7 Comments so far

1. Jenny Ambrozek on August 7, 2007 4:07 pm

   We were so focused on our article obligation that it’s wonderful to “look around” as John Seely Brown counsels in “Social Life of Information” (Brown & Duguid 2000:8) and see the intriguing collection of articles keeping us company here. Exploring Jane Hart’s blog post about Top 10 Tools I thought how the list would make traditional for fee software publishers anxious and how far the tools have come. To date Bronwyn Stuckey has been my source of all knowledge on Second Life but I see a list of new names to add to my list. No doubt Jo Murray does a fabulous job of scanning the edge for trends to watch.

   Personally thought provoking for me through our article writing process was the excuse to look back on 20 plus years of my efforts to ‘connect intelligence’ online that began at the Australian Caption Center in 1984 through the extraordinary farsightedness of founders Adam Salzer and Alexandra Hynes. The Australian Caption Center was one of the Viatel launch service providers offering Edutel, content about the use of videotex in education. (Viatel was Australian Telecom’s short lived U.K. Prestel standard videotex service launched in 1985.)

   It occurred to me if I’m still in the online business perhaps some of the people we worked with as content providers when the Australian Caption Center launched ‘Edutel’ are still too. I’m especially curious if any of the contributors to the Edutel Book; A Guide to Videotex in Education I edited in 1985 are still active. I’d be thrilled to hear from you and the paths you have taken. And if anyone still has their copies tucked away in a drawer or on a dusty shelf. Perhaps someone even recalls the Videotex in Education session the Australian Caption Center sponsored and I helped organize at the first Australian Videotex Industry conference in Sydney, 1986.

   I look forward to sharing recollections and reflections especially about the proliferation of connectedness and the exponential power and impact of networks that is our article theme. I looked but couldn’t find data to compare Australian online users in 1987 compared to 2007 but I’m betting the network laws we write about are in full force.

2. Andrew Hamilton on August 14, 2007 4:56 am

   I have found the article very though provoking and certainly I want to pursue further the issues related in this article.

3. Jenny Ambrozek on August 16, 2007 2:31 pm

   Andrew, we look forward to understanding what you found thought provoking and especially the issues that interest you. I hope you will be able to join us for the live discussion through Elluminate next Tuesday August 21 at 2pm Australian eastern time. That will be midnight for us in New York but should be no problem from the city that never sleeps!!

   Perhaps you can share more article reactions here to aid our planning for that session.

4. Kerry Renwick on August 21, 2007 12:35 am

   I have been on the edge of much of the development of technology. After a failed effort to learn about programming in the early 80’s I was convinced that computers were to be outside my experience. However I was eventually introduced to a Mac that opened my eyes to the potential of word processing and desktop publishing. Since then I have grown into data bases and now view myself as a powerpoint and outlook champion.

   I am now however at a point where even this isn’t good enough and there is so much more that I can see happening that I want to be skilled enough to use with my students to ensure that the learnig they are undertaking is relevant and enjoyable. So I now find myself standing to the side wanting to learn more about second life, wanting to be able to use blogs, vod and pod casting as a legitmate part of my teaching tool set. The technical jargon is beyond me (but I am capable of learning!) however the potential for the practical application of the technology is a significant motivator for me to want to know more about the how to do it!

5. Jenny Ambrozek on August 21, 2007 9:37 pm

   Kerry, thank you for sharing your thoughts and ambitions. I wonder if you were able to join our August 21 Elluminate session and have any reflections.

   But regarding your:

   “the potential for the practical application of the technology is a significant motivator for me to want to know more about the how to do it!”.

   In my experience, with the ease of use of today’s social tools your motivation is more than sufficient to dig into the technologies and learn how to leverage their potential with your students. Here’s a miscellaneous collection of thoughts your question inspired:

   1. Just do it!!

   I worked with a wonderful colleague at PRODIGY whose mantra was “don’t overbake it”. As I watch the explosion of today’s easy to use collaboration tools, and work with them, I increasingly believe the “not overbaking” wisdom.

   It’s my sense, and I’m interested in reader reactions to this, that using 21st century social tools requires a mindset change. With centralized enterprise technologies like knowledge & learning management systems control lies in the hands of programmers and administrators who determine structures and taxonomies and how the system can be used.
   With the low overhead, easy to install and use generation of social tools Andrew McAfee calls “Enterprise 2.0″ increasingly control, much to the chagrin of enterprise IT groups, is increasingly in user hands.

   So if you use good judgement about the content you post and respect with which you treat readers and fellow participants, how much damage can you do? It’s my sense that the current generation growing up online believes sharing online is simply the way the world works and has no fear of the technology. I think that is the mindset required to embrace tools like wikis, blogs and social networking platforms like Facebook. Just do it.

   2. Create a Facebook Account

   Since Facebook opened their platform to other developers to build on in May I’m seeing an explosion in functionality and use for professional networking. Using Facebook I am constantly amazed at how it leverages RSS to reveal and extend one’s network. And you will be experiencing a platform that is one of the places your students live. I’ll look forward to receiving your friend invitation and having you join our 21st Century Organization Facebook group when you sign on.

   3. Start a Wiki to Share Your Experience Experimenting with Social Tools

   No doubt you have colleagues taking a similar journey. I’ve now created 2 Wikispaces and while we plumbed the tool’s limitations for co-creating an article, it is INCREDIBLY easy to start and manage. We’re gathering a collection of interesting and evolved wikis in the Connected Intelligence wiki to provide inspiration.

   You mention Second Life, blogging, podcasting and videocasting. Indeed, all possibilities to explore but why not keep it simple for now, and start with the 3 suggestions above.
   -Between the latest KT article on virtual worlds and having Bronwyn Stuckey in the neighorhood, you have fabulous resources to draw on as time and need arises.
   - Regret I can’t help with podcasting because that is the technology that I’m working at conquering.
   - I’d survey your students but would guess they are on Facebook and/or Myspace and not blogging so you can give yourself permission to take that off your list for now.

   Good luck. You can do this and have fun at the same time that I think is the real plus of the latest generation of social tools.

6. Janet Hawtin on March 15, 2008 2:12 am

   for Jenny:
   I think that systemic thinking and standards are important. But that they need to be openly expressed, negotiated and to be structured to facilitate collaboration rather than broadcast control.

   Standards as infrastructure are the underlying conduits which make it possible to make adaptable and flexible choices at a local level.

   It is possible to use taxonomies, folksonomies, technology and document standards to provide an explicit information web which makes it possible for
   people to just do it and to still be able to share their works with others, for them to be able to find their peers in ideas effectively, to be able to understand what projects are freely licensed.

   The shift is not from systemic thinking to individualist thinking, it is a balance between finding ways to best make connections and infrastructure which ‘gets out of the way’ of collaboration and which makes the kind of standards which are needed a part of the negotiated space which defines the community.

   Accessibility standards are a good example, copyleft, open document format, CSS and html, svg, XML,
   TCP/IP, are all standards which make it possible for people to just do it.

   There are always aspects of exclusion or contention about agreeing to a standard eg. IPv4 provides far greater internet access to USA entities than to entities in other nations. IPv6 is emerging with a different emphasis. Criteria regarding which standards make it possible for all people to just do it are likely to be increasingly important. Open and effective standards processes are vital for quality standards.

7. Viannaaccelia on March 17, 2008 8:13 pm

   Wow - just find this in google

   thanks alot for all the info here

   Br
   Micielle
   http://www.onpart.dk