Dalmatians #hashtag

This is the 101st blog post of mine. It has been a while since I posted anything related to puppies. Here are few other scattered thoughts...

From Star Trek:

Amanda: Spock, does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one? Spock: I would accept that as an axiom. Amanda: Then you stand here alive because of a mistake made by your flawed, feeling, human friends. They have sacrificed their futures because they believed that the good of the one - you - was more important to them. Spock: Humans make illogical decisions. Amanda: They do, indeed. 

Someday, I need to watch all of the Star Trek movies. With the exception of the latest movie ('Into Darkness"), I have seen pieces of all the movies. The line about the good of the many shows through the original series of movies. I wonder if, as movies get better special effects, if we settle for worse stories. That is not to say that the plots to the original Star Trek movies were solid. I am just not sure that the word "axiom" or discussion about the value of individuals would seep into most movies in the theatres nowadays. I wonder if my students have ever seen a movie that was thought provoking.

My freshman are learning about ATP in biology class. ATP is how the body stores energy in its cells. It consists of a molecule of adenine connected to a molecule of ribose with three phosphate molecules attached somewhere along the time. I was really proud of myself for remembering most of that from my high school biology class.

We learned about Doceri this week. For the first time in my life, I am seriously considering buying an iPad. The guy in Russia who regularly reads my website knows how much I love whiteboards. Doceri might actually be better than a whiteboard. There is not as much writing space as a wall full of whiteboards; I can only have so much information on the screen at one time. However, with the ability to zoom and record, there is an almost unlimited writing space in Doceri if students choose to review the material later on.

The more that I am in the classroom, the more I grow to hate the Doc-Cam/Projector combination. It's hard to keep track of what is actually showing up on the screen ("Can you zoom out?", "Can you move it over to the right?"). You can only fit about half a page on the screen. It's hard to get students to come up and use the doc-cam. I looked into getting a wireless Doc-Cam. However, for the price of a wireless document camera, I could buy an Ipad 2 and a nice laptop or PC (or almost a Mac Mini) and use Doceri and get a much better experience (along with all sorts of functionality when doing something aside from presentations).

Star Trek, ATP, Doceri. Oh yeah, and I wrote about puppies and used a properly placed semi-colon. That is pretty scattered. It's time to go do homework. G'night all. Happy MLK Day tomorrow.