Miracles and Wonders

Posted on 14 September, 2015

I see a call for the banning of mobile technology in the classroom is popping up again:

Pupils could be banned from taking mobile phones and iPads into class under a major government crackdown on disruptive behaviour at school.

and

More than 90 per cent of teenagers have mobile phones, but a recent study by the London School of Economics claimed schools where they were banned saw test scores rise by an average of 6 per cent. There is currently no government policy about mobile phone use in England, as schools have to set restrictions themselves.

from: Mobile phones and iPads could be banned from classrooms – Telegraph

There is no doubt that in the classroom or ones personal life , mobiles can be a distraction. But this could easily be a teaching opportunity. We are all just scraping the surface of using these wee computers. Addressing attention, the social use of mobiles and the like could be an educational experience.

I am constantly being amazed at the power in my pocket. Last week I took a walk along the Kelvin to Milngavie. As I wandered along the phone records my track, analysed my speed, distance ect. I could grab notes, and take photos of interesting things.
If I’d needed to I could have made field recordings and I could have sent all this to a variety of places online for further manipulation. I’ve got a pile of data that can be analysed and shared.

Compared to only a few years ago this, and many other mobile applications, feel miraculous. The featured image photo, of a hoverfly (I think), is to me wonderful. Not because it is a great picture but because I can catch this amount of detail without being a photographer with the phone from my pocket.

Even this small subset of a mobiles features should surely make it worth the effort of how to minimise any negative effects of mobiles and their notifications. It is early days to be talking about bans.

Maybe advice like #tds75 You don’t need Twitter…. or #tds74 This is why I turn off notifications from The Daily Stillness (@livedtime) might be a start.

@livedtime #tds65 Loneliness, Great Video, But…

Posted on 4 September, 2015

john

Yesterday’s tweet from @livedtime, the daily stillness lead to a great video:The innovation of loneliness http://t.co/s1WAfX4fFV

A beautiful video. Of course I recognise lots of these negative factors from my own online life. But I also get some real connections. Thee are made possible by being able to hook up with people who share interests that are not local.

When I started using computers I found a series of interests, professional and personal that were not common locally By being online I could find pals to discus these things.

A lot of things I ‘share’ online are probably not of a great interest to the majority of my, say, twitter followers, but they sometimes do find a target.

The other thing about lonlieness or being alone is that is is sometimes nice:

tds34 How to achieve monkey mind @livedtime

Posted on 3 August, 2015

john

#tds34 How to achieve monkey mind | The Daily Stillness Today you get to find a quiet spot and read this Medium article byÂ Sarah Buttenwieser.Â A 4 minute read how can you not have 4 minutes to invest in your well being? Well, it may be 10 after you do your task: select from the article and/or add to it and make your very own list on how to achieve monkey mind. You will smile and also remind yourself that you do already know ehow to achieve stillness â€“ do the opposite of one item in your list each day! Tell us what is in your list?

The linked article gave me a good few smiles.

Wake up in the middle of the night, worry about lack of sleep.
Check blood pressure, wondering what effect checking blood pressure has on blood pressure.
Bookmark and tag articles to learn from, reorganise said bookmarks.
Fill your devices with PDFs on learning JavaScript. Never read them but think about them often.
Automate things donâ€™t look at end result. Occasionally recall you have automated something.
Distract yourself by making lists.

#tds28 But 10 seconds… @livedtime

Posted on 30 July, 2015

john

View from Ben Chaluim. Green hills and a cloudy sky.

My wish, my encouragement is just taking these ten second breaks. OK. You know. You know I can’t carve out a regular meditation practice every day and every morning, but ten seconds? Can you carve out ten seconds? And just do it, you know. You know when you’re going to work or something, you come
downstairs and you go to open the door. You stop. Particularly in doorways and other thresholds where the tendency is to rush through… what is happening to my feet, shoulders back, ten seconds, breathing out. Where am I? How am I? Where am I going? There does not even really have to be an answer, it’s just this touching the earth. Touching the earth.
Ajahn Sucitto

I guess this exercise is supposed to help with a busy working life, I tried it today far from work off in the hills.

Often when walking alone in the quite of the hills, I think over work, wonder about ideas, remember past sadness and even tell my self stories about walking.

This exercise, seems to physically open my view, expand the horizons and create quiet.

The sensation fades pretty quickly too but I’ll repeat the exercise in different places and see what happens. If it works when I am puffing up a slope it might work in the middle of town or work.