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Ben Rimes

Digg, Wikipedia, and the myth of Web 2.0 democracy. - By Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine - 4 views

www.slate.com/2184487

web2.0 wikipedia digg democracy

shared by Ben Rimes on 29 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The same undemocratic underpinnings of Web 2.0 are on display at Digg.com. Digg is a social-bookmarking hub where people submit stories and rate others' submissions; the most popular links gravitate to the site's front page.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 29 Sep 09
       
      Interesting that the word "undemocratic" be used for the discription of the Web 2.0 underbelly. While true, the whiz-bang magic of scripts, bots, and other technological "gatekeepers" are constantly altering what flesh and blood individuals have contributed, the programs meant to serve as custodians are themselves written by humans. The tools that we choose to employ do not make the process of web 2.0 any more undemocratic, rather just that much easier to engage and maintain as relevant. The term democracy itself is difficult to define narrowly (http://www.democracy-building.info/definition-democracy.html). There is no clear determination of how a democracy should be run, but rather a system of democratic beliefs, values, and fundamental rights. Provided that any system meets the needs of a democratic group's values and freedoms (liberties), then one could argue that it is indeed a full fledged democracy. There is more importance on the groups' rules and processes possessing a quality of fluidity and malleability in order to meet a changing environment.
  • at Digg.com. Digg is a social-bookmarking hub where people submit stories and rate others' submissions; the most popular links gravitate to the site's front page.
  • While both sites effectively function as oligarchies, they are still democratic in one important sense. Digg and Wikipedia's elite users aren't chosen by a corporate board of directors or by divine right. They're the people who participate the most. Despite the fairy tales about the participatory culture of Web 2.0, direct democracy isn't feasible at the scale on which these sites operate. Still, it's curious to note that these sites seem to have the hierarchical structure of the old-guard institutions they've sought to supplant.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 29 Sep 09
       
      Perhaps the problem of disenfranchised and disengaged youth that exists in Europe and the U.S. today isn't that they aren't participating in a healthy way within our democracies, but rather they've found more engaging democracies to participate in online.
  • Ben Rimes on 29 Sep 09
     
    Observing and comparing the "democratic" practices that constitute major web 2.0 sites.
Dean Mantz

Twenty-One Interesting Ways* to use your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom - Google ... - 0 views

docs.google.com/Present

integration professionaldevelopment twentyone flip flipvideo classroom docs instructional technology collaborative ideas

shared by Dean Mantz on 25 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Dean Mantz on 25 Jan 09
     
    21 ways to integrate your Flip/video camera into the classroom.
Barbara Lindsey

Fluid Learning | the human network - 0 views

blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=94

mark pesce higher ed technology learning control

shared by Barbara Lindsey on 26 Dec 08 - Cached
  • There must be a point to the exercise, some reason that makes all the technology worthwhile. That search for a point – a search we are still mostly engaged in – will determine whether these computers are meaningful to the educational process, or if they are an impediment to learning.
  • What’s most interesting about the computer is how it puts paid to all of our cherished fantasies of control. The computer – or, most specifically, the global Internet connected to it – is ultimately disruptive, not just to the classroom learning experience, but to the entire rationale of the classroom, the school, the institution of learning. And if you believe this to be hyperbolic, this story will help to convince you.
  • A student about to attend university in the United States can check out all of her potential instructors before she signs up for a single class. She can choose to take classes only with those instructors who have received the best ratings – or, rather more perversely, only with those instructors known to be easy graders. The student is now wholly in control of her educational opportunities, going in eyes wide open, fully cognizant of what to expect before the first day of class.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • it has made the work of educational administrators exponentially more difficult. Students now talk, up and down the years, via the recorded ratings on the site. It isn’t possible for an institution of higher education to disguise an individual who happens to be a world-class researcher but a rather ordinary lecturer. In earlier times, schools could foist these instructors on students, who’d be stuck for a semester. This no longer happens, because RateMyProfessors.com effectively warns students away from the poor-quality teachers.
  • If we are smart enough, we can learn a lesson here and now that we will eventually learn – rather more expensively – if we wait. The lesson is simple: control is over. This is not about control anymore. This is about finding a way to survive and thrive in chaos.
  • The battle for control over who stands in front of the classroom has now been decisively lost by the administration in favor of the students.
  • That knowledge, once pooled, takes on a life of its own, and finds itself in places where it has uses that its makers never intended.
  • This one site has undone all of the neat work of tenure boards and department chairs throughout the entire world of academia.
  • When broken down to its atomic components, the classroom is an agreement between an instructor and a set of students. The instructor agrees to offer expertise and mentorship, while the students offer their attention and dedication. The question now becomes what role, if any, the educational institution plays in coordinating any of these components. Students can share their ratings online – why wouldn’t they also share their educational goals? Once they’ve pooled their goals, what keeps them from recruiting their own instructor, booking their own classroom, indeed, just doing it all themselves?
  • the possibility that some individuals or group of individuals might create their own context around the lectures. And this is where the future seems to be pointing.
  • the shape of things to come. But there are some other trends which are also becoming visible. The first and most significant of these is the trend toward sharing lecture material online, so that it reaches a very large audience.
  • Why not create a new kind of “Open University”, a website that offers nothing but the kinds of scheduling and coordination tools students might need to organize their own courses?
  • In this near future world, students are the administrators.
  • Now since most education is funded by the government, there will obviously be other forces at play; it may be that “administration”, such as it is, represents the government oversight function which ensures standards are being met. In any case, this does not look much like the educational institution of the 20th century – though it does look quite a bit like the university of the 13th century, where students would find and hire instructors to teach them subjects.
  • The lecturer now helps the students find the material available online, and helps them to make sense of it, contextualizing and informing their understanding. even as the students continue to work their way through the ever-growing set of information. The instructor can not know everything available online on any subject, but will be aware of the best (or at least, favorite) resources, and will pass along these resources as a key outcome of the educational process. The instructor facilitates and mentors, as they have always done, but they are no longer the gatekeepers, because there are no gatekeepers,
  • The classroom in this fungible future of student administrators and evolved lecturers is any place where learning happens.
  • At one end of the scale, students will be able work online with each other and with an lecturer to master material; at the other end, students will work closely with a mentor in a specialist classroom. This entire range of possibilities can be accommodated without much of the infrastructure we presently associate with educational institutions. The classroom will both implode – vanishing online – and explode – the world will become the classroom.
  • Flexibility and fluidity are the hallmark qualities of the 21st century educational institution. An analysis of the atomic features of the educational process shows that the course is a series of readings, assignments and lectures that happen in a given room on a given schedule over a specific duration. In our drive to flexibility how can we reduce the class into to essential, indivisible elements? How can we capture those elements? Once captured, how can we get these elements to the students? And how can the students share elements which they’ve found in their own studies?
  • This is the basic idea that’s guiding Stanford and MIT: recording is cheap, lecturers are expensive, and students are forgetful. Somewhere in the middle these three trends meet around recorded media. Yes, a student at Stanford who misses a lecture can download and watch it later, and that’s a good thing. But it also means that any student, anywhere, can download the same lecture.
  • Every one of these recordings has value, and the more recordings you have, the larger the horde you’re sitting upon. If you think of it like that – banking your work – the logic of capturing everything becomes immediately clear.
Sarah Hanawald

Read The Words - 1 views

www.readthewords.com/FAQ.aspx

differentiation education free k-12-education reading teaching words

shared by Sarah Hanawald on 16 Apr 08 - Cached
Clif Mims liked it
  • What is ReadTheWords.com? ReadTheWords.com is a free, web based service that assists people with written material. We do this by using TTS Technology, or Text To Speech Technology. Users of our service can generate a clear sounding audio file from almost any written material. We generate a voice that reads the words out loud, that you request us to read.
  • Sarah Hanawald on 16 Apr 08
     
    Text to voice.
  • Sarah Hanawald on 16 Apr 08
     
    Interesting site that reads text to you in a remarkably un-annoying voice. Special educators might like this one.
Dean Mantz

Storychasers | empowering responsible digital citizenship - 0 views

storychasers.org

digitalstorytelling wesfryer global_collaboration writing storychasers journalism collaboration education

shared by Dean Mantz on 05 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Dean Mantz on 05 Jan 09
     
    Are you interested in learning about current news or historical events...participate in the Story Chasers blog/wiki. Students and teachers can research such items in their local communities and share them in a collabortive way via connections on this site.
Clif Mims

MathMovesU.com - 2 views

www.mathmovesu.com

Math Teaching Lesson-Plans Games Tutorials

shared by Clif Mims on 12 Nov 08 - Cached
  • Clif Mims on 12 Nov 08
     
    Explore, have fun, and pick up cool math skills! Good web design
Zaid Ali Alsagoff

100+ Free Learning Tools - 133 views

Hi All, Nice to be here. I recently posted in my blog a list that might interest you all: http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-learning-tool-for-every-learning.html This post explores the...

started by Zaid Ali Alsagoff on 13 May 08 2 follow-ups, last by Zaid Ali Alsagoff on 14 May 08
alexandra m. pickett

Favorite Resources - 125 views

Hi. Here was my top 10 list in february 2008 twitter - http://twitter.com - microblog, community of practice, communication, support Second Life - https://secure-web14.secondlife.com/join/- to cr...

Favorite Resources

started by Clif Mims on 09 Mar 08 5 follow-ups, last by alexandra m. pickett on 09 Apr 08
J Black

The Three-E Strategy for Overcoming Resistance to Technological Change (EDUCAUSE Quarte... - 0 views

www.educause.edu/...163448

technology adotion education web2.0

shared by J Black on 03 Apr 09 - Cached
  • According to a 2007 Pew/Internet study,1 49 percent of Americans only occasionally use information and communication technology. Of the remaining 51 percent, only 8 percent are what Pew calls omnivores, “deep users of the participatory Web and mobile applications.”
  • Shaping user behavior is a “soft” problem that has more to do with psychological and social barriers to technology adoption. Academia has its own cultural mores, which often conflict with experimenting with new ways of doing things. Gardner Campbell put it nicely last year when he wrote, “For an academic to risk ‘failure’ is often synonymous with ‘looking stupid in front of someone’.”2 The safe option for most users is to avoid trying something as risky as new technology.
  • The first instinct is thus to graft technology onto preexisting modes of behavior.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • First, a technology must be evident to the user as potentially useful in making his or her life easier (or more enjoyable). Second, a technology must be easy to use to avoid rousing feelings of inadequacy. Third, the technology must become essential to the user in going about his or her business. This “Three-E Strategy,” if applied properly, has been at the core of every successful technology adoption throughout history.
  • Technology must be easy and intuitive to use for the majority of the user audience—or they won’t use it.
  • Complexity, however, remains a potent obstacle to realizing the goal of making technology easy. Omnivores (the top 8 percent of users) revel in complexity. Consider for a moment how much time some people spend creating clothes for their avatars in Second Life or the intricacies of gameplay in World of Warcraft. This complexity gives the expert users a type of power, but is also a turnoff for the majority of potential users.
  • Web 2.0 and open source present another interesting solution to this problem. The user community quickly abandons those applications they consider too complicated.
  • any new technology must become essential to users
  • Finally, we have to show them how the enhanced communication made possible through technologies such as Web 2.0 will enhance their efficiency, productivity, and ability to teach and learn.
  • J Black on 03 Apr 09
     
    First, a technology must be evident to the user as potentially useful in making his or her life easier (or more enjoyable). Second, a technology must be easy to use to avoid rousing feelings of inadequacy. Third, the technology must become essential to the user in going about his or her business. This "Three-E Strategy," if applied properly, has been at the core of every successful technology adoption throughout history.
Dean Mantz

MeeHive: Your Personalized Newspaper - 0 views

www.meehive.com/hivedemo

news meehive aggregator newspaper personal

shared by Dean Mantz on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Dean Mantz on 26 Mar 09
     
    Create your own customized newspaper site that includes RSS feeds from blogs and sites that interest you. You can build your own community.
Dean Mantz

ED Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet -- TOC - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...index.html

collaboration teaching education global international resources Projects technology

shared by Dean Mantz on 11 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration was developed to help teachers use the Internet to "reach out" globally. These materials were prepared as part of the Department of Education's International Education Initiative.
  • Dean Mantz on 11 Sep 09
     
    Guide for educators interested/wanting to collaborate on a global level.
Dean Mantz

On Intelligence - Welcome - 0 views

www.onintelligence.org

intelligence book ai brain learning

shared by Dean Mantz on 15 Jun 09 - Cached
  • The first set of links provides information for people who have not yet read the book or have a general interest. It contains: Bios of the authors Reviews of the book, what people are saying The table of contents An excerpt from the book, "The Prologue" A list of venues and dates where the authors will be speaking The second set of links contains resources for people who have read the book and want to learn more about the theory. Here you will find: An online discussion forum Additional resources including an expanded bibliography and source code for simulations Q&A section for asking the authors questions A form for emailing the authors
Dean Mantz

Intel® Education: Intel Teach Elements: Project-Based Approaches - 8 views

www.intel.com/elements

PBL projectbased Intel education teaching learning resources lessons projects

shared by Dean Mantz on 26 Jan 10 - Cached
  • just-in-time professional development
  • Take our first course in a new series of high interest, visually compelling short courses that provide deeper exploration of 21st century learning concepts using
jwcurlin

Science for Kids - Fun Experiments, Cool Facts, Online Games, Activities, Projects, Ide... - 1 views

www.sciencekids.co.nz

education teaching resources learning

shared by jwcurlin on 10 Feb 19 - Cached
  • Science facts Enjoy a wide range of information and fun science facts that are sure to surprise and amaze you. Technology facts Check out our cool technology facts featuring robots, cell phones, computers, the Internet and more. Animal facts Animals are an endless source of amazing facts. Find out what makes sharks, dogs and other animals so special. Chemistry facts Learn more about metals, atoms, elements, solids, liquids and gases with our range of interesting chemistry facts. Earth facts Our earth is a fascinating place that is home to such wonders as volcanoes, rivers, deserts and more. Scientist facts Find out more about the scientists who changed the world we live in thanks to their research and discoveries. Space facts Enjoy our space facts and learn the truth behind some of the mysteries that relate to distant stars and galaxies. Planet facts Focus on the planets that share our solar system, read amazing facts about Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and more. Funny facts Relax and enjoy the funny side of science with some crazy facts and information that will bring a smile to your face.   Experiments are an awesome part of science that allow students of all ages to engage in fun and exciting hands on learning experiences that they are sure to enjoy. Experiment with different things an
  • jwcurlin on 10 Feb 19
     
    Fun for all ages not just kids/students.
felicitygs

Fun Science Facts for Kids - Interesting Earth, Amazing Chemistry, Cool, Funny, Crazy - 0 views

www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts.html

idt3600 Science Animals KidsScience EarthScience

shared by felicitygs on 15 Feb 22 - No Cached
  • felicitygs on 15 Feb 22
     
    Website for kids to learn about all different kinds of science facts.
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