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engaging with online learning
Procrastinating Again?

Procrastination is not a time-management problem. It’s a complex problem involving personality, situations and motivation. Everyone occasionally procrastinates, 15 to 20 percent of adults routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished right away, and a whopping 80 to 95 percent of college students have a penchant for postponement. Trisha Guru covers contemporary views on and advice for kicking the procrastination habit.

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evaluating the quality of digital resources
Technology Traps

I have a love/hate relationship with technology, much of my turmoil stems from the fact that I do not always have the luxury of saying no or even, let me think about it, before it becomes a technology I depend on. This is a symptom of what Peter Crabb calls technological traps, consequences of everyday decisions to use technological devices that make us feel good when in fact these devices are not good for us or the planet at all:

With the help of human enthusiasts and enablers, technology creates its own self-affirming ideology. It is widely believed that technology is infallible. Technology must not be questioned or criticized. Human needs are subordinate to the needs of devices and systems. If something goes wrong, it must be due to “human error.” The solution to technology-induced problems is always more and better technology. In fact, every arena of human activity is always improved when the latest, most complex technologies are applied. As a consequence of the ascendancy of technology, humans have become demeaned and powerless–second-class citizens in their own societies.

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assimilating information
The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, is a portrait of two Frenchmen, one an ambassador to the court of King Henry VIII, the other a cleric. They are leaning on a cupboard with displays–on the upper shelf objects referring to the heavens; on the lower shelf, objects indicating their earthly interests. There are many hidden messages and meanings in this work, notes Donald Clark, including the large anamorphic skull, which he has chosen to interpret in terms of learning. The painting reveals a 1533 curriculum of the emerging split between the vocational arts and academia, and the retreating role of religion, a curriculum whose influence is clearly still felt some 500 years later.

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assimilating information
Group Think

The explosion of online materials has two, somewhat contradictory effects. The scope of available information expands, remarkably so; but as a consequence, the information needs to be filtered somehow, and the filter is either reverse chronological order or popularity:

Many Internet users customize their consumption of news sources and other information in a way that fosters polarization. This, it could be argued, has elements both of the narrowing effect and the long tail. Americans seek out sources that reflect their personal beliefs, consistent with Anderson’s vision. But, akin to the narrowing Evans observes, large groups – liberals and conservatives – converge on different reference points, resulting in mutually unrecognizable versions of reality. The common lesson of all of these phenomena is to be cognizant that the tools we use affect us in ways we may not fully appreciate. We should always be searching, the findings suggest, for new ways to search.

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reconceptualizing understandings
Becoming Screen Literate

We are people of the screen now, says Kevin Kelly. Like when we were people of the written word and developed a long list of innovations and techniques to permit ordinary readers and writers to manipulate text in ways that made it useful (think: quotation symbols, table of contents, page numbers, indices, footnotes, bibliographic citations, and of course, hyperlinks), we will create artefacts to support screen fluency:

With our fingers we will drag objects out of films and cast them in our own movies. A click of our phone camera will capture a landscape, then display its history, which we can use to annotate the image. Text, sound, motion will continue to merge into a single intermedia as they flow through the always-on network. With the assistance of screen fluency tools we might even be able to summon up realistic fantasies spontaneously. Standing before a screen, we could create the visual image of a turquoise rose, glistening with dew, poised in a trim ruby vase, as fast as we could write these words. If we were truly screen literate, maybe even faster. And that is just the opening scene.

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networking
How To Run a Con

The key to a con is not that you trust the conman, but that he shows he trusts you. Conmen ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable. Because of THOMAS, the human brain makes us feel good when we help others–this is the basis for attachment to family and friends and cooperation with strangers. “I need your help” is a potent stimulus for action.

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networking
Amoebae Family Values

Single-celled organisms stick with relatives to avoid being duped when food becomes scarce. Scientists say the amoeboid cooperation contributes to our understanding of how some of the earliest organisms may have balanced cooperation with self-interest, essential traits for social behaviour.

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networking
The End of Journalism

There have always been reporters, but will there always be professionals? George Brock in his review of Robert Fox’s Eyewitness to History:

The idea and ideal of journalism has been smudged and blurred by worries about economics and the means of delivery. The vehicles for reporting have to adapt. The rivalry between print and the screen may evaporate as screens become thinner, more flexible and more portable. The traditional bundle that is the newspaper, magazine or news bulletin may morph into many different versions. But digital communications have not damaged language or its power. On the contrary, screens and keyboards have allowed words to be produced and consumed more widely and in greater quantities than ever before. Amateurs and professional witnesses to events may compete, but together they enrich the written record. Perhaps Eyewitness to History stops at the dawn of a golden age of writing.”

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locating information and resources
The maturing human network

This otherwise uninspiring white paper from Deloitte Consulting on the interesting topic of social networking in the enterprise makes the significant point that organizations are increasingly investing in Web 2.0 technologies as a way to retain knowledge and solve problems:

A big part of knowledge is understanding where to find the answers. In today’s world, global organisations are constantly challenged with disparate pockets of information created within different functional silos and business units. They find it increasingly difficult to locate specific subject matter experts quickly and efficiently. Social networking tools with powerful search capabilities provide a platform to expedite these connections. If organisations cannot effectively connect people and resources across regions, functions and networks, they cannot increase service capabilities.

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engaging with online learning
How do you find what you want and how do you know it is true?

Judy Breck quotes Howard Rheingold on the information morass that is seeking what you want and knowing if it is true:

All of the world’s knowledge is in the air to be plucked down by our telephone. Of course it’s also all the world’s disinformation, misinformation, spam, porn, Nigerian frauds, urban legends, hoaxes. So how do you find what you want and how do you know that it’s true? Those seem like to me both extremely important questions today . . . .

The answer, says Judy Breck, is nothing less than to change both where we look and the way we ascertain truthfulness.

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