Monthly Archives: June 2008
Start Pages as Environments for Self-Organized Learners
Start pages like Netvibes and Pageflakes are not specifically designed for educational purposes, but as Malinka Ivanova points out, they are flexible enough to potentially support self-organized learning and research environments. In this presentation, she compares various start pages in terms of a model of multichannel learning in which learners may play a a wide range of roles: authors, contributors, distributors, searchers, moderators, reviewers, editors, researchers, or evaluators.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
Q-Tools: An Approach for Discovery and Knowledge Work
Noting that Google recognizes that the internet does not need to organized until you have a question in search of an answer, Dave Gray points out that questions may be the most basic tools for gaining knowledge and working with information. His standard set of questions offers an interesting way for informations management systems like feed readers and email clients eto organize and manipulate information. Examples of Q-tools include the Prism (one input, multiple outputs), the Razor (binary sorting), the Generator (creates new information), the Peeler (drives attention to deeper levels), and more.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
Frankenstein in the Universe
Can we shape technology as much as it shapes us? Or do we need to resign ourselves to the specter of technology out of control? If we do argues Luke Fernandez, we truly do become its victims:
But even if our lives are constrained and pushed in certain directions, we have some agency. To deny that would be to succumb to the most nihilistic form of technological determinism. If we believe that we can shape technology as much as it shapes us we can hold out the hope of at least playing some minor role in influencing the direction that the university takes in the information age.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
Critical Theory: Ideology Critique and the Myths of E-Learning
Norm Friesen uses critical theory to "de-mystify" three particular truths or myths in the e-learning domain...that 1) we live in a "knowledge economy," 2) learners enjoy "anywhere anytime" access, and 3) educational and social change is an inevitable consequence of technological change.
Understanding technology as a scene of struggle rather than as a destiny or fait accompli might also help to guide the exploration of metaphors other than "impact" or "dissemination" when inquiring into the relationship between technology and changing institutions and practices.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
Voices Carry
Is it a problem,asks Lawrence Hill,
that many of the most famous and enduring fictional accounts of African Americans have been penned by whites?A solution to this trend of ignoring African-American writers is to incorporate memoirs into the body of Civil War literature into the curriculum:
What’s striking about such narratives is the immediacy of expression. These authors have a fundamental point to make, one of such personal urgency that the reader can hardly turn away. Between each line breathes a voice that seems to whisper: “This is my name, this is when I was born, this is who I am and how I have lived, and I am going to assert my own humanity by setting my story down on paper.†If we are to persuade bookstores, reviewers, librarians, and curriculum writers to look for fresh literature touching on the African-American experience, and prevail on teachers to exercise more imagination than merely shoving the old pile of school editions of To Kill a Mockingbird at yet another class of yawning students, it may be memoir that does the trick.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
In Defense of Hulk
What if Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk movie isn't as bad as everyone said it was? Comic-book adaptations typically invent new adventures for their protagonists while remaining relatively faithful to the back story of their heroes. Lee, however, reimagined the story of the Hulk, blending elements from the comic book, the television show that aired in the '70s and '80s, and his own imagination. The verdict? Comic-book fans, critics, and everyone in between agreed: It stunk.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
Darwinmania!
The story of Darwin and his big idea of evolution through natural selection offers numerous insights into how ideas become widespread. For example, why is it Darwin we celebrate above the others who thought of it first (William Wells and Patrick Matthew), or arguably conceived of it better (Alfred Russel Wallace)? The reason, says Olivia Judson is the "Origin," which changed our view of other species and ourselves through relentless evidence.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
The Meaning of the Butterfly
Peter Dizikes points out that while pop culture references to the butterfly effect are not just bad physics, they also reveal how the public thinks about science:
They expose the growing chasm between what the public expects from scientific research - that is, a series of ever more precise answers about the world we live in---and the realms of uncertainty into which modern science is taking us.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
How to Unleash Your Creativity
John Houtz, Julia Cameron and Robert Epstein, all experts on creativity, and each with different backgrounds and perspectives offer practical tactics to unleash your creative self. Their advice intersects at four different skills sets essential for creative expression: capture new ideas they occur to you, challenge yourself with tough problems, broaden your interests in new things, and surround yourself with interesting people and things.
Comments Off
♦ ♦ ♦
Digital Forensics
Fascinating description by computer scientist Hany Farid who works with various law-enforcement agencies to uncover doctored images. Modern software has made photograph manipulation easier to carry out, but also easier to detect.
I expect that as the field progresses over the next five to 10 years, the application of image forensics will become as routine as the application of physical forensic analysis. It is my hope that this new technology, along with sensible policies and laws, will help us deal with the challenges of this exciting—yet sometimes baffling—digital age.
Leave a comment
♦ ♦ ♦
