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Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - July 11 09

George Siemens — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:07:00 PDT

Emerging technologies, the global economy and the Internet are changing what it means to be literate. As digital communications transform the quantity, range and speed of information and exchanges in our lives, increasingly, the ability to interpret and create media becomes a form of literacy as basic as reading and writing.

Photo credit: Alan Levine

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Google Chrome Operating System - The Google and Microsoft competition is escalating: Google announces new operating system

Web Squared - Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle’s article Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On captures a small glimpse of the future

Social and Networked Learning - In June, through LearnTrends, we hosted an event on Social and Networked Learning. Topics include: What is social networked learning? ROI, organizational challenges, and moving beyond networks.

Does Anyone Still Use Second Life? - The answer, according to a recent report (which is a bit of a pain to get, but free), is a strong yes.

Disruption and Scientific Publishing - Changing scientific publishing is only partially about technological disruption. It’s mainly about common sense. If it comes from the public purse, it belongs to the public.

George Siemens' weekly Media Literacy Digest Media is published here on MasterNewMedia with the objective to help its readers become informed citizens who can actively and successfully communicate with society and the world.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Google Chrome Operating System

The Google and Microsoft competition is escalating: Google announces new operating system.

The operating system is expected to run on netbooks shipping in 2010. Google already has Android for mobile phones, so the move to PC-based system is an obvious direct challenge to Microsoft.

With the exception of Bing, over the last several years, Microsoft has come across as a bumbling, clumsy organization trying to preserve a computing world that no longer exists. Consider Live. Or Mesh. Both initiatives were an attempt to innovate, but Microsoft is too tied to existing revenue models to be creative.

Google, on the other hand, is well ahead in its ability to conceive a new world of computing and interaction.

The announcement of Wave is a great example - a product that attempts to re-write interaction / collaboration based on today’s technologies, not those created decades ago.

Google is exploring new territory. Microsoft is trying to defend what it has.

Of course, Google is also entering new territory with the OS initiative. Microsoft has decades of experience and established relationships with businesses and hardware manufacturers. The Microsoft ecosystem is strong and entrenched. Success is far from assured for Google.

Writing an OS for a netbook is a much simpler task than writing an OS that works on a broad range of PCs in numerous complex organizational settings.

Other commentary:

Redefining the OS:
“The new OS will focus entirely on the web: “The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.” What that means is this. The browser is the platform. The browser is the UI.”

Google Blog:
“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

Web Squared

I prefer to stay away from pop-culture resources as a source of guidance for where we are heading in terms of technology, and more broadly, society.

I listened to a podcast (TWiT, episode #197) and was inundated with buzzwords (apparently it’s still cool to say “Google Juice”) and random nonsense.

I was surprised by the seriousness of the topic (future of university) and the shallowness of the approach (at one point Don Tapscott offered the nonsensical statement we often hear at conferences: universities haven’t changed in 100 years!).

With this mindset, I approached Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle’s article Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On rather skeptically. I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s an important article that captures a small glimpse of the future. Yes, there is a bit of silliness in the article (the web as a baby, slowly growing up with each innovation) and the conclusion is completely unsatisfactory (the web is now the world and the world needs our help - an interesting hypothesis, but one that requires an entire article, not a throw away piece at the end of this article).

Nevertheless, it’s a strong article. It captures trends, extrapolates to implications, and offers insight into where we are heading. Lots of great examples...

Social and Networked Learning

In June, through LearnTrends, we hosted an event on Social and Networked Learning.

The recordings are now available (thanks to Scott Skibell of SkillCasting).

Topics include: What is social networked learning? ROI, organizational challenges, and moving beyond networks.

Does Anyone Still Use Second Life?

Does anyone still use Second Life? The answer, according to a recent report (which is a bit of a pain to get, but free), is a strong yes.

Not only is Second Life thriving, its citizens spend more hours each week in world than those in other multi-player online games. The hype around SL has been more subdued in educational conferences this year.

Of course, with all new technology, it first needs to go through an insane hype cycle, be declared dead by a prominent theorist / writer, fade into obscurity (i.e. acknowledged by those who hyped it in the first place), and then quietly emerge as a viable tool.

Disruption and Scientific Publishing

Clayton Christensen is well known for his work on disruption. His discussion of disruption at a systems level - i.e. how a new technology is able to develop on the edges of an industry and eventually reshape an entire field - is simple and intuitive.

But last year, he co-authored wrote an aggravating little book called disrupting class (a lovely text of how great education could be if we could just get rid of the human element). Since then, my general fondness for Christensen has plummeted. I’ve been looking for critiques of his theory since, but haven’t found anything particularly useful. I’ll keep looking.

Micheal Nielsen applies Christensen’s work to a variety of fields: construction, news, and scientific publishing. It’s a thought provoking piece, but I don’t share the author’s vision for journals in the future (i.e. technology innovation organizations).

Scientific (or more broadly, academic) publishing is a surprising industry: it takes work generally paid for by the public (through government research initiatives), relies on peers within the field to review research and articles (done without fee), and then sells it back to the government (through university access to journals). If ever there was a field built on sand, this is it.

Changing scientific publishing is only partially about technological disruption. It’s mainly about common sense. If it comes from the public purse, it belongs to the public.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 10th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book "Knowing Knowledge".

Photo credits:
Google Chrome Operating System - CNET
Web Squared - Dan Farber
Social and Networked Learning - badboo
Does Anyone Still Use Second Life? - Make:
Disruption and Scientific Publishing - piai

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - July 4 09

George Siemens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:28:00 PDT

Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content (Source: TeacherInfo)

Photo credit: Alan Levine

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

The Edgeless University - ...while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - ...is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning.

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.

Learning Institutions In a Digital Age - This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.

Learning Leaders Fieldbook - ...offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization

Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.

A Global Reset For Advertising - ...within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

George Siemens' Media Literacy digest helps you uncover interesting trends, new technologies and approaches as well as guiding you to ask the difficult questions needed to make better sense of the fast changing times we live in.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

The Edgeless University

The Edgeless University (.pdf) argues, that while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.

Growing competition, heavy reliance on public funding (which is made even more insecure in today’s economy), technology growth, open content, and social media / networks are forcing universities to adapt.

The author states that technology is the core of the change (p. 8). This isn’t entirely accurate. Technology is one of many change pressures.

The real change pressure is found on points along the longer time lime of change: how we interact with information and with each other. Today’s technology is only one point on the timeline. Language, Gutenberg, and the scientific method all occupy a role in increasing the ability for individuals and society to create / access / validate information.

This report, while focused on UK, provides a good overview of technological and policy concerns universities face. To increase relevance, universities need to become “edgeless”, extending current roles to include informal, collaborative, and participatory learning.

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

This report will get a fair bit of attention: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning (.pdf).

It joins a long list of meta-analysis by researchers like Abrami, Bernard et al. (.pdf), Tallent-Runnells et al., Zhao et al., and of course the original “no significant difference” site.

The current report - by US Department of Education - is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning. Conclusions of this type likely won’t convince anyone who is antagonistic to technology use in classrooms.

At minimum, the report provides a sweeping overview of how various researchers have tackled the effectiveness of technology in schools over the last decade.

The questions we ask in research are sometimes more interesting than the findings…

Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments

Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.

The talk is an advancement (integration) of Stephen’s ideas over the last several years and looks like a precursor to his large PLE research project at NRC.

During the talk, he makes a distinction between complicated and complex that resonates with my own work around learning theory (and Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework, Ronald Barnett’s work on super complexity). In this distinction we find the driving motivation for reform of education.

Web 2.0 is an instantiation of change. It is not the core change. The shift from settled and stable information (complicated - like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece has a place in our curriculum) to adaptive and emerging (complex - like a weather system where numerous combinations of factors will produce outcomes that cannot be fully predicted) is the core change. New education models must be built on this change. Any system that is out of synch with the market it intends to serve risks irrelevance.

Learning Institutions In a Digital Age

I encourage you to read this report from the MacArthur foundation, published by MIT Press The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (.pdf).

If you’ve followed elearnspace blog - and many others with a similar educational technology focus over the last seven years - you won’t find much new in it. And that’s the problem.

I like the report. It offers many insightful statements that I hope will be considered by leaders who don’t follow edublogs. Statements such as:

“We contend that the future of learning institutions demands a deep, epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution”... and

“participatory learning is about a process and not always a final product”... and

“We advocate institutional change because we believe our current formal educational institutions are not taking enough advantage of the modes of digital and participatory learning available to students today”... and

“Networked learning, however, goes beyond these conversational rules to include correcting others, being open to being corrected oneself, and working together to fashion workarounds when straightforward solutions to problems or learning challenges are not forthcoming”

I could offer many other similar statements. All of which have been discussed at great length on many sites and by many authors that I frequently reference.

One of the first steps in publishing on a subject is to do a literature review.

Type in “networked learning” into Google or Google scholar and you’ll see many individuals that have written at length on the subject: Chris Jones, Stephen Downes, Leigh Blackall, Martin de Laat... as well as entire conferences devoted to the theme. Or, when considering educational change and OERs, where is David Wiley? The list goes on.

The report irritates me because I’ve seen this happen several times: an existing field, and major thinkers within the field, is completely ignored as open, online conversations are squeezed into existing publication processes. This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.

Learning Leaders Fieldbook

Masie Center’s Learning Leaders Fieldbook offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization.

Topics include talent management, role of CLO (including lifecycle, basics of success, team structure), and role of technology.

In all, it’s a good handbook. But, its strength is also a weakness: each chapter is only a few pages. After a few chapters you get the impression that you’re reading a series of blog posts.

This reflects a trend I’ve noticed over the last several years: when did leading thinkers in corporate learning conclude that their audience can not handle complex subjects? Why this push for shallowness?

I presented at a large corporate learning event about five months ago. After the presentation, a VP (in charge of training and development) approached me and stated that simple messages are preferable. I assumed this to mean that I had delivered a presentation that was too complex (I was talking about restructuring training departments to take advantage of existing organizational connections between people and using decentralized methods to achieve adaptive corporate strategies - yes, the topic was a bit complex, but because it was complex, it required a complex treatment).

I responded that a good presentation, in my eyes, should do two things: clarify simple issues and present a complex constellation of important issues.

The organization then faces the challenge of working through complex issues in a manner that reflects organizational and external contexts. If it were simple, we could just write a blog post about it or deliver a one-slide powerpoint presentation.

Corporate learners aren’t dumb. We don’t need to reduce significant training to pablum-like consistency.

Why Free Web Services Aren't Really Free

There are many reasons to love emerging technologies - ease of use, features, ability to connect with family / friends. But for most people “free” is a prominent reason. Unfortunately, it’s not the right kind of free.

The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.

Mark Pilgrim posted on this in 2005 in Freedom 0 where he discusses the dangers of “free enough”.

I don’t mind paying for software, even content, when I actually own it, rather than rent it under the terms provided by a software user’s license.

This short article raises the important concerns about control again: Why free web services aren’t really free: “Trading one closed-source app for another gets us nowhere, even if the new app happens to come from Google”.

A Global Reset For Advertising

Advertising revenue for newspapers, TV, magazines, and other mainstream media will rebound once the current economic situation improves, right? Not according to Ballmer: “I don’t think we are in a recession, I think we have reset,” he said.

“A recession implies recovery [to pre-recession levels] and for planning purposes I don’t think we will. We have reset and won’t rebound and re-grow... within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

The very simple (and obvious) lesson here is this: when a system no longer reflects the external context it serves, it is doomed. Examples are numerous - car manufacturers, mainframe computers, and subscription internet models of the early 90’s (AOL).

The question for educational leaders is how well does our system match the activities of our learners and society as a whole - are the approaches to research, learning, and teaching within education synchronized to the dominant long term trends around information creation, sharing, and personal interactions?.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on July 3rd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
The Edgeless University - tonob
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - M.G. Mooij
Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Ana Blazic
Learning Leaders Fieldbook - Ilin Sergey
Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - kmitu
A Global Reset For Advertising - Sebastian Kaulitzki

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 27 09

George Siemens — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:50:00 PDT

Media Literacy moves from recognising and comprehending information to the higher order critical thinking skills such as questioning, analysing and evaluating that information. (Source: OFcom)

Photo credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

Attention and Distraction - Educators and trainers face competition for attention from mobile devices and social networking services.

Social Media: Trends and Implications For Learning - ...explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory.

Failing New Grading Approaches - A prof doesn’t have the funds available to hire teaching assistants to help with grading, so he adopts a peer-review model.

Language and Connectedness - Connections create words, language, and conceptual understanding, all formed by social connectedness and continually adaptations fostered by feedback and interactions.

Opera Unite - Whenever a system is created - school models, corporations, or browsers - ideologies of the age are embedded.

Social. Networks. Learning. Organizations - How should organizations “restructure” on network principles?

George Siemens' Media Literacy Digest takes you to places, facts and resources to help you make sense of the fascinating changes that new media technologies are bringing to the educational landscape.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Attention and Distraction

Educators and trainers face competition for attention from mobile devices and social networking services. Of course, prior to the development of these technologies, we faced a similar challenge of attention - but day dreaming is far hard to detect than someone posting comments on Facebook or Twitter.

Designing Choreographies for the “New Economy of Attention” is an interesting discussion of attention and distraction.

You may not agree with their core argument - that we need to choreograph technologies that are under the control of learners (such as back channels) in a manner similar to how we organize more traditional classroom components - but the approach of blocking software and banning mobiles/laptops in classrooms is simply not sustainable.

Today’s reality of connectedness is dramatically different from what existed even ten years ago. Banning is at best a short term solution that will isolate and agitate the very group education is expected to serve.

The battle for control of information and interaction has already been won by “the individual”. Organizations, governments, and universities that have not yet recognized this may continue to limp along for a while... but their current stance is not tenable.

Laptops and wireless devices are increasingly present in academic settings. Rather than assuming that their presence “takes away” from an established order of attention, we are seeking to understand how they reconfigure that order in ways that might allow for new methods of engagement.
In practice, with the introduction of networked technologies into the traditional academic setting, the attention of individual audience members is redirected from a single stream of speech to the presence of other audience members interacting with a global network of ideas.

Social Media: Trends and Implications For Learning

I’m looking forward to this project I’m involved in with Dave Cormier: Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning.

From the AACE site: We’ll will explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory.

Finding coherence in the midst of rapid changes is increasingly difficult. This monthly session will create a forum for educators to "gather, present, and discuss the future impact of today’s trends.”

The session is free and online - held on the second Tues of each month.

Failing New Grading Approaches

This confuses me. Basically, a prof doesn’t have the funds available to hire teaching assistants to help with grading, so he adopts a peer-review model: learners grade each other.

In this instance, the union representing teaching assistants disapproved, filed a challenge, and the prof has now been ordered to discontinue the practice. I guess they now return to the previous method:

“Before Prof. Joordens introduced his peer-marking system, all the assignments in the class were written on multiple choice sheets and marked by a machine.”

Students are the real losers in this process.

Language and Connectedness

Not only are we socially connected in our learning, but the concepts that form our understanding of a subject also reveal network attributes.

Understanding is a certain constellation (pattern) of connections between concepts.

At a more basic level, think of an alphabet - the richness of language is derived from a small number of distinct letter / characters. Variations and different connections form words.

Connections create words, language, and conceptual understanding, all formed by social connectedness and continually adaptations fostered by feedback and interactions.

A short article in a local newspaper expresses a concept I (and many others) have been advocating under the banner of connectivism and networked learning:

“English is a network... being a literate person is not so much about what you know, but about how you know things are connected.”

Opera Unite

Periodically, new software appears that has the feeling of a game changer. I had this feeling when I first tried Yahoo Pipes (even though the service still remains somewhat obscure) and Wolfram Alpha.

Today, I installed Opera Unite and had was left with a sense of “wow, this could change how I interact and share information with others”.

Whenever a system is created - school models, corporations, or browsers - ideologies of the age are embedded. As a result, when circumstances change, future generations struggle to overcome this ideological legacy.

Kuhn’s notion of ordinary and extraordinary science partly reflects this struggle, but focuses on mindsets within a discipline rather than the system that is created to perpetuate those mindsets.

Occasionally, a glimpse of “something different” emerges. But, if it’s too different from the current model, it likely fades quickly.

Most innovation in browsers - including Google Chrome - is tweaking an existing model. The ideological pull of “what a browser is” and “how we interact with each other and with information” places blinders on the innovation process.

Opera Unite is an experiment in rethinking the notion of a browser entirely. Opera Unite is described as “a web server on the web browser”. I’m sure we’ll hear of many technical limitations to the approach (including security concerns).

What I’m most interested in, however, is that Opera offers a different way to think about online activities - it calls into question the ideologies embedded in browsers developed decades ago.

Social. Networks. Learning. Organizations

Through LearnTrends, we are hosting an event on June 18: Social. Networks. Learning. Organizations.

From the session overview:

“Social learning and social networks continue to grow in prominence in corporations, organizations, and universities.

The impact of networks, however, remains somewhat misunderstood. How should organizations “restructure” on network principles? How can ROI be calculated? Are networks a superior method of organization learning and development?

How can professionals re-create wholeness of understanding in fragmentary conversations and information shared through social networks? What lessons can learning professionals apply from Facebook, Twitter, iPhone applications, and other software and technology trends?”

Information on times and URL for the live discussions will be posted at the events page linked above.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on Jun 26th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
Attention and Distraction - soupstock
Social Media: Trends and Implications For Learning - godfer
Failing New Grading Approaches - Arizona State University
Language and Connectedness - photosoup
Opera Unite - Shout Me Loud
Social. Networks. Learning. Organizations - tombaky

How To Measure The Link Popularity Of A Website - Guide To The Best Tools

Robin Good — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:51:00 PDT

Link popularity is essentially based on the number of incoming links to a specific web site or web page; the more the number of incoming links, the higher the link popularity.

Photo credit: solarseven

But link popularity is both a measure and a process. As a process it strives to earn inbound links from other websites to improve the importance of a specific site. As a measure it helps determine how popular a web page is by the number of backlinks (incoming links). Search engines such as Google use value as a measure to help them rank your any web site inside search engine result pages.

Indeed, links pointing to a web page play an integral role in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Along with giving more importance to the number of links a web page has, search engines also pay close attention to link patterns. So it is not only the number of links pointing to your web page that determines your position inside the SERPs, but also the quality of those very links.

The quality of a link is determined by two factors:

a) authority of the web page linking to you and
b) the link anchor text.

Be aware therefore, that not all incoming links are born the same. As a matter of fact a raw count of how "popular" a page only based on the number of inbound links, it is only of limited value. A qualified analysis should also factor in link context and link quality, which are critical elements of how search engines, such as Google, make use of links to determine who appears higher or lower inside search engine result pages.

To find out more about the link popularity of your own website, I've gathered and reviewed the best tools and web services that allow you to measure your web site link popularity. I have also prepared a comparative table showcasing the key features of these link popularity checking tools to facilitate your choice.

Here below the list of criteria I have used to review the best tools and services to measure the link popularity of your website:

Search engine references: Search engines utilized to count all incoming links.

Comparative analysis: Comparative reporting against one or more sites.

Email Reporting: Link popularity report sent to your inbox.

Domain exclusion: Exclusion of incoming links from your own domain.

PageRank Check: Google ranking check for your site.

Here all the details:

How To Measure The Link Popularity Of A Website Comparison Table

How To Measure The Link Popularity Of A Website - Best Tools And Services

Yahoo! Site Explorer

Yahoo! has a free service that shows you how many web pages are linking back to your website. With Yahoo! Site Explorer you can exclude your own domain and include / exclude your subdomains. You can also get a report of the incoming links to your entire website or only to a selected web page. Data can also be exported in table (.TSV) format and downloaded to your computer. You can embed a branded Yahoo! badge on your website to display your link popularity. No URL comparison, email report or PageRank check.
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
Marketleap

Link Popularity Check by Marketleap measures the popularity of your website by checking how many web pages are linking back to you. Search engines used to gather the information are: Google, Yahoo!, AOL, HotBot, FAST and AltaVista. You can compare your own website with up to two sites and check which website has more incoming links. You can also select the category (Movies, Music, News, Media, etc.) of the websites you are comparing. No email report, domain exclusion or Page Rank check. Free to use.
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
Linkscape

Linkscape tool scouts the whole web to find web pages that are linking back to you. The data you get include: mozRank index, individual incoming links, domains linking to your site and mozRank of your subdomain (specific URLs for sections of your website). You can exclude your own domain from the results. Features like URL comparison, email reporting or PageRank check are not available.
http://www.seomoz.org/linkscape
Free-Webmaster-Tools

Link Popularity check from Free-Webmaster-Tools uses seven major search engines to collect all links you have from other web pages. Search engines used are: Google, AllTheWeb, HotBot, Lycos, AOL, Live Search, and Altavista. Your site results can also be compared with two URLs of your choice. The report of your link popularity is e-mailed to you. No domain exclusion and PageRank check.
http://www.free-webmaster-tools.com/link_popularity.htm
Xinu Returns

Xinu Returns is a web service which shows you a configurable dashboard of major items to check to boost your link popularity. You see data like Alexa Rankings, Google PageRank, Technorati authority and many others, all in a glance. A specific section of the dashboard indicates the number of links you receive from search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, Lycos, AllTheWeb, Ask, HotBot and Altavista. No URL comparison, email reporting and domain exclusion.
http://xinureturns.com/
Backlink Watch!

Backlink Watch! is a free web service that helps you to check how many incoming links you have from other websites. The service indicates precisely which item in a web page is linking to you: image, anchor text, banner, etc. Also, Backlink Watch! identifies "nofollow" links, which are incoming links that are not indexed by search engines. PageRank check is available as well. No websites comparison, email report or domain exclusion.
http://www.backlinkwatch.com/
SEO Centro

The free Link Popularity tool from SEO Centro searches on Google, Yahoo, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, and Live Search to determine how many links you have from other websites. You can compare the link popularity results of your site with two more URLs and receive a detailed report to your own mailbox. No domain exclusion or PageRank check.
http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/link-popularity.html
AddME

AddME is a free web service to check your link popularity just by typing the URL of your website. Inbound links are retrieved from Google, Yahoo!, AllTheWeb, Ask and Altavista. No URL comparison, email reporting, domain exclusion or PageRank check available.
http://www.addme.com/popularity.htm
Popuri.us

Popuri.us allows you to check at a glance the link popularity of your site counting your inbound links, ranking, social bookmarks, subscribers and more. Links to your website are collected from Google, Yahoo! and Live Search. PageRank check is available. You can embed the results of your popularity inside a web page using a widget. No URL comparison, email reporting or domain exclusion. Free to use.
http://popuri.us/

Alternative Ways To Measure The Link Popularity Of Your Website

Google

Write the name of your website like this: "link:www.example.com" inside Google Search and the result will display a list of webpages that link to your website.

Yahoo!

To find links to your website using Yahoo! Search, type "linkdomain:example.com -site:example.com". This search will return a list of all the pages that link to your own website, excluding your domain.

N.B.: Some services e-mail you a report of your link popularity instead of showing immediately the results on your screen. You should always be very careful when giving away your personal address, as it may expose your mailbox to unwanted promotional e-mails, or even spam. That's why if you want to keep your e-mail address private, you may consider using one of the free web services that create a disposable and anonymous email inbox.

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on June 22nd, 2009 as "How To Measure The Link Popularity Of A Website - Guide To The Best Tools".

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 20 09

George Siemens — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:44:00 PDT

Media Literacy: Activities for independent communication via media in an information society, and the technologies and knowledge that support these activities (Source: digitalstorytelling)

Photo credit: Stephan Ridgway edited by Daniele Bazzano

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

Foreverism - Foreverism encompasses the many ways that consumers and businesses are embracing conversations, relationships, and products that are never done.

Disaggregation of Higher Education - David Wiley draws a parallel between the disruption of the printing press on power structures of western society.

Data Center Overload - As individuals become more distributed (think “clouds”) in data storage and social interactions, data centres become more important.

Why Group Norms Kill Creativity - A homogeneous group is often not very effective at creativity. Individual diversity, connected, produces substantial advances.

ED-MEDIA 2009 - It will be interesting to see how the increased use of social media will contribute to conference interactions, connections, and quality of participant experience

Social Network Analysis: an Introduction - ...a great introduction to many network concepts from Barry Wellman and Alexandra Marin.

Inside the Media Literacy digest, George Siemens ushers you into a fascinating journey to make sense of how new media technologies are changing how you work, learn and communicate.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Foreverism

We can always use new terms and buzzwords in the English language. Foreverism crops up occasionally. I hope the term goes away soon... but the concept of conversations that are never done and data that never disappears is worth thinking about.

Trendwatching considers the subject in detail:

“[Foreverism] encompasses the many ways that consumers and businesses are embracing conversations, relationships, and products that are never done. Driving its popularity is technology that allows them to find, follow, interact and collaborate forever with anyone & anything”.

Disaggregation of Higher Education

At E-Learn 2008 in Las Vegas last year, I finally met David Wiley f2f. He’s one of the most sincere, engaging, and thoughtful people I’ve had the honour to meet.

At the conference, he presented on the disaggregation of higher education. He has posted slides on a similar theme on slideshare.

David draws a parallel between the disruption of the printing press on power structures of western society... and a similar potential impact of the open education movement.

Data Center Overload

Ever stop to think about what happens behind a search request? Or the infrastructure required to upload an image to Flickr?

I personally don’t spend too much time thinking about the complex system that supports the most basic online activities: searching, buying a book, finding a friend on Facebook or Twitter. Yet - as this article argues - Data Center Overload - data centres are the industrial facilities of our era.

As individuals become more distributed (think “clouds”) in data storage and social interactions, data centres become more important:

“Much of the daily material of our lives is now dematerialized and outsourced to a far-flung, unseen network.

The stack of letters becomes the e-mail database on the computer, which gives way to Hotmail or Gmail.

The clipping sent to a friend becomes the attached PDF file, which becomes a set of shared bookmarks, hosted offsite.”

Why Group Norms Kill Creativity

Collaboration, cooperation, communities of practice, collective intelligence, and similar concepts have become very popular concepts in society, business, and education.

Any system of organization must pay utmost homage to the primacy of the individual. Wisdom of the crowds is often misinterpreted as suggesting that people are intelligent when they think together.

It’s more accurate to say that people are intelligent when they think alone and that this intelligence is amplified when they connect. It’s a subtle but vital distinction.

A homogeneous group is often not very effective at creativity. Individual diversity, connected, produces substantial advances.

A group can refine, extend, augment, and even perfect certain concepts and ideas. But, as this paper states - Why group norms kill creativity:

Unfortunately groups only rarely foment great ideas because people in them are powerfully shaped by group norms: the unwritten rules which describe how individuals in a group ‘are’ and how they ‘ought’ to behave.
Norms influence what people believe is right and wrong just as surely as real laws, but with none of the permanence or transparency of written regulations... the unwritten rules of the group, therefore, determined what its members considered creative. In effect groups had redefined creativity as conformity.

ED-MEDIA 2009

ED-MEDIA 2009 is less than two weeks away (disclaimer: I’m program co-chair).

We’ve been experimenting with Twitter, Ning, Flickr, and blogging.

It will be interesting to see how the increased use of social media will contribute to conference interactions, connections, and quality of participant experience (there’s a research project for someone) - i.e. does social media live up to its hype?

I’ve had the pleasure of conducting a few interviews (posted on the conference blog): Alan Levine and Nancy White.

I will post additional interviews next week. Craig Montgomerie has posted interviews with Rick Mrazek and Tom Reeves.

Social Network Analysis: an Introduction

I am a big fan of Barry Wellman. His pioneering work in networks has a history that extends well beyond current hype in social networks.

In my work with connectivism, I’ve found Wellman’s work insightful, relevant, and more informed than the often shallow network conversations now occurring.

I interview him a few years ago and urged him to start a blog. He said his research required long lead times and data analysis... and sharing in “transition data” could be misleading. While I would still like to see him blog, Barry Wellman is on Twitter.

With Alexandra Marin, he has published a paper on Social Network Analysis: An introduction (.pdf). It’s a great introduction to many network concepts - you’ll be hard pressed to find a more concise and readable paper on the subject (Stephen Downes will likely find resonance with the discussion on “networks, not groups”).

With network interests now springing eternal, it’s important to turn attention to the “now what?” I addressed this partly (ok, I whined) during the International Enterprise 2.0 conference: understanding structure is a foundational concept.

The next, and possibly more challenging and value-laden, step is to consider how we use information and social networks to shape messages and influence learning and institutional design.

Understanding how information flows is like understanding how physical products move through a supply chain. Altering the chain is the next important area of focus...

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on Jun 15th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
Foreverism - juliengron
Disaggregation of Higher Education - msv
Data Center Overload - Sebastian Kaulitzki
Why Group Norms Kill Creativity - Eric Isselée
Social Network Analysis: an Introduction - norebbo

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 13 09

George Siemens — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:22:00 PDT

Media literacy is the ability to analyze and evaluate the media to which we are exposed; it is a complex subject. Although most of us suffer from sensory over-stimulation from media, most do not have the time, or do not take the time, to analyze the consequences of this exposure. (Source: University of New Mexico)

Photo credit: Teemu Arina edited by Daniele Bazzano

Inside this Media Literacy digest:

Old Meets New - The use of QR codes, facebook, flickr, etc. offered a stark contrast to the need to physically “be there” to experience the ambiance of the castle.

That Failing Newspaper Industry... - Transformative changes in other information-based industries should capture the attention of educators. A few recent newspaper-related stories.

Tool Making and Language - The idea of language adds an interesting perspective on speaking and toolmaking as similar / related activities.

From Plato To Perl: The Problem of Sociality and The 'Idea' - A presentation Chris Lott delivered titled From Plato to Perl: the Problem of Sociality and the 'Idea'.

Develop a critical attitude. Filter the media buzz. Learn to separate the news from the noise and make sense of the information that interests you. Here is George Siemens Media Literacy digest:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Old Meets New

I’ve been in Italy for about a week - first a trip to Milan to present at the International Enterprise 2.0 conference organized by Open Knowledge.

Videos of presentations are available on the official site (most are in English, even though titles are in Italian. I presented on Knowledge without Management). Useful case studies of emerging technology implementations were presented in the afternoon.

After Milan, I went to Rome for a few days of sight seeing and generally consuming food. I found an interesting illustration of "old meets new" in Castel Sant’Angelo. An exhibit - Luminescenze 2009 (see images on Flickr) was held near the top floor.

The use of QR codes, facebook, flickr, etc. offered a stark contrast to the need to physically “be there” to experience the ambiance of the castle. Each offers a value point - neither is fully complete without the other.

That Failing Newspaper Industry...

Transformative changes in other information-based industries should capture the attention of educators. A few recent newspaper-related stories:

From Terrible to Terrifying:
“The stats show that total newspaper ad sales dropped by an unprecedented 28.28% in the first quarter of 2009, a deep plunge that represents a loss of more than $2.6 billion in ad revenue compared year-over-year.”

Why “playing it safe” is killing American newspapers:
“But we’re hiding much of our newsrooms’ value behind a terribly anachronistic format: voiceless, incremental news stories that neither get much traffic nor make our sites compelling destinations. While the dispassionate, what-happened-yesterday, inverted-pyramid daily news story still has some marginal utility, it’s mostly a throwback at this point - a relic of a daily product delivered on paper to a geographically limited community.”

I think you could replace newsroom references with classrooms...

Tool Making and Language

Discussions of language results in controversy that falls broadly into two camps:

language is innate or

language is cultural and interactive in formation.

Chomsky, Pinker, and others occupy the innate camp and numerous others occupy a camp that can be described as social-interactionist, connectionist, and emergent. This debate will not be resolved any time soon.

The idea of language adds an interesting perspective on speaking and toolmaking as similar / related activities:

“The ingredients of speaking and toolmaking are similar. Both require a brain capable of complex imitation and a community that wants to share information.

Toolmaking also requires hands capable of shaping tools, while speech requires a throat capable of vocalization.”

Reading through the article, I was surprised how much the discussion on language shares with general discussions of learning…

From Plato To Perl: The Problem of Sociality and The 'Idea'

I’ve long enjoyed Chris Lott’s contribution to learning and technology. He brings his passion of poetry, philosophy, and technology into an informed world view.

First time I met him face to face, we spent time arguing about Prensky (he challenged my notion that Prensky took edutech in the wrong direction. Chris argued that for a time, Prensky gave voice to a distinction that many were beginning to notice).

Chris is a critic and an idealist (which is a positive). I just came across a presentation he delivered titled From Plato to Perl: the Problem of Sociality and the 'Idea'.

He explores the mechanical predecessors of the digital age (fascinating to think about the many "near hits" in what eventually became the internet).

A critical argument is advanced at about the 15:30 mark on how we are erroneously applying "mechanisms that we don’t understand", "retaining the least productive mechanisms" of scholarship and humanism and applying mechanical approaches to education.
Good use of stories and example throughout the talk (Babbage, Tennyson).

If you prefer text to video, similar ideas are expressed in this paper.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on Jun 12th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
Old Meets New - Zdnet UK
That Failing Newspaper Industry... - Mike Flippo
Tool Making and Language - orson
From Plato To Perl: The Problem of Sociality and The 'Idea' - badboo

Google Penalization And The Reconsideration Request: Official Tips To File Your Reconsideration Request Correctly

Rachel Searles and Brian White — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:28:00 PDT

If you think your website is under a Google penalization because you suddenly disappeared from Google search results, you can file a reconsideration request to the Google team. In this video, the Google Webmaster Help Center shares some official tips to file your reconsideration request correctly and try to lift the Google penalization on your website.

Photo credit: rido

With the reconsideration request you can ask the Google team whether your website violated the Google guidelines (an official document that explains how to build your website according to Google standards), and also demand that your website is reincluded inside Google search results.

The way you write your reconsideration request and provide detailed information about yourself and your website can make a lot of difference. To get your website back inside Google search results just like before the Google penalization, it is very important that you file your reconsideration request carefully.

Be concise, responsible, as detailed as possible and, most importantly, be honest to Google. If you submit wrong or misleading information inside your reconsideration request, Google will disregard your reconsideration request and keep your website under Google penalization.

In this short video from the Google Webmaster Help Center, Google employees Brian White and Rachel Searles share some official tips to file your reconsideration request correctly and try to remove the Google penalization charged on your website.

If you don't want to watch the entire video or run through the full text transcription, I've also prepared a quick checklist of all the items you should address in order to remove the Google penalization on your website.

Here all the details:

Official Tips To File Your Reconsideration Request Correctly

a) If You Know You Are Under A Google Penalization

Admit any violation of the Google guidelines.

Be as detailed as possible when filing your reconsideration request.

b) If You Don't Know Whether You Are Under A Google Penalization

Wait a bit to see if things revert to the previous state before filing your reconsideration request.

Review the Google guidelines carefully.

Ask your webmaster or other employees for more information about your Google penalization if you do not run your website for yourself.

Seek help on the Google Webmaster Forum.

Look elsewhere than duplicate content. Most of the time, duplicate content is not the reason for your Google penalization.

Refer to malicious links you may have on your site, and show you tried to fix those malicious links when filing your reconsideration request.

Make sure you do not violate the Google guidelines anymore.

Tips On Requesting Reconsideration

Duration: 3' 47''

by Rachel Searles and Brian White - Google

Full English Text Transcription

Google Penalization: Official Tips To File Your Reconsideration Request Correctly

Brian White: Hi, I'm Brian White and this is my colleague Rachel. We're in the Search Quality team, in Google, in the webspam group.

We're here today with some tips on the reconsideration process.

If You Violated The Google Guidelines

Rachel Searles: All right, let's start with the case where you know your site has violated the Google guidelines.

It's important to admit any mistakes you have made and let us know what you have done to try to fix them.

Sometimes we get requests from people who say: "My site complies with the guidelines now". That's really not enough information for us, so please be as detailed as possible. Realize that are people reading these requests, including the people in this room.

If you don't know what your site might have done to get a penalty, go back to the Google guidelines and review them carefully before requesting reconsideration.

Look at the things to avoid and ask questions for people that work on your site if you don't work on it for yourself.

If you'd like the advice of a third party, you can also seek help on our Google Webmaster Forum.

Issues That Are Not Related To Google Penalization

Brian White: Sometimes we get reconsideration requests where the requester associates technical website issues with the penalty.

An example could be that the server timed out for a while or that bad content was delivered for a time.

Google is pretty adaptive to these kind of transient issues with websites.

People sometimes misread the situation as "I have a penalty", and seek reconsideration. It's probably a good idea to wait a bit and see if things revert to the previous state.

Also, some people attribute duplicate content with leading to a penalty, and usually the problem lies elsewhere.

When you're in a partnership with someone else, say another website, and you put these combined efforts together in a way that goes against our quality guidelines and involves both your website and theirs and then the effort reflects badly on both, you have control over your site but sometimes it's hard to get stuff cleaned up on sites that you don't control. We're sympathetic to these situations. Just make your best effort to document and complete your reconsideration request.

In the case that bad links were gathered, point us to a URL that shows your exhaustive effort to clean that up.

What To Avoid When Filing Your Reconsideration Request

Brian White: Also we have pretty good tools internally, so don't try to fool us. There are actual people, as Rachel said, looking at your reports.

If you intentionally pass along bad or misleading information we will disregard that request for reconsideration.

Rachel Searles: And please don't spam the reconsideration form. It doesn't help to submit multiple request all at the same time. Just one detailed concise report, and just get it right the first time.

Your request will be reviewed by a member of our team and we do review them promptly.

If you have some new information to add about your site, go ahead and file a new reconsideration request.

And finally, if your reconsideration doesn't happen, please be aware that it can take some time to notice that penalties have been lifted. We appreciate your patience.

Brian White: The bottom line is we care very deeply for our search engine users and want them to be happy and not have to complain. Make sure that:

a) The issues are fixed with your site before filing reconsideration and
b) Make sure that we don't have to worry about your site violating the quality guidelines in the future.

From the people who are part of the reconsideration process, from our end, thank you.

Rachel Searles: Thank you.

Google video originally recorded by Rachel Searles and Brian White for the Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel on April 24th, 2009 as "Tips on requesting reconsideration".

Photo credits:
If You Violated The Google Guidelines - M.G. Mooij
Issues You Don't have To Worry About - dogbone
What To Avoid When Filing Your Request - DMK

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 6 09

George Siemens — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:34:00 PDT

"Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation, and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality." (Source: Wikipedia)

Photo credit: mseyfang

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Where We Are Spending Time… - Facebook and Twitter are recording enormous increases in amount of time spent on their sites by visitors.

Privacy Online: Google Is Watching - Offline, very few things are private - it wouldn’t take someone much time to find out my daily commute, coffee drinking habits, etc. Online, however, this information is more readily available. We can discover personal information about others with very little effort.

Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning - ...suggests that “university students need to learn new network and software literacies to become digital citizens”.

Google Wave - While Google has somewhat stalled in innovating in search, they have (with Apps, Docs, Knol, and now Wave) started to position themselves as a productivity and collaboration company.

We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity - We are witnessing historical shifts as society re-creates value points not based solely on physical work and property.

Modernizing Corporate Training - this post on modernizing corporate training is worth a read, even if only for the irony. It explores the history of corporate learning from 1980’s to today.

How Much Information? - ...information workers, who comprise about 63% of the U.S. work force, are each bombarded with 1.6 gigabytes of information on average every day through emails, reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Where We Are Spending Time…

Facebook and Twitter are recording enormous increases in amount of time spent on their sites by visitors.

Twitter records an increase of over 3700% (year over year). Understanding which sites are increasing is use is only part of the discussion. I’d like to know what we are doing less.

My email use is still the same as last year. I still read the same number of RSS feeds. I can’t think of anything I’ve dropped from my online habits. I’m still at a “net add” stage. Guess that will have to change soon…

Privacy Online: Google Is Watching

I’ve noticed a surge in interest in privacy and tracking. Several family members and friends have closed Facebook accounts, set Twitter and FriendFeed sites to “private”, and stopped using Chrome (or other tools that are too heavily reliant on one company).

The interest in privacy is still somewhat isolated - many people appear to feel that paying with personal data to use monetarily-free tools is a reasonable transaction. Offline, very few things are private - it wouldn’t take someone much time to find out my daily commute, coffee drinking habits, etc. Online, however, this information is more readily available. We can discover personal information about others with very little effort.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that large companies like Google are incredibly active in tracking users activity. Facebook is direct in stating that they collect indirect information about site users and that they will “collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook.”

Privacy is an issue that flares up occasionally, but we are quickly placated and distracted.

Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning

Investigating the Application of Social Software to Support Networked Learning (.pdf) suggests that “university students need to learn new network and software literacies to become digital citizens”.

In addition to being literate (and therefore be able to participate in the consequential conversations occurring through, or mediated by, technology), authors state students spend surprisingly limited time in socialization (p. 17).

As background, Vincent Tinto has produced a model that promotes academic and social integration as key requirements to student retention. Students who feel connected to each other an the institution are less likely to drop out.

I’m not familiar with studies to date that have looked at social networking services as a resource for reducing attrition... but it’s a worthwhile concept to explore…

Later in the report, the authors share a view that innovators on many campuses likely hold:

“Centralised ICT Services departments have proved a barrier to the exploration of innovative emerging online technologies and services being explored in this project.”

Google Wave

I thought Wolfram Alpha was hyped (though it presents a very interesting approach to finding / using information online - I’ve collected reactions to Wolfram on my delicious search tag).

Google’s soon to be released Wave will, in contrast to Microsoft’s release of Bing will be an entirely new exercise in hype and media attention.

Wave is another offering in Google’s products for the enterprise. While Google has somewhat stalled in innovating in search, they have (with Apps, Docs, Knol, and now Wave) started to position themselves as a productivity and collaboration company.

We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity

An editorial on the change in society as entire industries fade (or are rendered unrecognizable) overnight: We are witnessing the passing of working-class masculinity.

“No matter what you think of the auto industry... It’s the end of an era... for an entire way of life, when a man with a high-school education could raise a family, have a house with a backyard pool, and buy his-and-hers motorcycles so he can tool around the countryside with his wife on weekends.
Bill is not to blame for what has happened to him. He’s simply been flattened by history ”

After you read the editorial, you might find a recent publication from the Martin Prosperity Institute worthwhile.

We are witnessing historical shifts as society re-creates value points not based solely on physical work and property.

BTW - RIP: A Remix Manifesto (the last third of the video) questions whether the current approach to intellectual property is logical... suggesting that much of the global alterations in copyright law are driven by the US move from routine labour to an economy based on creativity and intelligence.

Modernizing Corporate Training

I generally resist linking to organizations that monitor and use the ideas generated in the social / learning / tech space, and then produce reports that fail to acknowledge sources of inspiration.

However, this post on modernizing corporate training is worth a read, even if only for the irony. It explores the history of corporate learning from 1980’s to today.

Today, according to the report (and roughly every other consultant) is the age of collaboration. And then they freely sprinkle half a dozen “registered trademark” signs. How quickly pundits recognize (monetize) change but fail to integrate change into actual practice.

The post concludes that we are going through the most important changes in corporate learning in the last ten years. Really? Thanks for the insight! If this pablum counts as corporate learning insight, maybe the training departments in institutions should be dismantled.

How Much Information?

In 2003, UC at Berkeley released a report titled How Much Information. This was just at the beginning of blog’s popularity, and prior to YouTube and podcasting.

Nice to hear that an updated report will be released this year.

Preliminary data, according to WSJ, states that

“information workers, who comprise about 63% of the U.S. work force, are each bombarded with 1.6 gigabytes of information on average every day through emails, reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more”.

1.6 gigabytes of info a day. Wow. That’s more than 1000 times the storage of my first computer with a hard drive. And I thought that was a lot :).

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on Jun 6th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
Where We Are Spending Time… - Elnur Amikishiyev
Privacy Online: Google Is Watching - Sergey Galushko
Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning - Yuri Arcurs
We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity - MaxFX
Modernizing Corporate Training - Andres Rodriguez
How Much information? - Picsfive

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - May 30 09

George Siemens — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:19:00 PDT

Media literacy is an expanded information and communication skill that is responsive to the changing nature of information in our society. It addresses the skills students need to be taught in school, the competencies citizens must have as we consume information in our homes and living rooms, and the abilities workers must have as we move toward the 21st century and the challenges of a global economy. (Source: Telemedium)

Photo credit: Tag Crowd

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Will Higher Education Be The Next Bubble To Burst? - According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent

Rapid Internet Justice - We are re-creating our physical societal rules for the online environment. The ideals that should serve as a foundation are not yet defined…

Technology For Teaching and Learning Transformation - George Siemens conducted with Kathleen Matheos a two-day workshop on Technology for teaching and learning transformation

Challenges Faced by African Universities In Technology Integration - ...thoughts / comments from a workshop and discussion session with leaders in education and ICT from African universities

African Elections - Technology, reflected in sites like African Elections, provides individuals with access to needed information and conversations. Controlling this information is increasingly difficult.

This weekly digest takes you to places, facts and resources that help you make greater sense of the increasing relevance that new technologies and media are having on the way you learn.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Will Higher Education Be The Next Bubble To Burst?

Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst? asks:

According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent - more than four times the rate of inflation and almost twice the rate of medical care. Patrick M. Callan, the center’s president, has warned that low-income students will find college unaffordable.

Laying aside the obvious point that education is already unaffordable for much of the work, this article explores challenges education faces in light of recent “bubble bursts”.

I’m interested in the new value point for higher education.

The system currently serves three dominant roles:

content / research,

teaching / learning,

and accreditation.

Why don’t we split them up? We could serve each function better in this model. And less expensively.

A large system that tries to do too much is incapable of adapting rapidly to changing external conditions.

Rapid Internet Justice

An interesting thread about Rapid Internet Justice.

Short version: someone uses online forums to target people to steal auto parts. The community serves as detective and solves the case. In this instance, it appears the right person is identified, but I’ve also seen online communities exhibit “mob mentality”.

This story has a strong positive message - the ability of a community to do the detective work police were not able to do (or interested in doing).

On the negative side: the checks (or is it cheques? :)) and balances that form established societies are lacking.

We are re-creating our physical societal rules for the online environment. The ideals that should serve as a foundation are not yet defined…

Technology For Teaching and Learning Transformation

If you’ve been following my twitter feeds (and personal tag for travelling - #whine09), you’re aware that I’m in Senegal (minus luggage).

I conducted - with Kathleen Matheos - a two-day workshop on Technology for teaching and learning transformation.

I’ve posted the slides from day 2 of the workshop.

Challenges Faced by African Universities In Technology Integration

I’ve captured a few thoughts / comments from a workshop and discussion session with leaders in education and ICT from African universities: Challenges faced by African Universities in technology integration.

I’m continuing my quest to use more images. But, as the post reveals, visuals truly are not my strength :).

African Elections

Ideologies are embedded into technology. Ideologies, of course, are about power, control, and ways of looking at the world. As such, it’s fair to say that technology is about power - who can create? Who has access?

Today, in a conversation with an African colleague - Ben Akoh - I was introduced to the African Elections site. The site tracks and shares election news / conversation in various social media (Twitter, SMS, blogs, etc.) and traditional media sites.

I recall watching an election for the premier of Manitoba in early 2000’s. I didn’t have access to a television, but watched a postage stamp-sized jittery newscast. It was terrible by today’s online video standards. But it gave me what I wanted most: timely access to information that I found important.

Technology, reflected in sites like African Elections, provides individuals with access to needed information and conversations. Controlling this information is increasingly difficult.

A daily newspaper is much easier to shut down than a distributed conversation. Yes, I know countries can block sites and restrict traffic. But democracy is far more secure when subject to the input of many commentators than to a select few mainstream media sources.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on May 30th 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
Will Higher Education Be The Next Bubble To Burst? - Paul Fleet
Rapid Internet Justice - Tom Schmucker
Challenges Faced by African Universities In Technology Integration - Pop!Tech

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - May 23 09

George Siemens — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:31:00 PDT

Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. (Source: Center for Media Literacy)

Photo credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

CCK08: Socialization As Information Object - ...an overview of the CCk08

The Social Data Revolution(s) - Our generation suffers more under abundant information than previous generations.

Videos of Recent Presentations - Videos of two recent presentations

Public Engagement. Public Empowerment - Open tools will produce open conversations and open thinking

Social Media In The Enterprise - 35+ examples of corporate social media presents a brief overview of how various organizations are beginning to use social media

Technology Trends - Techcrunch reviews conference discussions of technologies trends for 2009

Course to Dis/Course Recordings - From Courses to Dis/Course recordings are now available

News and Content - The news industry continues to suffer under the impact of freely available content

If you're looking for a more critical approach to making sense of how new technologies and media are affecting the way we learn, study and work, this weekly digest may help you recognize the forest from the trees.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

CCK08: Socialization As Information Object

I finally got around to capturing a few thoughts on CCK08.

I’ve posted an overview of the course (as well as an earlier rudimentary attempt from 2002) on my connectivism blog: Socialization as information objects.

Now, to get ready for CCK09…

The Social Data Revolution(s)

The Social Data Revolution(s):

“In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008…

The second data revolution brought about a new dimension to data creation: users started to actively contribute explicit data such as information about themselves, their friends, or about the items they purchased. These data went far beyond the click-and-search data that characterized the first decade of the web.”

The discussion of social data and expectations of consumers / end users resonates with my experiences. I no longer seek information for information itself.

Whether looking for a hotel or purchasing a product online, I seek social information such as ratings, comments, or event communities. However, I doubt the opening throw-away statement of more data being generated in 2009 than in all previous history.

Journal of the History of Ideas (access likely restricted) has an issue on on early information explosion that challenges assumptions that our generation suffers more under abundant information than previous generations.

Videos of Recent Presentations

Videos of two presentations I recently delivered in Iowa and New York:

Iowa State University’s ComETS symposium: The impact of connectivism and networked learning
Empire State College’s CDL conference: Social and Connected Learning

Public Engagement. Public Empowerment

Talk of technology quickly turns into talk of power. Who has it (power)? By what means did they attain it? By what means do they hold it? What are they attempting to do with it?

Technology embodies ideologies, and the choices made by its designers influence what its users will be able to do (or not do).

Learning management systems (LMS) - in contrast with personal learning environments / webs / networks - enable certain approaches to learning while discouraging others. An LMS also supports and fosters a certain relationship between the educator and the learner.

The ability to open or close a discussion forum or to grant and deny course access is fundamentally imbued with power. It is little surprise, therefore, that governance and public engagement are influenced by technology.

Open tools will produce open conversations and open thinking.

Public Engagement. Public Empowerment addresses the relationship between tools / technology, ideology / governance, and power:

Direct engagement in politics has been the purview of an educated and powerful few until recent times. Indeed, the role of the politician, and the executive that serves him or her has largely been to tell us, the sheep-like masses, what is good for us and to expect us to blithely follow along.
We change our minds only in the face of corruption and excess, and exercise our democratic rights to switch to a lesser evil at times of election. But oh, my! How the world has changed.

…In a hyperconnected world, our ability to readopt these denser forms of association, made sustainable by tools such as social networks, become reality.

We become the true global village, as much the neighbor to the bloke next door as some geographically remote but by association, close, neighbor with whom we share an interest.

The article occasionally moves into the Land of Happy Hype, but the central message of increased engagement in civic discourse enabled by participatory technologies is important to share.

Social Media In The Enterprise

I have a few weeks of travel coming up (first to Senegal for workshops as part of a Soros Foundation grant & elearning Africa, back to Winnipeg for a library conference, and then to Italy for the Enterprise 2.0 forum).

In preparation for the enterprise 2.0 event, I’ve been reviewing resources on how organizations are using social media.

35+ examples of corporate social media presents a (very) brief overview of how various organizations are beginning to use social media. Details are limited on the effectiveness of the projects, but it’s starting to feel like the mid-90’s when companies were proclaiming “we now have a web site!”.

Underneath the hype of unrealistic expectations and attention grabbing headlines, the web developed into an indispensable part of our interaction with information.

The hype of “we’re doing social media!” will likely also yield to foundational changes in how we interact with each other.

Technology Trends

Techcrunch reviews conference discussions of technologies trends for 2009.

Trends presented are fairly obvious (which is to be expected when the analysis cycle is as short as a year): next generation technology users, mobile devices, digital displays, etc.

The focus on unstructured data (they suggest within five years, 80% of enterprise data will be unstructured) and distributed webs (social networks) are important for educators to consider.

Course to Dis/Course Recordings

Last week, Martin Weller and I hosted an online conference to discuss the future of courses: From Courses to Dis/Course.

The recordings are now available.

At this stage, they are long, unedited Elluminate recordings. Which means you have to advance the recording until you get to the presentation you would like.

As much as I love Elluminate, the inability to get individual recordings is a challenge. If I suddenly inherit time, I’ll chunk the recordings with Camtasia. Or if someone else is eager to do so… :)

News and Content

Education’s sibling - the news industry - continues to suffer under the impact of freely available content and increased end user control permitted by the web. But it is not a field that is going away quickly or quietly. Consider the suggestion that the internet is killing news:

But, content is not necessarily news. News is the verifiable facts that trained, responsible journalists… often spend hundreds of hours tracking down and sifting through and verifying to get to the truth.
Real reporting is time-consuming and expensive. It requires a level of investment that many traditional print and broadcast news organizations can no longer afford in the face of the tsunami of free content that is the web.

The real problem is not that we have free content (as the article goes on to suggest, while classifying instances of effective amateur journalism as rare).

The real issue is that free content contrasts with the existing infrastructure of newspapers and journalism. Quality “control”, vetting, and rigorous research can (and will) be a part of open content. The models will be created over time.

The newspaper industry did not emerge wholly as we know it today. It evolved in response to needs of readers and members of society. Those who lament the decline of newspapers overlook the likelihood of a similar prospect for world of open content.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on May 21st 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

Photo credits:
CCK08: Socialization As Information Object - ndul
The Social Data Revolution(s) - ndul
Videos of Recent Presentations - Antonio Balaguer Soler
Public Engagement. Public Empowerment - derocz
Social Media In The Enterprise - grki
Technology Trends - Dawn Hudson
Course to Dis/Course Recordings - picpics
News and Content - lunchschen