Emerging Technologies for Learning

"It is dangerous to assume that we understand students simply because we were once in the same shoes."

Were we in the same shoes? Perhaps we were with respect to impatience ("I want it now!"), immaturity of thought, and a preference for socializing over "studying." Unless you were born into the Internet Age, however, you were never in those same shoes---your shoes are hand-me-downs from an earlier age of technology. (This is literally true; if you doubt that, Google "shoe + technology".) Yet, if you are able to Google, to Wiki, to Blog, to Text, or to IM, you may share those new shoes.

The emergent technologies mentioned by the author are a wide-ranging mixture of old concepts bundled into new forms---and thus it's not surprising that some of the skills deemed critical decades ago are still so today. While remote instrumentation may be new to some, Nikola Tesla created the first wirelessly operated (remote controlled) model boat in the 1920s; conceptually they share a lot in common. The same may be said of virtual worlds; in the dark ages of education I remember our class dressing up like the Pilgrims and Native Americans to act out the first Thanksgiving. Data visualization began (perhaps) with the creation of the Cartesian Plane by Descartes in the 17th Century. Augmented reality might just be considered another version of a tourist's handbook; the author's description of visiting the Empire State Building (pg. 17) replicates my experience circa 1958, albeit my "augmented reality" was in paper form. So what then has changed?

These older concepts have been repackaged---streamlined into digital format, made available 24/7 and accessible from a variety of ubiquitous digital devices. Information or interaction---lots of it---is available everywhere, anytime. Overload can be the result. What do I do with all this information? Who needs or wants 1,243,576 "hits" on a search, especially when the first few pages are filled with paid advertisements and searches in general have a less than 50% success rate. What do we do with all those Blogs and Wikis and Forums? Aggregate them? We did that with our Blogs, and now with our Wikis---it does not summarize them for us or in any way sort them for relevance. Sometimes we can rely on friends---friends on a social network perhaps---to recommend a Blog, Forum, or Wiki for its relevance. Technology has yet to replace the human experience. As the author emphasizes, critical thinking skills are vital skills to survive this technological age.

Appropriately, the author emphasizes: judgement, synthesis, research, practice, and negotiation. The author asks about programs to teach these skills; it seems to me self-evident that learning these skills comes from practice with guidance from someone who possesses the skills. Technology is not smart enough to "think." Most people are. That being said...

Critique of Flat World Project

Instructional Objectives

The objectives were fairly straightforward: The production of a digital story on an assigned topic using one of Daniel Pink's "six senses" as a guide for the substance and tone of the completed work; collaboration with another student in another location for the creation of a portion of the video content is mandatory.

Technology Utilized by Students to Create/How Technology was Used

At one point or another during the course of their work, the students used two general types of technologies, Web-based and Digital. Web-based included: Wiki, Ning, a search engine, a browser, and a video hosting service (uTube). Non-Web, digital tools included a video camera with synch sound, video editing software, music recording/transfer and editing software, graphic design software, and presumably word-processing software.

All the technology employed was creation-oriented. Wikis gave access to instructions and allowed collaboration. Ning allowed social-networking for the purposes of trading information and asking questions. Search engines collect and display information on the topic---and on the use of the technology. The video hosting service provides samples of digital stories as well as a place to upload the completed project. Digital tools allowed the creation of the completed video.

Put Yourself in the Student's Place...

As one of the students, I would have learned to create and to inform. I would have learned to research, analyze, reflect, collaborate and evaluate---not necessarily in that order, as the creative process is a loop not a straight line.

Emerging Technologies

The e-book we are reading (1st chapter) is valuable to me in a number of ways. As a survey of emergent Web technologies it's informative and helps me organize my daily experience of the Web. As a contrast between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, it's thought provoking; both culturally and educationally. I've taught a number of younger Web users (teens and young adults) and their experience of the Web is decidedly active---they are creators of content not merely downloaders of content. Their culture is an active one; moreover, the students come from around the world, and their experience of the Web is the same (barring bandwidth concerns) in their countries of origin. Perhaps it's obvious, but they are bored by non-interactive and traditionally directed learning presentations, be it text or lecture. They light up, however, when they interact with learning objects or one another.

We've been asked by Kim to summarize the key points of the assigned reading and critique those points. I find 2 key points within the chapter we read:

1. A variety of communication tools have become available; many of those tools are in use by potential learners who are accustomed to creating content with those tools---their experience with technology is as active participants in a process enabled by those tools. The authors do an excellent job of surveying those emergent tools.
2. Instruction, however you define it, can benefit from using the same tools to engender knowledge within learners; especially so as today's learner is more likely to respond to an active learning environment than a passive one. The authors rightfully stress the need to rethink the instructional process---to redesign the process to allow for active learning using tools which allow for creativity as well as knowledge building.

Learning in a Digital Age

I thoroughly enjoy this topic, and I am unabashedly a fan of multimedia and in situ learning, as well as all social/societal-based learning.

A very large part of my background and experience is film and television, and I well know how deep an impact multimedia presentations have on an audience. An audience can remember the details of a movie or a TV episode, but that same audience cannot necessarily recall the lecture they heard or the text they read with the same detail. "Didactic" is the label once applied to stories which teach; now, as a consequence of social learning and blogging I know the contemporary label is, "edutainment." (Thanky you, Ty, who's a fellow ITEC student.)

In situ learning is a godsend. It's a powerful tool for creating knowledge in the medical field, wherein paramedics are placed in real-life scenarios to develop, test, and hone their skills before they are sent into the real world. (Thank you Dee, an ITEC grad.) This type of learning is how I acquired the skills to function as a Story Editor and Production Executive in film and TV. It was once called, "on the job training." The same can be said of my technology background. It's also the same type of learning I am enjoying during an internship with KQED and the Digital Storytelling Initiative, run by Leslie Rule, an ITEC grad.

I learn in these ways, and I teach with these methodologies. Within a traditional classroom setting with a range of students whose understanding of networking technology runs the gamut from nil to considerable, I asked myself the following:

1. How do I keep those with existing knowledge interested?
2. How do I teach those without any knowledge?
3. What do the students need to learn about networking that will be useful to them?

The answer is that I do not "teach" anything. I ask the students to "do." Build a network. Those with more experience share their knowledge with those who have little or none. Use a multimedia presentation to show how a network is built. Use Flash animations to show how the devices on a network function. Then pose questions which are open for discussion within a live forum. What I do is guide the process by providing the tools needed by the students to explore the subject.

ITEC 830 - Second Class Meeting "Connectivism" (Siemens)

After reading through the George Siemens material, my first thought is that Siemens is pursuing his own "Theory of Everything" (TOE) in the educational field. The ironic connotation of TOE seems appropriate to a theory which lacks a definition. Perhaps, though, I am missing the point; it would not be the first time I couldn't see the forest for the trees...

I take no exception to most of what Siemens describes. For example, the statement, "How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized," is apparent---if not obvious---from the ubiquitous e-mail account which had its origins in 1993 through the efforts of AOL and Delphi (and earlier through CompuServe). His statement is true, but it has been since early man learned to communicate with his peers eons ago. If anything, Connectivism seems to be a melange of obvious statements.

I do disagree with Siemens when he states: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe." A better philosophy might be: "The existence of a pipe and access to it is---perhaps---more important than the content within the pipe at any given time."

I'm curious about how others reacted to the material.

It's now a week after I started this post, and I've had the benefit of reading some of my classmates' blogs on the subject of "connectivism." Additionally, out of frustration I read/skimmed Siemens' book, "Knowing Knowledge," seeking a definition (operational or otherwise cogent) of "connectivism." I still have no definition of what I consider a muddled concept. Honestly, I cannot find anything new---let alone groundbreakinhg---in Siemens' work. I do find a lot of existing concepts which have been reworded; e.g., "the new oppressed" as a restatement of the "digital divide." I also find incomplete or erroneous positings such as his statements about the development of video from a recording device to a tool for communication. (It was not until the technology of video became less expensive, digitized and subsequently became available to "everyone," that it became the ubiquitous tool it is today. One last thought... Siemens says, "Hierarchy imposes structure while networks reflect structure." Well, networks contain hierarchies. The "cloud" network envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee (see the post below on ITEC 800 Chapter 4) in the creation of hyper-text (HTML) exists but only to the degree that hyper-text links between and among sites are permitted by those who control the sites. In a practical sense, that means I can link this blog to NEC, but NEC is not going to link their site to my Blog---not in my lifetime, I'm sure. Therein lies the hierarchy within the network---every place is not necessarily accessible from every other place. "Six degrees of separation" does not hold true for the Web, either. Siemens suggests the "network" must be a "flat" or democratic playing space for knowledge to flourish in this age; it is not, but it does provide knowledge nevertheless---a lot of knowledge.

ITEC 830 - First Class Meeting Web 2.0

I was ill and missed the first day of class for 830; however, from the postings done by Kim of the group diagrams/charts and the Blogs written by classmates, I've learned what the discussion subject of the meeting was and what activities everyone participated in. The posted illustrations and Blogs are not the same as being there and partricipating firsthand; but, they answered my question: What did you do the first class meeting?

Web 2.0 in action? In a rudimentary sense, yes; although it would be more Web 2.0 if I'd had the time to interact with one of more of my classmates via a Blog, Wiki, Forum, or Chat.