Baren Digest             Thursday, 8 November 2001     Volume 17 : Number 1611


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From: "Bill H Ritchie Jr" <ritchie@seanet.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 07:39:22 -0800
Subject: [Baren 16123] Re: online education 

Julio wrote:


>What about the current DVD technology? ....used as a supporting tool for an
>online course?


I had a vision in 1980 of exactly that idea, a kit I mean. My idea was to
use Washington State's WEDNET (I forget what that meant, something about
education for rural areas, fed from the University of Washington.

Sadly, it went over "like a ton of ironwood." I'm still hindered by folks
saying "It can't be done" so very few people, outside of Baren's list, offer
encouragement.

I am using DVD now, and I have no intent on its being a substitute or even a
"better than nothing" method for art education on line.

I'm an environmentalist. Therefore, the insistence on face-to-face
encounters often leads, as I see it, more driving, more travel, more
consumption of non-renewable resources. Sure, people who can do it think
it's great. But I'm among the disenfranchised, and that's okay because I
don't depend on face to face.

My faith keeps me in line. As Soetsu Yanagi (The Unknown Craftsman), a
person's tools must be in proportion to his or her work (words to that
effect.

To be a great printmaking teacher, a person's work must be in proportion to
his or her labor. I've found the value of new information and technologies
to be in proportion in more ways than I can list in this message.

It is perhaps not for my generation to understand (I was born in '41) so I
don't expect a whole lot of support for art ed on-line to come from us
pre-baby boomers -- or from baby boomers, for that matter. A few orders for
DVDs and I'm happy.

I do my labor now in self defense--to protect my granddaughter from living
in an educational void as far as studio arts are concerned. She's getting
more education from Blue's Clues and Hooked on Phonics--both on CD/ROM--than
she'll get in any face to face encounters.

I'm happy to report too that I'm learning from her, and I learn also from a
cousin once removed, age 8, about writing science fiction.

Face to face begins at home. Reliance and insistence on face-to-face (AKA
F2F) impedes development of that part of art education that is in proportion
to the task, which is information.

Don't get me wrong. I think heaven will be when I can be part of a community
of cut-and-print fanatics, meeting face to face daily, exercising, cooking,
philosophising and, above all, seeing measurable progress toward peace in
our own lifetimes!

That's what my project, EarthSafe 2022 was all about from the start.

Thanks, Julio. You're a good person!

Bill H. Ritchie, Jr
500 Aloha #105
Seattle WA 98109
(206) 285-0658
Professional: www.seanet.com/~ritchie
Virtual Gallery and E-Store: www.myartpatron.com
First Game Portal: www.artsport.com


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End of Baren Digest V17 #1611
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