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October 29, 2009
We are meeting on Thursday, October 29 in Elluminate at 6 pm CST (time zone conversion). Topic: power and authority - the topic addressed in readings this week.
Symphony of Science - 'We Are All Connected'
We are all connected... The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. "'We Are All Connected' was made from sampling Carl Sagan's Cosmos, The History Channel's Universe series, Richard Feynman's 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson's cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye's Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking's Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more. It is a tribute to great minds of science, intended to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through the medium of music."
melodysheep,
YouTube,
October 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none]
[Comment]
LaaN vs. Social Constructivism
According to Chatti, "learning as a Network (LaaN) differs from social constructivism in four different ways:
- In LaaN, knowledge is a personal network rather than an object that can be constructed.
- Unlike social constructivism, which views learning as internal developmental processes that result in mental development (i.e. intrinsic), LaaN views learning as both intrinsic and extrinsic
- Vygotsky's social constructivism has centered on the role adults play in fostering children's development... however, nowadays, the lines became blurred between the expert and novice roles.
- Unlike a ZPD which is characterized by a rigid, restrictive, and unidirectional development (i.e. training the novices within the ZPD towards a level of potential development), a knowledge ecology is open, multidirectional, and without an end point of development."
From where I sit, that's a pretty good summary.
Mohamed Amine Chatti,
Technology Enhanced Learning,
October 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none]
[Comment]
Connectivism and H1N1
In a current topic, Brenda addresses H1N1 as a complex evolving concern. She compares the difficulty in managing information around the flu with her experience as a learner in CCK09. This is an important observation. Society is facing complex interconnected problems (over population, epidemics, global warming) that cannot be understood in the same way that most education models work today. SARS provided a similar condition of complex connected information. Progress was made through labs from around the world adopting a networked model o sharing research information.
Brenda Rosenthal,
,
October 28, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none]
[Comment]
Here's what course members from around the world had to say. Want to join the conversation? Submit your feed. Then put this at the beginning of your post: CCK09
Thanks, Ken. Like you said, I was reducing the article to just one of the tendencies reviewed: the one that focuses on democratization vs. control. But what William H. Dutton presents more deeply (and aligns himself with) is the tendency to view the Internet as a "network of networks", which empowers both individuals and institutions alike. I guess that´s a more inclusive approach.
October 29, 2009Power on the internet comes from the individual. As long as no one can kick you out of the network (the death penalty if you would) or restrict your access (prison) then no one really has more more power over anyone else than anyone else. I do not believe for instance that Stephen or George have any more power about what goes on here than I do unless I am content to let them set the agenda as they do. I can do Moodle as I am sure hundreds of other people can here, so even if they took their "ball" and went home someone would fulfill their functions in due time. A network is a starfish not a spider!
October 29, 2009A great prompt Asako. Thanks for reintroducing me to Mejias's work, I had forgotten about this. Do you think the nodal centric nature of networks makes the issues of power different to that that occurs or occurred in other communities?
Maybe it's easier to skip the people inbetween that are 'not of interest' when the pipelines (internet) take one directly from here to there.
Mejias describes this fear/possibility saying:
what I am trying to say is that to the extent that the network is composed of nodes and connections between nodes, it discriminates against the space between the nodes, it turns this space into a black box, a blind spot. In other words, networks promote nodocentrism. In this reconfiguration of distance, new ‘nears’ become available, but the ‘far’ becomes the space between nodes. To ignore this dark matter is to ignore the very stuff on which the network is suspended, much like the fish ignoring the water around it.
Pros and cons ...
Clay Shirky in Here comes everybody talks of the change in how communities form, in that its no longer dependent on finding people with similar interest, but that the similar interest can find the people.
So some people can now get the support or friendship or extended knowledge and discussions they need/crave.
Such ability can be for good or bad, the means itself knows no ethic.
Mejias is arguing for an ethic to be developed. He points out the nodal centric nature of an internet based network comes with predetermined bias. If you are not connected up you dont 'count'. You are invisible to others...
I am reminded of a writer Loewy, E. H. (1997) who wrote Moral strangers, moral acquaintances, and moral friends. He describes a need to be wider in our interests for “Without imagination unidentified lives and situations will not become real to us and without becoming real, such lives are unlikely to engage our compassion.”
The possibilities of networking learning makes it possible to explore, but can also make it possible to avoid.
Seems to me that this is the teaching role in connectivism as a learning theory, to invoke critical imagination. To consider the pros and cons of fostering narrow points of interest or of intersections and to consider whats inbetween.
As an educator, what are your authorities in a network?
As a learner, what are your authorities in a network?
How has technology influenced your authority in networked teaching or learning?
This Honour Authority tells an interesting story. Do you agree on honouring authority in social/learning networks? What are your reasons for agreement/disagreement?
October 29, 2009Are we all power seeking "animals"? Even those who claim powerlessness in social networks or prisoners are seeking power. Does it mean that we lose power if we don't seize them? Or we are letting others to control us using their power? How about the ethical use of power? What sort of ethical behaviour or intervention would lead to power in networked learning?
Refer to this Power of Social Networking and Social Media Revolution
October 29, 2009 Google launched the beta version of its new Social Search service, a tool that allows tracking Internet developments and contributions of our contacts on social networks or blogs, using Google Profile.
The user, who must be registered with Google, you can select which messages are available for search.
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Source: googleblog
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