Cunningham Reviews

Check- subject matter expertise.
Check- use of the web for learning (whether academic, professional, self-directed, or corporate)
Check- understanding of the key issues.

Now you need a resource showing you how to make it all work effectively, and give you new ideas. This is where Curriculum Webs fits in- whether corporate HR intranet or K12 science projects, or anywhere in-between.

'Curriculum Webs' is clear, well-illustrated and thorough, with lots of examples giving you the confidence to move forward.

Chapters span:
- planning- context, process
- curriculum goals- learners, subject, pre-requisites, rationales
- learning activities- individualizing, grouping, activities
- gathering web resources- bookmarks, searching, evaluation (m, copyright issues
- designing effective websites- audience, information and materials, visual metaphors, navigation, chunking
- laying out web pages- design, white space, colo(u)r, styles, moving, frames/tables
- multimedia
- interactivity
- organizing ands assessing learning
- evaluating and maintaining curriculum webs
-teaching
- teaching teachers- training, standards, organizations
- appendix- servers, clients, browsers, bandwidth, names/URLs, html

Note: steers away from eLearning hype (although misses opportunity for entertaining eLearning anecdotal sidebars!).

Overall, a very worthwhile, vendor neutral, action-focused workbook on practical eLearning.

Harnessing the World Wild Web to enhance and expand curriculum and students access to knowledge and constructive information have become an important and viable vehicle to me as a school administrator. However, using this tool efficiently and educationally poses many challenges and requires new training for teachers and schools. I have found Cunningham An Billinsley's Curriculum Webs to be a rare, unique and excellent guide for educators and school administrators in preparing them to explore, utilize and maximize the benefits the web has to offer to education, as well as in creating their own units and webs for practically every subject matter and curricular area. The book takes you step by step through all the essential stages and components in the process of creating a traditional curriculum and applies them to the creation of a web based curricular unit. Its web companion provides and interactive hands-on way to easily implement the newly acquired skills, In addition to the ease and clarity it presents from a technical standpoint, it offers wonderful insights about instructional methods and strategies, based on the most current research in the field of learning and education. The book is delightful to read, uses relevant examples, is easily applicable, and is reflective and thought provoking. A must for teachers, teachers to be, and parents who wish to use the great possibilities of virtual learning to enhance their children's critical thinking skills, knowledge, individual growth, progress, and pursuit of personal interests.

This short but powerful book provides the best and most concise review of the disastrous policies that have been developed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Bello traces the origins of structural adjustment programs and then follows their effects into countries around the world.

Although originally published in 1994, the material is more relavent than ever. A MUST READ.

Bello provides a clear, concise and well evidenced argument that the structural adjustment programs of the IMF and World bank have sunk the countries of the global south into deeper and deeper debt and impovereshment. Bello sets this argument in the historical frame of the northern backlash against the rising economic power of the south. He also links the economic philosophy behind adjustment to the widening prosperity gap and falling real wages in the north.

A must read for all those curios about the World Bank and IMF and why people are against them.

From the jacket:
"Dr. John Lilly, author of The Center of the Cyclone and Man and Dolphin, draws upon 22 years of groundbreaking sientific research to present his remarkable theory and techniques of isolation therapy, showing rader to to unfold and expereince new degrees of self-awareness and personal harmony. Dr. Lilly has been studying isolation therapy ever since he developed this method in 1954 and the Nat'l Institute for Mental Health. Since 1973, he has been working in California with scores of men and women volunteers who have recorded their extraordinary experiences..."

This is a fascinating book. It has detailed instructions on how to build an isolation tank. Many "logs" of people's floating experiences, by Werner Erhard, Burgress Meredith, Gregory Bateson, Richard Feynman, Stan Grof, Sam Keen, Ralph Metzner, Andrew Weil, Robert Anton Wilson. Discusses possible use of psychopharmacological drugs in the tank.

If you are looking for this book it is obvious that you know something about Lilly and his work, so I will provide here only a few insightful quotes from the book in cojunction with some comments about this particular work; and state that "The Deep Self" is THE book on this subject... Sadly, I know it is out of print, but it is a priceless source of informationt that I highly recommend, whatever the cost.

As mentioned...Here are some quotes from the book, followed by a comment correlated with the content:

Page 130, Chapter 9: Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary levels of physcial stimuli on intact, healthy persons.
"If one is alone, long enough, the mind turns inward and projects outward its own contents and processes; the brain not only stays active despite the lowered levels of [sensory] input and output, but accumulates surplus energy to extreme degrees."
Lilly, aware of and trained by the Arcia/Shamanistic/Gurdjieff/Sufi/Dream-Yoga-systems, saw that man cannot concieve of anything but himself - his identity/personality/ego - and that this limitation can only be overcome by "eliminating" the source of this personal self, as much as possible. As Lilly says,"An ego observing itself generates only circular data; i.e., that it experiences only what it wishes and allows itself to experience." So, he pionered the floatation tank as a form of sensory isolation in order to transcend the limitations of the ego and dig deeper into experience.
In this book he cites experiements that he conducted for the government and medical institutions in cojunction with LSD, dolphins, and "healthy" persons. He then sets about instructing the reader on all aspects of building and using an isolation tank. And then, elucidates his experiences, as well as those of aquaintances, in the tank.

Another quote: page 70, The search for reality.
"I confirmed (a I had earlier suspected) that wholly complex domains of thought/feeling/doing/memory [lay] below my levels of awareness [and] acted so as to program my current beliefs about 'what is real.' Inner reality had its own laws, distinct from (and many times counter to) the laws of outer reality...I finally realized that the depths of mind are as great as the depths of cosmic outer space...The province of the mind has no limits; its own contained belifes set limits that can be trancended by suitable metabeliefs (like this one)."
Lilly technically approaches, in a scientific/observational manner, all processes belonging to and of the central nervous system in his consciousness altering attempt to break, wide-open, the unknown. He lays out gradients, levels, sign-posts, if-you-will, of the inner journey, and leaves the mind longing for a deeper experience - Something, anything, that trancends the norm.
What I continue to find interesting is how the "unknown" presents itself, when allowed. Lilly says "The range of phenomena available to the normal human mind is much greater than "society" will permit or accept." That is to say, what is not accepted is not allowed. We are unaccepting of the unfamiliar, of the unknown. The mind is infinite when it is uncontained into a personal simulation. We will project the familiar - our past experiences - onto the unfamiliar in order to simulate ourselves, for our "survival" depends upon it. The isolation tank is of extreme importance in this aspect, becuase it imitates the prenatal experiences of the womb, discharges tensions, and hence allows one to relax. A relaxation that transcends surface representations whence cannot be ordanrily reached because of anxiety/fear of the unknown - fear of the "deep self."

Page 289: "Progress in using these [vast] projection spaces is measured by one's ability to neither project external reality data from storage into these spaces nor to project into these spaces 'the abscence of external reality stimuli'."

Mr. Cunningham's book "A Gray, Gray World" is a refreshing short story that is an inspiration to a world that is gray and hopeless. Young Gary Gray lives in a gray world with a gray outlook on life. While it is his story it could be any childs story. A Gray, Gray World offers hope to all the childern of the world with an ending that is both refreshing and uplifting.A must read for both young and old alike.Well done Mr. Cunningham.

Caring for children as I do, it is enlightening finding a book that not only teaches a wonderful lesson, but is also one children seen to be enthralled with! Thanks to Mr. Cunningham for creating such a book for my kids and all children (of all ages) in this world! Keep up the good work.

ellen zieselman is a brilliant writer. a magical piece. i hope she goes on to write others.

This is a delightful representation of the artist and his work, beautifully and clearly written and magically photographed. It will make an enthusiast of the casual observer!

I loved this book so much, after ordering one for myself I bought two more as gifts. It is packed with insightful suggestions on everything from parenting to positive thinking. I find I turn to the book often just to give my brain a jump start in the right direction. I highly recommend it.

This is an awesome book that really does what it claims. It has 13 chapters, beginning with one on positive thinking. True to its subtitle, "Quick Pick-me-ups for Busy People," you can just look up whatever's bothering you at the moment and voila! There are so many excellent questions to guide you, and I love the affirmations section in each chapter. This book doesn't waste your time...there are many more answers for the money than the average self-help book. Best of all, it puts you in a great mood...fast!

HOW TO SPIN GOLD is the best book I've ever read. I loved it, and you'll love it. Buy this book!

The nameless "girl with the silver eye," an outcast, has a powerful connection with the lovely Miller's Daughter, Orelie. The nameless girl becomes the Woman of the Wood, a power outside the community, while Orelie is called to marry the Prince. The woman of the wood is in love with him, Orelie is not. The gold is spun, the ill-fated marriage is sealed, but the woman of the wood does not get Orelie's first-born--a girl. And yet, in the end, the contract is fulfilled--except that the story is wrong, the one we've all heard, about the spiteful little man whose name is found out. Her name is never known, except by her. A wonderful, compelling read. Hard to put down.

I highly recommend this book for anyone to get an understanding of one of the most maligned great athletes of all time. While much has happened in Randall Cunningham's career since the book was published in 1993; this book is still a very good read. Randall is by far the most talented quarterback to ever play in the NFL. He's done things in his career that were never done before. For example, he is the only NFL quarterback to LEAD his team in rushing in four consecutive seasons. He is the first NFL qb to rush for 4,000 yards in a career and needs only 78 to be the first to rush for 5,000, though missing half of his career due to injuries, benchings and politics. His touchdown/interception ratio 1.544 is fifth all-time behind only Steve Young 2.168, Joe Montana 1.964, Brett Favre 1.668 and Dan Marino 1.666. He is one of the greatest playmakers in NFL history, regardless of position. He has brought excitement and enjoyment to an increasingly regimented and boring game.

Contrary to "expert" and fan opinion, Randall Cunningham is also a winner. His career winning percentage as an NFL starting quarterback is .612 [Young .657, Favre .649, Marino .612, Elway .632, Kelly .632, Esiason .452, Aikman .569, Moon .505], comparable to great quarterbacks of his and any era. What's even more noteworthy is that during Randall's 11-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles, seven NFC East division teams won Super Bowl championships [NY Giants2, Washington Redskins 2 and Dallas Cowboys three. Had Randall's Eagles been in a far less competitive division in the AFC, who knows how many more wins and Super Bowl appearances Cunningham and his Eagles would have earned. Yet, he's always been maligned and vilified in the media.

Since leaving the Eagles, Cunningham has drifted to the Vikings, Cowboys and Ravens. Yet he has continued to maintain a high level of performance, even though he's had to put up with sitting behind inferior quarterbacks. This book is great for fans of Randall Cunningham. It will even give his detractors another viewpoint of this remarkably gifted athlete.

I found Randall's book to be a captivating, thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. From his early years in Santa Barbara to his career at UNLV, Randall paints a picture of a tough but exciting upbringing. He uses colorful stories combined with retrospective wisdom to illustrate how events in his formative years shaped him as an individual. He also details his misunderstood and often criticized career with the Philadelphia Eagles, as well as his views on fellow team members and other influential figures in his life. Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of the book is Randall's relationship with God. He talks about the many dimensions of his Faith, and there influence on him both as a player and as a person. It is genuinely refreshing for someone so well-known to acknowledge the value of his beliefs as an instrument in his success. This book is an excellent read not only for football fans, but for anyone who enjoys stories of faith and overcoming the odds.

This is a great book if you want to dable on herb, oil and infusions. It covers alot of info and gives you pointers on where to find your ingredients. The book has a lot of juicy tidbits on how to substitute herbs and oil in his recipees, without harming the effectiveness of it. Also a cool Soap section! I cannot wait to start making his soaps. I recommended it higly is informative and its cheap. Check out a couple of his other books. Wicca:a guide for the solitary practitioner and The Magical Household. These books are also full of information and easy to read.

Since I am a beginner with herbs and oils I was afraid that I was not going to be able to understand the book or that the book was going to loose some of its context after the translation to Spanish. I compared the Spanish Version with the English one.. and they are identical, context intact. This book is an easy guide, very versatile and comprehensible. I loved the soap recipes, the herb lists and the little background history about his infusions. Scott Cunningham's book is great for beginners, and also for people that want a quick review of skills forgotten. This is a must book for beginners!

Combined the fictional flavor of Frank Peretti and C.S. Lewis. I love the Peretti set of Piercing the Darkness and This Present Darkness, but this was much better.

This book reached deep into my soul and seached out a the Demons hidden there. The emotional and constant struggle of good vs. evil was right before my eyes. It makes you realize the spiritual warfare that is amoung us. This book is a facinating expeirience of self discovery through one man's struggle.