Game changers in the Training Zone

This week, ahead of my speech at the Learning Technologies Conference I recorded a 10 minute podcast interview for the Training Zone. You can listen by clicking on the embedded link below. If the link below doesn't work for you, try this one. My interview is at 18.45 in the podcast. To give you a taste of what was discussed, here is some of what I said in an excerpt from the transcript:

Q: What are the big technological developments we can expect to see implemented in 2013?

Steve: I think there are several that we have to look at as changing practice. I'm talking about disruptive technologies, things that will change probably forever - irrevocably - what we do in the workplace and in learning in particular. So for instance, one of the big developments I'm seeing happening right now is the move from keyboards and mice to touch screens and maybe even non-touch technologies.

One of the examples I've seen recently at the CES - the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - it was reported that there was a new touch screen device which goes 'lumpy' when you want to put a keyboard up on it. The keyboard actually appears but it's through crystallisation within the screen. The keys are actually surrounded by raised areas so that people with visual impairment for instance can use the touch screen tablet. So there are really practical developments coming out which I think are going to improve working conditions for lots of people with visual impairment.

But I think for all of us touch screen technology is already revolutionising the way we do things. Some people say that you will never see the death of the computer keyboard, but I'm not so sure. I think that in a few years time maybe our grandchildren are going to sit on our knees and say 'did you really have to touch a computer to make it work?' So I think touch screens and non-touch technologies, things like the Xbox 360 Kinect, technology with a depth camera and an infra red camera, I think is going to change forever the way we interact with technology. We are going very quickly towards the Tom Cruise Minority Report data manipulation.

I think another big development is going to be larger screens, flatter screens, in fact screens that are flexible. Screens that you can stick onto any surface so that you can make the whole of the wall of your office or your workplace into a television screen which doubles up as a computer screen and for data manipulation. And I think this is coming, I think it is going to be quicker than we think as well, these are some of the developments we are looking at.

I think ultimately, the biggest game changer which has been going on for some time now, is mobile learning. Using your own personal devices to access learning, access peer groups, access social networking, access the ability to create and share content, anywhere and everywhere. As we're talking I'm watching citizen journalism going on, on the television in front of me. This London helicopter crash that has happened. Most of the pictures the BBC are actually presenting at the moment are from people who were on the scene at the time with their mobile devices. I think we're going to see that impact a whole lot more. Those are some of the trends I see happening.  

The TrainingZone podcast - January by Trainingzone on Mixcloud

Game changers in the Training Zone by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The changing Web

This is number 4 in the series of blog posts entitled 'Shaping Education for the Future.' Yesterday's post can be found at this link.

The web is constantly changing. Social media - often referred to as Web 2.0, or the participatory Web - is shaping up to be one of the most important tool sets available to support the promotion of change in education. Almost everyone, it seems, is using some element of social media in the planning, development, delivery, management or evaluation of teaching and learning. One of the greatest changes (and challenges) for education over the last few years has been the proliferation of user generated content. My own students create a lot of their own content during their study, usually in the form of podcasts, videos, wiki and blog content, and are encouraged to share these publicly online to gain additional feedback. Doing this, they tend to engage more deeply with learning, and find themselves collaborating more and learning from each other, as a result of using Web 2.0 tools. Essentially, Web 2.0 enables them to take more responsibility for their own learning. They like to share their ideas, and they enjoy playing their part in the production of knowledge. Learning is changing, and their experience is being shaped by the participatory Web. The Web is constantly changing, but it is also a change agent.

We need to acknowledge that 'Web 2.0' remains a contested label for new and emergent properties that are found on the Web. It is a complex network of dynamic resources that we all acknowledge is constantly changing to adapt to the growing demand for entertainment, communication and access to knowledge. Debate focuses on whether the emerging social applications constitute a sea change or revolution in the Web (cf. Van Dijk, 2002) or simply another phase in its relentless progress. Personally, I find myself in agreement with Brian Winston (2003) who views the Web as a facet of gradual evolution rather than symptoms of sudden revolution. Essentially, the Web has become more social. As with most other technology innovations, Web 2.0 applications have grown out of the need for people to connect together, share experiences and knowledge, enhance their experiences and open up new possibilities in learning. Social software is software that enables people to both read from, and write onto web spaces. It truly is the ‘architecture of participation’ (Barsky and Purdon, 2006) and demands active engagement as a natural part of its character (Kamel Boulos and Wheeler, 2007).

Web 2.0 tools include popular applications such as blogs, wikis and podcasting; social networking sites such as FaceBook and LinkedIn; photo and videosharing services such as Flickr and YouTube; familiar utilities such as RSS feeds, social tagging (e.g. Delicious, Diigo), microblogs such as Twitter, mashups (e.g. geotagging). Web 2.0 has spawned concepts such as folksonomy, ‘Darwikianism’ and the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ (Kamel Boulos et al, 2006). Also, we need to pay attention to the growing power, ubiquity and utility of the mobile phone and the central role it is already playing in enabling ‘anytime anyplace’ learning for students.

More is becoming known about the effects the changing Web is exerting upon teaching and learning. We know of some of the benefits and the limitations it brings to education and training. But there are still many questions to be answered. How for example, does this architecture of participation help to scaffold remote learners and how can it promote quality learning outcomes? What is the extent of the capability of social software to encourage a culture of sharing and collaboration? How much will Web 2.0 applications help to shape the education provision of the future? What roles will online games and mobile, personal technologies play in developing the skills young people need to study independently? These are questions we are beginning to address in some of our current research. More on this in future posts on this blog.

References
Barsky, E. and Purdon, M. (2006) Introducing Web 2.0: Social networking and social bookmarking for health librarians. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association, 27, 65-67.
Kamel Boulos, M. N., Maramba, I. and Wheeler, S. (2006) Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Medical Education, 6, 41. Retrieved 14 April, 2008 from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41
Kamel Boulos, M. N. and Wheeler, S (2007) The emerging Web 2.0 social software: An enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and healthcare education. Health Informatics and Libraries Journal, 24(1), 2-23.
Van Dijk, J. (2002) The Network Society. London: Sage.
Winston, B. (2003) Media Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet. London: Routledge.

Image source


The changing web by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Parrot fashion

There is a story of a woman who wanted a talking bird so she went to the pet shop bought a parrot. After a few weeks, she returned to the pet shop and complained to the owner that the parrot wasn't talking. 'Does he have a mirror?' asked the shop owner, 'parrots love mirrors. They see themselves and start up a conversation'. So the woman bought a mirror and the next day she was back again. The bird still wasn't talking. 'How about a ladder?' suggested the shop owner, 'parrots love climbing up and down ladders. A happy parrot is more likely to talk.' She bought a ladder. Next day she was back again, because the parrot still wasn't talking. 'Does the parrot have a swing?' asked the shop owner. 'If not, that might be the problem. He will relax if he swings, and then he'll start talking'. The woman sighed, bought the swing and left the shop. The next day she walked into the shop and she looked very upset. 'The parrot died' she reported. The shop owner was shocked. 'Did the parrot say anything... anything at all?' he asked. 'Yes,' said the woman 'right before he died he asked me if they sold any food down at the pet shop.'

The point to this story is that you can spend your life looking into mirrors, worrying about your appearance; You can focus on ladders to try to advance your career; and you can try as many swings as you like to try to entertain yourself. But if you starve yourself of a social life, your relationships will die, and your life experience will be the poorer for it. We live in an increasingly connected world, which is profoundly influencing education. And social media are the enablers. Yet many teachers and students see social networking tools as frivolous entertainment or ego massage. They can be much more than that, and if they are developed appropriately, they can be valuable tools for education.

How many students and teachers are missing out on a broader social experience, because they have disengaged with social media? How many students have a narrower view of learning because they have no professional learning network to call upon? And how many teachers are failing to develop themselves professionally because they think Twitter and other social networking tools are a waste of time? It's true that Twitter can make you feel a little like a parrot talking to itself in a mirror if you don't give it enough time to develop connections and reach the critical mass necessary to become a useful PLN. But if you invest time and effort developing a network of critical friends and knowledgeable experts, it will pay you back a hundredfold.

In a previous blogpost I argued that Twitter is not about content, it is all about connections. There is more to learning than simply taking in knowledge, and more to a course than its content. Connections are important, because they lead to richer social contexts. The ability to connect into and engage with global communities of practice is unprecedented. The conversations to be enjoyed and insights to be gained on Twitter are immense, and their value is immeasurable. Developing your professional learning network is time consuming, but what is the alternative?

Well, I suppose you could always learn parrot fashion.

Main story by Bob Gass. Image source by Riza Nugraha



Parrot fashion by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Digital literacy 2: Reach out and connect

One of the digital literacies I identified in yesterday's blogpost was effective social networking. So what's the big deal about this? We all do it these days don't we? Most of us have a Facebook account, and maybe a LinkedIn account too. Lots of us use Twitter, and some of those out on the periphery may still be using Myspace or Bebo. What else do we need to learn about social networking that can help us or our students to learn better? In this series I'm going to examine digital literacies. I use the term not to describe skills, but more as an alignment to the argument that as we engage with our own specific culture we acquire and develop more than skills. If I am illiterate (in the sense of reading and writing), I cannot read the signs or engage with text - I am not able to fully participate within my culture. And if I miss the meaning of something because of that illiteracy, I won't know what I don't know. Literacy allows us to develop a self awareness of not only the symbolic nature of our world but also the processes of personal learning - or meta-cognition - and in so doing we build what Bourdieu has termed 'cultural capital'. Wendy Earle's 2005 discussion on the nature of literacies is a useful starting point.

So what are the essential components of social networking as a digital literacy? Firstly, I believe we need to network more smartly, particularly in a manner that helps us to learn more effectively in both formal and informal contexts. Jonathan Rose has some interesting things to say about how social networking helps his off-line (for this read 'real life') world. In his blogpost What's so social about social media? he outlines three functions: supplementing, sifting and sustaining, all of which have a social dimension. Sifting for example, in Jonathan's view, helps to combat the media atomisation that has occurred due to the availability of hundreds of TV channels. Once we could all sit down for coffee and talk about what we had watched on TV last night. It's rare we are able to do this now, with so many choices. Watching TV is no longer a distributed communal activity. What we can do though, with the aid of social media, is to find out what our commonalities and communities are through the filtering tools (such as hashtags) on Twitter and other timeline tools.

Social networking also helps us to find content we need, when we need it. In some of my previous slide presentations and blog posts I have quoted Karen Stephenson, who believes we now 'store our knowledge in our friends'. By this she means a distributed intelligence is emerging which allows that it doesn't matter how much we can store and retrieve from our own personal memories. Today, it's not what we know, but who we know that is most important. We now live in an increasingly connected world where we have 24/7 access to our friends and colleagues. Selecting the right tools that will enable each of us to connect into and plunder the collective intelligence of the most relevant communities of practice is one of the new digital literacies professionals and students will need to draw upon.

Finally, social networking skills will require each user to also be adept at connecting with new friends and fellow community members. But how will we know who to connect with and who to ignore? It's not as if we are in a large room at a party, deciding who looks or sounds like the most interesting person to make a bee-line for. No, it's actually more complex and information rich than that. We now have the ability to tap into all sorts of information about the bewildering number of people we encounter on social media every day. We can see by their avatar and username (sometimes) what kind of person they might be, and whether it would be interesting to connect with them or not. Profiles and follow/follower information are also useful sources of detail about a person's interests and background. What they tweet or post gives us advance information about whether we would find connecting with someone useful or not.

So social networking, and the ability to use it effectively is a key skill for the scholar to acquire right now. If used properly, social media can provide rich social and intellectual rewards. Those who fail to network effectively may struggle to succeed in a pressurised education world.

Image source

Reach out and connect by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

A marriage made in Heaven?

Some readers of this blog may recall that I presented a keynote speech for the 'Let's Talk About Txt' conference organised by Txttools Ltd, at the University of Bath earlier this year. It's an excellent, small conference series that attracts delegates from both the public and private sectors of education and training, and is always well attended. My last talk was entitled: 'Everything you always wanted to know about txt but were afraid to ask', and is available in slideshow format at this link.

Well, I am delighted that I have been invited back again to keynote another of their conferences, this time at the University of Leeds, on November 16. Let's talk about txt 7 will be held at Bodington Hall, on the University of Leeds campus - details here. I must have done something right last time then. Below is the title and abstract of my keynote:

Combining Mobile Tools and Social Media: A Marriage Made in Heaven?

In the last decade we have witnessed an exponential rise in the use of participatory media on the web. Tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking sites are flourishing, and boasting huge numbers of adherents. Alongside this rise in the use of social, participatory media we see an almost ubiquitous use of mobile telephones. Even in the developing nations of the world, the use of mobile phones is widespread and impressive. The advent of smart phones has raised the stakes even further affording developers major opportunities to create applications that will dramatically impact upon the daily lives of millions of subscribers across the globe. This presentation will examine these trends and will pose several questions: What happens when we combine the power of these two sets of tools? What happens when learners hold the power of the web in their hands? How will such possibilities impact upon education and training? What will be the new skills teachers and students will need to acquire to exploit the full potential of mobile social media? The answer of course, is that we don’t yet know all the answers, but we are beginning to find out, as research is conducted into for example, the mobile blogging (moblogging), mobile learning (m-learning), geo-caching, augmented reality and handheld teleconferencing. Such combinations of visual and textual media will advance learning and teaching in all sectors into a new phase, potentially changing irrevocably our conceptions about what it means to ‘learn’, the nature of knowledge, and the long established division between the roles of teachers and learners.


A marriage made in Heaven? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Learning and teaching with Twitter

I have presented a few workshops now on how to use Twitter as a learning and teaching tool. One of my most viewed blog posts with more than 10,000 hits is entitled Teaching with Twitter so there is a lot of interest in the topic. The question is, how can we harness the potential of this tool in a teaching and learning context? There has been a spectrum of reactions to the workshops I have presented, from the sceptical throught to the enthusiastic, and all of the questions that have been asked are valid and representative of the concerns and issues associated with using any informal tool in a formal context. One question often asked is: How do we use Twitter with children when we can't be sure how open Twitter is? What do we do about maintenance of confidentiality, privacy and the need to protect kids from internet predators? Another question relates to something I posted recently about why Twitter is so powerful. It relates to the need to persist with the tool so that you give it enough time to build up a critical mass of followers and followed, ensuring that your personal learning network (PLN) becomes effective. People have asked how effective Twitter is in developing a PLN, and a live tweetout usually shows them just how effective Twitter can be in connecting you to a world of knowledge, experts and resources. People ask, how much time is involved, and can they afford the time investment? Another concern is about age - some argue that Twitter is more the preserve of older people and that younger people tend to spurn the tool because it doesn't have the attractive affordances of other social networking tools such as Facebook. There is also the issue of instant gratification - how do younger people feel about having to invest in developing their network of followers/followed when it patently takes a lot of effort and time? I'm sure you have a view or two on these issues, and I invite you to post your comments here for others to engage with. In the meantime, here's the slideshow I used at a recent workshop on Teaching with Twitter at the Ulearn Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Teaching and Learning with Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Learning and teaching with Twitter by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The art of Twitter

Learning how to use Twitter as a tool to develop your personal learning network is not always simple, and as with any other social networking tools, there is an unwritten protocol. There is quite an art to getting the best out of it. When the Internet and e-mail was first emerging as a major communication tool set, several people proposed an Internet ettiquette, or 'Netiquette', which involved guidelines such as using UPPER CASE letters only if you were shouting. Other devices for communication emerged such as emoticons, sideways smileys that were used to attempt to overcome the reduced social cues of text only talking. We think the time has now come to introduce a set of guidelines for Twitter - 'Twettiquette' if you like - and so Wolfgang Rheinhardt, Martin Ebner and I recently got together to write a paper for the World Computer Conference, held last month in Brisbane, Australia. I presented the paper, and we put together a slide set to accompany the presentation. Here it is below, in all it's unexpurgated glory. As you can see, it's entitled: 'All I need to know about Twitter I learned at kindergarten', and is, we think, a humourous, lighthearted take on using Twitter. We hope it makes you smile, think and tweet some more.

All I need to know about Twitter I learned at kindergarten

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

The art of Twitter by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Why Twitter is so powerful

There are two types of people in the world. Those who get Twitter and those who don't.

OK, I'm joking, but Twitter does seem to divide people. What can you say that's worthwhile in 140 characters? some people ask. Others claim that much of the Twitterverse is vacuous rubbish that isn't worth reading.

Well, anyone who uses Twitter on a regular basis will tell you that the power of the tool is not so much in its content, but in its ability to connect you to other people. The same applies of course to any other social networking tool, but unlike Facebook for example, Twitter contains very few distractions. It's stripped down and very simple. There are no frivolous food fights, 'poking' or third party games such as Farmville contained within its wrapper. Twitter quite simply connects you with people who are interesting, informative or humorous.

And here's the real power: The more you connect on Twitter, the more connections you get. For me, the value of Twitter is in tapping into its social critical mass. I think that most people who try Twitter and fail to see its value don't give it enough time. If they persisted and put some time into developing their contacts and connections on Twitter, they may discover that it pays them back for the time they have invested. To do this they can use lists, following those who are good value and produce useful content, while at the same time tweeting content that others may find useful.

No, Twitter is not so much about the information and useful links you can gain access to. Twitter is powerful because it allows people to share their emotions - you can gain a window on their everyday experiences, and that often helps you in your own daily struggles. I am often encouraged by people who share snapshots of what is happening in their lives right now. It's an important dimension - I have made many friends on Twitter whom I have later met and strengthened my friendships with. Self disclosure is a risky thing, but others often reciprocate. It can all be summed up by a quote from one of my favourite authors:

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one." - C. S. Lewis

Image source



'Why Twitter is so powerful' by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Networked noughties 2000-2002

The last 10 years will be known as the networked decade. At the risk of sounding Churchillian : "Never before have people been able to communicate so quickly, and never before has so much information been available to so many people". Sure, previous years saw the telephone, CB radio, television, the Web and e-mail, but this decade was the one when social networking came of age, and where unprecendented access to vast storehouses of knowledge became common place for millions across the globe.

The speed at which these technologies have become a part of our every day experience is quite astonishing and it is exemplified in the noughties. In this short series of blogposts, I want to look back over the years 2000-2009, to map the key moments when the digital decade changed our lives.

Once the frenzy of the Millennium celebrations had died down (Millennium - is this now a derelict term?) we began to see signs of what the future would hold. We didn't need to wait too long. July 2000 saw the launch of one of the first social networking sites: Friends Reunited. The basic premise of the site was to reconnect people who for some reason had lost contact with each other. The promise of 'reunion of old friends' became the basis for much of what was to follow. Within a year Friends Reunited had grown to over a million users, establishing that connecting and sharing online were going to become a very popular pastime.

The 'hive minds' concept was realised with the launch of Wikipedia in January 2001. Just about everything that can be said has already been said about Wikipedia. But for better or worse, Wikipedia is here to stay, has broken a lot of new ground about what is meant by 'knowledge' and has opened up the doors for a sea-change in open, collaborative knowledge building.

Other significant events in 2001 included the launch in July of Sky+, prompting a shift in our perceptions of what digital television could bring, and Interactive TV became a reality for many when it was made widely available in November of the same year. The ability to stop, start and replay live action, and to interact from a handset with TV was an exciting concept. Apple gave birth to the iPod in the US, bringing handheld technologies to the masses, and 3G mobile phone services were available for the first time in the UK in time for Christmas, opening up an entire new vista of telephony.

In 2002 there was failure and success for digital TV. May saw the closure of the fledgling ITV digital service, which had only been established (as a rebirth of ON Digital) in July 2001. But UK TV viewers rubbed their hands in anticipation when Freeview became available in October.

Our viewing habits were changing, and information communication technologies were beginning to take a more prominent place within the home, office and classroom. The first 3 years of the new decade were only a prelude though - these developments merely laid the foundation for the digital maelstrom that was to follow. This series continues tomorrow with a review of the years 2003-2005.

Image source

Faceworking

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? This is one of the questions addressed in the latest issue of Learning, Media and Technology. Neil Selwyn and Lyndsay Grant are to be applauded for bringing together an excellent, very readable special issue of the journal which focuses on Learning and Social Software. In his podcast on the journal website, Neil talks about exposing the 'gritty reality' of social software, and how he wanted the special issue to 'priviledge robust empirical study' into the likes of wikis and social networking tools in formal learning contexts. He calls for a serious debate on these issues, as a means to move away from the 'hype' and presumptions of Web 2.0 toward a more critical perspective. There are 6 main articles in the issue, but two stand out for me, both of which deal with how Facebook is being used in education.

The first article examines Facebook as a tool for socialising. Written by Clare Madge and her colleagues, the article reveals that socialising is the prime functionality of the service, and that attempts to use it in a formal educational context are problematic. 'We therefore feel that it is important that the British Higher Education sector is aware of Facebook and recognises its potential and importance to students but we would recommend caution about moving into a social networking space that students clearly feel is 'theirs' for social rather than academic purposes'.

Madge C, Meek J, Wellens J and Hooley T (2009) Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work'. Learning, Media and Technology, 34 (2), 141-155.

The second stand out paper is by Neil Selwyn, who explores students' actual education related use of Facebook. He uses Goffman's notion of presentation of self through 'facework' to analyse the comments from a number of university students, and counsels: '...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'.

Selwyn N (2009) Faceworking: exploring students' education-related use of Facebook, Learning, Media and Technology, 34 (2), 157-174.

Read also: Mistaken Goal Blog

Image source

One bad apple

When the Israelites went into battle against the men of Ai, they were soundly defeated. It was a shock for them. They weren't in the habit of losing. The whole nation became discouraged, and their 'hearts melted and became like water'. They remind me of a first rate Barcelona soccer team, so confident and fired up for victory, who are then defeated 0-3 in their own splendid Camp Nou stadium, by a supposedly second rate team of no-hopers (insert your least favourite team here). The Israelites couldn't believe they had been given such a kicking, after enjoying so many other famous victories against all the odds. Then they discovered that one of their soldiers, a fella called Achan, had disobeyed orders and had stolen a whole shedload of silver and gold which should have belonged to the people. Because Achan had disobeyed God, the entire Israelite army had been collectively punished. After this little local problem had been 'dealt with', the Israelites went back for the return match, and beat seven shades out of the Ai first team. The whole story is found in the Bible, in Joshua, Chapter 7.

This story reminds me of the problems surrounding mobile phones and social networking services, and how so many schools have banned their use during school hours. These are inherently neutral tools which can be used for good or bad. Because there have been some isolated incidences of abuse, such as cyberbullying, most schools have banned these tools outright. There are good arguments for this approach of course, including duty of care and the need to protect vulnerable individuals. Yet many are now questioning such a blanket ban on these tools in schools. Children still use their mobile phones anyway, regardless of the ban. They just do it secretly, like smoking a crafty cigarette behind the bike sheds. They also use the websites that have been banned on school premises when they go home. The threat still exists, but outside of the remit of the school. So should schools continue their bans, or should they begin to reintroduce access to social networks on school premises, where the environment is a lot more controlled than at home, and educate children into safer use? Should schools now begin to tap into the tremendous liberating potential of mobile phones to promote better pedagogy, whilst showing children that they can be a positive thing, not something that should be disallowed?

I remember when I was in school that if one student misbehaved but remained unidentified, the teacher would punish the entire class. We all suffered because of the bad behaviour of one individual, just like the Israelites paid a stiff price because of the sins of Achan.

I wondering if the same thing is happening in schools today. I'm just asking. Are we in danger of placing negative connotations onto mobile phones and social networking services, so that children only think of them as illicit, or something that is divorced from learning? Are we storing up trouble for the future, whilst we deprive children the opportunity to explore learning using new tools? Here's my key question: Is the blanket ban the real bad apple in the bunch? The Osmonds and The Jacksons both sang 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch'. Well it will if it's left there long enough.

Image source

Blogging is good for you

Hot on the heels of last month's furore over health issues and social networking, comes a study suggesting that those who blog enjoy better social relationships. The consternation you may recall was due to unfounded statements by respected psychologists Susan Greenfield and Aric Sigman about how the use of Facebook and other social web tools could cause psychological problems including ADHD and autism in young people. The pro-blog findings come in a psychological study conducted by the delightfully named Ko and Kuo. British Psychological Society journal The Psychologist takes up the story:

Ko and Kuo surveyed 692 university students who blogged and found that those who used their blogs more to share information about their feelings, emotions and experiences also tended to report a greater sense of social belonging and superior well-being. The study is limited by its cross-sectional design, but Ko and Kuo further noted that the audiences for the students' blogs were largely made up of their real-life friends and class-mates. 'Blogging does not diminish substantial relationships in real life but, on the contrary, helps to enhance bloggers' existing relationships through social bonding' they said.

In another slap in the face for Susan Greenfield, a Which report led by neuroscientist Chris Baird suggests that the brain-training games she endorses are supported by only very weak evidence over their effectiveness. 'People who buy brain-trainers to keep their minds in shape may be just as well off leading active social lives or surfing the internet.' Which Magazine says on its website.

See, it isn't that hard to do a little research to establish the strength of a claim. Maybe certain other psychologists will do the same in future before they start making their wild claims. There, now I've got that off my chest, I feel strangely better.

Article Source: The Psychologist, 22 (4), 293.

Image Source

Twitter made my head explode

It's official. Facebook can give you cancer. Prolonged use of the Internet causes autism. ADHD. Heart disease. (And Twitter may make your head explode). Baroness 'Susan' Greenfield's recent comments in the House of Lords have caused no end of consternation. Her controversial claims are about the effect of computers on children's health. Greenfield seems to think that there may be links between autism and the prevalance of 'screen relationships' where kids interact with their peers predominantly online. Her basic premise is that the skills we draw upon when communicating face to face wither and die when we persist in technology mediated communication. She mentions body posture, vocal intonation, and even pheromones. To cap it all, the fragrant baroness suggests that prolonged use of screen technologies might be linked to a rise in ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). She is quoted as saying: "It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations." This she says, will lead to shorted attention spans and increased recklessness.

Other respected psychologists weigh in with similar opinions, including Dr Aric Sigman who suggests in the journal Biologist that 'a lack of face-to-face contact could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels and the function of arteries'. There is even a danger, he says of cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia. There is no scientific evidence for this he warns, but lack of proof should not stop us from believing there are long term effects to exposure to social networking sites and other internet activity. Just because a women from Cancer Research UK dismisses the claims, doesn't mean we should ignore them. (Here's some video footage of a BBC TV Newsnight programme framing the debate).

After all, these scientists are above reproach and therefore they cannot be wrong, can they? Dr Ben Goldacre of Bad Science thinks they are both wrong. But what does he know? He runs his own blog so he must be biased. Perhaps Facebook does give you cancer! I must admit I am more that a little worried by these reports. For example, I am now worried that my mouse will give me a sexually transmitted disease, or that prolonged use of Twitter will cause my head to explode in a manner reminiscent of the movie 'Scanners'.

Well if all these very respected human scientists are telling us that children's health is at risk because of their use of screen technologies, I suppose we must believe them mustn't we? Eat manure, they tell us. Why? Because fifty billion flies can't be wrong.

(Image source: www.pro.corbis.com)

Safe is as safe does

There is a lot of talk at the moment about how safe personal spaces are, and about how secure our personal data is on social networking sites. Over on our online e-learning community Digifolios and Personal Spaces we are busy debating some of these questions. As I ponder these issues, I'm mindful of the movie Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks as a cognivitely challenged individual who works hard to make his way through life. When people call him 'stupid' he simply deflects them with a quote from his mother: 'stupid is as stupid does'. The meaning behind this is clear - no-one is inherently stupid - it is ultimately their behaviour that makes them so.

By the same token, I believe that no online environment is inherently 'unsafe' - Richard Clark famously argued that all media are neutral until content is placed within them. I believe this to be true. A personal online space is only unsafe for me if I behave in an unsafe manner. Giving away personal details such as your mobile phone number in an environment which is open for viewing, can definitely be considered unsafe, unless of course you are actively seeking strangers to contact you. Same goes for posting your image up on Facebook or Flickr. Some photos may capture someone in an embarrassing situation or 'compromising position' (read 'drunk and behaving badly'), but it all depends on whether that individual is intending on applying for a high profile job, or has a clean reputation to uphold, if this is actually perceived to be unsafe.

My reasoning is this - every individual has (or should have) control over the content they post to represent themselves digitally. What you choose to divulge on an open, public social networking site must ultimately be down to you. If you don't have control, something is wrong, (e.g. someone may have wrested control over some of your personal details or content, or may have posted a photo of you up onto the web without your knowledge or consent) - if that is the case, then litigation is an available option. If we each maintain control over our own content and profiles and are careful with what we divulge, the onus is then on each of us to represent him/herself appropriately.

What are your views on the safety of personal online sites? Comments are also being posted here.

Slugs and snails and social enzymes

Learning has rarely been a solo activity. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have learnt something significant without the help or influence of others (and counting on my fingers wasn't learnt without help, believe me). No, we are not isolated learners, but learn our most important lessons whilst in conversation with others. Conversation is of course often technologically mediated in this digital age. You and I no longer need to occupy the same location to converse. We can use text, audio or video in a number of modes and through a mind dazzling range of technologies. And there is a record - an archive - of our conversation if we want one.

This is how the current tools and services found on the Web are being used in so many new ways to connect, share and converse. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, microblogs, social networking... all are very powerful tools for people to use to make connections with each other... and to learn.

Formal learning is not the only type of learning possible, you see. More often, we are learning informally, while playing a massively multi-player online role playing game for example, or listening to a podcast about a news item. You are learning something new now by reading this blog post, and I learnt something new while I was writing it. We are aware of each other. When we search for an item on the web and get sidetracked down one or more other routes because they look more interesting... we are informally learning something new. When we eavesdrop on Twitter conversations, and simply 'lurk', we are learning informally. When we watch a YouTube video because several thousand people have already given it 5 stars .... we are learning informally. You may see this as serendipity - a kind of happy accident - and you may be right. Informal learning, more often than not, is unplanned. But that does not make it less worthwhile than formalised methods of learning.

The rhizomatic nature of Web 2.0 is making it easier for all of us to connect together, and to learn informally within a socially rich environment which is strewn liberally with the digital footprints of those who have gone before us. We are in effect, constructing our own informal learning pathways simply by following what others have done before - and here is the neatest trick. When we take what others have created (thanks to creative commons and a loosening of the grip or ownership and copyright) and we repurpose them for our own use, our own informal learning... we are creating new footprints for the next informal learner to follow. And on it goes. Informal learning and Web 2.0 need each other. They have synergy and we should not forget the social dimensions each relies upon for their success.

Andy Clark provides a very evocative metaphor when he talks about snail trails in his book 'Natural Born Cyborgs'. Clark shows that snails and slugs lay down slime trails that are rich in enzymes as they seek food sources. The second gastropod that follows the trail expends less energy and enzymes to reach the food, and so on until by the time the tenth snail slides down the pathway, the journey is almost effortless. In the same way, as we travel down digital pathways we leave a trail - perhaps a social bookmark, a Delicious tag, a Stumbled Upon note - which points the way for others to find your nugget of information. WE are in Michael Wesch's terms 'teaching the machine'. But we are also teaching each other. The more we lay down these pathways, the more we are building the community of practice that is Web 2.0.

Right. That's this blog post finished. I'm off now to lay down some social enzymes.

Changing the architecture?

I couldn't help cringing as I read an article on Fortune Magazine online today by Jessi Hempel. Entitled 'Web 2.0 is so over. Welcome to Web 3.0', Hempel stalks the concept of Web 2.0, pounces from behind and then narrowly misses before crashing painfully to the ground. The tagline says it all: Facebook and Twitter may be more popular than ever among users, but what are they worth?

It's not about the use and popularity of social networking and blogging that is so important to Hempel, as ... wait for it.... how much money they can make. In this respect, s/he suggests, Web 2.0 has been an abject failure. Well, perhaps Web 2.0 is a failure financially, but Hempel is clearly missing the point about Web 2.0 tools and services. This is an argument reminiscent to the banal ramblings of the likes of Andrew Keen, tinged with a smidgeon of bitterness that he failed to become an ultra-rich member of the Silicon Valley Set. Hempel suggests that while we are Facebooking each other, we are ignoring all the pay-per-click ads that are loitering on the sidebars of our screens. Shame. Ironically, the Fortune page on which the post appears is positively teeming with strong-arm ads such as '1 Rule to a Flat Stomach', 'End Back Pain in 2009' and a link to seduce readers to 'try Fortune for free for 2 issues!' (Personally I found it hard to ignore them).

Well, I have some news. The whole point of Web 2.0, is that it's not about making profit or screwing over the opposition. It is not about creating killer applications either. That's because Web 2.0 is not and has never been about tools or services, many of which have been around almost as long as the Web itself. No, Web 2.0 is more about how people are connecting, sharing and communicating using the tools and services. There never was a revolution on the Web. It was always an evolution - a gradual transition across the web from a 'quagmire of stickiness' to an 'architecture of participation'. Web 2.0 is about user-generated content and community. Web 2.0 is rich and exciting because anyone can participate and contribute. If and when Web 3.0 comes along (and some would argue it is already here) it will still be about making connections, sharing and contributing. This will be done in a more intelligent and economic manner we hope, but it won't make any more money than any of the social networking tools have done. Let's leave that for the likes of Google, eBay and Amazon.

Web 2.0 services that have survived whilst others have fallen do so because they are popular and supported by their users (Wikipedia is a classic example of users funding the resource). Those that fail are subject to a virtual natural selection process - the survival of the most relevant. If it's good, it will survive somehow. Let's keep Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 (yes, and Web x.0 too) as a means of creating and maintaining our communities of interest and practice, and stop worrying about whether we can make money out of them, shall we?

Buzz words of 2008

With the year drawing to a close, and with 2009 breathing down our necks, one interesting thing I like to do in the holiday downtime is to look back on the year. This time last year I revisited some of the tech buzz words of 2007. Here we go again with 2008.... Although some of these words (or phrases) are not strictly '2008' words, or are just emerging, they have begun to rise in prominence or are perhaps being used to describe things that weren't really available or widely known about, this time last year. If you have other buzz words you think should be added to this list, please use the comments box below. Here are my 12 in alphabetical order:

Blog groveling: This is the practice of certain companies to try to court popular bloggers and influencers to test, sample or endorse their new product or service. It extends to blog posting too. I have been approached several times by those who wanted to write ‘guest posts’ on my blog. When I vetted the posts some could best be described as 'product placement.' I don’t know whether I should be flattered or depressed.

Cloud Computing: Distributing your files away from your desktop and/or accessing programs and services across the Internet using large networks of remote servers. Used to be called distributed computing, but I think cloud computing sounds a little more friendly. Makes sense, I suppose.

Digital Cliff: No, nothing to do with the Peter Pan of Pop going virtual. It describes a sharp degradation of a digital broadcast signal if receivers are beyond a certain distance. This 'digital cliff' could be encountered when broadcasters stop transmitting analogue signals early in 2009. Viewers who received clear analogue signals may find that the new digital signals don’t work.

DWT: Not so much a new word as a new acronym. Driving While Texting – not only downright dangerous, but also stupid.

Edupunk: The philosophy that we should all ‘do it ourselves’, by spurning commercialism and rejecting large corporate products such as PowerPoint and BlackBoard in education (notice I'm not linking to them, so I must be an edupunk!). A word originally coined by so called Edupunk ‘Poster Boy’ Jim Groom. I have blogged about this several times over the year and even gave a presentation on Edupunk at the ALT-C Fringe this year in Leeds.

Friendiligence: This is the amount of your time you spend managing friend requests on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LInkedIn, etc, etc…. ‘Friendiligence’ reflects the oversaturation of the social networking sphere and the need to ask what your criteria are for ‘friending’ people. Are they real or is it actually spam? Do I actually want 2 million friends on Facebook, or will a paltry 1 million be enough?

Longphoto: This is a video clip of 90 seconds or less. It’s a term used by the photo-sharing Web service Flickr, which began allowing videos to be posted to its site in 2008. Go Pro for $25 a year and you get this facility. Longphotos are not long enough to capture an Obama speech, but long enough to show someone throwing their shoes at Dubya.

MicroTubing: Happening as a kind of ‘atomisation’ of popular media such as television. New forms of content are rapidly proliferating on the social web and many of these appeal to increasingly smaller and more specialised audiences. YouTube has snatched away the initiative from many previously established content producers, and the DVD and satellite TV revolution is also causing MicroTubing to gain pace. Odds on, if you ask someone in work 'did you watch ... last night' - they probably didn't.

Nomophobia: No Mo Phobia (geddit?) Fear of being out of mobile phone contact for a significant period of time. Strikes me that it had to come eventually, although for a while now we have probably been describing this condition as ‘mobile phone addiction’ or tech-dependency.

Photobombing: Inserting an image of yourself in the background of someone else’s photograph. Not sure why people would want to do this, but I suppose it takes all kinds. Photoshop has a lot to answer for.

Swipeout: This occurs when the magnetic strip on your credit card has worn out due to overuse. Not sure whether this word will continue to be in use when the credit crunch and recession really begin to bite in the coming month. Like many workers, it may become redundant...

Anything with Tw- in front of it! ...all these words are inspired by the very popular micro-blogging service Twitter. It allows you to share what you are thinking or doing in just 140 characters per message, by ‘tweeting’ your message to those who ‘follow you’ by subscribing to your stream. Twitter has been so popular in 2008 it has inspired new words and related Web sites. Twitter users (Tweeple or Twits) can now meet up (Tweet-up) and can even check out how successful their tweeting is on Twittergrader. Twemes, Tweetdeck and Twittergroups are just a few other examples of the growing plethora of allied services that have recently appeared – watch out for many more in 2009.

World War 2.0: There's a battle raging out there between those who are committed to the idea of a democratic, open and socially rich web, and those who want to maintain strict control over it, content and concept. The polemic between Andrew Keen (who famously compared bloggers to ‘monkeys with typewriters’) and Web 2.0 champions such as Donald Clarke and Don Tapscott will continue, and we may even witness the outbreak of World War 3.0.

e-Vampire: This is a derogatory term referring to electrical equipment that consumes electricity while in standby mode. It’s symptomatic of our society’s new conscience on going green and saving energy.

I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a very happy and successful new year!

Bored to tiers

A lot of the rhetoric surrounding the more popular social networking sites such as FaceBook, MySpace and Bebo seems to be related to the more negative factors such as identity theft, threats to children, breahes in privacy of personal data and copyright theft. Now FaceBook and the others have a new threat to contend with. A recent new item in The Register (an interesting little online journal with the tag line 'biting the hand that feed IT') suggests that large sections of the previously avid social networking population are feeling a little bored about poking each other, throwing sheep and sharing their favourite movies, iPod downloads or party tricks. Apparently they are leaving in .... well, droves. Makes you wonder where they are actually going to get their online kicks.

So I guess now we all have to wait to see what the next killer social web application will be. Whatever it is will probably assail our senses and grab our attention, subscriptions and precious spare time all over again, as we all queue up in our neat little rows to join up in case we might be missing something. Where will it all end?

Probably in tiers.

Flickring about

I've been playing around with Flickr during my holiday, and I'm quite impressed at how quickly you can upload images, tag them, geomap them (locate photos on a map to show where they were taken) and publicise them to all and sundry. In just three days of being a Flickr member, I have posted 27 photos, received 50 views and about half a dozen comments, all very positive, about my artistic expertise and skills in photogenic composition (here's one I made earlier - know where it is anyone??). If you want to see some more, you go to my photo collection and have a look. This is all very encouraging and affirmative stuff, and must be a key reason why Flickr is so addictive. Flickrites are just so darn nice!

Anyway, it got me thinking about all the teaching and learning posibilities of Flickr and other photo-sharing/social networking services. A big selling point is the fact that the discussion centres upon an object - in this case an image - which could be any kind of learning object. Another useful feature is that there is the facility to 'favourite' an image - this counts as a kind of polling or voting function - another useful learning tool.

Now I've got the hang of it, I'm busying my little mind on how I can possibly harness the potential of Flickr (and Picasa, and others) to enhance my teaching sessions, and enable students to become more creative in their learning endeavours.

At the bleeding edge

Came across an interesting blog on mobile technologies today, called Learn on-the-go. Whilst the title of the blog might be a little twee - (I had disturbing visions of someone reading a book on the toilet) - the content is pretty good, with a review of Marc Prensky's keynote address at the recent Handheld Learning 2007 conference held in London. Whilst not entirely glowing about Prensky's 'Keeping up with change' speech, even labelling him as 'obselete' at one point, this blog writer has some interesting things to say about mobile learning, change management and technology in general...

Here's a top quote from the blog:

'While slower, less progressive educators may still be comfortably exploring e-learning on learning management systems or off CD-ROMs (or, indeed, still doing chalk-and-talk), educators investigating mobile learning are very much at the cutting edge of educational innovation, along with other educators investigating other areas such as the use of social web tools for education, and the use of virtual worlds as learning environments.'

Well, yes, I agree - change is always with us, and shift happens. And I have to nod in agreement that the bleeding edge of learning technology is found in the study of ambient forms of learning, along with 3-D virtual worlds and social networking tools. I'll be bookmarking this blog and paying a return visit or two.