All posts by Patricia Palumbo

Patricia Palumbo is the owner of The Logical Choice, a local technology consulting and computer support business located in Northfield, VT.

Schools kill creativity?

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Why not teach kids to dance!?

Ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson. It is a seven year old talk which if anything is even more relevant today! Had to post this one.. He has several wonderful talks posted at TED.

Two quotes:
“…all kids have tremendous talents — and we squander them pretty ruthlessly.” – Sir Ken Robinson
“My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” – Sir Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson gives an insightful explanation regarding the origin of our educational system. A system that was created to serve the needs of the industrial revolution. That seems a key perspective to keep in mind when we examine the systems that are currently being created. It was appropriate at the turn of the century, but now it is time to grow beyond educating people for “jobs” in a hierarchical society. We will be allowing more of humanity to show our wings.

I laughed so hard when he was talking about thinking of Shakespeare being a seven year old boy in school. I had never thought of him as a child either. “he was in somebody’s English class wasn’t he?! How annoying would that be?”

Why not dance too!? We are in a wonderful cultural revolution that is just beginning.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Smith & Tinker: The Land of Oz

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Smith & Tinker

Smith & Tinker was an inventing firm based in the town of Evna. That town is located in The Land of Oz.

I read all of the books as a kid; fourteen I believe. Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) wrote them.
Thank you Mr Baum.

One artist & one scientist

There isn’t a tremendous amount written on these two characters. In fact there is very little, but here I have some snippets. There will be no references for today. I copied this information from here and there some time ago. 😀

“Mr. Smith and Mr. Tinker were artistic inventors who created several fantastic machines. One of these is Tik-Tok the clockwork man, whom the firm sold to King Evoldo of Ev. Another is the iron giant which was made for the Nome King to keep folks from finding his underground palace.”

“The firm is now closed, due to the loss of both partners. Smith, the artist of the duo, painted a picture of a river that was so real that he fell in and drowned. Tinker, the inventor, made a ladder so tall that it reached to the moon. He climbed the ladder to the moon and once there pulled it up so no one could follow him. (Ozma of Oz)”

Smith & Tinker are only briefly mentioned and never actually appear in the Oz books.

A nice domain name

Would’ve been a nice domain name for an artist/inventor who cut her teeth (or rather learned to read) on stories about OZ, Wonderland, The Secret Garden. I can’t leave Science Fiction out of that mix. Science fiction and Fantasy Literature. Maybe it should be the reverse. Too bad some programmers got to making it a domain name first! I mean good for them. 😀 I was a tad jealous, but it’s alright.

Wait, they don’t seem to be using it… :/ It’s for sale. I am talking about smithandtinker.com

Good day!

We are Makers – a movement

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Who are these Makers?

Watch this nicely created film about making and the movement it has become.

This Maker Movement has certainly struck a chord for me! You know, it really does connect students to their learning, especially if they are involved in the process from conception to the final product.

We Are Makers | A short film on the Maker Movement

It is good to take a unique approach, which usually means trying different things till success is achieved, after repeated fails.

Innovative ideas do not come with an instruction manual.

From the heart to the hands!

Another xkcd comic: Flow Charts

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A flowchart about flowcharts

Brilliant! When I saw this I immediately thought of Change Management class. Perfect perhaps for a note of humor for part of the presentations which two classmates and myself will be doing on June 15th.

We do have other more subdued examples for the class, and also another one with humor embedded.

Maligned by some the flowchart a truly useful and adaptable visual tool. It is hard to really work out the flow and change of structures and processes without the benefit of a good chart.

Flowchart Software?

Have you ever tried FreeMind? I was introduced to it on the job some time ago. I have been thinking it might be a good idea to give it a go again. It is free and quite liquid once you get the hang of it. It’s also open source and free.

Anyone out there have any strong flow charting software recommendations?

Link to this comic
Good times!

BTW FreeBSD is superior. ..shhhh