More New Music 05/14/2012
 
In advance of my new release I have been working on some remixes to add as bonus tracks to the physical CD.  Another sample is below which you are free to download and share.

A lot has changed since I first began recording music back in 1996.  Physical CDs were a lot more expensive to produce and more people purchased them than they do today.  There was no such thing as Pandora, Spotify, I Heart Radio or any number of other online platforms to promote music.  But, while there have been many changes the ultimate goal for all recording artists has remained the same: to have their music reach as wide an audience as possible.

With that goal in mind my newest release, titled Saoirse Cnoc, will be freely available as a digital download.  I hope you will listen to the songs, enjoy them, and share with as many people as you can.  I will be making the music available on several different online platforms including Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Bands.com.  Each site is linked with many social media platforms making it very easy for listeners to share tracks with others.  If you like what you hear I ask that you please share!

In order to reach the listeners on Pandora I will also be making a physical CD available through Amazon (this is a requirement to be considered for Pandora).  I understand that some people (myself included) still like having a physical CD with cover art, liner notes, and other material.  So, these will be available for a small price.  Each CD will also contain an access code to a website where you can access special bonus tracks not available on the CD.  I will also be posting additional material there including videos.

Recording music is not by day job or even my night job!  I record music because I enjoy it and I am happy to be able to make music available for you to listen to.  More and more artists these days are independent and not associated with any record label That means that in order for them to continue recording they need listener support.  

At this point, I just want listeners!  Feel free to email me with comments and feedback.  I would love to hear what you think about my music!
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A new track from my forthcoming album Saoirse Cnoc titled Fear Siubhail (gaelic for "the traveller").

Saoirse Cnoc (gaelic for "Liberty Hill") is the title of my latest collection of original new age instrumental compositions.   
The new CD of original music titled Saoirse Cnoc is currently in production.  The CD will contain 14 new original compositions which will combine elements of electronic, lounge, and Gaelic musical styles.  As always with my original music there is a strong emphasis on melody, upbeat grooves, and ambient accompaniment.  

As an added feature of this release I am making a number of bonus features available including exclusive background information on the music, the stories behind the titles and composition process, as well as exclusive additional tracks and videos.   

Please help me spread the music by sharing and liking as I post new tracks.  I welcome your thoughts and feedback as well!
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In a recent article titled "Wasting Young Minds," Paul Krugman criticizes Mitt Romney 's advice to young people:  "Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business."   Predictably, Krugman laments the inability of students to pay for education in these days of high tuition costs and shrinking state and federal dollars available for financial aid.  His solution seems to be to spend more money we don't have to fund student's financial aid.  Like many things we do and could fund there is every reason to believe that helping students find the money for college is a noble goal.  But, where is the money going to come from?  And, there's another more important point that needs to be made.  Students do not need money (or at least not as much as is being demanded from state and federal governments) to get an education.

The point I think both Romney and Krugman miss in their evaluation of education and their advice is the vast amount of change that has made more and more knowledge freely available in ways it has never been available before.Consider just some of the avenues available for learning without college:

iTunes U: Courses rom colleges all over the nation are available for free through iTunes.
YouTube EDU:  Likewise, Youtube now has a vast library of educational videos.
Academic Earth: More free videos
Zero Tuition College; A website dedicated to connecting young people who are seeking an education outside of the college environment.
Udemy: A website which offers some free and many low-cost courses on many subjects.

I could list even more resources but the point is there are options unlike never before for students who cannot afford to go to college.  I know the critics of these options will say that without the possibility of earning a credential these resources do little for students.  But, what they provide is the knowledge that many employers are now seeking.  In a world where more and more people are getting a college degree, the value of these degrees will only hold up if those who hold them actually have the knowledge that the degree symbolizes.  Those who can show that they have the knowledge and the skills without the degree have never had more opportunities to compete than they have now.

It's easy to criticize the lack of financial resources and tempting to hold out hope for more help from outside.  I have colleagues where I teach who make the same arguments.  "If only we had more money."  "If only the government would spend less on other things and more on education."  But, what we need is an attitude much different.  We need to be thinking about what we can do without waiting for others to act or spend money.  Yes, it's unfortunate that resources are lacking.  OK.  So, what can we do without those resources to make a difference and improve education?  Are we willing to say that there is nothing we can do?  Is this the best we can offer?

Stop asking for other people's money (money they don't have) and start spending your own time and effort!  
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1. An argument with true statements can be invalid.  An argument is said to be valid if the premises provide necessary support for the conclusion.  An argument can do this with either true or false statements depending on how they are formulated.  However, just because the premises of an argument are true does not mean the argument is valid.  While the argument may sound persuasive, it could be the case that the premises do not provide support for the conclusion.  A good example of this is the following argument which contains all true statements but is, nevertheless, invalid:All banks are financial institutions.  Chase is a financial institution.  Therefore, Chase is a bank.

2.  Statements can sound very different, yet mean exactly the same thing.  One of the insights you can learn from categorical logic is that statements which sound entirely different are, in fact, equivalent in meaning.  One of the purposes of studying categorical logic is to learn precisely this insight.  Another purpose is to give you the power to simplify complex statements such as this one: Some employees who are not currently on the payroll are not ineligible for workers' benefits.  Categorical logic can show that this rather unclear statement is really the same as this much simpler statement: Some of those eligible for workers' benefits are not currently on the payroll.

3.  There is a mathematical-like rigor to ordinary language.  Certain words in ordinary language such as "and," "or," "if...then," and "if and only if" function somewhat like the mathematical operators for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  What this means is that you can determine whether statements are true or false without knowing everything about the statement's content.  For example, in the statement "Nixon resigned the presidency and Clinton wrote the Gettysburg Address" you can determine that this statement is false if all you know is that Clinton did not write the Gettysburg Address.  Partial information can lead you to detect when statements are false (or true).  

4.  It is possible to evaluate an argument's merits without entirely understanding its content.  This possibility exists in logic due to the previous point and the fact that we can build upon it a set of rules which allow anyone to deduce an argument's validity without reference to its content.  Just as in math where you can add numbers without worrying about what the numbers reference (2+3=5 and you don't need to know what you're adding 2 of and 3 of to deduce that) you can also infer an argument's validity without worrying about the argument's reference.  While this is one of the most difficult points to master in the study of logic it turns out to be a very powerful tool for the evaluation of everyday arguments.  

5.  Fallacies of thinking are extremely common in ordinary discourse.  With all the power of logical reasoning it is still quite common for people to be persuaded by faulty arguments.  What's worse is that many of these fallacies are easy to recognize with only a little training in the very basic principles of logic.  Certainly one of the reasons why fallacies of thinking are so common is because they are so effective.  These fallacies in reasoning are effective in part because our brains are wired up to be persuaded in ways that are not always rational and because without some basic knowledge of logic it is easy to overlook these fallacies.  

In subsequent blog posts I will elaborate on these points in more detail and provide some useful everyday insights that can be gleaned from the study of logic.  
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Suppose you have just graduated with a college degree and are interviewing for a new job.  You discover that due to your poor communications and writing skills as well as your lack of general knowledge that you will not be considered for the position.  What would you do?  Would you:

A.  Wonder what is wrong with the interviewer that they can't see that you're the perfect candidate for the job.
B.  Wonder how you graduated with all A.s and B.s if you really do lack those skills and knowledge.
C.  Wonder what you weren't taught in high school as well even though you graduated from high school with all A.s and B.s as well.
D.  Formulate a plan to begin improving your skills and knowledge.  Just because you weren't taught these skills or didn't take the opportunity you had to learn them doesn't mean you don't need them.

I suspect that more and more students are going to find themselves in this position although unlike my hypothetical example they will not find out that they are not being considered for the position due to their poor skills.  They will simply not get a second call or interview.  

They will continue to struggle to land a job or even an interview and never really know the reasons why.  To the extent they think about it at all they will probably respond to my question with option A.  

While Options B and C are not productive once you graduate it is worth considering before you graduate how much you're missing as you coast through one course after another not really learning anything of value or trying to learn what is being offered.  And, it is worth demanding more from your education to avoid finding yourself in a position where you don't have the skills necessary to succeed in an economy which demands and needs well-rounded, articulate, problem-solving, critical thinking dynamic individuals.

For those who have found themselves in this position (or are now experiencing it) you have little real options except option D.  You have some catching up to do so get to it!   
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For the past three semesters I have been working to integrate more creative teaching techniques and engagement exercises into my in-person philosophy course. The process has been a learning experience, at least for me, if not always for my students.  Here are some of the things I've learned:

1.  Starting student engagement in college is too late.  If students have never been invited to engage in active learning before getting to college they are not prepared for college-level engagement.  This doesn't necessarily mean that efforts to engage them won't work but they will be exceedingly difficult.

2.  Students perceive engagement as more work and so are resistant to it.  Many students are sincere in their desire to do as little work as possible when it comes to their learning.  Efforts to increase engagement in the classroom usually mean more work for students and because of this they are very resistant to attempts to get them to be active participants in their learning.  They have been trained to memorize what they need to pass exams then move on.  Doing more than this, even if it will benefit them, is not something they are eager to do.

3.  Students will engage in pursuit of their own interests.  One of the bright spots in my engagement experiments has been to use Google's idea of allowing employees to devote 20% of their work time to their own projects.  Similarly, I have made 20% of my students' grades based on their efforts to learn something they are interested in whether or not it has anything to do with the class material.  For this portion of the class, students do seem to be willing to go the extra mile in an effort to own their learning.

4.  Students need to own their learning.  What I infer from point 3 is that the more students are invested in what they are learning and the more they "own" their learning, the more engaged they will be in their learning.  Of course, this is a central premise in the unschooling movement.  The question for higher education will be: How do we incerease student ownership in their learning?  

5.  Student engagement is easier to foster in an online environment.  In my experience, students are much more willing to engage and discuss their learning in online forums.  In the online courses I teach, most students are very active in class discussion boards.  Assuming this is an accurate measure of engagement then these students are much more active than my in person students.  This could be because online courses attract students already predisposed to be more active in their learning or it could be that students of all kinds are more comfortable engaging with each other and the material in an online environment.  I don't know which at this point.

The points I have made here are simply points from my own personal teaching experience.  It may very well be that others have had more luck with engagement than I have.  Overall, my experience has not been very positive.  With the exception of students learning about what they are interested in, I have not seen much increase in student engagement as compared with conventional lecturing.  

It is all well to get students engaged with their own interests but what can be done to engage them with learning other material they may be less interested in?  Also, what can be done to insure that students who are engaged in their learning will carry this over even in courses and other situations where engagement is important but is not being encouraged.  Whether or not faculty members provide opportunities for engaged learning, students need to realize that becoming more engaged in their own learning and taking ownership (as opposed to waiting for it to be offered) is important for their success in college and beyond.
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I'm working on some ideas for a new book and am doing a little preliminary research about people's ideas and impressions of philosophy.  I welcome your answers to the following questions:

What do you think of when you hear the word "philosophy?"

What do you think someone does who is a philosopher?

Can anyone be a philosopher?

Are you afraid of philosophy?

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What is creativity?  Can it be learned?  How do creative people think?  These are some of the questions that Jonah Lehrer looks at in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works.  One insight I think is particularly important and provides a useful argument for the importance of learning as much as you can even if it seems irrelevant to your area of study or your current job.   Creativity requires the mixing of ideas and in order to do this you need to be exposed to many different ideas from many different areas of knowledge. 

There are countless examples of this process that could illustrate the point.  One of the most famous is the example of Steve Jobs being inspired by a course in calligraphy he took.  This led to the development of many different fonts in one of the first Apple computers.  In his book The Mind and the Brain, Jeffrey Schwartz writes about using the insights of Austrian economics to help develop a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder.

In Lehrer’s book he describes a similar process of combining ideas.  Dan Wieden, co-founder of the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy came up with the “Just Do It” Nike slogan by thinking about a murderer named Gary Gilmore whose last words  at his execution in 1977 were  “Let’s do it.”  He was originally prompted to think about Gilmore due to a discussion with one of his colleagues who happened to mention the writer Norman Mailer.  As Wieden puts it “we were talking about Mailer, and I knew that he had written a book about Gary Gilmore.  And that was it.  That’s where the slogan came from.  Just a little sentence from someone else.  That’s all it takes.”

The point is that’s all it takes if you have a sufficiently large store of ideas from which to draw and make connections.  Where do these ideas come from?  Well, one of the best ways to assemble this storehouse is to read widely, learn about different subjects, have a well-rounded general knowledge of the world, and remain curious.  All of these are elements of a good education and are too often missing in what passes for education these days in most primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools. 

Much of education these days seems to be very focused on relevance.  We are told that students want to learn what is relevant to them and will respond best when given information that is clearly relevant.  As educators, we are told that this is the reason why students do not read many books, certainly not the classics.  They just aren’t relevant.

But, what is the a priori relevance of calligraphy to developing a computer?  What is the a priori relevance of Austrian economics to a treatment for OCD?  And, what is the a priori relevance of the murderer Gary Gilmore to coming up with an advertising slogan?   

Judged by our current standard none of these are relevant and would not merit knowing about.  So, the question becomes: How much creativity are we depriving students of (and they are depriving of themselves) by only focusing on the obviously relevant?  In a world where there is a premium of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving don’t we need to be teaching more irrelevant information than ever before?

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Saoirse Cnoc 03/26/2012
 
I'll be posting new music samples here as I finish recording them.  There are several musical projects I am working on now including a collaboration with my good friend and composer Tom Hynes.  Stay tuned and let me know what you think!
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Seth Godin recently published a great blog titled “Ashamed to not Know” (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/03/ashamed-to-not-know.html).  In it he points out that “society changes  when we change what we’re embarrassed about.”  It is now shameful to be a racist in public.  The question is “how long before we will be ashamed at being uninformed, at spouting pseudoscience, at believing thin propaganda?” 

The trouble with many students today seems to be that they have no shame at all about their ignorance.  In fact, many seem to wear it as a badge of honor.  “Of course we don’t know about American history, geography, basic mathematics, statistics, or science,” they seem to be saying.  “So what?” 

Their peers don’t seem to pressure them to learn either.  Given this, it’s difficult to convince them that there are good reasons to learn the subjects they are being taught.  If the only ones sending them the message that it’s important to learn are their elders many will not be inspired and motivated to learn. 

In my own case I remember thinking, as I first stepped into a college classroom, that what I would now be learning was important and mattered in a way that what I learned in high school didn’t.  I cared what I learned about and whether I was learning it.  But, students really need to care about what they’re learning well before they get to a college campus.  We need to begin early and cultivate their caring as an ongoing process. 

How can we do that? I think it begins with a few simple components:

Lead by Example: The adults in a student’s life have to care about learning and show this.  This means their parents, their friends’ parents, and of course, their teachers.  Young children need to be introduced to adults who have an interest in learning about lots of different things and they need to be shown that this is an important part of adult life.  Simply telling them to care about learning without leading by example won’t cut it.

Explain:  While showing is important, articulating why you should care about learning is also important.  Provide reasons and talk about them in the context of learning and do this often and consistently. 

Show that It’s OK to not know: But, then give them the tools to find out and learn.  We can’t know everything and children quickly learn that the adults in their life aren’t omniscient.  This is OK as long as you then provide a way to learn what you don’t know and show that you care about doing so.  You don’t have to learn everything but if you provide the tools for children to learn on their own and encourage them to do so you will be providing them a set of skills they will value and use throughout their life.

Care has to be cultivated and encouraged.  It takes time, conversation, and starts with caring on your part.  I suspect it also contains a small amount of shame.  Being ashamed to not know and then acting on this.  If you are not ashamed to not know some things, your children and students will never be inspired to learn.  What are you ashamed to not know?

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