למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

Lately I have been off blog much more than on, posting a few times a month, not a week, while reading with pleasure and a bit of wonderment about the whirlwind travels and explorations of Bryan, Stephen, Nancy and many others on my Bloglines feeds. At times I've thought perhaps I should blog more often--I certainly have many entries swirling about in my head, and I've got to post some recent talks--but quick posts just don't do it for me as a thinker, as a writer.

It takes time for the many loose strands of thought to converge into a unified post; it takes a lot of effort, a lot of energy, and a lot (I know, I know sometimes too much) writing. And some posts never quite find their footing; they remain awkward and tangled when I don't have enough time or courage or energy or ability to go deep.

מאז הולדת ווב 2.0 מדברים (שוב) על יצירת תכנים בידי הגולשים.

אצלנו אף חזרו למודלים מוקדמים של יצירת תוכן בידי מומחים וצריכתם בידי המורים, בלא יכולת של המורים להוסיף תכנים משל עצמם.

has been working with his 4th and 5th grade students learning Google Sketch-Up. They are currently creating houses, learning how to wrap textures, place objects and manipulate the environment within in Sketch-Up. This is leading up to a planned community building activity, both figuratively and literally. ... Tony has been searching Google Earth looking for housing developments that are partially completed.

For example he recently found a location in Google Earth that had streets and cul-de-sacs laid, but construction had not yet started. He used the path tools within Google Earth to create lots. After the students become a bit more familiar with Sketch-Up, Tony will assign them specific lots in the housing development with the idea that each student will build a home on a lot. Part of the process will involve discussion of zoning and building codes. The students will decide on rules and regulations for their community. I’m looking forward to watching the process develop.

Are we deforming information by google bombing? If so are both the website and the google bombing both acts of disinformation? Do we acknowledge by doing this that the marketplace of ideas is now secondary to page rank as a democratic value?

According to Digg founder Kevin Rose, the Rumsfeld news was submitted to Digg three minutes after the Associated Press released it; four minutes later, the story had acquired enough "diggs" to jump to the front page of the site. The speed at which the Rumsfeld news--a quick read at only two sentences--was promoted to the front page of Digg "broke a record," said Rose last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

I was in the Mary Dow Reading Room of the Park Library yesterday. I was browsing through some new issues of Time Magazine. Two female students came in behind me. The one says to the other, "And in this room, the library keeps printed out web pages."

At a meeting recently, I heard a speaker refer to the use of technology in her school and subsequent questions arising from this as “ The Human Factor”. Will technology rob us of what is authentic in schools? Will technology invite us to abandon face to face communication? Will technology trivialize education? How do we preserve our humanity in this digital world?

It was not too long ago that I actually had students creating book reports in PowerPoint. I cringe when I think about the lack of creativity I brought to that assignment!

Meanwhile many French speakers are using a rather unique platform, set up by a non-profit organisation, called Parano.be. Although it's based on rather basic technology (php), it has a huge number of users and survives on donations made by the biggest fans of the site. There is no advertising at all. Members join specific sectors based on their interests, which include sector-specific forums, bulletin boards and a number of other features.

they continue to view their profession as one that will be founded on a discrete, unchanging body of information that they will acquire before graduating. We might all deride the notion of the teacher/professor reciting the same lectures and lessons plans year after year, but somehow this does not alter this belief that a degree will certify us once and for all as authorities. Sure, all these teacher-students recognize that they will gain experience as teachers, learn helpful tips along the way, and become better practitioners. But this development of practice is separated from the acquisition of authoritative knowledge.

And this faith exists in both K-12 and college faculty.

The threat of the network is the dissolution of this authority. The ongoing development of media and networks requires us to keep moving. It doesn't mean that what we've learned has no value; it means that it cannot establish us as authorities. We cannot imagine the classroom as resting upon a core body of knowledge. We are engaged in a technocultural shift that shakes the very foundations of epistemology: what began as a philosophical critique in theory now becomes a material condition.

We are asking teachers in large measure to abdicate their authority in the classroom, at least in the content sense. And what then remains to be authoritative about?

The initiative emphasizes four goals: Prioritize local news over national news; publish more user-generated content; become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more; and finally, use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.

In education, I think we will encounter a similar model - instead of completely doing away with traditional structures, we will (and are beginning to) see a gradual blend. That will be stage one. After the existing model has adjusted to more learner-centric processes, the real change will be possible.