Category: Miscellaneous

First  Published on: Jan 19, 2009 

It was good to be sitting at my desk in my office at school today. Spring semester classes don’t begin until Wednesday, and I had considerable uninterrupted time to clean the office, organize materials, discard last semester’s uneaten lunch, and think about my three courses. Precious moments of uninterrupted, focused reflection, planning, and action are rare for me once classes begin, because I choose to keep my door open to students and colleagues.
I’m teaching Introductory Psychology (after a one-semester hiatus) for probably close to the 100th time. I taught it as a graduate student at Ohio State, and I have taught here at Carroll on several summers and evenings in addition to almost every semester since February of 1978. Indeed, this coming semester, I shall yet again be teaching a daughter of one of my former students. In some ways, Introductory Psychology is the most challenging course for me to teach. Most students are not majors, and it is a challenge to simply and with integrity condense a discipline I have explored for almost forty years.
This semester, inspired by conversations with colleagues and students, I am going to incorporate several innovations.

1. A section on cross-cultural psychology will feature social psychologist Richard Nisbett, who will speak on campus about the “Geography of the Mind” (see my earlier blog).
2. Having students read and respond to some of my future (and older “Curious David”) blogs on psychological topics. I may create a special wiki for them.
3. Involving students in some fashion with the research I shall be conducting with 12 seniors. I am toying with five research topics: the effects of color on behavior; revisiting the “Mozart effect”; revisiting “subliminal” persuasion; evaluation research (e.g., the efficacy of Rosetta Stone software); and a systematic evaluation of Web 2.0 learning tools. As the President of this institution is fond of saying, “Stay tuned.”

Carroll truly is being enriched more and more by the presence of international students. Today, while photocopying, I struck up a conversation with a student from Brazil. Last semester, I had the delightful experience of learning with and from a Vietnamese student. A graduate school classmate of mine has just become an editor of a British journal. A Norwegian friend who mentored me in 1974 has just published a book. My discipline is finally becoming more culturally aware, much less chauvinistic — see Arnett, J. J. (2008). The neglected 95%: Why American psychology needs to become less American. American Psychologist, 63, 602-614— and recognizing that the world is indeed flat.  How exciting; what fun!
There is much to be curious about. That is vital to keeping me playful, energized, and wanting to teach and to learn.

Thanks to my incipient readership. Based on the statistics I can monitor, I am already attracting a readership at a higher rate than I did while writing for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year. And this without Mom’s help!

     Keep those comments and feedback coming, either through posting or by sending them to my email address.

First Published on: Jan 11, 2009 

I have long had a fascination with languages. In high school, I studied Latin for two years and then two years of Spanish. When I graduated from Oberlin College in 1971 with an A.B. in Psychology, I had also completed the equivalent of a Spanish major (including credits earned at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico). While a graduate student at Ohio State University, I marveled at the language fluency of foreign fellow graduate students (I spent 6 months doing research at the University of Bergen, Norway, and was humbled by the challenges of learning Norwegian and by how much more about the United States Norwegians knew compared to me!). A critical component of these language-learning experiences was the opportunity to be exposed to the literature, theater, art, history, and cultural contexts of these languages. It will be interesting to discover what added value the Rosetta Stone software contributes to efforts to internationalize this campus. I have yet to see convincing empirical evidence that the software lives up to its heavily advertised promises; perhaps research seminar students and I will produce some evidence.
Reading two books recently, Richard E. Nisbett‘s The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently… and Why and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, has revitalized my interest in the relationships between language, culture, thought, and behavior. Richard Nisbett, whom Gladwell acknowledges as a major influence on his thinking that resulted in this book, will be an invited speaker at Carroll University on March 24, 2009.

First Published on: Dec 24, 2008 

As I grow older, I become increasingly contemplative about life and mortality. I just heard from an alumna (always so good to hear from you) who was asking about a classmate who had passed away. I have fond memories of both former students — one of the rewards of dedicating one’s life to teaching for so long at the same institution. Another reward is when former students send sons and daughters here, and I have them, too, as students.

First published on: Dec 23, 2008 

It’s been a semester now since I blogged for JSOnline as “Curious David.” Much has happened since then. Carroll College has been renamed Carroll University (I still fail to find compelling reasons for the change). I’ve taught Web 2.0 Tools in a Freshman Seminar, and I’m seriously considering retiring from College teaching.

I’ve given a lot of thought to which blog authoring tool I want to use. I’ve heard good things about WordPress (endorsed by Jane Hart) and Blogger (which I taught my freshmen) — both are free. However, partly out of the high respect I hold Jane Hart in, I’ve decided to freelance using the basic version of the software she uses, Typepad. I like the “look” of it and its ease of use.
I must be able to blog easily across operating systems. Tonight I am writing this on my Mac. When I next sit down, I’ll try writing something from my PC. I was also attracted to the ease with which TypePad “ports” blogs to Facebook, since an increasing number of alumni are using that social network — sometimes to monitor their children!

Originally Published 2008 /11/16 at 5:35 pm

It’s odd to rediscover the earlier posts. Robin is now three (and a svelte 127 pounds). She has had two major ACL operations and has matured into a wonderful, if idiosyncratic, companion. She might even think the same of me, though Debbie is without doubt her first love.

And oh, how my blogging experiences have matured (and blogging has changed) since I first explored this tool. I had a year’s experience blogging as “Curious David” for the educational community JSOnline and explored Web 2.0 Learning Tools while teaching a course at Carroll University.