Reviews: Azriahl Hax

Okay, when I'm not building, I am out exploring the live music scene in Second Life (or dancing up a storm at a clothing optional party ... o.O ... but that's a different story). So I thought I would take the time to comment on some of what I like. Besides then I can remember who I liked and why while trying to figure out who to book for my own club. Not that I ever get around to organizing parties, but the club is there, waiting for me to get motivated.

Our first victim is Azriahl Hax, who immediately gets kudos for performing as a smallish furry dwarfed by the mike that no one could bother to adjust. Being short myself, I really do notice these things.

He presents a very nice mix of contemporary covers mixed with idle chatter and disarmingly self-depreciating humor. He is talented and comfortable with what he does, and it shows. Oh, and his music is good too. Well, his playing of other people's music on his guitar while he sings along is good.

He just sent me an e-mail in response to this post to imply that some of the tunes may or may not have been his. Though the between song monologues is usually when I am sneaking out for a cup of tea or something. So I won't commit either way right now. Was good, either way. Ooooh, and he's got a website, check it!

Okay, not that exciting a review, but it's my first one, be nice while I ramp up to speed, and keep an eye out of Azriahl in Second Life.

Builds 6: A Foggy Morning on the Sim

Okay, the environmental effects tools in the Second Life client are just loads of fun for taking pictures. Too bad the estate owner can actually set them as the default for the sim for special events ad the like.

Playing with the foggy preset provides a beautiful foggy morning casting itself over the land.

This by the way is my real home in SL, and the first think I ever tried to built. Not all that pretty, but very low prim and has some clever features (like the hidden door to the second floor). It is a simple traditional shinto shrine in form. Maybe some day I will rebuild it without all the mistakes and poorly aligned prims.

A foggy morning doesn't mean it won't be a wonderful evening.

For those who want to look at these builds in person, they are on Bagoombah and surrounding sims. It is an open sim but it is residential, so be nice and heed the sentry bots that some tenants like to annoy the rest of us with. They are a work in progress, so no guarantees on where the mountains wil be tomorrow.

Builds 5: A Garden

The garden that is hiding behind the big white superstore in the previous shots. Admittedly, all the plants and some of the other itemss are purchased, but the architecture and landscaping is my own work. A nice waterfall dumps hot water from a crevice in the side of the volcanco it backs up on, providing a nice natural hot spring. The pool below the fall is artificial constructed through a low dam and even has a bottom made of rocks with a large sculpted boulder in the middle for reclining in the hot water.

I really should put a bath house in somewhere so people can change in appropriate onsen wear.

Yes, the little Siamurai is me. No that's not a typo, just a contraction.

Builds 4: With Environmental Effects

Hey hey, here are some better shots with the environmental effects turned on.

An a much better shot of my house (okay, my artist loft, my house is on another island nearby) which gives a clear sense of why I offered to redo that big thing behind it.

Builds 3: Sneak Peek

Okay a sneak peek of my current build. The color has already changed and some other bits have been redone. I promise to keep it under 1000 prims and sell it for less than ten times that, honest.

Yes, the big store in the background (not fully rezzed) is the build in the last post in its proper place.

And that little house in front of it and to the right is mine. Yep, that is why I felt compelled to offer to rebuild the thing. Huge but fits the landscape better than a uniform box. There is also a nice garden I put in behind it with a hot spring that I should get some pictures of.

Builds 2: Hiro Plaza

Okay, my second real build was a "superstore" for a friend. I volunteered for this one because, well, what they had there before was a giant ugly box, and I had to stare out my window at it every morning as I dragged myself out of my virtual bed.

The goal was to have something monumental that fit on the same footprint as the older building, was larger, but actually looked smaller.

Here is the finished product, built in a sandbox that replicates the terrain of the destination sim.

View two, at a dramatic angle. Not the wonderfully floaty glass stairs. There were an accidental fit of inspiration.

Last view. The interior, still under construction, with the sunset framed in the torii, which was part of the deal in the redesign.

The product as installed is missing many things, like the glass display walls I designed that can be seen from the sides but not from the middle, giving a clear view of the open space from the viewing platform in the middle. And the gate went from a nice stone color to blood red, but still an improvement over what was there before.

Builds 1

Okay, so some filler so my miniscule ... errrm ... devoted following doesn't feel abandoned.

Just kidding.

Thought I would post some things I have done in Second Life up here to share. Just 'cuz I can.

So my first presentation is my first real build. Sometime I will show you my first actual build, but this is the first one I did for someone else. It is based on a Dutch colonial office building in Mojiko, Japan, and was designed specifically to fit in a tight little cove. The trees and the boat were purchased, but everything else is mine, mine, mine. Oh, the vending machines are freebies made by others too. Come to think of it, I bought lots of little knick-knacks for it. A weather vane. A man-hole cover. Fish. Office furniture for the "rental office". Oh well. Need to dress these things properly.

Except for the interior wallpaper, the windows, and the mosaic tile on the inner platform, the textures involved creative use of freebies and/or stuff I made myself.

There is even a secret fort hidden away in it for when I want to hide. Okay, so easy to find since you can find my dot on the map, but ... well ... bump skeletons are wonderful things. As soon as av's learn to duck, I'm doomed.

It is a shade prim-heavy, but not terribly so. The staircase running up the mountain probably uses the most.

It was designed as a commercial center, though I have to admit, no one has moved into it. Then again, I also admit, we haven't put much effort into renting it out. Somewhere around none, in fact. Though we have held some nice parties on the roof. The space is available, but better hurry, I am working on filling up two shops already and about to start on a third. Only two large shops and 8 boutiques left to go. A preference for art, crafts, realism, echt, and Asian influenced work.

View 1

View 2

Busy Busy Buzz Buzz Buzz

I haven't forgotten my blog, honest. Just wrestling with a full-time job, another full-time job (it was an accident, honest, I didn't intend to hoard them and deprive other people of jobs), and involvement in a theater production, and getting caught up building some steampunk related artifacts in Second Life (yep, you guessed it, I'm venting steampunk), and more book reviews than normal, and getting ready to start filling out applications for Ph.D. programs this Autumn. Run around. Run around. Scream. Run around.

Things begin to lighten up next month and then smooth out nicely come the end of August.

So it is not like I have forgotten my blog. More that I am actively ignoring it at the moment as a matter of life saving triage.

Grading

Decided to let my cats do my grading for me this semester.

So far I have given out a "dsf", an "xco" and three "qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq"s.

All in all, an improvement over last semester.

Bealzebubbles!

The root of all evil. Well, at least of educational evil, of the grave disservice variety.

efficiency != quality

Mootly's Taxonomy

Maybe the problem with Blooms is just that it is a list of words. Which then means that the words have to be standardized to have specific and exacting definitions that don't necessarily match the vernacular usage of those words, let alone across fields of study and levels of cognitive function.

I think the killer was the word "apply" which is considered a low-level operations. But think about the following:

• Apply the varnish in long, even strokes.
• You've got to apply yourself to this task.
• I would like to apply for this position.
• Apply the basic principles of sociology to discuss the following scenario ...
• Apply defusing techniques to talk down an armed and distraught husband.
• Apply the current readings on Marcuse to critique Schiller's analysis of the importance of aesthetic and play.

I hope you get the point. Each version requires a different level of function, and different skill sets.

Words in the English language do not always just serve one purpose. To force given words to each mean one thing in defining education only creates an artificial model of meaning that limits and delimits what can be talked about and what qualifies as education.

Neither one is beneficial, and neither one promotes educational advancement.

By the way, in my model, these would be P1/K1, simple encouragement, P1, F2/C2, P2/C2, C2/3. And I'll leave you to read my last post to find out what that all means.

Taxonomy, Part 4

Okay, so it time for some definitions.

The Tiers

Tier 1: Assimilation

Assimilation covers the acquisition and comprehension of information, knowledge, and skills. Students will be able to evidence competence through the simple presentation of knowledge or learned skills.

Tier 2: Adaptation

Adaptation moves beyond simple acquisition and comprehension. Students will be able to apply their knowledge and skills to real world tasks that require them to be able to adapt their knowledge base or skill set to meet the demands of a given context. Students will be able to contribute constructively to the field.

Tier 3: Creation

Students will be able to make significant contributions to the field through the synthesis of new information, knowledge, skill sets, or understandings and interpretations of prior art. Students will be able to make significant contributions to the field through innovation and advancement.

The Domains

The domains are heavily interdependent, and thus are for point of reference. No skills or knowledge sets (beyond the act of rote memorization) will ever require advancement in just one domain.

Factual

Factual knowledge is the learning of simple facts. It is also the application of those facts to simple presentation or application of skills.

Conceptual

Conceptual knowledge is the ability to think through problems and analyze issues and topics.

Procedural

Procedural knowledge refers to knowing how to do something. This might be the steps in a physical task or in a complicated math problem.

Social

Social knowledge is the ability to function in society. At its simplest form, it is accepting the cultural norms of one's society. At more complicated levels, it involved thinking reflexively about such topics as ethics, morality, and social mechanisms.

Kinesthetic

Kinesthetic refers to physical components of learning. For instance, how to play a musical instrument, hold a paint brush, or operate a machine, or play a sport.

There, that is a better start. Complete with a corrected typo.

Recession

Hmm.

American products ...

Ummm.

Well, that's a tough one ...

Hypocrisy ... no, that's readily available anywhere. Not something we have the market on.

Ummm.

Thermos! There we go, still made in the U.S. of A.

Video games! At least all the ones not being made in Japan and Korea.

Obesity! Oh wait, that's a by-product.

Ummm.

Sec sec sec ...

Star Trek movies!

Blow things up movies!

Debt! Buy our debt! Discounted this week only!

It's hard to dig yourself out when your primary commodity is consumption.

Standing Down

The last of the old guard has fallen
And though other troops martial to stand in their stead
It is not the same somehow.
It never was, really.

Three in one year. I am worn to a nub.

Mr. Fripp: 1988-2008
Not a bad run for a little street urchin.

Taxonomy, Part 3

Okay, a chart to map out what we have so far.

	Tier 1: Assimilation	Tier 2: Adaptation	Tier 3: Creation
Factual	Acquistion	Evaluation	Application
Conceptual	Comprehension	Analysis	Synthesis Creation
Procedural	Presentation	Analysis Adaptation	Synthesis Creation Innovation
Social
Kinesthetic	Performance		Creation

Yes, it's got big gaps in it, haven't gotten all that far yet. Perhaps what I need are keywords with a sense of where they fall in terms of ranges instead of discrete locations.

But the three tiers now move for taking in information, to working with it, to creating novel forms of knowledge, information, and practice.

Taxonomy, Part 2

As I think about it, I can see a need to revise my taxonomy a little.

Tier 1: Knowledge discovery

1. Acquisition (information)
2. Comprehension (knowledge)
3. Presentation

Tier 2: Knowledge-working

1. Evaluation
2. Analysis
3. Contribution

Tier 3: Knowledge creation

1. Application
2. Synthesis
3. Creation

That gives us three sets of three, each its own path.

But that isn't really what concerns me. The problem with this list is that it has the same flaw as Bloom's. It only addresses cognitive learning, and in a model that assumes a simple path from factual knowledge to meta-cognitive knowledge.

So what types of knowledge are there? If we listen to the experts (okay, I'll listen to the experts this time instead of arguing with them), we have:

• Cognitive
  • factual
  • conceptual
  • procedural
  • meta-cognitive
• Affective
• Psychomotor

Bloom's is just concerned with the first item, and assumes, as I complained about before, that the ability to think through at the meta-cognitive level is in some way a higher order of cognition than being able to act on these thoughts. My argument was that, in the end, it always has to come back to application. Otherwise, what's the point? So I bring it back to application first as presentation, then as contribution to the body of knowledge, then as creation of new knowledge.

But now that I think about it, it seems that we have six knowledges to deal with:

• factual
• conceptual
• procedural
• reflexive/abstract
• behavioral
• kinesthetic

In any taxonomy of learning, all these need to be taken into account.

Fast, where does the following learned skill fall into Bloom's taxonomy?

Students will hold a pen, pencil or other sketching tool in a balanced posture that allows for the hand to move the utensil smoothly across the drawing surface.

Get the point?

Maybe it is missing from the list because it is not a significant accomplishment. (And maybe you need an artist to come over and kick you in the kneecaps. That'll learn ya.)

There is more to learning than knowledge, and a matrix that does not fit easily into a grid since these things don't always interrelate cleanly.

But now that I have fuel for the fire, I am going to try anyway.

Next time though. That is my rant for today.

Blather

My other half says I forgot "blather" in my taxonomy.

As in: Students will learn to blather on endlessly on topics of interest to no one but them.

Good point. How could I have missed that.

Wait. That wasn't a dig, was it?

Bloom's Taxonomy

Haven't read Bloom's in a while. But I found myself having to do so recently.

It was nice to get a refresher because now I remember that the problem with it is the primacy it gives to pure knowledge over applied knowledge.

I would structure my sequence of deepening knowledge like this:

1. Acquisition (information)
2. Comprehension (knowledge)
3. Evaluation
4. Analysis
5. Synthesis
6. Understanding
7. Application

(I snuck understanding in there because it doesn't show up in Bloom's. Certainly not at a higher order of awareness.)

Why this order?

Because I define those words differently, and truly-informed application (as opposed to mere use) is the product of all the other knowledge tools, not a step that must eventually be discarded in the quest for true understanding and knowledge. It is this very arrangement which has ensconced higher education in its own glass tower and left it wondering why it doesn't get the respect it deserves. It is assuming that knowledge in pure form is superior to knowledge applied for practical good. And most of the rest of the world is left wondering "we are subsidizing this why?"

In this sense we are going back to the days of the Greeks, when any true citizen would never sully their hands with something so base as application. But everything in the taxonomy is useless if it cannot in the end be applied to something.

On the other hand, perhaps the problem is that there needs to be two trees (making the Greeks right in at least one sense), one which encapsulates the depth of understanding and the other the depth of application. This stands in opposition to the current taxonomy, which treats application as a single step in the ladder to deeper understanding, rather than something that can have its own tiers. That is a little harder. Interesting how we have so many words for how to think about things, but so few on how to use things. I never thought about that before. Very interesting indeed. Many of the verbs put forward as "application" in Blooms are really either forms of the other categories or of presentation, not of actual application.

• Presentation: demonstrate, dramatize, illustrate, operate, sketch, write.
• Evaluation: choose
• Analysis: interpret
• Synthesis: solve
• Application: apply, employ, use

"Schedule" is an odd word out except in certain contexts I don't get at the moment. And "practice" has so many meanings that it could occur at any level, from acquisition (practice the guitar) to analysis/synthesis/application (practice medicine).

Then again maybe I am just biased because the idea of 1950s education psychologists reminds of my learning as a psychology undergrad of just how much damage psychologists in the middle of the 20th century did to their own field in an attempt to be the next technocratic hegemon. Fortunately, most of it was thoroughly discredited. Except for the educational psychologists. Most probably because they took something abstract and gave it concrete labels that make bean counters happy. Yeesh, I mean, these are the people who thought they could build valid tools of psychological assessment by comparing inpatients in a Midwestern U.S. psychiatric hospital to the family members that would come to visit them.

Anyway, I want to propose a new taxonomy, I call it Mootly's taxonomy, just because Bloom's taxonomy is already taken. Here's a first draft with lots of sloppy wording to drive all true prescriptivists nuts:

Tier 1: Knowledge discovery
Appropriate for primary education through early post-secondary, as well as for purely informational fields.

1. Acquisition (information)
   The knowledge or skill has been acquired and can be reproduced in the same context it was presented in, as well as recognized when presented again.
2. Comprehension (knowledge)
   The knowledge or skill is understood to the extent that it can be recognized in and as part of a context. It can be reproduced in context other than that which it was presented in.
3. Presentation
   The knowledge or skill can be used in the creation of media or the use of a skill to demonstrate knowledge.

Tier 2: Knowledge-working
Appropriate for higher-education at all levels, but especially undergraduates and trade skills.

4. Evaluation
   The knowledge or skill can be used as a tool to evaluate or acquire other knowledge and skills. The validity and utility of the knowledge can be assessed.
5. Analysis
   The knowledge or skill can be considered in its own context. Knowledge can be analyzed to find flaws and core concepts that need further exploration. Skills can be analyzed so that the person can improve through self-awareness of their own current limitations.
6. Contribution
   Knowledge and skills can be organized and presented in ways that contribute to the field. The presentation not of known information but of explorations in the current state of knowledge. As in: contributing to the literature.

Tier 3: Knowledge creation
Appropriate for higher education,especially at the higher levels. Mandatory at the graduate level and for all professionals deserving of the appellation.

7. Synthesis
   The development of new approaches to knowledge sets or skills through the synthesis of prior knowledge-working.
8. Creation
   The development and creation of new skills and knowledge sets that are returned to the community.
9. Application
   The active application of knowledge and skills sets, proving that one is ready for a profession that will require this of them.

If you look there are now three paths in play. There is acquisition to synthesis, comprehension to creation, and presentation to application. Okay, that is kind of contrived, but with a little tweaking there could be. There is a path of pure knowledge working in the series, and one of application in the series. This allows there to be Tier 3 values for skill-based learning. And it even pushed the third tier beyond the expectations in Bloom's taxonomy by accommodating such things as post-doctoral work and professionals who are contributing and generating knowledge rather than consuming it.

Now I just need some fancy analysis of verbs to make it as dogmatic and robust as Bloom's, while at the same time less problematic.

More Corporate Haiku

Too long at my desk
staring at the glowing box —
clouds roll by outside.

Conflict of Disinterest

I don't normally pipe up on politics, except in that big, abstract philosophical way, but this one is just too hard to ignore.

In the current Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama the Democratic party may have painted itself into a bit of a corner. The issue here is the superdelegates. The superdelegates were instituted to create a sense of party unity by the following process:

• The American public votes in the primary.
• The superdelegates throw their support behind the winner to give the illusion of more party unity than is actually there to give the chosen candidate more political clout and put them on a stronger footing in the actual election.

The problem is that the superdelegates are casting their votes early, committing to one side or the other in the current primary before the general public has had the time to vote. Most of them are voting for Hillary.

If Obama wins the popular vote in the primary, this creates an interesting situation.

What happens if he wins the popular vote, but not by enough to override the votes of the superdelegates. Then the American public is given the distinct impression that they chose their candidate, but their vote was ignored and the Party chose who it wanted and not who the people wanted. This will reflect badly on them.

But if those who have already committed change their minds to follow the majority of voters, opponents can leap on them as being weak and indecisive, which will also hurt them.

And then things get interesting. If Obama gets the popular vote, he did it without Florida and Michigan, who had their delegates stripped for violating parole ... errr ... primary rules. Both states went to Hillary. In a tight race, those votes could be the deciding factor between Hillary and Obama.

• If they don't give them back when giving them back would tip the election, people will scream foul.
• If they do give them back when giving them back would tip the election, people will scream foul.

So unless either Obama pretty much takes the rest of the country for a solid victory or Hillary wins the primary without Florida and Michigan, and without including the superdelegates in the count, expect a dust up before this thing settles and we have a candidate. And expect the dust up to hurt the Democrats in the general election.

Haiku

Work overreaches time
As it all happens at once —
Brain is all melty.

Please review this book
For next week. Just need to read
1200 pages.

Not me either

Got bored, did a search on Mootly. Not all that many not me's out there really. Much less interesting that the previous not me, but still not me. Nothing like Googling not myself. :)

[http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Mootly-occupations.ashx]
[http://www.cardomain.com/id/mootly]
[http://neoseeker.com/members/profiles/Mootly/]

Not me

A borrowed abstract, just cause it fits the theme.

Yim, Jaeyeon. 'State Identity' and 'Collective Self': Problems and Solutions Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, Sep 02, 2004. 2006-10-05 [http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p59936_index.html]

Abstract: While we take for granted the prevalence of “self” in key terms such as self-help, self-preservation, or self-determination in the theory of international relations, the ways in which the collective “self” should be conceptualized and applied to the analysis of conflicts between selves remain obscure. The constructivist perspective, as one of many efforts to understand interstate relations by way of situating a “self” with relation to an “other” positioned to play a counterrole at the interpersonal level, explains interactions between states by using the notion of “state identity.” This perspective offers limited insights due to the incompatible components of the term “state identity,” which is oriented toward an external, as opposed to internal, perspective of “identity.” As a result of using “state identity” in this way, we construe an actor’s identity not by what the actor does, but by virtue of how an author has ascribed a certain “identity” to the state; the term “identity” is treated as a mere taxonomic tool according to a particular author’s research focus, which is separate from the actor’s self-conception and the actor’s identification with and commitment to that “identity.” As a result, the distinct perspective resulting from such a consideration of “identity” leaves the real actors and their self-identification out of the study of international relations. In this paper I question the theoretical postulation of “state identity,” i.e., state as a unitary actor, in two ways: (1) I point out that the convention of seeing the state as a unitary actor who plays an assigned role is derived from a dramaturgical metaphor and I question how the metaphor can be adequately applied to the study of “state identity” by covering two important aspects of the actor––what constitutes the actor and the way in which an actor’s self-conceptualization affects his choice of action in different contexts; and (2) I reconsider the use of metonymy in ordinary language. Metonymy enables us to refer to the subject of an action as though it were a single coherent entity and I show that the concept of “state identity” is an example of metonymy.

Because the subject of “identity” shifts between individuals and groups, in order to make sense of an actor’s “identity” in international relations, we should examine the ways in which members of a nation interact with their political leaders in the process of identifying who they are, on the one hand, the ways in which political leaders as co-members of the nation implement certain national policies against other nations, on the other. Based on the insights of a social identity perspective from social psychology, I present “collective self” as a useful concept for international relations by focusing on people’s identification of “self” within the context of the group to which they belong. Viewed from the perspective of the subjective self or others, what the “self” is represents a different identity. I highlight the role of memory in the subjective meaning of one’s “identity” and sense of “self.” In further developing the notion of memory, I introduce three conceptual stages of “collective self”––remembering self, securitizing self, and legalizing self––as part of a larger conceptual framework which inks constitution of the “collective self” to the sources, formulation, and implementation of national security policy.

 

Follow-up

Someone asked, so a follow up ...

It's a dead end discussion anyway. Easy enough to say that our socially-defined roles are in conflict with themselves, the functional role and the ideal role no longer corresponding to each other, but where do you go after that?

In other words: you may be a free individual, equal to me because of your humanity, but your a still just a janitor, how dare you say "hi' to the CEO.

But it is not the issue of conformance. It is the issue of abstracted ideals traditionally being the demense of the elite, and being elite, the elite were provided with a support structure that promoted this abstracted ideal self. But today, when everyone has an abstracted ideal self in a model of equality and freedom, the social support networks don't function, since they are still largely focused on one's role in society rather than the ideal they profess to support. It is not that the model is wrong, it is just that it has no support structure to bolster it, so it comes off feeling like nothing more than an empty promise to too many. Given our current political systems, the only way to preserve equality is through hierarchy ... go figure. If something requires that it be its own antithesis in order to function, what does that say about it? Definitely a thorny question.

But the point it was all coming out of was that the self of freedom and equality is an abstracted self, and in that sense a fictional, contrived, or constructed self that is often at odds with the socially perceived and socially defined self. Perhaps then the first step in the idea of constructed selves that is in line with modern attitudes toward self, as well as the ability of real people to become fictional through the process of media, as well as the ability of fictional people to become real through the same vehicle.