Christmas 2010

I have not fully made the transition to the digital age; I still send Christmas letters. When I was working through the cards this year, I realized that my address book is hopelessly out of date. This post is for those of you that somehow have drifted out of my life due to my neglect in keeping up with the most important part of life, the people that enrich it. If you are one of the lost threads of my life, please leave a comment and let me know how you are doing.

Christmas, 2010

I have always loved Christmas. Over the years, we have had grand Christmases and modest ones but every one had a sparkle all its own. The holiday reflects where we are in our lives and yet still grants that indefinable quality of grace, grandeur and simplicity blended so that it is simultaneously a great public event and a private celebration.

This Christmas has been an unusual one. At this moment, we both have jobs that we enjoy, our children seem to be happy in their marriages and the dog is finally adjusted to living in a new place. Like any new/old home, things began falling off the house the minute we bought it but since that is a historical pattern for us, it is nothing new. For once, my house is clean, my presents are wrapped, work is under control and it is still four days until Christmas.

I realize as I write this how fortunate we are. Many people have had a pretty rough year. Jobs have been pretty iffy, most of us are old enough that health issues and the loss of love ones is no longer a distant possibility but a present reality. This year it may be a little hard to find the merry in Christmas.

I understand and sympathize with this. Earlier this year, things were not looking too good for my career before things fell into place. We were just fortunate that events worked out by Christmas, something that does not always happen. If the Ghost of Christmas Past were to drop by for an outing there would be holidays dimmed by unemployment, personal loss, near homelessness and just general malaise. I am grateful for all of these experiences.

Christmas did not begin in grand style but in a manger with a family who either forgot to call their travel agent or were too broke to plan ahead. Yet it turned out alright, choirs of angels, some interesting, if not so practical gifts, and the ultimate Christmas decoration. I think Christmas is supposed to be bumpy; there is the Christ of the manger, the Christ of the three kings, and the Christ of the angels. Christmas is simple, humble and cosmically grand. So if you want a blow out Christmas, go for it, complete with choirs and kingly gifts. If the simplicity of the manger speaks to you this year, then enjoy a merry little Christmas, lunch with a friend and some hot cocoa with a good book. There is room in your heart at Christmas for all parts of the experience. This is the mystical part of Christmas; Christ will always meet you where you are, not where you think you should be. I hope your Christmas is sparkling and comforting, frantic and peaceful, and that you enjoy every minute of the gift of your life this season.

What I really want for Christmas -Star Trek Doors

I am so impressed this.  An engineer named Marc built a working automatic door like the ones in Star Trek complete with swooshing sound.  I love it! Now if he could just work out that replicator thing.

You can view a view of the door at this link.

Star Trek Door

There is an extended video of the door with more details at

Star Trek Door Extended Version

You can also read about this project on Marc's blog at http://uiproductions.blogspot.com/.

Don't you need one for every room of your house?

Medical Emergency ID Wallet Card

Passed a lot of automobile accidents on my way home from Thanksgiving.  It made me think about personal preparedness.

One of the things we should all have is a medical emergency card.  There is a free site that produces a completed (ICE -in case of emergency) information card that proves invaluable in providing treatment when you are unable to speak for yourself. It is provided by a company that sells medical ID jewelry as a public service.

Follow this link to create your own

Free Emergency Medical ID Wallet Card Link

 I hope you never need this, but it is better to be prepared than to regret your inaction later. Happy travels for the Christmas Season.

Power Tool Saftey

I recently finished teaching a course that included information on developing effective safety lessons for the use of power tools. While collecting materials for that class, I can across an excellent site that contains high quality free safety videos for working with power tools.  The Power Tool Institute  is an organization that works to to building global understanding of power tools and for maintaining high standards of safety and quality control in the industry.

This a an excellent resource for anyone teaching or working with power tools.   The link is for PTI is loacted at  http://www.powertoolinstitute.com/.  I have also linked  four of these videos in the sidebar menu under Links for Teachers. Look for the PTI video links.

Beyond Pots - Wedgwood at 250

I teach a course on the history of work, and since I am ever vigilant to prevent the nap monster from invading my class, I am always looking for interesting and related material. The Wedgwood pottery works was noteworthy in the history of manufacturing because Josiah Wedgwood organized his workers so that they specialized in particular skills. This greatly increased the quality of his products.
Wedgewood is celebrating 250 years in business and they are showcasing the techniques behind their finest work on their web site.

It is easy to forget the artisans behind these works since many of us have a relative or two who has a few pieces of jasperware that we mentally reduce to the category of expensive knick knacks. The methods behind some of their most famous pieces including the Portland Vase and Queen's Ware Orange Bowl were significant advances. Within his lifetime, Wedgewood would replicate in clay famous classical pieces that had previously been made in stone or glass and elevate pottery to a highly collectable art form.

The designs were innovative for their time and are still distinctive. Very impressive work, especially considering how many of these designs were created in the 1700’s. Check out the links on the Techniques page. Pretty fancy knick knacks.

Day Dreams about Arched Doorways

One the architectural features I really love are arched doorways. As I was working on some home improvement projects that are already in progress this weekend, I started day dreaming about possible future projects.

I found this great video on making a square doorway in an arched doorway using a kit.

The kits in the video are located at curvemakers.

There are lots of great choices but I prefer the ones that have the premade columns since these require minimal tools. I am really impressed with how much these add to the doorway. Of course right now I do not have the time or the funds for this type of project but I can build castles in the airs

I can see it now - my home with arched doorways and maybe some round topped doors. A house to make any hobbit proud. It could be wonderful.

A new beginning

I have accepted a new position at William Carey University and I am very excited about the move. I am the new Associate Professor and Chair of the Career and Technical Education Department at William Carey and I am working to launch two programs in August. There will be an undergraduate and graduate degree and this will be the only program in this field in the southern part of Mississippi. It is a great opportunity to fill an important need in the state and I am praying that everything goes well. My new colleagues are the most positive and supportive group of people that I have ever worked with, it has been a great beginning.

The college creed is from the writings of William Carey.

Expect great things from God,
Attempt great things for God.

A lot to live up to, I will keep you posted on my journey.

Teaching Content and Concepts – Specimens and Exhibits

One of the reasons that the internet is so amazing is the quantity of information that is available for free for you to use in your lessons. This wealth of information makes it hard to locate what you need. Learning to use search terms effectively is the first step (see Tips to Effective Internet Searching). It is also helpful to consider how the information might be organized. This can help you locate interesting sites as well as better organize your own media.

Information can be organized a collection of the same item (specimens) and or around a central concept or idea (exhibit). If you are planning a lesson that focuses on comparing similar objects,  a specimen collection might be useful. A good example would be a biology lesson that explains the function of the brain; a specimen collection like the one located at Comparative Mammalian Brain Anatomy offers cross sections and interactive videos of various brain specimens that would be too costly or delicate for the average teacher to obtain for their class. By viewing many specimens, it is possible to develop an understanding of the parts of the brain that are distinct and common to different mammals. This is a good way to explain content and factual knowledge.

In contrast, if you are interested in illustrating an idea, an exhibit might be more useful. The web site Causes of Color uses many different objects and specimens to illustrate how we perceive color. The common element linking these objects is the relationship of the each object to the concept of color. Although you could develop a web site that illustrates color by featuring a specimen collection of butterflies, the use of multiple objects such as bubbles, gemstones and stars frees us from oversimplifying the concept of color since the emphasis remains on the idea rather than the objects.

If you are interested in teaching the common elements and subtle differences in an object, consider using a specimen collection since this will best support comparisons and contrasts in between samples. If you are interested in illustrating an idea, consider using an exhibit which features objects selected by their relationship to idea that you are teaching. The purpose of the lesson will determine which organizational approach is more effective for your media.

Improving Your Lesson Plans

There are many sites that offer help on lesson planning . I have selected three sitese on this topic that you might find particularly useful.

1. Adprima has a wealth of information about writing effective lessons. There are many useful ideas here but the listing of common mistakes is particularly helpful in reviewing your own work.
Six Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and what to do about them) by Dr. Bob Kizlik.

2. The CREATE for Mississippi  site has over 100 sample lesson plans and a very effective format for lesson plans that can be downloaded and used in MS Word.   You can find examples on the lesson template forms as well as information on how to use this format at this site.

3. Mager's Tips on Instructional Objectives  is a classic on writing behavioral objectives.  Although there are other methods for developing objectives, Mager's work is still widely used in career and technical education and in industrial training.

Transitions and Web Tools for Teachers

I am beginning my last few weeks of work at the University of Southern Mississippi and I will closing down the related web site that I used for the IT 365 class that I taught at USM. As promised, I will gradually move the links that people found useful to this site so that those of you who use those links will still have access to them.


Look for these links and related blog posts under the label listing Tools for Teachers in the sidebar menu.  I will move these links a few at at time so the old site will remain up for a few weeks until I have finished the transition.

Carpet of Gold

So far April has been one of those overscheduled months that I call a “running on Jell-O” experience. This means that you are running as fast as you can but the ground seems to be sliding back on you. So like most people in such a pattern I was beginning to feel a little like a child on Saturday morning when all of their cartoons have been cancelled for a political debate. In short, unloved and underappreciated.

As I walking to my car at the end of the last week to drive to yet another meeting, I happened to look down at my feet.

The ground was covered with tiny golden flowers. As I looked toward my car there was a living carpet of gold leading me to my parking space. I felt like a princess in a fairy tale and I knew that this was God's way of reminding me that He loves me. It was the perfect little miracle and carried my spirits through the rest of the week.

So as we approach the end of the term and you find that you are running on Jell-O, take a breath and look for your carpet of gold. I am certain you have one, you just need to look for it.

A Master of Embroidery

One the reasons, I started this site was to celebrate excellence in workmanship.  I recently stumbled across a blog by Mary Corbet while looking for information on cloth of gold. She is a master of embroidery. She creates by hand ecclesiastical embroidery that is simply exquisite.

She has posted an example piece in six entries,  the first image shows the layout of the planned piece.  It is a great photo to give you an idea of the size of the work.

You can really see the details of the needlework in the next two images:

 

Close-up of the above image:

The detail work, the color blending is just amazing.  Just look at the finished piece.  From the side photo, you can see the gold thread work.

A detail of the finished piece.

Now here is the really amazing  part - it took her six weeks to create this masterpiece (380 hours).  This is a lot of time but I have taken a month just to paint a room.  It is really hard to imagine being that gifted at embroidery. Or that focused on a goal.

Think of it another way; if she had worked just two hours a day, in little over six months this is what  she would have to show for it.

My husband is always talking about how important it is to find what you are good at and to focus your efforts in that direction.  This is a great example of someone putting their time, talents and efforts to create something that is really amazing. Everyone has a talent but we are not all focused on making the best use of that talent.

So how are you going to spend that two hours a day? Time to get busy and create a masterpiece (or at least finish painting the living room).
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In case you are interested,  the entire project is shown in steps on Needle'n Thread.com

There is also a set of  photos of some incredible goldwork (gold thread) at the the same site.  Don't miss it, this work is unbelievable it is so perfect.

Organize your E-Mail

I recently spoke a conference on ways to increase your productivity on your computer. Although I touched on several topics, several people have contacted me regarding the section on organizing e-mail and computer files. For that reason, I am posting a heavily edited version of that presentation on this site. I needed to remove the screen shots in the presentation due to copyright concerns but I believe that the directions are still understandable.

 MECA 2010 Edited Version


If you have any questions about this please contact me. Please do not republish this information but you may link to this post.

Hope you find this useful.

Snow in Mississippi??? How silly!!

I did not think it was possible but we had a snow day last week in Mississippi. Snow was even expected on the coast but we missed it. I understand that it did snow for about five minutes but I must have blinked and missed it. Four inches fell about an hour and half north of Ocean Springs in Hattiesburg and it did get cold enough that all the palm trees are now brown. I really felt sorry for all the school kids, everyone was expecting one to two inches. I was also hoping to photograph snow on the beach. (Now that really would be a photo; a whole new meaning to snow white beaches. )

If you want to see what a Mississippi snow looked like the Hattiesburg American posted some local photos.

I am sorry we missed it! It would have been grand!

Professionalism and Sudden Acceleration

Last week, it was determined that the problem with our car was not fixable. Since this was a new car, we were able to trade it in at a good price on a replacement. The cause of the problem was never determined.

The mystery problem was that the car would race unexpectedly even when the car was in neutral and there was no application of the gas pedal. Applying the brakes was not effective and the car would continue to fight the brakes and try to accelerate. This happened suddenly and repeatedly the last time we drove the car. We immediately took the car to the dealer and fortunately for us, it repeated this pattern in the service bay for the service manager. It was agreed that the fault was a dangerous one but it was not possible to replicate the fault consistently. For this reason, determining the cause was not likely. The best we could hope for was an educated guess and hope that the guess was on target. Since the last drive in that car had been one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives, we decided to trade in the car. The car is to be returned to Honda for review by the engineering staff (we hope that this is the case).

What impressed us most about this experience was how hard the Honda dealer worked to solve this problem. The problem was taken seriously; it was never implied that this was a floor mat problem or a confused driver problem. I realize that we had the advantage that the service manager had witnessed the problem but even so the temptation must have been great to replace a part and declare it fixed even though the problem has not be identified. In the final discussion, the service manager explained his best guess about the cause (possible electronic throttle issues) and told us that there was no way to know if this fixed the car. We would have to drive the car and if the problem did not reoccur then perhaps it was fixed. This uncertainly was not comfortable for us so after discussing all of our options, we decided to replace the car.

The professionalism in presenting the situation was memorable. Sometimes the real answer to a question is that the answer is not known. In many cases, this is the best answer. Knowing the real situation allowed us to make the decision that we could live with.

We decided to trade the car for the same model in this current year. After reviewing the statistics, it appears that this problem crosses brands and we hope that we just had a bad car. Sudden acceleration and similar problems appear to have been reported in a wide variety of models so it did not seem possible to avoid this issue for certain by changing models. Since our wide ride, I started reading everything I could find on this problem. At this point, I really think that there is design fault in the electronic control systems. I am not sure that we made the right decision but we do believe that we made the best decision given the known information.

We were very lucky. No one was hurt by our car; our dealer was fair and the service manager was an outstanding professional. At the present time, I think this is the best you can hope for.

If you are interested in sudden acceleration, you might find the following links interesting.

Doubt cast on Toyota's decision to blame sudden acceleration on gas pedal defect

Analysis shows over 40 percent of sudden-acceleration complaints involve Toyotas

Sudden Acceleration: It's Bad, and It's Not Just Toyota

The Growing Gap in Expertise and Application

One of our cars is very new and has now been at the dealer for repairs for nearly three weeks. Everyone agrees that there is a problem but they cannot find the source of the problem.


When we bought the car last spring the salesman proudly explained how new cars are now have systems as complex as the systems in fighter plans of a few decades ago. This was not comforting to me. I do not have access to a team of mechanics specially trained to keep these systems running. Particularly, the electronic systems are difficult to diagnose and repair. Auto technicians depend on computer diagnostic systems to help them troubleshoot these kinds of problem. And that is part of the developing problem.

For the diagnostic computer to locate a problem, it must be a type of problem that the computer has been programmed to locate. If the problem does not fit the parameters of the diagnostics program, it cannot find the problem. Yet I have heard people declare in frustration that the “computer says there is nothing wrong so there must be nothing wrong.” They will ignore their own tactile and sensory experience in deferment to a machine diagnosis. A computer diagnostics test may mean that there is no problem but it can also mean that the computer cannot locate the problem because it is not programmed to look for that problem.

Since I work in trade and industry education, I have recently discussed this issue with some of the auto technicians that I know. Not a single person I have talked to is truly comfortable working on the advanced features now common in new cars. Most of their training was focused on mechanical systems. Now many new cars depend on radio controlled systems. The new electronic throttle systems are a good example.

Consider this statement in the Automotive Industry Trends, November 2004

Typically, vehicles have as many as 80 motors and approximately 25 sensors, with over one MB of memory in the engine control system. This will grow to two MB in just a few years. No part of a vehicle is untouched by electronics, which controls an array of systems from powertrain, lighting, antilock brakes and airbag systems.

Keep in mind that this was written six years ago. Notice that these are not electronics such as car radios or power seats. These are systems that affect the safety of the car. Who is going to repair these systems?

According to ICT paper written in 2008:

Growth in automotive embedded systems (software and electronics) has been exponential since the early 1990s and the trend is predicted to continue. In 2002, electronic parts comprised 25 percent of a vehicle’s value – by 2015, car manufacturers predict this will hit 40 percent.

But the more electronic systems are added, the more they contribute to vehicle breakdowns and recalls. Researchers on the European ATESST project say a substantial share of vehicle failures today can be directly attributed to embedded systems, and field data indicates this share is increasing by several percent a year. This will reach unacceptable levels if no preventative action plan is put in place.
http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&ID=89579

Engineers are designing more and more advanced cars, yet where are the supporting training programs for the mechanics to maintain these cars? In popular electronics, when a TV remote does not work, most people simply buy a replacement. A remote is inexpensive and presents no safety concerns. This consumer model will not work in a durable good industry. Are we really going to just replace part after part until something works? How will you feel about having to pull over and “reboot” you car (turn if off and restart it) when your electronics acts up on a highway? (This is an actual recommendation for cars with electronic issues from a web site.)

Currently, vocational education programs are in need of revision and reform. At this same time, many vocational programs are closing due to lack of qualified instructors. A common reason for this is that students need computer skills to succeed in the future we are creating. This is a very short sighted view of technology. Of course we need adults who can use computers. We need adults that can use computers in a wide variety of applications beyond spreadsheets and e-mail. In Mississippi a computer program is being promoted in vocational schools that simulate a car. Instead of working on a real car, students will spend time on a virtual car. This is supposed to be an advantage because these individual will gain computer skills.

If we are really interested in computer skills for auto technicians, why not focus on the computer skills that they will need to work on 21st century cars? The answer is obvious; we do not have enough qualified auto tech teachers to do this.

What is really needed is a stronger partnership with professional engineers. At some point, in the very near future, engineers need to work with engineering educators and trade and industry groups to develop a technical education program that is current with the automotive systems they are developing in this century rather than pasting content in programs developed for the last century.

I hope this happens before I have to start shopping for a horse and buggy.