The Bridge Blog
A dialog about our new bridge and these web pages
Overview. As a pointy-headed
university professor, my weekend project of bridge photography and
building these web pages generated many questions and introduced me
to just-in-time learning. I enjoy chasing my curiosity and
want to identify ways to encourage younger learners to also enjoy curiosity
chasing and learning.
Learning usually requires repetition while forgetting occurs when
I infrequently use information. Many young learners do not understand
the importance of repetition. Weekly visits to the bridge provided
the repetition necessary to detect changes in the bridge and
consequently generated
many questions and opportunities for learning. Over the course of the
bridge project, I had access to few experts for answering questions.
Rather than a liability, this became an asset and pushed me to improve
my search skills with Google. Soon, I found that answers
to questions encountered during my weekly photo shoots were often
only a Google-search away -
(see
Restoring the Joy in Learning). Consequently Google + Internet became
dependable extensions of my memory.
The bridge story is a work in progress and is evolving from a simple
collections of photographs to an experiment with Internet-centric
just-in-time learning.
Insights I gain from you
will find their way into the learning centers of MUSC.
Palmetto Bridge Constructors, a joint venture between
Tidewater
Skanska and
Flatiron Constructors, as well as
High Steel Structures,
Freyssinet, the
SCDOT and the
Federal Highway Commission Office
of Bridge Technology guided much of my learning.
I also learn from many of you and from Google-linked resources. More
important is the e-mail encouragement I receive from many of you.
Sat, 05 Mar 2005
March 5, 2005: A visit from my dad
My dad transferred many gifts to me. But perhaps the greatest gift was that of
endless curiosity. When I was a kid - we used to travel to different
construction sites where he was installing elevators. Sometimes on the
weekends, we would visit a sick elevator and repair it. Sometimes we
simply walked from our home in Greensboro to the railroad switch house. We
would sit for hours watching the trains pass. We would count the cars.
Sometimes, we would enter the switch house and if we were good and very very
lucky we got to throw swiches which changed the communication between
parallel tracks. All the time, he displayed not only curiosity but an
enquiring mind.
Yesterday my brother, Jack, phoned from Burlington, N.C. He had just driven to
my dad's place from Pennsylvania and announced, "can we visit"? Of course,
and so about 7pm last night they appeared. My dad is 88 and still just
as curious as ever. I knew of his love of construction and thought of the
possibility to drive to various places and view the new Cooper River Bridge.
The perfect opportunity for an unplan-plan.
Every time I said "Cooper River Bridge" he told a story about elevators
he installed at Santee Cooper - probably 50 years ago (I don't really know).
Anyway, this morning, we started our tour. We saw the bridge from many
perspectives. All the time he was telling
stories and looking and asking questions: a 16 year old curiosity hard
at work.
posted at: 12:15 | path: | permanent link to this entry
