Snapper & the GCSB more about style than substance

The insistence that we care more snapper than privacy and surveillance seems to have provoked at least some of us to find out from those who have some knowledge what the substance is.
I am disappointed when it all gets into who wins an argument by style rather than exploring the substance of the issues.

I liked this today which explores the fishing aspect

Espiner: Key's snapper attack swallowed whole

thoughts on the Snapper and the Spy agency

John Key says that we care more about snapper than the GCSB bill however I think that we are struggling to understand what this bill means in this era of digital information whereas is much easier to understand and thus respond to less fish for recreational fishers   However the issues in what resources are applied to spying on New Zealanders is a much more complex  issue

I know that the bill comes from the discovery that the external spy agency had been assisting the internal spy agency to get information about New Zealanders and that this was currently illegal.

They wanted to make it legal to use considerably greater resources of the external spying bureau to be used to spy on New Zealanders if there was an identifiable threat. Sounds pretty reasonable so what's wrong about that?
Given that the activity of spying inherently involves secrecy there are a range of difficulties :

1. who do we trust to make that decision?
2. what information will be used?
3. how will this information be sourced and shared?
4. how is this information sharing linked with foreign spy agencies with tools like prism

So with a bit of time available I  have been searching around to shed some light on the subject for myself and thought to share it

•  Is spying needed? There are some dangerous folk around but is this the tool that is needed?
  A Herald interview with Helen Clark gives some thoughtful reasons? I was interested that in the above interview Helen Clark said she never asked how the  agencies had got their information.
• Many people are concerned. This video shows edited highlights from a panel of  well informed speakers at a meeting on July 26
• What safeguards does the bill provide?  Rodney Harrison QC does a good summary of the different reasons for surveillance and what can be actioned in this bill and is not convinced by the current reassurances

John Key has reassured the "public that spies would not be able to routinely access the contents of emails" 
but can he do that? How will he know?

This issue highlights concerns that are arising internationally about the accessibility of information on the web and deserves to be given a thorough airing to assist all to understand rather than the current "trust me I know what I'm doing" attitude.
Meanwhile I am uncertain why recreational fishers are being targetted to reduce their catch of snapper when the commercial fishers aren't

ps just found this debate by others more articulate than I on pundit http://pundit.co.nz/content/john-key-and-those-gcsb-questions

Recalling Kazakhstan

Keyboard chatting with my friend this morning reminded me of visit to Kazakhstan where I visited in 2002.
Thoughts to send to her
Why did we go? We were asked to go and work with a group of trainers in Atyrau. It is a centre for those involved in the oil industry in Kazakhstan.  The group we worked with were YKK Kazakhstan who were and I see still are involved in safety training for the industry.
I'd have known more about the moon than Kazakhstan, and at that time the oil and gas industries  were only developing, and certainly not at all well known here.  Appears from today's googling that it is booming now.

at the Celtic Dragon

So there we were on a plane from Budapest to Atyrau with members of the oil industry probably a bigger culture shock for us than being in a little known country.
Background that we had found about Kazakhstan was scant and not very useful but working with local people with an Australian manager made it work.

 Loved the markets 
and the people seemed to love to be photographed

On looking back through the photos the range of experiences in that brief time (2 weeks) were an amazing opportunity.
On our first night we had dinner at the Celtic Dragon which was celebrating Halloween!  I think on the second night it was Thai food. These very much for the oil industry.  We asked could we try local food. We did and it was good.

All seems too big to recollect especially as my butterfly brain and the powers of the internet send me off on journeys. Today I found out  that apples are from Kazakhstan which is also the name of a travel book  in which  the writer Christopher Robbins tells what he was told about why we knew so little before the fall of the soviet union.
So there you go not yet anything about teaching but recollecting thoughts and updating, and using blog again after a gap.. have enjoyed and will continue for me at least

Hiroshima Day on Tuesday

paper cranes

This week was the Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
On my first visit to Japan  10 years ago I  took the opportunity to visit Hiroshima.  We had marched on Hiroshima Day in NZ and were supporters of NZ's anti nuclear stance. It seemed only  appropriate to go there when I was nearby.
It was a powerful experience during which I got to meet a survivor of 6th August 1945. There are many on you-tube including this one. Story of Mr. Keijiro Matsushima

Since my visit I have sought to find out more and increase my understanding of the bombings.  An article this week from Greg Mitchell on the bombings discusses the cover-up of film and evidence.

 Later in the week I  had the opportunity to go to a new documentary Fallout which documents the writer Nevil Shute, the book and the movie On The Beach, as well as opinions about the bombing of  Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Amazing documentary that kept my mind spinning well into the night.
Recall of this event always provokes produces feelings that are hard to describe. It is truly awe full.

Journal or Blog?

playing around with eportfolio ideas for conference discussion and just thinking about whether it is better to use journal  in ePortfolio or this blog.  One is private until I share, and this is almost private because I haven't (while practicing) got terribly public about the blog or sent it to people.

So what to do or both....

Blurring the edges

The use of electronic technologies is blurring the lines between what was traditionally professional and personal. This came into focus a number of times this week:

•  when our marketing manager was writing a draft of a policy about use of electronic media,
• a discussion with a librarian about the use of blogs and referencing them
• Some friends  post really professionally useful articles and references on Facebook.
• LinkedIn groups contain some great ideas and complete rubbish 

The content can't be judged by the medium.  Don't judge a book by its cover?
So many new tools being developed all the time and people using those that they feel comfortable with are quite  a challenge to academic traditions
Just pondering at the moment ...

Meaning or words

moon over the bay

The patterns of nature are not necessarily simple.  

What is hardest though is the words that have been chosen to describe them that make the learning more difficult. I know that I am getting older but I already forget the silly word meaning the moon is closest to earth.  I won't quickly forget however the beauty of it rising over the hills and shining on the water.

Reflecting on the purpose of theory

Learning theories should offer some insight into learning.
For those new to teaching the plethora of view points is somewhat confusing and can get in the way rather than assist understanding.
When I taught science I saw that my task was to uncover meaning that enabled students to build there own understanding.
How to do this with learning theories?
For those I work with I see my task is to provide a practical framework that enables them to create coherent engaging lessons for their students in a wide range of practical areas

abiding interest in learning about life

southcoast reflection

When I was a teenager  one of the first books I purchased were called the chemistry of life,  I just looked it up and there are revised editions still available, and Steven Rose the writer has written much else.
I still remember the area in the bookshop in Princes St Dunedin.  So why the interest?  Chosen because it explored areas not yet being taught in school.
Steven Rose mentions in the preface to the 1999 edition that he is not sure what in this book inspired people.
I think that it was a simple overview made it accessible, and as a teenager studying chemistry it built on what I already knew.  Why wouldn't people be interested in how the chemistry of life works?  The ultimate secret much unraveled in the intervening years but not yet fully understood.

Understanding the brain’s mechanisms and dynamics has proved biology’s most intractable – and fascinating - problem over the three centuries since the birth of modern science. 

Prospects and Perils of the New Brain Sciences: a twenty year timescale*in 2009 by Steven Rose

 So the morning discovery is to find an author who interested me in the late 1960's is still interested in the field and still interests me...
My battered copy is dusty in the bookcase, but says with me

literally in the littoral zone

Beautiful Good Friday day and chance to walk the southcoast, at low tide in the calm.  Still struggling with phone camera at times so today tried a few new things.  in the end the classic shot of course.
Different kinds of learning, but will try to capture panorama soon!

Learning is a living thing

Not a new thought at all but return to it today having explored some thoughts of others.
Found a paper by William E Doll Jr,  Complexity and the Culture of Curriculum  in the online journal complicity
Have thought for some time that complexity thinking would assist in making sense of learning but have struggled to find the direct links .  In this paper Doll looks at the work of Stuart Kauffman who was looking that led to self organisation in living systems

I interpret the single connection in terms of direct instruction from teacher to student as producing ‘mindlessly dull behavior’.38 From toomuch richness in curriculum, a chaotic frame emerges. What one needs, from Kauffman’s point of view and mine, are networks (or curricular structures) that ‘achieve both stability and flexibility' a brief quote from pg 24

Once one moves from data collection to relationships, onealso moves from isolated facts (with all their ‘inertness’) to interconnected or webbed patterns (with their ongoing ‘aliveness’) from page 25

So let this all reverberate for a bit but love the finding and refinding of resonating ideas  

 

searching about

By chance found someone working on a model or theory which assists understanding of why people get involved Affective Context Theory The name is a bit Theoretical but the ideas resonate

Littoral liminality

littoral zone

Caught up in the liminal zone, on the edge of an idea, that makes it possible to change ways of doing things.

I have wanted for sometime to create a much more visual interface to use in teaching and am exploring possibilities.  It may of course mean learning new skills to achieve this still I'll give it a go

Web Possibilities

There are just so many options opened up and which to choose.
Found a site called interactive documentary and that had some really interesting visual examples which I find exciting. The one that immediately appealed was about  life in Patagonia.  It has a totally visual interface, based on map and scenes of peoples lives.
Wow how would I do that ?
Think about it some more anyway

Social Media and learning

I attended a talk yesterday by DK from core education.  I found his perspective useful in thinking about what media I might find useful to use in in teaching and learning situations.
I am finding the forum on moodle a not very user friendly kind of environment and searching for something that might complement it.  So you find me on this fine Saturday looking into this simple blog and thinking about what to use.

Beginagain

Here I go again with detemination this time to get going with a blog.  i have started a few time and the semi dead skeletons must be lurking around in cyberspace.

But this time keep it active and keep trying ...
And at this point add a random recent photo from Womad just to see how it all works