I spend little time on YouTube, but an event in which I participated recently ended up as a YouTube video. Amazing they could talk 1/3 of us into doing this.
YouTube finds related posts and offers them to viewers. In this case, the next UND video on the list is something about a drunk student participating in a campus parade. I guess this is the reality of the participatory web in action.
Oh, I’m the guy in the green shirt about half way up just to the right of the D.
A recently completed Harris poll offers some information on the question of do parents take a role in introducing their children to the Internet. Mothers, particularly mothers who grew up with the Internet, seem to take a much more active role. The survey itself appears to have been focused on who introduces children to the Internet and at what age. What was missing in the data provided, which seem to indicate many children are involved at a young age, was information regarding what advice/direction young Internet users were given. 1-800-905-Geek, the sponsor for the study, offers some summary data and related suggestions for keeping children safe online (see pdf).
Most higher education is based on modernism, with its roots in the Enlightenment and the values of optimism, discoverable truth, reason, and science. Postmodernism tends to be more pessimistic, sees “truth” as individually created, to value opinion and preference over truth, experience over science or reason, and to foster a delegitimation of authority. (Taylor, 2006 pdf)
It is interesting how thinking patterns can fall into a rut. I seem to recall an expression to this effect – “if the tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail”. Clearly, technology is my hammer.
I am involved in a graduate class focused on developing the teaching skills of future college professors. No, I am not there because of personal skills, but I do have plenty of stories to tell. The course has involved me with a different literature than I normally follow. The introduction to the book the group is reading made reference to studies on college freshman (e.g., the annual American Freshman survey) and the expectations and attitudes of this group. A great deal of the descriptive information sounded familiar and seemed to match the “engage me or enrage me” challenge (Prensky) I have somehow connected to digital natives. This is a literature with a broader view of education and learning than classroom educators (professors) tend to adopt. It has more of a “Dean of Students” and “Student Affairs” perspective. Technology is there among the influences, but it is important to note that greater use of technology covaries with other factors.
I think I prefer thinking of myself as a modern (rather than a postmodern) in comparison to an immigrant (rather than a native). Beyond that, this new material raises similar concerns and similar challenging and sometimes confusing suggestions.
Students can only connect the course’s content to their own lives, in application and meaning, if they are given the opportunity to actively work with the material. The time pressures on many students obviate this happening outside of class, so it must happen in class.
Class time is too valuable to spend transmitting information. ….. If students must pass a content-based quiz at the beginning of each class to participate in that day’s learning activities, ….. they might be more likely to come to class prepared to learn. (from page 2:52 of the pdf linked above).
The use of class time has become one my new preoccupations. Whatever happened to “study” or self regulated learning. My poor pragmatic mind just has difficulty making the pieces fit. I do encourage your reading of this material – I guess I assume you also fall into the modern category. 😉
Cindy alerted to me a blog discussion between David Warlich and Matthew Tabor concerning the value and purpose of educational blogs and blogging. Without a thorough reading of the entire strand and thus without addressing these bloggers, here is my take on the issue.
I tend to have to convert the arguments of others to my own circumstances and language. I suppose this frustrates others, but as I understand the position of the social constructivists to claim to do otherwise would be a misrepresentation. Here are some distinctions I find useful and where I see my view of blogging within these distinctions.
1) Information transmission vs. personal knowledge generation.
I see the teaching/learning process as involving these components. The phrase “knowledge transmission” is probably on the outs these days. It is lumped with other derogatory phrases such as “sage on the stage”. I am not going to take the time to argue that this position is simplistic here, but rather to suggest that learning requires inputs and to argue that I would prefer quality inputs. I don’t feel blogs represent quality inputs. The information “A listers” for me don’t seem to have blogs (at least to my knowledge).
I think blogs come into play in that “personal knoweldge generation” stage. One of my most common work related complaints (according to my wife) is that I don’t have colleagues I can engage to discuss my academic interests. Even at the most educated level, I am surrounded by psychologists and instructional designers, but not instructional technologist. It is very difficult locally to find individuals who read what I read or think frequently about what I think about. Partly through blogging, the Internet provides these types of conversations. There is the opportunity to search for folks who at least write about what I find interesting.
I treat what these bloggers have to say the same way I treat “coffee room” conversations. The give and take in these settings helps me think about what I value and helps me feel connected. However, the conversations drift from current topic to current topic and I can exercise little control over the agenda. I pick up things here and there. Perhaps this should be described as general education rather than something more specific, but at least the topics are within my general field of interest. Even within this context, any blogger is free to generate a post focused on whatever is personally relevant. Like the conversation with colleagues, sometimes this turns the conversation and sometimes it does not. At least you had the opportunity to think about what you had to say.
I have a second way of describing this same distinction. In my research I make a distinction between information acquisition processes and study processes. I create and evaluate technology supported environments and it has been helpful to claim my interest is in applications to the study environment rather than to the acquisition environment. I think of blogging as more of a study tool.
2) Primary vs. secondary vs. everyone has an opinion sources
It probably is beginning to become more apparent where I am going. Somewhere along the way I started thinking about the difference between primary and secondary sources. I think the context had something to do with Cindy’s “Teaching American History” grant because the terminology is common in that context. Whether appropriate or not, I have adopted the ideas to other circumstances. Unless one’s purpose is to comment on the specific practices of blogging, I see blog content when well done as representing a secondary source. Most often, it should actually be positioned in the third category.
I make this observation regarding only the “content” of the blogosphere. As my first distinction indicates, the process of sharing opinions and secondary sources can be beneficial to those who externalize their opinions and summaries as blog posts and to those who treat such sources as opportunities for conversation.
3) Blogging is what you (not they) make it
Somewhere in the archives of this blog is my attempt to represent the main reason why my own blog exists. I was too lazy to search for it for very long and probably did not include key words that would make the post easy to find.
Briefly put, I think what I decided was that my blog was a place I keep personal comments I think are interesting at the time and I may want to use more purposefully later. As in – I think I found a web site with that kind of information or offering that kind of service, I think I remember a book on that topic – now where did I see that. I also assume others may sometimes find these same ideas/services to be useful and my posts may represent a “heads up” for them.
If you blog, your intent may be different. You may be prioritizing the meaningful conversation potential of blogging (even if you are mostly talking to yourself – self-talk is OK). You may even feel you are offering your learned comments for the benefit of others.
Blogging is what you make it. But you can only make it that for youself.
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This is kind of interesting – the U.S. Census Bureau has compiled a collection of data relevant to the K12 environment under the heading Back to School 2007-2008 (thanks to Ray Schroeder for this lead).
You have to scroll down quite a ways to find the technology section. In looking at the topics (e.g., use of computer or Internet to complete school assignments – 75% and 66%), I continue to be amazed by how dated the sources are on such topics. The government cites data from 2003. I have been trying to remember how I used a computer in 2003. I remember the components were pretty much the same (keyboard, monitor, etc.). I don’t remember Second Life, creating a wiki, creating a wiki within Blackboard, YouTube, free CNN video, Last.FM, slingbox, the iphone, listening to college lectures from MIT and U.C. Berkeley as late night entertainment when I can’t sleep, etc. Now, some of these options may have been available and they escaped by attention, but most are new. Think the stats have changed?
I do appreciate the effort of whomever put together the list. Not his/her fault the data are old.
I took a little walk to the University of North Dakota Barnes and Noble bookstore this afternoon. I started class today and there seemed a mix up with the book I use in Educational Psychology. I wanted to see what was on the shelf.
When at the bookstore I also take a walk down the aisle where our book is displayed. It is fun to see it there. The book has been out for a year so nearly all of the books in the stack now have a used sticker. That is the way the course book market goes.
There were a couple of books in the stack that looked like the covers had been reattached with duct tape and that seemed kind of odd. When I pulled one to take a look, I found most of the entire cover had been covered with this kind of plastic mask. I recognized that the image showing through the mask was different than the cover of the other books and it then dawned on me why the plastic had been attached to the cover. I took a picture with my cell phone and headed home.
The bookstore was selling books intended as examination copies for instructors. The printing on the cover clearly states that the book is an instructor’s copy, is provided free of charge for the purpose of examination, and sale or resale is prohibited. Pretty hard to miss the assumptions made by the publishing company in providing a copy to the instructor.
If you look closely at the repurposed copy, you will see a comment “support recycling” and an assurance that all of the pages in the book are still there. The publishing companies have a recycling plan too. Most examination copies now come with a return label so that the instructor can ship the book back to the publisher at no expense if there is no reason to keep the book on his/her shelf. No one says the rejects must accumulate in local land fills.
I wonder about the reason for the mask. Is the book store embarrassed to admit they sell books clearly not intended for sale? Would such a message be contrary to the values supposedly promoted by educational institutions?
I wonder if institutions such as mine condone this practice. A recent edict made it clear that faculty members cannot accept gifts/payments associated with the adoption of a textbook. Ironic isn’t it – it is unacceptable to accept a couple hundreds bucks as payment for serious consideration of an adopted book, but perhaps fine to make far more selling the books you don’t adopt.
P.S. This post prompted considerable discussion among my faculty colleagues. One who obviously is more familiar with the official expectations of our university than I am sent me the following.
11.2 COMPLIMENTARY TEXTBOOKS
The University Senate strongly recommends that complimentary textbooks which are not being retained not be resold. These books should be donated to the appropriate UND library, a colleague, or another nonprofit institution or otherwise appropriately disposed of without infringing on the right of the publisher and/or author. The University Bookstore is requested to refrain from selling complimentary copies of textbooks.
Approved: UND Senate, 02-01-90
(I bolded the last sentence.)
I really love this time of year on a college campus. No matter what my age, the beginning of classes brings the same excitement year after year. I hope students share this excitement. Those of us in this environment have the luxury of focusing on our own improvement for an extended period of time and this opportunity should be appreciated.
David Warlick raised the question about our ability to relate to new students in an interesting way and one that seems to have generated a wide variety of comments and related posts. His daughter (if I remember the post correctly) is taking several Methods courses and he recommended that she wait until the end of the opening remarks – the time when the prof asks if there are any questions – and then:
Would suggest that someone ask,
“What blogs do you read?”
If the instructor stammers or in any other way answers in the
unknowing or the untrusting, then there’s opportunity for everyone in
this class to learn.Of course, you do not want to be the one who asked the question that
the instructor couldn’t answer — especially if it might seem, in any
way, loaded. So immediately ask what journals he or she reads. Save
face!
To save students from my class the trouble – here is my feed. My list is not very long – in contrast my wife who reviews approx. a hundred feeds. We take a little different approach. She reads more and I write more (this our own version of the Read/Write web). I would also probably not be able to remember the names of the blogs I read or in most cases the individuals who generate the content. As Warlick suggests, I would be more specific regarding the journals I follow. I find blogs stimulating, but I read the journals for the more data oriented approach I need to balance the observations and opinions.
I am not sure it matters what the source is as long as one has a regular flow of inputs (quality ideas from a variety of sources) and one takes the time to think about these inputs.
Rather than ask about blogs, I think my questions of students would be “What is the last nonfiction book you read?” “What was the last trip you took that changed the way you think about the world?”
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