User talk:Orschstaffer

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 O=MC4  18:46, 26 August 2012 (UTC)

Let's Get Started on the School of Creativity!
Ray Calvin Baker (talk) 20:20, 29 August 2012 (UTC) I'll be back ASAP.

I just took a quick look at your user page. I like it. Re "education": this is, and must be, separate from (and probably, in addition to) vocational training. It took me 14 years to get my Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics (with academic honors) from Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio, but it was worth it, because it provided me a starting place in the Information Technology industry, before the "Computer Science" curriculum was invented and became popular. My education is taking much longer, primarily in public libraries.

Re "Multilingual approach to learning": it's a great, and necessary idea. However, my choice of foreign language for study would be Spanish. I've seen a desperate need for educational materials for Spanish-speaking students in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, when I attempted to get a Master's degree in secondary school Mathematics education. "To each his own."

There is another, non-verbal language which has been important in the development of human culture -- Descriptive Geometry. Question: How much arithmetic do you think is necessary to learn how to design a digital computer? My carefully considered answer: If you can count to 36, you probably have enough aritmetic. You can count 26 letters, plus 10 digits. If you can learn to use methods of ANALOG computation, you should not need more arithmetic to Design computers, until you need to check that your computer is adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers correctly. How important are analog methods, in my opinion? Statement of fact: My father gave me, at age three years, a box of used drafting instruments, including a half-silvered mirror, which he used to solve practical problems in differential calculus. He also provided his textbook on Descriptive Geometry, and once took me on a tour of the airplane factory where he worked. My father was an analog computer, working in the Taylorcraft factory.

Ray Calvin Baker (talk) 20:51, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

I have been having conversations with the people at the Caroline County (Maryland, US of A) Senior Center. I think there is an exciting possibility of having actual hands-on classes, with real, living people, if enough suitable material can be made available on the Wikiversity. Some additional topics which may be especially suitable for the School of Creativity are: Folk Music, Folk History, and many others. Further discussion to follow -- my whippets need attention.

I recently acquired a (paperback) copy of Alan Lomax's _The_Folk_Music_of_North_America_(in_English)_. This book contains fascinating accounts of the history, folk lore, tall tales, and stories from folk song singers, as well as about 300 well-known songs, arranged for piano, banjo, or guitar. I have found that many of the songs are suitable (or easily transposed in key) for Autoharp. The old-timers at the Senior Center have been singing along to "The Blue Tail Fly", "Shenandoah", and many others.

We talked about player pianos. I shared a recording of "Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff", wherein the Russian composer plays his own arrangement of "The Star Spangled Banner". (That reminds me of the crowd singing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol on September 11th.) I was an ear-witness on that day, as the plane which struck the Pentagon (and killed several parents of severral of my wife's piano students) passed within 100 yards over my head.

Several of the men have been decorated veterans; their stories ought to be made a part of oral (or wiki) history, before all knowledge of their exploits is lost. I think this could be an important aspect of the School of Creativity, especially as it could foster wider participation in the Wikiversity. Ray Calvin Baker (talk) 23:17, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Ray Calvin Baker (talk) 23:58, 29 August 2012 (UTC) This is a wiki, so we should not need to do all the work ourselves. I hope that it is obvious that I think that there is much material suitable for inclusion in the School of Creativity. However, there seems to be a considerable problem for contributors to find suitable places to post their lessons and resources. Thus, I think that the biggest contribution that can be made to the new School is to search out existing materials throughout thw Wikiversity, and to create links and "guided tours" to connect all available materials. We will need to provide a framework of categories to guide new contributors to appropriate areas, and to support searching for materials relevant to their interests. These are organizational problems, and I think that you also have recognized this.