Month: May 2014

Confusing ‘the new’ with ‘the effective’ (Brabazon, Dear, Greene, & Purdy, 2009, p. 170) Blog post #4

On By Margaret SimkinIn official blog post6 Comments

This post is an attempt to clarify my thinking around the topic of digital pedagogy, which I have chosen for my digital essay. Much of this post is framed around the readings stemming from Module 3.1, beginning with “Why the Google Generation Will Not Speak: The Invention of Digital Natives” (Brabazon, Dear, Greene, & Purdy, 2009).

In this work the authors outline 7 issues affecting learning:

1. Age is NOT a proven variable.

2. …‘mis-information’ has been perpetrated about how young people behave in online environments.

3. All researchers – not only ‘young people’ are skim-reading research. This behaviour is understandable due to time restraint, but dangerous in terms of learning.

4. Society is ‘dumbing down’ not just young people. (Is this due to a dense of being overwhelmed by information access – as is debated in “Too Big To Know” (Weinberger, 2011).

5. “The information literacy of young people, has not improved with the widening access to technology: in fact, their apparent facility with computers disguises some worrying problems.” This is certainly easy to observe in 1:1 classrooms, especially where ICT as a subject has been removed from the curriculum on the erroneous belief that all teachers can teach ICT these days.

6. “Young scholars are using tools that require little skill: they appear satisfied with a very simple or basic form of searching”.

7. “Digital literacies and information literacies do not go hand in hand.” It is this point that is the focus of my essay: planned and widely implemented digital pedagogy is crucial (Brabazon, Dear, Greene, & Purdy, 2009, p. 171).

 

They go on to say that the abilities required to assess information are complex and costly. Their suggested solution is multi-faceted:

  • Students require time, care, energy and good assessment to improve their digital

academic research.

  • Teachers require professional development in library studies, internet

studies and literacy theory.

Without such a solution it will impossible to create a worthwhile intellectual journey through this new…landscape (Brabazon, Dear, Greene, & Purdy, 2009, p. 181).

 

People such as ourselves, who are studying the implications of living in a time of knowledge networking and digital innovation, realise that the persistent allure of technology clouds the ability of devices to greatly improve learning outcomes, and that many examples of use are more aligned to entertainment rather than education.

 

“Technology has been proffered as a tool that ensures that teachers teach students in the right way” (Philip & Garcia, 2013 83, p. 301). Such a view is too often predicated on caricatures of teachers, rather than a serious understanding of the successes of so many modern practitioners (Philip & Garcia, 2013 83, p. 305) The breadth of the work required to successfully educate students for the C21st is one of the reasons that some teachers are not willing to engage with the new paradigms, falling into the category of late majority (or conservatives) in Moore’s Technology Adoption Lifecycle,  or even worse, laggards (Moore, 2002, p. 12).

 

 

So this is the direction that my thinking is heading in establishing my contentions about the urgent need for a digital pedagogy which encompasses  these serious issues relating to our profession. What do you think?

 

References

Brabazon, T.,   Dear, Z., Greene, G., & Purdy, A. (2009). Why the Google Generation Will   Not Speak: The Invention of Digital Natives. Nebula, 163-181.   Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/IAV_607294/IAV_607294_2010_3/BDGP.pdf

Moore, G. A.   (2002). Crossing the Chasm; Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to   Mainstream Customers (Revised ed.). New York, United States: Harper   Collins.

Philip, T. M.,   & Garcia, A. D. (2013 83). The Importance of Still Teaching the   iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy. Harvard   Educational Review(83), 300-305.

Weinberger, D.   (2011). Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That The Facts Aren’t   Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, And The Smartest Person In The Room Is The   Room. New York, New York, United States Of America: Basic Books.

 

 

Envisaging a new future

On By Margaret SimkinIn digital literacy, knowledge networksLeave a comment

So much of my thinking and reading keeps coming back to the way in which we design the tasks we as educators set to empower the learners for whom we share or take responsibility in our classrooms. I reflect back on our early module 1.5 where we listened to Nathaniel Bott: ” boredom and disengagement is too big a part of the modern classroom”

I also reflect on all the extra reading I did for module 3:

and the wonderful work of people like Graine Conole in relation to learning design (Conole, 2012) and I try to isolate the things that matter most to include in my digital essay on Digital Pedagogy! Even with  “affordances of the web” I am struggling with the restrictions of a word limit because teachers need to know all this NOW!

I have decided that the following references are critical to my task (and every time I think I need to stop finding new resources I damn well find more!). So this list is a starting point of material that is very useful for our subject (each of these titles really links our work as educators to our practice.

References

Bellanca, J., & Brandt, R. (Eds.). (2010). 21st Century Skills: rethinking How Students Learn. Bloomington, United States.

Brabazon, T., Dear, Z., Greene, G., & Purdy, A. (2009). Why the Google Generation Will Not Speak: The Invention of Digital Natives. Nebula, 163-181. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/IAV_607294/IAV_607294_2010_3/BDGP.pdf

Chase, Z., & Laufenberg, D. (2011, April). Embracing the Squishiness of Digital Literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 535-537. doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.7.7

Conole, G. (2012). Designing for Learning in an Open World. New York, United States of America: Springer.

Crockett, L., Jukes, I., & Churches, A. (2011). Literacy is Not Enough, 21st-Century Fluencies for the Digital Age. Corwin.

Cronin, J. G. (2010). Too Much Information: Why Facilitate Information and Media Literacy. International Journal Of Humanities & Arts Computing, 4 (1/2), 151-165. doi:10.3366/ijac.2011.0014

O’Connell, J., & Groom, D. (2010). Virtual Worlds: Learning in a Changing World. Camberwell, Victoria, Australia: ACER Press.

Reviewing the Trajectories of e-learning. (2014, January 15). Retrieved May 13, 2014, from e4innovation.com: E-Learning innovation; research, evaluation, practice and policy: http://e4innovation.com/?p=791

 

My Scholarly Book Review

On By Margaret SimkinIn assessment item2 Comments

David Weinberger’s intriguingly titled: Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That The Facts Aren’t Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, And The Smartest Person In The Room Is The Room is a 231 page paperback (also available as an e-book) published in 2011 by Basic Books, New York, ISBN: 9780465085965 (Weinberger D. , 2011).

This relatively recent publication includes many brief commentaries such as those provided within it (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. i-vi).  Few reviews are locatable, mostly popular, and some formal – detailing contents without evaluation (Kirkus Reviews, 2012). It received two international awards in 2012, details of which are retrievable from the author’s blog (Weinberger D. , 2009). A brief quote from John Seely Brown proclaims that the work is a true tour-de-force (Weinberger D. , 2011, cover). With such enticing recommendations, expectations are raised that the discourse that follows will fulfil the academic needs of a scholar of Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation by meeting the following criteria:

  • provoking deep thinking about the content,
  • broadening educational perspectives,
  • engaging the reader in debate,
  • encouraging or enabling practical change in an educational setting.

Weinberger’s prologue outlines his underlying contention that there is a crisis of knowledge in terms of volume, quality, context and sub-text (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. vii – xiv). It contains a barrage of questions: “How wide is the inevitable gap between our perfect theories and their mechanical imperfection? …How much does accuracy matter? What are the positive aspects of the fallibility of human knowledge? (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. vii-viii). This frenetic flurry of questions is followed by more perplexing queries relating to what knowledge actually is and postulating that there is no longer any authority deciding what constitutes “knowledge” and what does not. These questions are given lengthy rather than deep consideration throughout the remaining pages and enabling some deep and educationally meaningful thinking.

The impact of the Prologue’s fourteen pages is almost overwhelming.  The overall premise for this work: “The smartest person in the room is the room itself: the network that joins the people and ideas in the room, and connects to those outside of it” is superficial as the network obviously joins the people not the room itself. At this stage Weinberger is meeting the criterion of engaging the reader in debate to some extent, but in a frustrating rather than captivating or enlightening manner.

Weinberger proceeds by establishing today’s information ecology in comparison to that of the past. He uses unnecessarily lengthy segments to prove this point. The first two chapters, “Knowledge Overload” and “Bottomless Knowledge”, assess a number of aspects of traditional mediums of reporting and recording knowledge (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 1-43). It takes ten pages to develop the premise that there is too much knowledge for humans to know. This is indisputable, and widely reported by other authors over the last two decades (Starkey, 2011, p. 21). Lack of elaboration in relation to: “filters are crucial content. …they reveal the whole deep sea” is disappointing (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 11-13). An author involved with ShelfLife and LibraryCloud should have elaborated further (Harvard University, 2012).

To prove his point about bodies of knowledge in the past differing from those in the present, Weinberger compares the painstaking investigative work of Charles Darwin to the website hunch.com (now part of ebay): (Hunch.com – This Website Helps You Make Decisions, 2007).  Comparing the incomparable, he comes up with such points of difference as: Darwin’s work is hard won and finite in topic, while Hunch is fast and fun (asking twelve questions per minute) and purposefully unconstrained (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 31-35).

“An Introduction to the Rest of the Book” provides more detailed elaborations on “The Body of Knowledge”, (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 43). While this may broaden educational perspectives to some extent, a scholar of information and communication technologies does not encounter conceptually new material. Never-the-less there is academic value in continuing to read.

“The Expertise of Clouds”, and “A Marketplace of Echoes?” broaden the discussion into the new spaces and connections that The Internet allows (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 47-93). Weinberger offers some interesting insights into the dynamics of, and changes to methods of working, sharing and saving knowledge. This becomes thought-provoking when the danger of echo chambers is raised and elaborated on throughout the rest of the book. (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 81-)

Echo chambers develop when like-minded people always work together, therefore limiting their own knowledge. This consequently diminishes overall contributions to the world’s knowledge banks; an idea worthy of consideration. Avoiding echo chambers should be considered as an underlying principle by educators developing curriculum in the twenty first century. Their relevance to creating and performing collaborative tasks cannot be overlooked. This is one aspect of this work that meets the criteria of provoking deep thinking and encouraging practical educational change.

There is a more effective commentary on echo chambers in Rewire, Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, written by Weinberger’s colleague, Zuckerman (Zuckerman, 2013, pp. 260-262).  In addition, this information is transmitted within three pages than Weinberger’s twenty four.

Comparatively, these Harvard professional collaborators, present opposite views. Weinberger presents issues and concerns, focusing on the problematic. Where Weinberger’s book spends many pages detailing problems from all angles and giving many ad hoc examples, Zuckerman focuses on recommending actions that result in positive outcomes, explaining when and where these solutions have worked. Zuckerman utilises an optimistic and solution based approach, far more valuable in broadening educational perspectives and potentially improving teaching and learning.

“Long Form, Web Form” gives an interesting comparison of the structure that books force knowledge into, compared to the shapelessness of the Internet. This is engaging, and covers an aspect of information that seems to be obvious once the chapter is read, but which may be novel for graduates of book-based education (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 93-104). In a section sub-titled Book-Shaped Thought, the author is forced by his own arguments to justify his choice of format for this work. (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 101). He acknowledges his own hypocrisy, then apologises, citing his age (sixty), generation (one “that takes the publication of a book as an achievement”), “book publishers still pay advances”, and “the privilege of holding the floor for … 70,000 words” as his excuses (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 97). This levity permits a view of Weinberger’s sense of humour and encourages perseverance in reading. It also challenges the paradigms of current educational methodology.

Fortunately “Too Much Science” does not labour the points as much as much as his early chapters. For example, it includes another aspect of Darwin’s work, but this time it fits into a page (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 153).  Weinberger also addresses his claim, that “the smartest person in the room is the room” (a point which should contain the obvious qualifier that the room needs to be networked) (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. title). The “final product of Science is now neither final, nor a product. It is the network itself – the seamless connection of scientists, data, methodologies, hypotheses, theories, facts, speculations, instruments, readings, ambitions, controversies, schools of thought, textbooks, faculties, collaborations, and disagreements that used to struggle to print a relative handful of articles in a relative handful of journals” (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 156).

Specific suggestions, which may be appropriate to educational practice, occur in the final two chapters. The mysteriously titled “Where the Rubber Hits the Node” (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 159-171) presents the benefits of hyper-connectivity, referring to the examples of West Point (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 161) and Wikipedia (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 163).  Seven benefits of networking are strongly made on the basis of these two institutions’ work (Weinberger D. , 2011, pp. 169-170). These are potentially adaptable to teaching, thereby meeting another of the criterion of an educational researcher.

Finally, in the acknowledgements, there is another glimpse of the nature of the author. “All mistakes and errors are solely the responsibility of Wikipedia”; another example of humour from an author whose background is in philosophy (Weinberger D. , 2011, p. 167).

This book adds little that is new in relation to the role of the web, as Aitkenhead (2010) cited in Gonzalez’ chapter states: “Is the Internet a good thing or a bad thing?” We are done with all that. It’s just a thing (Gonzalez, 2013, p. 20). Neither does it add much innovative perspective to “Ideas about ‘knowledge’ [which] appear to be changing from something that is found in the heads of individuals or in books to something that is not fixed, is debatable, accessible through a range of media and created through networks, connections and collaboration (Bereiter, 2002; Gilbert, 2005; Siemens, 2004)” (Starkey, 2011, p. 21). Weinberger does outline some strategies for adoption, but only in the closing pages of the last few chapters, and not readily adaptable for education.

While small in size, this title encompasses a topic potentially as massive as it is long. Despite using too many words in so many chapters to make his contentions, Weinberger’s book, at times, meets the criteria for provoking deep educational thought. There are a few occasions when a broadening of educational perspective occurs, and there is some potential for practical changes to educational practice.  Many of his statements cause reflection and some lead to deep educational thinking.

This book is, however, too esoteric in style and wide ranging in content to be highly recommended. It provides minimal original material to the debates about our information-rich world, and, ironically, uses a very long-form manner of writing in which to do so. The style of writing does not flow as easily as many of the other books on this type of topic. The would have been more suitably presented as a blog, allowing hyperlinks to replace multiple pages of unnecessary information, and enabling debate to occur as points are raised. Cynically, and somewhat paradoxically, investigating many of the recommendations provided with this book, it seems that Weinberger could also be accused of working in echo chambers.

References

Gonzalez, F. (2013). Knowledge Banking for a   Hyperconnected Society. In How Internet is Changing Our lives (pp.   12-36). OpenMind. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/book/19-key-essays-on-how-internet-is-changing-our-lives/

Harvard University. (2012). Retrieved April 10,   2014, from The Harvard Library Innovation Page: http://librarylab.law.harvard.edu/

Hunch.com – This Website Helps You Make Decisions. (2007). Retrieved March 30, 2014, from   KillerStartups : http://www.killerstartups.com/web20/hunch-com-this-website-helps-you-make-decisions/

Kirkus Reviews. (2012, January). Weinberger, David:   Too Big To Know. Expanded Academic ASAP. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from   http://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Starkey, L. (2011). Evaluating Learning in the 21st   Century: a Digital Age Learning Matrix. Technology, Pedagogy and Education(20:1),   19-39. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2011.554021

Weinberger, D. (2009, December 27). Too Big To   Know But Not Too Big to Blog About. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from Too   Big To Know But Not Too Big to Blog About: http://www.toobigtoknow.com/

Weinberger, D. (2011). Too Big To Know:   Rethinking Knowledge Now That The Facts Aren’t Facts, Experts Are Everywhere,   And The Smartest Person In The Room Is The Room. New York, New York,   United States Of America: Basic Books.

Zuckerman, E. (2013). Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans   in the Age of Connection. New York, New York, United States of America:   W.W.Norton & Company Inc.

 

 

 

Reflecting on metadata

On By Margaret SimkinIn Curation, knowledge networks, ReflectionLeave a comment

What’s the most important point that struck you in your readings?

Investigating RDA as the new cataloguing, and having a presentation from OCLC about their cataloguing system last year brought some of these concepts to my attention. There is a big difference between knowing something exists and understanding it and I am still struggling with that. I can see the value of where metadata is heading but I don’t fully understand how to create it for best effect. I also worry that there amount of data will become a problem for retrieval rather than assisting us to find things.

What is the value of Web 3 to your learning and teaching?

I think it is important to record or note the good things that we come across so that we can find them again. Collaboratively locating valuable sources is a great way to save time and energy while contributing to the learning process.

Do you engage in tagging, indexing, or any other information organisation strategy?

I have been a long time “collector” of sources adding them to a wiki for teachers at my school: http://www.esandbox.wikispaces.com/ but, like the Internet itself, my organization of the data is not the best as additions are made in spurts and often spasmodically while tagging tends to be overlooked. I add to my Diigo library often, usually by favouriting tweets, which automatically records them. I have good intentions of going in to Diigo and adding tags but often don’t get around to it. My library : https://www.diigo.com/user/msimkin has 3268 untagged items (which is rather embarrassing!)

Do you embed metadata into your pdf documents (for example)?

It has never occurred to me to embed metadata into documents that I produce, and frat this stage I am not sure how I could manage this.

Do you have an organised approach to organising metadata?

I am afraid that I am little ad hoc (unless I am actually cataloguing something in the formal sense).

Digital Essay proposal

On By Margaret SimkinIn digital literacy, knowledge networksLeave a comment

The Topic:

Digital Pedagogy

An Investigation into digital literacy and its significance for improving teaching and learning outcomes.

The tools and spaces to be used:

Weebly – a web building site will be the host for embedding a range of tools enabling the essay to be presented in a manner that can be read traditionally in a long-form style, or through a multimedia offering that would be a connected series of offerings on the various aspects of this topic. Each offering would equate to a paragraph within the long-form option.

Rationale:

Contemporary educators should embrace C21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010), and the 21st Century Fluency Project (Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011) in order to create the best learning outcomes for their students.

Information and Communication Technology skills and devices supporting them have been available long enough to be moving long the slope of enlightenment in Gartner’s Hype Cycle (Sharples, et al., 2013).  However, the spread of teaching practices considered in the light of the Revised Technology Adoption Life Cycle (Moore, 2002, p. 17) is increasing, and the chasm between Innovators, Early Adopters and Early Majority teachers and the rest of their peers shows no sign of being reduced. This ‘Great Divide’ is a critical pedagogical concern raised in http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/msimkin/2014/03/20/knowledge-searching-and-understanding-a-starting-point/ .

Today, access to quality free and open access resources to support Australian classrooms is easy. Such resources are a pressing reason to get more teachers on board with C21st skills. The work of Conole (Conole, 2012) highlights the importance of the design process for improved learning outcomes, and offers suggestions for how this can be achieved.

The worth of investing in redesigned curriculum to incorporate these skills will be outlined. Links will be prvided to examples, suggestions and evidence of improved learning to support the contention that digital pedagogy is vital, vibrant and able to be implemented now. Literacy is Not Enough (Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011) highlights the dimensions added by utilising the power of interconnections afforded by the Internet for life long learning.

References

Will be based on such titles as:

Bellanca, J.,   & Brandt, R. (Eds.). (2010). 21st Century Skills: rethinking How   Students Learn. Bloomington, United States. Retrieved April 2014

Brabazon, T.,   Dear, Z., Greene, G., & Purdy, A. (2009). Why the Google Generation Will   Not Speak: The Invention of Digital Natives. Nebula, 163-181.   Retrieved April 16, 2014, from   http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/IAV_607294/IAV_607294_2010_3/BDGP.pdf

Conole, G.   (2012). Designing for Learning in an Open World. New York, United   States of America: Springer. Retrieved April 2014

Crockett, L.,   Jukes, I., & Churches, A. (2011). Literacy is Not Enough, 21st-Century   Fluencies for the Digital Age. Corwin. Retrieved from http://www.fluency21.com

M. (2014, January   5). Digital Literacy, Social Networking, Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarking.   Retrieved March 23, 2014, from M’s Multimedia Blog:   http://cbltmultimedia.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/digital-literacy-communities-of-practice-and-social-media/

Moore, G. A.   (2002). Crossing the Chasm; Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to   Mainstream Customers (Revised ed.). New York, United States: Harper   Collins. Retrieved May 2, 2014

Pang, A. (2008). Knowledge   Tools for the Future. Retrieved March 2014, 2014, from Institute For The   Future: http://www.iftf.org/our-work/people-technology/technology-horizons/knowledge-tools-of-the-future

Sharples, M.,   McAndrew, P., Weller, M., Ferguson, R., Fitzgerald, E., Histr, T., &   Gaved, M. (2013). Innovating Pedagogy Report 2013; Open University   Innovation Report 2. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from Open Access UK:   http://www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/mike.sharples/Reports/Innovating_Pedagogy_report_2013.pdf

Weinberger, D.   (2011). Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That The Facts Aren’t   Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, And The Smartest Person In The Room Is The   Room. New York, New York, United States Of America: Basic Books.