An interview that you will enjoy

Hope you would enjoy this interview

John

Frog Leap Test

Here is a little ‘test’ that is (supposedly) part of a second grade Computer class in China .  Some figure it out right away.  Others report having to work on it for a week (or more) to solve it.  Click on the test below …Frog Leap Test

 

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge CCK09

I have just registered with this Connectivism and Connective Knowledge CCK09  that will be jointly facilitated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes of University of Manitoba.

As a participant of CCK08, I would like to continue my learning journey with this round 2 of Connectivism and Connective Knowledge.

What motivated me to join the course last year?  How did I learn in CCK08?

There are also various posts in my blog detailing my CCK08 learning journey.  This Connectivism Community  may also be of interests to you.

For CCK09, what motivate me to join the course?

My passion towards learning and research.

What motivate you to join CCK09?

 

Disruptive innovation

Disruptive innovation has significantly changed the way we perceive success in the commercial world.

Many corporate leaders were superceded by the niche markets innovators during the last few decades.  Was it a result of the disruptive innovation?

Isn’t there a similar phenomenon observed in the digital world of networking?

Within the last few years, there were great changes in the use of technology.

See how the Web 2.0 technology has taken roots and being adopted by hundreds of millions of people.  Simple, fast, and easy to use tools taking over the complicated, hard to install tools and technology. 

Mobile,  iphones and ipods are pervasive. 

Lap top computers taking over the desk top computers.

Personal blogs taking over the formal web pages.  This is followed by microblogging on Facebook and Twitters taking over some of the personal blogs. 

Digital social networking taking over some of the formal social communities.

How about the impact of all these “disruptive innovation” on news media, formal education, learning, our formal careers, and our daily habits?  

Will our First Life be taken over by some of our Second Life? 

Wayfinding in the virtual world

This paper on wayfinding provides me with significant insights into how I could explore while immersion into virtual space like Second Life, Online Games and Google and Delicious Searches, and RSS feeds.

We are encouraged that the observations reported in this paper support the application of environmental design principles to virtual world design. We expect to broaden our investigation in the future to include environments with vastly different spatial characteristics. As environments become more complex and abstract, we will need to determine whether or not a human’s conception of an abstract space is analogous to that of a physical space. Early indications are that this is the case, but a definitive statement at this time requires us to speculate as to the nature of virtual environment representations of the future.

This virtual world design also draws me to reflect on the navigation and search strategies that are available through social tagging, delicious, Google and Bing Search, and Google Map as navigator.

In this wayfinding

A better understanding of how the human navigational system works has important social and practical implications, too. Elementary educational programmes will be one area to benefit from a greater insight into the development of children’s visual and spatial abilities. Likewise, the project outcomes should help to find solutions for those confronted with problems in spatial orientation – the elderly, the visually impaired, and patients suffering from brain damage or Alzheimer’s disease – to cope better with everyday life.

This reminds me of the wayfinding moment to the moon-  a small step on the moon, a big step for human.  Let’s celebrate the 40th anniversary upon first landing on the moon – 20 July 1969.

We choose the moon

Blogging and learning

Enjoy this

Blogging offers the bloggers the following

- recording half baked ideas

- musing

- connecting with people

- networking, getting to know what matters to people

- gripping with ideas, thoughts and insights

So, personal blogging is very informal, it works as it is written at a personal level.

Knowledge is fundamentally personal when it comes to blogging.

What do I think? 

That captures the spirit of personal blogging, of personal sensemaking. 

As blogging is personal, how would that make a difference to the community?  How would a blogger collaborate with others?  Group blogging (edublogs etc.)?  Community blogging?  That’s the communal sensemaking…

What’s next? How about way finding?  What are the ways to connect the bloggers and community bloggers to other communities, institutions, the “global and digital society”?  “Googling”, Delicious, social tagging, social networking such as Facebook and Twitters (as microblogging), Ning and Wikis (wikipedia and wikis) all form nodes and are part of the conduits, connections, and networks towards meta-learning, that way finding journey towards global learning.  That is the Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that we all are creating, building, and contributing.

This gives rise to the ontological approach towards knowledge creation and personal learning.  That’s the innovation towards knowledge  creation, building, and aggregation through connecting, interacting, communicating, understanding, amongst people.  That’s the transformational learning we all aspire to.   That leads us to be connected to the Wisdom of the Crowd.  Would that be our ideal learning journey for life?

John

Achieving your childhood dream

Enjoy this presentation by Randy

Would you like to sell something worthwhile like education?

Learning for me:

Achieve your dreams.

Help others to achieve their dreams.

The challenges ahead for Higher Education and Effects of Free Education

Terry Anderson in his Disruption Effects of Free Education writes:

Obviously the fee scale of the University of the People has potential to ‘vaporize demand’ for expensive online programs. The challenge that especially public higher education institutions face is to constantly implement means to reduce costs at all levels of the organization. In addition, to compete with ‘free’, public institutions will have to devise additional review streams – beyond government subsidy and tuition so that they are able to continue to serve disadvantaged citizens and meet their continuing “open” vision and mandate.

Where there is a challenge, there is an opportunity….
Would this be an opportunity for all higher education (HE) institutions to re-conceptualise what higher education could and should offer to society, from a social, multi-cultural and “free-open” perspective?

Would HE institutions be able to provide alternative models which go beyond the traditional egalitarian or elitist, cost-based educational model?

MIT, Stanford and Yale Universities have all opened their doors to this movement of free open educational resources. This trend has great implications for all HE institutions since its inception. Any HE or educational authorities could exploit such resources and leverage the movement to create an “education economy”.

This coupled with the various social media networking, communities of practice development and Web 2.0 application have benefited hundreds of millions or even billions of people around the globe, for people nearly of all ages. This movement would just accelerate with an exponential trajectory, under the current ecology.

So I see the University of the People launch as just one move in the emergent “chess” competition.

What would be the next strategic move for most HE institutions in the chess play?

Would this be the critical moment to develop innovative and emergent social and educational “universities” that could better serve the community?

 

I have included a few questions and comments in HE in my previous posts.

 

 

The Conversation between machine/ (us)

The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity is AMAZING.

Would this be the “language”, “conversation”  and “connection strategies” we are creating in a brand new and emergent space, media?

Would some of the gestures such as free hugs still be taboos within certain cultures?  Would some of the vocabularies become metaphors of our education and learning?

This is fascinating!

Would this become an emergent culture in our agile ecology?

Would those cultures be cultural based?  Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern cultures – in a melting pot or a blending mould which flexed upon time….

Would CHANGE be the navigator in our human evolution?

That’s learning in a changing world….that transforms our identity in a society of information.

Facebook and its impact on social networking and education

Steve Wheeler posted in his blog.  He asks: Should we try to use social networking services such as Facebook and Myspace as serious educational tools, or should they remain the domain of informal chat and backstage antics?  Great question.

Here is a research paper on Facebook.

With these themes in mind, the paper concludes that rather than necessarily enhancing or eroding students’ ‘front-stage’ engagement with their formal studies, Facebook use must be seen as being situated within the ‘identity politics’ of being a student. In particular, Facebook appears to provide a ready space where the ‘role conflict’ that students often experience in their relationships with university work, teaching staff, academic conventions and expectations can be worked through in a relatively closed ‘backstage’ area.

I think it could be a huge challenge for educators to use social networking service such as Facebook as a serious educational tool or a formal education media. 

First, as reported in past papers, learners won’t find it comfortable to learn with their teachers over their shoulders, too much “control” as the learners might sense.  Besides, this could be perceived as an “intrusion” of the learners’ private space.  Learner autonomy always comes first, especially in online learning in higher education.

Second, people go to Facebook for totally different reasons from formal education.  People (with learners alike) like socialising, sharing of feelings and emotions, or sharing of some interesting sites or links on Youtube, personal likes and dislikes, or articles.   Some may even prefer online dating, or just chatting with friends in an informal manner.

Third, educators could be more readily able to exploit Facebook when sharing with other educators, but would find it difficult to interact with learners.  For educators in Facebook, when it comes to communicating and interacting with peers or closed friends, there could be many taboos, as no one wants to be “gossiping” around other educators’ back – that is just not professional.  Besides, this could be viewed by students and other colleagues, and thus creating tensions.  Even counselling or mentoring might better be done in private, via messaging, rather than in an open public space.

Finally, Facebook is designed more on a private “family” sharing basis – with photos, short messages, links to great sites like Ted.com or YouTubes, blogs, or news etc.   So a light tone of socialising and networking would be more appropriate in the interaction and communication amongst friends.  Education with fun, or exciting news would be welcomed by the friends and family members.  And that may be the boundary that most people would draw IMHO. 

Here is “Viewing American class division through Facebook and My Space” by Danah Boyd.

Facebook has 250 million users, amazing!

How do you use Facebook?

Postscript: More information from this 10 ways Universities Share Information Using Social Media.