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How can the educational system we pay for via our taxes change and transform itself into a new way to prepare our young people for an even faster-changing future? Are there alternatives out there?

Photo credit: Stephan Mosel

As I have promised you last week, George Siemens has made himself available for a short, informal video conversation in which we have discussed several interesting topics that some of you had also suggested. [I was not able to bring in all of your suggested questions, both because of the limited time available in this conversation (the video runs about 32 mins) and also because I have gotten some of your suggested queries way too late to use them in this videoconference.]

If you are interested in seeing me and George talk about the state of education and schooling today and the down-to-the-ground issues a parent of any teenager meets today you may find this enjoyable to watch. The other topics we cover include a simplified explanation of connectivism and its relevance to non academics, as well as education future direction and social media hype.

Here the video interview and, right after it, George’s habitual quality selection of issues, topics and resources to keep an eye on while trying to make sense of it all.

Robin Good interviews George Siemens on connectivism, learning, social media and the future of education.

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

20 Free Ebooks On Social Media

I haven’t read all of the ebooks listed… but this is a useful listing of 20 free ebooks on social media.

The list includes resources on podcasting, blogging, usability and related subjects. I’m not entirely convinced I like the term social media anymore. In the sense that all media (whether creation/production, transmission, reception…and even when media is treated as storage, it still aspires to be viewed) require a producer and consumer, doesn’t the notion of media have an inherent social trait?

NSF and The Birth Of The Internet

Ray Schroeder provides a link to a great resource: NSF and the Birth of the Internet. The site includes a mix of timelines, images, videos, interviews, etc.

As prominent as the internet is in our lives, it’s worth having at least a functional understanding of the stages of development as well as future directions. We need something similar for the development of educational technology…

Social Media Classroom

Howard Rheingold has been working on a project called Social Media Classroom to incorporate emerging technologies into classrooms. An instantiation of his platform can be seen here for an upcoming course he is teaching.

The software - SMC - pulls together wikis, blogs, tagging, media sharing, and other tools familiar to the read/write web crowd. This type of centralized tool set is important for introducing the next wave of adopters to distributed social media.

I’m unsure at this stage whether Rheingold’s software allows for incorporation of learners blogs that exist outside of the software - i.e. if I have an existing blog, can I post there? Or do I have to use the course software exclusively? I’m of the mindset that developers of software, such as LMS‘, need to design for two groups: the majority who are just starting to adopt social media and the minority who are well on the journey and want to keep their existing space and identity.

Rheingold provides a short introduction to the software in this 8 minute presentation.

Key quote: don’t worry about keeping up with the technologies so much as keeping up with the literacies the technologies enable.

Explaining Leads To Information

I’ve been trying to gain a better sense of the role universities will play in society in the future. At one point, we thought content was the value point of universities. Wrong. MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative changed that. Ok, then the interaction with faculty is the value point. And wrong again. Open communication and collaboration in online environments with networks of peers and experts gave us control over our interactions. Fine.

Then the value point is accreditation. Yes, for now. Our ability to rate, review, comment, and provide feedback has increased with the development of the read/write web. I’m not sure how long we can build education’s value on the concept of accreditation. As I’ve frequently suggested, we can glean much insight from a field that has spent more time journeying down the path of shifting value from content to something else: the news/journalism/media industry.

Jay Rosen, in National Explainer, advocates a new role for journalists. Instead of presenting information, the objective is to assist readers and viewers in making sense of complex subject areas. The ability to do this rests on the journalists ability to provide coherent, memorable explanations.

In my presentation at Madison a few weeks ago, I emphasized that the role of university may well become one of being a coherence-maker, helping learners make sense of information abundance and change. Sure, universities have always done this… but they have done so from a perspective of authority rather than engagement.

Facebook In Education

I was interviewed by a radio program today on the role of Facebook in education. My view: very little research has been conducted on whether the high communicative value of Facebook translates into academic value.

Do students want educators to integrate Facebook into instructional activities? Or do students prefer to use these tools for more social purposes? As educators we are often drawn to tools in popular use, assuming we can co-opt them for academic purposes. “Oh look, everyone has a mobile phone/Facebook account/Second Life avatar…let’s use that for educational purposes“.

InsideHigher Ed asks the key question: Will Colleges Friend Facebook?

In a related vein - the term creepy treehouse has acquired a fair bit of traction to draw attention to differences of intention in the use of popular technologies and processes for teaching/learning.

Web 2.0

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One of my favorite past times is to whine about the term web 2.0. I don’t like it. It turns what is inherently a process in to a product. It’s a marketers dream. It smacks of hype. And so on. Yet the term appears with increasing frequency in books, articles, and conference themes.

Don Hinchcliffe states that web 2.0 is the more popular “new internet” term. He then provides a good overview of how the term evolved, how Gartner presents it in their hype cycle, and how “2.0” is impacting the development of concepts such as enterprise 2.0.

Location-Based Learning and Working

For some reason, we like to do certain things in certain places. It’s not as comical a statement as it first appears. Consider work: we go to work, sit at a desk, or lecture in a classroom. We have a habit of eating dinner at the table (well, for some, in front of the TV).

We have a “go to” mentality. Why? I haven’t a clue. But that mentality is changing in a few areas.

Consider business - many workplaces are moving away from the traditional “go to work” mentality. Distributed workforces, increased travel, and internet connectivity leave many professionals with only a limited presence at a particular physical location.

Consider another perspective: “we go to classrooms to learn“. It may have been more valuable at one time, but with meetups and internet connectivity, I wonder if classrooms are going to go the way of business offices: distributed, open, mobile.

Are Social Networking Sites Good For Business?

I often encounter this type of question with regards to education: Are social networking sites good for business? The question assumes that SNS possess some intrinsic value in themselves.

Simply put, social networking services are good for communicating and connecting with others. If that’s your aim - in education, business, or whatever - then, yes, these tools can be useful. Outside of an aim, in keeping with Gibson’s concept of the need of an agent to perceive affordances or action potential of a tool, SNS have no value.

Presentation: Designing New Learning Landscapes

The more I proceed, the more I see how badly it is needed: media literacy. Understanding what information is, making sense of the different communication paradigms, from interpersonal to mass and social media, the creation of reality and consensus, the role and use of new technologies are all very critical elements of the puzzle we all are trying to solve: Communicating and understanding better the world we live in.

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

George Siemens, Master New Media official guest guide on media literacy, not only takes you through another fascinating journey to the issues, tools and content resources that can stretch and bend your present technology and media view, but has also accepted my invitation to be a special guest inside a one-on-one short video interview I will do with him in the coming days.

This is a great opportunity to hear George in first person and to ask him directly the toughest questions you may have. In fact, the best contribution and thank you you can provide to the work he has so kindly contributed here, is for you to add some relevant questions in the comments section at the end of this article, so that I will be able to throw them at him directly in our next week video interview.

Here another fascinating journey into making sense of media and new technologies around you:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Workplace Learning

I try and follow a diverse range of blogs - in particular between academic and corporate environments. For some reason, I have an easier time finding academic blogs. A group of corporate bloggers recently launched a new service that I hope will offer much to correct this imbalance: Workplace Learning Today. A great initiative.

The Future Of Science

What are important directions in science? Michael Nielsen tackles this question in The Future of Science. He considers the importance of openness in science, but provides a useful overview of why academics so often do not share resources and information:

“These failures of science online are all examples where scientists show a surprising reluctance to share knowledge that could be useful to others.

This is ironic, for the value of cultural openness was understood centuries ago by many of the founders of modern science; indeed, the journal system is perhaps the most open system for the transmission of knowledge that could be built with 17th century media…

We should aim to create an open scientific culture where as much information as possible is moved out of people’s heads and labs, onto the network, and into tools which can help us structure and filter the information. This means everything - data, scientific opinions, questions, ideas, folk knowledge, workflows, and everything else - the works.

Information not on the network can’t do any good. Ideally, we’ll achieve a kind of extreme openness.“

I applaud the vision. I’m less convinced of the possible reality. Universities are still contributing significantly to development of new knowledge, but corporations are playing a greater and greater role. And Universities are aggressively building commercialization strategies for new inventions/patents. Some knowledge will be open. Much of it will be closed.

Do we end up with a tiered system? Really important (however that’s defined) cutting-edge knowledge is closed, the less important stuff is open?

Online Universities

It’s a good time to be in education. Especially online education. Numerous factors - multiple careers, distributed workforce, non-sequential learners, fuel prices, convenience, and degree creep - influence growing acceptance of online universities.

The Chronicle comments on a new book evaluating perceptions of online learning:

“Higher education, he said in the interview, needs to take notice and adapt. These days, he said, students are much more likely to have experienced other cultures firsthand, either as tourists or because they have immigrated from someplace else. Whether college for them is a traditional complex of buildings or an interactive online message board, said Mr. Zogby, “there is a different student on campus.”“

Sloan-C reported similar results in Online Nation (.pdf). Online learning is gaining acceptance and continuing to experience significant growth.

Facebook

According to a recent report, Facebook continues its rapid growth, overtaking MySpace. Overall, social networking shows stronger growth than the rest of the internet.

I’m somewhat surprised at Facebook’s growth. The company has stumbled significantly and yet continues to gain users.

Much like Microsoft introduced word processing and spreadsheets to non-techies through ease of use (ok, ease of use is debatable) and integration with other tools, Facebook pulls together many previously separate applications into an easy to use platform.

Presentation: Madison

Last week, I was in Madison for the 24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Most conferences I attend have only been around for a few years, so it was rather neat to see a conference with this type of longevity. I discovered a person who rivals Jay Cross‘ ability to network and know roughly everyone: Curt Bonk. Great conference.

My presentation is available: Connectivism: A vision for education. I’m going to put a new disclaimer on speaking arrangements: I reserve the right to absolutely change the focus of my talk if I find something more relevant than when I put the abstract together six months ago :).

A concept map of the presentation topics is available. As are resources tagged in delicious.

Six Degrees

It’s official: just over 40 years after Milgram conducted his famous Six Degrees of Separation experiment, we are once again informed that the world is small. Or, perhaps more accurately, the world is a series of small worlds.

A recent large-scale social network analysis by Microsoft researchers revealed that we are separated from almost anyone else by only about 6.6 hops or connections. The study was confined to instant message interactions.

I’ve never quite understood the appeal of the six-degrees experiment. Yes, it’s cool to know that I can connect with anyone in the world in about six steps. But, then again, with email, I can connect to anyone in the world with one step (assuming they have an email address as well). How many of us are actually introduced to others through six or more connections?

“Hi Jane, this is Bob. My friend Mary knows someone named John who knows someone named Edgar who knows someone name Susan who knows someone name PeggySue who would really like to meet with you.“

Does that ever happen? Hasn’t happened to me.

Science Dissemination Using Open Access

Get your own - Open publication

Science Dissemination using Open Access is a book I would have liked to encounter before my panel with Curt Bonk on Web 2.0 and Scholarship.

The topics in the book are reflective of the major changes impacting traditional dissemination of research, including tools such as webcasting, Open Journal System, and DSpace. Some parts are a bit soft - such as the discussion on using Google Ads to generate revenue for your journal - but overall, it’s a good introduction to open access.

How News Shapes The Way We View The World

This is a fascinating video How the news shapes the way we view the world. The video was posted sometime in March, but the message is interesting. I personally don’t fully equate the news we encounter with the way we see the world.

I engage in very limited viewing of traditional news sources. However, for the sake of original reporting, the dramatic reduction of foreign news bureaus is obviously a problem.

But I wonder if William Dutton’s notion of the Fifth Estate isn’t partly the solution.

Why do we need foreign offices when we can get the information directly from people who are in the situation and can present activities from a non-filtered view. News is changing…but I’m not fully convinced it is entirely for the worse.

Exceptionally well-written articles (especially in investigative journalism) may be under challenge in this model - and that would be a significant loss.

But the numerous other opportunities for people to learn about world events through less centralized means are a significant addition to our potential to remain informed about the world.

On Being Connected

Being connected provides great opportunities. And carries challenges. Some suggest a debilitating aspect to connectivity: “I’m so connected that I’m paralysed!“. Others suggest connectivity creates homophily.

Being connected doesn’t change human nature by itself. If anything, connectedness holds up a mirror to humanity and provides an image of what really exists.

Connectedness in itself if not capable of solving the broader concerns that assail humanity. But, being able to connected with individuals from around the world can create a new level of complex thought and interaction that gives us a better chance of solving those complex problems…

YouTube

YouTube appears to the be new metric or determinant of success (i.e. number of hits, presence). Having a YouTube channel is now as necessary as having a blog was 3 or 4 years ago. I was reviewing the new OpenUniversity channel when I came across this link to OpenLearn.

OpenLearn has the ambitious goal of not just making learning resources available, but also providing the tools that enable learners to remix and reuse existing content. An exciting prospect. As we discovered with the web, access is step 1. All the fun stuff happens when we have the ability to create and recreate.

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on August 15th 2008.

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

If you know someone who has the talent, will and true desire to get a professional web publishing experience and credential like no other, while creating the foundations for earning a good revenue in the future, this is the right time to apply for one of the several Master New Media apprentices positions.

Photo credit: Michele Piacquadio

After almost a year, and following the unstoppable demand coming from tens of your emails, Master New Media is opening again its doors to a number of apprentices who are interested in learning all it takes to become effective and sustainable professional web publishers. Yes, here at Master New Media this is the time of the year when I open up again the opportunity for online internship applicants to put forth their best skills and presentation letters.

Here all the details:

MasterNewMedia Internship Overview

What is a MasterNewMedia internship all about? What’s the focus, objective and daily activities?

A MasterNewMedia internship is a practical learning camp in which to learn everything about professional web publishing, blogs, RSS, collaborative work, video production, interface and information design and the many other disciplines connected to becoming effective and commercially profitable new media publishers.

This internship is a serious opportunity to enter the world of new media by joining an online production team of media and marketing specialists that cover a great variety of skills and competencies.

In the spirit of bioteams, all communications within the team are shared and open so that most everyone knows about what is going on and can easily contribute his skill when appropriate.

This is not a school. It is an apprentice’s shop where one learns by doing and by working closely together with a team and a personal coach. Assignments are all real, and well-executed work gets to be published. The earlier an intern learns to execute a newly learned role reliably and without additional support from others, the earlier she can move from learner to paid collaborator. Results count, not time.

The focus of this internship is specifically the one of providing a fast track “digital media literacy” learning path for the very people I would like to see working here at Master New Media. This is the truth.

In reality, and as I have clearly reported above, many of these talented people have and will go on to even more prestigious careers in bigger companies or as individual entrepreneurs. I can’t really stop them and I am in fact happy that they can do what they really like.

But the experience of seeing talented individuals go on to bigger careers, sometimes thanks in good part to what they had learned here, made me rethink of the value and appropriate relationship that I want to have with those participating in the internship program.

I am in fact the one who takes the more risks in this relationship. I share openly all that I know about media publishing, invest significant personal time with my students and provide lots of tangible feedback to their learning experience. I share access to the services I use and to our newsroom accounts. I take personal time to do live voice and screen-sharing sessions to explain in detail how to specific tasks and take all of the time needed to explain the why behind each strategy and task.

In some cases I can’t avoid running into smarter types who take in as much as they can, behave themselves as would-be great potential collaborators only to suddenly disappear as soon as they know enough secrets to start their own online publishing venture. (Yes, these are part of what makes that 1:8 ratio in finding good reliable people to work with. Many go on to do their things.)

So, the why I put up these internships is quite simple. I am a small growing company and just like any healthy organization out there, I too, need to continuously recruit good, talented individuals to make it grow. I don’t want lots of turnaround because the skills needed to be learned are quite unique and the typical freelancer would normally take a lot of our energies while leaving little of value to us. My strategy is therefore is to grow and educate my own staff as much as possible. Go out there, find them, test them and then train them.

Internships: A Bit of History

Here at Master New Media, a few former interns, apprentices and professional collaborators have left some trace of their presence and contributions. Mostly in the form of great published content, but many times in the spirit and attitude that they bring to this fast expanding team.

In general, the largest part of internship candidates fails after a few weeks, discovering they are uncut for the task and learning at hand. Many times it is a communication problem limiting the opportunity to work together, while the clear winner in terms of what candidates fail to do properly is a lack of humbleness and of a true learning spirit.

Still too many individuals think, even before being accepted in this program, that they already know quite a bit of how web publishing needs to be done. They are not very inquisitive. They ask few questions. They are after getting in control, but not so much about learning the individual things that can make web publishing successful. And that is why they do not last very long.

As I have long learned from my good and wise adviser Susan, it takes the going through of eight to ten people before you can land a good new team member. It seems a big number, yes, but if you are out to find individuals with whom you can work for a very long time, that is indeed the ratio. Talented, honest, hard-working, passionate individuals are hard to find.

Past Glories

But there have been some good stories as well.

In 2007 two former “interns” graduated out of MasterNewMedia have landed new prestigious new media positions.

Michael Pick, first successfully launched SmaschCut Media, a small production boutique devoted to create video animations, screencasts and clips to promote, market and introduce new 2.0 technologies, and then, in less than a year went on to become part of the marketing and visual communication unit at Automattic, the company behind Wordpress! His new official title is “lightbulb engineer” and his responsibility is to create visual communication so effective that people will “get the idea” of how things work and how they can be best used in a fraction of the time. Compliments Michael.

This is what Michael says of the impact of his experience at MasterNewMedia on his following successful stints:

“Oh, huge - not sure you could assign a number to that.

Besides the realization that it was possible to live and work outside of the 9-5 ratrace and travel freely around the world while doing something I was passionate about, I got to meet some great people, was given the chance to explore the new (especially at the time) and exciting screencast medium (which went on to pretty much become my career), and learned an enormous amount about technologies, tools and culture surrounding them I had previously only touched the iceberg of.

At Master New Media I was given the chance to explore cutting edge communication media, and the guidance and training to use them effectively in the brave new world of web publishing - something that has - beyond any doubt - completely changed the direction of my life since.

With Robin we were working with video and screencasts way ahead of the curve. In the couple of years since we started, I’ve seen things live web video streaming become increasingly popular, and screencasts become not only a hugely popular way of getting things across online, but also a very profitable business niche. Robin was way ahead of the curve on both fronts.“

Livia Iacolare, one of Master New Media best article editors ever, has also landed a great position of Online Community Coordinator at Current TV Italy.

Livia says:

“…working at MasterNewMedia was one of the most important opportunities in my life, since it paved the way to my professional career.

I had the possibility to learn in a very stimulating and open minded environment, which eventually helped me develop my skills and discover what I really wanted to do in my life.

Moreover, it nurtured my desire to challenge myself and experiment new things without fear of failure, which at the end brought me where I am now.“

An earlier MasterNewMedia graduate, Nicole Neuberger, has just been hired by Ericsson in Sweden to look over product design and usability of new mobile technologies.

… And More Recent Ones

In the last 12 months, I have accepted a number of new interns at Master New Media and while a few have not lasted very long, a few them have already completed their initial learning path and have now earned for themselves a professional responsibility position inside the network.

Gaetano Costa has finished his internship at the beginning of July 2008. Gaetano is a newly graduated student of Information Technology from the University of Salerno and after having worked hard at learning all of the basic newsroom roles has received an official assignment as Article Editor and Supervisor and AdSense Optimization specialist.

Massimiliano Badolati is another good recent success story. A biology “senior”, Max has broken all the internship records making his contribution so valuable and unique to earn himself a paid position in our ranks in the arc of a few months. Max is now MasterNewMedia official AdSense Marketing and Optimization Manager as well as one of my most valued Article Editors now in charge of editorial content quality control. He continuously tests new ad positions and layouts and makes sure that MasterNewMedia can extract the best value from all advertising opportunities offered by our key advertising partner: Google.

Giulio Gaudiano is the one who really made the fastest career of all. Giulio joined MasterNewMedia right after the OpenCamp 2007 where I first met him. Completed his internship, (which lasted only about five months as he chose to do it intensively by working daily with me at the Rome office), Giulio went on to become Master New Media Italia Chief Editor and Partner (I share with him 50-50 the advertising revenues of the Italian edition as I do with the editors of my other international language editions). Giulio works also on the Direct Advertising front and has already been able to close multiple direct advertising contracts on which he makes extra commissions. Finally, he has been working on coordinating the relaunch of the Latino (Spanish) and Brazilian (Portuguese) Editions of MasterNewMedia (still looking for valid editors and contributors), and has been training and coaching the new editors that are already working on these.

Who Can Become A MasterNewMedia Apprentice?

Just about anyone can become a Master New Media apprentice. Whatever your nationality, culture, religion, or location you are welcome to apply to become part of this team. The recommended traits for applicants are:

• a true, passionate interest for communication, publishing and new media,
• good ability to listen and to memorize,
• significant availability in terms of time,
• ability to plan and report in writing,
• predisposition to work and communicate often with others,
• curiosity in asking and
• willingness to master all the skills / tasks required by the selected role/position.

If I had to say it in simpler words I would say: “I am looking for individuals who have the time and will to learn how become media publishing masters. If your first need is to make money now, learning is not the right road to take. Go do something you already know. But if you are very serious about placing your footprint in the future of media publishing I have created a place where you can be exposed, immersed and guided to discover how this all works in a way that you will not get even by going to the most expensive universities out there.

It takes time, hard work and good will, but if you have these, and a good understanding media and technology are all about, you do have a career to be exploited right in your hands.”

Key Benefits

What are the key benefits of doing an internship at MasterNewMedia?

1) Learn by Doing

Everything you learn during this internship is generally achieved by having me or someone in my team sit down online with you and demonstrating to you hw to do something or reviewing together with you how you have executed a specific assignment. Learning in this internship is mostly achieved by doing not by reading books and manuals.

2) Have Me as Your Personal Coach

I am an extremely passionate, funny and enjoyable coach. I spend all of the time needed with my students and I share in every single detail what I know about the different skills I teach. I can guarantee you that having me as a personal coach is certainly something you will not forget easily. I may not be always distributing compliments if your work is not well above the average but you can be sure that I will tell you exactly where and how you could make it a lot better next time.

3) Work in a Friendly Team

The MasterNewMedia team is made up of about 10-12 people, and you will be working in close touch with at least two or three of these people. Inside the team there are regular online weekly meetings to review plans, progress, new assignments, issues and problems. Team members are a bunch of fun guys too and they do not lose any opportunity to send email puns to each other while pro-actively helping each other in in their assigned tasks.

4) Participate From Anywhere

MasterNewMedia interns (and collaborators) connect in from all parts of the world and I make no discrimination between those that I can meet physically and those I get to work with online only. Here is a good example: My tech and webmaster chief is a guy that I have never met physically. We work together online six days out of seven and he has been getting a $2000plus /monthly check from me for over two years now. He lives across the Adriatic sea in Croatia, a few thousand miles away from where I am, but he is probably the highest trusted and most respected team member I have. So, as you can see, distance or working online only, are in no way an handicap anymore. On the other hand having the opportunity to work physically side by side with me does offer very significant advantages, but yes, unless you already in Rome, it does cost significant extra money to come and live in a city like this. It’s an option for the Schumacher’s out there.

5) Use Daily Cutting Edge Communication and Collaboration Technologies

In this internship you get to learn and use many of the best web 2.0 technologies that you have been reading so much about. RSS, P2P, wikis, VoIP, videoconferencing, screen-sharing, instant messaging, mindmapping are just some of the many cool tools I and my team use in our daily work here at MasterNewMedia. So the one to be preoccupied should be you: do you have a working headset and webcam and a good connection or are you running a sloppy old computer that hangs up everytime you run more than a few things together? Think about it before applying.

What Apprentice Roles / Positions Are Available?

Here the internship positions open now:

1) Newsmaster

Role / description: News scouting, selection and publishing.

2) Article Editor

Role / description: Reviews, edit and prepares content for publication.

3) Technology and Media Reviewer

Role / description: Writes in-depth technology reviews about software tools and web-based applications.

4) Web Designer

Role / description: Conceptualizes, prototypes and executes XHTML/CSS code for the designs of our web pages, while supporting the creation of materials for specific marketing initiatives.

5) Web Master

Role / description: Maintains, edits and continuously upgrades our web infrastructure, including page templates, scripts, and back end systems, by coding new solutions, troubleshooting publishing problems and guaranteeing impeccable display and compatibility of our site across different browser and operating systems.

6) Community Manager

Role / description: Supports, facilitates and enables the growth and nurturing of a new upcoming online social community.

Video Producer

Role / description: Creates, edits, remixes, add subtitles and logos and opening titles to our own produced videos and interviews. Does video transcriptions, capture, encoding, conversion and video publishing in multiple formats. Maintains an organized library of digital content for re-use.

Guide Editor

Role / description: Edits, compiles, publishes and maintains in depth tech guides on specific topics or technology applications.

General Internship Requirements

• Education: any education level is OK, no formal academic degree required. Better if has studied information technology, media, journalism or other communication related degree.
• Language: You do need to have excellent English language skills: reading, speaking, writing.
• Internet connectivity: A broadband Internet connection is highly advised. Dial-up connectivity is not OK. You need to be able to talk via Skype and see easily video content.
• Technology: Any computer in good order or operating system is OK.
• Tech skills: Strong familiarity with web 2.0 services and tools. Foundations of HTML, blogs, RSS, wiki, and collaboration tools. Basic digital image editing.
• Other skills: Excellent writing skills. Planning and reporting.
• Time availability: At least 5 to 6 hours per day, six days a week. Minimum apprentice period is nine months.
• Character traits: Key interest: learning. Humble, curious, precise, organized, honest, direct and upfront, ironic, open-minded, open-to-criticism, team-worker, passionate.
• Location of internship: fully online (two positions available in Rome - side by side with me and Giulio)
• Number of internship positions available: 6 - 8
• Cost: free
• Scholarship and admission tests: Six full scholarships covering all of the costs for participating in this internship program are offered and paid by our educational sponsor RGU. To get to these you need to apply by writing to Giulio.Gaudiano@masternewmedia.org and you then need to pass a demanding test consisting in article writing and formatting and in a demonstration of your competency in the use of typical web 2.0 tools and technologies (RSS, wikis, P2P, blogs, etc.)

How To Get More Information

Interested?

To find out more about Master New Media internships read these articles written by those who actually went through it:

Nicole Neuberger

Michael Pick

Applications for internships are open now. To get in, write your request by sending already some information about yourself and why you want to join directly to Giulio.Gaudiano [at] masternewmedia.org and cc: me Robin.Good [at] masternewmedia.org.

Hurry up, applications are open only for a limited time.

What is connectivism? If you were to ask Wikipedia without paying too much attention you would discover that this unfamiliar word originates right here in Italy.

Photo credit: Clix

“…at the beginning of the 21st century in Italy, where is known as Connettivismo. It originated in Italian science fiction as an initiative of a group of writers, bloggers and artists. The name is derived from the imaginary doctrine that connects the specific knowledge of other disciplines, as introduced by Canadian science fiction author Alfred Elton van Vogt.”
(Source: Wikipedia)

But connecitivism is also something else. If you searched just a little bit deeper you would also find out that

““Connectivism, is a learning theory for the digital age,” has been developed by George Siemens based on his analysis of the limitations of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism to explain the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.”
(Source: Wikipedia)

Connectivism combines important elements of many different learning theories, social structures, and of new communication technologies while having been designed to give birth to new ways of learning in the digital age.

Educational technologists and connectivism prime evangelist George Siemens introduces what characterizes this educational model and what are the key ideas that make it so special.

Here all the details:

What Is The Unique Idea In Connectivism?

by George Siemens

Photo credit: Stephen Coburn

Late last week, I threw out a question to Gary Stager on Twitter: “when a constructivist constructs knowledge, where does it reside physically/biologically?“.

Gary replied with something along the lines of “we don’t know and I don’t care. I can teach well without knowing the details of how the mind works“. Fair enough.

Different educators adopt different approaches in order to makesense of the teaching and learning process. I’m trying to define it from the perspective of how our mind works.

Gary is - in true constructionist form (and I don’t mean that negatively!) - is focused more on the practical results and activities.

Gary then asked a critical question: what is the unique idea in connectivism? The response takes a bit longer than the 140 characters allowed by Twitter, so I’ll tackle it here.

First, a new idea is often an old idea in today’s context. For example, what is the new idea in constructivism? That people construct their own knowledge? Or the social, situated nature of learning? Or that knowledge is not something that exists outside of a knower? (i.e. there is no “there” out there).

Obviously each of those concepts can easily be traced to numerous philosophers. The ideas have existed in various forms over 2000 years ago.

What is new with constructivism today is that these principles are being (have been) coupled with existing calls for educational reform by individuals such as Spencer, Dewey, and Piaget.

See Kieran Egan’s book Getting it Wrong from the Beginning for a more detailed exploration. But it is more than just the shift in policy and calls for increased learner control.

Constructivism made sense in that it rode on the cultural trends and philosophical viewpoints of the day. As authority in society shifted, Truth was questioned, post-modernism flourished, and our understanding of diverse cultures and ways of knowing increased, it only seemed natural that cognitivism and behaviourism took a back seat.

What is new in constructivism, and please provide commentary if you disagree, is that it combined existing ideas into a framework that resonated with the needs and trends of the current era.

In this regard, connectivism also shares in bringing to the forefront ideas of philosophers and theorists from previous generations. Much of what is unique is the particular combination and integration of ideas that reflect the broader societal and information-based trends. But I do think there are unique ideas in connectivism.

Before I get into those, however, I’ll address some of the existing theory that serves as the fertile soil of connectivism (and, I think, to a large degree constructivism).

From Whence Does Connectivism Originate?

Photo credit: Cristophe Testi

All ideas have a heritage. All concepts have roots. A few related to connectivism:

1. Tools augment our ability to interact with each other and to act.

   Tools are extensions of humanity, increasing our ability to externalize our thinking into forms that we can share with others. Language is an example. Activity theory provides a basis in this regard. So does the socio-cultural work of Vygotsky.

   Gibson’s notion of affordances of tools, while based in his research on perception, also serves a role in validating tool use. And how could we leave Wittgenstein’s notion of negotiated understanding out of a language discussion? Similarly, tools are “carriers of patterns of previous reasoning” (Pea) and reflect some type of ideology. This view is also prominent in Postman’s assertion that all technology carries an ideology.

2. Contextual/situated nature of learning. Situated learning draws from the work of Lave and Wenger, though, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that Papert’s emphasis on active doing fits this at least partly.
3. Social learning theory. Here we can draw from Bandura’s emphasis on self-efficacy, Bruner, Vygotsky, and others.
4. Epistemological views: all learning theory is rooted in epistemology (even though von Glaserfeld declares we are in a post-epistemological era, suggesting that providing a theory of knowledge is exactly what constructivism cannot do). As an epistemological basis for connectivism,

   I’ve found Stephen Downes‘ work on connective knowledge valuable. More recently, Dave Cormier has been advancing the concept of rhizomatic knowledge and community as curriculum.

5. Concept of mind. The notion of mind is enormously complex.

   We encounter a unique blend of philosophers, neuroscientists, and artificial intelligence in this area such as Churchlands, Papert and Minsky, McClelland and Rumelhart, Clark (embodied cognition), Spivey, and more.

   Mind is seen - too varying degrees - as embodied and distributed across numerous devices, relationships and artifacts. Hutchins popularized the notion in his text on Distributed Cognition.

   These concepts are also reflected in Weicks’ papers on heedful interrelating. Salomon’s edited text on Distributed Cognitions extends these ideas into an educational context.

6. We also find a compatible view of connectivism in the work of new media theorists such as McLuhan, exploring the impact of technology on what it means to be a human.

   The impact of technology on humanity will continue to grow in greater prominence as we are increasingly able to augment human cognitive functioning through pharmaceuticals and the future promise of embedded chips.

7. We also find support for connectivism in the more nebulous theories of complextiy and systems-based thinking.

   For example, Mason, Davis, and others, recently published a series of articles on the impact of complexity theory on the enterprise of education.

   Individuals like Barnnett suggest it should more accurately be called “supercomplexity” as we are not able to even begin to understand the directions things will take in the future.

8. Network theory. Sociologists, mathematicians, and physicists have spent several decades defining networks and network attributes. We are able to define key network structures, manner of behaviour, and flow of information.

   Concepts like small worlds, power laws, hubs, structural holes, and weak/strong ties are common in literature. Educational focus of networks comes from work by Starr-Roxanne Hiltz, Chris Jones, Martin de Laat, and others.

   Networks are prominent in all aspects of society, not just education. This prominence is partly due to the recognizable metaphor of the internet…but networks have always existed. As Barabasi states, networks are everywhere. We just need an eye for them.

The Unique Ideas In Connectivism

Photo credit: Sergii Tsololo

If those elements form the basis of connectivism - and to varying degrees share in the heritage of constructivism and cognitivism - what is it that’s unique about connectivism. As a starter to the discussion, and one that will be a critical focus in our fall course, I’ll suggest the following:

1. Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning.

   Knowledge is defined as a particular pattern of relationships and learning is defined as the creation of new connections and patterns as well as the ability to maneuver around existing networks/patterns.

2. Connectivism addresses the principles of learning at numerous levels - biological/neural, conceptual, and social/external. This is a key concept that I’ll be writing about more during the online course.

   What I’m saying with connectivism (and I think Stephen would share this) is that the same structure of learning that creates neural connections can be found in how we link ideas and in how we connect to people and information sources. One scepter to rule them all.

3. Connectivism focuses on the inclusion of technology as part of our distribution of cognition and knowledge.

   Our knowledge resides in the connections we form - where to other people or to information sources such as databases. Additionally, technology plays a key role of:

   • Cognitive grunt work in creating and displaying patterns.
   • Extending and enhancing our cognitive ability.
   • Holding information in ready access form (for example, search engines, semantic structures, etc).

   We see the beginning of this concept in tool-based discussions of Activity Theory. Connectivism acknowledges the prominence of tools as a mediating object in our activity system, but then extends it by suggesting that technology plays a central role in our distribution of identity, cognition, and thereby, knowledge.

4. Context. While other theories pay partial attention to context, connectivism recognizes the fluid nature of knowledge and connections based on context. As such, it becomes increasingly vital that we focus not on pre-made or pre-defined knowledge, but on our interactions with each other, and the context in which those interactions arise.

   The context brings as much to a space of knowledge connection/exchange as do the parties involved in the exchange.

5. Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning. These elements are prominent in constructivism, to a lessor extent cognitivism, and not at all in behaviourism.

   But in connectivism, we argue that the rapid flow and abundance of information raises these elements to critical importance. As stated at the start of this post, constructivism found it’s roots of growth in the social reform-based climate and post-modern era.

   Connectivism finds its roots in the climate of abundance, rapid change, diverse information sources and perspectives, and the critical need to find a way to filter and make sense of the chaos. As such, the networked centrality of connectivism permits a scaling of both abundance and diversity.

   The information climate of continual and ongoing change raises the importance of being continually current. As Anderson has stated, “more is different“. The “more” of information and technology today, and the need to stay current, forms the climate that gives roots to connectivism.

Note: Contribute your own ideas, commentary and feedback to George Siemens addressing of what Connectivism really is by providing comments also on his site.

Originally written by George Siemens and published as What is the unique idea in Connectivism? on Connectivism Blog. First published on August 6th 2008.

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

To understand the times and changes we are going through, it is necessary to keep scanning the horizon for changes and new emerging patterns. Looking only at your close, surrounding community and environment doesn’t help you see beyond your existing assumptions and prejudices.

Photo credit: RGBSpace

To ride them you not only need to scan deep and wide outside your familiar comfort zones, but you need to have enough bravery to test, expose yourself to some of these new media and technologies as much as placing under critical questioning many of your well established assumptions about how learning, work, collaboration need to be.

Educational technologist and connectivism evangelist George Siemens takes you through another journey into issues, ideas, research, and technology innovations that have a direct impact on how we live, work and learn from each other.

Here his weekly report:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Fueling Online Learning

Ray Schroeder has started a new blog - Fueling Online Learning - looking at the impact of fuel prices on online learning. Much like blogs received their big “push” into prime time through a series of external events (terrorist attacks, tsunamis, hurricanes), it looks like online learning may come into its own through rising costs of fuel and increased concern to how our actions impact the environment.

Secure and Resilient

Science has an interesting article on the security and resiliency of societies. After an initial exploration of society’s need to be structured in a manner that permits high stability (especially with the tremendous flux in urbanization), the article begins to explore the values of networks as an organizational scheme. In particular, the prominence of information as an economic resource and output is a key pressure driving restructuring efforts.

In a learning context, the discussion toward the end of the article gets to the heart of what networks offer - the increased ability for anyone/everyone to participate.

The authors state:

“Network-centric structures enable non–place-based access and temporary working arrangements, and cognitive capability built into network tools can facilitate economic integration of the disabled. This enhances not just the economic performance of society, but the quality of life of individuals involved; virtually all marginalized groups are highly interested in participating in the economy if they can and if the work can be structured to suit their requirements, which is precisely the flexibility the network-centric structure can provide. “

Fuel Prices and Online Education

I’ve seen a few dozen articles in the last several weeks about how high fuel prices are driving online enrollment in universities and colleges (see, for example, As Gas Prices Rise). In a surprisingly short period of time, we have moved from discussing the quality of online courses in relationship to face-to-face courses (this conversation was happening in the late 90’s, early 00’s) to seeing online courses as a critical contribution to meeting varying needs of students.

No doubt, we’ll see a similar explosion in online conferences. Obviously, first preference is to meet others in person. And that will continue to happen in classes and conferences. The balance will shift, however. Instead of 100% being face-to-face, we’ll see that drop to 60 or 70% (completely random guesses).

Online learning and conferencing is not just a shallow replacement. Interacting with others online is different than f2f- you meet different people, experience other cultures, interact with leading experts. It is a unique field in its own right. It is more than just a replacement of meeting in person. It affords different types (and quality) of interaction.

We Have the Pieces

We have lots of pieces. Content. Information. Knowledge. Social connections. Technology. These pieces are impacting education in a hit-and-miss manner.

We read of implementations of SecondLife, or laptops, or mobile phones (we’re mostly done hearing about institutions implementing learning management systems - now we just hear about institutions moving from one platform to another). The missing piece? The whole.

While that might sound a bit comical, it is our current biggest challenge. We’re squeezing the pieces into our existing model of content, information, and education.

What happens when we start rethinking the whole system? One early example - from ACU: Connected: The Movie.

The video (17 min) is someone cheesy in parts, sounds more like an iPhone advertisement than a video for education, and still tries to squeeze technology into an existing model. But, it’s an interesting look at how we can improve information access and interaction when our systems are conceived in line with our devices.

Are We Getting Dumber?

Predictions of the damaging nature of progress have been frequent since Plato has Socrates challenge the value of writing in contrast with verbal dialogue.

Each generation has its voices that suggest our technologies are damaging our humanity. If you make certain predictions in every generation, I guess you’re going to be right sooner or later :). I enjoyed reading Is cinematography making us stupid:

“the Journal of the American Medical Association on the work on 19th century neurologists George Beard and Silas Weir Mitchell, who thought the pace of life and the effect of new technology was harming the mind and brain of citizens in 1800s America - echoing similar concerns we still hear today.“

The real challenge with too many false predictions is that we eventually tune them out…even when the prediction turns out to be true. Hmm. Where have we heard a story like that? Something about a boy and a wolf?

Are We Using Google? Or is Google Using Us?

Like much of the online world, I’m in an ongoing state of conflict with my reliance on Google. I don’t want my entire digital life tied into one tool…and yet the tools Google makes generally exceed the functionality of competitors. And so I often drink from the brew where privacy, functionality, and principle blend seamlessly.

Several years ago, I was on a panel at Milken Institute. One of my panel members - at that time just coming off of a research position at Microsoft - stated that once people realized what Google does with data, they would leave in droves.

I argued that people, when forced to choose, will almost always select convenience/functionality at the expense of privacy. So far, I’ve been right. Both Google and Facebook are strong indicators of this choice for functionality. Sure, Beacon crashed, but only because users weren’t lulled into it. Give it a few years. Beacon will exist under a different name and will be viewed as novel and innovative.

A short account (fictitious) of what’s happening - Are we using Google? Or is Google using us?:

“Harvest all the data in the world, rendering all available answers accessible to all possible questions, and then reinforce the meaningful associations while letting the meaningless ones die out.

Since, by diagonal argument in the scale of possible infinities, there will always be more questions than answers, it is better to start by collecting the answers, and then find the questions, rather than the other way around.“

Somewhat clever twist of concepts to conclude the article…

New University Model

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a conversation with someone who feels universities are doing exactly what they need to be doing.

We have an almost universal consensus that something is wrong and things need to change. Our happily little band of edubloggers has been building a case for change over the last 5 or 6 years. The calls for change are mirrored in more traditional sectors of society as well (wasn’t it Drucker who said universities would be obsolete in 10 years?). The problem, however, is that we are focused on what’s wrong. I think we get it now - it’s a system that doesn’t work as well as it could. For many different reasons.

We all understand that we have a problem of sorts. It is a solution that we are lacking. Carl Wieman’s recent article on New University Education Model Needed reflects what I’m whining about: problem articulated, solution not provided.

Still, it’s a good article that highlights ways in which universities are not serving society due to numerous changes in the society universities were originally created to serve. What we urgently need is some type of draft solution that serves the needs of all stakeholders in the education system.

Rumour Has It, the Web Is Big

Google acknowledges that the web is big. Really big. The article provides a one sentence summary that translates well as advice to people interested in forming personal learning networks: “We start at a set of well-connected initial pages and follow each of their links to new pages.” It’s that simple. Start somewhere. Follow links from there. That’s learning today.

Metcalfe’s Law is Wrong

We eagerly fall over ourselves trying to advocate for networks. The internet. The web. Personal learning networks. Some have even suggested connectivism.

Networks, as a concept, is so easy to comprehend that we use the term in advanced ways without paying much attention to what we mean. Or, more specifically, we often don’t consider the nature of different types of networks.

What are the attributes of learning networks? What influences network formation? How are network elements (in learning) different when we achieve deep understanding of a subject versus when we have only a shallow understanding? Judging from the focus of several recent editions of educational journals, it looks like educators are waking up to the importance of greater precision in the discussion of networks.

Metcalfe’s Law is Wrong provides a critical exploration of one of the foundational aspects of network theory. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network is related to the number of users.

The article acknowledges the mathematical validity of Metcalfe’s law, but highlights a critical flaw: “the assignment of equal value to all connections or all groups.” All nodes are equal, but some are more equal than others.

In Search of a Beautiful Mind

Seymour Papert is a living legend, having exerted tremendous influence in numerous fields, including artificial intelligence and education. In 2006 he was struck by a motorcycle and sustained a severe brain injury - a devastating condition for anyone, but perhaps even more so for one of the world’s leading thinkers about learning.

In Search of a Beautiful Mind is a touching article about the challenges of a genius like Papert learning to perform the most basic functions of humanity: speech, walking, reading.

The article provides a powerful reminder that our humanness is not a function of how any single person is more gifted in a particular area than any other person. The thin veneer of intelligence that briefly raises one person to heights of recognition above others can quickly be stripped away.

In the end, family, friends, and colleagues form the most basic source of strength for even the most brilliant members of society. But it’s a bittersweet story - someone like Papert receives enormous support in his recovery (at a cost of over $15,000 per month) while many people with similar injuries have a vastly diminished prospect of recovery.

Cloud Computing

I’ve been playing with MobileMe - Apple’s service for people to distribute data across multiple tools, similar to Microsoft’s Live Mesh - over the last few days. While the service is classified as an example of cloud computing, it’s really more like simple data synchronization (at least currently).

Cloud computing is more about, well, computing. Computing shared by multiple devices. Distributed. Synchronizing data may be a part of that. But certainly not the whole. We’re entering the twilight zone of term ambiguity again (remember web 2.0? A term that mean everything and nothing all at once).

Lost in the clouds is a short exploration of a critical challenge of cloud computing - access to services…after all, if we can’t get into the cloud, or if the data is not accessible while in the cloud, the whole concept doesn’t work very well.

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on July 31st 2008.

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

“Just as literacy is a skill that equips one to understand and communicate through language, media literacy is a skill that equips students to understand and communicate through media. Media literacy (classes) provide students with skills, tools, insights, and a vocabulary to understand the important role the media play in shaping, reflecting, and sometimes subverting our social realities.”
(Naomi Rockler- Gladen)

Photo credit: RGBSpace

“Two seemingly contradictory trends are shaping the current media landscape: on the one hand, new media technologies have lowered production and distribution costs, expanded the range of available delivery channels, and enabled consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and re-circulate media content.

At the same time, there has been an alarming concentration of the ownership of mainstream commercial media, with a small handful of multinational media conglomerates dominating all sectors of the entertainment industry.

No one seems capable of describing both sets of changes at the same time, let alone show how they impact each other.

Some fear that media is out of control, others that it is too controlled. Some see a world without gatekeepers, others a world where gatekeepers have unprecedented power.”
(Henry Jenkins)

Like every week, George Siemens, is your expert guide on the latest trends, changes and announcements transforming the world of media but with an eye that doesn’t pay too much attention to the financial backing or to the possible IPO but focuses exclusively on the relevance and impact that these changes will have on our ability to learn and change this world in the direction we want.

Here his digest for this week:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

History And The Future

I suspect most readers will be astonished by this statement: it appears that educational technology has a past, a history! It didn’t come into existence in 2000 with the rise of blogs, wikis, and such.

futurelab - in History and the future - takes a look at various resources that address the history of educational technology.

The posts notes, with some irony, that even the exploration of technology is somewhat bounded to the last 40 years. Perhaps there is limited value in exploring the development of writing, paper, and other means to convey information. But those topics are still worth considering. There is value in seeing the past…as stated in Harvard’s new core curriculum (.pdf):

“General education teaches students to understand themselves as products of—and participants in—traditions of art, ideas, and values.“…or “Students should be exposed to other cultures and other periods so that they can better define and comprehend their own experiences in the modern world.“

SocialLearn

The recording of Martin Weller’s presentation today on SocialLearn: learning about new ways of learning is now available. Martin addressed a range of issues that educators/trainers need to consider about the structure of teaching/learning in disaggregated environments.

SocialLearn is, as one participant noted, one of the first models of education that recognizes and responds to the significant trends of the last half century.

Knol

With up to 30% of Google/Yahoo searches returning links to Wikipedia, Google sees an enormous non-adsensed space. The traffic of Wikipedia makes ad providers salivate. To combat this untapped market, Google opted to create a service called Knol, where articles can be written by experts (sometimes).

Anyone can create a knol and invite others to contribute. If several people decide to write a knol on elearning, both are allowed to exist. The community can vote and rate article quality. Authors of knols can also add Google’s AdSense service to the site and make money in the process. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Google is essentially stating that individual ownership of articles is important. How will knols be listed in Google searches? Will they receive better search returns than Wikipedia articles? A part of me would like to dislike this service (how much more of our soul must we give up to Google?). But the idea is well conceived. The service seems to function well, without the hideous editing text of mediawiki. Feedback loops are in place through comments and ratings.

The opportunity for economic gain will likely also draw some participants. All those factors combine to suggest Knol has a real chance for success. Currently, the resources on the site are quite scarce, however.

Why The Google Generation Isn’t As Smart As It Thinks

Statements like this cause me some despair about how ideas that may have a remote scientific basis get projected into hype-speak in main stream media: why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks:

“…chronic, long-term distraction is as dangerous as cigarette smoking….They might have stress-related diseases, even irreversible brain damage.“

It is rather obvious that information abundance and multitasking are contributing to our collective anxiety. We start jonesing after only a few minutes of broken contact with email, mobile phone, or internet (ok, you might not, but I do). Weak, often shallow social, connections don’t result in deep understanding. At least not in themselves.

I’m not satisfied, however, with the tone of this article. What is the solution? Stop the information flow? No new software? Hardware? Um, ok, that won’t happen. The road we are on does not yet suggest suitable off ramps.

The primary options left are about adapting ourselves or our tools. Realistically, do people expect that the solution to the problem is as simple as focusing more and becoming less distracted? It’s a good article of complaint. And it’s easy to complain. Suggesting solutions and future directions is where the hard thinking occurs.

The Machine Stops

Hard to believe this was written in 1909 (E. M. Forster) - The Machine Stops:

“the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people.

Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!…

“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives in the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now.

It was robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops - but not on our lies. The Machine proceeds - but not to our goal.

“”

Narrowing of Science and Scholarship

Connectedness enables us to make sense of the world. Concepts that exist in isolation lack the opportunity to be shaped and formed through connections and interactions. But, as Beinhocker notes in Origin of Wealth, excessive connectivity has equally debilitating results.

Narrowing of Science and Scholarship also sees the openness and ease of connectivity as a weakness:

“following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.“

As Cicero opined, people who know only their own generation remain forever as children. It is critical that we acknowledge the concepts of balance and diversity in our own sources of information. We don’t want to be too connected - that leads to paralysis. And we don’t want to be too narrowly connected - that leads to myopic understandings.

Plastic Minds

Our minds are readily deceived. A classic experiment - the rubber hand (short video here) - demonstrates how quickly we integrate perceptual data.

A mild stretch: I think this provides an interesting talking point on technology can be easily integrated (perceptually at least) into how we function. I mean, if we can be “fooled” into thinking a rubber hand is actually our own, it’s quite likely increased use of technology to augment our cognition/perception can be quite easily adopted by our minds.

Memphis: Presentation Slides

This morning, I delivered a presentation to the Desire2Learn Fusion 2008 conference: Connectives and Collectives: learning alone, together. Stephen Downes provides a summary of the talk (thanks!)

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on July 17th 2008.

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

Learning and understanding how things work is for many, including me, the end goal of this unique journey called life. When you look down to it, no matter what your ideals or character inclinations may be, having the ability to learn and get better by extracting the best from each one of your experiences is really the greatest asset one can maintain in a lifetime.

Photo credit: zoid

Educational technologists and connectivism evangelist George Siemens takes you once again into a small journey into key tools, issues and trends that are transforming the way we think, learn, engage with others, as he has found them in this last seven days.

Here his precious findings:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Visual Thinking

I’m not a visual person. Ok, not totally true. I’m a visual person, but I lack skills to express myself visually. I love concept maps. I thoroughly enjoy level images. I even signed up with Gliffy in a desperate bid to improve my ability to create visuals (I’ve been using Fireworks, but I don’t have the time or patience to perfect it).

I’ve tried to increase visuals in my presentations over the last year. And I appreciate Robin Good’s injection of images and organization of text with my newsletter. See this edition, for example. I’m convinced of the value of visuals.

I just don’t usually take the needed time to communicate well in visual manner. It is, after all, easier to simply state the facts than tell a story, or to write a paragraph than to create an image.

The difference, however, is that “stating the facts” has a short life span. It’s not very memorable. A story lasts far long. And images can communicate far more effectively. Which is why I enjoyed reading this short article on Visual Literacy and Visual Thinking.

Cloud Computing

You might as well start a new tag on your del.icio.us profile for cloud computing. It is the terminological heir of web 2.0. And it’s meaning is equally vague.

Cloud computing means many things right now - ranging from a way to move data and applications around (or to scale them) without impacting quality for end user…or to applying supercomputing to the masses and the web (using a mesh network instead of only supercomputers)… or to purchasing computing power on demand…or to fluid data exchange and interaction regardless of devices. Basically, it’s about the web. Everything on the web. Usable by any device. Or platform. With the complexity and technical challenges being managed without end-user awareness.

The mess of different devices and distributed data don’t inconvenience the end user. To a degree, it’s an attempt to make technology more transparent and data access more flexible, reducing computing to utility status.

Nicholas Carr equates cloud computing with spice trails of centuries gone by offers this lovely quote by Eric Schmidt: “When the network becomes as fast as the processor, the computer hollows out and spreads across the network.”

Cult of the Dabbawalas

Dabbawala’s are a 5000 person collective involved in the complex delivery of meals in India. They are renowned for extreme efficiency in their work and organization, with an error rate of only 1 per 6 million deliveries. And they do it without technology. The cult of the dabbawala looks at this organization from the perspective of management on organizational effectiveness.

An important concept: “Most of our modern business education is about analytic models, technology and efficient business practices…The dabbawalas, by contrast, focus more on human and social ingenuity“.

I’m not sure why people find it surprising that dabbawala-level efficiency is possible without technology. Technology serves largely to augment and extend humanity. And it does so on a technical (duh) and conceptual basis.

The conceptual basis of this extension, however, has existed in numerous forms long before computers. Tablets, pencils, paper, and machines have been a focus of philosophers and theologians for thousands of years. Yes, technology makes certain things possible, but, as Postman states, it gives and takes away. Human and social ingenuity is involved in a reciprocal relationship with technology - both forming and being formed.

SocialLearn

SocialLearn is an innovative project to “move beyond web-feed based interoperability and visual clustering of apps on the webtop, with SL-aware apps communicating via the API, so that the learner’s profile can track and intelligently manage the flow of information and events to support their activity:”

Martin Weller - one of the leaders in this initiative has kindly agreed to provide a presentation on the project. His presentation - SocialLearn: Learning about new ways of learning - is open, no charge, and will be held on July 24, 2008 at 11:00 am CST (time zone conversions and the link to the presentation are here)

Future of, Well, All Kinds of Stuff

e-Horizons is a project from Oxford “focused on critically assessing competing visions of the future of media, information and communication technologies and their societal implications.” As part of the project, they have hosted a variety of talks/interviews on the future of, well, all kinds of stuff. Predicting 50 years into the future is largely a fool’s game, but it’s still fun (after all, in 2057, we’ll need something to look back on and mock). I’m reminded of the failed predictions of artificial intelligence.

Before the AI community shifted from GOFAI to Connectionism as an organizing model, predictions were offered about machine intelligen