Consider these two rather common incidents:

1. My daughter Jessica posted on FaceBook that Robert Bellah had died. A great sadness swept over me as I considered his influence on my intellectual development . . . but I could not remember the title of his book that significantly reoriented my own thinking and became a mainstay of my courses in American religious thought.

2. At lunch yesterday, our conversation turned to Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Gatsby and Nick, DiCaprio and Maguire, okay . . . but who played Daisy?

You know . . . you could Google that! (The Germans may not be happy that English has begun to capitalize its verbs.)

We might try an experiment . . . ask a student, "When was the first time a teacher asked you to Google something?"

The puzzled expression that takes shape before you might disclose a secret fear of the new generation: there was a time before Google!

Technology has a way of doing that . . . something called transparency . . . what for us was at hand, quickly becomes old hand -- one of the 'manipulables' . . . on the way to reflexive . . . a 'natural(ized)' expression of our lives.

If we are skeptical of all that . . . we should check our blood pressure when we realize that the airport terminal in which we must spend the next three hours has no free wi-fi.


So here's a question . . . could we imagine ourselves reflexively asking: "Why don't you blog that?"

A quick "Google that" garners the following . . .


5 reasons why schools should blog (in three iterations)

1. They encourage higher order skills such as reflection and analysis but also encourage reading, writing and collaboration
2. Publishing commentary and entries can lead to peer learning, peer assessment and a sense of ownership, all of which are highly motivational
3. The technology involved is easy to use
4. They easily support video, audio and other media and file types therefore creating a very dynamic learning experience and supporting various learning styles
5. Learning is extended to outside the school environment

• Create opportunities for students to reflect on and discuss what they are learning
• Practice the written expression of ideas and opinions with an authentic audience
• Help students explore classroom learning through what others have written
• Receive support and feedback on their own ideas through teacher / peer comments
• Learn about and practice collaboration, respect, and relating to others online

1. Open Reflection
2. Developing Literacy with Different Mediums
3. Student Voice
4. Creating an Open Archive of Learning
5. Developing a Positive Digital Footprint

We (at least some, if not many) already do . . . 

the technology is at hand . . .

and with that . . . may I defer to the children?

Ho Chi Minh City as it should be seen!

On my last afternoon in Ho Chi Minh City, I was fortunate enough to catch a ride through HCMC on the back of my friend's motorbike . . . even more fortunate, I was able to capture the experience on video. I post it here for all my friends to enjoy.

Teaching in Viet Nam

Nguyen Tuan Anh, the dean with whom I've worked, dreams mightily. He is working hard to achieve a modicum of academic excellence. Within the last year, he's launched the International School, granting bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in three core areas--economics, life sciences, and social sciences. Social sciences include programs in international relations, public administration, and education management. 

The projected program is modest in size (1200 undergraduate and 300 graduate students in a university whose aggregate student population is approximately 90,000), and its curriculum is delivered in English and Chinese. All in all, a rather brazen vision for a university serving sixteen rural provinces just north of Hanoi. What is even more startling is that this bold program that began with a mere 80 undergraduates in September 2011 will enroll 400 students in 2012. Its growth rate is remarkable, and it underscores both the appeal of English language education in Viet Nam and the incredible need for native English speakers to deliver the school's curriculum.

One won't get rich in Viet Nam, but one will find oneself immeasurably enriched. Good teachers with advanced degrees who can commit to a quarter, a semester, or a year of service should contact me. I would be delighted to put you in contact with the Dean.

Viet Nam Beckons!

For the past two years I've been bouncing between China and Vietnam, though I know the language(s) of neither country (I suppose I qualify as one of the ugly Americans), as both countries have immense need for native speakers of the English language to support their ambitious language programs. My center of gravity has tipped toward Vietnam in recent months, perhaps partly to absolve a deep-seated guilt associated with having been an adolescent in the '60's (one among the things I carry -- if you know that fine Viet Nam era novel by Tim O'Brien) and partly to throw my lot in with a diminutive, though plucky, emerging republic. These things happen when one opens one's home to visitors from afar as my family did three years ago when eight young English teachers from Viet Nam visited Hong Kong, especially since their quiet resolve and indomitable spirit lingered long after their departure.

I've since developed an adjunct relationship with Thai Nguyen University after learning of the university's desperate need for native speakers of the English language on its faculty. My work began with the teaching rhetoric and writing to doctoral candidates in English Education. More recently, I've taught more generally in the education program (philosophy of education and educational leadership) and the MATE (Master of Arts in Teaching English) program, traveling to Viet Nam four weekends this semester to offer a range of seminars in English Education. With the founding of a new undergraduate program whose curriculum is delivered through the English language, the demand for native speakers of English has become even more critical. Teaching opportunities are available for established and aspiring scholars that could energize a sabbatical or growth semester or year. 

Amerika First: Back from the South

And the South from which I am back is that special region of the South as yet unfazed by the Internet. Not even a McDonald's in sight -- so the prospect of breakfast with wi-fi never materialized. But, hey, I did manage a visit to Appomattox Court House and a bit of immersion into Civil [sic] War lore in this sesquicentennial year. The visit to my grandfather's farm was even more sobering as what was once a grand antebellum home that graced the property has now fallen into utter disrepair. The momma-dharma proved largely successful, however, save the inexplicable drip that continues to bead underneath the basin. Plumbers-r-us . . . not! The unruly project curtailed plans to visit former colleagues in the Old North State, but I was able to make a late-in-the-day excursion (they may recall it as an incursion) to the Stoneking homestead. Brief, but blessed! And so upon my return to the land of the Internet and poised to charge into New England (at last!), a farewell hurrah to the red clay and longleaf pine and country ham biscuits for breakfast.

News from Viet Nam: English Language Education

The need it great!  Consider joining me as I expand upon the work I began in response to an invitation to visit Thai Nguyen University in northern Viet Nam during Easter 2011. On that weekend, twenty-one Ph.D. students in English Education and I drew upon Aristotle's rhetorical triangle to examine Pericles' Funeral Oration, the funeral orations of Brutus and Mark Antony from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Although all of the students were English majors at universities throughout Vietnam as undergraduates, none of them has ever visited an English-speaking culture nor, to their knowledge, had any of their own college professors. Native speakers of English visit the university on occasion, but there is no sustained interaction. I would personally like to address this challenge with a limited, but regular, series of weekend seminars at Thai Nguyen University, but I would also like to encourage other gifted English teachers to consider ways they might help address the immense needs found there.

Amerika First: A Journey Unfolds

Though technically my trek began in Hong Kong (via Detroit), the doorway to the American phase of the adventure begins in Boston, out of Logan's LEEDS certified terminal no less. Adventure in part because I'm destined to wander south of the Mason-Dixon line, the soil from which I fled (thrice! prime evidence of a compulsive disorder?) and to which I always return with no small degree of apprehension, especially in the summer months. But it remains the site of what my esteemed colleague and dear friend Tom Collins dubs momma-dharma, and so off I go, needing to negotiate only ATL and RDU enroute (confirming once again the adage, " if hell is south, we'll get there by way of Atlanta").