I Wish I Could...

...manage to download photos in a timely enough fashion to actually post them on my blog. I'm ever so impressed with the knitters' blogs I read that include tons of photos. It seems like nearly every post sparkles with a visual record of works in progress, completed projects and even the occasional UFO (UnFinished Object). I, on the other hand, seem to take photos only to keep them consigned to the depths of memory-card oblivion. I have photos of my machine-knitted blankets, completed the day before Christmas Eve and delivered Christmas Day to two very impressed and appreciative cousins; I have photos of another cousin wearing the lovely rose-quartz-and-amethyst necklace I made for her; I even have photos of the second of my three Shetland Lace scarves for friends. And where are all these photos, pray tell? Still in the camera, of course. *sigh* I'll get them up here eventually.

In the meantime, I'll just continue to play with my wonderful Christmas gifts: four fibery books (Folk Shawls, Knitting in the Old Way, A Gathering of Lace, and Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls), plus two -- count 'em, TWO -- Golding spindles: the small Tsunami I'd asked for and a larger Celtic 2 that DH picked out just because he thought I'd like another spindle (and, of course, I did *g*). So far, I'm completely entranced with Folk Shawls. There are so many I'd like to try it's hard to know where to start. However, I think I may actually wind up using the information in Knitting in the Old Way first as I attempt to modify a baby pattern sweater for my cousins' new son-to-be, who is due to be arriving from Korea in March at about 6 months of age. And, of course, I'll be scouring the other two lace books for ideas for my Pi shawl, which I'll be starting in January as part of the EZasPi knitalong.

Oh, and I'll be heading to the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange tomorrow; they got all the yarn from a local mill that closed down and they're selling it for 75 cents to 3 dollars a pound. Not to mention that they're selling the contents of an entire bead shop that went out of business for a nickel a bead.

Off to bed now...big day of pawing through bins of stuff ahead of me (yippee!)....

Christmas Eve

Well, the presents are finished...at least, the ones needed for tomorrow are. We're back from my in-laws' house and relaxing a little before bed. I'm well-fed and sleepy and looking forward to tucking the last little goodies into the stockings and hitting the hay.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

This year's Christmas tree, decorated with hand-crocheted snowflakes courtesy of my mom.

Christmas Prep



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Well, my audio post, above, was all about how I was going to spend the day finishing Christmas gifts. I did manage to make the felted soaps (go to Mielke's Farm to see how to do it) and they turned out fairly well, although my artistic design definitely needs improvement. I finished off the sachets...well, all but the stuffing and tying of the last one, but that takes just a couple of minutes, no biggie. I even found the pretty box I'll use for presentation, complete with red and green confetti inside for a "professional" look. I didn't block the scarves, though. Again, not a big deal -- I still have time before they're needed, and they're fairly quick to steam block with the iron anyway. My bigger concern: I've yet to do today's blanket strip (I know, I know, then WHY pray tell am I sitting here blogging when I should be knitting? I blame it on Castpost -- they were down all day today and I couldn't post my audio when I originally wanted to, so I'm forced to take time now to do it). Once I'm done here, I'm going to haul my butt upstairs and crank that puppy out.

I'm also not, I repeat NOT going to eat the last two chocolates in the candy dish. I'm saving them for DH.

*still thinking about chocolates*

Hmmm...maybe he wouldn't miss just one...?

One Scarf of Three

This is my second foray into Shetland Lace knitting, and I must admit, I'm much more pleased with it than with my first attempt (the purple scarf pictured in an earlier blog posting). I used only one pattern here -- Horseshoe -- but I did vary the background from garter stitch to stockinette (3 pattern repeats of garter to every pattern repeat of stockinette). Interestingly enough, when the scarf was blocked it was difficult to tell the difference between the two background stitches (something for me to remember for next time as the garter stitch background goes much more quickly than the stockinette). I gave this mint-green scarf to Karen for Christmas; I've made another in rose for Sue and one in peach for Jen. I still need to block those two, then photograph them for "posterity" LOL, and finally box and wrap.

I really don't mean to procrastinate but I just can't seem to get myself in gear to make that last blanket I need for Christmas. It's for my cousins, who I love dearly, so there's no lack of desire to create them a lovely gift by hand. I don't know what it is, really, except that just about every other project I have going seems infinitely more enticing than making the last 4 blanket strips on the knitting machine. Much as I swore I wouldn't start anything new until that blanket was finished, I blew my resolve and began weaving on my little Weave It handheld loom. Who knew little 4-inch squares could be so enjoyable to make? I've been using two colors -- a dusty yellow single that seems to be homespun and a yellow-and-orange variegated novelty yarn that I'm pretty sure is synthetic, both obtained in the mixed bag of yarn and roving I bought off ebay a couple of months ago -- and once I have a pair of squares woven, I sew them together on three sides, line them with cotton batting, fill them with homemade scent (crushed cinnamon, cloves and vanilla), and tie together at the top to form beautiful little sachets. I decided that since I haven't had time to make my aunt and uncle anything very substantial for Christmas, the least I can do is give them a few sachets to go along with the storebought wine they're getting as a gift. At least, that's how I justify sitting and playing with my little loom instead of working on that friggin' blanket. And it wouldn't be fair to give one set of cousins a handmade blanket but give the other -- what? A bagful of sachets?

No, the blanket will get made. Tonight once DH gets home, we'll have a quick dinner, put the baby to bed, and then I'm heading over to that knitting machine and not coming up for air until I have at least two of the four strips I need finished.

HOW many days do I have until Christmas??

Trade Day

Way back maybe eight or nine years ago, I heard about a barter group. Basically, you signed up and stated what it was you had to offer -- services mostly, or goods that you produced yourself -- and what you were looking for. The service then matched people up. You didn't have to make a direct trade with someone else; your goods or services, when selected by someone in the group, would generate credits for you to use for bartering for someone else's goods or services. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, so I tried to sign up. It seems that there is very little need for "ESL teaching" or "proofreading/editing" services, at least within that group.

I was therefore delighted to find that one of the fiber listservs I belong to holds a weekly "trade day." Every Friday, any member is welcome to post a TGIF trade. The items offered for trade can be pretty much anything related to fiber -- I've seen people post yarn, fibers, spindles, books, magazines, you name it. And after offering my back issues of Rug Hooking magazine from 2002, I'm happy to report that I've just sealed the deal on my very first online fiber trade. My trading partner will get 5 magazines, and I will get 4 ounces of dyed mohair locks, 4 ounces of border leceister roving, 4 ounces of mixed wool roving, and a booklet called "Socks: The Next Step." All in all a fair trade, I think. I get rid of some magazines that were taking up space in my fiber drawer and I get some interesting new fibers to play with plus instructions on, among other things, how to make two socks on one circular needle; my partner, who has recently taken up rug hooking, probably feels about the same way on her end.

What a nice little no-cost Christmas present!

And speaking of Christmas presents...yesterday I finished four, yes four, gift bracelets. Three were photo bracelets, one for each of my daughter's grandmas and one for her godmother. They're cute little things, each one holding six tiny photos. I also made a bracelet out of small stone and glass beads for DH's friend Gina, who is up visiting from DC. Simple but pretty. Now I just have to finish knitting one more lace scarf, block that scarf plus one more (both gifts for friends of mine) and then tackle the elephant in the corner -- a large machine-knitted blanket for my cousins. The blanket should knit up relatively quickly since I'm doing it on the machine, but it's just a matter of getting started.

Oh, and then there's the little matter of decorating the house...and finishing wrapping presents...and HOW many days are there left till Christmas??

An Interesting Turn of Events

So, today I got an email from the director of my MS program. If you recall, this is the program where the people I've studied with for a year are moving on to elective credit courses while I'm still stuck completing core requirements. When I spoke with the director about my schedule for next semester, she actually did give me the option to take the elective course that I was interested in and take the core course later on as an independent study. I turned it down, however, because I just couldn't stand the thought of taking the elective course with the scheduled instructor, someone I had had quite enough of already.

As it turns out, a different instructor has been assigned to teach the elective course, and the director just asked me if I'd like to take it instead of the core course.

Hmmm...very interesting.

Of course, I wonder why the originally-scheduled instructor, the one I didn't want, suddenly won't be teaching the course anymore. It certainly had nothing to do with the kvetching I did to the powers that be; my opinion as a non-paying student (courtesy of tuition remission) is just about as low on the totem pole as opinions can get. Maybe he found another job? Maybe he couldn't stand another semester of teaching us? The questions abound.

But, more to the point, I now have to decide whether to take that elective next semester or not. Truth be told, it sounds far more interesting that the core course I'm supposed to take. And I'd be joining my first-semester classmates again -- always a plus. I guess it all comes down to how much of a pain in the a$$ I think taking the core course as an independent study will be. Knowing the director of the program, it might very well be more of a pain than just taking the regular course.

Decisions, decisions.

If any of you from class are still reading, whatddaya think I should do?

Brave New Blog (sort of)

Well, now that the testing is done, I guess this is my first "official" audio blog entry. Who knew it would be so easy??

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Testing, Part Deux

OK, folks, here goes another audio test, this time using Castpost (www.castpost.com)...

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HOLY CRAP!!!

OK, I have just TOTALLY impressed the $hit out of myself!! Do you SEE that? That post, the one right below this one? The one with the audio file embedded in it? I did that! Me!! Woo-hoo!! *doing the happy dance around the room*

Now, you must be asking yourselves, why the commotion? It's only an audio file, after all. And Blogger does have its own, very easy-to-use, internal audio-file recorder. Just sign up, phone in (yes, that's right, with a telephone, not a computer), talk and voila -- audio blog.

But, to do that, I'd have to call California. My mama didn't raise no fool...I'm not about to pay long distance charges just to audio blog.

Besides, I'm actually going to all the trouble of figuring this out so I can use it with my students in the spring semester, and I'm not about to ask them to pay long distance charges to call California just to audio blog.

So, I did a little research. And downloaded Audacity. And then downloaded Lame for Audacity. And then signed up for both OurMedia and Internet Archive. And then I recorded a little test audio in Audacity, converted it to MP3 format with Lame, posted it to OurMedia (which requires an account with Internet Archive), got my URL and HOLY CRAP -- I POSTED AN AUDIO FILE!!!!

I honestly don't think I can top this feat. Ever.

At least not online. *g*

This is a test...this is only a test....

OK, here goes...testing

A Necklace for Amy

Rudraksha...the seed of the rudraksha tree, held as sacred in yogic philosophy. Two of them came into my possession earlier this year, when a local tai chi school closed down and held a tag sale of all their stuff. Among other items, I bought a big mason jar full of beads -- small wooden ones, mostly, but tucked in there were two large rudrakshas, about the size of gumballs. As soon as I saw them, I knew they were meant for Amy, DH & my yoga teacher and friend.

After our little dinner party on Sunday, Amy hung around to help clean up, and I gave her the seeds. I told her I wanted to make a necklace for her, but I wasn't sure if that was appropriate given the special status the rudraksha holds for her. We wound up designing the necklace together that night, and the finished product is shown above. The rudraksha are the large round beads on the left and right of the pendant. The pendant itself is one I wore regularly several years ago, when I first came back to the States from Asia. I can't remember where I got it, but Amy took a liking to it when she saw it in my beading stash, and I thought it made the perfect centerpiece to her necklace. The small, brown wooden beads are the other ones I got from the tai chi school. All in all, a fitting piece for Amy, and designed especially so she can wear it during yoga class without it falling up over her head the way her longer necklaces do.

Hmmm, my first jewelry collaboration. Not half bad, if I do say so myself! :)

Holiday Happening

We usually do our big party of the year -- our ONLY party of the year --on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. It started years ago with half a dozen friends in my postage-stamp-sized backyard in Queens and has morphed into a hundred-guest bacchanal of food, drink, games, food, waterfights, food, and did I mention food? Let's just say when you put an Italian family together with a Chinese family, nobody walks away hungry.

This winter, though, the solstice has been calling me. Something about the promise of spring right around the corner, shorter nights and longer days, got me in the mood for a party. And so it was that a dozen of our nearest (to our home) and dearest (to our hearts) gathered last night for a pre-Solstice dinner party.

The highlight of the menu: Bobby Flay's Rosemary Bricked Grilled Chicken. If you thought for a moment that half a foot of snow on the deck was about to stop my husband from firing up the grill, you were wrong. Playing back-up were garlic roasted potatoes, whole-wheat couscous with mushrooms, grilled portobello mushrooms with tomato and mozzarella, and a boatload of desserts brought by our dear guests. We stuffed ourselves silly, had a grand old time, and I do believe DH and I have added a second party to our list of annual at-home events.

About Last Night....

So, yesterday was our final day of class. I have to admit, it was a kind of bittersweet session for me. I'm glad the semester is over and I can relax these last couple of weeks before returning to work and the general craziness of teaching (and now administration on top of that -- but that's the topic of another blog post to come). I'm sad that the semester is over because I know this is somewhat the end of an era. The classmates I started this program with a year ago have mostly been taking two classes for every one I've taken; next semester, I'll be taking a core course they've already done while they'll be taking an elective to round out their credits. Sadly, I won't be sharing a learning space with the people I've grown so fond of over the past four semesters.

It's the same type of feeling I used to get when summer camp ended.

*sigh* I'll miss you guys.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Well, here we are...the end of the semester, the end of the year, and I'm faced with the question of whether to maintain my blog or let it fade away into the ether. Years ago, I kept an Open Diary, back in the days when blogging wasn't the thing it is today and when OD hadn't fragmented into paid and free sections. I forget how I found out about OD, but I've kept diaries on and off as long as I've been able to write, and I thought an online diary that other people could read and comment on would be a novel twist.

I kept my OD active for maybe a year, right up until the paid/free split. It was really my first experience with an online community. There was a circle of friends -- all people I'd never met face to face -- who read my diary and whose diaries I read. We commiserated about broken relationships, rejoiced in happy events, laughed at the silly things that happened to us. I was sad to see my friends move over to the paid site or drop their diaries; I let mine slide until it was deactivated and my entries were gone like so much smoke. At least a hard copy diary doesn't disappear at an autocommand.

Blogging has been an interesting return to semi-familiar territory for me. Honestly, the thing I've enjoyed most about this blogging experience is reading the blogs of my classmates. I always enjoy collaborating with good people, and my classmates are some of the best. Whether I was reading about educational theory or someone's latest exercise program, I liked hearing their voices and getting a peek at their thoughts and lives.

As for writing a blog...well, the thing that interested me most was posting photos. Trouble is, I have to actually take the photos, then download them, then post them (not always an easy task). Who has the time? Yes, I suppose I could make the time, but then I would have to bump my blog several spaces up in my priority list, and I'm not at all sure I want to do that. I'd much rather be playing with my daughter...or knitting...or spinning...or, for my online fix, participating in my fiber listservs. I'd even rather be trolling ebay for a cheap loom or interesting bit of fiber.

The fact of the matter is, I like the idea of blogging better than the reality, the same way I like the idea of keeping a diary better than the day-to-day writing. After all, how much is there really to say?

When I lived in Japan, everything I did took on a strange, new importance simply because I was doing it on the other side of the world. I could jot a postcard -- "Went to a lovely onsen today; sat in the outdoor hot bath for hours watching the snow fall on the thatched roof of the rotenburo" -- and it sounded exotic and wonderful even though I'd only gone to the equivalent of my city's Brooklyn and spent an afternoon hanging out in its equivalent of a public bathhouse. I kept a diary then, and also when I traveled. Every day there was something to write: a new place explored, a strange custom observed, funny and scary and sexy things happening at every turn. This, I realize, is because everything was strange and new to me. What would I write about here at home? "Went to Cold Spring for lunch and window-shopping. Sat by the Hudson and watched the boats float by. Counted nearly a hundred boxcars pass along the train line by the river." It's not bad, really, just not exotic. Not something I'd make a priority of putting down on paper the way I bothered to record "Staying in a youth hostel that was a former Chinese bomb shelter. Last night saw a rat in the hallway. Glad we have lead-lined doors."

Having said all that, I must admit that I like blogs as an ESL tool. I'm trying to think of how I can work them into my classes this spring. I think they would give my students some much-needed writing practice in a low pressure/low stress environment, not to mention that all my students are internet denizens of one stripe or another and would probably get a kick out of blogging in English.

What does the future hold for my blog? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll keep it up, at least for awhile. Maybe I'll morph it into something I can use in my teaching. Maybe I'll get my ass in gear and take some more photos of my knitting to post as well.

If nothing else, this experience has gotten me past my ignorance-driven dislike of blogs. Thanks, Joanne.

Jtzanis - Suprglu, public feeds on SuprGlu

Personal space investment (or, How Much Is That Bloggie In The Window?)

Alan of CogDogBlog wrote about how he feels that he needs to have a personal investment in a blog in order to go through the trouble of actually blogging. In his experience, it seems that the only blog he feels invested enough in to maintain is CogDogBlog; the other, multi-user blogs he's been asked to participate in, seem to fall by the wayside for him, simply because they're not "his" space. For him, it seems to come down to an issue of the personal vs. the communal; in his own words, "It's not my house and my heart is not there."

I'm not sure I'd exactly call my blog my house, but blogging here these past few months has been interesting. I've gotten all sorts of snippets of ideas for how to work blogs into my course designs, which tend to be "computer enhanced" f2f classes -- a step below hybrid, but still using real and viable online ed techniques to make things happen. I envision a project-based class keeping a blog about the project; a class full of students blogging about the book we're reading; even students keeping freeform, no-defined-topic blogs, writing simply to let the words flow in a foreign language, to get comfortable expressing themselves without worrying about how many red pen marks they'll rack up on the page.

And yet...what kind of personal investment would those students have in their blogs? If blogging is the new-millenium version of a diary, what personal investment would anyone have in blogging as an assignment? If the purpose of keeping a diary is to pour oneself onto the page, doesn't the pourer have to have the desire to pour? Can that desire be mandated by an outside force, in this case the instructor? Or does the mandate itself result in a sort of artificial blog, with each entry becoming a tick mark in a box and nothing more?

Years ago I taught a remedial writing class at our local community college. Many of my students did very little writing in their daily lives, so in an attempt to get them used to writing regularly but in a low-pressure situation, I required that they keep an online journal at OpenDiary. There were no assigned topics, they could write about anything, and I even told them that if they wanted to keep their entries private, I wouldn't read them. The only requirement was that they make a minimum of two entries per week, even if each entry was just one sentence long. To my utter amazement, there were students -- kids who came to class and did their homework -- who completely blew off the journal. They knew full well that it counted for 10% of their final grade; they also knew full well that simply racking up the requisite number of posts would get them an A in that portion of the grade assessment. And still there were some who didn't do it. For one or two, it even made the difference between getting a C and getting a D as a final grade.

No investment.

I think that's my biggest challenge as a course designer: how can I get my students invested -- in the class, in the module, in the assignment?

I know what all the theorists say: make it personal, make it relevant, make it applicable. And to a certain degree I think that's true. But, a blog is about as personal as it gets; our assigned topics, at least in this class, are certainly relevant. And yet, how many of us have done more than tick off boxes -- one assignment down, four to go...two down, three left. My own internal imperative has led me to blog about knitting, spinning...the mandated entries stand out loud and clear, and while they're all written by me, they're not necessarily my "house," and so my investment in them is small. In the end, I'm not sure what I've gained by blogging, except for a level of familiarity with an unfamiliar technology.

A Little Late, But....

Just when I thought it was safe to focus solely on my final project, I found there's another blogging assignment due. I'm a day late (nine hours to be exact), but I hope it's better than never.

So, without further ado I'll be responding to a fellow blogger's post on online course development and design. The quote I'm responding to is taken from AP's blog and goes like this:

Strength in numbers? Blaise Pascal said that " We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything". If I know something, and you know something else... will we know more when we work together?

It's the final question -- If I know something, and you know something else... will we know more when we work together? -- that I'm most interested in, both from an instructional design perspective and an educational philosophy perspective.

I deal with the world of adult ed -- not "adult ed" in the sense of basketweaving and underwater ballet, the classes people take when they finally have time (often after retirement) to learn all the fun stuff they missed while studying to get a degree or a certification, or while raising a family and working to earn a living -- but "education for adults" as distinguished from "K-12 ed ." K-12 education seems to focus to a greater or lesser extent on transmission of facts: What was the date of the Battle of Waterloo? Who was the first President of the United States? While in some areas there does seem to be a noble move towards educating children in thought processes -- critical thinking skills, argumentation, problem solving and so forth -- for the most part kids are still expected to show up at school on test day with their number 2 pencils well sharpened and fill in all the bubbles alone, without asking the kid in the next aisle what the square root of 25 is or who invented the internal combustion engine.

I think this emphasis on retaining knowledge in one's own head comes from our ancient roots in pre-written culture. Long before humanity developed written languages, we maintained oral traditions. Even well into the days when writing was a well-established "technology," people who memorized shockingly long tracts -- think the entire Bible, for starters -- were not all that uncommon. Yet in the relatively recent past, there has been a general shift away from straightforward memorization. I'm reminded of a scene in the film Quiz Show where the middle-class Federal agent from Brooklyn goes to dinner with the clearly highly-cultured, very well-educated family of one of the quiz show contestants. During dinner, the family plays what is obviously a very long-standing game: they take turns reciting lengthy passages from Shakespeare, correcting one another when a word is gotten wrong. The Brooklynite is suitably impressed; more than impressed, he's just about floored at the effortless way his hosts toss around quotes like colorful M&Ms.

Yet, what's so impressive about memorization? I still have rattling around in my brain the detrius of a childhood spent memorizing much poetry, partly for school recitations, partly because I liked to read and memorization came easily to me then. I can still toss off most of The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Wreck of the Hesperus, We Are Seven...the list goes on. So, what does that prove? The channels carved in the brain during childhood run deep? Maybe...after all, I can still dutifully recite the address and telephone number of the apartment I lived in until I was ten years old without batting an eyelash, while I still occasionally have to pause and think about what my current area code is. My point is, what does all that memorization get me? A few admiring glances at a party, I suppose, if I ever decide to pull out all the stops and wow the crowd with an impromptu recitation. But am I really using my brainpower wisely by memorizing?

Albert Einstein, it's said, didn't know his own telephone number. When asked why he never bothered to memorize it, he supposedly replied that there was no reason to when he could just look it up. The implication, I suppose, is that he used his brain to solve difficult, as-yet-unsolved problems and not as a repository for information that could be found easily elsewhere.

Besides, once we leave school, how often are we really asked to solve problems in isolation, without referring either to other people or outside resources? We talk our personal problems out with friends and family; we attack work issues with colleagues; we confer with teachers, advisors and counsellors when our kids get off track. We all seem to assume that we do know more together than separately, at least if our actions are anything to judge by; in the real world, isn't every test open-book?

And yet, there's the small, non-pc part of me that bristles every time I have to help the cashier at the supermarket make change when the all-knowing cash register flakes out and calmly asserts that I should receive nine-million nine-hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars' change on a two-dollar purchase. Shouldn't a person who handles money eight hours a day five days a week know that if I hand over a penny along with my ten dollar bill on a tab ending with 56 cents that somewhere in there I should be getting back a quarter and two dimes (or some equivalent coinage) with my change?

I know that there's an up-and-coming learning theory (the name of which escapes me now...so much for memory!) that claims that knowledge is out there to be found, so it's the techniques of finding that should be taught, not the knowledge itself. There's a part of me that agrees wholeheartedly; after all, if my finding techniques were a bit more up to snuff, I would have been able to find the name of the learning theory I'm thinking of instead of hoping that someone reading this blog will pipe in with a comment supplying the missing information. Still, if I wanted to stretch myself, I'm sure I could find the information: phone a friend, email a professor, do a more thorough internet search.

But, the Luddite in me points out, what happens if all this technology goes to hell in a handbasket one day? Like the cashier who can't make change without an electronic assistant, would I be stuck with nothing to fall back on if I couldn't rely on my supports, whoever or whatever they may be, to help fill in the gaps where my memory has slacked off? Should we all carry around our backup systems in our brains, hardwired into our memory in case all the calculators, all the computers, all the internet connections and telephone lines and library books one day disappear? If we really do know more together than we do separately, what happens when we can't work together any more?

Woo-Hoo!

Well, after many attempts at posting a photo and several less-than-fruitful emails to the folks at Blogger, it seems that I can once again upload pics. The one to the left is a close-up of the scarf I entered in the EZasPi Shetland Lace Workshop contest. From the bottom, the patterns are Horseshoe and reverse New Shell, alternating in repeats of 3. The center back of the scarf is done in Candelight, which is an absolutely stunning pattern with just a few too many lines for me to memorize as easily as Horseshoe and New Shell. The two ends of the scarf were supposed to be mirror images of one another, but reversing the Horseshoe pattern didn't quite turn out the way I expected and I got more of a similar-but-different pattern on the scarf's other end. Still, I like the way it turned out, so I kept it. I call this my "Happy Accident" scarf.

Assignment: Online Collaboration

So here I am once again completing a blogging assignment for my hypermedia course. The topic: "As we move from group work to independent work, please create a blog post showing some thoughtful reflection on any topic related to 'online collaboration.'"

I've given collaboration in general a lot of thought, in large part because the courses I teach in English as a Second Language often rely heavily on collaboration. Personally, I feel that the proponents of collaboration often overlook one key problem with collaboration: it's so very easy for participants to not participate very much. Even when the instructor puts a mechanism in place to supposedly ensure that everyone does a fair share of the work, there's always the tendency for the participants themselves to play towards their strengths and not their weaknesses; everyone gets better at what they're already good at but no one really gains the new skills they need.

I see this in the groups I participate in. I'm a teacher, so I'm very comfortable with all the "teacher stuff" -- writing lesson plans, creating activities, stating objectives. I am not comfortable with exploring new technologies or creating *shudder* flow charts. Therefore, when I work in groups, I leave the flowcharting to others, even though I'm probably the one who should be completing every single flowchart myself just to get the practice I so desperately need.

In our hypermedia course, we've just completed a group project and have now been sent off to complete an individual project. On the one hand, I'm glad to be doing an individual project because I'll now be forced to face my demons and do the things I've been able to avoid doing as a member of a group. On the other hand, I harbor no illusions that I'll be able to complete this project alone without soliciting help from my now former group members.

In the classes I teach, I've moved towards assigning individual projects with group support as a way of dealing with these issues. For example, students in my writing class have to complete a paper and presentation for their final project. Everyone has to choose their own topic, write their own paper and make their own presentation. However, from the very beginning of the process they're assigned to a group. The group is there for support purposes; at various points in the process, group members review each other's topics, make suggestions, provide feedback and serve as a mock audience for presentation practice. The group members are there for one another as a resource; even though each student produces his or her own separate project, they have a "go-to" group that can help them out when they need a hand. It gives them independence, promotes collaborative learning, but also helps ensure that everyone does every part of their own project themselves, even those parts they would rather avoid.

I'm such a proponent of this independent-production-with-group-support method that even when we were de-grouped after our mid-term project, I asked my group members if we could stay in touch and support one another through the independent project process. My group members agreed, and I've already emailed them my first rough ideas for my final project. The feedback I received helped me revise my work before submitting it to my professor for final approval. I wrote not one but five flowcharts all by myself -- something I never would have done had I been participating in a group project -- but I checked them all with my group members, who are all much more skilled at flowcharting than I will ever be. As I see it, this allows me to have the best of both worlds -- I'm forced to do all the parts of a project, even those I'd otherwise avoid, but I have the support of a group to help me with the areas I'm weak in. It's an option I think should be explored further by advocates of collaborative learning.

Shetland Lace Workshop Contest

Well, I finally got around to blocking my entry for the Shetland Lace Workshop Content at EZasPi. It's my first foray into knitted lace, and I must say I'm quite proud of myself. I made it with my friend Caroline in mind; her favorite color is purple, so this will make a nice Christmas gift for her. I doubt it's good enough to win anything in the contest, but there's no harm trying...and the prizes are so good I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I qualify for something, even if it's only the booby prize! LOL

I've been trying to upload a photo but I keep getting an error message. *grrrrr* Will try again later....