Archive for August, 2010
The kinds of social policies described by Google’s CEO haven’t worked out very well in the past.
Raj Boora just posted some thoughts on setting up a courseblog with a prof., and they echo many of the same things I’ve found on my campus:
let’s understand that students are as likely to be blogging for the class as they are to be pulling their own teeth – they are going to do it because they need to. You might get the odd student who is really digging it and wants to keep reflecting on it once the class is over, but for most, like pulling teeth, they are only going to jump the hoop once. Thirdly, even though blogging has this aura of being able to put the student at the center of the learning experience, it is still very much the case where students are told what to write and how to write it. It still almost has to be this way in order to create a level field on which the student work can be assessed. Finally… if we know that the students are not going to become bloggers on topic X, and we know that they are unlikely to have a portfolio (yet) where the entries that they do make can become part of a greater whole, why not start them with the most baby step of blogging… commenting.
and
If the instructor wants students to blog, s/he should be a blogger as well. Without the passion for the topic and without the ability to show students what the process really is, things are going to get boring pretty fast for everyone and the great enthusiasm at the start is going to wither quickly, perhaps on the vine. So even if the instructor only has a handful of posts, that is a start. The students should then have to comment on the posts of the instructor, who can then post about those comments and bring in new information. Students can also link out to other blogs that are talking about similar material in comments. This way they can get the idea of what blogging can be about. But wait, you say that this is nothing but a glorified message board? You say that it is in-authentic to the ethos of blogging? To that I say… well yes it is. Having every student start their own blog and post on a predetermined topic is basically creating a non structured discussion board anyway. So what is the problem with at least making the thing manageable?
I’ve talked with many profs who are convinced that blogging is going to change everything, and that the students are all already avid bloggers. It only changes things if used appropriately. And the vast majority of students have never posted a blog entry on their own (but may have been cajoled into posting one in a course before) and don’t manage their own blogs.
The mantra I keep chanting when talking to faculty members is what problem are you trying to solve? and then (and only then) do we get into options of technologies (or not) that support their goals. Blogging may or may not be a solution that’s appropriate for a given situation.
Alec posted a link to an article about a presentation made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Technomy conference (the article was a repost based on the original ReadWriteWeb article on the presentation). It includes gems such as:
If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go.
which ties into my thinking about triangulating disparate bits of gathered information to build comprehensive profiles on anyone.
and this:
“In a world of asynchronous threats,” said Schmidt, “it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it.”
So Google’s pulling the “post-9/11 world” card? unfrackingbelievable.
The only sane response to Google is that they can have my privacy when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Google, the company that makes BILLIONS of dollars by monetizing what it knows about every internet user on the planet, does not get to unilaterally call an end to individual privacy.
I think it’s safe to stop repeating the clearly meaningless “do no evil ” company motto now.
update: it struck me while riding to work this morning: I wonder if there are doors on the stalls in the Google Executive Washroom. Or do they only want to kill privacy that could make them money?
I think there clearly needs to be some form of regulatory oversight put into place before it’s too late.
patrons of the Calgary Farmer’s Market move through the aisles, in search of fresh free-range organic local foods trucked in from BC.
I just had an epiphany (or a moment of Duh! depending on perspective)
I’ve been thinking of the University as a Really Big School with bajillions of faculty and students who are mostly interested in maintaining the status quo (or in not taking risks, which has the same effect).
What if, instead, I ignore the status quo and think of the University as a small school, full of a small group of faculty and students who want to work together to try something new?
Seems much less paralyzing when framed that way…
Evan snuck a photo of me while I was practicing playing the ukulele this morning. I can almost play the first part of Stairway to Heaven without stumbling too badly…
I saw this bike, stranded on the boulevard between 5 lanes of traffic. Someone was having a bad day…
the narrow dirt pathway connecting Silver Springs and Varsity Estates is nearly overgrown by grasses. the blades were thick with dew this morning.
I could watch this video all day. The fluid, organic flow of people and machines through the streets of San Francisco in 1905 – before the big fire. There’s something mesmerizing about the way everyone is able to move together. No ring roads. No interchanges. No streetlights. No bike lanes. Just a fluid, organic flow of humanity. I lost count of near-miss collisions, though…
Carpenter, E. & McLuhan, M. (1956) The new languages. Chicago Review. 10(1) pp. 46-52.
on the format of newspapers, and the effect on perception:
The position and size of articles on the front page is determined by interest and importance, not content. Unrelated reports… are juxtaposed; time and space are destroyed and the here and now are presented as a single Gestalt. … Such a format lends itself to simultaneity, not chronology or lineality. Items abstracted from a total situation are not arranged in causal sequence, but presented in association, as raw experience.
on communication channels:
Thus each communication channel codifies reality differently and thereby influences, to a surprising degree, the content of the message communicated.
DN: both concepts apply nicely to educational technology, and to online discussion. How does the format of the online discussion platform shape the presentation, perception, and shape of the message(s) communicated?