Items to Share; 3 August 2014

Education Focus

• First Impressions of the New OFSTED Handbook | Scenes From The Battleground [Andrew Old]

• Feeling Unable to Learn | Faculty Focus 'I’ve just had one of those in-your-face learning experiences. In fact, it was so unnerving that I’m not sure I can even write about it. It all started when I bought a new computer and, as a result, had to learn an entirely new email system. Although not an unusual or difficult situation for most college teachers, it turned into an absolutely awful experience for this learner. I haven’t felt such frustration, anger, and despair for a long time.'

• How do we reform teacher training in research? - Tom Bennett - TES Community 'Evidence based education is this year's must-have toy, [...] but unlike other fashionable accessories to our practice, this has real potential to change the game.'

• Learning on the Edge: Activities to Promote Deep Learning | Faculty Focus 'Fortunately, we seem to be in the midst of a flowering of new research and ideas from the learning sciences that can help ensure that whatever type of approach we take to the classroom—from traditional lecture to flipped classes—can help maximize student learning in our courses.'

Other Business

• Introvert or extrovert, normal or abnormal: the problem with personality types '...Muhammad Ali proposed a fruit and nut-based typology, classifying people as pomegranates (hard on the outside and inside), walnuts (hard on the outside, soft on the inside), prunes (soft outside, hard inside) and grapes (soft inside and out)....'

• TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): Chinese physicians honor a dead patient —an 11-year-old organ donor.

• Ignore John Humphrys when he rants about grammar, he just wants attention '[T]here’s currently a good natured spat going on between Melvyn Bragg and John Humphrys.' about the use of the historic present.

• The Way We Live Our Lives in Stories | Edge.org [Jonathan Gottshall] 'No matter where you go in the world, no matter how different people seem, no matter how hard their lives are, people tell stories, universally, and universally the stories are more or less like ours: the same basic human obsessions, and the same basic structure. The structure comes down to: stories have a character, the character has a predicament or a problem—they're always problem-focused—and the character tries to solve the problem. In its most basic terms, that's what a story is—a problem solution narrative.'

• Language Log » Philological teaser Brilliant! Be sure to click through to the video itself.

• This TV ad for a Canadian bank may make you cry. - Boing Boing 

• A Drone's Eye View of Los Angeles, New York, London, Bangkok & Mexico City | Open Culture

• Against happiness: Why we need a philosophy of failure | Prospect Magazine '[T]he spread of depression is partly a side-effect of our addiction to happiness. Conversely, understanding why we are so miserable should liberate us from being too miserable about it. We can feel good about feeling bad. In other words, we need a decent philosophy of failure to save everyone from thinking what failures they are.'

• Playing an Instrument Is a Great Workout For Your Brain: New Animation Explains Why | Open Culture 'Neuroscientists using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) technology to monitor the brain activity of subjects listening to music saw engagement in many areas, but when the subjects traded in headphones for actual instruments, this activity morphed into a grand fireworks display. [...] This massive full brain workout is available to anyone willing to put in the time with an instrument.'

• Experimental Theology: Search Term Friday: Strange Loops and Theology I don't usually include links to religious material, but this meditation from Richard Beck on the relevance of Douglas Hofstadter's exploration of logic and maths to thinking about aspects of religion is fascinating—as anything to do with Hofstadter is pretty well bound to be.