Author: JP

For Your Eyes Only

Excerpts from a hundred-year-old pamphlet that came recently into my possession:

First, the cover page:

  • Confidential
  • [This pamphlet, when a British unit leaving the Indian establishment is relieved, will be dealt with in accordance with paragraph 710, Army Regulations, India, Volume II.]
  • MEMORANDUM ON THE SUBJECT OF SOCIAL AND OFFICIAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN EUROPEAN OFFICERS AND INDIANS

Whatever paragraph 710 was, I can be sure that it was not designed to allow the pamphlet to fall into my hands. I am glad someone failed in their duty a century ago.

Here are a few more excerpts showing why I am glad it wasn’t destroyed:

  • It is essential that an officer in civil employment should be able to converse freely in their own language with the classes of Indians with whom he comes into contact, as this will add greatly to the interest of his life in India, to his efficiency as a servant of Government and to the confidence with which he is regarded by the people[…..] Next to a knowledge of the language, tact and sympathy are the most important qualifications for a successful career in India.
  • A sympathetic officer, who will listen to and can himself understand the people’s representations and takes a kindly interest in their welfare, will soon acquire an influence that can never be acquired by an officer who, though more capable, either cannot understand the people or will not extend his sympathy to them.
  • When touring it is a good plan to hold informal conferences at halting places and to listen to any verbal requests the people may have to make. They are much less prone to exaggerate their complaints and much more likely to adhere to the truth, when they are speaking in the presence of a large concourse of their neighbours, than when, tutored by a petition-writer, they appear in a Court or office […..]
  • It must be borne in mind that there are many matters which the generality of Indians do not view from the same standpoint as Europeans. Their social laws and their code of morals differ in many respects from those in vogue in the British Isles.
  • He should be shy of making promises, but, if he makes one, he should always perform it.
  • Almost every case of apparent rudeness is unintentional and due either to ignorance or diffidence.

It’s not what is said in this pamphlet that amazes me. It is the fact that it was said at all in something which, to all intents and purposes, is a mini-induction course for new British arrivals in India. The entire pamphlet, just 32 pages wrong, is probably worthwhile reading for any mid-ranking multinational exec moving to a new culture.

Soft hands.

Unfinished journey

Some books I’m reading right now:

For most of the titles, it’s second time around. I like savouring things. The British Empire “confidential” pamphlet is intriguing, and I will be posting about it later.

Welcome to the Pleasure Dome

No, not the album by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I’m a tad too old for that.

Instead, it’s about this. A 1949 album, “an audible anthology of modern poetry read by its creators”, edited by someone called Lloyd Frankenberg. And the album is a Long Playing Microgroove Record, the first I’ve bought in twenty years.

Amazing stuff. Readings by TS Eliot, Marianne Moore, ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Ogden Nash, WH Auden, Dylan Thomas, Eliazabeth Bishop.

  • Never knew such an album existed.
  • Never thought I’d ever hear the voices of some of these giants of my youth.
  • Never dreamt I would be able to acquire such a collection.
  • Particularly an album with ink autographs of some of the poets.
  • And none of this would have been remotely possible except for the web and for trust and for humanity.
  • Without collaborative filtering on some other purchase I would not have known of the album’s existence. Period.
  • The seller preferred to deal locally, having been burnt by international would-be buyers before. Without my PayPal and eBay credentials, and without my Google visibility (this he only told me about later) he would not have sold it to me.
  • Without my innate belief in humanity, and without my trust experience with eBay and PayPal, I would not have paid the pretty penny it took.

But. It’s in my hands. And Barry’s happy; Paypal’s happy; eBay’s happy. And I am happy.

And I am even happier that all 8 poets had Wikipedia entries.

 

Judy Breck and Open Content

Some of you may have read my earlier post on Michael Schrage’s recent article in the Financial Times, pointing out some of the pitfalls associated with computers in classrooms. Some of you may even have seen Clarence Fisher’s almost-angry but later calmer response, a reaction similar to mine.

Why did we respond initially that way? Because of the number of people who keep damning the use of technology in education with faint praise, I guess. Because of the wasted opportunities.

So it was a good day to come home and find Judy Breck’s “109 Ideas for Virtual Learning” waiting for me. Delightful book, one that any and every one interested in 21st century education should read.

Here’s an excerpt from JSB’s foreword:

Let me dwell a moment on this powerful metaphor, an ecology of learning, founded not just on the vast information now readily accessible on the Internet but also the tools that amplify the social aspects of learning — learning in communities, learning with amateurs interacting with professionals, learning as a constantly expanding exploration of ideas.

Emphasis mine. JSB also makes the point about learning-to-be rather than learning-about, as a result of the feedback loops and social networks and participatory process. Brings to mind an old Maths professor of mine, who used to chide us regularly saying “All you do is commit to memory and vomit to paper“. Sounds better with his accent, where he made commit and vomit rhyme just fine.

I quote from Judy:

That transforming idea for education is this: The network, patterning structure of what a mind can know is mirrored in the network, patterning structure of the open Internet.

Powerful stuff. But my first-time around favourites are in ideas 8, 80 and 42. Why only open content will endure. Why open content is a bargain. And The Grand Idea.

I particularly like how Judy approaches the walled-garden problem from an educationist’s perspective. Here’s what she says on page 30:

“It will not work out to have open and closed content in parallel because knowledge itself is connected and that connectivity is dynamic. Only open content will endure because closed pieces of content are excluded from the dynamics.”

And then she goes on to say:

“A knowledge asset closed and isolated in a single website may be an expensive animation of a scientific principle, an erudite essay by a field-leading professor, or a rights-protected journal article. Many of these kinds of assets exist in the closed sections of the Internet. The knowledge quality of what these assets contain may be absolutely first-rate.”

“Even the highest quality isolated assets are a cut below open content because they are isolated from the larger context of their subject.”

Wow. Just go buy the book. Now.

Open content is not about tree-hugging tax-avoiding music-pirating downright UnAmerican activities. Open content is about learning and discovery and magic and our children and Judy’s Golden Age.

 

 

Couched in our indifference

….Like shells upon the shore

You can hear the ocean roar

In the Dangling Conversation

And the superficial lives

The borders of our lives……Simon and Garfunkel, The Dangling Conversation

 

Doesn’t that describe everything a blog shouldn’t be?

The words “You can hear the ocean roar” came zooming into my head when I read Malc’s Steve Wozniak telephone story. An absolute hoot.