Website Recommendation: TED Talks

I intended to post this a few days ago, so I missed a month. I shall try to make it up this month with two posts. Today's item of interest is TED Talks, a website that is about...well, nearly everything.

TED Talks is basically a forum for introducing or expanding on new, interesting, or important ideas. The topics cover areas of science, technology, entertainment, anthropology, and a host of other issues (there are easily over 200 topics listed on the website). The views are informed and diverse, sparking some very thought-provoking ideas. While I don't always agree with what is said, I always come away with a better perspective on how people are investigating current issues.

It is a good site. Go take a look: http://www.ted.com/talks

Insight into Websites: Extra Credits

I’m beginning my reviews with an admission – I like computer games. This isn't really much of a revelation to anyone who knows me, though some often wonder why I have such an interest. For those people, and for anyone else interested in the structure, meaning, and purpose of games, I offer you my first website of interest, Extra Credits.

Extra Credits is a video series that highlights aspects of games, gaming, and the game industry that many people overlook or are simply ignorant of. Their videos cover a diverse range of topics such as game design, storytelling in games, the use of games as educational tools, and even compulsive video game play. All of the topics covered are treated with a serious professional focus, which reflects the experience the show’s staff has with the topic. At the same time, the subjects are presented in a fun, interesting way that makes it easy for newcomers to get a grasp of what is being examined and why it is important.

It is a simple fact that video games have become a part of the lives of nearly anyone who uses computer technology. From elaborate big-budget titles like Call of Duty to small, simple games like any one of many electronic Sudoku variants, games are everywhere you find computers (or cell phones). The question of what to do about and with them is, therefore, important. While many people immerse themselves a bit too deeply in games, others make the mistake of dismissing them as “immature” or “kids’ stuff”. Extra Credits, in my opinion, does an admirable job of highlighting just how complex games can be, and how substantially they can impact our society, for ill or for good.

Even if you have no interest in games at all, some of the topics (e.g. gaming in education), may still be of interest, just because of the ideas that are tossed around. Because of this, and EC’s mature, accessible, and lighthearted approach, I strongly recommend people give this series a try.

To visit the Extra Credits website, follow this link:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits

Doing Much but Saying Little

I’ve been a bit quieter than I expected lately, on account of keeping busy. I have been working on several different things at once – teaching at LCU, helping reorganize parts of IRI, reviewing the training materials for use in our South Africa and Hong Kong pilots, meeting with prospective partners, etc. Unfortunately, while this makes my life interesting, it doesn't necessarily make for good blog posts:

“Today I read books. Then I reviewed the training material I am working on. Then I edited the material a bit. Then I had a meeting. Then I graded papers.”

This is not exactly gripping reading.

So in an attempt to add some actual useful content to this blog, I am going to try to write up a short review of some of the reading I am doing. Some of this will be books we are using in some classes (real books that non-student people read, not just academic books), some of it will be reading of my own, whether that be books, blogs, interesting news articles, etc. I posted that I wanted to do things like this before, and now, with my more academic focus this year, I think I can actually pull them off.

Let’s give it a try.

Check in later this month for my first installment – I have a  couple articles and blogs I have been reading that have posed some interesting questions, so that seems like a good place to start.

Have a great October!

Still Alive

Well, I haven't posted in a longer time than I would have liked, but I am still alive. I am currently working at Lincoln Christian University, acting as their Missionary-in-Residence, which, roughly, means that I am "in charge" of helping students understand their role as ministers and missionaries. I am also helping lead a worldview class, which is immensely fun.

In the meantime, I am working on the several pilot programs IRI has scheduled for the next 12 months. The closest up is the one in December in South Africa, which seems to be progressing well. The other three are in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Myanmar in 2014. I am working with our board member in Hong Kong on the pilot there, and Al is setting up the other two. In addition, I have at least two leads I am working on which may result in pilot seminars in the U.S. sometime in the next 8-12 months. If all goes well, I can use these seminars to train some additional presenters to help us cover the increase in work we will experience when the pilots we have scheduled provide us with proof-of-concept for educators in South Africa and Hong Kong.

So things are going well, and I am busy. Speaking of which, it is time to get back to grading - it turns out my students actually want to know how well they do on their assignments. Imagine that.

Back in the U.S.A.

It's been a long, crazy trip, but after an unexpected two-month extension, I am back from Hong Kong. Much has happened in the last few months, but our recent rapid-fire change of schedule has probably been the most difficult to weather.

Things started getting complicated when I was asked to fill in preaching at Ken's Fairview Park church after his death. I was happy to help out, and the experience was enjoyable (for me, at least - others tell me they enjoyed it, too). The church really has some great people, and everyone was very welcoming and interested in learning, which makes it much easier to teach. Unfortunately, the sermons ended on a bit of a sad note, with news that the preacher Ken had chosen to replace him, Cody, was denied a his visa to come to Hong Kong (Cody is from the Philippines, and is a very intelligent and energetic man - I met him in the Philippines, and have been very impressed with his friendly energy and his dedication). I don't know what the church will be doing now that I am gone, but hope to keep in touch and remain updated on their doings.

The second major work that I was able to be a part of was helping our newest board member, Kitty Ho, put together some training materials for local HK schools based on our Insight principles and theories. The classes were three hours long, and covered the importance of critical thinking and building positive relationships in an educational environment. There were three sessions in three different schools that taught children with intellectual disabilities. Participants were mostly teachers, though we also had some physical therapists. The classes were generally well-received, with several inquires about when we would be able to do follow-up, so I believe our prospects for developing our programs in Hong Kong are definitely positive. Kitty and I are now working on the official pilot program for HK schools that will take place in the Summer of 2014.

Overall, this was a great trip - I was able to meet some fantastic people, and work on some really engaging and edifying projects. I look forward to going back next year. Until then, however, I have some new work to accomplish: I will be working at Lincoln Christian University for the next school year, as well as preparing for a community development pilot seminar in South Africa this December. Busy times!

On a final note, Al was forced to come back to the U.S. early due to some serious dental issues (the doctors found a growth in his mouth which had been causing him extreme pain - he needed to return to the U.S. for his medical insurance to cover the procedure to investigate/remove it). As a result, our purchase of a vehicle for Mozambique has been delayed until he can get back. The money we have raised will remain in a separate fund  until we can purchase the vehicle as planned.

Fundraising!

I am currently working on a fundraising project for Insight Resources International. This proved to be both fairly simple (setting up the site through GoFundMe was really, really easy), and really hard (creating the video for the fundraiser was something I have never done). It was definitely an interesting experience, and I think the next fundraiser I set up will go a lot smoother after I work out the bugs through this one.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to set up the fundraiser the way I wanted. I would have preferred to have the money sent directly to IRI, and that is how I plan to set up all the future fundraising efforts, but GoFundMe only sends funds to the charity once a month, and we don't have time to wait for the funds to come in. As a result, I had to set up a personal fundraiser - I hope people aren't turned off by sending me the money so I can get it to IRI. It's the only way I found to get the money where it needs to go quickly enough.

If anyone is interested in donating, the fundraising page is here:

http://www.gofundme.com/3bp20w

The video for the fundraiser is also on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKCKupk2HQ

Insights from Hong Kong

It appears I have not made it back to the U.S. after all.

Originally, the plan was for Al and I return to the U.S. after spending a few weeks in Hong Kong to follow up with people and work out some plans for next year. While we did accomplish these things (and more), I was given the opportunity to help our host's church. Ken had been the preacher at a church in Hong Kong and after his death, the church needed someone to take over the preaching. Fortunately, Ken had already made plans for a successor - unfortunately, that successor was from the Philippines, and the immigration procedures were not complete. As a result, there was a gap between Ken's death and when his successor could make it to Hong Kong that required an interim preacher.

Al volunteered me to fill in.

I'm not at all upset with his presumption - in fact, this has provided me with an opportunity to get to know several of the friends we made on our trip better, as well as get to know Hong Kong better in general. I am currently working on plans for next year, meeting new people, working with our new board member (who is a Hong Kong national), and even investigating job opportunities so that I can support myself when I return next year as part of our ongoing plans for developing programs here, in the Philippines, and in Myanmar. This is a tremendous opportunity, and I am grateful for Al's timely suggestion to the church here. I am also grateful for the people I have met so far, and look forward to working with everyone here for the next two months.

The current schedule now has me returning to the U.S. in late July. I will be posting more about my U.S. plans as my return date approaches.

Incoming From the Philippines

Finally, in the last two days of my trip to the Philippines, I am able to get online to make a post. It has been an exciting, traumatic, exhausting, and enlightening time here. I will post more specific details once I get back to the U.S. (and no longer have to borrow other people's computers to make a post), but for now, let me sum up:

Arrival and 1st Stop:

Al, Ken (our host), and I arrived in the Philippines on the 20th of March, just exactly five weeks ago. We were met by Marie Panti, one of Ken's associates here. We traveled to her home, which would serve as the venue of our Insight Seminar. Between preparation and execution, the seminar lasted about two and a half weeks. We had delegates attending from the Philippines, Myanmar, and Hong Kong. When the seminar was over, the group from Hong Kong returned home, and the rest of us traveled north to our next scheduled stop.

2nd Stop - It All Breaks Down:

Our second stop was the home of Glo - one of the delegates who attended our seminar at Marie's home. The trip north took around eight hours by bus, and was fairly comfortable for a bus trip. Upon arrival, Ken and several nationals began preparation for the retreat they were running. Before the retreat began, however, there was the matter of a wedding to attend (and participate in - more about that in a later post). After the wedding, we kicked off the beginning of the retreat with Ken and the others.

Then Ken died.

The Aftermath:

Ken's death was both unexpected and traumatic. Everybody at the retreat loved and respected him, and he was liked by many people in the community as well. Everything came to a halt, until we could get his family there and determine how to handle memorial services and transportation of his remains. I will give additional information in a later post, but suffice to say it changed everything.

After all the arrangements were made and the funeral was conducted, Ken's family left with a few of the nationals for Manila. From there, the family took Ken's remains back to Hong Kong. Al and I remained behind, our previous plans cancelled, and spent our time working with the local people setting up a week-long community program. Al coached the locals to identify and develop solutions for their local issues, and by the time the remaining nationals returned from Manila, the program was being led by local leadership.

Now:

Now the extended community development program is winding up (the locals decided to extend the program an additional week to cover all the issues they were uncovering), and Al and I are getting ready to head back to Hong Kong on Friday. I plan to post another quick update as that leg of the trip winds up, then set up a more detailed account (with pictures, even!) once I get back to the U.S. and have easier access to the Internet.

That's it for now - stay tuned next month for details of the Hong Kong experience!

Philippines Log: Friday, 3/22/2013

We have made it to the Philippines! I arrived in Hong Kong a little over a week ago after a 23-hour flight. We stayed over the weekend at Ken’s church (Ken is hosting us in Hong Kong), and picked up a few final supplies before heading out for Manila on Wednesday. Compared to the flight to get to Hong Kong, the flight to Manila was fairly quick – only about an hour and a half in the air. We (Al, Ken, and I) arrived at the Philippines and were picked up by our host here, Marie, and Dave, an IRI board member who had arrived the day before. Marie took us south, stopping by a mall (to pick up a few more things we managed to remember only after getting on the plane in Hong Kong) and eventually crossing a lake to arrive at her home, a concrete and metal house on a mountain overlooking said lake.

Currently, we are preparing for the Insight Seminar next week. We arrived early, so only those of us from Hong Kong, a national minister named Cody, and Marie and her family are here right now. We expect the rest of the group to arrive today and late tomorrow. In total, there should be about 24 of us.

A Late Arrival in Feburary

It's been a while since my last post. Preparations for the trip to the Philippines are underway, and I have just finished my battery of vaccinations to get ready for the trip. I will be traveling first to Hong Kong, then on to Manila, where Al and I will be for about a month - a week for the seminar, and three for follow-up coaching with the participants and sponsoring organization. On the trip back, I will be staying in Hong Kong for about three weeks for more coaching.

While our main focus remains Africa (there are plans for me to head back as early as August), our long-term goals have always included Asia, so it is exciting to get a chance to see what kind of impact our seminar and coaching program can have in a completely different cultural context. I expect everyone this trip will learn quite a lot.

Ideas From The Seminar: Generalizations

January’s Insight Seminar was a lot of fun for me (and, I hope, for the participants). During the sessions, we would get into various discussions about some of the concepts and ideas we are exploring. Even relatively simple ideas like generalization can generate some interesting ideas. One such idea was the idea that governments, by necessity, are generalists. That is, at the governmental level, things tend to be handled in terms of “big numbers” as opposed to dealing with individuals. There are a number of implications of this phenomenon, and I recently found one particular article that serves as a good example of the difference between thinking generally and thinking in terms of specific individuals.

Check it out here.

To sum up, the article talks about government efforts to use “crime prediction software” to determine the level of supervision a particular prisoner should have upon probation or parole. By analyzing the prisoner’s environment, history, and other factors the crime-prediction software creates a statistical probability of that person committing a crime.

From the government’s general perspective, this is a great idea—it saves time and expenses by allowing parole officers to focus on the more likely cases of criminal relapse. It is easy to see how a government would love such a system. From the perspective of an individual, however, this can represent a terrible system, as an individual is being judged, not by the type of person he or she is, nor by the actions that person takes, but by environmental and social factors that may be outside of his or her control. Thus, the system becomes, from the perspective of an individual, an example of profiling which demeans the individual by taking the sentence the government has required and adding conditions to it on the word of a computer.

Ultimately, questions regarding the appropriateness of such software focus on finding a balance between the government’s need to manage by numbers (where all citizens are, by necessity, regarded as statistics), and the need to maintain the dignity of the individual. At the heart of this debate is a very simple concept: generalizations are generally true (but by no means universal in application). This is the major struggle we see in many debates about policy—to make governing easier for the government, or to make life more free for the governed.

New Year: New Ideas

It’s a new year, IRI has a new website, and I am moving some of the content of this blog over to the new IRI blog/news feed. This means I will be changing the content of this blog a little in 2013. Up until now, IRI didn’t have a dedicated blog/news outlet that was really functional, so this site was a kind of not-technically-but-the-best-you-will-get news blog for IRI. Now that our website has its own news blog, I can take blog in a few new directions that I have wanted to explore. I will still be covering personal news – where I am going, what I am up to, etc. What I plan to add are more personal reflections on the impact of the work we do and the theories behind it. Thus, you will see a number of new and perhaps even interesting reflections on how cognition (as understood through perception, reason, and emotion) intersect with various areas of life.

Will this be interesting? Will it be educational? Will it be a good cure for insomnia? I have no idea. This is a new experiment for me, and so your feedback and thoughts about what I might talk about are welcome. 

So now you have an idea of what’s coming this year. I hope you will enjoy the blog and the new IRI news feed. Stay tuned for more insights!