If you’re wondering how often the site updates and what I’m working on right now, this page gives you a running log of activities. My goal is to upload at least one new tutorial video every week, and to do at least some work on content creation every day. Some weeks there’ll be more, but hopefully not less, unless there are very good reasons.
Dec 27 2011
- uploaded a bunch of the probability theory videos to my YouTube channel.
- working with Articulate Studio to put together new versions of the video tutorial courses
Dec 20 2011
- posted episode 018 of the Critical Thinker Podcast!
Dec 3 2011
- Added a “Recommendations” page
- Added a “Critical Thinking Starter Kit: Two Book Recommendations” page
- Added a “Tools and Services I Use to Build this Website” page
Dec 1 2011
- created a new logo for the site and updated the site header to incorporate the logo
Nov 26 2011
- Worked on an introduction video for the probability section.
- Embedded the YouTube versions of the podcast episodes into the podcast blog posts.
- Updated the Podcast page to include a convenient listing of the podcast episodes. This makes it much easier to see the sequence of topics and find something of interest.
Nov 23 2011
- Circulated a survey to subscribers of the newsletter and members of the Academy, asking for feedback on what tutorial courses they found most valuable and what courses they would like to see in the future. I’ll write up a blog post that summarizes some of the results.
Nov 21 2011
- Posted two new videos, “The Total Probability Rule” and “Bayes’ Rule”, in the tutorial course “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities”. These are available only to Academy members.
- I rewrote the probability theory quiz questions and produced pdfs of the questions for download, and the solution set for download. These can be viewed in the table of contents for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course. Only Academy members have access to the solution set.
- Worked on a poster concept.
Nov 19 2011
- Completed slides for two tutorial videos on conditional probability. I’ll record and post them tomorrow.
Nov 16 2011
- Circulated latest edition of the Critical Thinker Academy newsletter!
Nov 12 2011
- Recorded, edited, posted and uploaded podcast episode 017, “Critical Thinking About Conspiracies | Part 2″. You can watch the video version on YouTube right here. Lots of comments!
Nov 7 2011
- Finished writing podcast episodes 017 and 018. 017 was getting too long so I had to split it. Convenient though. I’ll complete them both this week and publish them about two weeks apart. Need to complete the probability theory tutorials.
Nov 4 2011
- Exploring a new open source e-learning platform, eFront, as a possible home for the tutorial courses. Includes automatic registration and member management, integrated quizzing, progress tracking, forums, certifications for completed course work, and integration with PayPal. I think I’ll be working with this behind the scenes for a while.
Oct 26 2011
- Working on podcast episode 017, “Critical Thinking About Conspiracies: Part 2″.
Oct 25 2011
- Recorded and uploaded the video on “The General Conditional Probability Rule“, for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course. Doing Bayes’ rule next!
- Ordered the softcover version of The Abominable Charles Christopher, the first collection of the beautiful webcomic by Karl Kerschl. I love the stuff, but I’m also interested in seeing how Kerschl laid out the book, since he’s got a mixture of two-row and single-row (strip) comics, similarly to what I’m planning on doing for the Critical Thinker Academy webcomic. With different heights for the strips it can be a layout challenge when you’re assembling a book for print.
Oct 24 2011
- Produced slides for “The General Conditional Probability Rule”, for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course.
- Explored Shopp, the ecommerce plugin for WordPress. When I have merchandise and other products to sell (ebooks, etc.) I’ll want a proper store and shopping cart solution. There are lots to choose from.
Oct 20-22 2011
- I was at Texas A&M university as a guest of the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. Not much time to work on tutorials!
- I did read the bulk of Kevin Kelly’s latest book What Technology Wants on the airplane and in airports over the course of the weekend. To call it a bold book is an understatement.
Oct 18 2011
- recorded, edited and uploaded “The General Conjunction Rule” video for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course.
Oct 17 2011
- created slides for “The General Conjunction Rule” tutorial for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course.
- read about three chapters of David Ray Griffin’s Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee’s Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory, in preparation for the next set of podcast episodes on “Critical thinking about Conspiracies”.
Oct 16 2011
- recorded, edited and uploaded three tutorials for the “Rules for Reasoning with Probabilities” course: “The Restricted Disjunction Rule”, “The General Disjunction Rule”, and “The Restricted Conjunction Rule”
Oct 15 2011
- finished keynote graphics for three probability rules tutorials
- responded to YouTube email and site email questions/queries
Oct 13 2011
- worked on character sketches for Critical Thinker Academy webcomic
Oct 12 2011
- finished podcast episode 016, posted to Critical Thinker Academy, iTunes and YouTube
Oct 11 2011
- created keynote slides for podcast episode 016
Oct 10 2011
- Recorded audio for podcast episode 016: Critical Thinking About Conspiracies (Part 1)
Oct 7-9 2011
- attended Advancing Publicly Engaged Philosophy conference in Washington DC.
Oct 5 2011
- created new WordPress installation to host webcomic
- installed Webcomic plugin and Inkblot theme
- modified Inkblot theme to match Critical Thinker Academy theme (not perfect but close enough)
Oct 3 2011
- continued working on “critical thinking about conspiracies” podcast script
- uploaded “The Negation Rule” video tutorial to probability rules course on website
- created site updates page
