It Is Melting Time

Well, the snow is melting... But more snow is coming according to guy on TV. Snow for Christmas? It would be funner than snow for final exams!

Response in Social Media = S/Z

Roland Barthes wrote in his book S/Z (1970) about “Sarrasine,” which is a very old style, at times boring, short story by Balzac. The main plot in “Sarrasine” takes a long time to be presented to the reader, but it is nonetheless a very good story—if you read it, please, don't let the excessive naturalism intimidate you, just keep reading; it will get better. Barthes believes that readers can actually interact with a text that is not a major piece of literature. He calls the big, important texts “readerly” because the reader cannot change them anymore. In contrast, the reader can change a minor text by analyzing and writing about it. He called the minor literature texts, writerly. In my opinion, writerly equals collaboration and response in social media.

If everyday, we post a photo, a status, or a video and never engage on commenting on other people's photos, status, or video, then it is not social media. In other words, we have to act like Barthes suggested and analyze and re-write somebody else's discourse.And for that to happen, we also have to try to post something that is not perfect or almost perfect, because it may not get a response, even if it influences others. In other words, the best interaction in social media may come from a half-baked thought, a crazy photo, a video with a comment in which the plot or the ending is not given away, a question, and so on. I'm not calling for unfinished sentences, or unfinished blog posts, but rather for a an analysis plus a statement that will allow readers/followers/friends/contacts to keep the conversation going.

What do you think, does social media equal writerly?  Is every single status a writerly text?

Deconstructed Derrida on Youtube

Jacques Derrida [Bio from Wikipedia in English | Français | Español | Chinese]
A presentation on Derrida for English 531: http://elenes.com/s09m/cp/pres1/derrida.html

This is a play list of videos on Derrida on Youtube.  Most of the clips come from Derrida, the Movie, a film by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman.  I have seen the movie at least three times.  It makes more sense when you watch the extras on the video, because that material makes Derrida more human, more Jacques.   Other clips here come from lectures by Derrida and other individuals.  I have included also comments by individuals who are not academics.  I hope you enjoy the ride!

To watch the previous or next video, click on the left or right side respectively. Click more than once to skip a clip or more.  You can also move your mouse over the bottom of the Youtube screen and select the video that you wish to watch.

Lost Connection

Lost Connection
Originally uploaded by Lulú De Panbehchi







 
Web-conferencing and Live Streaming: My Experiences and Near-experiences

I'm glad I have participated either first-had or second-hand on web-conferencing and live streaming. I have to say that everything you have read about web-conferencing, webinars, online classes and teaching is true: it is difficult, but it can also be fun and very productive in many ways.

This time, instead of making reference to articles, I will tell you a little about my experiences with this type of technology.

1. Chat room office hours – 2001

Back in 2001, I tried to have my office hours online. I set up a chat room in my website and told my students that I was going to be there for an hour. Nobody showed up. I asked “why?” and everybody mentioned that chat rooms were for chatting, not for office hours. I gave up after two tries. I was actually pretty scared because a lot of people had the idea that chat rooms were only for rated-R conversations. By the way, my last adventure in chatroomland was around that year, when I got scared while in room apparently having a discussion on Spanish grammar. The chat was from Spain and it made me think that I was in the wrong place. I left and never went back there or any other chat rooms.

2. Professional 2002 – synchronous delivery
A year or so after the failed attempt to hold office hours from home, I decided to take an online class related to copyright law. It was much more demanding than I thought. But it also gave me the opportunity to observe other students and the professor, who always gave us several articles and cases to read before class. The technology was very impressive, it can actually be compared to the current (late 2010) version of Wimba. The professor always had a multiple choice question at the beginning of the class, and every five minutes or so, there was another question/quiz.

When I was taking this class, I had to close the door of my office, have one cup of coffee and one glass of water ready, my textbook, a law dictionary, a regular dictionary, the computer with at least three programs open—two browser windows and my word processor. I always had headphones and microphone on while taking the class, and had the telephone ready, just in case I got disconnected. It was a lot of work and preparation, but the lectures were very good and I was always happy after class.

3. VCU Online training 2003-2004 – asynchronous delivery

VCU used to have a self-paced series of online training classes. Students and teachers had to be proficient in Word, PowerPoint, etc. The courses were provided by Thompson. There were different areas: desktop and personal computing, project management, programming, and other areas that I don't remember now. I took as many desktop classes as I could. It was very nice to see what I had completed, what I had started and never finished, etc. The disadvantage was that I didn't share this experience with any other VCU teachers or students. I have not checked if VCU still has this service, which in a way offered the same or similar classes to the ones the CTE offers now.

4. Spanish classes at 2007-2008 – synchronous delivery
In 2007 the School of World Studies at VCU decided to offer Spanish 101 online. The teacher is a great and very hard working educator—one of the more hyperactive language teachers that I know at the university level. She reported that preparation was very time-consuming and that teaching online was being available 24/7/thewholesemester. She left VCU and went to work on her PhD in education at Georgetown University. Before she left, she trained another teacher who had experience tutoring online. The textbook companies had done a very good job with the books and the self-paced lessons, but the students still needed to have a lot of contact with the teacher. The other problem was the engagement of the students. They were online constantly, emailing, calling, visiting the professors at different times. One of the problems was the “face-to-face office hours.” Since most of the students took the online class due to hectic schedules, it was difficult for the teachers to say, “I'll be available at this hour every day, only.” Due to lack of funds and the amount of work, it was decided that the online classes were going be put on hold, until there were enough funds. However, the first teacher came back to teach during the summer, but she offered an intermediate Spanish class via Wimba and Skype. This year it was the third year she offered the class completely online. It seems that an intermediate language class works much better than an elementary one, since students already know the language and the only problems they have are related to the technology.

5. Chat with French university 2008 – synchronous delivery

In 2008 I used “Chat,” the Mac program to connect with a French university in Haute Normandie. They were trying to show that this was a valid way to hold conferences and interact. Apparently, the university paid for the MobileMe Apple service and trained the teachers. It was an early chat for me at 5:30 AM. I was in my pajamas. I didn't know that my friend—who works at this university, and recruited me for this project—was in a very formal meeting, while I was half asleep, in pajamas, and almost crying for a cup of coffee or tea. I was able to enter the hard drive in their computer, and they did the same with my computer. I demonstrated how I had used Photoshop to work on a photo, etc. It was a great experience.

6. French class 2010 – synchronous and sometimes asynchronous delivery
Currently, I'm taking French 101 online at VCU with Dr. Murphy-Judy. She has told me and I have seen it: teaching an online class is a lot of work. I am a students and I have to prepare a lot: textbook, word processor, browser, something to drink, headphones, microphone if the place I am is noisy, and my notebook. It has been a roller coaster with Wimba: sometimes it works beautifully, sometimes it's a little slow. The times I have missed the class, I have used the archives (asynchronous delivery) and it is true that silence is not gold, but a big distraction. It is easier for me to stop paying attention when I am using the archive than when I am interacting with the class synchronically. The class is very small. It has less than 10 students, which makes it easy to participate, contribute, have fun, and form meaningful relationships. We care a lot for each other and care for the teacher as well. I have worked with two of my classmates on two different projects, and we have done most of the work using Google docs and email. If everything goes well, I will take French 102 online next semester.

7. Spanish 201 via Skype – synchronous delivery

Three weeks ago I had to stay at home due to a family emergency. My students had class: they went to the language lab and started and finished a conversation project, while I was at home giving instructions and answering questions via Skype. For some reason, Wimba didn't work that day, so my students were fascinated that I was able to hear what they were doing. At the end, they posted their conversations on the wiki. Everything went fine, because I had planned to use Skype in case Wimba didn't work. I had also all the instructions ready: I posted them on Blackboard, sent them by email, and posted them on the front page of the wiki. I had a browser open with Blackboard on one window and email on another; on a different browser I had the class wiki, and had Skype and my cell phone ready to call the language lab in case of an emergency.

It was a great experience. Every student finished their work.

After all this, I feel like I'm still not prepared to teach an elementary language class 100% online. Perhaps an intermediate class, which still means a lot of preparation, but at least I do not need to teach pronunciation and technology at the same time.

I remember when I was watching Ashton Kutcher win the race to one million followers on Twitter against CNN. This was the first time I realized how smart Kutcher is. He was using new media to broadcast his race against old media. He used ustream, and that was the first time I used ustream too.

Screencasting

I made the following screen recording in class last week. It's a screencasting of "Box Office Mojo."  I believe that the information is not only for show business people, but it also serves as a reference for an ice breaker activity. 

[This post will have a second part]

This is the entry for a podcast:

[Audio made with an iPhone, image made with my right index, mixed with Keynote, saved as a QuickTime movie file. This is how it looks--more or less--on an iPhone. ]

And this is the screencast [I had to remake it. For some reason, the audio was very bad in the first try.]

Gardner Campbell's Podcasting Article, “There Is Something In The Air.”

Article can be found at:

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume40/TheresSomethingintheAirPodcast/158014

There are three topics in Campbell's article that got my attention.

1. the world he paints at the beginning of the article, in which a student listens to podcasts before going to class;
2. the concept of “the explaining voice;” and
3. archiving issues.

1. The world in which students listen to podcasts before attending class.

First, I believe that the beautiful world in which the student has access and listens to several podcasts is still a dream world, at least in most universities and perhaps in most adult education classes.

One of the reasons, probably the main reason, is that professors need to produce these materials. Even when textbook companies produce podcasts, the professor still has to decide if those materials will be included in class, how the students will have access to them, how the use of podcasts will be graded, etc. Now, professors are kind of like octopi: they need to handle a lot, just like Campell mentioned in his article. They need to be up to day with what they teach and how to teach it, they need to create their own materials, write and publish, give lectures and attend conferences, etc. I will not mention names of people or institutions, but three years ago I happened to be present when a professor was asking a secretary, “can you type this for me, please?” Per the conversation, I learned that this professor and one of his/her colleagues never typed anything related to school. I still don't understand how they can live without typing their own exams, for example

But when professors get together and are willing to collaborate, students benefit a lot. Collaboration, which is still a dream in several departments, would also empower students. Because if students see that their professors are convinced that something something works for teachers, the latter would feel more comfortable teaching with new tools, like podcasting.

2. The explaining voice

Campbell says,

“There’s also considerable value in what I call “the explaining voice,” the voice that performs understanding. The explaining voice doesn’t just convey information; it shapes, out of a shared atmosphere,an intimate drama of cognitive

action in time. The explaining voice conveys microcues of hesitation, pacing, and inflection that demonstrate both cognition and metacognition. When we hear someone read with understanding, we participate in that understanding, almost as if the voice is enacting our own comprehension. In other words, the explaining voice trains the ear to listen not just for meaning but for evidence of the thought that generates meaning.”

I'm a sound/audio person. I believe that my ear is very good. I can hear a lot of what my students say in class, and sometimes I hear a sound that most people will not notice. “The explaining voice” is, in my opinion, one of the best points in this article, because if an individual doesn't have a convincing, pleasant voice, he or she will have a few listeners. Our best voice is produced when we don't think about our voice, and sometimes we don't like to hear anybody reading monotonously for us, but rather having a conversation with us. Reading and talking/conversing are different. Talking/conversing/explain will definitely get my attention faster than reading.

3. Archiving issues

I tried to listen to the supplementary audio files, but I was not able to find them. One of the problems with online only publications is that systems, servers, and code change and sometimes something is lost. The life of new, online materials sometimes is shorter than the life of old, offline documents and references. In this case, the author was responsible for keeping the archive, since the link goes to his site. A lot has changed since 2005, when the article was published. In Internet years, that's perhaps the equivalent of a decade or more. I do not get mad anymore, because materials got lost, or because the file formats are not rendered by my Mac. I have learned to accept the fact that archiving is one of the downsides of the Internet.

Screen Recording

The article, “7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting,” makes a very good observation:

“Screencasts capture the feeling of personal connection that podcasts provide, with the added benefit of video to see what is being discussed.”

That “feeling of personal connection” may be the reason why these videos are easy to understand. This can also be the point that we can use to engage our students more: it's the instructor's voice, her computer, and her own words. I believe that this can help adult students be less afraid of new software, for instance.

I have used screen recording for a few semesters now. It is very helpful when students need to learn how to use software or an online service, like a wiki for example.

 

∞∞∞§§§§∞∞∞∞

I have used screen recording for a few semesters now. It is very helpful when students need to learn how to use software or an online service, like a wiki for example.  Here is a link to four of the videos.

The first software I used was Camtasia. It is very good, but also very expensive. Then, I used Apple's QuickTime, and lately Jing. Apple's software is free with the purchase of Snow Leopard®. The problem is that the resulting files are very large. And, for some reason, I need to run them first on QuickTime and save them again in order to upload them to Vimeo.com. Jing is different. The free version is good enough to upload videos and just send/post the links.

In my opinion, this is one of the best software inventions. But even with this great tool, some students still need help. The reason? They say that they cannot open two windows at the same time, or that it's difficult to follow the video and use the video at the same time. However, the adult students in my classes have told me that they like this type of video. The advantage, they say, is that they can see these videos as many times as they want to.

Wikis - part II

I have used wikis for a few years now.  I think that they have a few advantages for me:

1. I don't have to carry papers -- I live in Williamsburg, so this is a big help.
2. I don't need to carry and possibly lose a memory flash drive.
3. I can correct papers on Word or other word processor and the wiki keeps most of the colors, fonts, etc. used on Word.
4. Students don't lose their papers, dogs don't eat homework, even if the sick grandma or dead grandpa lives in other state, students can still post something. They cannot say that they cannot afford a flash drive, because they can post anything on the wiki.
5. Students are able to add PowerPoint®, Word®, and several other files without having to change anything.
6. I write once and just link it to a different wiki/class.
7. I can post the notes I type during class, or other general notes, and students can print them or just copy them.  They may also add extra notes.

Everything I mentioned above can be done with Blackboard.  However, I can correct homework without having to pull any documents from "My Content System" or the Drop Box or File Exchange.  For some reason, I have never been able to use the last two without any problems.


But the great advantage is that after the students graduate, they still have access to their work.  Usually, Blackboard closes the student's account three months or so after graduation.


I have used wikis for the following activities:

1. Portfolios
2. Group or partner compositions
3. Class compositions (during the summer I have smaller classes and the whole class can write a composition)
4. Student presentations (they don't forget them at home!)
5. Compositions
6. Audio and video introductions - students introduce themselves with video or audio
7. Class notes
8. I post videos how-to videos

I like wikis, because they are simple, easy, and fast.

Wikis - part I

From the historical perspective, Brian Lamb's article (2004), “The Way It Was Meant To Be” or

“TheWayItWasMeantToBe,” 

 provides a few points that perhaps a current article cannot. For example, it informs of how people he know use wikis—first hand information, or at least it sounds like it; hee explains what wikis are in a way that anybody will understand; and he gathered so many, diverse quotes that he can get a very broad number of readers to keep reading and looking for the next citation. The illustration is also compelling; it looks like it was influenced by Bosch's  or Varo's  style.

There are two points from Lamb's article that I would like to talk about; one, Berners-Lee, and second, using multiple and diverse quotations.

One

Every time I read Berners-Lee's or Ted Nelson's opinion of the current state of the Internet, they are disappointed or mad, or they just say that the Internet is not what they wanted it to be. Ok. That's fine. Gutenberg, Edison, Ford or any other inventor would not be that happy with what their inventions are doing today. Hey, not even Jesus would be happy with so many of today's Christians. However, both Berners-Lee and Nelson have a better opinion of wikis than they have of plain linked web pages. The French government bought the rights to the invention of photography, so that humanity would enjoy taking photos without having to pay royalties. Ted Nelson's designs and dreams on “Dream Machines” became the bible of software designers, who by the way don't pay any royalties to him. Berners-Lee has practically given us HTTP, HTML, URL, and web coding, which makes the Internet look easier and more interesting. He only gets to be part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), be famous, etc., but I don't think he gets any royalties.

I know a few developers that are somehow mad at Berners-Lee for inventing HTML, the language for the graphic, eye-appealing Internet. These developers argue that HTML has made the Internet more democratic, but it has also produced less skilled users.  In other words, they argue that with the Internet being so easy, there is more stupidity. Before, people had to learn a few tricks in order to participate in a collaborative project taken place on a series of networked computers. Now, ANYBODY, well, almost anybody, can use the Internet.

Two

The use of so many quotes indicates to me that since the topic was new, Lamb did not have that many sources to consult. Therefore he decided to pepper his article with the words of Berners-Lee, Bob Dylan, and, my personal favorite, John Cage. However, by the time I finished the article, so many quotations became similar to a dozen or more links that I'm pushed to click on. In other words, it was like John Cage piece: all I heard was the noise made by the other people (Dylan, Ibsen, etc.), and Lamb's words were like Cage's piano's keys on 4:13, silence.

I will post a second part on wikis later.

A Tweet Here and a Tweet There

I have been using Twitter regularly with my students, but there are a few problems. One, not everybody has a Twitter account; two, they use Facebook more than any other social network; and three, some students believe that adding Twitter to their social network activities is just too much.

But most of my students are between 18 and 24. From the current semester, only a few follow me. I wrote my Twitter username on the syllabus and explained that, since I live in Williamsburg and need to drive everyday, I may be need to inform them that I will be late. Or that I'm canceling the class due to traffic. However, most students act indifferent to this medium. On "If You Twitter, Will They Come?" Charles Hodges mentions that Facebook may be a better route to keep in touch with students. I agree with him, because this is the same situation I am experiencing with my students.  But I don't want to befriend my students, or at least not all of them. Hodges also mentions that Twitter users are middle-aged, or at least older than college students. This demographic fact can be an advantage for adult education. It may be that Twitter is also much easier to use than Facebook.

In "Horton Hears a Tweet," Dunlap and Lowenthal mention that,

“We wanted a tool that would enable us to establish an ongoing sense of being present at the current moment and able to receive and respond to students immediately, forming a real-time online dialogue and forum for sharing.”

I don't believe that the dialogue is in “real-time,” because not all the users are connected to Twitter in the same way. Some users access their account using a computer, and never read the Twitter timeline from a phone. It may be easier and faster to communicate via Twitter than Blackboard, but it is not a 100% real-time conversation. Now, if we ask students in a large class or a conference—who have access to a computer or a cell phone—to tweet their opinion on something, then we will have a real-time group conversation.

When students are at home and have a problem with their homework, or find resources that might be of interest to the class, they can send a message to their peers or their professor. They can use Blackboard or any other LMS, Facebook, or Twitter. Personally, I prefer Twitter, because it's easier to access Twitter than Blackboard, and because Facebook means a lot of distraction. Also, on Facebook I need to accept someone's friendship, and “unfriending” may be embarrassing, or uncomfortable to say the least. While on Twitter, the worst situation is to “block” a follower, which doesn't have as much baggage as “unfriending.”

The video presentation, "Point/Counterpoint: Disrespectful and Time Wasting"

This presentation resembles a Twitter conversation. It's possible to express a thought in 140 characters or less, but in order to say something more meaningful we have to write several tweets, and read other people's tweets in between. What I learned from here was not that much about Twitter and using it in class, but rather how to present something popular and make it interesting.

== After thought ===

I used to tweet only about school, some links on funny stuff, or just photos of something crazy I saw on the street.  But then, I realized that not too many people see the photos on third party services, like yfrog.  When I stated to tweet my photos from Flickr and with a different URL (short, mysterious URLs), people clicked on the link and saw the photos.  In general, people (the general public, not only my followers) are more likely to click on a general link two or three times more than on a photo link in yfrog or a similar service.

This information is not scientific, but I have learned it by experience:

 1. People will read any tweets and click on the link if the word "CAT" is included.

2. The title of a photo is more important than the topic and/or quality of the photo.

3. I tweet the photos from Flickr, with the "blog it" feature. By the time I finish tweeting and click back to see the photo, up to 5 people may have already seen the photo.

4. The best time to tweet a link to a photo is from 10 PM to 1 AM.

5. The worst time is between 11 AM and 2 PM.

6. People will only see one photo if the link goes to the page photo, the one with the GPS, tags, and other information. This is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notascari/5068931619/

7. People will see the photo and the photostream, if the link is for a slide show.  This is the same photo in a slide show format: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notascari/5068931619/#/photos/notascari/5068931619/lightbox/

Social Bookmarking

Facebook and Twitter may be the king and queen of popular social bookmarking. A page on Facebook constitutes a collection of personal data, either created by the individual or tagged by him/her. I have mentioned before somewhere that I'm really thankful for Facebook, since it teaches several skills and people learn them by playing Bejeweled® or Farmville® or tagging their embarrassing photos. It all depends on who your friends are, of course. There are other Facebook users who only post serious links and photos, but at the end, most of us learn how to broadcast information.

http://dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html

“Social Bookmarking Tools” (2005) presents a very good starting point for anybody who wants to learn more on social bookmarking, but move beyond Wikipedia. It is sometimes refreshing to read something online that has not been modified in several years—at the bottom of the article, we can read this note: “(A misspelling of the name Pito Salas in note 14 was corrected on May 23, 2005.)”

Tim O'Reilly—with his book series on how to use and develop software, and his Make Magazine—has always amazed me with the way he creates, distributes, discusses, and sells knowledge. For some reason, I had never identified O'Reilly with social bookmarking. But as Make subscriber, it made sense to me that he was involved, or at least talked about this type of application. The article says,

“Originally elaborated in relation to open-source software development, but equally applicable to any online community, Tim O'Reilly has talked about an 'architecture of participation' whereby a grassroots user base creates a self-regulating collaborative network. The result of this approach is that the best applications become more useful for all participants the more that people make use of them.”

I like the idea of calling social bookmarkers “grassroots users.” Now there seem to be more people using social networks and therefore bookmarking. This is why I believe that this term needs to be used for the people who bookmark as part of their job or artistic creations.

"7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking" (Educase) makes an observation related more to Web 2.0 than Web 1.0:

 It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to retrieve it using a framework created by and shared with peers and colleagues.

The “architecture of participation” becomes more important than the site where something was located. The problem is that young students usually forget to cite sources, but since social bookmarking means doing research Ringo Star style (with a little help from your friends), then it becomes a great tool for teachers. This means that it is easier to make students collaborate and help each other, and have the correct sources and citations in their papers

RSS

RSS feeds have been part of my daily life for several years now. The Wikipedia entry is not new to me, because I read it several years ago out of curiosity. But I have never taken advantage of them in the way described in Educase's “7 Things You Should Know About... RSS.” For me, the Google Reader and other RSS feeds have been only a personal virtual bookshelf. There are only two other friends in Google Reader that share materials with me or who allow me to share materials with them. It's not that I don't want to share with more people, it's that there are not that many people in my email list who use this service. The feeds I'm subscribed to in Google Reader are related to Adobe Flash, photography, science, and food. I have subscriptions to RSS feeds outside of Google and I use those more often. The word of the day, the New York Times, the BBC, etc. have become part of my routine. For me, these stand alone feeds with their orange-y broadcast symbol are the newspaper, while I see the Google Reader feeds as the equivalent of the magazines that arrive every month or so to my mail box.

In my classes, I use a wiki from pbworks.com, and this site has an old system to subscribe to a page—the email. The problem is that I get 10 or more emails a day from the this site telling me that a page has changed. Pbworks.com user may choose not to receive the emails, which is what I recommend to my students, but I hope they soon use RSS feeds instead.

iTtunes aggregates feeds as well. My favorite podcast is the one by the National Gallery of Art, which offers the recorded live talks at the museum.

I have met several individuals who confuse RSS with podcasts. In essence, they have the same principle and as a subscriber, I may use them in the same way. But the technical definition seems to be different. An RSS may feed news about text, mashups, and news, while podcasts resemble more a radio or tv show that comes up at a regularly.

Is ____(blank)____ Making Us ___(blank)__?

Is Google Making Us Stupid? (2008)

Carr, N. (July 01, 2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? - Why you can't read the way you used to. The Atlantic Monthly, 56.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

When I read this article, I was able to relate it to several ideas, books, and references that I have read before. The good part was that this article is deep and succinct at the same time. After I read it, I thought about the structures and comparisons Carr uses to make his point. He uses, for example, a scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to describe how Google—I would say, the Internet, not just Google—has shaped him into an automaton, similar to the machines in the movie. Therefore, the question can be a little bit more precise, “Is Google Making Us Act Like Machines?” And the answer, according to what Carr describes, should be “YES.” However, Nicholas Carr, the “machine” produced/shaped by Google, still has the ability to manage and discuss metaphors and comparisons. I agree with him that we now read, think, and write with different tools and even different parts of our body—one or two thumbs for texting, the index for writing on a screen-touch application, or our voice, even our thoughts—instead of one hand. But, just as Marshall McLuhan would say, the cell phones, the iPhones and iPads are still extensions of our body.

Short, short, short.  Everything has to remain short and meaningful. Otherwise, readers will fly away to other sites.

In an effort to follow the idea of shortness, I will make a list of topics in Carr's article. My intention is to also mimic Nietzsche's aphorism-like writing after he got used to his typewriter:

• Reading War and Peace (long attention span) vs reading online (short and scattered attention span).
• “We are what we eat” becomes “We are what and how we read.”
• Friedrich Nietzsche and Nicholas Carr changed their way of thinking and writing after they acquired a new technology.
• The typewriter is similar to the computer.
• Deep, analytical thoughts versus short, shallow thoughts.
• The brain of a child is similar to the brain of an adult.
• The intellectual knowledge vs the intellectual technology.
• Frederick Winslow Taylor similar to the founders of Google.

Marshall McLuhan wrote in the 1960s that old tools and technologies are assimilated into new ones. This seems to be one of the main topics of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” We assimilate new technologies because we know the old ones. The question is not new either. We can actually drop “Google” and stick any technology in its place. Thus, writing, bookmaking, printing, mass-printing, cinema, radio, television, pop-culture, Windows, Apple, the Internet, Google, the iPhone, etc., can fit into this rhetorical question, “Is _____ (blank, usually something new) Making Us Stupid?” We can also change the “Stupid” part for fat, lazy, and other adjectives. This simple question, however, is as philosophical as “Who are we?” “Does God exist?” or “What is happiness?” etc. Carr remains skeptic and knows that it is probably too son to condemn Google for making pancakes out of our brains. But he also knows that we are facing a new way of writing or composing written language.

7 Things You Should Know About Collaboration (2009)

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutColla/182641

Collaboration tools, specifically the ones for tagging, intrigue me and make me think that we may be witnessing the birth of a new language, or languages. Tagging is basically marginalia, writing glosses. The Spanish language, for example, was born when the scribes from the Middle Ages wrote notes in a much clear Latin on the margins of a Latin codex called Emilianense. Those notes are the first written vestiges of what we know today as the Spanish language, and the glosses/tags are called “Glosas Emilianenses” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glosas_Emilianenses

I agree with “7 Things You Should Know About Collaboration” that tagging plugins have the risk of not running everywhere. When a great software or an online tool morphs or disappear--for example Shockwave or Flowgram ( http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/12/flowgram-was-cool-now-its-dead/ )--, a lot of our work has to change to new formats, which may result in loosing information, functionality, visual appeal, etc.

After Thought

After reading both Carr and the piece about collaboration, I thought about Ted Nelson, http://www.xanadu.com.au/ted/, the first person to describe the Internet and several of the technologies we use now—Google Earth, Google books, collaboration tools, pages linked to other pages, the Apple time machine, etc. Nelson also coined the work hyperlink. In his book “Dream Machines,” he suggested a software that we can use to learn and work by adding, erasing, and commenting on different pages and documents. Nelson, who I consider to be one of the first philosophers of the Internet, also remains skeptical of what the Internet has become. He doesn't agree with the interface, the speed, etc.

We cannot avoid technology and become a world of Unabombers. Writing has helped passed knowledge from one one civilization to another; books have allowed literacy of the masses; the Internet lets remote places to connect with large cities, etc. In other words, I'm not as skeptical of the Internet and Google as Carr or Nelson are. But I do agree that we have to stop and think, continue and rethink.  We cannot loose the ability to ask ourselves if whatever is new ( the blank ) is changing us, not only if it's making us stupid.

Reflect, Refresh, Repeat

For this week, we had to read three blog entries from three different blogs. I read twice Henry Jenkins's “Why Academic Should Blog” on his Aca/Fan blog, and read several posts in “The Bamboo Project.” But, for some reason, I only read once “The Reverend asked me question” on the blog Gardner Writes. It's not that I disrespect or don't understand the latter, it is that I found that several of his asseverations resonate with what we had mentioned in class, or with what I have thought since the first day I saw and read a blog.

Now, this says a lot about me. Why did I read Jenkins twice? Is it because he's from MIT? Probably. But I believe that the main reason is that his entry resembles a page or two from media studies essays. He provides some terms that I understand, links, and general information. The first time I read “Why Academics Should Blog” I clicked on most of the links, while the second time, I read it without clicking on anything. It's easy to look at and read the bits and pieces of “The Bamboo Project,” because they follow more a business format, like a meeting agenda, or a check list in a magazine. I imagine that when Jenkins and Gardner jot (or typed) down a few thoughts before they started writing their entries, those thoughts probably looked like the list presented by Martin. Of course, the public of each blog is different. Jenkins speaks to his students, former students, readers of his books, the media, prospective students of MIT, etc. Gardner writes like he's giving a lecture or presenting a paper in a conference. Gardner's language mimics more a conversation than a book. Maybe this is why I read his entry only once: because when I read his blog, it was as if I was listening to him talk. Martin minimalistic entries remind me of my own entries in my photo blog. Sometimes I write a sentence or incomplete phrases, since the purpose for this blog is to show the photos that make reflect the most, even if they're not the best ones.

The term that I like the most in Jenkins is "just-in-time scholarship." I remember how intellectuals and regular people in Mexico City spoke about the earthquake that killed several hundreds of people and destroyed large areas of the city in 1986. The only other time I heard or read something similar was after September 11. Jean Baudrillard and others published essays about terrorism and how the global village had also bad guys, etc. It seemed very opportunistic to me that so many philosophers/academics rushed to publish their comments on book form, even if they only repeated what we have already thought and discussed in our daily lives.

I like the idea that the blog allows “just-in-time scholarship,” unfortunately, similar to the print academic journals, not everybody reads scholarly blogs. In other words, it would great if every blog had “just-in-time readership.”

Jenkins writes, “As honest brokers of information, academics may be ideally situated to bridge these more specialized conversations. As a consequence, our various blogs attract readerships that extend well beyond the academic sphere...” The first time I read this phrase, I thought, “this is only for famous universities, like MIT, Harvard, etc.,” because the media and general public will search and choose to read first a blog from an ivy league university, than from a small university in Virginia, let's say the University of Mary Washington, Gardner's university. Like the latter said, “blogging means being intellectual” and if you “build, manage and maintain your network” of readers, as Martin suggests, readers will read your blog. Therefore, we cannot blog once or twice, but rather periodically and consistently, otherwise those entries are like web pages that are updated once in a while.

Jenkins, Martin, and Gardner emphasize that we have to reflect, refresh, and have our own voice. The refresh part means also “repeat” and not once, but many, many times. This semester I'm taking 3 classes and all of them require a blog. I hope I can keep up with all three even after December.

Technology, Teaching, Learning

Fuente
Originally uploaded by Lulú De Panbehchi

I read two essays, “From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments” by Michael Wesch (from 2009), and “Learning Networks in Practice” (from 2007) by Stephen Downes. Both authors deal with the issues of technology, teaching and learning. Usually, I do my readings in chronological order, so that I can analyze the changes in perspective and technological references. But this time, I decided to start with the most recent one. The only reasons I can cite are that this was the order in which the professor posted the materials on Blackboard, and that I always tend to read first any books or articles with the word “knowledge”--or any of its variants--on the title.

Time is important. With technology, just like with medicine, the time of publication becomes as important as the information published. Wesch's essay appeared on January of last year (2009) on the journal Filtered: The Academic Commons Magazine; which means that it was written in 2008, and that Wesch probably started his research in 2007. Stephen Downes' essay falls into a similar situation. It mentions mostly 2005 and 2006 technologies and social changes. This is not new or bad, but it is important to have this time references in mind, since some of the statements and arguments make even more sense now, even if some of the technologies mentioned are fading out or have changed names or features, never took off or are dead. (ipodder is now juice; and jumpcut is no longer a tool for online video editing).

Stephen Downes defines “Personal Learning Environment” (PLE) and explains its characteristics and the tools used to build it. What amazes me from this essay is how easy Downes makes it for the reader to follow the essay, without presenting a graph or an illustration. By the time the reader looks at the final page, he or she has no problem following the graph about “future virtual learning environment” (FVLE). In a way, Downes works out his essay very similar to a good poem: a metaphor or a symbol slowly, slowly take form and at the end, the reader understands and owns that metaphor or symbol. Aside from the structure, Downes essay describes a reality that was changing in 2006 but one that we are living in now in 2010. Four years ago, Facebook didn't have more than 300 millions of users and Twitter didn't exist.

A section of “Learning Networks in Practice” by Downes that I highlighted and will probably stay for a few days in my jumpcut memory—the software that allows the user to retrieve erased text in several programs—is the following:

“The PLE connects to a number of remote services, some that specialise in learning and some that do not. Access to learning becomes access to the resources and services offered by these remote services. The PLE allows the
learner not only to consume learning resources, but to produce them as well. Learning therefore evolves from being a transfer of content and knowledge to the production of content and knowledge.” (p. 19)

The first sentence makes me think that most services teach us something, even if the knowledge is, let's say, meta knowledge or, in Wesch's terms, the site makes us more knowledgable. Twitter serves as a way of finding and disseminating information in just 140 characters or less, in a very fast way. Access is a key word here. Not only the students have access to resources in remote servers, they also have access to the teacher's resources at all times. The teacher's office hours are extended now until whenever the teacher decides to stop answering emails, text messages, Skype calls or chats, etc. Therefore the access has to be extended to the teachers who lead the class, plus other teachers who may have their own resources online, like the MIT teachers who have their lectures online.
One point that Downes doesn't mention is that even if they're surrounded by technology and they use some of the services, some students may still be reluctant to use those services as a learning tool. In my experience, there are some students who have never quoted Wikipedia as a source for a presentation or a paper, or students who pretend not to know how to upload photos to a wiki.
There are a few students who still believe that a good teacher is the one who lectures at all times, gives paper-and-pencil quizzes and exams, and never demands the reading of an online document or reference.

Michael Wesch's “From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments” offers the reader several ideas and multiple layers of information, from how he teaches his anthropology class to philosophical reflections on why we learn.
The quote that I believe is most important is the following:

“The technology is secondary. This is a social revolution, not a technological one, and its most revolutionary aspect may be the ways in which it empowers us to rethink education and the teacher-student relationship in an almost limitless variety of ways.”(p. 4)

If Downes mades the reader aware of the multiple connections and access to remote services, and how this environment promotes learning, Wesch goes a step up by saying that “[t]his is a social revolution” and that what becomes more important is to teach and learn how to approach, broadcast and create information than knowing or recalling facts. The student becomes knowledgable and both, the teacher and the student, participate on producing and sorting the same knowledge.

As I mentioned before, some students still believe that technology doesn't improve, support or facilitates knowledge and the way we acquire that knowledge. Wesch calls it “the crisis of significance,” which is ”the fact that many students are now struggling to find meaning and significance in their education.” Last semester, I took a class on curriculum. In several of the articles we read the authors mentioned that “content is king.” Wesch thinks that “content is no longer king,” however, we now have tools to keep this content somewhere and retrieve it whenever we need it. If somebody asks me what my husband's cell number is, I would answer “I have no idea. I have to check my speed dial, where it's a the top of the list.”

Maybe school—any school level—is now similar to graduate school. Students are responsible for doing research and producing knowledge.

Adult Learning

My log for ADLT 641.