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Michael Johnson

Teaching in Social and Technological Networks « Connectivism - 17 views

  • The model falls apart when we distribute content and extend the activities of the teacher to include multiple educator inputs and peer-driven learning.
  • Skype brings anyone, from anywhere, into a classroom. Students are not confined to interacting with only the ideas of a researcher or theorist. Instead, a student can interact directly with researchers through Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and listservs. The largely unitary voice of the traditional teacher is fragmented by the limitless conversation opportunities available in networks. When learners have control of the tools of conversation, they also control the conversations in which they choose to engage. Course content is similarly fragmented. The textbook is now augmented with YouTube videos, online articles, simulations, Second Life builds, virtual museums, Diigo content trails, StumpleUpon reflections, and so on.
  • Traditional courses provide a coherent view of a subject. This view is shaped by “learning outcomes” (or objectives). These outcomes drive the selection of content and the design of learning activities. Ideally, outcomes and content/curriculum/instruction are then aligned with the assessment. It’s all very logical: we teach what we say we are going to teach, and then we assess what we said we would teach. This cozy comfortable world of outcomes-instruction-assessment alignment exists only in education. In all other areas of life, ambiguity, uncertainty, and unkowns reign. Fragmentation of content and conversation is about to disrupt this well-ordered view of learning. Educators and universities are beginning to realize that they no longer have the control they once (thought they) did
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  • I’ve come to view teaching as a critical and needed activity in the chaotic and ambiguous information climate created by networks.
  • In networks, teachers are one node among many. Learners will, however, likely be somewhat selective of which nodes they follow and listen to. Most likely, a teacher will be one of the more prominent nodes in a learner’s network. Thoughts, ideas, or messages that the teacher amplifies will generally have a greater probability of being seen by course participants. The network of information is shaped by the actions of the teacher in drawing attention to signals (content elements) that are particularly important in a given subject area.
  • While “curator” carries the stigma of dusty museums, the metaphor is appropriate for teaching and learning. The curator, in a learning context, arranges key elements of a subject in such a manner that learners will “bump into” them throughout the course. Instead of explicitly stating “you must know this”, the curator includes critical course concepts in her dialogue with learners, her comments on blog posts, her in-class discussions, and in her personal reflections. As learners grow their own networks of understanding, frequent encounters with conceptual artifacts shared by the teacher will begin to resonate.
  • Today’s social web is no different – we find our way through active exploration. Designers can aid the wayfinding process through consistency of design and functionality across various tools, but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individual to click/fail/recoup and continue. Fortunately, the experience of wayfinding is now augmented by social systems. Social structures are filters. As a learner grows (and prunes) her personal networks, she also develops an effective means to filter abundance. The network becomes a cognitive agent in this instance – helping the learner to make sense of complex subject areas by relying not only on her own reading and resource exploration, but by permitting her social network to filter resources and draw attention to important topics. In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • Aggregation should do the same – reveal the content and conversation structure of the course as it unfolds, rather than defining it in advance.
  • Filtering resources is an important educator role, but as noted already, effective filtering can be done through a combination of wayfinding, social sensemaking, and aggregation. But expertise still matters. Educators often have years or decades of experience in a field. As such, they are familiar with many of the concepts, pitfalls, confusions, and distractions that learners are likely to encounter. As should be evident by now, the educator is an important agent in networked learning. Instead of being the sole or dominant filter of information, he now shares this task with other methods and individuals.
  • Filtering can be done in explicit ways – such as selecting readings around course topics – or in less obvious ways – such as writing summary blog posts around topics. Learning is an eliminative process. By determining what doesn’t belong, a learner develops and focuses his understanding of a topic. The teacher assists in the process by providing one stream of filtered information. The student is then faced with making nuanced selections based on the multiple information streams he encounters
  • Stephen’s statements that resonated with many learners centers on modelling as a teaching practice: “To teach is to model and to demonstrate. To learn is to practice and to reflect.” (As far as I can tell, he first made the statement during OCC in 2007).
  • Modelling has its roots in apprenticeship. Learning is a multi-faceted process, involving cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions. Knowledge is similarly multi-faceted, involving declarative, procedural, and academic dimensions. It is unreasonable to expect a class environment to capture the richness of these dimensions. Apprenticeship learning models are among the most effective in attending to the full breadth of learning. Apprenticeship is concerned with more than cognition and knowledge (to know about) – it also addresses the process of becoming a carpenter, plumber, or physician.
  • Without an online identity, you can’t connect with others – to know and be known. I don’t think I’m overstating the importance of have a presence in order to participate in networks. To teach well in networks – to weave a narrative of coherence with learners – requires a point of presence. As a course progresses, the teacher provides summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learners to resources they may not have encountered before.
  • Persistent presence in the learning network is needed for the teacher to amplify, curate, aggregate, and filter content and to model critical thinking and cognitive attributes that reflect the needs of a discipline.
  • Teaching and learning in social and technological networks is similarly surprising – it’s hard to imagine that many of the tools we’re using are less than a decade old (the methods of learning in networks are not new, however. People have always learned in social networks).
  • We’re still early in many of these trends. Many questions remain unanswered about privacy, ethics in networks, and assessment.
  • We’re still early in many of these trends. Many questions remain unanswered about privacy, ethics in networks, and assessment.
  • The tools for controlling both content and conversation have shifted from the educator to the learner. We require a system that acknowledges this reality.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
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    Discusses the role of teachers in the learning  process through social networks: He gives seven roles 1. Amplifying, 2. Curating, 3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking, 4. Aggregating, 5. Filtering, 6. Modelling, 7. Persistent presence. He ends with this provocative thought: "My view is that change in education needs to be systemic and substantial. Education is concerned with content and conversations. The tools for controlling both content and conversation have shifted from the educator to the learner. We require a system that acknowledges this reality."
Kay Cunningham

Your Social Dashboard - 13 views

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    'free web service that enables you to aggregate and manage all your social, content, email, and RSS feeds. Your friend streams, photos, videos, and all your own updates and content in one place. You can also post to other services, send emails, aggregate all your contacts, follow other users, and much more.'
Nathan Grimm

Twitter Teacher Conversation Aggregator - 0 views

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    A widget that aggregates a bunch of different twitter conversations that teachers are having on twitter. It's a great way to display what your PLN is saying right from your blog.
elliswhite5

Buy Yelp Reviews - 100% Real, Permanent, Reviews - 0 views

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    Buy Yelp Reviews Introduction Yelp is the largest review site on the internet. It has over 400 million reviews and counting, and it's growing fast. You can find everything on Yelp: restaurants, shops, banks and even real estate agents! Most importantly though, you can buy Yelp reviews from RealServiceIT at the lowest price online! What is yelp? Yelp is a website that allows users to rate and review local businesses. It was founded in 2004 by two former PayPal employees, Jeremy Estoppel and Russel Simmons. The company has since grown into an American multinational corporation with more than 2 million reviews on its site alone, covering over 500 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico (and counting). Yelp claims to be the world's leading local guide for consumers looking for great local businesses at any point in time-from restaurants and coffee shops, pet services and dentists, garage sales or car repair services-to hotels & resorts; auto dealerships; beauty salons & spas; doctors offices & hospitals; mortgage companies etc.. How to buy Yelp reviews You can buy Yelp reviews from a review site. This is the most common way that businesses do it, because you don't need to spend money on content creation or pay people to write it for you. You'll probably want to choose an agency that has access to a lot of Yelpers and knows how they work, so they can find the right ones for your business' needs. The best agencies have access not only to all the current Yelps in their network but also those who were recently active (and therefore likely active again soon) as well as past customers who have left positive feedback about their experience at your business location(s). Why buy from a review site? Why buy from a review site? They're real. You know that person who has been giving you bad advice? There is no way they would do so if they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart, right? Well, that same logic applies here. If someone is giving you a bad
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    Buy Yelp Reviews Introduction Yelp is the largest review site on the internet. It has over 400 million reviews and counting, and it's growing fast. You can find everything on Yelp: restaurants, shops, banks and even real estate agents! Most importantly though, you can buy Yelp reviews from RealServiceIT at the lowest price online! What is yelp? Yelp is a website that allows users to rate and review local businesses. It was founded in 2004 by two former PayPal employees, Jeremy Estoppel and Russel Simmons. The company has since grown into an American multinational corporation with more than 2 million reviews on its site alone, covering over 500 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico (and counting). Yelp claims to be the world's leading local guide for consumers looking for great local businesses at any point in time-from restaurants and coffee shops, pet services and dentists, garage sales or car repair services-to hotels & resorts; auto dealerships; beauty salons & spas; doctors offices & hospitals; mortgage companies etc.. How to buy Yelp reviews You can buy Yelp reviews from a review site. This is the most common way that businesses do it, because you don't need to spend money on content creation or pay people to write it for you. You'll probably want to choose an agency that has access to a lot of Yelpers and knows how they work, so they can find the right ones for your business' needs. The best agencies have access not only to all the current Yelps in their network but also those who were recently active (and therefore likely active again soon) as well as past customers who have left positive feedback about their experience at your business location(s). Why buy from a review site? Why buy from a review site? They're real. You know that person who has been giving you bad advice? There is no way they would do so if they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart, right? Well, that same logic applies here. If someone is giving you a bad
  •  
    Buy Yelp Reviews Introduction Yelp is the largest review site on the internet. It has over 400 million reviews and counting, and it's growing fast. You can find everything on Yelp: restaurants, shops, banks and even real estate agents! Most importantly though, you can buy Yelp reviews from RealServiceIT at the lowest price online! What is yelp? Yelp is a website that allows users to rate and review local businesses. It was founded in 2004 by two former PayPal employees, Jeremy Estoppel and Russel Simmons. The company has since grown into an American multinational corporation with more than 2 million reviews on its site alone, covering over 500 cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico (and counting). Yelp claims to be the world's leading local guide for consumers looking for great local businesses at any point in time-from restaurants and coffee shops, pet services and dentists, garage sales or car repair services-to hotels & resorts; auto dealerships; beauty salons & spas; doctors offices & hospitals; mortgage companies etc.. How to buy Yelp reviews You can buy Yelp reviews from a review site. This is the most common way that businesses do it, because you don't need to spend money on content creation or pay people to write it for you. You'll probably want to choose an agency that has access to a lot of Yelpers and knows how they work, so they can find the right ones for your business' needs. The best agencies have access not only to all the current Yelps in their network but also those who were recently active (and therefore likely active again soon) as well as past customers who have left positive feedback about their experience at your business location(s). Why buy from a review site? Why buy from a review site? They're real. You know that person who has been giving you bad advice? There is no way they would do so if they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart, right? Well, that same logic applies here. If someone is giving you a bad
Dennis OConnor

Five Forms of Filtering « Innovation Leadership Network - 11 views

  • We create economic value out of information when we figure out an effective strategy that includes aggregating, filtering and connecting.
  • So, the real question is, how do we design filters that let us find our way through this particular abundance of information? And, you know, my answer to that question has been: the only group that can catalog everything is everybody. One of the reasons you see this enormous move towards social filters, as with Digg, as with del.icio.us, as with Google Reader, in a way, is simply that the scale of the problem has exceeded what professional catalogers can do. But, you know, you never hear twenty-year-olds talking about information overload because they understand the filters they’re given. You only hear, you know, forty- and fifty-year-olds taking about it, sixty-year-olds talking about because we grew up in the world of card catalogs and TV Guide. And now, all the filters we’re used to are broken and we’d like to blame it on the environment instead of admitting that we’re just, you know, we just don’t understand what’s going on.
  • The five forms of filtering break into two categories: judgement-based, or mechanical.
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  • Judgement-based filtering is what people do.
  • As we gain skills and knowledge, the amount of information we can process increases. If we invest enough time in learning something, we can reach filter like an expert.
  • However, even experts can’t deal with all of the information available on the subjects that interest them – that’s why they end up specialising.
  • There can also be expert networks – in some sense that is what the original search engines were, and what mahalo.com is trying now. The problem that the original search engines encountered is that the amount of information available on the web expanded so quickly that it outstripped the ability of the network to keep up with it. This led to the development of google’s search algorithm – an example of one of the versions of mechanical filtering: algorithmic.
  • heingold also provides a pretty good description of the other form of mechanical filtering, heuristic, in his piece on crap detection. Heuristic filtering is based on a set of rules or routines that people can follow to help them sort through the information available to them.
  • Filtering by itself is important, but it only creates value when you combine it with aggregating and connecting. As Rheingold puts it:
  • The important part, as I stressed at the beginning, is in your head. It really doesn’t do any good to multiply the amount of information flowing in, and even filtering that information so that only the best gets to you, if you don’t have a mental cognitive and social strategy for how you’re going to deploy your attention. (emphasis added)
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    I've been seeking a way to explain why I introduce Diigo along with Information fluency skills in the E-Learning for Educators Course. This article quickly draws the big picture.  Folks seeking to become online teachers are pursuing a specialized teaching skill that requires an information filtering strategy as well as what Rheingold calls "a mental cognitive and social strategy for how you're going to deploy your attention."
Kay Cunningham

Magma - 0 views

shared by Kay Cunningham on 10 May 10 - Cached
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    Video aggregator
Todd Finley

"The Future of Privacy: How Privacy Norms Can Inform Regulation" - 6 views

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    In online public spaces, interactions are public-by-default, private-through-effort, the exact opposite of what we experience offline.  There is no equivalent to the cafe where you can have a private conversation in public with a close friend without thinking about who might overhear. Your online conversations are easily overheard.  And they're often persistent, searchable, and easily spreadable. Online, we have to put effort into limiting how far information flows. We have to consciously act to curb visibility.  This runs counter to every experience we've ever had in unmediated environments.  When people participate online, they don't choose what to publicize.  They choose what to limit others from seeing.  Offline, it takes effort to get something to be seen.  Online, it takes effort for things to NOT be seen.  This is why it appears that more is public.  Because there's a lot of content out there that people don't care enough about to lock down.  I hear this from teens all the time.  "Public by default, privacy when necessary."  Teens turn to private messages or texting or other forms of communication for intimate interactions, but they don't care enough about certain information to put the effort into locking it down.  But this isn't because they don't care about privacy.  This is because they don't think that what they're saying really matters all that much to anyone.  Just like you don't care that your small talk during the conference breaks are overheard by anyone.  Of course, teens aren't aware of how their interactions in aggregate can be used to make serious assumptions about who they are, who they know, and what they might like in terms of advertising.  Just like you don't calculate who to talk to in the halls based on how a surveillance algorithm might interpret your social network.    
Michael Johnson

E-Learning 2.0 ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 20 views

  • In general, where we are now in the online world is where we were before the beginning of e-learning [1]. Traditional theories of distance learning, of (for example) transactional distance, as described by Michael G. Moore, have been adapted for the online world. Content is organized according to this traditional model and delivered either completely online or in conjunction with more traditional seminars, to cohorts of students, led by an instructor, following a specified curriculum to be completed at a predetermined pace.
  • networked markets
  • In learning, these trends are manifest in what is sometimes called "learner-centered" or "student-centered" design. This is more than just adapting for different learning styles or allowing the user to change the font size and background color; it is the placing of the control of learning itself into the hands of the learner
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  • creation, communication and participation playing key roles
  • The breaking down of barriers has led to many of the movements and issues we see on today's Internet. File-sharing, for example, evolves not of a sudden criminality among today's youth but rather in their pervasive belief that information is something meant to be shared. This belief is manifest in such things as free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses for content, and open access to scholarly and other works. Sharing content is not considered unethical; indeed, the hoarding of content is viewed as antisocial [9]. And open content is viewed not merely as nice to have but essential for the creation of the sort of learning network described by Siemens [10].
  • "Enter Web 2.0, a vision of the Web in which information is broken up into "microcontent" units that can be distributed over dozens of domains. The Web of documents has morphed into a Web of data. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we're looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix microcontent in new and useful ways"
  • Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution, it is a social revolution.
  • It also begins to look like a personal portfolio tool [18]. The idea here is that students will have their own personal place to create and showcase their own work. Some e-portfolio applications, such as ELGG, have already been created. IMS Global as put together an e-portfolio specification [19]. "The portfolio can provide an opportunity to demonstrate one's ability to collect, organize, interpret and reflect on documents and sources of information. It is also a tool for continuing professional development, encouraging individuals to take responsibility for and demonstrate the results of their own learning" [20].
    • Michael Johnson
       
      Also a place to receive and give feedback. I believe that one of the things that learners need to have to be prepared for learning in this space (social media or web 2.0) is the ability to evaluate, to give good feedback. Additionally, to be able to receive feedback constructively.
  • In the world of e-learning, the closest thing to a social network is a community of practice, articulated and promoted by people such as Etienne Wenger in the 1990s. According to Wenger, a community of practice is characterized by "a shared domain of interest" where "members interact and learn together" and "develop a shared repertoire of resources."
  • Yahoo! Groups
  • Blogging is very different from traditionally assigned learning content. It is much less formal. It is written from a personal point of view, in a personal voice. Students' blog posts are often about something from their own range of interests, rather than on a course topic or assigned project. More importantly, what happens when students blog, and read reach others' blogs, is that a network of interactions forms-much like a social network, and much like Wenger's community of practice.
    • Michael Johnson
       
      So, I believe he is saying that virtual communities of practice that form naturally are more real and approach what Wenger was talking about better than contrived "communities" put together in classes. That may be true. but does it have to be? If people come together to with a common purpose and the instructor allows the students freedom to explore what is important to them then I would hope that this kind of community can develop even in formal educational settings. Relevance is a key issue here!
  • "We're talking to the download generation," said Peter Smith, associate dean, Faculty of Engineering. "Why not have the option to download information about education and careers the same way you can download music? It untethers content from the Web and lets students access us at their convenience." Moreover, using an online service such as Odeo, Blogomatrix Sparks, or even simply off-the-shelf software, students can create their own podcasts.
  • The e-learning application, therefore, begins to look very much like a blogging tool. It represents one node in a web of content, connected to other nodes and content creation services used by other students. It becomes, not an institutional or corporate application, but a personal learning center, where content is reused and remixed according to the student's own needs and interests. It becomes, indeed, not a single application, but a collection of interoperating applications—an environment rather than a system.
  • Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution, it is a social revolution. "Here's my take on it: Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It's about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services. By open I mean technically open with appropriate APIs but also, more importantly, socially open, with rights granted to use the content in new and exciting contexts"
  • This approach to learning means that learning content is created and distributed in a very different manner. Rather than being composed, organized and packaged, e-learning content is syndicated, much like a blog post or podcast. It is aggregated by students, using their own personal RSS reader or some similar application. From there, it is remixed and repurposed with the student's own individual application in mind, the finished product being fed forward to become fodder for some other student's reading and use.
    • Michael Johnson
       
      I like the idea of students passing on their work to be fodder for someone else's learning. In this way we change to from a learner to a learner/teacher! (See Dillon Inouye's work and Comments from John Seeley Brown)
  • More formally, instead of using enterprise learning-management systems, educational institutions expect to use an interlocking set of open-source applications. Work on such a set of applications has begun in a number of quarters, with the E-Learning Framework defining a set of common applications and the newly formed e-Framework for Education and Research drawing on an international collaboration. While there is still an element of content delivery in these systems, there is also an increasing recognition that learning is becoming a creative activity and that the appropriate venue is a platform rather than an application.
    • Michael Johnson
    • Michael Johnson
       
      Jon Mott has some cool ideas related to this paragraph.
  • he most important learning skills that I see children getting from games are those that support the empowering sense of taking charge of their own learning. And the learner taking charge of learning is antithetical to the dominant ideology of curriculum design
  • game "modding" allows players to make the game their own
  • Words are only meaningful when they can be related to experiences," said Gee. If I say "I spilled the coffee," this has a different meaning depending on whether I ask for a broom or a mop. You cannot create that context ahead of time— it has to be part of the experience.
  • A similar motivation underlies the rapidly rising domain of mobile learning [24]—for after all, were the context in which learning occurs not important, it would not be useful or necessary to make learning mobile. Mobile learning offers not only new opportunities to create but also to connect. As Ellen Wagner and Bryan Alexander note, mobile learning "define(s) new relationships and behaviors among learners, information, personal computing devices, and the world at large"
  • "ubiquitous computing."
  • what this means is having learning available no matter what you are doing.
  • The challenge will not be in how to learn, but in how to use learning to create something more, to communicate.
    • Michael Johnson
       
      I still think part of the challenge is how to learn. How to wade through a sea of all that is out there and "learn from the best" that is available. Find, organize, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, as well as create. I agree with Chris Lott (@fncll) that creativity is vital! (I am just not so sure that it is a non-starter to say that we should be moral first...though it could be argued that we should become moral through the creative process).
  • And what people were doing with the Web was not merely reading books, listening to the radio or watching TV, but having a conversation, with a vocabulary consisting not just of words but of images, video, multimedia and whatever they could get their hands on. And this became, and looked like, and behaved like, a network.
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    Stephen Downes' take on eLearning and what the future holds
LUCIAN DUMA

#curation #edtech20 #edtools of the day #bundlr awesome for #education20 - 15 views

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    #Bundlr new and free tool for online #curation: clipping, aggregation and sharing web content easily More https://twitter.com/#!/web20education
nick k

Playing History - 1 views

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    "There are tons of free historical games, interactives and simulations on the web. Playing history aggregates info on these resources in a simple, searchable database making it easy to find, rate, and review historical games. There are currently 130 shared games. "
Steve Fulton

101 Web 2.0 Teaching Tools | OEDb - 1 views

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    "The following list is filled with tools that will make a teacher's life easier. The categories are listed in alphabetical order and the links to each tool are also listed alphabetically within those categories. Aggregators | Bookmark Managers | Classroom Tools | Collaboration | Course Management | Office Suites | Office Tools | Productivity | Public Content Management (Blogs, etc.) | Storage"
drew polly

Go2Web20.net - The complete Web 2.0 sites directory - 0 views

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    A comprehensive index of logos of the latest web 2.0 sites, applications and services. Find what you need. Discover what you don't...
Barbara Lindsey

What's Next After Web 2.0? - 0 views

  • Mark Johnson, Powerset/Microsoft Program Manager, commented that "the next era of the Web will represent greater understanding of computers." He went on to suggest that "if Web 1.0 was about Read and Web 2.0 was about Read/Write, then Web 3.0 should be about Read/Write/Understand." Specifically he said that "a computer that can understand should be able to: find us information that we care about better (e.g., smart news alerts), make intelligent recommendations for us (e.g., implicit recommendations based on our reading/surfing/buying behavior), aggregate and simplify information. . . and probably lots of other things that we haven't yet imagined, since our computers are still pretty dumb."
  • Aziz Poonawalla said "folksonomy, leveraged en masse, could render algorithmic search obsolete. you get Semantic web almost for free."
  • Education is one area ripe for Web innovation. Harley of WorldLearningTree recently submitted his suggestions on how to revolutionalize online education to Google's "Project10ToThe100" contest.
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  • Sandra Foyt is looking for a "better learning/connecting hub". She elaborates: "I want a command center where it's easy to share all kinds of digital media, while being able to chat or microblog. An all in one home base, with Twitter/Flock/Ning/Wiki/Flickr/YouTube elements."
  • Jorge Escobar said that the next era will be "Web Real World" - by which he meant "offline activities driven by web services (geoloc, mobile, niche)".
  • Two trends of the current era are the increasing internationalization of the Web and mobile products like iPhone and Android becoming more prominent. It almost goes without saying that both of these things will become more prevelant over the coming years - and indeed both depend on the other...
  • The jury is still out on whether web 2.0 has officially ended. Of course the Web is iterative and so version numbers don't really mean anything. But even so we may see more of a focus on 'real world' problems from now on and a move away from consumer apps as the primary focus.
Michael Johnson

Apprehending the Future: Emerging Technologies, from Science Fiction to Campus Reality... - 5 views

  • environmental scan
  • The environmental scan method offers several advantages, starting with the fact that drawing on multiple sources and perspectives can reduce the chances of bias or sample error. The wider the scan, the better will be the chance of hitting the first trace of items that, although small at the moment, could expand into prominence. A further advantage is pedagogical: trying to keep track of a diverse set of domains requires a wide range of intellectual competencies. As new technologies emerge, more learning is required in subfields or entire disciplines, such as nanotechnology or digital copyright policy.
  • Disadvantages of this method start from its strengths: environmental scanning requires a great deal of sifting, searching, and analyzing. Finding the proverbial needle in the haystack isn't useful if its significance can't be recognized. Furthermore, the large amount of work necessary for both scanning and analyzing can be daunting, especially for smaller schools or enterprises.
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  • That complexity demands non-simple responses. Each of the techniques sketched above offers one way of helping groups to think through these emergent forces and to apprehend the future. Crowdsourcing, scenarios, prediction markets, the Delphi method, and environmental scanning are complementary strategies. Using several of these methods can teach us to learn about the future in more sophisticated, pro-active ways. If the methods appear strange, resembling science fiction, perhaps that is a sign of their aptness for the future, since the future often appears strange just before it becomes ordinary—or, in our case, just before it becomes a campus reality. As higher education budgets clamp down and the future hurtles toward us, we need these methods and techniques as allies that can help us to survive . . . and to learn.
  • Crowdsourcing, scenarios, prediction markets, the Delphi method, and environmental scanning are complementary strategies. Using several of these methods can teach us to learn about the future in more sophisticated, pro-active ways. If the methods appear strange, resembling science fiction, perhaps that is a sign of their aptness for the future, since the future often appears strange just before it becomes ordinary—or, in our case, just before it becomes a campus reality. As higher education budgets clamp down and the future hurtles toward us, we need these methods and techniques as allies that can help us to survive . . . and to learn.
  • to apprehend the future. Crowdsourcing, sce
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    Alexander discusses methods for keeping up with the future of technology and its use in higher education.
Kathleen Cercone

Teaching and Learning Online (28) - 1 views

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    Leading personal start page to manage your digital life. Add widget to read your newspapers, play games, watch TV, movies, listen to podcasts, manage your social networks like Facebook, MySpace, read your emails from gmail or yahoo mail.
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