danger! school

http://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/Danger_schoo.pdf

i found this book on the internet. It has a lot of line drawings so i think its easy to read. though the information is a bit outdated, it touches upon the various issues ailing education.

i thought i would like to share it, and ask for other people's experiences and see if they correspond with the statements in this file. if so, then maybe they might be still relevant.

mind mapping!

the other day, Rab mentioned mind mapping in class.
In high school, i found a book called Mind mapping by Tony Buzan, and it proved to be very beneficial in constructing notes and summaries. To use such devices in class just goes to show how in touch Rab is. its going to be hard to be better than Rab! |X
i think there is a translation in Japanese too, and its fun to read.
if you know of any other useful methods to cope with studies, please tell me!

Interesting site!

http://fora.tv/2010/03/26/Mullen_and_Galloway_Who_Is_Doing_This_Well#Scott_Galloway_How_to_Make_Content_Go_Viral
want to feel like an intellectual? go to Fora.tv. its very informative, and allows us to download videos. most of the videos are about an hour-long, but most of them have a short clip of the best part of the speech, so its easy to decide whether you want to see a certain video or not!

this video analyses how a video can be made to spread like wildfire!
personally, i like Michael Pollan.
If anyone else has a person to recommend, please tell me.

chapter 4 'eyes in the back of your head or keep your eye on the ball'

i read in a book by Allan and Barbara Pease that men have tunnel vision, while women don't. Nisbett goes further to say that only western men have tunnel vision. hmmm

after much indecision as seen in earlier chapters, nesbitt makes a clear-cut statement on page 84. ' the holism of the ancient chinese...is true of East Asians today'.
here, Nisbett makes references to the various experiments which give him the reasons for making his thesis statement.
Nisbett says that Japanese find it hard to distinguish objects from their surroundings. but some examples might disprove this statement. for example, japan and south korea have some of the best baseball teams in the world. China puts up sterling performances at the Olympics.
at the other end of the spectrum, more and more people from western cultures are seeking out traditional Eastern schools of thought.
i do agree with nesbitt that everyone has different levels of focus, but i think that such levels denote the level of understanding in an individual, and not the way of thinking in a culture.
the more you learn, the more you are able to recognise the connections between everything.

Chapter 3: Living together vs Going it alone

i have a doubt about the very first line of this chapter, which says [most westerners, or at any rate most Americans] why is he changing the group being discussed every time? i think that its a bit misleading. he goes on to affirm, after describing some characteristics, that such people exist in western cultures including Europe.
About the British Commonwealth. it includes countries like India and Pakistan, countries which are more oriental in their way of thinking.
Nisbett almost always uses the Western way of thinking as the common standard and the East Asian way of thinking as the exception to the rule.
p66. What type of thinking does Australia have? does it have the eastern way of thinking?


i have a personal question. Why are so many people in western cultures such devout followers of religions? maybe they're searching for a group to belong to.

weird dream

i had one of those those crazy dreams which make you wake up all frustrated.
the CB section was having classes in a sprawling hotel with a crazy design, hallways and conference rooms all over the place. I could see the classes going on in the garden, and i was searching for a way out into the garden, but i couldn't find it. after circling the buildings for hundreds of times, a tiny voice said,' take the untrodden path, make your own way, do what appears stupid'. so i headed for the exit ...and wonders of wonders! i found myself smack in the middle of a heated group discussion( I forgot what the topic was). then everybody freezes, and Rab, with a slow menacing walk (just like in those cheesy gangster movies) approaches me and says' ah , the elusive, mr.Abe'
' If you miss another of my classes, i will give you an E for all of your classes'. the tiny voice from behind says ' he's bluffing, use your critical thinking!' 'WHAT?!' and i woke up.

Narrative Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiQtxU3kPYc&feature=related
this is a link to a video of the Blue Hearts, a punk rock band i like , whose lyrics i was reminded of when listening to NP.
In LP, we learnt of the subtle and not so subtle ways in which the media is manipulated to serve the interests of the big corporations.
What interested me the most was the part about Independent Alternative Media(IAM). Such media maintain their independence by sacrificing a chance for revenue. Coming into contact with any of these media is sure to make one think twice about squandering the numerous opportunities which Japanese society provides us.
this spring, I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet the editor of Days Japan http://www.daysjapan.net/e/index.html, a Japanese IAM covering topics ranging wars to anti-nuclear power plant demonstrations. He said that we all have a responsibility to learn the facts of the consequences of our actions, and his job was to communicate the truth behind the veil applied by the mass media.
I remember the first time i came across the Days Japan Magazine. i was lost for words. after flipping through the first few pages, i softly put the magazine down and stood still for a few moments, trying hard to suppress the overwhelming sense of nausea which engulfed me. blood pounding in my ears, i whispered softly to myself:'this is the truth. This is the cost'.
Days Japan might also be the reason i came to ICU. to shoulder our responsibilities and try to pay back our enormous debt by helping to create a world without war.

my defense for traditional methods of teaching got a big whack in the groin with the introduction of......ZOTERO!कितना सुन्दर हेई । how wonderful! for starters.....

1. “tips_and_tricks [Zotero Documentation],” http://www.zotero.org/support/tips_and_tricks.

its just the tip of the iceberg!

chapter 2:the social origins of mind

There were two things which caught my attention in this chapter.

first, the requirements for maintaining a condition of relatively free inquiry. in Greece, this was achieved by allowing free movement between cities with autonomous governments. this in effect provides a sort of political asylum. however, i felt that this system might lead to the spread of irresponsible ideas,where short-term profit is given greater focus over the sustainability of the idea.

second. about field dependence. is this supposed to be a beneficial thing, or is it a flaw or a shortcoming? field dependence sounds like a necessary quality to succeed in human society, but i'm not sure. however,it was interesting to read the stats about field dependence. i hope to use it in my essay.

chapter1 the syllogism and the tao

Richard Nisbett is a leading professor in the field of Psychology. Having spent most of his time in countries with a dominant western culture he may portray the Western Ideals as superior to the Eastern school of thought.

In the first chapter, the author divides the world into roughly two different parts based upon the school of thinking practised.

he first describes the way of thinking of the Greeks. Perhaps because of my Asian upbringing, I feel that the Greeks lose sight of the important things in life in the process of searching for the Truth. I also got the impression that Greek culture is very egocentric, and places emphasis on the achievements of individuals. However, the attitude of questioning established truths was instrumental in the development(?) of mankind as a whole. I think that the Greeks were also the forerunners of the Reductionist school of thought, where it is believed that everything can be rationally explained.

on the other hand, there is the eastern way of thinking which emphasises on the harmony of the group.i think that this school of thought recognises the limits of humans and the mysteries of nature, and tries to adapt to the circumstances. this way of thinking where everyone is connected to everyone else is very interesting. as a major drawback, however, it is it is based on the assumption that the socially established rules are perfect because no one argues with the law.

about today's essay writing class

in today's class, we learnt how to write a gripping academic essay. before coming to ICU, i thought that academic essays by default were very boring things, but after learning of the effort that goes into writing an essay that appeals to a reader, my point of view has completely changed.

i also learnt from my classmate that we were supposed to be writing a journal for every class we attend in the ELP, so i would also like to write about yesterday's class. One of the points made by Prof. Rab was the difference between a dogma and an assumption. while a dogmatic person is a stubborn person who cannot be made to budge even when all the evidence points out the mistake, a person who assumes something is just making an innocent mistake.

the classes on essay-writing are very insightful and i hope that my essay is worthy of the effort that Prof. Rab has poured into these classes. I hope i can make a convincing argument!

its one step closer to a life as a technologically literate person! we learned how to post a video of ourselves on our blogs. I also used a Mac for the first time. its a different experience altogether.

i watched two videos today in class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQAi learnt from them was that harmony can be created out of the most (seemingly) varied sources if one has the talent, and that singing the same songhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjY3UvQ2n98 doesn't necessarily mean that the end product is good.