Egocasting: "When cable television channels began to proliferate in the 1980s, a new type of broadcasting, called “narrowcasting,” emerged—with networks like MTV, CNN, and Court TV catering to specific interests. With the advent of TiVo and iPod, however, we have moved beyond narrowcasting into “egocasting”—a world where we exercise an unparalleled degree of control over what we watch and what we hear."
David Tosh and company continue to work on theirLearning Landscape model. A personal online presence is getting to be almost critical in many circles. Challenges remain: transferring info from one system to another, security, connecting with less formal projects (blogs and wikis - as stand alone tools, not aggregated services), educating users on potential use, university hosted vs. personal hosted (to ensure life long access), etc. I like their model. I'm excited by what is coming out of eportfolio projects (Elgg in particular) - they seem to be aware of how learning has changed (definitely more aware than most academic institutions). The connection of work, academic activities, and community is a beginning. To be successful, however, these projects will need to incorporate the complexities of how we use and communicate what we know...but they'll have to do it through a simple process, as many of the users will not be tech-savvy.
See also this graphic on the "future VLE" (virtual learning environment)
A terrific introduction to social network analysis: Social Networks Analysis for Newbies (.ppt). On a side note, SNA is a new addition to most corporations. Elearning faced an interesting battle in finding its place most organizations - technology or training department. SNA will be similarily confused - is it a training concern? or knowledge management? IT? or strategic (i.e. a C-level activity)?
Incorporating Sims and "Serious Games" in Online Courses: "Although video games and simulations have been around for a long time, the interactivity and the fact that they can be multi-player, with the ability to modify the simulated environment makes them more useful than ever, particularly in training teams, or utilizing team-based training."
Who's the Smartest of them All - a fairly simple discussion of social network analysis, briefly touching on the value of using SNA to determine actual expertise in a corporation. Knowledge management has been about trying to find and detail knowledge in a company. The problem, however, is that people often have to engage in a new process to share knowledge. SNA focuses on observing what people already do (i.e. who they know, content of interaction, their interests). Of the many KM applications, I think SNA has the potential to make the greatest impact - in terms of productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, and profit. It's currently the most promising aspect of KM.
Caterpillar's knowledge networks : "If it doesn't support the business, then you are probably wasting your money."
Malcolm Gladwell (author of Tipping Point and Blink) is gaining considerable attention for his ideas. Accidental Guru provides some insight into his transition from writer to business guru.
Several years ago, Stephen Downes made the statement that we need to watch what is happening in media in order to understand what will happen in learning. Media is several years ahead of the education market in terms of pressure to change based on digital resources and tools for information sharing and communication. A few interesting sites that continue to promote the decentralized nature of information sharing: Take Back the News and OhmyNews. In media, the pattern is informal expertise (evidenced by bloggers) and end user in control. I wonder how those two traits will transfer into the classroom.
Five Best Online KM Discussion...be sure to visit the list of KM bloggers.
Enabling Productive Teamwork with Technology: "Working virtually with a team that you rarely, if ever see, is becoming much more common in knowledge-based businesses. Even co-located teams find that shared document libraries, threaded discussions, shared calendars, task lists and archived company communications makes working together on a team more productive."
Leadership in Difficult Times: Informal and Formal Online Courses details how military personnel are handling unique learning needs of long-term deployment (including in recent tsunami affected areas). While the circumstances may be unique, it's an early stage example of learning meeting people's life needs...rather than the traditional model of adjusting your life in order to acquire needed learning.
Great example of academic "over-naming": "Emergent Social Practices, Situations, and Relations through Everyday Camera Phone Use" (.pdf)...rough translation: stuff that people do with camera phones. Younger generation have an interesting approach to tech adoption - "if it works, I'll use it". Adults have a completely different approach - "if I can understand it, I'll use it". I often speak with younger learners at RRC about interesting tools they're using for communication (and staying connected) and they are often clueless as to what happens behind the scenes. They are primarily focused on doing and using.
Watch Out, Traditional Media - education, government, media, and virtually every centralized, information control silo are experiencing the same stress: it's a different world...end users are different. Passivity is often not accepted. Viewpoints are questioned. Equality is desired. Dialogue is needed. I love this quote (and its application to learning): "We used to think that the news was finished when we printed it, but that's when the news now begins."
Why people don't share what they know: "We may wish for collaborative webs, fostering communities of practice.... but those in charge may be thinking more fortress, walled garden, protect our assets and position."
5 Key Knowledge Management concepts - lists tacit knowledge, ontologies, corporate memory, personal knowledge management, and expertise directory. Recently, I've been reflecting on organizational change, memory, and emotion. Most often, an employee's relationship to the organization is treated as a transactional affair - I work, you pay me. I think it goes far deeper...and knowledge management has a role to play here. An employee and employer are engaged in a relationship that is based on previous interactions, assumptions and experiences (much like any other personal relationship we have with another person). The feel of an organization is based on this history. In times of change, a healthy relationship can withstand stress...but an unhealthy relationship results in tensions and increased conflict. Part of KM's role should be to play a "psychologist" role to ensure a healthy employer/employee relationship.
Malcom Gladwell (of "Tipping Point" and now "Blink" fame) is engaged in an intriguing discussion with James Surowiecki ("The Wisdom of the Crowds"). The dialogue runs for the week.
Blog and rss submission sites - Robin Good continues to grow his list of aggregator sites - intended as a place for blogs to submit URLs and RSS feeds, it's also a very useful list to visit if you're interested in locating different blogs.
I've been lusting after a Mac for a while. The new Mac Mini reduces the cost factor significantly: "The Mac Mini is a tiny machine with a processor, hard drive and optical drive--you supply the monitor, mouse and keyboard."
Apple is an interesting case study as a company that continues to innovate and re-think how it does business. What is unique to Apple that allows it to significantly out pace rivals with new products. Can that type of innovation be taught? Is it a function of superior brain power? Or a function of environment and expectation? How does a corporation like Apple manage its learning?
Evolution of Cooperative Behaviour is well worth the half hour needed to complete the tutorial. It's based on "The Prisoner's Dilemma" and concludes with an interesting discussion of "cheaters, suckers, and tit-for-tat" strategies for cooperation.
Terrific resource if you are interested in games and learning (part of the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative):Game Theory
The State of Blogging: "...blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users; 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online; and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs. Still, 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is."
Top 10 Tech Trends 2005 - an interesting mix of bio-tech, personal search, VoIP, and the digital home (among others).
Desktop Search: a matrix of many different desktop search options. I've been using Google desktop search lately. It works, but only in the sense that other options are worse. Personal information search is still very young (and unfortunately, mostly modeled after internet/corporate search - I do different things with my own information than I do with information I put online - a tool should give me that freedom)(via Ralph).
Learner-centered vs. Connections: ""Learner-centric" has been the rallying cry of eLearning for five years now. For me, it's time to move on...The proliferation of open connections heralds a new world of continuous improvement where chain reactions of combined thoughts and learning recombine in ever-greater patterns."
Tenets of academic rigor spread to computer games: "A number of major universities and technical schools have launched game design programs...The new curriculum aims to give students a solid grounding in storytelling as well as in software."