The New Digital Age and Diigo

It seems a bit strange to be speaking about a New Digital Age Transforming Nations Business and Our Lives - Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. http://www.newdigitalage.com/

Having finished chapter 7 it was an interesting read as it relates to my work at the United Nations. Not that at this moment I am directly involved in the issues with regards to Natural Disaster or War but they could be an assignment away. Today we are now faced with an Ebola Virus Crisis and we are working to communicate information to staff on how best to prepare or deal with this traveling to or returning from these areas. As staff we were quick to post our concerns to management who responded reasonably quickly with a Global Town Hall Meeting.

Staff from around the world were able to listen in and ask questions as we had a Video Tele Conference with duty stations around the world.  So with the new digital age we are presented with so much information how can we sort through it quickly? We can use a tool like Diigo that organizes our bookmarks on the web and highlights important content that we can tag and share with others. People looking for similar information can benefit from our bookmarks. I believe this would be an example of Connectivism. As society is able to connect and share ideas to find solutions we can shorten the time it takes due to numbers. This could number of people coming together with ideas to find solutions or perhaps funding. Video,  E-books, documents all shared via the web with people connecting in real time are the transformations we find in the New Digital Age.
Links:

• Global Town Hall on the Ebola Virus Disease - Friday, 24 October 2014 Video on WebTV
• Guidelines for NY-based UN System Staff Members travelling to EVD-affected Countries
• Ebola Response - Psychosocial Self-Care
• FAQs

VIDEO from UN TV

Funderstanding - The Big Four - Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism, Connectivism

 

Researching  - The Big Four - Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism, Connectivism

Below we have the metaphors used to describe these learning theories. In researching I found a website Funderstanding.

• Behaviorism – learning as a machine – inputs and outputs. Funderstanding
• Cognitivism – The mind is a computer – computation, short and long term memory storage and retrieval.
• Social Constructivism   - our knowledge is a metaphor, a subjective representation or our world, our best mental model of reality, it is a construction of our minds.
• Connectivism – Mind as a node in a network made up of data points (people, databases, fields of knowledge)

I believe a trip to this site is worth a visit as it nicely packaged with a lot of easy to access information. Learn more about Funderstanding

Below are how Funderstanding defines roles:

"Let’s be clear on roles:
1. Student: be open minded, creative, and ready for a challenge
2. School: teach the basic facts. Drills matter. Take it for what it is.
3. Parents, progressive teachers and caretakers: provide support to students and provide fabulous environments for true, deep learning.
4. Funderstanding: provide the resources for people who are inspiring and who want to be inspired.
Ultimately, we have one goal: make you step away from the computer. Get your hands dirty. 
Do things!"

Thanks to my Legal and Ethical issues course I have learned to be more careful about how I am sharing images and information provided by others on the web. I was drawn to this site while searching for an image to depict Behaviorism where I found a cartoon image of a mouse holding a sign - "will press lever for food". I found the image cute then read the disclaimer for the site. I then remembered "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" but when it is copyrighted the words are "Cease and Desist"

This short video on Learning Retention Rates is an example from Funderstanding.

Learning Retention Rates

Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization

Photo courtesy http://icoblog.wordpress.com/category/new-media/

New Media, New Learning
Bill Cope, and Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

"...Consider how digital media has affected Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization in your life, in the lives of your students, or in society in general...." - Jane

Agency - Today we now have thousands of channels to chose from on the television. There are so many options we can create our own angle. We can now contribute to Wikipedia and create our own YouTube Channel. We are content providers. We have become users instead of watchers and listeners. In the case of games we are now participants online as opposed to watching on TV. As consumers we can chose how we view digital media by device, browser and through our own custom interface. Instructors can create their own channels for our students.

Divergence - there are opportunities for new groups to form where it requires less skill and infrastructure. The web provides the ability to broadcast and share information developed by smaller groups. Short print runs are an option for publication which provides for more flexibility for content and turn around. The economy of scale Production TV to Youtube, Large print runs to print on demand. Knowledge and culture can become more fluid. Students and teachers can create their own content.

Multimodality - This concept of everything can be reduced to a pixel as digital print, and video can be shared over different devices. Actually the content as binary code can be transferred and shared as print, web, video, audio and stored remotely or locally and shared with others include viewing or working together at the same time if needed and from remote locations. Students and teachers can share information in real time or with others as needed.

Conceptualization - This perhaps are new skills that are required to look at information and think how is this being presented. There are categories and fields that have been organized in a database that was developed using an ontology. As a user you will learn to recognize patterns and become familiar with how the information is being presented.

Image Courtesy IVRY TWR

We have new hardware and technology along with new ideas and ways of teaching. It may be useful to go back and think how we are using the new technologies. Are we still applying the same practice to New Media that we used for Old media?

The Innovators by Walter Isaacson - Video interview - The Colbert Report

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. Perhaps Connectivism in action building on the history in this book. Isaacson wrote this book using a wiki with contributions from others. Ada Lovelace provided logic to program computers, Jobs and Gates collaborated or borrowed from others. Consider where ideas came from and how Xerox Parc had innovations that others were able build on.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook

Steven Johnson - "How We Got to Now" Video from the Dailey Show

Steven Johnson discusses how the objects often taken for granted are the result of some of the world's greatest innovations in his book and mini-series "How We Got to Now." (5:51)

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Isaura's Story Dedicating a Life to Teaching in Timor Leste

This example of a teachers struggles in Timor Leste may seem very primitive to consider what is available in terms of technology. Yet we should consider moving forward how this country may be able to leap frog what others have in place and take advantage of connectivism. Once the Internet is available as will be hardware these students could benefit from bypass some of the infrastructure that was needed to be in place for Land lines LAN using mobile technologies. We recently saw examples of this in the middle east and Africa how people are able to connect via mobile phones to share information without telephone poles hung with cable.

Using Video and Youtube

I recently returned to work in the Division for Sustainable Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Specifically I work in the Small Islands Developing States Unit. Yesterday I was presented a DVD with many short video clips. These video had been submitted as a public call to be shared in preparations for a recent event held in Samoa. I believe the clips were combined into a longer piece that ran on a loop during the conference at a booth. This may have been seen by people passing by. 

I thought it might be useful to aggregate the clips in one place (get them off of the DVD) where they are available online and can be shared with others. After a bit of wrangling with Youtube and the help of an intern to provide a bit of a heading and intro text I was able to create a Youtube Channel I named the Small Islands Developing States Network

The Youtube account will provide access to the video online that can be shared with others using social media or new media. There are many important issues that face small islands. Education and Technology have unique challenges and can provide for elegant solutions.

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

This is the third book I have recently purchased in an effort to dig deeper into Educational Technology. After seeing Steven Johnson's TED talk I am on a new quest for knowledge.

As I began to learn about Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Connectivisn  (lots of isms). I found myself wanting to learn more about how technology has developed. I know my own relationship but wanted to look further back in history and was surprised to learn about Ada Lovelace. I have been fond of Walter Isaacson's writing and am looking forward to this title.

 "This ability to apply imagination to science characterized the Industrial Revolution as well as the computer revolution, for which Ada was to become a patron saint."

Isaacson, Walter (2014-10-07). The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Kindle Locations 477-478). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 

See more about Ada Lovelace Biography:  

 Mathematician, Computer Programmer (1815–1852)

At this time I think I need to relax and learn. I have found my recent schedule of work, school, work, school a bit overwhelming. I realize the importance of my own personal learning, which is composed of historical research preferably tied to works like "The Innovators" and time to apply myself to some hacking (computer programming).

I have an age connection with the baby boomers born in the mid 50's. Often I think about how my learning was affected by technology. What innovations came to be, that changed how we work, and live, and who was responsible for these efforts? I also like to make connections using patterns and see where cause and affects lead to change, and whether it was part of a process or by chance. Analysis is important to my process, but so is the ability to see patterns and go with the flow.

This is going to be a good read for me!

Thinking about my thinking

I would like to share challenges, quoting Tom Hanks in the movie Forest Gump " Life is like a box of chocolates" Working in Moodle to me has that same affect. As a boy there was a TV show I believe named Concentration http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0197146/ There were a bunch of squares with numbers that contestants would need to recall what was behind the square number to match images that would be part of a riddle or visual story.

I am finding working with Moodle is a lot like the TV game show and the box of chocolates. For me to  remember the rules, I need to take the information out of Moodle, and print it, then aggregate it, where I can access, maybe a binder or a folder. Moving away from digital and the internet is important, as I can easily be distracted by clicking on an email or a message. I can get off track quickly and for a long time!

I am learning that I have to parse the content, and identify words I don't understand, then write the meaning down. I learn by writing, physically moving the pen on paper, reading and saying what I am writing. This for me, seems to commit to memory.

What is becoming apparent is my limitations to retain reading, especially if the article has multiple topics and subtopics. I think I rely heavily on visual connections and patterns. Jane's graphic of binary code as a wave with a figure standing at the base are the type of imagery that helps me to learn.

I am involved with working with data, and am frustrated to see information represented in tables with rows and columns, as the words get lost without a visual hook. I love seeing data represented with graphs and charts, or visual representations created by many of clever tools now available. This type of learning, by looking at patterns is effective for me.

As a construction worker I was a foreman erecting skyscrapers. I could take a look at 5 trucks of steel, bundled flat, and then visualize where it would be going. Of course with the help of a few numbers marked on a piece of steel. I could know, thanks to the blueprint what division of the building it would go, and direct my crew quickly where to off load it to.

I learned these skills to recognize patterns by loading trucks with my father and helping organize supplies for staff for their work day as the "go for boy". My dad operated a food processing plant where I worked from age 13.

Today I work on the web and teach subjects in the same field I work in. I like working on the web as I get to learn new things and implement them. Building a website is similar to building a skyscraper. Teaching helps me to stay up to date. Books can not be printed and put on the market to keep up with the changes in technology. As Stevenson noted the 10/10 rule is now 1/1 rule. Teachers must be learners.

I calculated I have 58 hours per week to learn (Ironically my age too as of 9/30).  There are 34 hours dedicated to Marlboro College. I need to give time to my additional learning, the things I like to keep up with for me personally.

Digital media for me remains a priority. I have been using Lynda.com for a number of years to keep up to date. I also subscribe to an online service Treehouse that I use for programming skills, web development and digital media projects. http://teamtreehouse.com/ I really like their interface and way of enabling you to learn.

I also try to keep up with language skills to include Spanish, Serbo-Croatian and I am trying to learn French. Unfortunately German, Japanese and Portugese have not much use for me these days.

What I am learning is that I rely heavily on patterns. I also need to convert information into chunks, with visual representations that work for me, using associations. I plan to create some charts and timelines that can assist me to remember topics covered in class, to perhaps include new definitions, at least this is how I see my needs.

I wish I had access to a large wall to create a board with this new information. When I published my magazine I would create a timeline on a 4' by 8' sign board to plan out our work flow.

In today's digital work world I need to find ways to turn my analog learning methods and patterns into  digital versions that will slip into my DNA, or at least my long term memory, or a place I can access it, or maybe a friend, or group of friends that I can reach out too.

The process of me typing out my thoughts is helpful for my learning process, as is meeting with colleagues at work, who I can share my concerns. We in turn offer ideas to help each other by sharing experiences. Let's go for coffee, what do you think?

What is: Learning, Knowing, Teaching

This first in person class was a good introduction for me with introductions to Pedagogy, Educational Technology, Behaviorism, Constructivism and Cognivitism. 

I was surprised to see the ability of classmates to parse out these topics and contribute to the conversation. I was pleasantly surprised to be working in a class face to face after a couple of years attending classes as a distance learner. 

Below is what I have from my notes. I do think as I progress through the course tips will be a bit like magic tricks on how to help others to learn or share knowledge. I found it interesting to follow the key people and a the timeline for how and when these processes developed.

What is: Learning, Knowing, Teaching?

·      Learning for me is the process that enables me to understand.  I am an inquisitive person and have always enjoyed learning how to do something and maybe how to do it better. Also just learning about things, people, and places. I like to learn about history and understand how I can benefit from others.

·      Knowing to me is when I understand something so that it is clear in my mind and that I could potentially share with us. Knowing helps me to make decisions on what to do or maybe not to do. Knowing is the sum of my learning.

·      Teaching is sharing what I know that I have learned with others. Teaching is not just  in a class room it can and does happen anywhere. It is amazing how you can teach without words and by example or using very complex explanations. I think teaching is a skill and an art they we  can learn from others or develop our own techniques. It give great satisfaction to share something with others and realize how this can help everyone to benefit from knowledge learned over time.
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New to Blogger

I have just create a new Blog using Blogger for a course I am taking at Marlboro College Graduate School on Educational Technology. I am looking forward to learning about this new tool.