of the new knowledge and information I am learning about them. Learning the specific details of their discovers, inventions, and processes to achieve these has already changed my perspective. History is certainly transformative and the more I learn about it, the more transformed I become----I look forward to the transformations this semester will bring!"
Wow, that's some enthusiasm! I haven't seen any other contributions by this person so far. This person's recent activity consists of "so-and-so joined NextThought January 13 2014," and nothing else, but of course we know Recent Activity is broken, so that means nothing - her comment is listed in the recent activity stream for "everyone," but does not show up on the recent activity stream for her profile. What is "recent activity" supposed to be I wonder...? I am glad this other person is having such a transformative experience, and I would have enjoyed reading her posts about that. I checked the "about" part of her profile and found only this: "Empty Profile :( This user has not filled out their profile." So much for social.
But now I really am wondering what is going on: it sounds like this person is participating in the class, although I have seen none of this person's contributions anywhere, so I cannot comment on them (not that the person would ever know I commented...). Am I just somehow not seeing the things that people post? Oh wait, I think I get it: this person is probably a student in the for-credit class, and somehow this post ended up over in our not-for-credit area. I know it is possible for them to get here because the only other student who posted an essay and resource for Week 2 here in the not-for-credit section is actually a for-credit student who is cross-posting on purpose. So I'm guessing this person ended up over here by accident somehow, and maybe things really are going great over in the for-credit version of the class.
Anyway, I really do have to decide what to do this weekend, since this frustration is just not worth it. I guess I'll check back tomorrow one more time to see if anything happened in the essay or resource areas for Week 2. If there are no new essays or resources to read and/or no replies on my essay and resource, I'm going to stop wasting my time here and just read the books for class plus some more books in the history of science. And collecting more Latin sundials of course! As this Victorian sundial warns us, there is no time to waste: TEMPUS EDAX RERUM, "Time is the devourer of things."
Saturday, January 25, 2014
January 25 email
A cheery email from Kerry; I wonder if it will have any effect on the non-participation in the not-for-credit version of the class. Kerry urges us to check back at our posts to see if people have left comments, but given that there is no easy way to do that, I don't think that is a very effective strategy for making the community come to life as he says in the email. I had decided that this would be a make-or-break weekend for me, so I am glad that Kerry's email might revive the dormant open section of the course. Fingers crossed.
Kerry's email below.
Dear students,
We are nearing the end of the 2nd week, and I want to let you all know that Brent and I are really enjoying your posts! Your work investing time in writing thoughtful posts and in getting to know one another and discussing your take on the history of science is really what this course is all about. That interaction is what transforms dry course materials into a living, breathing learning community. I can't wait to see how you bring your own experiences and perspectives to bear on the Interpretation essays for Mesopotamian astronomy!
By now you are getting the hang of Janux and of the rhythm of the regular weekly assignments. Remember that there's a place where Brent and I are leaving tips about Janux: Go to the Discussions area and look for the History of Science to the Age of Newton / Forum. Here's another tip: Keegan Long-Wheeler has prepared six video tutorials about Janux on youTube.
Even more importantly, remember that you can check back at the Forum and read through the personal introductions that people have left there. For example, if you find mine, you'll see why you often see me holding a coffee mug. And check back as often as you like; many of us (myself included) will change or add to our introductions as the weeks go by.
The first assignments for next week's unit on ancient Egypt and the Aegean should be available shortly (if not already). Remember that although each week officially starts on Tuesdays, with the Starting Assumptions assignment due on Tuesday nights, it's a great idea to get started early and to work ahead. Why not complete up through the Week 3 Starting Assumptions and first Topic assignment this weekend?
Check out the blog of the History of Science Collections to see a link between the Rosetta Stone, which you'll encounter next week in the ancient Egypt assignment, and today's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Mac. If you happen to live in Norman, you can stop by the Collections to see a 1984 Mac, a Crossing Cultures exhibition featuring more than 150 rare books, as well as a lobby display celebrating the television series Sherlock. Read more on the Collections blog.
Check Brent's profile at Janux; every Sunday he will post "chat hours" for the coming week in his "Thoughts" section. He is also available to show you around the exhibits here in the Collections, if you want to stop by.
We look forward to seeing you online this weekend!
Kerry's email below.
Dear students,
We are nearing the end of the 2nd week, and I want to let you all know that Brent and I are really enjoying your posts! Your work investing time in writing thoughtful posts and in getting to know one another and discussing your take on the history of science is really what this course is all about. That interaction is what transforms dry course materials into a living, breathing learning community. I can't wait to see how you bring your own experiences and perspectives to bear on the Interpretation essays for Mesopotamian astronomy!
By now you are getting the hang of Janux and of the rhythm of the regular weekly assignments. Remember that there's a place where Brent and I are leaving tips about Janux: Go to the Discussions area and look for the History of Science to the Age of Newton / Forum. Here's another tip: Keegan Long-Wheeler has prepared six video tutorials about Janux on youTube.
Even more importantly, remember that you can check back at the Forum and read through the personal introductions that people have left there. For example, if you find mine, you'll see why you often see me holding a coffee mug. And check back as often as you like; many of us (myself included) will change or add to our introductions as the weeks go by.
The first assignments for next week's unit on ancient Egypt and the Aegean should be available shortly (if not already). Remember that although each week officially starts on Tuesdays, with the Starting Assumptions assignment due on Tuesday nights, it's a great idea to get started early and to work ahead. Why not complete up through the Week 3 Starting Assumptions and first Topic assignment this weekend?
Check out the blog of the History of Science Collections to see a link between the Rosetta Stone, which you'll encounter next week in the ancient Egypt assignment, and today's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Mac. If you happen to live in Norman, you can stop by the Collections to see a 1984 Mac, a Crossing Cultures exhibition featuring more than 150 rare books, as well as a lobby display celebrating the television series Sherlock. Read more on the Collections blog.
Check Brent's profile at Janux; every Sunday he will post "chat hours" for the coming week in his "Thoughts" section. He is also available to show you around the exhibits here in the Collections, if you want to stop by.
We look forward to seeing you online this weekend!
Day 12: Still lonely in the labyrinth.
The "recent activity" stream for "everyone" (not sure just what that means - everyone in this class?), shows that our T.A. Brent is now diligently leaving comments for lots of people, but I wonder if they will ever see his comments since they will get no notification about it. I wonder, in fact, how many people are actually still participating. I posted my assignment for today in the online resource area and commented on the one other assignment I found there. I also posted a comment on the one other essay that someone had posted, although he had not commented on my essay. As I learned from his post, he is also enrolled in the for-credit course apparently, so perhaps he is doing all his commenting in the for-credit area; that would certainly be understandable since presumably it is less grim there than it is here in the open course.
So, as I said in yesterday's diary entry, there is simply no feeling of social here at all really. Between the lack of notifications and the apparently dwindling-to-non-existent participation in the open side of this course, this doesn't feel any different than the way I would work on my own, reading and writing in my blog about what I've learned.
In fact, it is worse than reading and blogging, because my blog is something I can share with other people in my online learning network (that's why I am crossposting here). In contrast, I cannot share anything inside the Janux walled garden at all with the outside world. Indeed, I don't think I can link to things even when I am inside Janux; at least, I have not been able to figure out if anything is directly linkable in there or not.
Of course, the argument made by Janux boosters is that because of this "unique" social software we should be willing to trade away the undeniable benefits of open learning. Based on the two weeks of this class so far, I would say that looks like the worst kind of devil's bargain. Instead of having Kerry's great learning materials available to anyone, any time on the open Internet, they are locked away ... for no good reason. Instead of having materials that can be indexed by search engines and thus discovered by others, they are unreachable and undiscoverable by others.
What a shame. The social aspects of the Janux so-called community would have to be enormous to convince me that such a trade-off is even worth considering. As it is, with Janux being so poorly designed (no notifications...? what were they thinking?), it seems to me a terrible shame that OU instructors have invested so much time and effort in developing materials to put inside the Janux walls instead of developing truly open resources.
So, as I said in yesterday's diary entry, there is simply no feeling of social here at all really. Between the lack of notifications and the apparently dwindling-to-non-existent participation in the open side of this course, this doesn't feel any different than the way I would work on my own, reading and writing in my blog about what I've learned.
In fact, it is worse than reading and blogging, because my blog is something I can share with other people in my online learning network (that's why I am crossposting here). In contrast, I cannot share anything inside the Janux walled garden at all with the outside world. Indeed, I don't think I can link to things even when I am inside Janux; at least, I have not been able to figure out if anything is directly linkable in there or not.
Of course, the argument made by Janux boosters is that because of this "unique" social software we should be willing to trade away the undeniable benefits of open learning. Based on the two weeks of this class so far, I would say that looks like the worst kind of devil's bargain. Instead of having Kerry's great learning materials available to anyone, any time on the open Internet, they are locked away ... for no good reason. Instead of having materials that can be indexed by search engines and thus discovered by others, they are unreachable and undiscoverable by others.
What a shame. The social aspects of the Janux so-called community would have to be enormous to convince me that such a trade-off is even worth considering. As it is, with Janux being so poorly designed (no notifications...? what were they thinking?), it seems to me a terrible shame that OU instructors have invested so much time and effort in developing materials to put inside the Janux walls instead of developing truly open resources.
In addition, I should note that my "Recent Activity" is still broken; the most recent item showing is still the old assignment dated January 19. None of my activity since then is showing up, which means I have little faith in the "recent activity" stream that I guess is supposed to be the key to how I am supposed to interact with others in the course in the absence of actual notifications.
Finally, for what it's worth, I had asked about notifications all the way back in September when we were first allowed to log on to Janux to look around; here is a screenshot of the "thought" I added back then in response to someone named Nathalie who works for NextThought. I never got a reply to this comment, presumably because Natalie never knew that I left the comment . . . since she didn't get a notification about it.
Finally, for what it's worth, I had asked about notifications all the way back in September when we were first allowed to log on to Janux to look around; here is a screenshot of the "thought" I added back then in response to someone named Nathalie who works for NextThought. I never got a reply to this comment, presumably because Natalie never knew that I left the comment . . . since she didn't get a notification about it.
Week 2 Online Resource: The Zodiac and Early Astronomy
For my essay this week, I cited an article that I found, and I would like to provide here the notes I took about the article. It's an older article, but that means it is available online for anyone to read; I found it when looking for Google searches relating to Babylonian zodiac, filtering my results for the edu domain only:
Title: The Zodiac and Early Astronomy
Authors: Dewdney, S. H.
Journal: Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 25 (1931): 400-408. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data Section.
Dewdney begins with a discussion of the precession of the equinoxes. His hope is that if the original zodiacal seasons can be determined, it would also allow us to determine their time origin. We cannot rely on physical evidence to date the origins of the zodiac, because the physical evidence has simply not survived. The famous Denerah zodiac of Egypt, for example, dates at the earliest to 1300 BCE.
Indirect evidence, however, is provided by the zodiacal symbols themselves ( ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ), where the author thinks we can detect something of an evolution over time. The author sees Semitic, Egyptian and Greek elements at work, spread out over time, and he prefers the Babylonian origin, building on the legacy of Sumerian astronomy.
To establish the time period, he first focuses on what we call Capricorn (represented as half-goat and half-fish, the "Goat-Fish" of the Babylonians), Aquarius, and Pisces as belonging "to a great celestial sea occupying a quarter of the heavens" (406), with Libra as a balance suggesting the balance of the autumnal equinox. He links that celestial sea to the weather on earth: "The aqueous constellations suggest connection with an extensive rainy season such as visits the Indus and Ganges valleys in the track of the monsoons." For Libra to be in that position suggests an origin around 2000 BCE (407).
As for the vernal equinox, he contends that this was in Taurus (the "Steer of Heaven" of the Babylonians), and he notes that the "earliest recorded name for the zodiac is Pidnush Shame = The Furrow of Heaven, ploughed by the Bull of Light" (407). For Taurus to coincide with the vernal equinox would mean a time period between 2000 BCE and 4000 BCE, "probably about 2900 BCE" (408).
I'm not sure that we can ever be certain with this precarious interpretation of the symbols (i.e. contending that a "sea in heaven" corresponds to rain on earth), and the author himself confesses ignorance more than anything else in his closing sentences: "The zodiacal problem has been as yet practically untouched, in spite of the rich and varied field of research it offers and the historical challenge it presents. Until it is dealt with adequately our knowledge of early astronomy will remain a blank" (408). I wonder what progress has been made in the 80 years since this article was written!
Regardless of the author's inability to provide dates for the development of the zodiac, I found the information presented in this paper to be fascinating. I had no idea that we knew so little of just where the symbols of the zodiac come from, and I am impressed by the shared signs among the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks. You can see the shared signs laid out clearly in a handy chart in the Wikipedia article about the Zodiac.
In the same way that many people are surprised that the names for the letters of the Greek alphabet are not Greek at all but Semitic, reflecting the Semitic origin of the alphabet (compare Greek alpha and Hebrew alef, Greek beta and Hebrew bet, etc.), I was surprised to learn not just that the science of the zodiac comes from Babylon, but the actual signs and symbols themselves also come from Sumerian and Babylonian culture. So, while people today might think they know nothing at all about Babylonian culture, they actually do... because they know the signs of the zodiac! We may given those signs Latin names now, but their origins are neither Roman nor Greek, but more ancient, reaching back into ancient Mesopotamia and the cultures of Sumer and Babylon.
The image below shows Capricorn, the goat-fish, in stained glass from England, circa 1400 (Wikimedia Commons):
Title: The Zodiac and Early Astronomy
Authors: Dewdney, S. H.
Journal: Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 25 (1931): 400-408. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data Section.
Dewdney begins with a discussion of the precession of the equinoxes. His hope is that if the original zodiacal seasons can be determined, it would also allow us to determine their time origin. We cannot rely on physical evidence to date the origins of the zodiac, because the physical evidence has simply not survived. The famous Denerah zodiac of Egypt, for example, dates at the earliest to 1300 BCE.
Indirect evidence, however, is provided by the zodiacal symbols themselves ( ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ), where the author thinks we can detect something of an evolution over time. The author sees Semitic, Egyptian and Greek elements at work, spread out over time, and he prefers the Babylonian origin, building on the legacy of Sumerian astronomy.
To establish the time period, he first focuses on what we call Capricorn (represented as half-goat and half-fish, the "Goat-Fish" of the Babylonians), Aquarius, and Pisces as belonging "to a great celestial sea occupying a quarter of the heavens" (406), with Libra as a balance suggesting the balance of the autumnal equinox. He links that celestial sea to the weather on earth: "The aqueous constellations suggest connection with an extensive rainy season such as visits the Indus and Ganges valleys in the track of the monsoons." For Libra to be in that position suggests an origin around 2000 BCE (407).
As for the vernal equinox, he contends that this was in Taurus (the "Steer of Heaven" of the Babylonians), and he notes that the "earliest recorded name for the zodiac is Pidnush Shame = The Furrow of Heaven, ploughed by the Bull of Light" (407). For Taurus to coincide with the vernal equinox would mean a time period between 2000 BCE and 4000 BCE, "probably about 2900 BCE" (408).
I'm not sure that we can ever be certain with this precarious interpretation of the symbols (i.e. contending that a "sea in heaven" corresponds to rain on earth), and the author himself confesses ignorance more than anything else in his closing sentences: "The zodiacal problem has been as yet practically untouched, in spite of the rich and varied field of research it offers and the historical challenge it presents. Until it is dealt with adequately our knowledge of early astronomy will remain a blank" (408). I wonder what progress has been made in the 80 years since this article was written!
Regardless of the author's inability to provide dates for the development of the zodiac, I found the information presented in this paper to be fascinating. I had no idea that we knew so little of just where the symbols of the zodiac come from, and I am impressed by the shared signs among the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks. You can see the shared signs laid out clearly in a handy chart in the Wikipedia article about the Zodiac.
In the same way that many people are surprised that the names for the letters of the Greek alphabet are not Greek at all but Semitic, reflecting the Semitic origin of the alphabet (compare Greek alpha and Hebrew alef, Greek beta and Hebrew bet, etc.), I was surprised to learn not just that the science of the zodiac comes from Babylon, but the actual signs and symbols themselves also come from Sumerian and Babylonian culture. So, while people today might think they know nothing at all about Babylonian culture, they actually do... because they know the signs of the zodiac! We may given those signs Latin names now, but their origins are neither Roman nor Greek, but more ancient, reaching back into ancient Mesopotamia and the cultures of Sumer and Babylon.
The image below shows Capricorn, the goat-fish, in stained glass from England, circa 1400 (Wikimedia Commons):
Friday, January 24, 2014
Day 11: yep, so-called Recent Activity is broken
After posting my interpretation essay last night, I was really curious if that would cause my Recent Activity to refresh, but it did not. So, I have to conclude that the Recent Activity is just broken. That would be bad enough, and in the absence of any notification system, it is a disaster. You cannot get notifications to stay in touch with people who comment or reply to you, and you cannot even get in touch with people yourself by bookmarking profiles and looking at people's Recent Activity stream. That makes the prospects of carrying on with the social aspects of this class pretty grim.
I don't know if Recent Activity is supposed to include comments and replies, but in the absence of any other notification system, it sure seems logical that comments and replies would be displayed there. Yet even if comments and replies are omitted, I have submitted 7 different assignments for this class, plus an Introduction post. Of those submissions, 2 involved creating a new discussion, and 6 involved adding a comment to an existing discussion created by the instructor. Only one of those submissions shows up in my recent activity, and it is not the most recent; it is an assignment from January 19. Since January 19, I have created one new discussion and posted comments in two existing discussions (along with all the comments and replies I have made to other people's submissions).
So, here's where things stand — No notifications. Recent Activity stream is broken. At this point, I don't know what to do. I cannot understand how we are supposed to make this into a social learning experience if the software is not designed to promote our interaction.
Here is my so-called Recent Activity; screenshot taken this morning, January 24, showing a last activity date of January 19. Conclusion: Recent Activity is broken.
I don't know if Recent Activity is supposed to include comments and replies, but in the absence of any other notification system, it sure seems logical that comments and replies would be displayed there. Yet even if comments and replies are omitted, I have submitted 7 different assignments for this class, plus an Introduction post. Of those submissions, 2 involved creating a new discussion, and 6 involved adding a comment to an existing discussion created by the instructor. Only one of those submissions shows up in my recent activity, and it is not the most recent; it is an assignment from January 19. Since January 19, I have created one new discussion and posted comments in two existing discussions (along with all the comments and replies I have made to other people's submissions).
So, here's where things stand — No notifications. Recent Activity stream is broken. At this point, I don't know what to do. I cannot understand how we are supposed to make this into a social learning experience if the software is not designed to promote our interaction.
Here is my so-called Recent Activity; screenshot taken this morning, January 24, showing a last activity date of January 19. Conclusion: Recent Activity is broken.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Day 10: loving the zodiac
So, I just posted an interpretation essay for Week 2 (last week I did an online resource, but not an interpretation essay). I had so much fun writing it because I had been thinking about the zodiac and ecliptic and enjoying my new knowledge all day long today! I'm not quite sure where this will take me, but learning about sundials and the zodiac has really clicked for me, and it is a topic I hope to keep exploring all semester long. Since both sundials and representations of the zodiac are found throughout all the historical periods being covered by this course, I feel confident that I have latched on to something really useful, a thread that will lead me through the Janux labyrinth.
And a lonely labyrinth it is. The more I think about this total lack of notifications, the more discouraged I am about how this course will develop over time. I'm doing fine because I've got my blog here; I can take a look at my assignment posts and get a sense of progress that is very encouraging. But where is all the social encouragement that Janux is supposed to making possible...? I wrote in detail yesterday about the lack of notifications, and I noticed today that Brent, our T.A., had left many comments at the Introductions board. But will anybody see the comments he has left for them...? Time online is a precious thing; none of us can afford to squander that resource. By collecting my assignments here in my blog, I feel good about the time I am investing. I do not feel good about time invested in comments and replies at Janux, although without comments and replies, how will we ever achieve the social integration that is essential to real learning...? I applaud Janux for their emphasis on the social dimensions of learning, but I find the software to be all the more depressing for just that reason. Social? Really? I don't think so.
So, I would gladly spend another half hour or so leaving comments and interacting with other people at the course, but there's nothing going on apparently - at least, I can't tell if there is a conversation I am missing out on. I guess it just means I will go research some more sun dials!
Update: This sundial led me to Francis Bacon... what an adventure! Details about just where this Latin motto comes from in the Bestiaria blog post - it is indeed Francis Bacon at work, along with the ingenious maker of the sundial.
And a lonely labyrinth it is. The more I think about this total lack of notifications, the more discouraged I am about how this course will develop over time. I'm doing fine because I've got my blog here; I can take a look at my assignment posts and get a sense of progress that is very encouraging. But where is all the social encouragement that Janux is supposed to making possible...? I wrote in detail yesterday about the lack of notifications, and I noticed today that Brent, our T.A., had left many comments at the Introductions board. But will anybody see the comments he has left for them...? Time online is a precious thing; none of us can afford to squander that resource. By collecting my assignments here in my blog, I feel good about the time I am investing. I do not feel good about time invested in comments and replies at Janux, although without comments and replies, how will we ever achieve the social integration that is essential to real learning...? I applaud Janux for their emphasis on the social dimensions of learning, but I find the software to be all the more depressing for just that reason. Social? Really? I don't think so.
So, I would gladly spend another half hour or so leaving comments and interacting with other people at the course, but there's nothing going on apparently - at least, I can't tell if there is a conversation I am missing out on. I guess it just means I will go research some more sun dials!
Update: This sundial led me to Francis Bacon... what an adventure! Details about just where this Latin motto comes from in the Bestiaria blog post - it is indeed Francis Bacon at work, along with the ingenious maker of the sundial.
TEMPUS FUGIT AUGEBITUR SCIENTIA
Time Flies Knowledge Will Increase
(Wikimedia Commons: Belgian sundial)
Week 2: Interpretation Essay
My main interest throughout this week has been the zodiac, and I would contend that the Babylonians who gave us the zodiac were surely scientists. My previous understanding of the zodiac was entirely non-scientific, but now — especially after having struggled through the pages in Michael Crowe's Theories of the World devoted to the astronomy that led to the zodiac — I have to confess both my ignorance of how the zodiac really works (but I did try to understand!) and my absolute amazement that the ancient Babylonians were able to conceive of extra-terrestrial space in such a complex way. As I understand it, the Babylonian astronomers around the year 1000 BCE had already divided the ecliptic up into twelve zones to create something like a celestial map. I am very glad to say that I now understand the ecliptic, even if the zodiac itself is still beyond me!
For people who did not get a chance to read those pages in Crowe, he walks us through a geocentric understanding of the motion of the sun and the moon, starting with the notion of a starry vault which rotates around the earth on the earth's polar axis, so that for us Polaris is a fixed star, while the other stars rise and set. But then to understand the sun's path we need to conceive of the ecliptic, and thank goodness Crowe told us to think of an ant walking slowly down the side of a spinning basketball. So far, so good. I understand the ecliptic now, and it is very helpful in my quest to really understand how sundials work! Plus now I understand the solstices and the equinoxes, and I finally understand why it is so darn cold in the winter.
But then: oh no, here comes the zodiac, which is this astronomical space extending on either side of the ecliptic such that the sun, moon and the planets move within this space, allowing their movements to be charted and predicted (science!). Crowe tells us to imagine the zodiac like a belt that is unwrapped and laid out flat, and then we can chart the moon's path through the houses of the zodiac. At that point, my brain explodes. It's a very pretty chart, but I no longer have the ant on the basketball to help me. I am lost! Crowe's subsequent charts using the zodiac, like the chart showing the difference between the draconic and sidereal periods of the moon, completely baffled me.
But the Babylonians were not baffled. Not only did they understand the zodiac... they discovered it! Invented it! Whatever you want to call it, they did it, and I would declare it a scientific event.
It is also a mysterious event because of the many gaps in our historical reconstruction. The origins of the signs of the zodiac, for example, which are still used today, are lost in antiquity. I found a fascinating article — "The Zodiac and Early Astronomy" by S. H. Dewdney (Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 1931) — which provides an overview of the different theories as to the possible origins of those familiar zodiacal signs.
So, the signs are familiar while the scientific concepts are formidable, and the origins of both are lost in time. Over the past thousands of years, I suspect there have been many people like myself who "know" the zodiac (that is, we recognize the signs and find meaning in them) but without understanding the science behind it. No surprise: the science is hard! But the signs themselves are beautiful and suggestive, and they have been part of diverse art traditions for many centuries. So, even though I am defending Babylonian science, I will finish with some art, sharing an item I found in the Wikimedia Commons area devoted to the zodiac and its signs.
This lovely image shows the labors of the seasons, along with the signs of the zodiac over the course of a year. Isn't it gorgeous? It is dated to around the year 1400 and comes from the Berlin State Library. I like the way it unites the everyday experiences of people at work with the astronomical dimension of our world in the skies above us. I think that if the ancient Babylonians could have seen this work of art, they would have appreciated it too!
♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓
So, the signs are familiar while the scientific concepts are formidable, and the origins of both are lost in time. Over the past thousands of years, I suspect there have been many people like myself who "know" the zodiac (that is, we recognize the signs and find meaning in them) but without understanding the science behind it. No surprise: the science is hard! But the signs themselves are beautiful and suggestive, and they have been part of diverse art traditions for many centuries. So, even though I am defending Babylonian science, I will finish with some art, sharing an item I found in the Wikimedia Commons area devoted to the zodiac and its signs.
This lovely image shows the labors of the seasons, along with the signs of the zodiac over the course of a year. Isn't it gorgeous? It is dated to around the year 1400 and comes from the Berlin State Library. I like the way it unites the everyday experiences of people at work with the astronomical dimension of our world in the skies above us. I think that if the ancient Babylonians could have seen this work of art, they would have appreciated it too!
(I chose this personal style of essay because I am still hoping against hope that Janux will be a place for people to really get to know each other, person to person, in order to share in a social learning experience.)
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Sundial: Dies nostri quasi umbra
Inspired by the tradition of the zodiac that is part of this week's focus on ancient astronomy, I chose to write about a sundial that is decorated with the signs of the zodiac! See the Bestiaria blog post for details.
Day 9: effects of no notifications
I've returned for a quick visit tonight - I did some reading in Lindberg last night which I really enjoyed, and I watched the video about the Collection's oldest object (very cool), and then I posted my quick reflections about that in the discussion board. My motivation to participate in the discussion boards is really low, though - with the lack of notifications, what can we really expect there?
I am discouraged to make my own posts because I don't expect they will lead to any real dialogue. Most of the things I have posted so far have received no comments; I think I got one comment on my Week 1 posting that included two books, but that is the only comment I've received. At least, I think so - how would I know? Without notifications, I have no way to be sure. I cannot even check using my recent activity stream because that is incorrect and incomplete: my so-called recent activity shows only one item total out of the six assignments that I've posted in different discussion boards, nor does my Introduction post show up, and there is also no sign of the comments I've made on other people's posts (I've followed Kerry's instructions to leave a couple of comments on existing posts when I add my own post to a discussion board).
I am also discouraged to leave comments for others because, without notifications, I have little confidence that they will see my comment. I did leave one comment for someone which led to a reply, but I think that is the only reply there has been to one of my comments... although again, I am not sure. Without notifications, how would I know? It's very frustrating to leave comments when there is really no expectation that the other person will know you have left them a comment.
Lack of conversation is apparently the norm: at the Introductions board, there are 37 Introduction posts. Of those, 27 have no comments at all. There are comments on 10 of them, but only on 5 of those is there a reply from the original poster; presumably the other people who did get comments have no idea that they got comments. Because... without notifications... how would they? I'm also not sure what is going on there. At one point we were told that this Introductions board was for both the for-credit and not-for-credit versions of the class, and I did indeed meet some for-credit students at that discussion board. But where are the rest of the Introductions? If there are 50 people in the for-credit class, I would expect they would all be there, even if participation is low (almost non-existent apparently) for the not-for-credit students.
In my own classes, I have opted for blogs rather than discussion boards exactly because of the dilemma posed by the discussion board format. With a blog, at least you can quickly see what is going on, and you also have the satisfaction of watching your own work accumulate over the semester (as I can see my assignments here because I am crossposting them in this blog). With discussion boards, your contributions get scattered hither and thither, and you cannot even easily find them later. Being scattered would be worth it if those contributions were part of an actual discussion, but with the poor design of the Janux software, discussion is very difficult, and this is not even a large class. I shudder to think what is going on in the classes much larger than this.
I never thought I would say this... but it makes me miss the Coursera discussion boards, where at least you could quickly see at a glance who had posted and keep track of the latest comments quickly and easily. Not possible here at Janux.
Sigh.
I am discouraged to make my own posts because I don't expect they will lead to any real dialogue. Most of the things I have posted so far have received no comments; I think I got one comment on my Week 1 posting that included two books, but that is the only comment I've received. At least, I think so - how would I know? Without notifications, I have no way to be sure. I cannot even check using my recent activity stream because that is incorrect and incomplete: my so-called recent activity shows only one item total out of the six assignments that I've posted in different discussion boards, nor does my Introduction post show up, and there is also no sign of the comments I've made on other people's posts (I've followed Kerry's instructions to leave a couple of comments on existing posts when I add my own post to a discussion board).
I am also discouraged to leave comments for others because, without notifications, I have little confidence that they will see my comment. I did leave one comment for someone which led to a reply, but I think that is the only reply there has been to one of my comments... although again, I am not sure. Without notifications, how would I know? It's very frustrating to leave comments when there is really no expectation that the other person will know you have left them a comment.
Lack of conversation is apparently the norm: at the Introductions board, there are 37 Introduction posts. Of those, 27 have no comments at all. There are comments on 10 of them, but only on 5 of those is there a reply from the original poster; presumably the other people who did get comments have no idea that they got comments. Because... without notifications... how would they? I'm also not sure what is going on there. At one point we were told that this Introductions board was for both the for-credit and not-for-credit versions of the class, and I did indeed meet some for-credit students at that discussion board. But where are the rest of the Introductions? If there are 50 people in the for-credit class, I would expect they would all be there, even if participation is low (almost non-existent apparently) for the not-for-credit students.
In my own classes, I have opted for blogs rather than discussion boards exactly because of the dilemma posed by the discussion board format. With a blog, at least you can quickly see what is going on, and you also have the satisfaction of watching your own work accumulate over the semester (as I can see my assignments here because I am crossposting them in this blog). With discussion boards, your contributions get scattered hither and thither, and you cannot even easily find them later. Being scattered would be worth it if those contributions were part of an actual discussion, but with the poor design of the Janux software, discussion is very difficult, and this is not even a large class. I shudder to think what is going on in the classes much larger than this.
I never thought I would say this... but it makes me miss the Coursera discussion boards, where at least you could quickly see at a glance who had posted and keep track of the latest comments quickly and easily. Not possible here at Janux.
Sigh.
Week 2: Origins of Ancient Astronomy
Wouldn't it have been great if Stonehenge came with inscriptions...? I wonder what we would make of Mesopotamian culture without their discovery of cuneiform writing! I would definitely like to learn more about the origins of the zodiac, and I also very interested in the intersection between divination and astronomy. In the Lindberg book, I was really intrigued by his observations about Babylonian astronomy, and he put a big emphasis on the importance of divination in the development of what we would now call science. That makes sense, though: much of what we want science to do for us is to tell us about the future, to accurately predict (on the basis of scientific laws) what will result if we do (or don't do) such-and-such. That quest to know about the future prompted the practice of divination in cultures all over the world, but now we look to scientists to tell us about the future, like predicting the weather tomorrow, predicting our health if we undergo a medical treatment, predicting the future or our environment based on scientific claims about global warming, etc.
As for the zodiac, just this weekend I found a lovely inclusion of the zodiac animals in one of the sundials I have been working on (inspired by this class to do so!). So here it is as an image to include here... from ancient Mesopotamia to a Tyrolian sundial!
As for the zodiac, just this weekend I found a lovely inclusion of the zodiac animals in one of the sundials I have been working on (inspired by this class to do so!). So here it is as an image to include here... from ancient Mesopotamia to a Tyrolian sundial!
Sundial: SOLI DEO GLORIA
I just added a new sundial to my tiny but growing collection! See the Bestiaria Latina blog post for details about the Latin motto and its meaning.
I am also really enjoying Pinterest for this, especially the widgets! To make an individual pin widget, just click "share" on the pin page. For a board widget, use the Widget Builder.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Day 8: lack of oomph!
I can really relate to my students tonight, the ones who are taking classes on top of working full-time. It's Tuesday evening, and I really should do some work for History of Science tonight, but I am lacking in oomph to do that.
I think Week 2 has started, but I did not receive an email about that, so I am not 100% sure.
Much more serious problem: no notifications of any kind regarding discussion board participation. Man, that is SO frustrating! I posted a lot of comments and replies once the system finally allowed me to do that... but I have no way of knowing if anyone has posted a reply to one of my comments so that I could participate in an actual back-and-forth dialogue.
There is a "recent activity" stream... but it does not show activity that is specifically of interest to me. I can filter the stream to "my contacts," but that is still not the same as knowing about replies to my comments or replies to the discussion board item I posted in the Week 1 Online Resource area.
Moreover, I am really not confident about the "recent activity" stream since when I check my own recent activity, it is completely inaccurate, showing almost none of my recent activity at all. So, when I go to the profile pages of other people and click recent activity, am I really seeing their recent activity? Since my listing is not complete, I doubt that theirs is either.
Update: Okay, I did my starting assumptions (it was fun to do: Darmok!), and I also commented on some other people's starting assumptions, and then I also commented on two of the online resource assignments that people had shared for Week 1; nobody had done any commenting there. It doesn't look like a lot of participation in the not-for-credit part of the class (will it pick up...? or it is going to dwindle even more...?), and I fear that the lack of notifications will really have a negative impact on people's participation.
I think Week 2 has started, but I did not receive an email about that, so I am not 100% sure.
Much more serious problem: no notifications of any kind regarding discussion board participation. Man, that is SO frustrating! I posted a lot of comments and replies once the system finally allowed me to do that... but I have no way of knowing if anyone has posted a reply to one of my comments so that I could participate in an actual back-and-forth dialogue.
There is a "recent activity" stream... but it does not show activity that is specifically of interest to me. I can filter the stream to "my contacts," but that is still not the same as knowing about replies to my comments or replies to the discussion board item I posted in the Week 1 Online Resource area.
Moreover, I am really not confident about the "recent activity" stream since when I check my own recent activity, it is completely inaccurate, showing almost none of my recent activity at all. So, when I go to the profile pages of other people and click recent activity, am I really seeing their recent activity? Since my listing is not complete, I doubt that theirs is either.
Update: Okay, I did my starting assumptions (it was fun to do: Darmok!), and I also commented on some other people's starting assumptions, and then I also commented on two of the online resource assignments that people had shared for Week 1; nobody had done any commenting there. It doesn't look like a lot of participation in the not-for-credit part of the class (will it pick up...? or it is going to dwindle even more...?), and I fear that the lack of notifications will really have a negative impact on people's participation.
Week 2: Starting Assumptions... Mesopotamia!
A nice coincidence! The ancient Near East is also the topic in my Myth-Folklore class in Week 2! So, in answer to Kerry's questions, I know something about the ancient epic of Gilgamesh, and that is what the students are reading in my Myth-Folklore class. And of course I love ... LOVE ... that Star Trek episode of Darmok: kudos to Kerry for mentioning it in the video!!!
In terms of Mesopotamian science, my only knowledge is from a book I read by Dick Teresi, Lost Discoveries: The Multicultural Roots of Modern Science from the Babylonians to the Maya. It's a "history lite" type of book which would definitely not pass muster as a textbook for this class, but it was very engaging to read, and I especially liked the way it exposed the real lack of interest by the Greeks (and also the Romans) in computational mathematics, something which the Egyptians and also the people of Babylonia were experts in apparently. If you asked Plato what six times eight is, he would have been baffled! So, from Dick Teresi I gained learned that the way the Greeks pursued mathematics was quite different from that of their ancient neighbors. I'm guessing that mathematics will be part of the astronomical story that we will learn about this week, so hopefully I will have something more than Dick Teresi to rely on for this bit of knowledge!
The image below is from the Memory-Alpha.org wiki page for Darmok:
In terms of Mesopotamian science, my only knowledge is from a book I read by Dick Teresi, Lost Discoveries: The Multicultural Roots of Modern Science from the Babylonians to the Maya. It's a "history lite" type of book which would definitely not pass muster as a textbook for this class, but it was very engaging to read, and I especially liked the way it exposed the real lack of interest by the Greeks (and also the Romans) in computational mathematics, something which the Egyptians and also the people of Babylonia were experts in apparently. If you asked Plato what six times eight is, he would have been baffled! So, from Dick Teresi I gained learned that the way the Greeks pursued mathematics was quite different from that of their ancient neighbors. I'm guessing that mathematics will be part of the astronomical story that we will learn about this week, so hopefully I will have something more than Dick Teresi to rely on for this bit of knowledge!
The image below is from the Memory-Alpha.org wiki page for Darmok:
Monday, January 20, 2014
Day 7: Power of public!
Not sure I will be doing class work today (Happy Martin Luther King Day to all!), but I did want to include this Google+ post about a really cool thing that happened thanks to my having left a comment about the "ultima latet" sundial over at Wikimedia. PUBLIC: it is powerful!!!
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sundial: VOLAT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET
I am clearly going to have too much fun with this sundial project. For the second post, I picked a really beautiful sundial from the southern Tyrol, and then I realized that the transcription of the motto at Wikimedia is surely incorrect! So, I explain in the blog post what the transcription must surely be.
Plus... that gave me an excuse to write to Michel Lalos. He has the single most amazing website of sundial photographs — Albums de cadrans solaires — that I have found anywhere, and he also repeats the incorrect transcription. I am hoping that he will be interested in having a corrected transcription, and perhaps he might also let me include his photograph of this sundial in my blog post because his photo is really lovely.
Fingers crossed: I will be so excited if I hear back from him! Meanwhile, I already heard from ManfredK at Wikimedia, who alerted me to this lovely photograph which he contributed:
Plus... that gave me an excuse to write to Michel Lalos. He has the single most amazing website of sundial photographs — Albums de cadrans solaires — that I have found anywhere, and he also repeats the incorrect transcription. I am hoping that he will be interested in having a corrected transcription, and perhaps he might also let me include his photograph of this sundial in my blog post because his photo is really lovely.
Fingers crossed: I will be so excited if I hear back from him! Meanwhile, I already heard from ManfredK at Wikimedia, who alerted me to this lovely photograph which he contributed:
Week 1: Shape of the Earth Video Response
As Kerry points out in his Shape of the Earth video, there can be a great diversity of what we would call scientific knowledge (or lack thereof) in any given culture at any given time. So, for example, there can be flat-earthers who denied that the earth is round, or - more controversially even today - there can be climate-change-deniers or evolution-deniers today, etc. etc. We can probably never expect uniformity of scientific belief in any given culture exactly because science itself is always in motion, as Kosta points out, and we are never going to be aware of our own ignorance, so to speak.
As my contribution to this topic, I wanted to share two book recommendations. Both of these books provide a cultural and historical context for two scientific phenomena that we learn about as children and take for granted: the existence of dinosaurs as attested in the fossil record and the existence (if we can call it that!) of the number zero.
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000, reissued 2011) by Adrienne Mayor
This is a book that explores in great detail the ancient Greek and Roman interpretations of the fossil bones that they discovered. It's a wonderful topic, and Mayor works with all kinds of textual evidence and also with visual evidence, such as this Greek vase painting shown on the cover of the first edition of the book (I was sad to see they changed the cover for the reissue in 2011; I liked the old cover so much better):
I should add that Adrienne Mayor came to speak at OU back in 2001 (I think that is the right year), and she has to be one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met!
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
What could be more obvious than zero... right? Wrong! This book is a wonderful overview of the long and slow discovery of zero! By the end of the book you will feel very smart that you grasp the number zero and understand it easily... but you shouldn't feel too smug about that: by seeing how long and how hard it was to come to grips with the idea of zero, it makes you realize that there are some other things that later generations will consider totally obvious that we have somehow failed to see at all!
A mathematician friend told me that there are better books about zero out there, but this is the one that I happened to read and I enjoyed it very much. If someone who knows more about history of math can comment here on that and recommend more "zero" books to read, that would be super! :-)
As my contribution to this topic, I wanted to share two book recommendations. Both of these books provide a cultural and historical context for two scientific phenomena that we learn about as children and take for granted: the existence of dinosaurs as attested in the fossil record and the existence (if we can call it that!) of the number zero.
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000, reissued 2011) by Adrienne Mayor
This is a book that explores in great detail the ancient Greek and Roman interpretations of the fossil bones that they discovered. It's a wonderful topic, and Mayor works with all kinds of textual evidence and also with visual evidence, such as this Greek vase painting shown on the cover of the first edition of the book (I was sad to see they changed the cover for the reissue in 2011; I liked the old cover so much better):
I should add that Adrienne Mayor came to speak at OU back in 2001 (I think that is the right year), and she has to be one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met!
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
What could be more obvious than zero... right? Wrong! This book is a wonderful overview of the long and slow discovery of zero! By the end of the book you will feel very smart that you grasp the number zero and understand it easily... but you shouldn't feel too smug about that: by seeing how long and how hard it was to come to grips with the idea of zero, it makes you realize that there are some other things that later generations will consider totally obvious that we have somehow failed to see at all!
A mathematician friend told me that there are better books about zero out there, but this is the one that I happened to read and I enjoyed it very much. If someone who knows more about history of math can comment here on that and recommend more "zero" books to read, that would be super! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)