Month: June 2008

K-Raelians plus The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas M. Disch, and The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson

gordsellar6 Comments
This entry is part 4 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

As part of my continuing adventures in figuring out what I want to say in my paper on SF cinema in Korea, this post discusses Raelianism in Korea whilst working through a review of two books on SF and their effects on the world. I’ve just finished reading Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare At Goats, kindly recommended to me by my friend and recent WOTF prizewinner, the lovely and talented Ian McHugh. It goes so well with The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas M. Disch — which I finished reading …

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Using Technology in Classrooms

gordsellar17 Comments

You know, I always find it interesting how people like to talk up the idea of using technologies in the classroom to help students “learn in new ways.” The fact of the matter is, learning in new ways is exactly what is making classrooms look increasingly obsolete. At least, classrooms as we know them today. Often enough, teachers seem to think so deep inside the box you sometimes wonder whether they even feel its cardboard walls anymore. For example, the computer in the classroom. Very often when I see computers in classrooms, I see them used either as a portal …

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I’m Voting…

gordsellar18 Comments

… well, I’m not. As far as what I’ve been told, I’m not allowed to vote because I’ve been expatriate too long. Which is bloody stupid, but it’s what I was told during the last national Canadian election. (If you know different, please tell me!) But this is amusing and very interesting, and so are the Mac ad ripoff political spots here. I’m sure there are similar things on the right, though I wonder how much mass appeal is possible given the obvious disadvantages of the Right agenda. Still, the thing to remember is, we’ve only had an internet less …

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Greased Shipping Containers

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This entry is part 9 of 14 in the series Beef Protests '08

Why do people keep saying Lee Myung Bak won with a “landslide” or “overwhelming” majority? (Example here, but I’ve seen it time and time again all over the Korexpat blogosphere.) Is Wikipedia’s entry on Lee wrong? Lee won the presidential election in December 2007 with 48.7% of the vote… and Voter turnout was one of the lowest ever for a presidential election in South Korea. Or is is a “landslide victory” now less than a majority of an apathetic voter turnout? I mean, even the examples in Canada (for example, which has a consistently multiparty election system) only include cases …

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Around the Corner…

gordsellar4 Comments

Can you smell it? Just there, around the corner: the end of semester. I’ve got three exams next week, though thank heavens two of them are oral exams and graded on the spot. I will receive a stack of fifteen essays to grade, feedback unnecessary since they’re “final exams” and Iam unable to return them to students. I’ll have one stack of forty-odd written exams to grade, but again, no feedback necessary. Some calculations and weeding through paperwork submitted by teams in my two Listening & Speaking classes, along with evaluations and self-evaluations. The exams should be done by Tuesday …

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