In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, reports on emergent media and technology issues and on the future impact that these new technologies may have on the way you work, learn and interact with others.

Photo credit: Cyprien Lomas

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Reorganizing For The Online Environment – Many institutions are slow to react to technology. Systemic inefficiencies trail new opportunities and technological affordances.
• Google Internet Stats – Once data has been sucked into Google Giant Vacuum Cache, it is ripe for analysis. After a decade of collecting (and digitizing) Google has created an astonishing resource that is ripe for value exploitation.
• Passionate Creatives –
  John Hagel talks about Passionate Creatives. For a growing segment of society, geography no longer restricts opportunity.
• Frequent Releases Change Software Engineering – Design of software and design of learning share similar attributes. I would go so far as to say that instructional design would benefit from considering how software design has changed over the last decade.
• The Cloud and Collaboration – Stephen Downes (in addition to hurling the odd grenade my way) consistently demonstrates the ability to provide innovative and critical commentary on concepts that many people accept on the surface.
• Virtual Learning Reports of The Demise of The VLE / LMS Are Greatly Exaggerated – The challenge with personal learning environments is most notable in how they fail to align with existing learning structures in schools and universities.
• Wiki Growth – How do you evaluate the impact of wikis on learning? Or, how do you research the contributions that wikis make to information creation and sharing?

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Reorganizing For The Online Environment

Many institutions are slow to react to technology. Systemic inefficiencies trail new opportunities and technological affordances.

For example, somewhere in the past at an unnamed institution, I developed a course for online delivery. We had many international students from Hong Kong and other Asian countries. The registration department at this organization handled enrollment and contacted learners with access information.

When the course started, I noticed limited interaction in the online forums. I emailed the students to encourage them to log in and post introductions. I received several replies: we do not have access information. I then contacted the registration department. “Has contact information been sent?” I asked. “Yes”. “When?”. “We sent it on Friday”. “Oh, that is strange” I say “most students don’t have the information”. “Well, we only mailed the packages on Friday”. “MAILED?!?”. “Yes”.
Oh well. We move slowly in new directions… at least until we feel threatened.

Many educators do not feel a sense of urgency around technology adoption. But many aspects of our organizations need to be adjusted to reflect what is possible with technology. Sometimes the answer is not clear (for example, Wikipedia’s decision around how to record historical events).

At other times, the decision is really quite simple (i.e. email vs. mail). I wonder how much productivity people and organizations lose as result of failure to rethink existing “ways of doing things”…

Google Internet Stats

No company in the world has access to more data and more data processing power than Google.

Once data has been sucked into Google Giant Vacuum Cache, it is ripe for analysis. After a decade of collecting (and digitizing) Google has created an astonishing resource that is ripe for value exploitation.

Many organizations and companies have idly watched Google conquer a domain more completely than Alexandar the Great could have ever dreamed. It only makes sense that Google reveals a little bit of its long term intention: Google internet stats.

This is child’s play at this stage, but more value-driven data analysis will be developed soon. The data is there. Mining is next. When you organize the worlds data, you are eventually able to organize the world according to your interests as well.

Passionate Creatives

John Hagel talks about Passionate Creatives:

Many of us have suppressed our passions in an attempt to fit in and integrate ourselves into a world that expected stability, predictability and safety. But they remain in the margins of our lives or in the daydreams that distract us from our daily tasks. Our challenge is to re-discover and cultivate them, moving them from the margins into the center of our lives.

The article is a bit irritating at times – manifestos have a way of feeling dated once the emotions that drove their writing wears off – but captures a reality that I think many people experience daily.

For a growing segment of society, geography no longer restricts opportunity.

When I was at Red River College, I found great value in blogging as a means to connect with others outside of the college. There were only a few of us “online learning” folks at the campus…and many colleges / universities around the world also had a few. As a result, in pockets of two’s and three’s, a network of passionately creative people emerged around learning and technology.

Frequent Releases Change Software Engineering

Design of software and design of learning share similar attributes.

I would go so far as to say that instructional design would benefit from considering how software design has changed over the last decade.

Consider this article as a quick overview – Frequent releases change software engineering:

The main reason to consider frequent deployments is not the direct impact of getting software out to customers more quickly, but the indirect impact internally.

Frequent releases force changes in how an organization develops software. These changes ultimately reduce risk, speed development, and improve the product.

The Cloud and Collaboration

Stephen Downes (in addition to hurling the odd grenade my way) consistently demonstrates the ability to provide innovative and critical commentary on concepts that many people accept on the surface.

His most recent presentation on The Cloud and Collaboration is a good example.

The talk (short – only 20 minutes) juxtaposes neural architecture and functioning with existing models of collaboration in society. He makes a compelling argument: if we use the “global technological / networked brain” as an example, then we need to base it on an accurate understanding of how the brain actually works.

If it is neural structure we desire, then we need to rethink privileged / star individual mentality in society and in learning. As he puts it, there is no head neuron in the brain. Toward the end of the talk he moves into a discussion of socialism (unrelated, but humorous: Ze Frank on Labor Day and Socialism) and attributes of networks.

Virtual Learning Reports of The Demise of The VLE / LMS Are Greatly Exaggerated

Niall Sclater summarizes with anti / pro-learning management system rhetoric (I am proud to say that I have contributed to the rhetoric: LMS: Wrong place to start elearning and Learning or Management System?).

According to Niall:

Whether VLEs are any good at facilitating effective learning as well depends on the imagination and skills of those creating the content hosted by them and the activities facilitated by them. Meanwhile, denial-of-service attacks permitting, social networking sites and free learning content go from strength to strength for those with the time and inclination to engage with them.

The challenge with personal learning environments is most notable in how they fail to align with existing learning structures in schools and universities (see my earlier commentary on the systematization of education).

LMS’ are used in corporations and schools because they support the existing structure. By supporting the existing structure, they also play a role in preserving it. A co-dependent addiction…

Wiki Growth

We have been running wikis in our department at U of Manitoba for three years. The project is very much grassroots.

We installed Mediawiki and began experimenting. As a result, numerous faculty members have requested additional wiki installs for their classes and research.

The question becomes: how do you evaluate the impact of wikis on learning? Or, how do you research the contributions that wikis make to information creation and sharing? Or, for that matter, what would educators be using if they didn’t have access to a hosted wiki and would it be better / worse?

Delft University, running what looks like a similar wiki project to ours, offers a variety of visualizations of wiki activity:

• Edits,
• co-authorship,
• article / page connectedness (to other pages).

Research of this type is interesting, but fails to get at the bigger questions of impact.

What have wikis added that would not have been possible in their absence? Activity and co-authorship are basic metrics, similar to saying “Jane and Bob talked to each other four times during a group project in class“. That is nice. Now what does it mean? What did that interaction contribute to learning?

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on September 11th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book “Knowing Knowledge” where he developes a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.

Photo credits:
Reorganizing For The Online Environment – Plevnjak
Google Internet Stats – Google
Passionate Creatives – Michele Piacquadio
The Cloud and Collaboration – Krisdog
Virtual Learning Reports Of The Demise Of The VLE / LMS Are Greatly Exaggerated – Ljupco Smokovski
Wiki Growth – No More Game Blogs
Wiki Growth – Michael Brown

In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, shares his latest insights, discoveries and doubts on the impact that information and communication technologies have on our society and work.

Photo credit: Sunil Kumar

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Struggling For a Metaphor of Change – I am trying to find a metaphor of change that captures what is happening in society, technology, education, training, learning and development.
• Social Media, Connectivism – Two reminders: the next social media session and the open Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 course.
• How Companies Are Benefiting From Web 2.0 – A report that tries to quantify value generated from use of emerging technologies on internal processes, customer interactions and supplier interactions.
• The Doomed Global Campus – Universities are trying to unlock the online education model. Many fail. Global Campus is the most recent.
• More Aggregation Fun – “We have limits to our cognitive capacity. As a result, we will have to look for new methods to make sense of abundance.“
• Putting It Together Again – The web has been quite effective at breaking down content elements from coherent frameworks to fragmented pieces. This causes confusion and frustration for many.
• 3D Video Conferencing – This video demonstrates 3D video conferencing with eye contact and person to person (rather than person to camera) communication.
• Getting Started With Visualization – Data visualization serves a grunt cognition role: patterns and connections are revealed in an image that might take hours (or days) to discover otherwise.
• Paying For Content? – PaidContent analyzes the current state of “pay for online” newspapers. Result? Mixed.
• Online Learning As a Strategic Asset – Online Learning as a Strategic Asset is a good report, addressing many of the pitfalls I often see in universities and colleges as departments decide they need this internet thing for their courses.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Struggling For a Metaphor of Change

I am trying to find a metaphor of change that captures what is happening in:

• society,
• technology,
• education,
• training,
• learning,
• development.

I doubt a single metaphor will do… or if one can be found, it will need to account for

• multiple,
• simultaneous,
• chaotic,
• disruptive change pressures.

Anyway, the post: Struggling for a metaphor for change.

Social Media, Connectivism

Two quick, random, reminders:

Dave Cormier and I will be hosting the next social media session (no charge) with AACE on Tuesday, September 8. Information is available here.

The open Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 (CCK09) course (Stephen Downes and I are facilitating) will begin in about a weeks time. Registration is free…or you can enroll for credit if you are so moved.

How Companies Are Benefiting From Web 2.0

A free report (registration required) on how companies are benefiting from web 2.0:

We found that successful companies not only tightly integrate Web 2.0 technologies with the work flows of their employees but also create a “networked company,” linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools.

Despite the current recession, respondents overwhelmingly say that they will continue to invest in Web 2.0.

The report tries to quantify value generated from use of emerging technologies on internal processes, customer interactions, and supplier interactions.

• Blogs,
• video sharing,
• RSS,
• social networking services,
• wikis

are prominent.

Not surprisingly, results and benefits centre on increased knowledge sharing and exchange of ideas.

The Doomed Global Campus

(Some) Universities are trying to unlock the online education model. Many fail. Global Campus is the most recent. The problem in this instance is not with the online environment, but with the model of implementation.

Faculty – who as I understand it are often required in formal education – were marginalized as the university sought to duplicate for-profit models.

Universities serve a different role in society than the one served by private industry. University leaders need to come to some understanding of this distinction.

What is the value formal higher education plays in society? Play to come to some understanding of this distinction.

Stop trying to be a second rate University of Phoenix or Capella or Walden.

Unfortunately, I suspect the failure of Global Campus will provide naysayers with an example of why online education does not. The real lesson here is one of implementation failure.

More Aggregation Fun

I am, once again, on a visualization kick. Something has to give in our ability to manage information.

We have limits to our cognitive capacity. As a result, we will have to look for new methods to make sense of abundance. Webtrendmap uses the following model:

Click above to enlarge image

The model emphasizes the role of curators (slightly related: curatorial teaching) in support of aggregation.

What fun we are having with data.

Putting It Together Again

The web has been quite effective at breaking down content elements from coherent frameworks to fragmented pieces. This causes confusion and frustration for many (learners in particular can be overwhelmed when trying to form a coherent narrative of a complex subject without the guide of a book or course).

Breaking things down into smaller pieces was a necessary step to lead into the more important work of repacking elements to reflect varying contexts and interests.

Tony Hirst is brilliant at this – he treats data as a paint brush to create new information canvases (i.e. overlaying twitter feeds to YouTube presentations).

Powerhouse Museum is channeling Tony: About NSW – an important post detailing their effort “to build a contextual discovery service that assists in exposing existing content online“.

Similarly, the key to open education effectiveness is not in making the resources available…it is in packaging them in a contextual manner without heavy curatorial oversight.

3D Video Conferencing

The quality (authenticity?) of video conferencing has improved significantly over the last several years.

I deliver video conference presentations to conferences or organizations fairly regularly. University of Manitoba, point of origin for most of my video conferencing, uses Tandberg. The experience is… ok.

It is tough presenting to a conference when you, as the presenter, lack visual cues. Sure, you can see the people seated around tables and you can see the layout of the room, but if it is a larger group, you miss the important communication signals of eye contact, raised eyebrows… or people falling asleep.

Video conferencing with smaller groups does allow for transition of greater detail (a smile, confused look), but it does not allow for eye contact. Contact is with the camera. Tracking eye movement is important for feeling connected with others.

This video, via Workplace Learning Today, demonstrates 3D video conferencing with eye contact and person to person (rather than person to camera) communication. It is rudimentary, but still seems to add a different dimension to video conferencing.

Getting Started With Visualization

Data visualization serves a grunt cognition role: patterns and connections are revealed in an image that might take hours (or days) to discover otherwise.

For example – a tag cloud is a quick snapshot of popularity of certain topics in a paper (when posted in a site like Many Eyes) or on a website. Or look at this image of the learning management system marketplace, providing information about the development of the LMS field, acquisitions, and market share.

The ability to visualize data to explore patterns is a basic literacy… and will continue to grow in importance as information quantity increases.

FlowingData has posted a summary of how to get started with visualization:

Are you looking to get into data visualization, but do not quite know where to begin?

With all of the available tools to help you visualize data, it can be confusing where to start.

The good news is, well, that there are a lot of (free) available tools out there to help you get started. It is just a matter of deciding which one suits you best. This is a guide to help you figure that out.

Paying For Content?

I guess it is a natural progression:

1. Newspapers ignore the online environment,
2. realize it is important and try to charge for content online,
3. realize people do not want to pay,
4. newspapers offer content for free,
5. they realize they are not profitable,
6. they decide to charge again.

This progress is natural because newspapers are attempting to preserve existing models. Which means they will continue to return to the same methods that work well in the past. In fact, they will become obstinate – yesterday’s survival tactics become today’s neurosis.

PaidContent analyzes the current state of “pay for online” newspapers. Result? Mixed. Some smaller markets are fairing well. Others report huge drops in site visits.

Online Learning As a Strategic Asset

The use of online and blended learning in traditional courses and training programs is fairly diverse.

In some instances, faculty members or trainers simply decide they want to try podcasting or blogs or video in their courses. These bubbles of innovation exist on almost any campus or organization.

In other instances – more rare and expensive – an organization plans to “move online“. This involves a change in:

• design process,
• allocation of resources,
• new policies,
• skill development of staff or trainers.

This process can be effective if it is taken with a strategic view on transforming the learning experience for the online environment, rather than simply transferring it.

A valuable report (in two parts) has been produced by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and Sloan-C: Online Learning as a Strategic Asset.

It is a good report, addressing many of the pitfalls I often see in universities and colleges as departments decide they need this internet thing for their courses (a realization often facilitated by the loss of students to institutions that offer online programs).

The section on faculty is quite insightful: 24% of faculty responding teach at least one online course (that seems high), only 9% were developing online courses, more females than males teach online, most faculty teach online to meet needs of student flexibility.

My complaint: a fine line exists between providing structure for innovation to flourish and killing innovation. At parts (especially when the focus turns to benchmarking and intellectual property), the report veers into the land of innovation killing.

Related: Terry Anderson and I are offering a face-to-face workshop in November: strategic considerations of technology.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on September 3rd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book “Knowing Knowledge” where he developes a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.

Photo credits:
Struggling For a Metaphor of Change – World Culture Pictorial
Social Media, Connectivism – GTS Community
How Companies Are Benefiting From Web 2.0 – Grki
The Doomed Global Campus – Eye My Degree
More Aggregation Fun – Roman Lebedev
Putting It Together Again – Vitalik
3D Video Conferencing – Picpics
Getting Started With Visualization – Ktsdesign
Paying For Content? – Elena Aliaga
Online Learning As a Strategic Asset – Bruce Shippee

In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, media expert George Siemens shares pointers and resources to help you make sense of how new media technologies are changing the world around you.

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

• How Do Organizations Respond To Emerging Technologies? – Businesses, schools, and universities are having difficulty responding to emerging technologies.
• Radicalization Of Educational Reform – David Wiley is concerned that the radicals are taking over discussions of educational reform.
• Virtual Private Cloud – Amazon has announced a new service, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
• Even Revolutionaries Conserve – The concept revolutionaries as conservators is reflected in many aspects of society.
• State Of Learning Management Systems In Higher Education – Michael Feldstein links to a thorough review of learning management systems in higher education: presentation (webex) and slides (.pdf).
• “Good” Peer Review – In the field of emerging technologies, too many reviewers are not current and as a consequence should not be reviewing papers.
• Letting Networks Do What They Do Well – It is a simple process: collect list of organizations, sort list by location and industry similarity, and port into network analysis tool.
• Multitasking – It is difficult to accept research evidence in the face of personal observation

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

How Do Organizations Respond To Emerging Technologies?

Businesses, schools, and universities are having difficulty responding to emerging technologies. The newspaper industry, for example, is not having an easy time adjusting to the internet.

If you are looking for a case study in how one organization responded to potentially disruptive change, have a look at NPR – at a tipping point? It is rare for an organization to be foresighted enough to not only recognize substantial changes, but to plan a focused, strategic, organization-level response.

“How do large organizations make the changes that they have to? How do they do this when the New is often the opposite of what they are and what they do today?

I think that the answer for NPR and Public radio is that they overcame the huge natural resistance by investing in a shared and deep exploration of what confronted them. What they have done since has come from the genuine emergence of ideas and of a language that they created for themselves.”

Radicalization of Educational Reform

David Wiley is concerned that the radicals are taking over discussions of educational reform (in relation to open educational resources in particular).

I tried posting a comment on David Wiley’s site… but was unable to. So, I have posted my views on my connectivism site.

Virtual Private Cloud

Amazon has announced a new service – Virtual Private Cloud (VPC):

“Minus all the acronyms, that (allowing IT to connect to an isolated set of AWS resources to a data center using a VPN connection) means that Amazon has created a hybrid cloud that can work securely for the enterprise, balancing the need for encryption with the low cost and scaling power that the cloud provides.”

Personal learning environments (PLEs) are subject to criticism about data and identity being splattered all over the internet. In contrast, a learning management system is centralized and structured, under the control of the organization.

I wonder how well some of the data and security concerns now being expressed about PLEs could be managed by services like Amazon’s VPC. At minimum, increased privacy would address concerns expressed in enterprise use of cloud services.

A related post criticizing Google’s lethargy in cloud services suggests Amazon may be a greater competitor than Google currently acknowledges…

Even Revolutionaries Conserve

Humberto Maturana has stated “even revolutionaries conserve… All systems only exist as long as there is conservation of that which defines them”.

The concept revolutionaries as conservators is reflected in many aspects of society. Sometimes it is revealed in the establishment of structures similar to those that a movement sought to replace (i.e. Soviet Union). Sometimes it is revealed in politics (where a revolutionary, change-promoting candidate becomes more of a traditionalist once elected).

The system that we participate in will soon make us what the system is.

An individual elected to public office, by virtue of participating in the political system will over time, to varying degrees, become a politician.

Let’s look at another example: Wikipedia.

For last five years, Wikipedia has been the darling of amateur production, the image of everything that is right with humanity. Wikipedia has announced changes to how it handles edits of articles of living people.

From NY Times:

The new feature, called “flagged revisions”, will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved – or in Wikispeak, flagged – it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version.

Wikipedia is being shaped by the field of information it is trying to disrupt.

As Wikipedia continues to resemble less of what it was and more of the information validation processes currently in use in traditional resources (like Britannica), it is simply undergoing the process of becoming the system it exists within.

State of Learning Management Systems In Higher Education

Click above to enlarge image

Michael Feldstein links to a thorough review of learning management systems in higher education: presentation (WebEx) and slides (.pdf).

The presentation starts with a bit of background noise and annoying “beeps” each time someone logs in (come on WebEx, it is irritating). As the presentation progresses, the background noise is reduced.

The presentation includes the best diagram I have seen on LMS development, market share and current state:

“Good” Peer Review

After a rather negative experience due to a poorly managed peer review process with an article I submitted to a journal, I decided to post a few thoughts on what good peer review “should do” for authors, reviewers, and editors:

“In the field of emerging technologies, too many reviewers are not current and as a consequence should not be reviewing papers.

If a person has not blogged, taught using Second Life, experimented with Twitter or is not aware of the development of open educational resources, social learning theory or personal learning environments and learning management systems, then they have no business conducting a review.

Keep in mind, peer review is about subjecting your work to experts in the field. Because the emerging technology field is young, many reviewers are simply not competent to be conducting the breadth of reviews that they conduct.“

Letting Networks Do What They Do Well

Valdis Krebs shares a simple network approach to analyzing how organizations can gain better awareness of regional innovation: Regional Economic Development. It is a simple process:

1. Collect list of organizations,
2. sort list by location and industry similarity
3. and port into network analysis tool (Valdis has his own, I have used netminer in the past for social network analysis).

The result: A list of potential relationships for mutual (in this case economic) value. Now, let’s take this same idea and apply to learning.

We leave a trail of interests and identity when we blog, tweet, Facebook, Flickr and podcast. If we had a base profile (could FriendFeed do this?) that could be compared reasonably well with other people, we could create a list of potential learning relationships.

To create a list of potential learning relationship is a simple, easily implementable idea. And, I say with reasonable confidence, it is a model that we will need to rely on more in the future as the learning process continues to be reduced to more fragmented content and social interactions.

People do not need to explicitly seek others out – Mr. Tweet does this reasonably well for Twitter contacts.

The main idea: Use existing network structures to foster new learning connections. Why not adopt this more broadly in the service of learning and education?

Multitasking

The one consistent defense I hear when I suggest that multitasking does not exist (i.e. that learners do not actually multitask… they rapidly task switch, leaving observers with the impression they are managing multiple tools/attention streams) is some variation of “how do you explain my daughter (or son, grandchild) who is able to text, watch TV, and work on the computer at the same time?”.

It is difficult to accept research evidence in the face of personal observation.

A report on multitasking (via Mark Bullen) states “heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set”. BBC provides more commentary.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on August 28th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book “Knowing Knowledge” where he developes a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.

Photo credits:
How Do Organizations Respond To Emerging Technologies? – Yuri Arcurs
Radicalization Of Educational Reform – Edie Layland
Virtual Private Cloud – The Olive Press
Virtual Private Cloud – Nobosh
Even Revolutionaries Conserve – Tyler Olson
State Of Learning Management Systems In Higher Education – Elearnspace
“Good” Peer Review – Sapsiwai
Letting Networks Do What They Do Well – Sergio Hayashi
Multitasking – Andres Rodriguez

In this issue of MasterNewMedia weekly media literacy digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores issues in technology and education that directly influence the way we work and think about our future.

Photo credit: ktsdesign

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Location – The prominence of mobile devices is raising the profile of location-aware programs.
• It Is Raining In The Cloud – cloud computing needs to be defined more clearly if we are going to talk about it meaningfully.
• Change That Prevents Real Change – Change pressures are amplified by the open education movement.
• Some Thoughts On Technophilia – Danah Boyd challenges technological determinism.
• Change, influence, power – Grassroots change has been prominent in education, but if it is change we desire, we must eventually find greater models of influence.
• Neuroscience – Technologies are penetrating a wide variety of different endeavours across human society.
• Online Campus… – Online learning continues to grow at a faster rate than on-campus enrollment.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Location

The prominence of mobile devices (particular smart phones) is raising the profile of location-aware programs.

• When I search on my iPhone, Google wants to know my location so it can provide more relevant search results.
• Or, when I am in a city I’m not familiar with, Google Maps has guided me to many a coffee shop (and, more recently, Urban Spoon has assisted with dining options).

Applications for smart phones turn treasure hunting – in the form of geocaching into entertaining activities.

I’ve been experimenting with various location-aware applications (Whoshere, Latitude, etc).

At first, it’s a bit disturbing. It’s so easy to connect with people – not exclusively linked to existing social networks. Shared interest and a shared location can serve as a starting point for a conversation.

Twitter will soon offer location-awareness posting:

“For example, with accurate, tweet-level location data you could switch from reading the tweets of accounts you follow to reading tweets from anyone in your neighborhood or city – whether you follow them or not. It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake.“

Integrating our search history with our social network and our current location offers some interesting opportunities. And some interesting privacy and security concerns.

While we often broadcast only to our network, many people are indiscriminate in the people they “friend” online.

It Is Raining In The Cloud

Like many people, I store much of my data in what is very loosely called “the cloud”.

Google stores many of my documents, email, social contacts, and calendar. Ning holds many of my online interactions, as do Twitter and Facebook.

The freedom of not being tied to one device is great.

The cloud model is still a bit undeveloped, however. It is undeveloped in terms of definition:

• Is cloud computing simply using online services?
• Or is it more about the technological infrastructure?
• What about public and private clouds (I remember private Bluetooth networks promising a new way to interact with multiple devices)?

Cloud computing needs to be defined more clearly if we are going to talk about it meaningfully.

A recent report suggests that the end user experience of clouds is problematic as services like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google “suffer from regular performance and availability issues”. With certain services – such as Gmail – down time is rare. With other services – such as Twitter – it’s almost a given.

Cloud computing is still a recent development. I do not think current headaches differ much from the painful desktop computing experiences of the late ’80s

Change That Prevents Real Change

Textbook publishers are experiencing turmoil. Change pressures are amplified by the open education movement.

A new model is clearly needed. Flatworld Knowledge is currently the most innovative companies in the textbook field: textbooks can be read online or purchased (for $30). But is it enough? My view is that it is not the right model.

I have posted thoughts on where I think the open education movement model falls short on my connectivism blog: Change that prevents real change.

Some Thoughts On Technophilia

Danah Boyd challenges technological determinism: Some thoughts on technophilia:

“It is easy to fall in love with technology. It is equally easy to fear it…

I want to push back against our utopian habits because I think that they’re doing us a disservice. Technology does not determine practice. How people embrace technology has less to do with the technology itself than with the social setting in which they are embedded.

Those people who are immersed in a techno-savvy, technophilic community are far more likely to embrace technology than those whose social world is shaped by other patterns of consumption and communication.”

Hard to disagree with that assertion. But what is new is also exciting.

A new tool can sometimes lead an educator into entirely new mode of practice. For example, I’ve used blogs in teacher education programs. On many occasions, the value of a blog or podcast is found in what it does to the educator who is actively experimenting.

I agree with Danah that simply dropping a new piece of software into a course won’t necessarily result in positive learning experiences for learners. But a tool can change a way of thinking for the teacher. Perhaps teachers who are excited about trying a new tool produce a ripple effect of pedagogical improvement.

I would rather have an educator trying new tools (and failing) than have an educator who is quite content not experimenting.

Change, Influence, Power

How do we create change? This question sits centrally in many discussions on the use of technology in learning as well as the broader “how do we improve education” movement.

Grassroots change has been prominent in education – in effect a teacher experiments with blogs or Second Life outside of school mandates. Most of my use of technology has been in this category. I haven’t been a part of many large-scale mandated strategies for including technology in education.

However, over the last several years, I’ve noticed the limitations of grassroots – systemic change must augment grassroots activity (even if, at the start, systemic change is mainly about providing a safe-fail environment).

If it’s change we desire, we must eventually find greater models of influence. Which in turn requires that we participate at the power-table of strategy, policy, planning, and resource allocation. Some level of organization is needed once we are at this stage.

Even the environmental movement – one of the largest movements in history – has points of organization at government and policy levels.

InsideHigherEd summarizes the frustration of people (in this case, sociologists) who have an important contribution to make, but lack influence (in contrast with economists who are much better at organizing and influencing through power channels). The discussion seems similar to the policy discussion we had last week at Open Education 2009 – a mix of calls for:

• Increased organization of activities
• Increased grassroots movement.

Neuroscience

Humans create tools to extend their potential.

• Plows to accelerate digging dirt with hands.
• “The wheel” to accelerate travels.
• Clubs, swords, and explosives to accelerate our ability to kill.

Most of our history has involved building tools to extend the body. A few instances of using tools to extend the mind- language and books – can be observed in the past. In contrast, our own era is one of building tools to extend the mind: the internet, computers, haptic devices.

The future promises many more opportunities through innovations in neuroscience: What we’re seeing across law enforcement, the arts, marketing, entertainment, and warfare is what is means to be human.

These technologies are penetrating a wide variety of different endeavours across human society. That – in and of itself – highlights the fact that we are witnessing the very early stages of a “Neuro Revolution”

Online Campus…

Online learning – after 15 years of hype – is now recognized as a viable solution to some rather complex problems facing universities – see Online Campus could solve many of U of California’s problems.

Moving courses, programs, or even entire departments online should be justified by:

• Better quality learning,
• Increased access for learners,
• Reduction of costs/increased revenue.

As is too often the case, the catalyst for interest is economic, not the potential for improving learning. But, as Staying the Course emphasizes, online learning continues to grow at a faster rate than on-campus enrollment.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on August 21st, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

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“.

Photo credits:
Location – Leonid Karchevsky
It Is Raining In The Cloud – The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian’s Weblog
Change That Prevents Real Change – maxxyustas
Some Thoughts On Technophilia – Andre van der Veen
Change, Influence, Power – alastor
Neuroscience – Sebastian Kaulitzki
Online Campus… – Maciej Szubert

In this weekly media literacy digest, open education advocate George Siemens shares key media and technology stories that directly affect your media, your work and and society as a whole.

Photo credit: Viktor Gmyria

In this Media Literacy Digest:

• More Enterprise Social Software Strategies: Issues to consider in your enterprise’s internal social software policy.
• No More Albums – Content sources are disaggregating.
• Who Loses In Open Education? Who loses in open education and the disaggregation of the teaching role in universities.
• Social Media Seminar – Access to social media seminar sessions.
• Cosy Networks Stifle Innovation – Densely connected networks actually serve to stifle innovation.
• Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively – When asked to make a group decision, instead of sharing vital information known only to themselves, people tend to repeat information that everyone already knows

Here all the details:

More Enterprise Social Software Strategies

Some readers may find this useful: Eight Issues to Consider in Your Enterprise’s Internal Social Software Policy.

Unfortunately, strategies seem to lead to policies and policies risk being an impediment to innovation. If decisions about communication and interaction are made on legal and organizational basis, rather than innovation and idea sharing (see A threat to scientific communication), social media is somewhat limited at the start.

I respect the need to be cautious and reduce lawsuit prospects. Sometimes, however, we have to push those boundaries.

If we continually squeeze “the new” into the current system, we strip new affordances and potential.

No More Albums

Content sources are disaggregating.

Courses, albums, newspapers, and even TV programs (in exception the 5 min YouTube video) are fragmenting into smaller pieces. Which, of course, increases options for re-creating/remixing (smaller the size, greater the opportunities for repurposing).

Radiohead pushes the boundaries again (remember the pay what you want) by stating they will not be publishing full length albums.

Who Loses In Open Education?

I posted a few thoughts on my connectivism blog on who loses in open education and the disaggregation of the teaching role in universities: Here we are…there we are going.

Social Media Seminar

Earlier this week, Dave Cormier and I hosted our second session on Social Media: Trends and Implications. Session recordings for both July and August are now available.

Dave Cormier and me are still finding the right mix and theme for the show, but I thought this session was a bit smoother than the first. We had good turn out (just over 200) – we held the August event in the evening so individuals from Asia/Australia could attend.

Dave Cormier and I will keep tweaking .

Cosy Networks Stifle Innovation

More is not always better, especially with a network. Densely connected networks actually serve to stifle innovation.

Granovetter recognized (.pdf) that network formations influence information flow. Beinhocker explored the implications of highly vs. sparsely connected networks. A recent article in New Scientist states that “the over-abundance of connections through which information travels reduces diversity and keeps radical ideas from taking hold”.

The problem?

We are inclined to:

• surround ourselves or
• engage in conversations with people who share our views and beliefs.

Our desire for community of peers is somewhat self-defeating in relation to the impact of densely connected networks.

Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively

Hardly surprising: Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively: “When asked to make a group decision, instead of sharing vital information known only to themselves, people tend to repeat information that everyone already knows.”

Most spaces/venues of interaction fail to take advantage of the value of critique and debate. Since disagreement in generally not encouraged, we end up sharing information that we think will not cause conflict or upset others.

It takes a degree of self-confidence (and a supportive environment) to ensure contrary voices are heard.

What controversial idea have you shared lately? And, how was it received? Pressure to normalize ideas (and people) is strong and pervasive in groups…

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on August 14th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

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“.

Photo credits:
More Enterprise Social Software Strategies – Acumenfund.org
No More Albums – Orson
Who Loses in Open Education – Alastor
Social Media Seminar – Dave Cormier
Cosy Networks Stifle Innovation – Solent News/Rex Feature
Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively – Spring.org

In this weekly media literacy digest, educational technologies expert George Siemens takes you to breaking news and stories that directly affect media, education and society as a whole.

Photo credit: Darko Novakovic

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

• Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next Twenty Years of Technology-Led Economic Development – A report concerned with the future of “self-contained research parks”.
• Dumb Money or Dumb Coverage? – Stephen Downes critiques a Newsweek article on the subject of improving (reforming) schools.
• Future of Campus Bookstores – A few thoughts on the future of campus bookstores.
• For Canadian Gov’t: Consultation = You Listen – George Siemens was on CJOB (a Winnipeg radio station) for a 2 hour discussion on copyright.
• Developing An Enterprise Social Computing Strategy – The Intel report provides a practical overview of how large organizations can tackle challenges of collaboration and sharing.
• Critical Thinking – …how to approach content as a mode of thought, rather than as fragmented bits of information.
• Learning With Technology – During the recent ED-MEDIA conference in Hawaii, Greg Walker and crew from Leeward Community College conducted a series of interviews with attendees.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next Twenty Years of Technology-Led Economic Development

Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next Twenty Years of Technology-Led Economic Development is a frustrating read. It’s concerned with the future of “self-contained research parks”. Most research universities have adopted this model.

At University of Manitoba, for example, we have a SmartPark with the mandate of fostering communities of innovators (and innovations).

However, as the Future Knowledge Ecosystems report states, times are changing. How will future research parks respond to “fourteen emerging trends” (trends such as: group economy, knowledge ecosystems, hybrid sensemaking, etc).

The frustrating part? The report reveals how difficult it is to conceive new models driven by new technological affordances. So we end with three scenarios:

• incremental evolution,
• research clouds,
• and rapid decline of research parks.

At least the focus on scenario thinking acknowledges the uncertainty of anticipating the future. However, the topics under consideration – research and innovation – can (and likely will) emerge as completely different entities than what is being utilized for extrapolation.

Knowledge (I still prefer the term information – to me, knowledge requires a person in a state of knowing) is fluid.

Given the inherent uncertainty, it is best to view knowledge through the lens of complex adaptive systems, not through 5+ year plans. This report is an extrapolation of how current trends might impact research parks.

What is really needed is a creative considerations of what research parks (and universities for that matter) could be if they were seen as active, reciprocally-impacting agents in an environment: shaping and responding to emergence, rather than trying to predict the future.

Dumb Money or Dumb Coverage?

Creating successful schools entail far more than simply focusing on single elements.

In Dumb Money or Dumb Coverage?, Stephen Downes critiques a Newsweek article on the subject of improving (reforming) schools.

Schools cannot be separated from the societies in which they function. Numerous factors must be considered:

• health,
• diversity,
• poverty,
• teacher compensation,
• technology,
• and economics.

This post juxtaposes views of fixing the system by better method (Newsweek’s emphasis on smaller class size, teacher pay) vs fixing the system by emphasis on better societies (Stephen’s assertion).

Future of Campus Bookstores

I’ve posted a few thoughts on the future of campus bookstores.

Short view: it’s not a bright future and, whatever it is, it won’t be defined by status quo.

For Canadian Gov’t: Consultation = You Listen

This past Tuesday, I was on CJOB (a Winnipeg radio station) for a 2 hour discussion on copyright.

The host – Richard Cloutier – initiated the show in reaction to the Copyright Consultations being held by the Canadian government (they even have a Twitter account set up). I tried to invite myself to the Winnipeg consultation. It was then that I discovered that consultation = you listen.

It’s encouraging to see the government initiate consultations. But it’s disappointing that they have done so in a very closed manner. Yes, you can post your thoughts to the site. However, I would hardly call that a consultation. What’s that called again? Oh, wait, I know: it’s essentially email.

In some instances, closed roundtables make sense – but in this case, they are posting transcripts and recordings. Why not just make it an open forum? Let people attend, ask questions. I deem this feeble. And a really poor attempt at consultation. Why not a more accurate term like “You listen while we Talk Copyright”?

On a more positive note, Michael Geist has set up a site to encourage involvement in the Copyright Consultation.

Developing An Enterprise Social Computing Strategy

Intel has posted a report on developing an enterprise social computing strategy.

The report doesn’t reveal anything astonishingly new, but does provide a practical overview of how large organizations can tackle challenges of collaboration and sharing.

It’s interesting to observe how organizations balance a critical tension point in adopting emerging technology: what to foster / encourage vs. what to control.

A corporate technology infrastructure is not so much a system to control what is permissible as it is an infrastructure that needs to be co-created with end users.

Apple (sort of) gets this with the App Store. Google understands this with Android and Wave.

Open source software has developed largely because people are seen as participants in software creation rather than as end users.

Critical Thinking

Perhaps by now, we have enough variations of Descartes famous declaration? Apparently not: I think critically, therefore I am:

By studying the theory of critical thinking and tenaciously applying it to classroom practice, I began to see more clearly how to approach content as a mode of thought, rather than as fragmented bits of information.

I began to see the intimate connection between thinking and learning, to see how to intervene in thinking deliberately and constructively to deepen one’s understanding, and to interface the content of my subject with the values and motivations of students.

The article goes on to provide a four-stage process to thinking critically.

When learners have greater control, they also require greater command of critical thinking skills. Why? Well, if I’m taking a course under the direction of an instructor, I will hopefully be able to learn from the instructor modeling these skills.

A course is a sanitized version of messy and chaotic information that comprises a field. Learners (hopefully) encounter only the most established and trusted information during a course.

Once a learner steps outside of the course, she’ll inevitably encounter false and biased information. And, I think, it’s somewhat natural to begin connecting with learners who share our own beliefs and views.

As a result, self-directed learners may cluster around shared beliefs and ideals. But it is in the friction of differing views that serendipity exists. Admittedly, this might not happen in a classroom either, but a good instructor will at least highlight points of tension in a subject area.

When I learn on my own, diversity needs to become an explicit pursuit.

Learning With Technology

During the recent ED-MEDIA conference in Hawaii, Greg Walker and crew from Leeward Community College conducted a series of interviews with attendees.

The videos include interviews with Tom Reeves, Stephen Downes, Lisa Lane, Tony Hirst, Curt Bonk, Alan Levine, M. David Merrill, and many others.

More conferences should create short videos of attendees and speakers.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on August 8th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

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“.

Photo credits:
Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next Twenty Years of Technology-Led Economic Development – Andrea Danti
Future of Campus Bookstores – adekvat
For Canadian Gov’t: Consultation = You Listen – Kevin Britland
Developing An Enterprise Social Computing Strategy – Intel Corporation
Critical Thinking – Mitar Gavric
Learning With Technology – argus456