Category: military
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Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda
In my April 26 Media Literacy Roundup, I previewed our then-upcoming Media Education Lab webinar on “Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda” and promised a reflection afterward. This is that reflection. I was reminded about needing to share it because the latest CBS Sunday Morning episode, “Inside Iran’s online propaganda war,” covered nearly identical ground for a…
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A Powerful Story
In my 55 years of life on our planet and 32 years as a professional educator and teacher, I’ve shared a lot of stories and more than a few presentations. This evening, I believe I shared one of the most important and powerful stories I’ve ever personally connected with. But like we often do as…
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USAFA 2025 Grad Parade
Today I had the opportunity to attend the graduation parade at the United States Air Force Academy for the Class of 2025. This is an all-wing parade, and features a special “wedge formation” by the firstees or seniors, who wear gold sashes around their waist. When Academy cadets join the wing after basic cadet training…
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Microaggressions in Middle School
These are my notes from Dr. Laurie A Ramirez’ presentation, “Microaggressions at the Middle – What are they and what do we do about them?“ at the March 25, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Presentation slides MICROAGGRESSIONS in Middle Level Education NCMLE – March 2025 by…
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POWs and NotebookLM
In December of 1991 as a senior at the US Air Force Academy, I wrote “American POWs in Southeast Asia and the Violation of a National Ethic” as my final research paper in my “History of Military Thought” class taught by visiting Colorado College professor, Dennis Showalter. That research was very challenging for me to…
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Preparing for “Peer War” with China
It is important for us, as citizens of the United States and our planet, to know of the growing hostilities which continue to build between China and the United States, and the likelihood of a “peer war” including both kinetic and cyber operations which could negatively impact all aspects of our lives. This conflict could…
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War Over TikTok
The article caught my eye this morning: “US lawmakers vote 50-0 to force sale of TikTok despite angry calls from users” (ArsTechnica, 7 Mar 2024.). It highlights a proposed bill in the US House of Representatives which would require the Chinese government to entirely DIVEST (sell off) TikTok to non-Chinese owners. I have a few…
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Understanding Rising Populism, Warfare and Authoritarianism
We should not only be teaching “traditional courses” like history and social studies in our U.S. schools today, we should be explicitly studying warfare and the multitude of ways nation states as well as non-state actors wage war with each other across at least five dimensions: In extra-terrestrial space, in cyberspace, in the air, on…
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Learning About Russia
The Russian-initiated war in Ukraine is continuing into its second year, and it’s hard to believe not only the harsh and cruel realities of that conflict which are ongoing, but also the dismal prospects for both regional and global peace at this point in human history. (March 2023) It’s a good time for all of…
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Reflections on Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (Part 1)
This week I am attending a 4 1/2 day robotics workshop at Carnegie Mellon University, learning how to teach middle school robotics with the “Lego Spike Prime” robot platform. This is based on the Scratch programming language from MIT, which I love and have been using for over 10 years. In this podcast reflection (from…