elearnspace

I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with a colleague on “what has really changed”. so much of what we do today has its roots in what was done “yesterday”. For example, how are links on the web different from citations in journal articles? Or how is our manner of collaboration today different from collaboration in guilds in Europe? My argument against “it’s just the same” is somewhat anemic still, but generally centers on: technology has enabled new affordances of interaction with others, the pace of information growth and flow, and the scope/scale of conversations. While we today may be learning in a similar manner to what was done even a generation ago, the point of departure will become greater as time goes on. The impact of Descartes and Luther, for example, was not felt in their own generation. They marked a departure, but the full implications still ripple today. Similarly, social technologies for creating and sharing information, making sense of our world, and creating small-scale global networks don’t seem to be a significant departure from 20 years ago. But talk to me in a few decades . Anyway, this post (via John Connell) provides an indication of the similarity of previous methods, but the point of departure already reveals a different tomorrow: Social media in the 90′s