Finished reading Book 3 of Jordan's Wheel of Time series... Woo hoo!! Really getting into the good stuff. Dealing with the Forsaken, Black Ajah, hinting and more connections between people and places, the Aiel, etc. Except my library didn't have Book 4 waiting for me! Oh well. I started reading the rather short "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. Apparently, it took a while for Joe to get this published back in the 70s because "who wanted a science fiction book about the Vietnam War". I'm beginning to see the connections (they don't get real obvious until about the middle of the book) but it's interesting to see this after such a long time. This is a good book. It's an important book. It's always good to take something, beaten to death, and look at it from a different perspective or in a different setting. It helps get a clearer picture of it. War is horrible. War hurts the "winner" and the loser. There should never be a time when war is not seen as a necessary evil. And it should never be assumed that it's necessary at all.
Hopefully I can back to my fantasy world of magic and monsters soon. (They I should have it by Tuesday.)
Speaking of stories, I just attended a session about teaching using stories. I'm trying to think of a way to apply that to some of the things I do: reference, web development, epistemology, etc. Any ideas?
3 comments:
Umm.. when you teach the classes what stuff do you and the students have access to? ie. computers, books and the like.
Debbie
Debbie: It depends on the class. We have an e-Laboratory just like the classroom (slightly better) in the Cyber Center.
But I'm interested in trying new things in bibliographic instruction: in my mind librarians have failed quite miserably or rather only succeeded a little bit. We have only taught (and made information and instruction available) enough about libraries and our resources to make people successful enough to think they're doing well. Unlike doctors and lawyers who have managed to keep all their information and understanding and skill surrounded in mystery and complexity so that people KNOW they NEED a doctor or a lawyer when they get into those areas. But people think that Google will answer all their questions, that they have to pay companies to get real reference help, that they are somehow disturbing the librarian with their questions or that librarians couldn't help them anyway... We need to either transform people into mini-librarians or keep them completely in the dark so that they realize they really need us... Or something like that.
It's Nancy and you might want to investigate storytelling and fables. Not just Aesop's but all nations and mythology is steeped in fables, analogies and such. That's basically how we're taught as children and it can still be quite facinating as adults. There are even some schools like Palmer (where I got my MLS) that having storytelling seminars and events. Check it out and good luck.
Post a Comment