Together with Cyprien Lomas, I presented a few sessions on data visualization at EDUCAUSE (an Elluminate recording from a similar session in early 2007 is available here). With the concept of visualization still fresh in my thinking, I encountered two excellent resources on visual thinking:
175 data visualization samples
And an exceptional resource on the history of visual communication (via unmediated)
Mobile phones - which significantly outsell computers annually - are becoming a critical focus for technology companies (and, less intensely, for educators). A panel at Davos, with corporate leaders, details the intent of many to create an advertising model around mobile phones (how long until access is free, but ad-supported, like Google's search model?). Wesley Fryer presents a more academic focus on the use of mobile phones: "We don’t have to use cell phones to help students cultivate their capacities for ethical decision-making and become actively engaged in their own learning journeys, but I think cell phones can be extremely useful tools if we want to pursue those pedagogic goals together."
Most of what we define as data or information is what we explicitly create or gather. For example, if I write an article or contribute to a wiki, the resulting information is intentional and a result of active work on my part. When a scientist discovers a cure to a disease, or a new drug to treat or reduce symptoms, the information is again a consequence of intent. Our conversations are similar - we are active, intentional creators of data (I'll call this first tier information). But we create a second kind of information on a daily basis. Second tier information is a by-product of what we do - our actions and our choices. We are largely not aware of this information. It's difficult to capture - unless we are hyper self-aware or we are being stalked. This information used to vaporize as it was not embodied in text, images, or any other conceptual or physical product. That's changing. Facebook - with its Beacon program - follows us and observes our choices, essentially turning our transient information into first tier information. This is a significant development; one that has enormous future implications in privacy and the rights of citizens and corporations. Similar concerns exist with RFID tags and microchips. While RFID tags have substantial opportunities for information aware environments, and a globally connected world of objects, the gleaning of our second tier information by organizations for use in marketing (or tracking) is worrying.
Horizon Report 2008 is now out, as has been detailed on many listservs, blogs, and web sites. The report is a valuable resource for administrators, academic leaders, and educators to gain a broad perspective of dominant trends within education and technology. In a sense, it's a report that reaches beyond the some what densely connected small world of edubloggers and early adopters to engage the larger society. And, as Chris Lott details, contributions (tagged on del.ico.us) are requested from the larger community.
EDUCAUSE (ELI's) annual meeting in San Antonio has been a great experience. Had the opportunity to meet many of my favorite bloggers Gardner Campbell, Brian Lamb, Bryan Alexander, Alan Levine, Barbara Ganley, and others. Over the last few years, EDUCAUSE has been making more of their resources freely available to educators - including ECAR research, 7 Things You Should Know, and conference proceedings.
From this year's event, the follow podcasts/recordings are available (with more to be added soon):
Henry Jenkins
My presentation
Michael Wesch
Marsha Lovett
Tom Reeves
Multitasking gets lots of attention...but true multi-tasking doesn't exist (rapid task switching may leave the impression of multi-tasking). A recent paper addresses this concept - The Autumn of Multitaskers: "Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires—the constant switching and pivoting—energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we’re supposed to be concentrating on."
With much controversy, deriding, ridicule, and some approval, UK has granted several large corporations (including McDonald's) "the power to award the equivalent of advanced high-school qualifications" (see Would you like a diploma with those fries? and Graham Atwell's commentary). I don't think this is what most of us have in mind when we talk about expanding the classroom and seeking a more practical focus for education. On the surface, I like the idea, and suspect changes to accreditation will force many educators to rethink teaching/learning. After all, McDonald's is exemplifying real world training and practical hands on activities. It's authentic learning at its most authentic. I'm quite comfortable with those aspects. But, I'm less sure about the prudence of corporations granting equivalence diplomas. As various commentators have noted, education is a coming of age surrounded by the experience of critical thinking, ethics, morals, debates, and friendships...with the intent being to nurture the mindsets required for individuals to participate fully in society. I'm conflicted on this issue. I like the concept. I don't like the implementation.
I'm at EDUCAUSE in San Antonio. I've had the opportunity to watch a cattle drive, watch the San Antonio Spurs get severely embarrassed, walk (miles and miles) on the beautiful River Walk, and, of course, enjoy the local cuisine. I'm speaking later today, and have posted my presentation on slideshare: Curriculum, Knowledge, and Learning.
Marketers rely on a few prominent people to promote their message, assuming that we will be influenced by celebrities ("be like Mike"). Research on networks suggests influence doesn't work that way - The Power of Being Influenced: "A key reason some ideas are so successful, conventional wisdom has held, is that a few highly influential people espouse them...It's a compelling idea, but does it really work?...Once an idea spread to a critical mass of easily influenced individuals, it took hold and continued to spread to other easily influenced individuals. In some networks, it was far easier to get an idea established this way than in others. The entire structure of the network mattered, not just the few influential people."
The person sitting beside you often has more influence on your thinking than experts or celebrities.
The current issue of Forbes is focused on educating our children. Numerous experts have put forward their theories in short articles. Missing, however, are the views and opinions of teachers, parents, and students. While the commentaries of prominent people will obviously gain more attention, I think more wisdom is likely to be found in educators in the trenches. Better yet, host a "submit your view of education" session on YouTube. Then allow the network to filter the best ideas. Or host the discussion in a wiki. Don't tell us how to fix education. Involve us in fixing education.
I'm preparing for a Second Life workshop I'm slated to deliver in the near future. And this list of tutorials looks useful for participants and newcomers to Second Life. User created tutorials have come a long way. When I first tried installing Movable Type in 2001, I followed a written tutorial provided by the company. The process took quite a while (probably more to do with my skills than the manual). Now, with YouTube, podcasts, blogs, and wikis, excellent help resources are often available. There is, of course, nothing formal about this...just people helping each other. What's their motivation? Most likely, at some point, they similarly benefited from an online tutor (whether learning how to use a piece of software or coming to understand a concept better because someone shared it in a blog or wiki). The teacher is the learner is the teacher.
This is an interesting study: Trust Barometer, 2008. The report looks at how people form trust with companies in different countries. Some findings are obvious (trust is higher with a "person like yourself"), but others provide insight into trends: citizens in countries with high government control rely on online forums and social network sites to gain information, youth are more more trusting than older generations...but they also rely on multiple sources of information in forming opinions, online and print use of media is nearing parity with younger members, etc.. The survey is, unfortunately, quite confined, as "opinion elites" (college educated, high income) comprise the sample.
The future figured prominently in my reading this week. Janet Clarey questions the future of physical classrooms based on Elliot Masie's question of Classrooms of the future. She asks: do we need physical classrooms for learning. While the comments to her (and Elliot's) post range significantly, a tone of classrooms are dead is obvious. I disagree. All tools in context. Narrow, one-approach thinking brought us to where we are. Now, as "revolutionaries" sense some traction for change through the development of technology, the desire to see the future through a single lens is becoming obvious (revolutionaries seek to conserve once the revolution is finished). As trends in learning and technologies become more divergent, "and thinking" becomes more important. Classrooms and the web. Blogs and LMS. Collaborative learning and blogging.
A few additional resources: Learning technologies and schools of the future (.pdf)...and predictions for 2008 (coming in a bit late - it's cheating if your predictions aren't made at the end of the year or within the first few days of the new year :)).
The open education resources (OER) movement continues to gain momentum - Open Yale, MIT OCW, Connexions, Open Learn - the list goes on. Sadly, Canada - Land of Common Sense - has only one institution (Capilano College) with an OER initiative according to OCW Consortium. This week, with a mix of applause and criticism, the The Cape Town Declaration was released as "a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment" on open education resources.
It's vital to note that open access to content is but the first step on a long journey. How our institutions change in a culture of collaboration, how teaching as an act changes, how learners are accredited - these are the real areas of change. Open content is an important start. But it is a foundation on which a new structure of education can be built. We need to start having that discussion.
A few stats on media, blogs, and mobile growth: "Some 40% of web site operators have launched mobile sites and another 22% plan to do so in the next year...he biggest impact of blogs, says the study, is in the speed and availability of news, while 61.8% of the respondents said that blogs were having a significant impact on the "tone" of news reporting...9.3% translates into $27.5 billion being spent on various forms of Internet advertising in 2008."
The Instructional Technology Forum periodically hosts fairly regular discussions on key issues impacting the design of learning (you can subscribe to the forum mailing list here). The current discussion is particularly relevant to educators and trainers trying to make sense of how the so called generational differences impact instructional design. The paper explores the range of literature - ranging from hype to serious research (Twenge in particular). As with much educational research or literature reviews, the final evidence weighs in with "it depends". While acknowledging that a "glaring weakness" exists in generational research, the author suggests certain differences do exist between generations with regard to attitudes, motivators, and work habits. The final conclusion on designing for different generations: "Generational differences are evident in the workplace, but they are not salient enough to warrant the specification of different instructional designs or the use of different learning technologies". I think, in this instance, the consideration of varied design approaches has been tied to the wrong variable (generational differences). The greater area of change and impact is found in the habits, activities, and needs of learners (not based on generations, but on how technology creates new opportunities for learning networks far beyond the narrow domain of classroom walls). I would like to see increased discussion on how we design for things we don't know and learners must come to know through exploration (consider how the iPhone was unlocked - while the target was known, an established process for achieving the target did not exist). Instructional design is generally concerned with the process of teaching something that is already known. But we don't always know what we need. Increasingly, if my personal experience is any indication, I simply don't know what I need to know and must rely on my information and learning network to achieve intended outcomes. I'd like to see an instructional design process that attends to the complexity of emergent or unknown processes.
Google now controls 65% of the search market, with indications its dominance will continue to grow. With its humble ambition of organizing the worlds information, it has become a steady presence in how many people interact with information (and with each other). Yet most people are not aware of how Google works. How and why it returns the results it does. Or the decisions Google makes on behalf of searchers. I delivered a session today on Google addressing these concerns (wiki page for the session). It is critical that people become aware of how search tools work; after all search engines "interfere" with information in a myriad of ways in order to try and make it more relevant to the searcher. Most people aren't aware that Google delivers different results based on the location of search origin (I get very different results in the US vs. Canada). Or how Google weights sites and displays results. (In preparing for the session, I did find out that a search query that takes 1/4 of a second involves over 1000 of Google's machines).
With different colleges, universities, corporations, and libraries experimenting with technology, the number of tutorials are growing quickly. Gone are the days of sitting down with someone and explaining how to use a wiki or flickr...it's so much easier to just send a link to a video or tutorial. Ok, that's not completely true. Emerging technologies get used primarily as a result of word of mouth discussions and demonstrations. But, the numerous online resources certainly make it easier to those who are interested to develop their competence. The Learn More series tackles tools from a librarian perspective. Included: avatars, flickr, twitter, wikis, librarything, youtube, and more.
Data portability is going to become a significant discussion. People are becoming more aware of the hassles of multiple profiles on multiple sites...as well as the concerns about who has ownership of the data. Dataportability.org is introduced in a short video here. I'm generally a big fan of tying pieces together and reducing duplication. But, data portability has its concerns as a concept. I like having bits of my identity in different sites. I share and provide details to different services based on trust and frequency of use. I imagine in a structured, connected system, I will be able to control what I share. But there is a bit of (false) security in knowing that a system only knows me by what I've actually entered in the profile, not by the pieces I chose to reveal from a central profile.
Green Chameleon highlights a nice resource - taxonomy of logical fallacies. Spending a bit of time in a resource like this is beneficial for anyone.
The Economist has been hosting a series of debates. The first focused on technology and education, the second on university recruiting, and the third and final debate is on social networking (great to see Ewan McIntosh in the debate - I always appreciate seeing edubloggers involved in discussions outside of blog community).
The discussion has attracted numerous responses:
Will Richardson: "Often in my presentations I ask how many folks are teaching MySpace or Facebook in their schools. Not teaching with MySpace, but teaching the literacies of networking through the lens of a SNS. Rarely do more than a few hands go up"
danah boyd: "In their current incarnation, social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace should not be integrated directly into the classroom...I have yet to hear a compelling argument for why social network sites (or networking ones) should be used in the classroom. Those tools are primarily about socializing, with media and information sharing there to prop up the socialization process (much status is gained from knowing about the cool new thing)."
In a related field - a recent JISC Report on the Google Generation (.pdf) questions the commonly held assumptions that the younger generation are adept at searching and finding information online.
I find this discussion on social networking and the attributes of younger learners fascinating. We are at a transition point. For years (almost a decade) we have seen steady growth in interest in blogs, wikis, and other social technologies. This growth has occurred mostly within a small camp of early adopters. Now, as the use of these tools has grown to a level educators are not able to ignore, serious scrutiny is applied. When I dialogue with edubloggers, there is a sense of "hey, we're talking about possibilities and trying to see what opportunities can arise". But now formal research is rapidly picking apart much of those informal conversations and assumptions. As I stated in September "if a revolution is to have life and permanence, the passion and rhetoric must give way to (or at minimum, be augmented by) logic and research". I think we are at that point now.
Janet Clarey posts on women in the edublogosphere: "this could be a post about Canadian bloggers, or Australian bloggers, or male bloggers, or under-30 bloggers or bloggers with webbed feet…whatever. But it’s not. It’s a post about women bloggers (mostly in the education space)".
A short two minute video exploring the Ellsberg Paradox. Ellsberg paradox forms the basis of ambiguity aversion - where we are inclined to ignore or shy away from uncertainty by favoring what is known. We essentially prefer what is known and exhibit this behaviour in making choices. I wonder to what degree the aversion of ambiguity and the unknown plays in educators resisting the adoption of technology. While the original Ellsberg paradox was concerned more specifically with choice between two options - one with known conditions and the second with unknown conditions - I think it's obvious that we are more inclined in teaching and learning to pursue conditions with which we are acquainted. I suspect many educators resist technology use not because they feel it works or doesn't work, but rather on the basis of familiarity and comfort with established habits (bounded conditions). Which in turn would suggest that we would make much more progress getting people to actually try blogging/wikiing/podcasting/secondlifing than to spend time convincing them of the academic value.
On a subconscious level, I think I suffer from Twitter envy (for those not aware, twitter is a microblog tool that allows people to share "what they are doing now" with their network) . It's like school, where you see all these people enjoying life, having fun, and you want to join in...but internal resistance prevails because you feel that by doing "it" (whatever that "it" is), you will be doing so for the wrong reason: to belong, not necessarily because you have any interest. Chris Lott has spent some time recently commenting on Twitter: "Twitter on its own isn’t much… but it is amazing what people make of it. Clearly it fills a niche somewhere."
So to all you cool twitterers out there, laughing and having fun and making me feel like I'm missing something, I'd love to join you. But I just haven't found a compelling reason to do so (beyond satiating the urge for feeling like I belong).
Personal search (based on preselected sites, not the whole web) has been around for a while. Rollyo was one of the first I came across. Basically, a person enters sites they want to search, and when some enters a query into the text box, it search only those sources. Google now offers a similar service (where Google once was an innovator, they are increasingly becoming an imitator - bookmarks, reader, iGoogle, Orkut, etc.): Google Custom Search. Stephen Downes has created a custom edublog search tool from about 450 sources. Lijit is a similar service - you can add all your sites, del.icio.us bookmarks, digg submissions, and so on. The Lijit search of my online identity is here.
Not using flickr or similar online photo sharing service? Interested in learning how to? Common Craft just released a new video on Online Photo Sharing in Plain English. We're finding these video resources quite useful for our wiki on using social tools in higher education.
The inefficiencies of the computer keyboard and mouse are frequently highlighted. Discussion then moves to how, in the near future, we will interact much more directly with computers. But nothing much has happened. Until Apple made touch interfaces not only work, but also cool to own (and Nintendo, with the Wii, changed how we interact with games systems). The iPhone and iPod touch presented the strengths (and weaknesses - i.e. entering text on either device) of touch computing. While the vision has been there for several decades, the concept is now found in reality. And it has prompted Bill Gates - with the typical Microsoft way of declaring trends once they are blindingly obvious to declare: "that the keyboard and mouse would gradually give way to more intuitive and natural technologies."
We have good software available for accessing/sharing video (YouTube), images (flickr), and audio (iPod). We also have good tools taking pictures (cameras are cheep and usually available in mobile phones) and recording (a simple addition to your ipod). What we haven't had in the past is a decent tool for video - video cameras are too expensive and mobile phone recordings too limited (quality and length). Flip Video changes that. While the recording time is limited to about 60 minutes, the price of the device (just over $120) makes it affordable. The ability to record demonstrations (please, not lectures!), short interviews, student projects, etc could provide value for educators.
And, only marginally related, this mobile phone projector is interesting as well. For those moments when you must deliver a presentation to family.
Is the IT department dead? Nicholas Carr seems to think so: "Carr's rationale is that utility computing companies will replace corporate IT departments much as electric utilities replaced company-run power plants in the early 1900s.
Carr explains that factory owners originally operated their own power plants. But as electric utilities became more reliable and offered better economies of scale, companies stopped running their own electric generators and instead outsourced that critical function to electric utilities.
Carr predicts that the same shift will happen with utility computing."
It's difficult to stay current and informed in a climate where everything is changing. Just trying to stay current in the educational technology field is a challenge, never mind trying to follow global political events, media trends, and related other changes. I find I need a balance between taking in information and reflecting on what the information means. And, of course, experimenting with and implementing key concepts in actual learning environments. The frustrating irony of rapid information growth is that the more information we encounter, the more time we need for reflection...but the less time we actually have. Boundary-less living, working and learning: "Meeting the intellectual and creative challenges of the 21st century demands using every ounce of creativity available. That means building and sustaining a creative environment for yourself, your employees and your family. As a knowledge worker, you need time to think. To innovate. To experience. To create."
Nice way to burn off a few hours: Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies. The studies are summarized and quite readable. Included are classics: Stanford Prison, cognitive dissonance, bystander apathy, and others.
Sony BMG announces plans to drop DRM: "The impetus to lift copyright protection represents a sea change for the recording industry, which for the better part of a decade has used DRM to guard against what it considers illegal distribution and duplication of songs purchased online."
In 2004, when Howard Dean's web fundraising platform did not translate into as many votes as supports had hoped, critics cited it as an example of the limited influence the web had on many traditional processes and aspects of society. Now, only four short years later, the election hype is again relying on technology...but with the perspective of connecting and forming existing networks rather than forming new ones (as evident in the 2004 campaign). MediaShift also offers a short commentary on the use of Twitter during the Iowa Caucuses.
Industries and fields which are largely reliant on information have been experiencing a long, slow burn which threatens to ignite into a full blaze at any moment. We see flare ups in music, movie, and other media industries. But the music/movie industries still retain much of their shape - top YouTube videos are mainstream artists like Avril Lavigne. To a certain degree, it's the old product expressed in a new distribution channel. But journalism and news fields are different. Their product ("the paper" or "the radio talk show") has been subject to change for over a decade. And many have moved online to varying levels. The challenge they have faced recently - and which Scott Karp alludes to briefly as being of a change-or-die nature (be sure to read the comments section - some good points made on both sides) - is with the core of journalism. Karp calls for journalism to reinvent itself. With sites like ohmynews and tools like blogs and podcasts driven by user contributions, the change to journalism may be more profound than even those who are calling for change wish to see. As stated before, I follow these media trends with an eye on their suitability as an indication of what we'll face in education. As so many elements are unsettled (copyright, access, ownership, LMS vs. PLEs and so on), any model that serves to guide is valuable, even if it is found in the slow burn of traditional media industries.
I live in a small community south of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The complexion of our community has changed drastically over the last decade due to immigration (just like it changed drastically 80 years ago due to another wave of immigration). The change within our community raises the relevance (for me) of the Economist's overview of global immigration trends. The educational opportunities (and challenges) are significant. Often migrants are those with skill sets most in need, and are therefore most likely to be accepted, by host countries. Challenges, however, exist when emerging countries export their brightest. It will be interesting, over the coming decades, to see how immigration patterns change as greater access to higher education is provided through the internet.
Peter Tittenberger just sent me a link to a CBC sports hockey mashup. Having spent my weekend in frigid arenas watching my children play, drinking poor quality coffee, and suffering defeat and tasting victory, mashing up hockey clips with audio is a perfect way to start the week! It appears that the cycle of adoption is much shorter for new technologies and ideas than it was five years ago. What used to take years to gain traction (i.e. blogs and wikis) now happens in months (i.e. Facebook and content mashups).