In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education second George Siemens, explores and reports about emergent media, learning, education and on the future impact that unknown technologies may have on society.
Photo credit: rgbspace
Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
- Untangling The Web – Why do two people share tidings with each other? What impact does a connection (social or conceptual) have on a student’s level of understanding a undergo?
- Microsoft and Google – As A Service To most of the late 80’s and into early 2000, innovation on the desktop seemed slow or placid non-existent. Microsoft dominated the adverse computer experience. That has changed.
- Agreement, Memory, Death and The Internet – Dave Cormier offers an insightful (and touching) chore on how identity and retention are preserved online.
- Taming Digital Distractions – It is always been easy to find distractions (going against coffee with a mate, chats around the water cooler), but settle then, a bit of effort was required. I literally had to leave my office.
- The Future of Work – Britannica is getting slovenly with their blog postings. Most posts – set ones I disagree with – are usually positively well thought-out. Then, they stake this: The Future World of Work: Flexible and Decentralized.
- Thoughts On Fresh Learning – Is connective learning obviously self-reinforcing? Is the building of community a means to an end (learning), an end in and of itself, or both?
- Immediacy – The implications of immediacy is unusually interesting. What used to be an away the record comment can now be broadcast immediately.
- Why Studies About Multitasking Are Missing The Point – If you adjudicate a juggler by how many times the balls hit the thrash and contrast that with someone throwing and catching one ball at a unceasingly a once, the juggler will always lose.
- Knowledge Rich… and Attention Poor – What changes in how we access tidings? How we process it? What types of tools do we desperate straits to cope?
- Liberating Data From Google – The DataLiberation initiative by means of Google is a large step in the integrity direction.
Here all the details:
eLearning Resources and Info
learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends
past George Siemens
Untangling The Web
Networks serve as a useful model to narrate electricity grids, business motion, the internet, spread of diseases, and quits obesity.
Caution is warranted, however, in in excess of emphasizing networks.
In themselves, networks reveal a organization and mode of organizing. They can serve as both a foundation on which to enlarge societal structures (such as education) and as a gateway to action.
Network analysis reveals the flow of advice in an organization.
As important as the nature itself is the why and how of connection forming.
- Why do two people share gen with each other?
- What impact does a connection (social or conceptual) have on a abecedarian’s level of understanding a area?
Mindhacks links to a sprinkling reports addressing network structures underlying joy and health.
Microsoft and Google
Object Of most of the late 80’s and into early 2000, innovation on the desktop seemed slow or honest non-existent.
Microsoft dominated the critical computer experience. That has changed.
Between Apple, Google, and open source software, innovation abounds.
- Brand-New devices (iPhone),
- views of software (cloud computing) and
- applications (Google Docs)
have generated a fresh spirit of progress around low-down and communication technologies.
Microsoft recognizes the threat and is responding close developing an online translation of its Office suite. Techcrunch has a (mostly) positive overview of the service, expected as a remedy for public release next year.
Sameness, Memory, Death and The Internet
Dave Cormier offers an insightful (and touching) newel on how identity and celebration are preserved online. He compares the passing of a associate (last year) and his fellow-clansman (20 years ago) and how they are remembered today.
The unanimity people create online today is, in a sense, a favour to their children and future generations. I recollect my grandparents through a some black and white pictures. As Cormier notes, his children / grandchildren will conscious him through rich media. Memories preserved in full slant.
Too often, when discussing sameness, the focus rests on “do not job this online, you will self-condemnation it in the future when you are [direction for office, interviewing in the interest of a new job, etc.]“. The flip side of this argument is aptly expressed in Dave’s assignment.
Taming Digital Distractions
Forget multitasking.
The real challenge many people face in work productivity is coping with distractions. I find it rather easy to ignore activities I ought to be doing with sites like
at my finger tips.
It is always been easy to find distractions (going as a replacement for coffee with a associate, chats around the water cooler), but flush then, a bit of effort was required. I absolutely had to leave my office.
Now, distractions are much more accessible. But there are ways of coping with, of course, more technology.
The Future of Work
Britannica is getting slovenly with their blog postings. Most posts – serene ones I disagree with – are usually actually well though-tout.
Then, they advertise this: The Future World of Work: Flexible and Decentralized. The advertise is poorly presented and essentially speculative. Most obvious is the generational argument.
Work in organizations is changing. That has nothing to do with generational differences. Technological advances in communication and collaboration tools are producing a distributed workforce. What does that have to do with age?
The idea that work is changing is usefulness exploring. The concept that it is generational is foolish.
Thoughts On New Learning
With CCK09 now underway, I am having a bit of trouble keeping up with posts and reflections of learners.
We encourage individuals to set up blogs (or use Moodle, SecondLife, whatever else)… and reading blog posts takes more effort than reading confabulation forums.
- Discussion forum posts are generally shorter and the context is often established close to the original post.
- Blogs also turn up to be a better environment in favour of a deeper level of analysis. I am not inescapable why – perhaps it is payable to the sense of special space or identity.
Thoughts on up to date learning:
“… Humans have an innate motivation to participate in shared knowlege and that it is this motivation that makes letter for “real” audiences more rewarding on students than writing in compensation an individual “teacher”… is connective learning easily self-reinforcing?
Is the building of community a means to an end (learning), an end in and of itself, or both?
Put another way, would you restrict writing your blog of you knew cipher was reading it?“
Immediacy
Location and immediacy are two big trends developing in part to mobile devices – constant connectivity enables us to receive facts in context – i.e. location… and microblogging produces a constant flow of low-down. The implications of immediacy is strikingly interesting.
What used to be an nutty the record comment can now be broadcast immediately.
Cogitate On Obama’s experience this week. For The Duration Of celebrities and leaders, the concept of a “safe zone” or an “distant period” simply do not happen.
I wonder how many higher education faculty are blissfully ignorant that their statements / hold forth habits / clothing choice are the topic of lively analysis and commentary on Facebook / Twitter / Friendfeed?
Why Studies About Multitasking Are Missing The Point
Multitasking has gotten spoilt publicity recently.
I personally do not think I multitask – I mission switch. Some people can reprehend switch rapidly. Others prefer to focus on one component at a time. However, this article – why studies about multitasking Are missing the point – takes a different stance.
The writer states:
“If you judicator a juggler by how many times the balls hit the baffle and contrast that with someone throwing and catching one ball at a many times, the juggler will always lose. But the juggler is doing something different“.
This is a valid point, but it also misses the differences in the variety of activities we engage in.
When I am tortuous in “flow” activities, I swoop down on from my RSS reader, to my blog, to delicious, to a Skype chit-chat, to Tweetdeck, to an online info site, etc.
But… when I homelessness to create something (a gazette, design a course, create a podcast), I call for a different approach. If I continue to utilize a flow approach, I will likely not apply the depth of thoughtful needed to complete the project soberly.
Context is king. Approaches to learning and interacting are rooted in differing contexts.
Tidings Rich… and Attention Poor
Dirt rich, and attention poor addresses a frustration many of us feel: There is too much! it is all going too fast!
I correspond with the author that acclaim is the attribute in greatest require today. But that misses an important point: Over-Sufficiency is not simply more, it is also different. Which means (and the maker addresses this slightly at the end of the article) we distress to think about what changes in this world of “much more“.
- What changes in how we access info?
- How we process it?
- What types of tools do we demand to cope? (i.e. visualization tools and methods).
- Where is our education system falling short?
In my own, obviously non-opinionated view, education as a system has an opportunity to take a different view of how eye-opening experiences are designed and delivered.
Open online courses – such as CCK09 – serve as a transparent experiment.
- How effective is sensemaking in social networks in relation to traditional course cohorts?
- What impersonation should the educator play?
- And what position should students play?
Liberating Data From Google
I am frequently negative on Google (pretty much because in a only one year’s time, Google will likely have a similar lock-in in many of its services / markets to what Microsoft had at its top). However, the DataLiberation initiative by way of Google is a mountainous step in the strategic direction:
At the middle of this lies our opinionated commitment to an open web run on open standards.
We think open is better than closed – not because closed is inherently awful, but because when it is easy in the direction of users to leave your product, there is a sense of importance to improve and innovate in order to board your users.
When your users are locked in, there is a formidable temptation to be complacent and focus less on making your product better.
From The Word Go written by George Siemens seeing that elearnspace and first published on September 18th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and Expos‚.
About George Siemens
George Siemens is the Associate Number One in the Learning Technologies Focus at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his dream on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the enlightening system. George Siemens is also the father of Connectivism: A Learning Theory to save the Digital Age and the enrol “Knowing Knowledge” where he developes a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central analogue for learning and focuses on erudition as a way to making connections.
Photo credits:
Untangling The Web – Mostafa Fawzy
Microsoft and Google – Blogs Zdnet
Personality, Memory, Death and The Internet – Vasyl Yakobchuk
Taming Digital Distractions – Pitchengine
The Future of Work – Linda Bucklin
Thoughts On Supplementary Learning – Jacek Chabraszewski
Immediacy – Chris Lamphear
Why Studies About Multitasking Are Missing The Point – Arpad Nagy-Bagoly
Facts Rich… and Attention Poor – Yegor Korzh
Liberating Data From Google – Google Public Way Blogspot