Boolean Logic

Aside from having a rocking name, Boolean logic underlies the digital revolution. Essentially, the logic works by simplifying and "[buildings] combinations that will implement any digital component you can imagine." This implementations happen through specific "gates:" not, and, or, nor, nand, xor, and xnor. Explaining these gates would make this post too long, so I'll place the link right here.

As you go through these ideas, I wonder how I might simplify my life through these algorithms. Instead of looking at each decision through it various "outcomes," what if I looked at it as a yes and/or no situation?

Four Necessities of Life

According to Thoreau in Walden, man only needs four things: Food, Shelter, Clothing and Fuel. Everything else is luxury, and Thoreau wrote:

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind (11).

I'm wondering how true his statements are. Aren't human interactions a necessity, or is it a luxury to have friends? Is this concept part of Shelter? I know that even though he went to the woods to experience a primitive life, Thoreau also entertained friends from Concord.

Quote and book found on publicliterature.org. Like the Gutenberg Project, they are digitizing thousands of free books. Check them out for your favorites!

Photo found on talkingtree.com

Rapid Reactions

I just finished skimming our reading for today:

1. A friend mentioned reading "Democracy in America" to me yesterday, and here it is in my reading. I disagree with what de Tocqueville wrote on American's desire to find the shortest route to happiness. I believe it is the idea of social mobility and individualism that drives the American, not "the pursuit of worldly wealth."

2. I find the idea of the frontier shaping American thought more than Atlantic principles interesting and refreshing. In a state government class at Kilgore Community College, my professor broke down voting patterns into three categories: community (the North), aristocracy (the South), and individual (Everywhere Else).

3. I had a different experience from Thoreau in the forest. I spent a week in Canada by myself, but found that I couldn't think straight. Either my thought process is whack, or I didn't take to my task like Thoreau did. Maybe next time, I'll take a copy of "Civil Disobedience."

4. I liked "Civil Disobedience." It reinforced ideas that I've had before, but never had the moral constitution to enact those kind of principles.

There you have it. I also found this quick video on American Expansion. Enjoy

Let's Talk Romanticism

That's right people. Let's talk some Romanticism: put on some Teddy Pendergrass, dim the lights down low, and forget the Industrial Revolution. Pull out some Goethe, Browning or Longfellow, although, nothing gets the mood against industrialization going like some snippets of Wordsworth. Here's "The World is Too Much With Us," read by Samuel Godfrey George.

Some Book Ideas

Here are some of the books that have sparked my interested, although what my fellow classmates think should be taken into consideration. These are a few of my interests:

Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen E. Ambrose

I love trains, and the building of the Transcontinental Railroad opened up American expansion. It is also over 600 pages long, and has a reputation of historical inconsistencies. Maybe this book would best suit my personal library.

The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800- 1890 by Richard Slotkin.

Here are two ideas I would not put together. Slotkin theorizes that the American image of the lone cowboy is an allegory of territorial expansion. Once again, here is a book that is over 600 pages, and the limited time of this assignment (two weeks!) facilitates that such a book be shelved (do you see the word play?! Love it.).

More likely to read:

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne explores the doomed commune of Blithedale against a backdrop of social and cultural issues of the 19th century.

My Antonia by Willa Cather

An immigrant's story, Antonia comes from Bavaria to Nebraska. Underlying her story is Jim's transition from the country (agrarian) to the city (industrialization). Good read.

Confirmed

I now have a class in Korea, which I will begin teaching this Wednesday. I "meet" my Korean counterpart tomorrow night during a Skype meeting at 10 PM my time. Starting in mid October, I will be teaching a group of Japanese students.

As a side note, I guess this teaching job will be the great experiment to see if I can connect with people through a digital medium. Will they listen to me if I'm not physically present?

Digital Scaffolding

As I think about final projects for this class, my mind goes back to scaffolding. Scaffolding in learning means that a group of students with different levels and skills in a concept will, if placed together, learn the whole idea faster than alone. An example of this would be three students living in a foreign land. None of them know the language fluently. However, Student 1 is good at identifying cognates, Student 2 knows verb conjugation, and Student 3 has an ability to understand sentence structure. If they work together, they will learn the language faster and become more fluent than if they stayed alone. Now, this is common sense (at least to me), but how does this transition to Personal Learning Networks and Digital Literacy?

I have a few ideas of how this correlates, but I would like to hear from you. What do you think?

Photo from the Commons on Flickr.