Monday, March 31, 2008

Art Exhibit



The SBTS student body is having a show, so I put a couple pieces in play to help the turnout- but not this one.

"Seed of the Woman Lifted Up"- 2008- 38"x12" Cast Bronze, Redwood, Styrene, and Pressboard.

Card Concert


This was my fourth or fifth Michael Card concert over the years, and it brought to mind how different every concert has been. The crowd at Southern was larger than some church setttings I have previously heard the artist perform in. It was laid back and included a bit more singalong than usual, I think. The ad hoc way in which he wove the songs together was very effective, I think, and the mix of stories and illustrations brought them together coherently.

I enjoy Michael Card as an instrumentalist as well, and he treated us to a real variety along those lines.

Sit. Blog. Sit.



How to choose a healthy chair.

Awards


The National Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD) awarded the 2007 Institutional Merit Award to the SLCC Professional Development Council for their five certificate programs –Leadership/Management, Classified Development, Adjunct Faculty, Essential Technology Skills and Office Productivity. I was a lead designer for three of these programs.


The fruit of my labor over the past couple of years (along with my very praiseworthy team) has been named a finalist in two categories of the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) 23rd Annual Codie Awards competition- the awards honor outstanding achievement and vision in the software, digital content, and education technology industries. This is two years in a row it’s been nominated (sorry, no win last year)… Voting continues till April 25 and SIIA will announce the winners of the 2008 Codie Awards at a gala dinner in San Francisco on May 20, 2008.

Nominated for another award!

McGraw-Hill Online Learning has been selected as a finalist in the Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution category and the Best Postsecondary Instructional Solution category.

Educational technology links

Participation in an Online Learning Community- discusses the need for a pedagogical approach that relies heavily on social, collaborative and ethical aspects of learning as a starting point for the design of online learning communities.

More research supports the idea that the successful traits of a distance learner are similar to the successful traits of an adult learner in traditional educational settings.

Problem based Learning research.

Athabasca University Elluminate seminars:Case study in Problem Based Learning.

And Effective use of context in learning.

Research on Fostering equitable University access.

Applications to colleges are breaking records- The swelling population of 18-year-olds is not supposed to peak until 2009, when the largest group of high school seniors in the nation’s history, 3.2 million, are to graduate.

A Taste of Web 2.0- article

A good video on Web 2.0 differences from jutecht on YouTube-

Piano Lessons online-This was curiously interesting to see how they are doing it -

Google’s next conquest- Academic Research.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Songs Discovered

A bunch-o-tunes turned up as I was transcribing some old tapes that predate my digital recorders I carry everywhere I go...some were unfinished so they will get a 2008 date.



I'll just post these as separate pages as there are almost twenty of them total...
New 2006 songs
New 2008 songs

Songs arise


Trust and Obey

When the world’s mountains I cannot scale
When I try my very best but still I fail
When doubts abide and fears assail
I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey.

Living in darkness in a hard cold place
I will dare boldly to seek God’s face
Dreaming to live where despair is erased
I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey.

When in death’s shadows I must sojourn
When justice and mercy are both overturned
When the fire that is falling is fire that must burn
I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey.

We honor our dead as we weep for the light
We persevere humbly as we lift our sights
I apprehend glory shining through this deep night
I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey, I will trust and obey.

Anthony Foster
March 25, 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Target = new

After Easter dinner at my Mom's my brothers and nephews fired up the tater cannon. Mom's 40 acres makes a great place to fire it up, skip them across the pond and then they finished up with target practice at the old outhouse. When you can entertain three teenagers for about a buck fifty worth of spuds, your are doing OK.

I just looked out and now it is sunny and snowing...

This is my Easter Song...
Living Redeemer

Oh Living Redeemer you rose from the grave
Oh Sufficient Savior you are mighty to save
Oh Living Redeemer, you make us alive
Your will be done till your Kingdom comes
And you glory arrives.

Our ransom and refuge endures to the end
Our living Redeemer is our faithful friend
To us He’s the shelter, our Harbor and Home
The lost have been sought-And by His blood bought
He’s made us His Own.

Oh Living Redeemer you transform our minds
The visions of dreamers, cant compare to what we find
When we find your mercy, forgiveness so free,
Oh Living Redeemer-Come and redeem me.

I’ll take all life’s questions, the wherefores and why’s
There are no suggestions once a man dies
No hope of changing, and no way to try
For redemption’s price is your sacrifice
Now redemption draws nigh!

Our ransom and refuge the payment for sin
Is made at the cross and so it begins
Our savior redeems us His blood doth atone
Now we take our refuge in Christ alone.


Anthony Foster
March 22, 2008

Let them eat PEEPS!

My 97 year old mother in law called out to me last night from her position on the sofa, "It's time to break that bunny's neck!" Which meant, of course, that it was time for a bit of Easter chocolate. We had a full supply of rainbow coloured Peeps and Bunnies as well.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Listen to the Call



With heart of humble service
A heart of deep concern
A heart that beats so humbly
And with compassion burns

Be a messenger and minister
To see the good news through
A good and faithful servant
The chosen and the few

Listen to the call
Going out to all
Going out to you
The only thing to do
Is to say amen, as on your knees you fall

God has raised up a deliverer
He will rescue you and set you apart
God is able to glorify His name in you
And He is lifting up each humble heart

Listen to the call
Going out to all
Going out to you
The only thing to do
Is to answer yes as on your knees you fall

Anthony Foster
March 2008

Monday, March 17, 2008

U. S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum

The PDF

Nothing too surprising, but we have our work cut out for us. Not a surprise to the Lord Most High either.

Question: if half of those of the Jewish faith are over fifty and 72 percent have no children under 18 living at home, what does this mean for the future of Judaism?

Most important Relationships- a new Barna Poll

See the results here.

The people most likely to list God (as their most important connection) were 40 or older.

Political conservatives were almost three times as likely as political liberals to identify God as their most important relationship (33% vs. 12%, respectively).

People in the Midwest were only half as likely as residents of the West and Northeast to say their children are their most important relationship.

The only subgroup for which at least one-third said God was their most significant relationship was evangelicals, among whom 70% listed God.

Thirty percent of Protestants listed God as their most important connection. In contrast, just 9% of Catholics did so.

Blacks were about twice as likely as all other Americans to describe their bond with God as their most important relationship.

Women were nearly twice as likely as men to list their children as their most important relationship.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Barna notes

Read it here. With Americans pursuing a growing number of "church" options, some of the traditional measures of church health are being redefined.


Ummm- forgot to say - we went to the Louisville Kennel Club's dog show- it was amazing to see the great variety of breeds- from miniatures that didn't even look like dogs to ones big enough to ride!

Freeware Frenzy

Mindmapping-here
Photostory-here
Picasa-here
Kompozer-here

Monday, March 10, 2008

Political Rhetoric



Some of it sounds like this....

Prince Charming:You! You can't lie! So tell me puppet... where... is... Shrek?
Pinocchio: Uh. Hmm, well, uh, I don't know where he's not
Prince Charming: You're telling me you don't know where Shrek is?
Pinocchio: It wouldn't be inaccurate to assume that I couldn't exactly not say that it is or isn't almost partially incorrect.
Prince Charming: So you do know where he is!
Pinocchio: On the contrary. I'm possibly more or less not definitely rejecting the idea that in no way with any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably
Prince Charming: Stop it!
Pinocchio: ...do or do not know where he shouldn't probably be, if that indeed wasn't where he isn't. Even if he wasn't at where I knew he was
[Pigs and Gingerbread Man begin singing]
Pinocchio: That'd mean I'd really have to know where he wasn't.

Arise


Arise, Shine

Come out of the darkness
Come into the radiance of His light
Flee from the shadows,
Flee from the shrouding of the night

Step into the glowing
Brightness of His holy face
This light is showing
Walk in it now by God’s good grace

Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!
Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!

Enter His presence
Come set your heart and mind ablaze
Enter with reverence
Fall on your knees or stand amazed!
Take His revelation
Into the world as holy fire
Go to the nations
Teach them to burn with One desire

Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!
Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!

There is no other sight for blind men walking in the night!
No other light can shine so bright by the power of His might!

Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!
Arise, shine, arise shine, arise shine for your Light has come!

March 10, 2008
Anthony Foster

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Probe Political Resources


Here we do not define politics as Kinky Friedman does.. polyticks (poly= many plus ticks= blood sucking parasites)...

Check out the Probe resources

Friday, March 7, 2008

Newsongs for March








Risen Again

Christ the Lord of all creation
The One who is I AM
Was crucified for our salvation
The stricken, holy lamb.

But now He is arisen
And as a fruitful seed
Full grown unto the harvest
He is risen now, indeed

The Lord of the beginning
The Lord unto the End
As in the resurrection
We too are risen again!

Anthony Foster
March 8, 2008

Relentless

You never fail to find
The heart that seeks your face
Our broken spirits bind
Draw us into your grace

Your holy hammer sings out
Beat by beat it rings out
You seek the lost-
You are relentless
You paid the cost-
You are relentless
The onslaught of your radiant fire
Drives out the darkness- you never tire
You never slumber, never sleep
And deep is calling unto deep
You are relentless.

You never cease to amaze
Your mercies never end
Our never-ending praise
Will rise to n'er relent.

Your holy hammer sings out
Beat by beat it rings out
You seek the lost-
You are relentless
You paid the cost-
You are relentless
The onslaught of your radiant fire
Drives out the darkness- you never tire
You never slumber, never sleep
And deep is calling unto deep
You are relentless.

Anthony Foster
March 8, 2008

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

100 Ways your iPod can up your IQ

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/18019

Transformative Learning

It is my contention that principles for fostering transformative learning can also be a vital feature of online learning from a Christian perspective. In transformative learning (Mezirow 1991) the most significant learning occurs in the communicative domain which “involves identifying problematic ideas, values, beliefs, and feelings, critically examining the assumptions upon which they are based, testing their justification through rational discourse and making decisions predicated upon the resulting consensus” (Mezirow 1995, 58.) The communication possibilities of the online learning environment provide an opportunity to maximize perspective transformation.

Transformative learning offers a theory of learning that in many ways reflects the biblical witness of how adults learn. It is more than a developmental process; it is “understood as the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action" (Mezirow 1996, 162). It is grounded in the nature of human communication, which in turn is grounded in the imago Dei.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Thomas Homer-Dixon- The Ingenuity Gap

Can we solve the problems of the future? Thomas Homer-Dixon tackles this question in a groundbreaking study of a world becoming too complex and too fast-paced to manage.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Newest Newsy News

Recent research and news
• Elluminate Builds Bridge to Moodle-Collaborative technology developer Elluminate has brought its Live! virtual classroom software to the Moodle platform. The company released a piece of software Tuesday called Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which is designed to integrate Live! into the open-source learning management system: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22037

• Sloan-C Report: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning: >http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/online_nation.pdf

• Community of Inquiry- >http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p153-168Lim258.pdf

• Second Life- >http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2008/Feb/Free/Feb2008.htm and
http://www.news.com/Universities%20register%20for%20virtual%20future/2100-1032_3-6157088.html?tag=nefd.lede


• Research on positive effects of hypertext on reading comprehension->http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=21925 (contact Anthony for copy)

• Eduventures conducted research to better understand the views, attitudes, usage, and future demand/ownership of various technologies and brands among college students. The research, conducted via a Web survey, targeted 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university. Among students responding to the question, which of the following devices do you currently own, 79 percent own a laptop compared to 49 percent who own a desktop; 30 percent own both. >http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/1/prweb658623.htm

• Today's business students have grown up with computer-based simulations. So it's only natural that business simulations are growing in popularity in business-school programs—and threatening the once unassailable dominance of the case study (BusinessWeek, 1/24/08). Online learning simulations are Internet-based games that allow students to perform tasks such as overseeing operations management of a virtual factory or serving as chief executive of a virtual business and networking with other executives. >http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jan2008/bs20080128_035814.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

• Adobe pushing Flash for Learning- Adobe emphasized a view of learning around Flash for video and an animated Web at their stand during Learning Technologies, a show at Olympia in London last week. Although the word "Acrobat" is still used to describe a software product there was almost no mention for the Portable Document Format (PDF) widely assumed to be still a significant proportion of current income. The implication is that Adobe anticipates a Web based less on text and learning environments based less on paper. >http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381717&rel_no=1&back_url=

Reviving Old Musical Interests

As I was giving the garage a much needed cleaning on our sixty degree anomaly yesterday, along with the birdsongs I ran across an old favorite tape and gave it a listen- here are the lyrics from a song that ministered to me long ago, and I was surprised to find it still does!

Lord Of The Past

Every harsh word spoken
Every promise ever broken to me
Total recall of data in the memory
Every tear that has washed my face
Every moment of disgrace that I have known
Every time I've ever felt alone

Lord of the here and now
Lord of the come what may
I want to believe somehow
That you can heal these wounds of yesterday
(You can redeem these things so far away)
So now I'm asking you
To do what you want to do
Be the Lord of the Past
(Be the Lord of my Past)
Oh how I want you to
Be the Lord of the Past

All the chances I let slip by
All the dreams that I let die in vain
Afraid of failure and afraid of pain
Every tear that has washed my face
Every moment of disgrace that I have known
Every time I've ever felt alone

Well I picked up all these pieces
And I built a strong deception
And I locked myself inside of it
For my own protection
And I sit alone inside myself
And curse my company
For this thing that has kept me alive for so long
Is now killing me.
And as sure as the sin rose this morning,
The man in the moon hides his face tonight.
And I lay myself down on my bed
And I pray this prayer inside my head

Lord of the here and now
Lord of the come what may
I want to believe somehow
That you can heal these wounds of yesterday
So now I'm asking you
To do what you want to do
Be the Lord of my Past
You can do anything
Be the Lord of the Past
I know that you can find a way
To heal every yesterday of my life
Be the Lord of the Past