Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University

1958 interview with Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. 

youtube flowchart

Sir Ken Robinson speaks about how our education system strips students of their creativity. It teaches us to not risk ever being wrong. "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will not come up with anything original." The hierarchy of educational importance begins with math and science and ends with the arts. The system was born of the Industrial Revolution pragmatically. We're in post-Industrial Revolution times. Academic inflation is necessitating that one gets a MA for a good job.

This makes me think back to the other day in class when Dr. Wesch brought up excellent questions. Who decided in 16 weeks is enough time to be educated in a certain subject? We cram so much information into such a short amount of time. Even the way we are taught to learn is sometimes misguiding. Ken Robinson makes a great point when he states the following: "All children are born artists...either we grow into it or we grow out of it or rather we get educated out of it."

Reminds those that disparage Facebook that it can be used to keep people in contact that live far apart, whether they be friends or family. I highlighted a sentence that I found rather discouraging. She said she preferred keeping in touch with people via IM over the phone. This alarmed me. (Imagine me doing one of my odd emotional/physical reactions...in this case going limp on my couch.) I believe there is a sort of communication hierarchy. In that hierarchy, I think that the phone should always be superior to IM in human communication due to its inclusion of tonal inflection and variation that is lost in any kind of writing. Certainly IM is more convenient, but it is less human.

I think it is dangerous and, honestly, somewhat prescriptivist and ableist to associate human communication solely with traits like "sight" and "voice." There are many people who lack to the ability to hear or speak but still manage to communicate in a deeply real, emotional, and human manner.

Touche. Great point.

An interesting look at social networking/ social media throughout the world.

tracks 9 and 10 are worthwile

Interesting article about the infrastructure of our classrooms. How does technology (generally of course) perpetuate the cycle of only sitting-sedentary students which often leads to sedentary adults? How is this going to change the health landscape? And then the insurance landscape? And then the MediCare landscape? And then taxes? and then? and then? At which point does this become an integrated part of our culture, not just our education system (I think its already started). Where does the continued use of media fit into this landscape?

Very well done video. It makes a point visually and in the words presented. The message fits the media.

Skip over the synopsis of "The Social Network." Great discussion article about how Facebook oversimplifies humanity and can have dangerous effects on how we relate. I highlighted a lot of stuff. I highly encourage you to check it out. Talks in terms of how web2.0 has spawned people2.0. A kind of crazy reality.

Interesting in lieu of Remix: Manifesto. Very much akin to inbflat.net.

The post talked about some media messages in society and how they affect our culture. (Kind of relate to our big topic)

Here's a list of video podcasts that go over some basics.

A very interesting perspective... Certainly emphasizes the importance of media (more specifically the Internet) in our lives, but I think it's a bit of stretch to say we're losing our minds to the internet.

"A study conducted by AVG found that 19 percent of 2-5 year-olds could play with a smart phone app, but only 9 percent of those same children could tie their shoes."