Emerging Technologies for learning

I enjoyed this article. The concept I find exciting is "collective intelligence". I find that as a group more can be done than individually. I was surprised to see that 70% of students first turn on IM when they get on their computer. I heard a quote that "email is what I use when I want to talk to old people" - something along those lines. I find the two linked. When it's possible to leverage the input of a group the collective intelligence is truly brought into being. What that means for learning and education is a different matter. I think the article was well balanced in that it acknowledged the limitations of tech savvy and maturity. There are still needs for guidance and training and it's important not to mistake knowing how to use the tools for actually having something to say.

wiki, Sylvia, Common Craft

Here is rss for my wiki, http://ericmarshall.org/wiki/feed.php
I think perhaps we have too many places to upload things. Blog, wiki, ning, netvibes, iLearn. Mulitply this by several classes and it's quickly very confusing to someone already largely confused like myself. I also think deadlines that aren't related to the day class meets are difficult also. I have so many days to upload this or that it's confusing. Welcome to grad school I suppose! It would be nice if the system could remind me when things are due, like my cell phone does. OK, enough rant.

I really enjoyed Sylvia's presentation. How inspiring! I think she should host the learning tools herself and then make the money from all those Google Ads that wetpaint is running on her site. Add to the teacher's income a little! Wonderful enthusiasm and dedication to her work. I find that super-refreshing. Thanks for bringing her to class. I can learn a lot in person from a person's attitude, which might be hard to get from an online experience.

Emerging Technologies

I found this reading exciting. I already use many of the technologies mentioned and look forward to the benefits of their continued adoption. I enjoyed that the book is itself using the principles it expounds. I think that student-centered learning will be adopted, but perhaps at the expense of our existing brick and mortar institutions. I see the idea of m-learning occurring anywhere and in small bits of time as very important. As with other post-modern ideas, I think we will see learning fragment and become more specific to meet the needs of smaller audiences. I think we will also see the death of the 40 hour week as smaller units of time become more viable.

Eluminate

OK, I already posted this somewhere and am a little confused, hope it wasn't to my 801 class....

Taking the course on Eluminate was great. I was sick and didn't want to spread my cold to everyone. I enjoyed the class presentations. One hard point was that I was on a little bit spotty wifi connection and the audio wasn't too clear so I did miss some of Kim's points. I think when she walked too far forward it was hard to hear. Eluminate does this think where the voice get higher when it's having bandwidth issues which makes things sound very surreal - especially when you're sick. Overall I think it's great benefit to be able to participate remotely.

Connectivism

I like the idea that a variety of opinions leads to knowledge. It seems like a more democratic process. By connecting various nodes each individual creates their own perspective with builds a "truth" for them at that time. With the increasingly short half life of information choosing what to learn and what sources to heed becomes more and more important to becoming informed.

Cartography Metaphor, BayChi 9/9

Hi ITECers

There is an interesting article on A List Apart about cartography as a metaphor instead of "architecture"

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/mappingmemory

Also there is an upcoming BayChi meeting that sounds good. I have class that night and can't go, so please give a report if you make it there!
www.baychi.org
Upcoming BayCHI Events
Monthly Program Meeting
September 9, 2008
PARC, Palo Alto
Creating Adaptive and Personalized User Experiences
Niall Kennedy, web technologist, founder of the Widget Summit
Sketching Metaphors
Bill Verplank, CCRMA at Stanford