Fireside Learning:  Conversations about Education

Ian Carmichael
  • 57, Male
  • Penguin, Tasmania
  • Australia
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Hi Ed, Yep - so much of our culture is about covering our ... shall we say blind spots ... sometimes it may be ignorance, sometimes it may be our backsides (look at the forests which record procedures and protocols to cocoon all our actions and ju...
4 hours ago
5 hours ago
Ah - I was wrong, but not very. The system I remembered was flexbooks but the quibbles I raised then still seem relevant to now. Yet, "if by any means I may help the education of some... to parpahrase Paul...
22 hours ago
Well, I'll have another look. I seem to recall trying this system out some time ago, and mentioning with some despondency that it was rather beyond my intuitiv capacity to create a book. I've just revisited the site, and whilst it looks better - ...
yesterday
True enough - 'You never know where the boundaries are until you push them.' (Nor how strong they are.) [I must say though, I'm thinking more of the 'eduspeak' inquisitions which exist in two flavours the 'testing into the ground' right and 'entro...
on Thursday
Thanks Ed, I'm interested in the tangent too [I think it's a crux for education] - - do we allow for/force the issue - and what issues and disciplines are so sacrosanct that are expected and encouraged to be forced (in US terms NCLB'd?), and other...
on Thursday
I find there is a 'tinkering reluctance' amongst girls in my IT class when we tackle the hardware dismantling and upgrading parts of the course. But, with time - and me holding back! - they relax and enjoy the processes. (Not big-time tinkering, I...
November 17
November 17

Profile Information

Tell about your involvement in education, and your ideals for collegial sharing
I'm a teacher and a learner. Scratch me, and I want to communicate and help people understand something. I want to be able to do it better - so I'm keen to see what other practitioners have to share - and share what I can. My loves are science - especially physics, mathematics, ethics and epistemology, religion, theology and the relations between science and religion. I've been teaching and preaching and studying and reflecting for some 35+ years. I like the idea of collegial sharing, ideas and case studies of successful teaching escapades - but as an individualist, I'm not keen on being part of a team teaching situation ( I'll share pedagogy, but not 'on the ground' practice!)
About Me:
I'm a country boy from northern Victoria, Australia - currently teaching at a secondary Catholic College in Tasmania - in a mixture of subjects; Mathematics, Religion and Computer Studies. One wife, three children. Love British comedy, music of most kinds, reading, quietness. Conversation at times. (I mentally respond to the question "How would you like your hair cut?" with "Silently"). Enneagram type 5 - (a knowledge gatherer who has to be prodded to share what I know up to now - after all, there may be new stuff I'm not aware of and I want to be accurate!)
I don't keep a website - but I'm working on a GoogleLibrary, link below
Website:
http://books.google.com/books?uid=13131788043006503091

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Ian Carmichael

Loss of connection in the sea of connections

I'm just pondering the rise of twitter. And the hints, or suggestions that this is the networking of the future (ie, the next year or so) which will sideline blogs and forums.

The thought returns me to where I began a couple of years ago - on thinking and its objects. How much of a thought do we need, in order to be thinking? It seems to me that real thinking - reflective, processing, creative mental work which has as at least one of its outputs something new, something stronger, something fres… Continue

Posted on July 28, 2009 at 2:18am —

Ian Carmichael

Bushfires: the terrible face of nature

Connie asked me to say a little about the Australian bushfires. At my last news on the situation, there were some 126 confirmed deaths and about 700 destroyed properties through the hill regions in Victoria. The locations of the deaths are little-known placenames, even for Victorians

Kinglake - 33

St Andrews - 6

Callignee - 9

Kinglake West - 9

Marysville - 10

Location details not specific - 6

Steeles Creek - 7

Flowerdale - 3

Hazelwood - 4

Wandong - 4

Humevale - 4

Koornalla - 4

Tagge… Continue

Posted on February 9, 2009 at 1:18am — 22 Comments

Ian Carmichael

Straw men, ad hominems and vitriol

G'day folks,

I was going to blog about 'label and destroy'. There's so much of it about - liberal, fundamentalist, extremist, right-wing, left-wing, fundy, pro-choice, pro-life...
It's such a distasteful, and dishonest way of putting people in a box and making them non-people, or putting ideas in a box labelled 'do not open' (or perhaps "Pandora")

...but it's lunch time, and I couldn't really be bothered. Maybe more later - but there's cricket on, I hope!

Posted on January 14, 2009 at 8:29pm — 6 Comments

Ian Carmichael

When the feeds go down - a lesson(?) in rapid habituation

Yes, I admit it. I've just discovered how to get useful information from feeds through an aggregator. Great for finding out what's posted on FL without drilling into my emails. And I've learnt a whole heap of stuff by hooking into pages I thought I'd like to browse but never did; hence the various bits of curious information I've peppered here and there.
Ah, but then - for unknown reasons my aggregator began to fail - first, it failed to collect the feeds from the Guardian (not too bad, could li… Continue

Posted on December 12, 2008 at 7:21pm — 7 Comments

Ian Carmichael

Culture-centric acronyms

I just been buffaloed by some acronyms today (have been a few times here) and thought it was time to raise the white flag. As a foreigner, there are mysterious terms to me - and I'd reckon for others too. I've found out about GPA's, I think there was one called AP or AD, but today I've hit GED from Ellen and LPN (?) from Ed, and.. who knows what else lurks for my confusion. (For acronym users, just one translation once would be nice to dispel my ignorance.)

Well, TTFN.

(Ah that's goodbye - Ta-… Continue

Posted on December 11, 2008 at 3:15pm — 2 Comments

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At 10:32pm on November 17, 2009, lynn mccartney said…
Ian,
Thank you for the welcome. I am eager to join the discussions on creativity and motivation and look forward to hearing from global voices and those and other topics.
At 11:47am on November 12, 2009, Ed Hitchcock said…
Subtraction still works to get signal - I take pictures of the night sky with the lens cap on, then subtract those from the images with the lens cap off. That subtracts predictable noise (hot spots in the sensor). Averaging works wonders too, as the signal tends to be consistent, while the noise is random.
At 6:36pm on November 11, 2009, Laura Gibbs said…
YES, I saw this reviewed at Bryn Mawr or somewhere online and it really caught my attention. Ever since reading Peter Kingsley's stuff, I have been really attuned to the cave myths in ancient Greece and I tell you they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I bet it is a really good book. Let me check and see if I can find the Bryn Mawr review - YES, here it is:
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-10-50.html

Meanwhile, Kingsley is forever my hero. Have you read this book? I think it is sheer genius.
Peter Kingsley, Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. (Bryn Mawr review)
At 7:40am on November 1, 2009, Todd Elkin said…
Thanks Ian!
I'm looking forward to jumping in.

All the best,
Todd
At 8:24pm on October 28, 2009, Janet Navarro said…
Hi Ian, I was trying to find a way to chat when I saw that we might actually be online at the same time. I was just writing a reply to your message and deleted it (too long) and then saw that you were on fireside too. It just boggles my mind.....you on the other side of the globe and me, online, at the same time, same place. Jeeze. I wonder if that will ever become common place for me.
At 8:36pm on October 25, 2009, Eemah Martha said…
Have A Great Week Pictures, Images and Photos
At 9:06am on October 21, 2009, Janet Navarro said…
Nice to be back -- outside? I'm thinking it's kind of like Spring for me on fireside. I mean, it's like around here, on the 45th parallel, when people come out of their houses after a long winter and say hey--what's new. Good to see you. How was the winter? I am finding I have similar seasonal cycles on fireside. I believe I'll be out more for a while.....and then, I'll probably take a summer vacation ; D nice to see you.
At 2:40pm on October 18, 2009, Eemah Martha said…
Greetings Carmichael, I would like to invite you to Raising Horizons Quest Group. Our group is exploring models of spirituality in education that have demonstrated success in bringing light to society. Please stop by and check us out :)

RAISING HORIZONS QUEST
At 7:51am on October 16, 2009, Fiona Stewart said…
Thanks for your welcome. I just returned from a conference in Nashville where I learned about this fireside. I am inspired by what I have seen so far! Fiona
At 9:42am on October 15, 2009, Lynn Barendsen said…
Hi Ian,

Yes, pls come check out the website, and let us know what you think!
http://goodworktoolkit.org/
We have a Forum there, too, so pls speak up and share your thoughts. We've just posted a blog from Howard Gardner on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize - interesting reading if you've got some spare time. Look forward to being in touch -

Lynn
 
 

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