TOPIC:

Reflections on a journey toward science education as conversation

or

The theory and practice of science as "co-generative dialogue"?

Paul Grobstein will briefly describe and reflect on his own experiences with trying to get science education "less wrong," with the objective of providing a framework that will encourage and support continuing conversation about a number of issues that have come up in our meeting this year.  Among them are

Here it is! As promised, MadTV's parody of House. It really highlights the formulaic qualities of the show--you really know when something has made it big when MadTV makes a parody of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQsD0HU0SY

When did it begin? A story that is told in bits and pieces, chronologically, unfolding piece by piece? We know where it has led --to the literary story magazines of early 1900s, to television series, to the 1001 Arabian Nights. Part of the fun of this story is how much is held back ("tune in next week for Batman's latest adventures!") and how much the audience is controlled by the dispensation. We talked about this a bit with graphic novels and audio-books, how much different platforms/media allow audience pacing and interaction. Television series provide this in an even more structured sense, giving the viewer very specific time slots in which to 'watch' the story unfold.

 The huge theme of "Private Lives" was, well, about lives (and parts of lives) that were no longer private. Frankie blogged about everything, including her medical options. Her audience was permitted to know everything (almost) about her. In the end, it was something very personal that Frankie had not shared with anyone, online or not, that saved her life. House, on the other hand, was an unwanted voyeur in Wilson's past (and private) life, imitating Frankie in posting Wilson's secret throughout the hospital. On the other hand, when Wilson finds out that House is reading sermons written by his biological father, he keeps it to himself, privately discussing the matter with House rather than revenging himself  by announcing it publicly. 

 After my initial readings of the Thousand and One Nights where I skipped out of order I then went through and read the introduction through the Story of the Third Calendar, Son of a King of the ELF Lang translation. While I enjoyed the stories, I couldn't help but to compare my reading of them to what I remember of reading them as a child- I have only a collection of some of the stories and they were in miniature books in a box set. I'm sure that they were much more simplified than the translation that we are reading for class, but I remember being completely enthralled with the tales.

While watching the "Privacy Matters" episode of House, I was first very excited to see Laura Prepon acting again, having not seen her in anything since I stopped watching "That '70s Show."  After that, I was frankly concerned with her character's behavior.  I frankly like her reasoning, that we as people behave better when we know we're being judged.  I think it's very much like one of the theoretical articles we read earlier this semester where the blogger altered his habits because he was blogging and sharing them with the internet.

Drawing a comparison between House and 1001 Nights feels really strange.  However, just like each story in 1001 Nights seems to function on its own but is in fact tied to the others, episodes of House have episodic "patient of the week" plots, but there are still ongoing plots related to the main characters, and those don't make as much sense of of context.

Anyway, I love House; it's probably the only non-cartoon/American television series I actually follow.  The main reason I like the show has to do with the dynamic of House and Wilson's relationship, and the character of House himself.

It was interesting for me as a House fan to take a step back from the series as a whole to digest the overwhelming thread throughout "Private Lives." To be honest, I have never really sat and tried to understand the connection between the title of the episode and the episode itself. I think this may be because I watch shows to relax and give my brain a rest. But, I realized how much I was missing, a lot of the little things, when I passively "watch" a show.