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December 12, 2007

I've posted my keynote presentation for Ohio State Extension Conference: Pressures of Change: A response. Basic message: the confluence of change factors places strong change need on education institutions. In two words: transformation and transformation. Transformation and innovation need to occur at all levels: course design, delivery, policies, funding, and the organization of the institution itself. We can only tweak at a course level for so long before we have to conceptualize an entirely new system.

The concept of third places - "social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace" - is gaining a fair bit of attention. Teemu Arina assigns space-based attributes to serendipity in his "Serendipity 2.0: The missing third places of learning" presentation. I indirectly addressed this in my University of Manitoba blog on coffee houses as "penny universities". Richard Florida suggests that "hotels and some airline lounges provide a possible glimpse into the future of third places". New Media Consortium states in their whitepaper Social Networking, The "Third Place", and the Evolution of Communication (.pdf) that the internet is the new space "where people connect with friends, watch television, listen to music, build a sense of togetherness with people across the world, and provide expressions of ourselves which are themselves forms of communication". Constance Steinkuehler views online games as third spaces (.doc). Third places have been with us since recorded history. New technologies and media, however, are providing a new shape and new ease of access to these spaces. The question comes down to: how can we as educators make use of these spaces as informal learning tools.

Two points - which don't really belong together, except for the common presence of Google:
1. I've noticed the prominence of Wikipedia results in Google searches. But I didn't anticipate the significant rise over the last few years: In 2005, for all 10 first page results, "2% of the links proposed by Google and 4% of those proposed by Yahoo came from Wikipedia. On the first link alone, Google offered no Wikipedia results (at least not in our sample) and Yahoo offered 7%. The strategies have changed completely. Today 27% of Google’s results on the first link alone come from Wikipedia, as do 31 % of Yahoo’s. " If increases of that size persist, eventually we'll skip the search engine altogether and just use Wikipedia.
2. Rogers Wireless (the Canadian mobile phone company that overcharges me each month for mediocre service) illustrates why net neutrality is such an important discussion (the comments and links below the article offer differing views). Essentially, Rogers splits (adds content to) the Google search page in order to "communicate with its customers" (which in this case is a Rogers-Yahoo information banner).

I received an invite to attend an online presentation of Open Yale, but unfortunately missed the session as I was in transit to Ohio (I'll be delivering the keynote address on Wednesday for Ohio State University Extension Conference). The Yale initiative is interesting in that it offers course outlines, readings, transcripts, and lecture downloads. I sampled a few of the sessions. Great video quality and talented presenters. My only complaint - I'd like to interact with others who are viewing the resources. Yale faculty do not need to be involved, but allow those of us on the outside to react to course materials and dialogue with each other. I certainly appreciate these types of initiatives. Unfortunately, creating a one-way flow of information significantly misses the point of interacting online. However, as Hewlett Foundation President Brest states: "Truly, all the world is becoming a classroom".

I've tried twitter on numerous occasions. I just can't make it a habit. Yet I keep hearing about how valuable many people find it for staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. Why are these micro-communication tools so popular? Possibly because they are phatic communication tools?: "This is communication with little hard, informational content, but lots of emotional and social content. Phatic communications doesn't get much said, but it has social effects so powerful, it gets lots done."

I won't surprise many readers in declaring that I'm not the most visually creative person. A few years ago, an individual from Australia sent me an email stating that he was considering unsubscribing from my newsletter because of my apathy toward visuals. Since then, nothing much has changed. I spend most of my time in text (though my presentations include greater visuals than even a year ago). Robin Good, perhaps out of sympathy, requested to take my newsletter and spruce it up on his site. The results of week one are here, including his introductory comments: "Breaking technology news, the latest app, scores of startups launching in beta every day. The incoming wave of technology and media related news keeps increasing by the day with no signs of pause or slowdown. And while many blogs and news sites give plenty of coverage and space to the latest and most promising ventures, very few devote their time to make sense of all that is happening and connecting the dots of the ongoing revolution we are witnessing."
This prompted Mike Powers to state: "Robin Good republishes the same material but in a much more presentable form making the very same ideas seem far more interesting.
There is a lesson here for all those bloggers who think content trumps everything else." I respect what Mike is saying. Yet I likely won't make any huge changes in how I write my blog. Why does Robin do it? I imagine the motivation is partly economic (traffic or adsense), but in the process, he is adding value to the network for people, like Mike, who prefer greater effort paid to the presentation of ideas.

Five plus years ago, as blogs and wikis were beginning their emergence from the technology field to wider use, I frequently encountered comments acknowledging their value for communication, but with a tone that questioned their practical application in classrooms. The concern of practical use has largely been settled as learners and academics alike have adopted blogs for learning, communicating, and connecting. Sub-networks of academic, school, and corporate blogs (sometimes created intentionally with a handful of prominent bloggers posting to a site or sometimes created through interests shared by bloggers and the resulting links of information exchange) are a viable means of staying informed of trends and interacting with colleagues from around the world. Youtube is crossing a similar chasm of uncertain application to education. While some videos are of useful (like the Stanford Prison experiment), most are of limited value. But new sites - like SciVee and TeacherTube - may serve to provide practical application to educators and trainers.

Just had a chance to review Brian Lamb's recent SCoPE presentation on: Social Media in Education. Brian's presentation is available in a wiki: Coming Apart. He builds an excellent case for the need to share/use/reuse the educational materials available. A key quote from Brian: "I'm going to keep doing it until the world behaves the way I want it to" :).

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