Culture – Page 5 – Savannah Schaffer

Thoughts on MOOCs, Part 2

January 17, 2014 January 17, 2014Culture, Education

In Part 1 I talked about the actual structure of MOOCs, and this post will be more of my personal opinion about MOOCs. What I really like about MOOCs: They provide a necessary structure for learning. I remember with fondness the days when my life was so slow that I could make my own study schedule and just do it. I’d decide to study ancient Rome and dedicate the required time to it, and then somehow do it, at least most of the time. Now that’s a lot harder. Life seems to get in the way, haha. I don’t have…

Thoughts on MOOCs, Part 1

January 16, 2014 January 16, 2014Culture, Education

Early last year I was searching for online classes and came across a list of “MOOCs.” This was a new term for me, so I did some more research. MOOCs, massive open online courses, are a new movement in online education. While the term MOOC has been around since about 2008, it seems that they’ve gained more popularity in the last couple years. In 2012 and 2013 the major MOOC organizations, Edx, Udacity, and Coursera, were launched. So, what exactly is a MOOC? You can read about them on Wikipedia, or do a google search, but in this post and…

Does your heart break?

August 18, 2013 August 18, 2013Christianity, Culture

I’m not sure if this is a common theme of most people or just one of my odd quirks, but I always seem to be struggling between not caring and caring too much. I either shut myself off from the world and refuse to feel anything, or I become overwhelmed with emotions for everyone and everything I see. I either see a tragic news story and cynically wonder how much of the story isn’t being told, or I begin crying because of all the suffering and hurt. It is literally either “I really don’t care what happens to anyone” or…

What is Enlightenment?

August 17, 2013 August 17, 2013Culture, Education, Essays

The Modern and Postmodern Wesleyan University Coursera 1. How did Kant define “enlightenment”? Kant defines enlightenment as “man’s release from self-incurred tutelage.” This tutelage is reliance on other people for instructions on how to conduct your life. Kant gives the example of allowing a physician to determine your diet so that you don’t feel the burden to independently consider your health. Dependence on other people—or institutions—will lead to an individual’s loss of control over their life, while inversely giving other people more power to exert their own ambitions on that individual. As Kant notes, there are constant restrictions on…

Rebel Against Pragmatism

December 11, 2012 December 11, 2012Christianity, Culture

So to review…rebellion is not a negative thing, per se. Rebellion simply for the sake of rebellion is irrational. But rebellion which is inspired by a desire to improve, to solve a problem, to make this a better place…that kind of rebellion is necessary for the progress of humanity. In the last post I talked about the menace of mediocrity—being content with an ordinary life because that is what everyone else is doing. Now I want to discuss pragmatism, which, in my mind, is the most pernicious and pervasive philosophical error in our culture. “Pragmatism: An approach that assesses the truth…

An Exploration of Introversion

December 7, 2012 December 7, 2012Christianity, Culture

I know I have already covered the topic of introversion/extroversion once, in my review of Susan Cain’s book. But since this is my blog, if I want to talk about it more, there’s no one stopping me, haha. There are just a lot of thoughts I have on this subject which I feel need to be said. Firstly, both introverts and extroverts have their own strengths and qualities. Introverts have a harder time because their strengths are less obvious. We all know that extroverts are great speakers. But introverts are good listeners. And if everyone is talking, who’s doing the listening?…

Rebel Against Mediocrity

December 3, 2012 December 3, 2012Christianity, Culture, Education

The word rebel has negative connotations. People seem to perceive it as hedonistic, self-centered denial or attack of some set structure or system, for the sole purpose of denying something to which other people adhere. Sometimes people rebel simply to rebel, but there can be completely valid and good reasons to rebel. Think about this way. If no one ever rebelled, nothing would have ever been done differently, and society today would be exactly the same as it was 6000 years ago. The first person to invent and use the wheel was rebelling against their cultural system. The Reformers were…

The Pursuit of Knowledge: An Education Manifesto

November 22, 2012 November 22, 2012Christianity, Culture, Education

I’m working my way through this fascinating book by Michael Ward, Planet Narnia. It is an attempt to give the Chronicles of Narnia a coherent unity, focus, and theme by arguing that C.S. based each book from the mythical personality of one of the medieval planets. For instance, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is inspired by Jupiter or Jove, the god of happiness, celebration, and so forth. I’m greatly simplifying the scope of this book, which not only explores the medieval mythology in the Narniad but also in his sci-fi series, Out of the Silent Planet, and his…

Book Review: Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke

October 2, 2012 October 2, 2012Book Reviews, Christianity, Culture, History, Literature

I heard Joel Beeke for the first time at the Ligonier National Conference in March of 2012 and of course since all the books there were at such an incredible discount, I couldn’t resist purchasing this one. I eventually got around to reading it a few months later. Overall, I really liked the idea of the book. I find that people sometimes think Calvinism can be reduced down to the 5 points or TULIP, and as long as your church affirms salvation by faith alone through Christ alone then you are Calvinistic. Well, maybe that’s true, but TULIP fits into…

Imagine

August 28, 2012 August 28, 2012Book Reviews, Christianity, Culture

I guess this post title was inevitable, considering that I’m listening to John Lennon’s Imagine as I type, and considering that the book I will be reviewing is called Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, haha. I’m sorry it is so unoriginal, but I guess I’m not being very imaginative tonight. Warning: This isn’t going to be a completely proper book review (maybe that statement isn’t necessary since I don’t ever do proper book reviews anyways, haha). (Edit: As it turned out, I hardly even mentioned the book Imagine, so this post turned out to be even less of…

Category: Culture