Verbatim http://shanta.edublogs.org a commonplace blog of quotations about learning and learning design Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:04:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en On choosing standards http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/08/14/on-choosing-standards/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/08/14/on-choosing-standards/#comments Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:04:48 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/08/14/on-choosing-standards/

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

Generally attributed to Rear Admirable Grace Hopper


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/08/14/on-choosing-standards/feed/ a mess http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/a-mess/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/a-mess/#comments Fri, 26 May 2006 19:22:09 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/a-mess/ We have also come to realize that no problem ever exists in complete isolation. Every problem interacts with aother problems and is, therefore, part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems…Furthermore, solutions to most problems produce other problems…English does not contained a suitable word for ’systems of problems’. Therefore, I have had to coin one. I choose to call such a system a ‘mess’.

Russell Ackoff, Redesigning the Future, 1974.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/a-mess/feed/ I’ll tell you why I regularly work four shifts http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/ill-tell-you-why-i-regularly-work-four-shifts/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/ill-tell-you-why-i-regularly-work-four-shifts/#comments Fri, 26 May 2006 19:16:14 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/ill-tell-you-why-i-regularly-work-four-shifts/ After the Second World War the British coal mining industry introduced tehcnically revolutionary methods of coal cutting. THe industry was re-equpped with expensive machinery. Being now a much more capital-intensive industry its economic performance depended very much upon high utilization of the coal cutters, converyers, and powered supports. In the 1950s Lord Robens, then Chairman of the National Coal Board, was concerned that so many miners were working four shifts instead of the regulation five, and absenteeisim was a public issue. A newspaper recorded the following exchange between the Chairman of the Board and one working miner: Lord Robens — Tell me, why do your regularly work four shifts instead of the regulation five? Miner — I’ll tell you why I regularly work four shifts; it’s because I can’t quite manage on the money I earn in three.

P.B. Checkland, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, 1981, p. 216. An anecdote that illustrates the radically different perceptions of the nature of the mine in which they worked.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/26/ill-tell-you-why-i-regularly-work-four-shifts/feed/ innovation http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/innovation/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/innovation/#comments Sat, 13 May 2006 03:19:38 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/innovation/ Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome.

attributed to Albert Einstein


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/innovation/feed/ critical thinking http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/critical-thinking/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/critical-thinking/#comments Sat, 13 May 2006 02:35:21 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/critical-thinking/ Very few really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justification, explanations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.

Spoken by the Vampire Marius in Ann Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, 1985.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/critical-thinking/feed/ standing on the shoulders of giants http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/03/14/71/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/03/14/71/#comments Wed, 15 Mar 2006 03:52:39 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/03/14/71/ If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Sir Isaac Newton

If I have not seen as far as others, it is because there were giants standing on my shoulders.

Hal Abelson, although according to Wikipedia, he attributes it to his Princeton roommate, Jeff Goll


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No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks

Alice Cooper, title song of School’s Out, 1972.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/schools-out/feed/ education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/education-is-what-survives-when-what-has-been-learned-has-been-forgotten/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/education-is-what-survives-when-what-has-been-learned-has-been-forgotten/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2006 02:36:02 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/education-is-what-survives-when-what-has-been-learned-has-been-forgotten/ It has often been remarked that an educated man has probably forgotten most of the facts he acquired in school and university. Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten..

B. F. Skinner, New Scientist, May 31, 1964, p. 484.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/education-is-what-survives-when-what-has-been-learned-has-been-forgotten/feed/ the most difficult thing in the world http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/the-most-difficult-thing-in-the-world/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/the-most-difficult-thing-in-the-world/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2006 02:12:23 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/the-most-difficult-thing-in-the-world/ Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Johann Wofgang von Goethe


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/02/16/the-most-difficult-thing-in-the-world/feed/ participatory citizenship http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/participatory-citizenship/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/participatory-citizenship/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:58:39 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/participatory-citizenship/ The idea of citizenship is not the only way we can pursue our commonalities and needs, not the only way to entertain our longings and dreams. But it is a crucial one; and, when linked to the deep insight that we owe a duty of justice to our fellow citizens, the concept of citizenship sheds its dark origins in the project of keeping people out and, reversing the field, becomes a matter of bringing people in - not loving them or liking them or even agreeing with them, much of the time, but making room for them to be at home too.

Mark Kingwell, The World We Want: Virtue, Vice and the Good Citizen, 2000, p. 22.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/participatory-citizenship/feed/ the virtue of civility http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-virtue-of-civility/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-virtue-of-civility/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:58:03 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-virtue-of-civility/ The key to resolving and managing the deep conflicts of pluralistic politics is a willingness on the part of citizens to tolerate imperfect solutions. In order to make a social order of diverse goals tend towards justice, it is necessary for each citizen to internalize the virtues of dialogue, in which the claims of others are considered and one’s own claims are phrased in terms intelligible to others.

Mark Kingwell, The World We Want: Virtue, Vice and the Good Citizen, 2000.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-virtue-of-civility/feed/ the essential citizen http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-essential-citizen/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-essential-citizen/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:17:05 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-essential-citizen/ Tomorrow is election day in Canada. If the last Federal election a scant 18 months ago is any indication, some 40 percent of us will not exercise our fundamental right and civic responsibility to vote. It’s a perfect time to reflect on the nature of citizenship and the possible role that learning designers play in such a state of affairs. University of Toronto philosopher Mark Kingwell writes that, “Citizenship, if it means anything, means making our desire for justice active. It is not something we can do alone” (The World We Want, 2000, p.19). Yet, my memories of my high school civics class are more of dwelling on the arcane workings of government, less of galvanizing the social desires for justice. In this weekend’s (appropriately named!) Ottawa Citizen, Tony Atherton quotes John Myers, a curriculum instructor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, who concurs: “Students are really interested in programs in whch they feel they can make a difference. They’re not really interested in the role of the governor general or the powers of the Senate.”

The quotations for this theme will be collected as the essential citizen, and what better place than to start with Mark Kingwell.

Update Jan 25, 2006. In fact, more people cast ballots in this election than the previous two, with about 65% of registered voters showing up at the polls. I guess that’s a good thing. But does voter turnout=good citizen?


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/22/the-essential-citizen/feed/ pictures and conversation http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/pictures-and-conversation/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/pictures-and-conversation/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:02:06 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/pictures-and-conversation/ John Tenniel's rabbitAlice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1992 (Folio Society; originally 1865), p. 3. Illustration by John Tenniel.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/pictures-and-conversation/feed/ adventures first, explanations later http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/its-no-use-going-back-to-yesterday/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/its-no-use-going-back-to-yesterday/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:48:18 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/its-no-use-going-back-to-yesterday/ And the Gryphon added ‘Come, let’s hear some of your adventures.’

‘I could tell you my adventures - beginning from this morning,’ said Alice a little timidly: ‘but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.’

‘Explain all that,’ said the Mock Turtle.

‘No, no! The adventures first,’ said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: ‘explanations take such a dreadful time.’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1992 (Folio Society; originally 1865), p. 91-2.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/its-no-use-going-back-to-yesterday/feed/ the curious sort of life http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/the-curious-sort-of-life/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/the-curious-sort-of-life/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:29:54 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/the-curious-sort-of-life/ ‘It was much pleasanter at home,’ thought poor Alice, ‘when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole - and yet - and yet - it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life!’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1992 (Folio Society; originally 1865), p. 29.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/the-curious-sort-of-life/feed/ applied learning http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/applied-learning/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/applied-learning/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:59:12 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/applied-learning/ Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! ‘I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think - ‘ (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) ‘ - yes, that’s about the right distance - but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?’ (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1992 (Folio Society; originally 1865), p. 5.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/06/applied-learning/feed/ the art of prophesy http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/05/the-art-of-prophesy/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/05/the-art-of-prophesy/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:18:58 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/05/the-art-of-prophesy/ The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.

Often misattributed to Mark Twain.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/05/the-art-of-prophesy/feed/ the computer will blow up the school http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/04/the-computer-will-blow-up-the-school/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/04/the-computer-will-blow-up-the-school/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2006 03:44:25 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/04/the-computer-will-blow-up-the-school/ There won’t be schools in the future … I think the computer will blow up the school. That is, the school defined as something where there are classes, teachers running exams, people structured in groups by age, following a curriculum all of that. The whole system is based on a set of structural concepts that are incompatible with the presence of the computer … But this will happen only in communities of children who have access to computers on a sufficient scale

Seymour Papert, Trying to Predict the Future, Popular Computing, October 1984, p. 38.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/04/the-computer-will-blow-up-the-school/feed/ an approach to style http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/an-approach-to-style/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/an-approach-to-style/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2006 00:42:41 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/an-approach-to-style/ Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style — all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 3rd edition, 1979, p.69.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/an-approach-to-style/feed/ the beauty of brevity http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/the-beauty-of-brevity/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/the-beauty-of-brevity/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2006 22:35:14 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/the-beauty-of-brevity/ A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

William Strunk, in Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, 3rd edition, 1979, p.xiv.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/02/the-beauty-of-brevity/feed/ the strength of weak ties http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/the-strength-of-weak-ties/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/the-strength-of-weak-ties/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2006 22:51:07 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/01/01/the-strength-of-weak-ties/ Because one’s acquaintances are less likely linked than one’s close friends, they connect individuals to other social circles, providing a vital resource for such tasks as finding jobs. Cliques are bridged by weak ties, which are therefore crucial for transmission of information and for social cohesion.

Mark Granovetter, The Strength of Weak Ties, American Journal of Sociology, May 1973.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/the-strength-of-weak-ties/feed/ you should have meant http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/you-should-have-meant/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/you-should-have-meant/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2006 20:03:33 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/you-should-have-meant/ ‘Alway speak the truth–think before you speak–and write it down afterwards.’

‘I’m sure I didn’t mean–’Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently.

‘That’s just what I complain of! You should have meant! What do you suppose is the use of child without any meaning? Evean a joke should have some meaning–and a child’s more important than a joke, I hope….’

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1992 (Folio Society; originally 1872), p. 110.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/you-should-have-meant/feed/ which way from here http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/which-way-from-here/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/which-way-from-here/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:54:52 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/01/01/which-way-from-here/ ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where–’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘–so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. ‘What sort of people live about here?’

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1961 (Folio Society; originally 1865), p. 56.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2006/01/01/which-way-from-here/feed/ metcalfe’s law on the value of the network http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/31/metcalfes-law-on-the-value-of-the-network/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/31/metcalfes-law-on-the-value-of-the-network/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2005 05:48:56 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/31/metcalfes-law-on-the-value-of-the-network/ If you had the only telephone in the world, who would you call? Networks seem to grow more valuable to a user proportionately with the number of other users he or she can call. In a network with N users, each sees a value proportional to the N-1 others, so the total value of the network grows as N*(N-1), or as N squared for large N.

Robert Metcalfe, Metcalfe’s Law: A network becomes more valuable as it reaches more users, From the Ether, Infoworld, October 2, 1995.

…we propose another rough rule, that the value of a network of size n grows like n log(n). This rule, while not meant to be exact, does appear to be consistent with historical behavior of networks with regard to interconnection, and it captures the advantage that general connectivity offers over broadcast networks that deliver content. It also helps explain the failure of the dot-com and telecom ventures, since it implies network effects are not as strong as had been hoped for.

Andrew Odlyzko & Benjamin Tilly, A refutation of Metcalfe’s Law and a better estimate for the value of networks and network interconnections, March 2, 2005.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/31/metcalfes-law-on-the-value-of-the-network/feed/ intentions http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/30/45/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/30/45/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:22:26 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/31/45/ I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, 1988.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/30/45/feed/ relationships are all there is http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/21/relationships-are-all-there-is/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/21/relationships-are-all-there-is/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:51:33 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/21/relationships-are-all-there-is/ Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals who can go it alone.

Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, 2002, p. 19.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/21/relationships-are-all-there-is/feed/ low at my problem bending http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/low-at-my-problem-bending/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/low-at-my-problem-bending/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2005 03:01:20 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/low-at-my-problem-bending/ LOW at my problem bending,
Another problem comes,
Larger than mine, serener,
Involving statelier sums;
I check my busy pencil,
My ciphers slip away,
Wherefore, my baffled fingers,
Time Eternity?

Emily Dickinson, Part Five: The Single Hound, LXXX, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, 1924; from Bartleby.com


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/low-at-my-problem-bending/feed/ much madness is divinest sense http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/much-madness-is-divinest-sense/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/much-madness-is-divinest-sense/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:44:30 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/much-madness-is-divinest-sense/ MUCH madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

Emily Dickinson, Part One: Life, IX, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, 1924; from Bartleby.com


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/much-madness-is-divinest-sense/feed/ proprioception in the digital age http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/proprioception-in-the-digital-age/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/proprioception-in-the-digital-age/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:39:48 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/proprioception-in-the-digital-age/ Proprioception, the perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli inside the body, is a medical concept. Although the name for it is not well known, the phenomemon is familiar to all of us. Our proprioceptors incessantly inform us that we are standing up, inclining our head, squinting our eyes, or clenching our fists. Proprioceptors work as sensory systems not for outside information about others or the environment but inside the body. Nerves attached to muscles fire when they detect motion such as change in positioning of the body. These self-monitoring nerves tell us whether we are standing on our feet or our head or are on the bus at a standstill or jogging along at thirty-five miles an hour. The Earth has enjoyed a proprioceptive system for millennia, since long before humans evolved. Small mammals communicate the comming earthquake or cloudburst. Trees release “volatiles,” substances that warn their neighbors that gypsy moth larvae are attacking their leaves. Proprioception, the sensing of self, probably is as old as self itself. I like to think that we people augment and continue to accelerate Gaia’s newfangled proprioceptor capability. A fire in the Borneo forest and a crash of a U.S. helicopter in the Italian Alps are broadcast on televised news in New York City. Yet extinct packs of wolves and flocks of dinosaurs enjoyed their own proprioceptive social communication; the global nervous system certainly did not begin with the origin of people. Gaia, the physiologically regulated Earth, enjoyed proprioceptive global communication long before people evolved. The air circulated gas emissions and soluble chemical from tropical trees, mating-ready insects, and life-threatened bacteria. Love compounds have wafted in spring breezes since the Archean age. But the speed of proprioception has greatly increased with the electronic age.

Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, 1998, pp. 113-4.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/proprioception-in-the-digital-age/feed/ the name of the vine http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/the-name-of-the-vine/ http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/the-name-of-the-vine/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:25:46 +0000 Shanta Rohse http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/the-name-of-the-vine/ Any taxonomic scheme has problems. We tend to label and dismiss anything once we assign it a category. Our classifications blind us to the wildness of natrual organization by supplying coneptual boxes to fit our preconceived ideas. They should reflect our study of nature. The two-tiered five-kingdom system will always need revision. Whatever its difficulties, it does not perpetuate the age-old errors of the “animal versus vegetable” dicholomy. We can group life into three or five or a million categories, but life itself will elude us.

Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, 1998, p. 68.


Authored by Shanta Rohse. Hosted by Edublogs.]]> http://shanta.edublogs.org/2005/12/19/the-name-of-the-vine/feed/