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Sunday, June 08, 2008

"This may sound crazy, but..."

Reader-submitted: ...one of my PhD program classmates had us watch your video with Steve about the Woodcock-Johnson. There has been much debate over several issues, and I wondered if you could clear some things up for us.
1. What are Steve's qualifications for administering the test?

2. What is the nature of the relationship between the two of you? (husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc...)
3. What is the purpose that you had in mind for that particular video posting?

I really appreciate anything you might share.
The group that chose your video did so because one of them was originally attracted to the video partially because of your relationship. He really enjoyed the easy, comfortable rapport that you have. It just seemed intimate to him in a forum in which intimacy isn't very easy and he thought that probably spoke highly of the relationship you had off camera as well. We were attempting to keep the discussion light, but the discussion boards got way too serious.

What!?

PhD class?

Discussion boards?

As weird as this may seem, it does explain why this particular video has been viewed 100 more times than most of my videos.

1. Steve is a teacher. When we shot this video, he had just finished a course that qualified him to administer the achievement battery of the Woodcock-Johnson.

2. We have been married for almost ten years.

3. Steve's purpose for that video was to excitedly share yet another bit of educational jargon with our viewers. He always gets feedback from other teachers, so he loves to talk about new ways to do his job. My personal purpose for that video was to mock Steve. We do these from time to time -- you can see others here, here, and here. We try to make people laugh or to show something about our lives through our videos.

I think our videos show us as we are in person, but perhaps readers who know us personally would disagree. I am certainly open to other possibilities, so feel free to post a comment if it would contribute to the discussion that is happening within this reader's PhD class.

This is now my favourite reader-submitted question of all time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The videos show an "easy, comfortable rapport" between Steven and Megan, and also a rapport each of them has with the video camera. Most of us panic in front of a camera; these two groove.
I don't get all the jokes, but I do get the groove.

Kevin Holsapple

Anonymous said...

am i the only one who giggles every time i read "woodcock-johnson"?
hehehe.

Torq said...

I have now lost all of my faith in the respectability of Higher Education!

Megan said...

Are you saying that my vlogs are not good enough to be discussed and used in class projects at the PhD level?

Torq said...

Now that's not EXACTLY what I am saying here.

In fact I might just have been saying the opposite for all you know! I MAY have meant that the intellectual level of the conversations that you have, without attaining a PHD or taking any PHD classes, has convinced me that getting your doctorate is totally a waste of time! Instead I should be rigorously studying your blog and mimicking your every move.

Perhaps THAT is what I meant by my comment.