2/19 Class

Link to our (Alex + I) podcast assignment from last week: http://alex.podomatic.com/entry/2009-03-18T01_09_50-07_00

Reflection from last week:

Started off class by attending a lecture on the role of gaming in civic engagement. Over I thought there were some interesting points, but felt like much of the discussion wasn't very constructive in getting at what most of the audience seemed to want: ideas about WHY we should focus on gaming to teach people civic engagement, among other things. The speaker did state that he did not feel that gaming was anymore able to engage us than a really good lecturer (amongst other things), which I would defintely not agree with. I would have probably enjoyed a live demo of a group playing Simcity or something of that nature.

The second part of class the LMS/CMS group did their presentations. I was part of this group and showed everyone my www.gaginang.org website which was built out on Joomla. Unfortunately the keyboard/computer was having trouble with logins (for all presenters).

3/12 Class Reflection

Last week's class was spent breaking up into two groups and recording our thoughts/takeaways from Ellen Wagner's presentation. Our group had technical difficulties multiple times, with the result that the soundbytes of Alex and myself were chopped from the group file. We ended up making our own at home and are working on our shared file at the time of this writing. During, we got to hear from our peers on virtual worlds - which is right along the lines of my holodeck obsession. Viewing learning as a human enterprise, if and when we get to the technologically advanced stage of having a holodeck, the lines between reality and virtuality (I just coined that!) will be blurred ala Matrix. Now, after msging with Alex, I think I've been too negative about the potentiality of all that. Holodecks will lead to a new stage of human existence, virtually(!) unfettered by limits. If you read the writings of popular futurists, you might become overwhelmed. But it can also really be heartening to see what humanity may create.

Ellen Wagner Class

Script:

- What did you learn?

3D learning, haptics, Wii IS going to be the future (see my voicethread from the last post). Web 4.0 - the ubiquitous web.

- What are your takeaways?

Designers should design for today - designing for the needs of now - that is the sweet spot.

- What keeps you up at night?

Feeling like technology and ID will end up the way it will end up, even without my participation/influence in/on it. Feeling overwhelmed with the possibilities of technology and neglecting the natural joys of life.

Reflection:

I really liked Ellen's "Hype Cycle". It's a great way to view trends and how people take to new ideas. Maybe we can get a copy of it? Also, web4.0 idea sounds a little scary. Actually it's like giving a certain level of consciousness to tools and objects. The dark side of this of course is when super villains command armies of robots and tanks to attack from their neural implant blue-brain. =)

Kurt Bonk

I appreciated having the opportunity to hear from Kurt Bonk and getting an overview of his book The World is Flat. Definitely a lot of information crammed into about an hour and half. One thing that stuck out to me was when Kurt showed the picture of the family who took went on a Carribbean boat trip and their three kids were still able to have class. If WE truly ALL LEARN, then these sorts of things should be more possible. Also the example of kids having a little tutoring device was great to see as well. One topic that I'd see to see more discourse on IS exactly that, attitudes of the general public to how learning actually takes place outside of traditional ivory towers. In fact, I sometimes wonder about our very own ITEC program... hmmmm ;) If I've learned anything, its that ITEC has provided me with access of knowledge to tools and contacts. There is a lot of content in the program, that's for sure, but I feel like I'm not fully utilizing the information/skills/tools. I think a lot of this has to do with the constraints of having to work a f/t job and also because I'm not much of a night person. Perhaps I should take advantage more of HyFlex. =)

Oh and here is my 1 minute (It's gotta be at least 2 mins I think) response to Kurt Bonk. More about me having fun with Star Trek I think. =)

Seems like the screen is too thin to show the thing so here is the link as well: http://voicethread.com/share/379697/

2/19 Class

MY TWO LEARNING WIKI EXAMPLES:
- Language Learning Wikis - Knowledge section
http://www.italki.com/knowledge/

- Permaculture
http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki/Permaculture_Wiki

CLASS NOTES/REFLECTION:

- Blog lurkers (Hai)
- Information doesn't really belong to you, once it gets on the blogosphere (Hai)
- Blogs are very limited forms of communication (Various)
- The communication purpose of blogs depends on how you use them (Kim)
- Be careful what you share (David)
- Proliferation of tools, it's gradually simplifying (Kim)
- "Reduce the chain of pain" (Marc, Steve Jobs)

This class was good. I liked the presentation by the blog/wiki/twitter group. Had some good information that I didn't know. Also, what I realize is that the knowledge gained in this class comes through the unique/shared ideas of individuals who are questioning how ideas come about, processes work, etc. The thing I wonder though is how much of it is retained. Our human minds are so precarious I think. That's why something like wikipedia is great. Sometime in the future, people may still be editing wiks. Nice RSS presentation by Ethan. Love that Data + Lor page!

Blogs/Wiki/Twitter Review
- Uses: Journaling, expression
- How to use Twitter academically: academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
- Blog/Wiki/Twitter mashups

COMMENTS ON "Emerging Technologies in E-learning":

I thought this was a great overview of Web2.0 and it's application in education and learning. An example of using cell-phones for learning was a game that was showcased at the 2008 NextFest. You would speak into your phone to make an avatar move on a screen, and you would fight/combat with ours. It was exhilirating yelling "walk, walk, walk" and "fire, fire, fire". Okay, that's actually not learning, but it has lots of potential for it. I could imagine people creating a list of brainstorming words, or sharing pictures of an assignment, etc. This is an example of just-in-time learning.

I think a big tool that will be used in the near future (next 2-10 years +) will be voice recogition. Voice to text will get a lot better, and also, computers will be able to recognize more complex voice commands. (Right now, help lines and car gps systems are the most popular utilizations). Ultimately, we'll be able to say something like: "Launch Google" "Search Web 2.0 + learning" and then "Find Instructional Design, and be able to find information quickly. We might even be able to say "Find users who play guitar, etc." I think the future of technnology is in video and audio.

Lastly, I loved the part where they draw from fiction: Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. I'd love to write more on that topic.

2/5 Class

Discussion: Connectivism

Summary/Observations on Siemens article:

Connectivism, as a learning theory, takes into account the radical changes occurring in the modern world: the availability of vast amounts of information, knowledge living outside of humans, a focus on how to access information versus what the information is, increasing multinodal and globalized collaboration, and much more. People are learning in ways that seem difficult to describe in the language of behaviorism and other older learning theories. My take on these changes are that they are part of an evolutionary trend of survival. Humans are constantly finding ways to survive in the world. Now, however, human beings have not only learned how to survive in the external world of nature, but also the human-made world of information. Connectivism belie a human need to adapt to change, to be human. As humans once developed social groupings in the past, so now today have our technologies created new social networks.

One of the most fascinating ideas is that one day, human knowledge and thought will live entirely in a non-human form.

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Interesting things from class:
- George Siemens
- Knowledge residing in an object.
- Danger of sharing personal information with the world. What if GoogleDocs were to go down one day? Honey bee virus?
- Globalizing trend - human race becoming closer? oneness? loss of individual identity? (identity theft)
- Ty: Technology compared to magic. People are learning spells on a mass-scale. It has a normalizing effect on what once was thought of as spectacular. Connectivism is a "force", the "pattern", the "chaos theory", "entropy".
- Interesting Blog: Information Aesthetics
- Ty: Connectivism sounds like Borg collectivism, hive-mentality culture/operation/connections
- Ty: Why do we learn? Progression from Survival to Enjoyment to ???? (Control? Mastery? Godliness?)
- Ty: What happens when: all of learning resides in non-human appliances? The matrix and virtual worlds powered by Dyson Spheres! =D
- Ty/'s Group: Biological analogy: virus is replicated (bee virus), incorrect or malicious information can be replicated. People can create this too: genetically modified. $-making: Biotech, Monsanto "terminator" seed that die after they are planted once so must be bought again.
- Jeff's group: Knowledge validity: Wiki's self-filtering/verifying ability
- Jeff's group: Competency, how do you involve everyone? You don't. It's all about "capacity to know more than what is known".
- Angie's group: Death of experts? Everyone is an expert, no one is an expert.
- Angie's group: Who sets boundaries?
- Blogs as natural extension of human desire to communicate/talk/chat/gossip. Some bloggers have more accurate information than others. Just as certain villagers are more credible than others.
- Ty: Is advanced technology allowing us to become more human across geography/distance?
- Ty: The more collective we become the more individual we feel.
- Ty: Truth VS human imperfection. Are the borg the villified versions of humans... becoming too "truth-obsessed", science is the embodiment of truth, and the Borg are certainly scientific.

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Note: THU 4/2 1-5pm Web 2.0 EXPO Meet up with Class. You are registered.

1/29 Class

First night of ITEC830 class! Lots of familiar faces.

SHARED IN CLASS:


- Commoncraft: Video shares in plain English

WHAT IS WEB 2.0?
- Collaborative, social, communal, cloud-think
- Multidirectional
- Global, far-reaching, distance-conquering
- Customizable
- Open source, creative commons, democratized
- Ease-of-use, economical, efficient
- A/synchronous
- No software, all web-based
- Creating natural learning environments, virtually
* Hidden agendas - capitalist veins, true costs
* Severity of viral infection

SIX C's of Web 2.0, Connectivism
- Content
- Context
- Create
- Communicate
- Collaborate
- Contribute

TOOLS
-A Whole New Mind - Daniel Fink 2005 (Required)
-The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman (Required)
-Flock - Web 2.0 enhanced web browser

ASSIGNMENTS
- Make Blog (DONE!)
- Sign-up for ITEC 830 Ning Group (DONE!)
- iGoogle (DONE - just rearranged it a bit)

Here's something fun. I think it's an example of how diy media is being created by your "average jo", and being shared around the world (viral?). Web 2.0 has enabled people notoriety, and the ability to influence others.